Category: Daily Monitor

As Uganda gears up for the 2026 General Election, voters have been urged to keep away from politics of excitement and focus on leaders who can address critical issues affecting them.

The call was made by several speakers during a thanksgiving prayer service for Mbarara District National Resistance Movement (NRM) party chairperson, Mr Prosper Tuheise Kururagire at his home in Bukiro town Council in Mbarara District on Saturday.

The Minister for Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, Mr Francis Mwebesa who represented the Vice President, Maj (Rtd) Jessica Alupo at this function, told the gathering that politics of excitement will compromise them to make wrong choices of leaders.

‘You need to be careful; that music, drinks and simple handouts that some of the candidates normally use during elections will lead you to elect leaders who will not help in addressing the challenges being faced. Look at the critical issues affecting you and interrogate those who want to get elected if they are offering solutions to address them,’ Mr Mwebesa said.

He cautioned the youth, whom he said are usually used by politicians during the electioneering period for selfish interests.

‘It is mostly the young people who get excited and forget the issues that affect them, where they have come from and what the future holds for them,’ Mr Mwebesa added.

The Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Mbarara, Rev Fr Severinus Ndugwa, who presided over the ceremony, challenged Ugandans to keep away from the politics of sectarianism.

‘Whether your colour is brown or black, the tribe or religion you belong to is just an accident. We are all children of God. So, avoid any sectarian tendencies that normally surface during this election period. What is important are the services for the good of humankind,’ Fr Ndugwa said.

He also cautioned leaders to avoid segregating people because they never supported them or were of opposing political parties.

‘When elected as a leader, do not look at only those people who supported you or the political party that brought you in a position of leadership. Render services to all people equally without discrimination,’ Fr. Ndugwa appealed.

Mr Sedrack Nzeire Kaguta, the former Kiruhura District NRM party Chairperson, also brother to President Museveni, said people should not get excited about being in power or being associated with those in power to discriminate against others.

‘That clan, tribe or connections you have today will one time wane. So, do not get excited and start discriminating against one another. For some of us who have travelled around the world, you get to a situation where you can’t reach that one person you were born with, your village mate, a friend and you find someone willing to help is a foreigner. So, why do you become sectarian? You never know who will help you in future,’ Mr Nzeire said.

According to Mr Benjamin Cadet, the NRM flagbearer for Bunyaruguru Constituency in Rubirizi District, voters at times gamble when choosing leaders because of being misled.

‘Leadership is not about gambling. We need to have leaders who can move this country forward but in politics, there can be a temptation where voters may get excited and end up voting for incapable leaders. As the NRM party, we need to educate our people to make rightful decisions during elections,’ he said.

Mr Tuheise, whose party has been in power for four decades, said they have since launched a sensitisation campaign targeting, especially the youth, on how to make the right decisions during elections.

‘The challenge we have been having is with the youth who are easily taken up by excitement during elections. We are sensitising them on the choice of leaders they should vote for but also trying to address some of the issues they face, especially unemployment,’ he said.

While campaigning in Luuka District, on October 1, NUP presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, castigated the Parish Development Model (PDM), a policy of government targeting the over 33 percent Ugandans who are still outside the money economy. In fact, he vowed to freeze the fund if he is elected President. Instead, in his view, he would put that money into the health and education sectors.

His wayward political statement notwithstanding, it is totally inconceivable what exactly informed Mr Kyagulanyi to make such a statement. Is it because the programme has been so successful and, therefore, he thinks it will give President Museveni milage or was he less thoughtful in the heat of the moment?

Mr Kyagulanyi should know by now that even if the government were to commit half of its annual budget to education and the health sector to attain world-class standards, this alone would not shift our people out of poverty.

For the people to make an economic shift from a subsistence lifestyle, the government must pursue deliberate programmes of capitalising the citizens and offer proper guidance for them to engage in profitable ventures that generate regular income. The PDM policy is not set in stone. Countries all over the world have pursued similar programmes to shift their people to the wealth cluster, and the results are there for everyone to appreciate.

Indeed, President Museveni saw this much earlier. Even when he built schools, hospitals and modern roads, he knew so well that Ugandans needed to shift substantially from their subsistence lifestyles and move into the money economy. He, therefore, began socioeconomic programmes aimed at changing their economic outlook.

Even before PDM, there was Boona Bagagawale, Entandikwa. Operation Wealth Creation and now Emyoga, Youth Livelihood, among others. The usual naysayers are quick to say these programmes were all in vain. However, they forget that it is through such deliberate programmes that poverty in Uganda has been reduced to 16.1 percent, according to the National Household Survey 2023/2024.

They forget that it is through such interventions that we are currently the leading exporter of most cash crops in the region. Uganda is now the Number One coffee exporter in Africa. We feed the region and the rest of the world with maize, milk, beans, cocoa, vanilla, etc. For one to fully appreciate the value of PDM, one must study Muhammad Yunus and his microfinance support programmes that turned around the Indonesian poor masses.

Prof Yunus pioneered microfinance to give the unbanked rural poor, especially women, access to credit for self-employment and small businesses. The aim was to create bottom-up development where economic growth starts with the most marginalised. In 1976, Yunus took matters into his own hands, loaning very small sums of money, reportedly between $27, and $42 local women who needed to buy materials to produce their products.

In 1983, Yunus formally opened the Grameen (Village) Bank, which served as a way to offer microcredit to entry-level and subsistence entrepreneurs. By June 2020, Grameen Bank had given $30.48 billion worth of loans to some of the world’s poorest people. Similarly, introduced in 2022, PDM is Uganda’s flagship poverty eradication and wealth creation programme. It targets the 39 percent of Ugandans in the subsistence economy, aiming to transition them into the money economy using parish-level Saccos.

The President’s call that everyone must join the money economy with a clear calculation is being realised. Every one of the 10,594 parishes nationwide receives Shs100m annually, directly credited to parish Sacco accounts. PDM funding for Greater Kampala Metropolitan will rise to Shs300m per parish, with special grants for persons with disabilities, village leaders, and religious leaders.

Mr Kyagulanyi should pick a lesson from President Museveni and Yunus. PDM emphasises borrower responsibility and accountability, trains and supports local financial institutions (Saccos) in the way Grameen trained its staff.

As Uganda celebrates its 63rd Independence anniversary and 30 years of the 1995 Constitution, we need to reflect on the extent to which our legal system has been liberated from the claws of the colonial British Administration. In this, we should reflect on one of the ‘Ds’ that characterised the campaign by the Radical New Bar (RNB), ‘decolonisation’. To what extent has our legal system been decolonised? In this short piece, I endeavour to answer the question.

The colonial system never intended to promote access to justice. In its architecture, the system was intended as a tool of dominance, to be used to support the colonial enterprise of subjugation. Although disguised as necessary to maintain law and order, the legal system, and especially in the area of criminal justice, was intended to be a tool to stamp the authority of the colonial master.

In the case of Uganda, concrete judicial power was introduced in 1902 through the Order in Council (OiC) of that year. Under Article 15 of the OiC, His Majesty’s High Court of Uganda was established, with ‘full civil and criminal jurisdiction in all cases and over all persons in Uganda’. Judges of the High Court would be appointed by His Majesty the King, who could also dismiss them at any time. The Commissioner, by the OiC empowered to adopt ordinances establishing Subordinate Courts. In addition, all laws in force in England would be applicable.

However, what stood out most was the use of the courts to stifle political dissent and struggles for political independence. A barrage of offences, properly calibrated for this purpose, were used; these, in the context of Uganda, included the following: Treason, promoting war on chiefs, publication of information prejudicial to security, inducing a boycott, inciting violence, unlawful society, and defamation of foreign princes, among others.

In addition to the law, the colonial administration imposed a foreign system of adjudication of disputes, laced with British traditions, dress codes and language. The common law, precedent and adversarial approaches became entrenched. The legal profession and legal education were also based on the traditions of the colonial state.

As we celebrate 63 years of Independence, it is clear that we have failed to decolonise our legal system. During the drafting of the 1995 Constitution, the Odoki Commission took note of the negative impact of having a foreign system of law on Page 442 of its report:

‘17.25. Most of Uganda’s laws derive from English law, and in the past were used by the colonial masters to rule Uganda. Following independence, the whole legal system should have been transformed to suit our own culture, norms and customs. The opportunity was never taken and so much of our law has remained foreign to most of the people of Uganda both educated and uneducated, with the exception of the members of the legal profession.’

The Commission then enumerated three aspects of concern arising out of the above: Alien orientation of the criminal justice system; failure of the statutory law to take into account local cultural norms; and language, dress code and procedures of courts.

Unfortunately, in spite of the acknowledgement above, the recommendations of the Commission largely maintained the foreign system. Judicial officers still rob in the same way as English judges, sometimes with pompous wigs which do not serve any purpose. Also, except for wigs, lawyers appearing before courts don the black gown, English dinner shirts/blouses and flaps. English remains the language of the court, even when all actors would comfortably proceed in a local language, which could be translated later if necessary.

From the point of view of jurisprudence, we still largely train lawyers to draw guidance from English precedents. Efforts to publicise local judicial decisions by the ULII and increase reliance on these should be acknowledged. However, the lack of consistency on the part of judicial officers, sometimes overlooking their own previous decisions, is undermining these efforts.

Also, the process to adopt use of the alternative justice systems is acknowledged. This, though, is still peripheral. From the governance point of view, the legal system has been used as a tool of control. The promulgation of laws which criminalise otherwise legitimate political conduct is an issue. Some judicial officers are demonstrating a willingness to use the courts in the same way their colonial counterparts did. This needs to be addressed. As we celebrate independence and the 1995 Constitution, the time is now to decolonise our legal system. Ensure transparency in the role of judicial officers, remove obnoxious offences and Africanise judicial procedures.

It was a day Lt Col Anthony Kyakabale said he would never forget. And, no, this was not from the Bush War in Luweero where his acts of valour would see him registered in the army as RO/00058. But it could have been. Kyakabale claimed May 13, 2001, saw him check into a clinic in Kabale Town after grappling with the debilitating effects of a bout of malaria. Another narrative, though, had him at the centre of the fracas that marred a rally in Muhanga. It went on to add that Kyakabale used his firearm in a reckless manner, firing a couple or so of bullets when tempers flared.

‘I wasn’t at the rally,’ Kyakabale told this publication in a 2015 interview, adding: ‘The then Chief of Military Intelligence sent a van full of soldiers to arrest me, basing himself on the rumours. My driver was later arrested, beaten, and he later died. Having received information about the death of my driver, I had to flee to Rwanda because I feared for my life.’

After initially staying in Rwanda, Kyakabale relocated to Sweden, where he spent a dozen years in exile. He always looked back on 2001 as something of a turbulent year. Way too many rumours that were flying targeted his person. If it was not that he was knees deep in illegal gold trade in the north eastern Democratic Republic of Congo city of Beni, it was his involvement with a shadowy rebel group-People’s Redemption Army (PRA)-then linked to Opposition leader and fellow Bush War hero Kizza Besigye.

When he returned to Uganda in 2015, Kyakabale disclosed that the process of returning home from exile got underway sometime in 2008. It followed a phone conversation he had with then Brig James Mugira. Kyakabale, who had raised eyebrows in 2001 when he fled the country while still a serving soldier, was doubtful that President Museveni would extend an olive branch that easily. So when Mugira sent a team to his residence in Sweden, an air of doubt hovered above the brief conversation. Kyakabale told the team matter-of-factly that he would only revert after consulting his friends and family.

They did not hear from him again. When then Brig Leopold Kyanda tried his luck in 2009, he too ran into a speed bump. So did then Brig Charles Bakahumura and then Brig Dr Musinguzi in 2014. It was Brig Bakahumura with whom Kyakabale worked closely in Gulu, where he was a battalion commander in the 1990s that eventually struck gold. Kyakabale agreed to return home and mend fences with President Museveni. After the reconciliation, Kyakabale was promoted from the rank of Lt Col to full Colonel and later appointed a senior presidential advisor.

After his promotion to the rank of Colonel in May 2016, Kyakabale was retired from the army. He then retreated to his home village of Rushebeya, Rwamucucu Sub-county, where he lived a quiet civilian life. This was in stark contrast to the publicity that he garnered in 2001 when, along with two other Bush War comrades-Colonels Samson Mande and Edison Muzoora (deceased)-he relocated to Rwanda where he made it clear that there was no love lost between him and President Museveni.

When news of Kyakabale’s passing in Sweden was announced two Sundays ago, a dark cloud hovered above Kigezi Sub-region. Herbert Turyagitura, a cousin of the deceased, who doubles as the Rushebeya Village chairperson, asked the government to repatriate his remains from Sweden to his ancestral home in Rukiga District for burial. ‘We also appeal to the government to financially support the children of the late Kyakabale as a way of appreciating his contribution during the NRA/NRM Bush War,’ Turyagitura said.

Kyakabale was aged 64 at the time of his death.

Road to exile:

“The then Chief of Military Intelligence sent a van full of soldiers to arrest me, basing himself on the rumours. My driver was later arrested, beaten, and he later died. Having received information about the death of my driver, I had to flee to Rwanda because I feared for my life,” Kyakabale told this publication in a 2015 interview.

A September 2025 report by the World Bank has revealed that the country’s tax system, despite its comprehensive design, continues to struggle with low revenue yield, significantly lagging behind the sub-Saharan Africa average and the government’s own medium-term targets.

The report shows that with a tax revenue-to-GDP ratio of only 13.9 percent in the Financial Year (FY)2025/2026, Uganda remains below the critical 15 percent threshold deemed essential for accelerated growth and sustainable development.

‘This persistent challenge is exacerbated by a personal income tax (PIT) system that has not been reviewed in over a decade, resulting in bracket creep,’ it indicates.

Compounding matters is the fact that a significant informal sector largely remains outside the tax net.

Furthermore, within the formal sector, high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) frequently under-report or evade taxes, and large firms capable of making additional new investments, as well as start-up small firms, are exempt from the corporate income tax (CIT), which undermines revenue collection.

The report suggests that to enhance both revenue generation and tax equity, this year’s edition of the Uganda Economic Update focuses on reforms and strategic interventions that provide policy options to redesign the PIT structure, strengthen HNWI taxation, and re-evaluate CIT exemption policies.

It adds that the policy reforms should be intended to broaden the tax base, reduce tax expenditures and improve progressivity and equity of the tax system. If implemented, it predicts, tax revenues could improve by 0.5 percent of GDP.

The report further states that the proposed reforms are consistent with the annual target of the government’s own strategy on domestic revenue mobilisation and the national tax policy.

These emphasise the need to reduce tax expenditures annually and also grow the tax-to-GDP ratio to Vision 2040 targets.

To address this, it is recommended that the government adopt a targeted policy option that enhances the progressivity of the PIT system, increases revenue, and provides relief to low-income earners.

The recommended reform would increase the exemption threshold to Shs4.02m up from Shs2.82m per annum, maintain existing tax rates for most taxpayers, and introduce a new marginal rate of 35 percent up from the current 30 percent for a chargeable income exceeding Shs5.82m.

As a result, low-income earners would remain unaffected, while only the relatively higher income individuals would see an increased tax burden.

The reform is expected to generate Shs149b (0.1 percent of GDP) in additional annual tax revenue.

The impact on individuals’ income would be modest for most, with increases ranging from Shs15,000 for those earning up to Shs1m per month to Shs444,917 for those earning at least Shs9.5m per month.

Overall, the reform is designed to update Uganda’s PIT structure to avoid bracket creep, improve equity and ensure a fairer distribution of the tax burden, while providing relief for low-income earners and strengthening the country’s fiscal position.

Mr Saadia Refaagat an economist with the World Bank says the under-reporting and evasion of taxes by HNWIs represent a significant leakage in Uganda’s tax system.

A multi-pronged approach is essential to effectively bring this segment into the tax net. This is in line with the FY2025/2026 budget, which aspires to close loopholes that cause revenue leakage.

Few subjects have aroused suspicion, bitterness, and disgust over the last 20 years in Uganda’s politics as the question of ‘moles’. Moles, loosely defined, are senior members of Opposition parties whom the National Resistance Movement (NRM) state recruits and maintains in their parties to inform the State on Opposition plans and activities.

In the intelligence services, deploying moles in rival services is a standard operating procedure and even essential in how intelligence is gathered. In a multiparty democracy, it’s not necessary to have moles, at least in the clock-and-dagger sense of intelligence services. The State as the superstructure of the nation-state is expected to be neutral, serving all citizens and all sides in the political contestation. The police, intelligence services, Judiciary, and Electoral Commission, are examples of institutions of the State.

They exist to guarantee the safety and continuity of Uganda as an entity and are expected to serve whichever government is in power, as well as Opposition political parties. In the NRM state, as well as authoritarian states of the Soviet kind, all political power and the allocation of resources and contracts are fused with the ruling party. In the NRM state, all real power has been centred at State House or its related offshoots. That’s to say, the President’s Office and that office alone, is the major centre of power.

Even the national assembly that, on paper, is a second branch of State and has the primary role of allocating budgets, is in reality an extension of the President’s Office and subject to its directives. Over the past 39 or so years, the NRM has gone through the motions of democracy, but its actions show that it finds democracy in the Western liberal sense a great inconvenience and limit on its power. Lest we forget, President Museveni’s formative political years were forged in the sphere of Maoist China and the Marxist liberation groups in Mozambique and Tanzania.

This Uganda, that is, effectively, a one-party state, is the environment in which Opposition parties, the media, civil society, and the general population must live in.

Regardless of how they feel about the government of the day or the political system, human beings must live. They must feed their families, pay bills, and seek business opportunities. In a situation where all opportunity is tied to the President’s Office, those outside the NRM state or opposed to it find their way around it by making tactical choices.

During the 2011 election campaign, Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) presidential candidate Kizza Besigye took to urging his supporters to take whatever money, T-shirts, or other handouts from the NRM they could but still vote for FDC. These resources were, after all, he would remind crowds at his rallies, Ugandans’ and so getting them was not a favour but a right. In this, Dr Besigye was acknowledging the situation: In a totalitarian or authoritarian system, where the ruling party or politburo is one and the same as the state, critics and opponents of the system are forced to exist under its hand.

So, if, for example, the State decides to hold up a dispatch of copies of Daily Monitor on their way to Gulu or Mbarara, this newspaper that has long been an irritant to the NRM state will seek information from sympathisers inside the President’s Office on how to retrieve the copies. Several times in the last 20 years, Daily Monitor and its sister brand, Monitor FM/KFM, have been shut down by the government for simply doing their job of reporting the news and holding the government to account.

Complex manoeuvres and behind-the-scenes discussions and engagements have had to be made, often including, discreetly, with some actors in the NRM state, in order for the shutdown to be lifted.

Direction the country is taking

This has never prevented Daily Monitor from persisting with the critical and questioning tone it started with in 1992. What is often forgotten by many is that inside the NRM state are thousands of senior or influential players who are as unhappy about the direction the country is taking as are the Opposition parties and independent media.

These NRM and President’s Office insiders have been a reliable and important source of information and tip-offs in some of the biggest and most influential front-page news stories Daily Monitor has published over the past three decades. Thus, the fact of moles cuts both ways. The NRM state will have its moles and informers in media newsrooms, but these same newsrooms also have their sources and moles inside the NRM system.

That’s why I, for one, I am hesitant to dismiss all Opposition politicians who either have been labelled moles or who have eventually crossed over to the ruling NRM.

All this question of moles would have been unnecessary had Uganda, since 1986, been a liberal democracy. Any true Ugandan at heart who has read or heard about the unapologetic corruption and waste of public resources by the NRM government and its leaders is bound to feel revolted or alarmed.

This holds much truer for older Ugandans who experienced the 1960s and 1970s where, their imperfections and excesses notwithstanding, had a basic respect for the formal Ugandan state.

So, who is a mole?

Opposition politicians recruited by NRM, often reluctantly and under duress, or people inside the NRM state who tip off the Opposition and media on the excesses of State House? In my view, the Opposition moles became so because they were preyed upon by the NRM state. Their financial stresses, ill health, private sexual indiscretions, and other vulnerabilities were manipulated and that’s how people known to be principled in their beliefs cross over to NRM.

Deep inside, I think after they realise their hopeless situation, they become even more bitter with the NRM state than they were at the height of their days in the Democratic Party (DP), FDC, Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC), or National Unity Platform (NUP). The Biblical story in the Book of Genesis of Joseph and Moses in Egypt is instructive. Even after rising to high office as a result of his gift for interpreting dreams, Joseph knew at heart that he was a Hebrew, formerly a slave, and his innermost allegiance remained with his enslaved Hebrew people.

The incident in the Book of Exodus where Moses killed an Egyptian whom he came upon mistreating a Hebrew slave makes my point about Ugandan moles.

The general public had been traumatised by photos of Bobi Wine’s bodyguard and NUP activist Eddie Mutwe with bold and sweat on his face, or the many arrests and instances of rough justice meted out to Besigye.

Inside the NRM state, President’s Office, CMI, UPDF, ISO, and State House are human beings with feelings, pride, revulsion at injustice, and ethnic affiliations.

How do these blatant injustices make them feel? The former FDC, DP, and NUP members who are now NRM members are human beings too. They have memories and maintain friendships with former Opposition colleagues in their days of activism.

If I were to say who should be more worried about moles, the NRM state or the political Opposition, the NRM state has much more reason to worry.

The real moles are those in the NRM state, be it CMI, State House, the NRM Secretariat, or ISO, who leak information to the Opposition or the media.

They do this out of conviction and a sense of justice, since obviously the media and Opposition don’t have the resources with which to entice them.

There are many Josephs and Moses’ in the NRM state.

Series between JKL Lady Dolphins and UCU Canons have never been straight forward. Regardless of what shape the Lady Canons are in, it’s always a battle until the end.

And this year’s semifinal series have been nothing short of drama. From the Lady Canons taking Game One to the defending champions winning the next two and closing in on the finals.

Friday night produced yet another classic encounter as Nicholas Natuhereza’s charges forced a decisive Game Five with a comprehensive 65-50 win at the Lugogo Indoor Stadium.

With their backs against the wall, UCU had no choice but to step up. Their defence on the night limited Brenda Ekone, who had scored 33 points in Games Two and Three.

Shutting her down made all the difference, with the speedy guard only managing two points on the night.

Hope Akello was the only Lady Dolphin to reach double figures as the experience struggled to close the series against a much younger and inexperienced UCU side.

Matrina Anyango led the university side with a double-double of 17 points and 16 rebounds on the night.

Shillah Lamunu also continued to impress for UCU, scoring 10 points to go with eight rebounds and five assists.

Sylivia Nakituuka, the other UCU player to score in double figures, had 11 points while Zoe Atek came off the bench to record nine points.

Akello’s team-high 15 points were not enough for the defending champions to guarantee themselves a spot in the finals.

With the series tied at 2-2, the two sides will be separated in a mouthwatering decider on Wednesday.

The winner of the series will face JT Lady Jaguars, who defeated Magic Stormers 57-43 in Game Three to take the series 3-0 and qualify for their first ever finals series.

Led by former champions like Sarah Ageno, Shakirah Nanvubya, Maimuna Nabbosa and Aziidah Nabayunga, the Lady Jaguars will fancy their chances against whichever team progresses from the other series.

National Basketball League Playoffs

Semifinal series

Friday result

UCU 65-50 JKL

Series tied 2-2

Striking local government workers in Uganda have called off their industrial action for three months, a move aimed at giving government dialogue a chance to resolve salary disparities and other grievances, the union said.

The decision was announced following a tense leadership meeting of the Uganda Local Government Workers Union (ULGWU) on Friday, according to the union’s General Secretary, Hassan Lwabayi.

‘On October 10, 2025, relevant organs of the union virtually consulted with the striking workers about the development of the Speaker’s appeal to call off the strike. Much as it was contentious; nevertheless, we agreed to stay the Industrial action for a period of 3 months with effect from Midnight Monday October 13, 2025 to give dialogue a chance,’ Lwabayi said.

The suspension follows a petition submitted on October 8 to Parliament Speaker Anita Among, urging her intervention to address salary enhancement and disparities among local government staff.

The union demanded ‘equal pay for equal work without discrimination.’

Speaker Among responded by calling on the striking workers, including teachers who have been on strike over similar issues, to resume work.

She promised swift parliamentary action on their grievances and directed relevant committees to engage with government to find solutions.

Local government workers, whose salaries fall under the unconditional grant wage category, argue that despite the government allocating Shs8.5 trillion for the 2025/2026 wage bill, their salaries have not been adjusted to reflect their contributions.

The strike, which began on October 1, lasted nearly two weeks and disrupted key public services. Implementation of the Parish Development Model, health and education service delivery, and facilitation of land transactions at city and local government levels were among the operations affected.

I recently witnessed an experiment. A circle was drawn around an ant on a piece of paper. The ant suddenly became disoriented, unable to cross the line. It was as if the ant was trapped. However, this was merely how it appeared. But the ant didn’t know. It moved in circles, seemingly contained by what it considered to be a physical barrier.

As a result, it was stuck in a perceived “prison” of ink. The ink acted as a visual and sensory barrier. The ant may have perceived the line as a strange, wet obstacle and thus avoided crossing it, leading it to believe it was trapped. Similarly, the social or political circles we find ourselves in tend to leave us feeling trapped. We can’t seem to go beyond those circles because they outline our misperceived values, which determine how far we can go in terms of thought or action. Accordingly, we must behave in a social or political context and not outside of it.

That’s why the WhatsApp group you belong to, or friends you associate with and family which raised you, serve as your glass ceiling. Oppose them and you’ll be isolated by them. However, there’s something excruciatingly liberating in the act of opposing such constructs, along with the consequences of such opposition.

In the last few months, I have confronted my circles and found that some family and friends alike were threatened by my actions. That’s why our relationships broke down, almost immediately.

One friend even tried the old gaslighting trick of blaming the responses to my newfound sense of self on me. ‘If everyone is disagreeing with you, maybe you’re the problem,’ he said. True. But then again, I cannot be a problem by asserting myself beyond norms and values that reflect a herd and not a personal instinct to be free. Clearly, one of my mental jailors was afraid of my reaching my potential beyond psychological barriers. Barriers I no longer recognise.

In the experiment involving the ant, the circle was redrawn several times until it was so small that it was touching the ant. That’s when the ant decided to ‘escape’. In similar vein, I have never felt freer in my life. Sure, the resulting isolation broke me initially. But one must be broken to be strong in the broken places. The cracks in our beings (from being broken) allow the light in, illuminating our sense of self and how we perceive our environs.

When you realise that it’s your circles that limit you, questions arise within you to imbue you with a self-liberating consciousness. Thereupon, your counterfeit associations will slowly be replaced by those who value your personal authenticity. Your new-found beliefs will then help you entertain your own opinions, social and political, with a healthy measure of doubt.

It’s this doubt that makes us see the unwisdom of viewing one another as political adversaries, forswearing association with each other. Instead, we begin seeing ourselves as human beings with a God-given uniqueness to go our own way, when necessary. This leads us to voting our consciences, not our prejudices or factions. I agree. We have been conditioned by family, friends and society to march according to the sound of their drums and not our own. Thereby disenfranchising ourselves by denying ourselves a voice.

Given to groupthink, we hand over our rights, at a personal and official level. According to American professor Noam Chomsky, your rights correspond with your wealth. And poverty is essentially a mindset. It cannot be changed by seminars or systems; liberation comes from within you and is inextricably tied to Uganda’s liberation.

A double defeat in their first two fixtures of the second round of the national netball league on Saturday and the Hamz Stadium in Nakivubo has not dwindled new league outfit UGX Luweero’s hopes of keeping in the national netball league.

The Luweero based side first registered a 58-30 loss against fellow newbies UGISHA before they were walloped 60-31 by league favorites National Insurance Corporation (NIC) later in the evening.

Having double fixtures on a given league outing is no easy feat for a team that travels from Luwero to Kampala on a given league day, but playing two fixtures helps them to cut transport costs by reducing their trips to Nakivubo in a season.

Most national league sides have their home training grounds from where they can host league games on a given day, but Netball Uganda chose the famous Nakivubo stadium as a host ground for all teams.

UG X Luwero Captain Madrine Nakalema admits that her team was unfit that led to the double loss, but also believes hosting home games will improve their performance.

‘On fitness we shall work harder to see that the team performs well in our next fixtures since our target is to exit the relegation zone,’ Nakalema said.

‘We have to travel to Kampala on every game day as if we do not have a home ground. We also have a home ground and we could host some of our league games for the home advantage as well as attracting more fans,’ she added.

In the first round, Busia Greater Lions Netball Club would travel to Kampala for double fixtures on a given day, however after deliberations with the netball governing body, the team has hosted their two second round fixtures at home.

The team hosted NIC before playing against UPDF this Saturday in Busia.

Team manager Muhammed Sifuna says they have minimized transport costs and also solved the problem of fatigue from the long journey.

‘We have not yet returned to our winning ways but we are improving as a team in terms of performance. Our fans are also returning and most importantly the transport costs have reduced and our players no longer spend long hours plagued by traffic on the way,’ Sifuna told Daily Monitor.

The league will resume on Saturday, with teams vying for positions and trying to overcome their challenges.

Results

Ugisha 58 – 30 UGX Luweero

NIC 60-31 UGX Luweero