FUNDS PLEDGED TO AID CONTRACEPTION ACCESS FOR MILLIONS OF WOMEN

Family planning: population numbers game must add up for women This week's summit reflects a welcome new focus on family planning, but the old dangers for human rights are still lurking Family planning is once again at the forefront of the international development agenda. Millennium development goal (MDG) 5B – universal access to reproductive health, which is measured principally by access to family planning – is the MDG least likely to be met by the 2015 deadline. This will no doubt be foremost in the minds of those in London for the family planning summit on Wednesday. The Gates Foundation, which is co-sponsoring the event, is bringing its enormous financial clout to the issue with the launch of a multi-billion dollar family planning initiative intended to bring services to 120 million more women in poor countries by 2020. Family planning is fundamental to reproductive health and rights, as it enables women – and men – to decide on the number and spacing of their children and, in turn, to exercise some choices over their life plans. However, recent reports about alleged forced sterilisations demonstrate just how crucial it is that we remember the link between family planning and reproductive rights. Sustainable development rather than reproductive rights seems to be driving the renewed attention to family planning. Increasingly, the need to fight climate change and reduce greenhouse gases by curbing population growth is cited as a reason for the focus on family planning – alongside economic growth. Melinda Gates, for example, has attributed the east Asian economic miracle of the 1980s, when GDPs skyrocketed, "in large part" to concerted government family planning initiatives. Although the outcome document from June's Rio+20 conference on sustainable development mentions human rights and women's empowerment, it is weak on both the interdependence of civil and political rights with economic and social rights, and the inherent right of women to lives of dignity and full participation in society. Women's roles are apparently seen as of instrumental value, and civil rights perceived as a potential barrier to economic development. This is dangerous. Amid the new enthusiasm for family planning as a cost-effective tool to promote sustainable economic development, it is critical that we don't lose sight of human rights concerns. India has a traumatic history of forcible population control under Indira Gandhi, but it is far from alone. In Peru in the 1990s, for example, more than a quarter of a million poor and mainly indigenous women were sterilised without appropriate consent, in a programme supported by USAid. In both countries, the backlash against family planning may have done as much harm to women's reproductive rights as the original policies. The Rio+20 summit stressed the need for the provision of universal access to reproductive and sexual health, including safe, effective and affordable methods of family planning. It reaffirmed commitments on family planning made at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo (ICPD) and in the context of the MDGs, but key references to reproductive rights were dropped from the text at the last minute. Colombia, the original sponsor of the idea of sustainable development goals, has a mixed record. One of the indicators used to portray Colombia as a success story for its achievements in development and gender equality has been the rise in the use of modern contraception, of which the leading method is sterilisation. According to the Demographic and Health Survey, in 2010 almost half of Colombian women using a modern contraceptive method were sterilised, a much higher percentage than in other South American countries. Of those women, around 60% – and more in rural and poor areas – did not receive information about other family planning methods, and up to a quarter of women in these disadvantaged areas were not even told that sterilisation is permanent. It is always the poorer, uneducated and excluded women who end up suffering from these programmes, when guarantees are not built in. We have yet to see how the follow-up to the Rio conference will link up to the process established for the creation of successor goals to the MDGs. However, any kind of development that treats the disadvantaged and marginalised as regrettable externalities of overall growth goals is neither sustainable, nor compatible with international human rights standards. If human rights are to be protected, the old but resurgent argument that economic growth objectives are hindered by high rates of population growth cannot be considered in isolation from the broader context of growing inequality in access to basic resources and livelihoods, and the way in which national economies are inextricably affected by the global economic system. • Alicia Yamin is chair of the board at the Centre for Economic and Social Rights and director of the programme on the health rights of women and children at Harvard University. Camila Gianella is a researcher at the Chr Michelson Institute in Norway

GATES FOUNDATION IS CHANGING THE FACE OF GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT

Contraception and development Opening the Gates Jul 12th 2012, 13:53 by J.P. | LONDON WHEN several heads of state, a dozen health ministers and hundreds of delegates piled into a conference centre in the middle of London on July 11th, there was a sound of broken barriers everywhere. The family-planning summit was the first big international meeting on birth control since a United Nations conference in Cairo in 1994, a sign that international attitudes seem to be chnaging towards a long-neglected subject. It was an indication that the British government, the joint sponsor of the meeting, is ploughing something of a lonely furrow in development at the moment. As Duncan Green, the head of research at Oxfam, has pointed out, this is a period of British exceptionalism. “The UK is pretty much alone among traditional donors,” he writes, “in sticking to its promises to increase aid despite deep public spending cuts, and is simultaneously pushing ahead in the multilateral arena.” In addition to the family-planning meeting, Britain will convene a “hunger summit” during the Olympic Games, and the prime minister, David Cameron, is one of three co-chairs of a UN panel to look at what comes after the millennium development goals. But in some ways the loudest sound of broken barriers comes from the summit’s other sponsor, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. When the foundation began in 1994, Mr Gates’s idea was that it would focus on areas neglected by others-vaccines not being financed by governments; complex crop research that was too long-term for governments or companies to contemplate. Where governments or the private sector were taking a lead, the idea was, the foundation would stay away. But over time, that self-denying ordinance has proved hard to maintain. At first, the foundation concentrated mainly on diseases and health. But nutrition is one of the main determinants of health; agriculture is vital to nutrition-and the Gates foundation has ended up as one of the most important financiers of agricultural research today (especially into the crops of the poor, such as cassava and millet). Something similar seems to be happening with birth control. Family planning was part of the foundation’s health programmes from the start. But its programmes were small and now are being scaled up quickly. Perhaps more important, the summit shows that the modest “after-you-Claude” approach is hard to reconcile with an operation that paid out $2.4 billion in grants in 2010, making the Gates foundation the size of a medium-sized country donor, comparable to Australia or Belgium. The family-planning summit was an example of the Gates foundation not merely filling in gaps left by others but acting to change the behaviour of countries. Donors have avoided or downplayed family planning for years, partly because of its former association with coercion, partly because of religious objections, especially to abortion, and partly because some developing-country governments have viewed it as white people coming to poor nations and telling them to have fewer children. But as evidence collected in the new edition of the Lancet, a medical journal, convincingly shows, family planning also has substantial, long-term health and economic benefits. The attitude of some developing countries has already started to change; Rwanda, Malawi, Tanzania and Nigeria have all launched or expanded family-planning programmes in the past few years. But it has taken the Gates foundation to team up with Britain to push western donors into a big expansion of official support: at the London summit, they promised $2.6 billion worth of aid, aiming to cut by more than half the number of women in developing countries without access to modern contraceptive methods.

NRM SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF ITS EVIL SCHEMES

Many times I wonder whether what the NRM shows us (the dirt it is) stops just at election time, or it goes further than that. It is a big shame that NRM can fail to lead by example. Who is Alintuma Nsambu for whom it was a battle the NRM could least afford to lose? President Museveni ought to know that many Ugandans under his leadership are civilized, we see the wrongs and just pity the regime more so at the present level of information technology. There was no reason to have people put on such tension because the NRM thought that they could impose Nsambu on to the people of Bukoto South. There were enough indicators that in a free and fair election, Nsambu could not make it, but trust the NRM... It is sad the leadership we have. Good God is the only one who can touch the battle hardened hearts of NRM leadership. William Kituuka Kiwanuka --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MOVEMENT REJECTS BUKOTO RESULTS Publish Date: Jul 14, 2012 By John Semakula and Moses Mulondo THE NRM party has rejected the Bukoto South results in which its flag bearer, Alintuma Nsambu, lost to DP’s Mathias Nsubuga by 1,400 votes.

LONDON SUMMIT OFFERS CRUCIAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN, HEALTH

Government pledges £1bn to family planning in developing world Ella Pickover Wednesday 11 July 2012 The U K Government has pledged to donate more than £1 billion to help family planning services in the developing world. In a bid to help 24 million girls and women in the world's poorest countries, British aid will be doubled for eight years, International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell will announce later. Aid for family planning will increase from £90 million each year to £180 million - more than £1.4 billion over eight years. The Department for International Development (Dfid) said the increase in aid will save a woman's life every two hours. Mr Mitchell will make the announcement as health leaders from around the world gather at the London Family Planning Summit. The summit, which is hosted by the Government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, also aims to encourage poor countries to develop their policies to support the rights of women. Health ministers, charities, donors and private sector companies working in the family planning business will discuss increasing the global availability of contraceptives and how to empower women so they have more choices about sex. Mr Mitchell said: "The health and rights of girls and women are front and centre of Britain's aid programme. Being able to plan the size of her family is a fundamental right that we believe all women should have. "British support will mean that millions of women who are currently unable to access or use family planning information, services and supplies will be able to decide, freely and for themselves, whether, when and how many children to have. "Women who are able to use modern contraceptives are better able to care for their families and are more likely to be economically active, benefiting their families and their communities alike." It is estimated that 220 million women around the world do not have access to contraceptives or information on them. In some countries women need written consent from their husbands before they can talk to a doctor about contraception while in others, family planning services are not offered to adolescents or unmarried women. In developing countries, contraceptives are frequently out of stock when women try to get them. Delegates at the summit are hoping to get 120 million women better access to contraceptives, information and services by 2020. Mr Mitchell will also commit £516 million to this cause. Every two minutes a woman dies from pregnancy-related complications, a Dfid spokesman said. A recent report from Save the Children suggests that pregnancy is the biggest killer of teenage girls worldwide. The charity said that every year one million teenage girls die or are injured because of pregnancy or childbirth. The summit, which is being held later today in central London, is expected to be attended by delegates from 20 to 25 countries, including the US, India, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania. Aides to Mr Mitchell said he is passionate about bringing the issue to the global stage. Mr Mitchell visited Malawi in June to see first-hand the effects of limited contraception. Mr Mitchell contacted Melinda Gates after she said that family planning was one of her "top priorities". Mrs Gates said: "When I travel and talk to women in developing countries, they all tell me that they want access to contraceptives to be able to plan their families. "These women want to raise healthy and educated children that can contribute to building prosperous communities. "I'm hopeful that the London Summit on Family Planning our foundation is co-hosting with the UK's Department for International Development will galvanise a global movement to give 120 million more women in the poorest countries access to the contraceptives they want. "All women and girls should have the right to determine their own future." The Gates Foundation and the US government is expected to pledge millions of dollars on developing more efficient forms of contraception. The health minister of Bangladesh, Humayun Kabir, who will be attending the summit, said: "The summit, I hope, would make every one aware how important it is to renew our focus on family planning. "We have seen very recently, the population of the world crossing seven billion. Though the world has so far been able to feed this continuously growing human species, but resources are put under severe stress for a developing country like ours in managing our economy and environment. "It is possible to arrest this growth and concerted efforts can help us which can be channeled through this summit. I hope we would see specific commitments from the world leaders for addressing this issue. "While the leaders from the developing country can set very specific goals and targets, the developed world can come forward to reduce the resource gap. And commitments from both can save the human society and the world we live in and our environment."

ONE YEAR AFTER FREEDOM, SOUTH SUDAN IS IN A CRISIS

South Sudan rebel now President takes on poverty, graft July 08, 2012|By Pascal Fletcher | Reuters

(Reuters) - South Sudan's President Salva Kiir, who fought as a rebel chief in one of Africa's longest civil wars, has confronted those two old and deadly enemies of development - poverty and corruption - in his first year as head of the world's newest state. The guerrilla fighter turned president, who likes to wear wide-brimmed cowboy hats, has also faced persisting hostility from South Sudan's arch-foe to the north, Sudan, from whom it wrested independence last year after a secession vote that followed the end in 2005 of more than two decades of civil war. Ads by Google

IT IS SAD THAT JENNIFER MUSISI'S MOTHER HAS PASSED ON

Madam Jennifer Musisi Semakula, we have learnt from CBS 88.8 FM the sad news of the death of your dear mother - Esther Kiwanuka. It is difficult time you and your family members and relatives are going through, however, we pray that the Almighty God comforts you. William Kituuka Kiwanuka ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ONE YEAR ON - JENNIFER MUSISI HAS DELIVERED Publish Date: May 01, 2012

Jennifer Musisi Jennifer Musisi became the Executive Director of the newly constituted Kampala Capital City Authority on April 15th 2011. It has been an explosive year since then, full of confrontations and drama, but also full of achievements and steps forward. She sat down with Kalungi Kabuye in a wide covering interview. Excerpts: Q: How would you describe your first year in office? A: The year has been very eventful in different ways, mostly because we are setting up a brand new institution, the Kampala City Council Authority. There has been a lot of learning, but there has also been a lot of sheer hard work to get this institution started. When I reported last year, I had no staff; so basically I came in to set up this institution with no administrative structure, no budget, and no directors. And no politicians. Amidst all these challenges we have seen many good things happen and we are happy for the things that have gone well. When you set out you had certain targets to meet, how far do you think you have gone into achieving these? I cannot say that we have achieved the fundamental targets, because before you can set any goals and other deliverables for the institution, you have got to first set up the institution. In this one year, we have been able to draw up a new organizational structure and have been able to get it approved. We have also been able to draw up financial and accountability systems. We have been able to draw up, get approved and get provided for a budget for the new institution. We have drawn up strategic plans, a vision, mission and objectives. We have determined goals for the institution going forward and we believe that the only remaining component for that is the staffing of the structure. You can have all these good things but you need the personnel to breathe life into the institution and that is what we are doing. Once the recruitment of staff under KCCA has been completed we will be ready to go. But you obviously achieved something… Yes, we have been able to restart basic services to the city, cleaned it up, and have upped garbage collection. I hope many people have realized that the city is now cleaner. We have started greening the city, worked on decongestion through the removal of street vendors and general visual de-cluttering of the city. We have put some water features in the place and really improved the way the way it looks. We have restored accountability and compliance in our stakeholders, recovered a lot of properties, streamlined operations and been able to deliver services like in our regulatory function. The planning directorate has improved its speed of delivery like the approval of plans. We have put up street lights and improved road network in the Central Business District. Things have been good, considering the challenges we have had. Does KCCA have enough money to do what you had planned for? In the past one year we have significantly improved revenue collection, from about sh28b annually to a target of sh44b this year. In spite of the challenges we have collected over sh30b and it is not yet the end of the financial year, so we think we are going to reach that target and hopefully surpass it. This revenue is helping us do the things you are seeing take place in the city. For instance, we have increased revenue collections from the taxis from sh392m to about sh1.9b a month. Now we are going into other areas like trade licenses to improve collections from there. The markets have also not been remitting revenue so we are now in Nakasero and are moving to St. Balikudembe soon. What do you see as the total revenue potential of the city? It is difficult to tell because it has not yet been scientifically arrived at, we have not been able to capture all the revenue sources and their potential which is what we want to try and do, so that we can know all the revenue heads and try and get some statistics in terms of revenue generation. A lot of revenue was being lost by agents collecting for KCC, either they would not remit it or they would not collect it, or a mix of both. If we put the system that we have planned and started to implement in place; if we get professional, well-motivated staff we should be able to support our budget in the next 5 years and not go to government for funding. What was your budget shortfall this year? We submitted a budget for sh256b to government, but we eventually got sh144b including revenue approved. Of that sh44b is supposed to come from local revenue and that is why I’m saying we have collected sh30b so far. But even what government had approved to give has been affected by budget cuts since then. For example, we were given sh43b for the roads and then government asked us to use sh17b of that to pay contracts inherited from the Ministry of Works, so that money is not available to us. That affected our budget for roads, so we are not going to be able to do as much we wanted to, unfortunately. But we are looking towards getting partnerships because it is probably unrealistic to imagine that the government will fund us 100% in all the areas that we want funded. That is why we are not only enhancing our own revenue collection but are also looking at partners to help us. We are pursuing a partnership funded by the Chinese government to do our infrastructure in the city. If we have that taken care of (the major roads) then we will be able to use our budget for other areas. The other initiative we have taken is that we are approaching development partners and agencies, all sorts of them. We had a donors conference recently, just to tell them what our vision is, what we have managed to achieve, what we need to achieve, and where the gaps are and asking them to see where they can come in to support us and we got a very positive response. So we think that working the three together will help us get a better budget. There are some obvious areas of concern to Kampala residents, how have you addressed them? One major area of concern is the bitumen road network within the Central Business District and the gravel roads in the outskirts. The public expected the roads to magically transform into first class roads in the first two weeks I was in office. We have not been able to do that but we have been able to improve the roads a lot. We have done a lot of road repairs where there have been pot holes, resurfaced some major roads, and improved gravel roads. We have not done 100% of all the roads in the city, basically because we do not have the budget to do it. What are the roads you have worked on? We have worked on roads such as the Gadhafi road, the old Kampala-Makerere road, Allen road, Buxton Street in the lower CBD, Sikh lane, Namirembe Road, Channel Street, Ben Kiwanuka Street, Upper Kololo road above the airstrip and others. We have also done a lot of work on the drainage system to alleviate the problem of flooding by de-silting and de-clogging of the drainage system. There were almost zero street lights when we came in, but we have installed 2,087 street lights on 75 or so roads in the CBD and areas like Katwe. We are moving into the outer areas of the city. The major challenge has been theft of the electricity fixtures, the switches and wires; and we also found that the utility companies have damaged a lot of wiring because of cutting across the roads and walk ways. What about garbage collection? That is a major Kampala problem We have increased collection by 37.5% from where we found it. We have also been able to install about 750 garbage trash cans in the city. We are partnering with the communities to see how they can improve garbage collection. We are also doing a lot of sensitization to get locals to own and take care of the city. The communal involvement with the Kampala City Yange foundation, to get the public to participate in cleaning the city, is taking off very well. Which companies are licensed to collect garbage? There was confusion in the past as to which ones are licensed There are company’s licensed to collect garbage, but the law states that the person generating garbage should take care of its disposal. That means that if you cannot dispose of it yourself, you have to pay someone to do it for you. We have been supplementing that as the City Authority because many people are unaware, or they do not want to pay for it. So there are companies that have been licensed to collect garbage for a fee, which happens in every city. But as KCCA we have been collecting garbage and we will continue doing so while sensitizing the community. At some point the communities will have to make a contribution to the removal of the garbage they generate but it is going to be a process. We have also been punishing people that drop trash in the city. What percentage of garbage collection is done by Private companies? The biggest part is done by us, but we found there were companies contracted by government to clean the city. We paid them about sh2b a month but they were not doing a good job so when these contracts have expired we have not renewed them. So the ladies and men you see cleaning the streets now in KCCA reflectors are people that we pay. We are doing this to achieve at least three aims. One, we use community organizations by giving them an area, which is creating jobs for the people. Secondly, we are creating ownership of the city because if they are cleaning the city they begin to love and own it, that’s why you see them work incredible hours just to keep the city clean. But meanwhile, we are also getting a cleaner city because these people are doing such a good job. Going forward we will continue to employ the youth, the women and the widows - people that have otherwise been unemployed. The people you see cleaning and building ramps are people that we get from the communities through partnerships. What about Kampala traffic, which is crazy at the best of times? We found traffic management plans in place that have not been implemented for various reasons, but we are reviewing traffic flow patterns in the city and looking to create alternatives. The plan of having buses was to reduce on the number of cars getting into the city. The road network that we have today was designed in the 50’s and 60’s for a small number of cars. The roads are old and narrow, and there are too many roundabouts that should not be in a modern city. Ideally the roads should have been redesigned and replaced. If we get funds we would be able to do a lot of these things. Right now we are looking at putting traffic lights where there are none, and eventually remove some of the roundabouts. Our plan has fly overs in certain areas starting with the Kitgum house, Electoral Commission, Nakumatt junction, but that’s in the long term. Also part of the metropolitan physical development plan is to decongest the city so that people do not have to come into the city to shop and bank and do stuff. Hopefully government will relocate some of its ministries out of the city to increase the already limited parking space, because almost every government ministry building has a no parking zone around it. If we had enough buses hopefully that will drive most of the smaller commuter vans (taxis) out of the city and into the outskirts. Currently there are only 100 buses, how many are there supposed to be? The Bus Company has informed us that the next bunch of 100 buses is ready to be shipped next month (May) and should be here in the next three months. But indications are that even the next 100 buses will not meet the demand, so our arrangement with them is another 100 every month and eventually have 520 buses on some routes. Other routes will not have any buses because of the way the contracts were drafted. Some will have abundant buses, while others will have zero buses until we get another service provider to provide buses for those, we did not want a monopoly for the entire city. What are the issues with Mukono and Wakiso districts? The contract with Pioneer Easy Bus is for the provision of buses for Kampala city and not beyond that. So if Mukono and Wakiso want to have the buses they have to enter some formal agreement with the bus company. And then there are the boda bodas We have a plan for the Boda-bodas but we will first partner with them, sensitize them, and then implement. We need to count and register them first, and then set basic regulations. I have a meeting scheduled with their 12 elected leaders next week. We want to begin working with them on how to improve their industry in the city. You realize that you cannot just pluck them off the streets and throw them away. You have to have a plan of what happens after that, and how they can continue to earn an income. So what plans do you have? Initially we need to get a hold of the statistics and then provide alternatives, perhaps we should have specific numbers in specific divisions, so if you are in Makindye you operate from there, if you are Nakawa, you operate there so that we do not have 80,000 boda-bodas roaming the city all the time. We intend to carry out some basic training for them because of the traffic nuisance that they have become, and then also give them alternatives. The KCCA has funds that we give out to create employment and so far we have funded about 430 groups. So far we have given out over sh1b to low income groups to facilitate them to do business, and they can also benefit from those programs, so not all youth look to become boda boda riders. The police seem to let boda bodas do what they want, how are you going to address this, for example get them off the pavements and walkways? There is no way you can implement any traffic program without the participation of police. However at the moment the police, like anybody else, is overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the boda bodas. So the numbers have got to be controlled, and they are also a security concern. Is there political pressure for them to stay? There are people from the political side saying that these are our voters, poor Ugandans, and that we are being elitist and discriminatory. Many members of the public are telling us to just get rid of them and throw them out of town like we did with the street vendors, but these people need a livelihood, so we have to balance employment and social issues; all those tender areas that come with trying to enforce the changes in a multi-faceted society like we have in the city. We have to provide some alternatives so you do not have this whole mass of people just ganging up and protesting because they have nothing to do. KCC was probably one of the most corrupt institutions in the country, what have you done about it? We have recovered large amounts of money, for example sh60b from fictitious and defective supplies, and at least sh56b on undeclared accounts. We have recovered a lot of properties like the Sezibwa Road and Mabua Road houses; the Kikajjo land, and the area that is fenced off opposite the railway station. We also cancelled some leases that were irregularly awarded, reclaimed some property like vehicles, and clamped down on fuel abuse from sh240m a week to about sh45m. Right now we have over 50 criminal files involving mostly our staff that is in the process of being prosecuted. There has been a huge problem in corrupt and illegal licensing of structures in the city The institution had died, whereas KCC was supposed to be the regulator, it was now participating in breaching its own regulations, but we are working on changing that round. You will appreciate that we are still working with a lot of staff who were under KCC so some cases of malpractice are still going on. That will reduce when we get more professional staff with a high level of integrity on board. But we have recently discovered that a lot of the documentations, like permits and licenses, purportedly given by KCCA are actually forgeries. There are more forgeries in the Taxi revenue documentation, fraudulent bank stamps, fraudulent bank advice forms, and all that. For example Centenary Park? That contract was not supervised properly, there was a breach, so we are addressing that and we shall take remedial action. We will give the details on what is going to happen in that area in the coming future but it is just one of the contracts that were mismanaged under KCC. Are the irregularly offered contracts reversible? Legally if your officer irregularly issues out a document you can reverse it but you also have to prosecute the officer. Those are some the things that we are doing now. A road reserve is a road reserve, so getting a permit to build on a road reserve is not right. We did demolish a lot of illegal structures, the last time I checked we had demolished 250 illegal structures on road reserves, walls and semi-permanent structures build in road reserves. But in the city centre we had to do a technical assessment so we set up a technical team from the architects association, engineers, and the Ministry of Lands to assess those buildings. Their findings were that a lot of them had actually breached the building regulations, so one of the options we had was to penalize them, but the penalties in place are not punitive enough to cause serious compliance. The next option we had was to demolish the structures. But these buildings were so poorly built that if you removed some of the shops underneath you would compromise the stability of the building, and they would crumble. If you demolish one, many others would crumble. So we stepped back and said maybe we should penalize them. A few of the owners have actually reconverted the areas back into parking spaces. But going forward we are not going to approve any building plans without parking spaces. And we are supervising to ensure that the parking space is put in place during construction, otherwise we will not give an occupation permit when the building is completed. We are penalizing some and demolishing others. The technical team gave us an initial report, but it is doing more work and will come up with recommendations that will guide us going forward for the remedial actions for each circumstance. One of the problems we have in Uganda is proper maintenance of structures once put up, how will you deal with that? One of the things that we keep telling the public is that the responsibility of transforming the city has got to be shared. No matter much money the government throws into KCCA, no matter how good our plans are, the public has to be involved to maintain the city. If the public continues trashing on the streets and stealing our trash cans like they have been doing; pulling out wires, stealing street lights and throwing garbage though car windows, it will be counterproductive. We have spent a lot of money in greening the city, buying grass and flowers and paying money for labour, but the public is pulling out these plants, walking on them and bruising the plants, so they are dying. In the evening they lie on the grass and kill it. Whenever it rains and the drainage is clogged we send out teams who find fragments of bricks in the drainage channels, foetuses, polythene bags, dead bodies and all manner of junk in there. So no matter how much money we spend on de-clogging and de-silting, if the public does not change its practices we are not going to win. I was given a bill of sh600m to de-clog a certain part of Nakivubo Channel that had been clogged with plastics in one spot and yet there are eight spots. I do not have the budget to do that continuously, so the only salvation is for the public to stop using the channel as a trash dump. We are already seeing some changes, but we intend to use a multi-faceted approach, one is sensitizing the public to love their city. We have people reprimand others for trashing on the streets and report others for trying to steel our bins and lights, and we have arrested some and that is a good thing. We have had maybe 70 people arrested and prosecuted for trashing. We are going to continue sensitization on radio, papers and in communities using our political leaders at different levels for the public to appreciate what it means to leave in a clean environment. So it has to take all of us. We are going to schools and addressing assemblies so that the children can grow up while appreciating the value of a clean environment. So it is a multifaceted approach. In all this how much has politics been a hindrance? Much of it has been as a hindrance and has had a negative effect on the economic sector. The business community is what gives us revenue through property rates, trading licenses, hotel tax, and local service tax. But if they are interrupted in their work because of a political occurrence then that is bad for us as the Authority because it makes the city insecure, it makes people afraid to come and do business and trade in the city. It’s been disruptive and diversionary but it has not stopped us from achieving a lot of good things. Going forward we hope that even politically things will settle down. I respect the fact that we are adjusting to a new law with the creation of the KCCA, but the politicians need to respect that. We all need to respect that the city is being managed away from the politics, and is being managed like a corporate entity. And the wrangles with the Lord Mayor? A lot of the wrangles are simply perceptions, and what the public and the Lord Mayor perhaps sees as acrimony is the new law. Power sources have changed, financial control changed, and functions changed. When we implement the law there has been a lot of misunderstanding which is perceived as a wrangle. For example one of the duties of the Executive Director is to advise the City Authority headed by the Lord Mayor on legal matters. So where I have had to advise the Lord Mayor on some matters, it has been perceived as a wrangle with the politicians. Where I have had to give advice on matters financial it has been perceived as opposing the politicians, but I am legally required to do that. I’m also legally required to be the head of the public service of the institution, to be the spokesperson, to implement government programs, and to be the coordinator with government. There are a whole host of responsibilities that the law gives me and that are what I have been doing. But that takes away a lot that was being done by the politicians in the past. But on the technical side we have a strategy, a plan and we have key deliverables that we have set for ourselves within certain timeframes and we are doing very well. I don’t know about the politicians and there deliverables, I know about us and I think we are making a lot of progress. Has the relationship with other politicians generally improved over the year? Yes, definitely. I think I would say our relationship with the politicians may be 90% positive. The other government organs that comprise politicians have been working, and even today they are meeting, they are discussing policy issues, making recommendations and getting reports ready. What we are waiting for is an ordinary Authority meeting, which the Lord Mayor is supposed to call, to present what they have been working on. So we relate very well, we interact with them and on the whole we are working well with the politicians. We long moved away from the divisions and disparities. There has been a bit of frustration on their part, whereby the divisions are not functioning as they should financially because the law centralized all the financial management here in the office of the Executive Director, away from the divisions. The law gives the Executive Director powers to delegate as she deems fit to the division Town Clerks. But Town Clerks have not been appointed because the staff structure was approved just last month. Adverts have been put out and we should be getting town clerks appointed before too long and delegate some of my financial roles, hopefully before the end of the financial year. The divisions will then be functioning in terms of having sub-accounting officers stationed there, but in the meantime every division that has been bringing programs for funding we have been funding them. What are your plans for next year? When the organization is fully in place we will start on what we set out to do. We have a very vibrant gender directorate that works on the economic empowerment of the youth, job creation programs, and projects such as renovating markets that is going to continue. In the engineering and technical services we are going to continue fixing roads and build structures. We want to renovate our over 100 primary schools. We are also moving towards recycling garbage and right now we are looking at proposals. So far we have gotten proposals from 50 countries from all over the world, including Uganda, that we are getting a consultant to assess and get the best. We are looking to generate bio energy from the waste as one of the projects, we have done some initial tests as one of the programs we want to do in the short run. We are looking at teaching the communities to sort and recycle waste, and are putting up waste recycling centres. We already have one in Namuwongo and are looking at putting up others in other divisions. In the health segment we are soon taking over Naguru hospital, we want to improve the services being offered there and equip it better. We are looking at renovating health centres such as in Kisugu, Kawempe and others to give better services to people. In the revenue segment we intend to improve revenue collection and our planning and projects; we want to improve on those services and roll them out to the divisions. Can you paint a picture of what Kampala will be like next year? We have a vision to create a liveable, sustainable, healthy and really nice city, but we can only do that with other contributing factors in place. If we had adequate provisions in terms of financing we could be able to do that because we are accountable people and we have set up good systems of accountability. If we had more funding we would do more; if we had all the staff on board we would do more; if we got out of politicking to concentrate on where we would like the organization to go as a city Authority we would achieve more. Well as we have a vision to transform Kampala very significantly, there are many other factors that play into that. I do not want to promise things that I am not able to deliver on, I want to work realistically. But our commitment is to significantly improve Kampala and make it a better city for everybody. You have said you have no life, and that life is increasingly being threatened with harm, why do you do it? Because it is my city, it is my children’s city and will be their children’s city. We cannot all go away and live elsewhere, somebody has to do it, and I will do my part. When my contract is over after three years I will hand over to somebody else and they will do their part. I also believe in God, and believe I have a calling to do what I can for Kampala.

WHERE WILL MUSEVENI REMAIN IF NRM LOSES THE BUKOTO SOUTH SEAT?

News coming in is that some opposition leaders in Bukoto South have withdrawn from their parties and changed to support the NRM official candidate more so at State House! It is no surprise, because it is not the 1st time President Museveni has used favours and money to induce people, and this is one reason why his administration is failing to address the issues of the people. For him as long as he stays around, what makes sense is to see NRM candidates in positions, unfortunately, NRM administration will remain in the book of Uganda's history for corruption. It is absurd the service delivery in Uganda. It is so sad that even if funds appear as a vote, you cannot be sure that they will actually be put to where they seem to be allocated. Museveni's involvement in Bukoto South to the extent of many people changing over is not new. However, if the NRM does not use the vote rigging tactics that it is good at, how will Museveni stand when the NRM candidate loses? William Kituuka Kiwanuka

ALINTUMA NSAMBU HAD ROLE IN THE FAILED NATIONAL IDENTITY CARDS PROJECT

Posted Wednesday, July 4 2012 at 12:56 Three former ministers were ay recommended for sanction following a House investigation into the tendering of the controversy-wracked UShs200 billion national Identity Cards project to M/s Muhlbauer of Germany. MPs want Mr Kirunda Kivejinja (Internal Affairs), former Attorney General Kiddhu Makubuya and former State Minister for ICT, Mr Alintuma Nsambu, punished for their role in the disputed deal. In a report presented the House Defence Committee chairperson, Mr Simon Mulongo (Bubulo East), Mr Kivejinja, Mr Makubuya and the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Internal Affairs, Mr Stephen Kagoda, reportedly flouted procurement laws. The report calls for an investigation into Mr Nsambu’s trip to Germany. Mr Kivejinja is implicated as having deliberately avoided and ignored the laid down procurement procedures under the law. The committee also recommended that Makubuya should take full responsibility for the irregular clearance of the National Security Information Systems procurement agreement in total disregard of Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority. Share This Story 3Share “He (Kivejinja) therefore failed to provide correct political guidance to the ministry which failed to follow the established procedures for classified procurements under PPDA. Despite the technical and professional guidance provided by PPDA, the minister ignored this advice and went ahead to single source the Germany company, to which he dared to take full responsibility as warned by PPDA,” the report to be debated today, notes. The Defence committee inquiry into the procurement of the Shs200 billion ID project set out to, among others, ascertain the mode of procurement of the equipment, examine the parties involved in the procurement process and review the contractual dimension of the procurement The report further notes that: “There was outright breach of the procurement of the procurement laws, dishonesty on the part of some senior officials, both political and technical whose roles are highly questionable.” It adds: “Those found responsible for occasioning loss regarding the procurement and implementation should take full responsibility and the committee prays that Parliament resolves to have clear and deserving penalties against them by the relevant authorities for mismanaging a project of a magnitude of about Shs200 billion,”. The committee said whereas the ID project was conceived with good intentions, it had critical shortfalls in its procurement. “Although the ministry presented letters from the President dated April, 2, 2009 and February 13, as their justification for selecting Muhlbauer as the sole company of choice without any competitive bidding, the committee did not [see] evidence of a presidential directive for single sourcing in any of the two letters specifically directing them to proceed as such.” They insisted that the President’s role was advisory. “In any case the guidance in the letters did not amount to restricting to single sourcing let alone circumventing the PPDA regulatory framework, which effectively provides for classified procurement but which was eluded.” editorial@ug.nationmedia.com

BUGANDA Vs NRM IN BUKOTO SOUTH Thursday, 14 June 2012 22:57 Written by Sadab Kitatta Kaaya As campaigns for the Bukoto South by-election get underway, some members of Parliament are putting loyalty to Buganda kingdom before allegiance to the ruling NRM party. The Observer can reveal that some NRM MPs from Buganda are secretly financing DP Secretary General Mathias Nsubuga, one of the seven candidates in the race. The seat fell vacant after the Court of Appeal annulled the election of Muyanja Mbabaali over lack of requisite academic qualifications. On June 8, the former ICT state minister, J.C. Alintuma Nsambu, won the primaries to become the flag bearer for the NRM in the by-election. Since then, however, several NRM members are distancing themselves from the former Bukoto East legislator for fear of getting into bad books with Buganda kingdom. Nsambu is alleged to have made remarks viewed by Buganda loyalists as belittling Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi, and to have been behind the closure of the kingdom’s radio, CBS FM, in September 2009. He has since been considered an enemy of Buganda, even though he is a Muganda, and this seems to be costing him dearly even in his own party. Nsambu was nominated on Wednesday in the company of three supporters: Lt Joe Walusimbi, the Lwengo district council speaker; Eddie Ssansa Luwaga, a former Masaka district councillor for Lwengo sub-county; and an unidentified woman. In contrast, his main challenger, DP’s Nsubuga, arrived in pompous style, accompanied by about 20 senior opposition leaders, including members of the DP national executive committee and MPs. As Nsubuga awaited his nomination, some NRM legislators contacted him by phone, inquiring about the safest means through which to send him money for his campaign. The MPs, who requested not to be named, confirmed to The Observer that they were backing the DP candidate. “This election is not between DP and NRM, but between pro and anti-Buganda forces,” said one NRM legislator. These MPs are not only financing Nsubuga, they are also deploying their agents in the constituency to malign Nsambu. “I may not appear there [in Bukoto South] physically, but my presence will be felt. I have asked all my [former] campaigners to move there and ensure that Nsambu doesn’t go through,” another MP said. The Lwengo district chairman, George Mutabaazi, an NRM leader, also convened a press conference and announced his support for Nsubuga. “Unless we receive communication from the Katikkiro of Buganda informing us that Nsambu apologized to the Kabaka and was forgiven, we shall not campaign for him,” Mutabaazi said. Besides the district speaker, Lt Walusimbi and his fiancée Teopista Mbabazi, who is the woman councillor for Kyazanga sub-county, the entire district leadership is against Nsambu’s candidature. However, Umaru Ssemwezi, the NRM registrar for Lwengo district, told The Observer that the party would prevail over the straying MPs. He said they would be forced to campaign for Nsambu because the agreed party position requires all NRM leaders to back the official party candidate. The cracks in the ruling party aside, the DP leadership, on the other hand, is seeking to mend fences with dissenting party members and other opposition parties. With figures like DP legislators Betty Nambooze (Mukono municipality) and Mathias Mpuuga (Masaka municipality), known to be critics of Nobert Mao’s leadership, and JEEMA’s Muhammad Kateregga (Bukomansimbi district chairman) present at Nsubuga’s nomination and maiden rally at Kinoni trading centre, Mao prayed that this would be a step towards reconciliation within DP and between the party and the rest of the opposition. Despite the last-minute nomination of FDC’s Julius Ssentamu, DP leaders remain hopeful that the opposition will unite behind Nsubuga. “I might have personal issues with Matia [Nsubuga], but we have agreed to put aside our differences and fight a common enemy, because it is not just an election between Nsambu and Nsubuga, as you may look at it,” Nambooze told The Observer. Nambooze said more unexpected personalities would soon join Nsubuga’s campaign. She revealed that the initial plan is that each of the 14 parishes in the constituency will be manned by at least one MP throughout the 23 days of campaigning. In addition, DP has unveilled a force of about 600 vigilantes to handle security-related matters. These are under the command of Bukoto East MP, Florence Namayanja Mukasa, who formally introduced the group to Lwengo district police commander, Jonathan Baroza. “Our opponent [Nsambu] is a stubborn character and we had to organize a contingency plan for him. Otherwise, my vigilantes are peaceful people,” Namayanja told Baroza. For the bigger part of the week, Namayanja has been resident in the constituency, where she has set up grassroots vigilante committees in nearly every village in the constituency. Bukoto South constituency has 66 polling stations with about 38,000 registered voters. sadabkk@gmail.com