way forward for Banana production in Rwenzori Region

Stakeholders deliberate on Banana Bacterial Wilt and improvement of Banana productivity in Rwenzori region.

Members from the Government and CSO’s in the Rwenzori region held a stake holders meeting to find the way forward on soil fertility and banana productivity in the region. The meeting was held at Kagote SDA church hall in Kabarole Municipality. Participants were drawn from Districts of Kasese, Kabarole, Ntoroko and Bundibugyo who included NAADS coordinators District Agricultural officer and Agricultural extension workers. Other was CSO’s working in these districts and RIC-NET was represented by the Community Outreach Officer.

The objectives of the meeting were; to characterize indigenous knowledge on banana management likely to influence banana yield, factors affecting agronomic practice of banana production, identify the effective sources of social capital to diffuse banana technology, develop a strategy that can enhance banana production in the region and highlight key policy issues that would require urgent intervention.

During the discussion the findings were that the region has fertile soils to support production, but management is limiting factor leading to poor disease and pest control,89.9% reported pest and diseases,43% of farmers reported Banana Bacterial will while 23%reported Banana weavil,there is poor attitude of farmers towards banana management form other enterprises like cocoa,maize,coffe and cotton, there is low access to technical information that that 32%of farmers access information while 68% do not really access information. However these farmers are complex and should be helped in the complex manner.
It was identified that the region has good fertile soils but has been hit by banana bacterial wilt which had affected banana production. A research had been conducted and found out that most people in the region at least eat Matooke a day. It was thus resolved that, Banana production be taken serious as an economic activity and be popularized like other cash crops. Market information should be availed to the farmers; Some NGO’s like KRC had conducted research and end up nowhere, because of lack of coordinated effort towards helping the farmers. The government department of agriculture should work closely with the CSO’s and other NGO’s to provide information to the farmers.

IS MPONDWE-LHUBIRIHA TOWN COUNCIL SAFE FROM CHOLERA

Mpondwe-lhubiriha Town council is one of the newly formed town councils in Kasese District. It borders DR Congo and Uganda. Before and during the early 1990s, Karambi and Bwera sub-counties which now form Mpondwe-Lhubiriha town council used to have no water supply until 1995 when a grant from Water Aid Danida came to save the situation with piped water tapped from the mountains of Rwenzori on River Lhubiriha.

This tapped water was used by the local people who were asked to pay Ush400 per month for the water systems maintenance. Until of recent in 2005 when water flow started becoming a problem in the areas of the present Mpondwe-lhubiriha town council, karambi and Bwera sub-counties.
All the water AID Danida systems are functional but No water flow. To the present there is no water supply in these areas. All the taps which were formerly constructed have turned out useless to the community due to lack of water supply.

Some of the taps in the mentioned areas which have turned out useless
River Lhubiriha
River Lhubiriha is the boundary of DR Congo and Uganda
People in the community now resorted to fetching water from the ancient River Lhubiriha which had been relied upon before the tapped water.
In the 1990s the river was so clean and was serving a less population of about 100 households.

Currently river serves over 2000 house hold both from Uganda and across Congo where Now the former Virunga National park in Congo is now over 60% occupied by Congo Nationals. Since Congo has no piped water, now all the households from both countries rely on River lhubiriha and another small water flow stream called River Kyabilho flowing through the Uganda boarder town. These community households rely on the two water streams for drinking, commercial and domestic use.

To my surprise, there are no policies governing the River usage from any of the two countries Congo and Uganda. The river is used to wash utensils, clothes, sewage disposal and all sorts of bad sanitary activities as you can witness below.

Congolese nationals miss using the river water
Now, the same people go ahead to fetch the water as others are contaminating it at the same time.

Here people miss-use the water directly as others are fetching from it.
Drinking water
In an interview with some of the locals who were fetching the water, majority of them said they quite often drink the water without boiling because they do not have fire wood or charcoal to waste on boiling water. While a few said they do boil or treat the water before taking.
A maizi marungi (Good water) programme
Recently a round 2009, there came a government aided programme called Amaizi marungi which promised to provide good water. These programmes came through the Town council establishment. This programme seems to have become a hell in the area, the water contractors have never finished laying the pipe line, and have ended up asking for a lot of corruption logistics from whoever wants to be connected to the water system.
Surprisingly, the water points built have ended up becoming decoration in the community and are rarely operational.

Some of the idle Amaizi marungi water points in Mpondwe-Lhubiriha Town council
This research was conducted only in Mpondwe-Customs areas, imagine the experience in other neighboring areas like Rusese, Mundongo and karambi which are far from the river.
I pause a question to all the people responsible for this field in Mpondwe-Lhubiriha town council, Karambi and Bwera sub-counties are these areas safe from cholera, dysentery and other bad water caused diseases?

Activists attack government over ‘soft’ handling of corruption cases

Anti-corruption activists have expressed disappointment over what they described as government’s lack of good will and commitment to fight the vice. Speaking during the first Annual National Anti-Corruption Convention yesterday in Kampala, the activists criticized President Museveni for “his soft approach towards corrupt government officials”.
In a keynote address prepared by ACODE Executive Director Godber Tumushabe and read by NGO Forum’s Arthur Larok, the activists advised Ugandans to look elsewhere for solutions against corruption other than from government. “The Constitution should be reclaimed. The President has an opportunity to make announcements to unlock opportunities to fight corrupt,” Mr Tumushabe’s presentation read in part. Retired Supreme Court Judge George Kanyeihamba said corruption has created unrest in the minds of many Ugandans, saying a government of corrupt officials will not be in power for very long.
Courage
“Ugandans must have courage to speak up,” Justice Kanyeihamba said. He also appealed for “a list of shame” to be adopted by the media to publish the names of public officials involved in corruption.
Army MP Gen. Elly Tumwiine, also present at the meet, encouraged Ugandans to “ignore fear, intimidation” and “defend Uganda against corruption.” He caused laughter when he noted that just like HIV/Aids, many a times, corruption is conceived in secret.
Meanwhile, Western Youth MP Gerald Karuhanga, describing the state of corruption in government in a poem recital, said: “The behavior of our leaders in ungodly”. An academic, Prof. Mwambutsya Ndebesa, called for a shift in methodology of fighting corruption to performance-based accountability imposed on leaders. He called on Ugandans to perform their roles as citizens and not as subjects of a system.
Female Youth MP Monica Amoding laid blame on the last two generation of mothers who, she said, failed to instill virtues of honesty in the current crop of leaders. She said the biggest challenge lawmakers’ face is demand for money from their electorate.
jnjoroge@ug.nationmedia.com

CITIZENS OF RWENZORI REGION VOW TO FIGHT CORRUPT CIVIL SERVANTS.

Citizen Representatives of the Rwenzori region aired out their views on the on-going corruption in the country. This was during the Launching of Anti-Corruption week organized by Rwenzori Anti-Corruption Coalition [RAC] at Kagote SDA hall in Fort-Portal Municipality under the theme “A just and corrupt free society” with mission “to contribute to poverty reduction in the Rwenzori region by empowering citizens to expose and cause action against corruption”. RIC-NET is part of this fight against corruption through the program of Social Accountability.
The citizens showed their dissatisfactions on how; police fuel corruption by taking position in some cases, that even some cases in the community are not investigated for example the case in BUFUNGO sub county kyenjonjo where a couple killed each other, in some circumstance investigations are just minimal giving ground for the court to throw out cases, and police investigation favour the rich.
Similarly; the Judiciary favour special people e.g. Anti-corruption cases, Government also have been supportive of people close and or related to government officials or the president. Yet “Mr. Museveni talks about zero tolerance to corruption. Later when he went to Rwanda, he declared that his Government was surrounded by thieves”

“Justice delayed is justice denied”, the judiciary is no longer independent from the Government. This is evidenced in the cases the IPP or the IGG have taken to court and later withdraw cases due to lack of sufficient evidence. Why are the people involved in gross corruption left unpunished but those with cases of 1000 or less punished? Why is the government siding with the people engaged in mass corruption e.g. Hon.Muhwezi, Hon.Mbabazi? Other cases like Uganda Vs Mugabi Pius and two other Ref.IGG FP/CF/03/09.Does the government understand the citizen manifesto about combating corruption?

MESEVEN MEET NRM MEMBERS ON OIL

President Museveni today meets NRM Caucus again to try and convince members to back him on a $2.9 billion (Shs7.3 trillion) oil deal to bring Total-CNOOC into Uganda’s oil industry through a farm-out by Tullow Oil.

Sources who attended a caucus meeting at State House Entebbe on Friday said the President wants MPs to debate the matter today, in a last-ditch effort to sway the majority in Parliament to backtrack on the House resolution that put a freeze on new contracts until oil laws are in place.

“The President said he wanted to brief us on the ongoing negations with Tullow, that he wants to keep us informed as his partners. He gave us copies of the stabilisation clause in preparation for tomorrow’s debate on this transaction,” a member who attended the meeting said. “He said we should read the documents and give him feedback on this Total-CNOOC-Tullow transaction before he signs,” the member added.

Sources quoted the President as saying negotiations with Tullow were in advanced stages and that disagreements on taxes involved had delayed the signing of the deal.
Although there was no debate on the matter on Friday, some members took issue with the President and wondered why he chose to brief the NRM Caucus and not Parliament on a matter of national importance.

President fears confidence loss
“A caucus can’t decide for Parliament,” a member, who requested not to be named in order to speak freely, said. “The President is in a hurry to sign this Tullow deal but we have passed a resolution stopping the signing of new contracts without the laws in place. What the President needs to do is to ask his ministers to expedite the oil laws because we found oil but we are moving in darkness.”

During the NRM retreat in Kyankwanzi in October, the President reportedly argued that the resolutions of Parliament on the matter would affect the $2.9 billion deal to bring Total and CNOOC into Uganda’s oil industry. The President has since written to Speaker Rebecca Kadaga rejecting the resolution on freezing oil transactions.
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However, lawmakers accuse Tullow of peddling air. The MPs want government to withhold its consent to signing of a deal expected to be concluded as soon as the two parties agree on the tax component.

Mr Theodore Ssekikubo (Lwemiyaga - NRM), who petitioned Parliament to debate what members called corruption in the Oil sector, said: “We cannot get taxes from an illegal transaction. That’s why we asked him to respect the decision of Parliament.”

Asked why the President was keen to have the $2.9 billion farm-out deal with Tullow signed, Mr Ssekikubo said: “He told us that investors would lose confidence in him, a claim we rejected in public interest.”

ymugerwa@ug.nationmedia.com

INFORMATION SHARING CAUSES ACTION TOWARDS SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY.

Information is any relevant news or data or facts gathered, processed and analyzed and shared with other stake holders who include among others; the farmers, health officer, political leader, teachers religious leader and members of Public. The role of information officers is to identify such silent issues in the society that can be amplified. The training took place on 28th November at RIC-Net head office in fort Portal.
The focus of the training was how the information we gather can speak out and influence change in the communities where we work. The main facilitator Ms Alice Mushenene Mbayahi mentioned that “what makes good information is the 5W’s”. Information should have content, evidenced based, having facts and based on the community are facing. Information should be shared and should emphasize on a single issue for action to be realize.
She emphasized on the methods of gathering information as observation, discussions, interview and dialogue. Information officer should easily identify the sources, monitor the project or issues in the community, share with other stakeholders, and identify the local government development project cycle.

In doing all this, it was realized that the entry point is important in information sourcing. Create a good social relationship with people, write a simple description of the issue, make follow-ups’ and if no action is done then engage the community in the issue before a dialogue with the authority can be organized.
By the end of the training, the information officers agreed that in order to cause change in the community, there is a great need to develop interest in serving the community, share timely information, improve the means of communication, improve our resource centers with timely information and engage our leaders to practically be accountable to the community they are serving.