Category: Daily Monitor

According to the Police 2024 annual crime report, a total of 397 cases of land-related crimes were reported compared to 271 cases in 2023, giving a 46.5 percent increase in the crimes reported in this category. Of these, 64 cases were taken to court, 103 were not proceeded with, while 230 were still under inquiry. Historical injustices instigated by the colonialists are being blamed for the ongoing land turmoil in Uganda. Before British colonisation, land was under a customary tenure system, meaning in places like Buganda, it was under the control of the Kabaka (King), who managed it through the Bataka (clan heads).

It was through this system that land was distributed to families and communities; however, following the signing of the 1900 agreement between Britain and the Buganda Kingdom, the land tenure system eroded the Kabaka and chiefs’ rights over the land and transferred such powers under the British monarchy.

Former Prime Minister Kintu Musoke, argued: ‘Countries where land is public are better off; this privately-owned land is a British introduction. Baganda and the rest didn’t know about private land.’

The 1900 Buganda Agreement later created two land systems – Mailo and Crown land; and, although the country was affected by the change, Buganda was particularly impacted by the former system. Mailo land is named for its measurement and distribution in square miles.

The Kabaka, who was previously responsible for the 19,600 square miles that make up Buganda, was now subject to the British land allocation system. Mailo, one of the land systems created by the British, was further subdivided into Official Mailo and Private Mailo. Under the Official Mailo, the British allocated 350 square miles for institutional use under the 1919 Official Estates Act.

The Katikkiro and sub-county chiefs under the Kabaka also held Official Mailo for the purposes of their offices and couldn’t transfer them as personal property. The Official Mailo cannot be sold as it is meant to finance the reigning and future generation of kings; however, it can be leased, meaning an occupant can only use it for 49 years, subject to renewal by the Buganda Land Board (BLB).

The British also allocated land to individuals and institutions like the Catholic Church and Church of Uganda, with 92 square miles under the 1908 Land Law and Registration of Titles Act. The young Kabaka, Daudi Chwa, was also allocated land in his capacity. In this regard, his regents and sub-county chiefs could now own freehold land, meaning they could determine the usage of land in perpetuity and had the right to sell it.

Another category of the land system was Crown Land, which was administered on behalf of the public by the British monarch. This was composed of 9,000 square miles traversing wetlands, forests, hills, and rivers, where no certificates were ever issued.

Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo, who was a delegate of the Constituent Assembly (CA), says his grandfather died believing he had land, but in actuality, he didn’t, as the bulk of it had been designated Crown Land during the colonial era. ‘When we got independence, the entirety of that Crown Land became public land vested in the Uganda Land Commission (ULC).’

Private Mailo has been a notable source of land disputes due to its characteristics. Most of the Private Mailo land was inhabited since the landlords preferred areas with large populations because it guaranteed revenue collected from the ground rent paid by the tenants.

The chunk of land was located in different places, making the collection of ground rent difficult and unprofitable. Additionally, there was the issue of absentee landlords giving leverage to tenants to claim ownership. These factors combined have fueled land conflicts as unscrupulous individuals have resorted to grabbing land from the vulnerable at the barrel of a gun. Genuine landlords have also suffered at the hands of fraudsters and their would-be tenants.

Dan Wandera Ogalo, a former CA delegate, says Mailo owners had very large land, but people had already settled on it. ‘The landowner is saying, ‘this is my land and I have a title’, but the person on the land is saying, ‘who are you? That is the grave of my great-grandfather, who was buried in 1924; the one next to him is of my grandfather and then my father. He can show the graves of four grandfathers.’

In 1961, as the British prepared to hand over power and self-rule to Uganda, they returned Crown Land to Buganda for management by the BLB. The status quo prevailed until the 1966 Mengo Crisis, when kingdoms were abolished and what was Crown Land was taken over as public land by the government, ULC, and district boards.

A decree issued by then-President Idi Amin summarily abolished private land. After President Museveni captured State power in 1986 following a protracted five-year guerrilla war, the kingdoms and cultural institutions were restored in 1993; however, Buganda has since demanded the return of its properties.

Dr Rose Nakayi, a senior lecturer at the Makerere University School of Law, says with hindsight, what the Constitution embeds on land seems more like a compromise generated through the constitution-making processes than a consensus.

She says the resulting situation is, therefore, fraught with disputes for a number of reasons, including intrinsic tenurial deficiencies underlying our multiple tenure system, making it difficult to prove disputes over them. ‘What works for one tenure may not work for another, yet the multiple approaches or efforts come at a cost.’ Secondly, she says the registration processes began in the 1900s, but very little of Uganda’s land is registered. ‘Fraud perpetrated in processes of registering land at times breeds land disputes.’

Thirdly, she notes that in some areas where mailo is predominant, the simultaneous claims to the same land by landlords and tenants with occupancy rights is a significant factor, especially in the face of limited implementation of the laws. Nakayi further explains the dwindling available land within the context of an increasing population, a declining moral economy where self-interest overrides others’ land rights; an individual can evict entire villages with impunity.

Responding to the narrative that the private mailo land system has been a notable source of land disputes based on its characteristics, Dr Nakayi says the mailo land is in only a very small proportion of the entire land mass in Uganda and it is ‘ridiculous’ to blame for the disputes in the country where tenures are multiple. ‘Land disputes are a feature of all tenures in Uganda; it is the nature, kind, and extent that differs across tenures. Indeed, for mailo land, the overlapping rights of landlord and tenant is a peculiar characteristic that can lead to land disputes. ‘That, however, does not explain other extraneous factors causing land disputes on mailo land; for example, planting freehold titles over mailo land, issuance of special titles without legal basis, and other factors such as the continuing evictions despite the relatively good legal and administrative efforts on paper to prevent/curb evictions resulting from and leading to land disputes.’

When the NRM captured power and started preparing for a new people-centered constitution, settling the land question was critical. Two issues surrounded the land debate, including whether to make land public or privately-owned, and how to address the historical mess left behind and rampant and unresolved land evictions, especially in Buganda. One of the key issues awaiting the CA delegates was resolving the land question. Justice Owiny-Dollo said: ‘The majority of the land being public continued until the promulgation of the 1995 Constitution that reversed the status quo. When I was coming to the CA, I knew that I had two roles to play – to fight for land and return it to the people and a return to a multiparty system.’

The former CA delegates say they all agreed about changing the public land into private land, with Jack Sabiiti, one of them, saying he doesn’t remember land being a sticky issue of debate. Ogalo, however, says the land issue was contentious with the consensus being not to put land in government much as the President reportedly ‘appeared to prefer land going to the government for purposes of development’.

‘The contentious issue was with those who were saying that land should belong to the government and those asking, ‘where did the government get land in, say, a village deep in Namayingo District’?’

At the end of it all, the reform sailed through.

Justice Owiny-Dollo says: ‘We succeeded with that and by the stroke of a pen, on October 8, 1995, the rural land in Tororo and anywhere ceased to be public land, and now remains what in the minds of the people it has always been. ‘I thought we needed to resolve the land issue; it was actually the main issue that tilted my mind.

I saw it as a great opportunity to resolve the inequities brought by colonialism with regard to land.’ Miria Matembe, also a former CA delegate, says if land belonged to the people, it meant the government had no land and yet the government needed land for investment, among other development projects.

Kintu-Musoke says we are dealing with a very serious problem of private ownership of land. ‘Rwanda where this doesn’t exist is doing very well because the government implements projects wherever it wants and builds roads anytime; but here, building a road in Buganda, particularly, is impossible.’ The 1995 Constitution created four forms of land ownership, including customary, mailo, leasehold, and freehold.

Customary land is owned by communities and is managed according to their norms and usually passed down through generations, Freehold is land owned in perpetuity allowing the owner to use it in any form or sell it, Leasehold is a system guaranteeing ownership of land from 49 to 99 years in exchange for a rental payment, and mailo accords individuals perpetual ownership of land as landlords and allows tenancy in the form of freehold.

But the Constitution had only settled one problem and was yet to address the root cause of the rampant land evictions, mainly a characteristic of mailo land. Justice Owiny-Dollo says he was going further on the issue of mailo land (bibanja holders). ‘You have a mailo title of three square miles (but) you cannot even till one square inch of that land because it is occupied by bibanja holders.

You will die without tilling it, your grandchildren will never till it because of bibanja holders; and if they have to pay you, they pay a token. So, for me I said, ‘let us use the 1995 Constitution to put provisions and get rid of bibanja in Buganda’.’

This is because mailo land is characterised by absentee landlords, an unknown expanse of the private mailo, illegal conversion of the private mailo from being clan-based into family land, and the change of tenure by the tenants on mailo land that turned around to claim permanent ownership. This is partly the reason for multiple claims of ownership over the same piece of land, a situation which was exploited by fraudsters.

Lawyer Peter Mulira, in an earlier interview that: ‘What the people in the Land Office do is to look for this land and when it is valuable, they find a buyer and sell it to him; that buyer spends as much as Shs1 billion corrupting the system.

This kind of person wants to get his money back,’ Mr Mulira said in an interview on October 11, 2021. Christopher Bwanika, the Buganda Kingdom Attorney General, says corruption in the Lands Office and inefficiencies is another factor.

‘The position of Buganda is that instead of focusing on mailo land, its history, and because it is a Buganda issue as the source of the problem is the wrong approach.’

The former delegates to the CA say the solution they sought to address the challenge of the rampant land conflicts was to provide for the creation of the Land Fund under Section 41 of the Land Act, 1998.

Kawempe Muslim coach Ayub Khalifa was visibly heavily deflated after his side drew 1-1 at home with champions Kampala Queens (KQ) as the 2025/26 Finance Trust Bank Fufa Women Super League (FTBFWSL) got underway on Friday.

Khalifa stayed motionless for a while in front of his bench until his opposite number Firew Asefa Hailegebreal came for the routine post match handshake.

Kawempe toyed with KQ for the entire first half but sometimes the selection of their final pass let them down while the latter’s deep defence also barely gave the hosts’ striker Jovia Nakagolo space to run into.

Twice, new signing Latifah Nakasi and captain Agnes Nabukenya could have found each other at the edge of the box to test new KQ goalkeeper and the former’s teammate at Uganda Martyrs Lubaga Sharon Kaidu but chose to play the ball to the wide options Asia Nakibuuka and Shadia Nabirye.

Nabukenya also tried to test Kaidu from distance with a host of freekicks. She has scored a number of these in various competitions for Kawempe but her shots could not dip early and agonisingly sailed over the bar.

Nakibuuka and Nabirye switched wings all game to find solutions but their crosses were barely effective as Kawempe barely had numbers crashing the box. The switch only counted once when Nakibuuka, on her second debut at the club after returning from KQ, was fouled by Esther Namusoke on Kawempe’s right wing in the 41st minute.

Right-back Samalie Nakacwa delivered a delicate cross from the resulting freekick and it was headed home by Nakibuuka for the opener.

“It is disappointing because we could have won the game in the first half but failed to utilize our chances,” Khalifa said.

“And when we needed to change something in the second half, we could not turn to the bench because we have many injuries. But in subsequent games, the team will be fitter,” he added.

Main captain Shakirah Nyinagahirwa did not even make the bench. Esther Nangendo had returned to school at King’s College Budo while Dorcus Kisakye and Sumaya Nabuto sat on the bench despite being injured and not being involved in pre-match routines. Kawempe had two goalkeepers on the bench in veteran Juliet Adeke and last season’s custodian Josephine Nambuya, who was surprisingly dropped for Saidah Namwanje.

“Both of our young keepers have the talent and are almost at the same level. This season, we will use Saidah more as our first keeper,” Khalifa said.

Effective KQ

KQ relied on its 53rd minute changes to affect the game in the second half. With both fullbacks Namusoke and Catherine Wujja battered by Kawempe’s switches on the flanks, the latter was sacrificed for leftback Jolly Kobusinge, who has also just joined from Kawempe.

Namusoke switched to the right. Such was Kawempe’s shortage that when a tired Nabirye struggled against Kobusinge, leftback Claire Kebirungi had to be deployed as a winger to alternate flanks with Nakibuuka, who was named FTB’s player of the match.

KQ also took off Teddy Najjuma then dropped Catherine Nagadya in midfield from the wings. Substitute Peace Muduwa went to the left wing and gave Nakacwa some problems.

In the 59th minute, KQ got the result of their injection of impetus from a corner delivered by Namusoke. Joanitah Ainembabazi flicked a corner off Nakasi’s head into Muduwa’s path. Muduwa headed goalwards and Kawempe’s goalkeeper Saidah Namwanje, who largely had a good game, dropped the ball in front of her goal-line for Kamiyat Naigaga to score the equalizer.

After that, it was an open game with both teams going direct. However, Kawempe got a grip of it in the latter stages and KQ introduced defender Patience Nabulobi for Ainembabazi, who started as a striker before switching to the right wing where Naigaga had started.

“First games of the season are always difficult and for us, this is an important point to start with,” KQ captain Shakirah Nankwanga said after both sides settled for a draw.

Elsewhere

Meanwhile on Saturday, She Corporate started life under new coach Belyse Ininahazwe with a 4-1 over Uganda Martyrs Lubaga at their new home at Fufa Technical Centre, Njeru.

Jesca Namanda scored in stoppage time of either half. Highly rated Nusulah Nakintu equalized in the 50th minute but Sandra Kisakya, who joined from Uganda Christian University, and Rebecca Nakato scored for the hosts to win comfortably.

In another mouthwatering clash between sides that have created rivalries right from schools’ football, Amus College and newly promoted St. Noa Girls School Zana drew 1-1 in Kachumbala.

Esther Babirye gave the visitors a 20th minute lead but Shayline Opisa celebrated a call up to Kenya’s provisional squad for the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) by scoring a deep stoppage time equalizer for Amus.

FTBFWSL RESULTS

Kawempe 1-1 Kampala Queens

Amus College 1-1 St. Noa

She Corporate 4-1 Uganda Martyrs

Last school holiday had me clash with one of my sons. He is an adolescent, and if you know anything about that age group, you probably know that they can be lazy. He could drink from a cup but leave it unwashed, sleep in a messy room, and walk past a dirty floor without touching the mop. For a parent like me, strict on cleanliness, it was maddening.

But is it really laziness? Experts say not always. Many teens avoid chores for reasons deeper than meets the eye. For some, it is perfectionism: the fear of doing a task ‘wrong’ and facing criticism. Others feel overwhelmed, ‘clean your room’ sounds like a mountain, so they give up before starting. A lack of appreciation also kills motivation; if their efforts are only met with ‘you missed a spot,’ why bother?

Chores can also become a battlefield. Refusing to help may be a teenager’s way of asserting independence. And when chores feel too advanced or are handed out inconsistently, they only breed frustration.

Parents sometimes make things worse by stepping in and doing it themselves, teaching children that stalling works.

The way chores are framed matters, too. If they are used as punishment, children learn to resent them. Without routines, chores feel like random interruptions rather than part of daily life.

And if children do not see the point, why tidy a room that looks ‘fine’ to them, they will struggle to care. Add in the lure of TikTok and video games, and housework does not stand a chance.

So before branding your child ‘lazy,’ ask what is really going on. Often, their reluctance is less about work ethic and more about structure, motivation, or how chores are introduced.

With patience, consistency, and explanation, chores can shift from punishment to participation, and that messy bedroom may just get a broom after all.

Here are strategies you could deploy:

Set your clear expectations

Teenagers thrive when they know exactly what is expected of them.

‘It should not be hard for a 13-year-old to lay his bed in the morning,’ I reminded my son. He may rebel, but he knows my expectations and they ring in his mind every time.

Building for them routines

Children learn best through predictable patterns. Martha, a mother of five, explained her approach: ‘I divide the work according to age. As they grow older, the roles interchange. All of them are hardworking, though some are more efficient than others, and that is okay.’ Routines make chores part of daily life rather than random interruptions.

Reinforce effort, not perfection

Praise matters. Appreciating the attempt, not just the spotless outcome, encourages children to keep trying. Labels such as ‘lazy’ crush confidence, while recognition builds it.

Be the model

Children watch more than they listen. A parent who tackles chores with diligence sets the standard. Doing the hard jobs yourself from time to time shows that you are not above the work you assign.

Equip and empower

You cannot expect dishes washed without soap, or a floor mopped without a bucket. Providing the tools, and showing how to use them, removes excuses and builds competence.

Simplify for them big tasks

‘Clean your room’ can sound like climbing a mountain. Breaking chores into steps, open the windows, fold the curtains, sweep, then mop, makes the process less intimidating and more achievable.

Tap into the children’s interests

Children excel when their passions are respected. If your daughter loves music, let her put on a playlist while cleaning. If your son dislikes cooking, do not force it as his main responsibility, find what he does well and allow him to shine there.

Limit screen time

No competitor is fiercer than a smartphone or television. Without boundaries, screens will always win over chores. Wise parents curb passive screen time and open doors to active, creative pursuits.

Teach planning and goal-setting

A simple to-do list can teach a child the power of priorities. Learning to order tasks and manage time is a life skill that reaches beyond housework.

Stay consistent with consequences

Children test boundaries. When they fail to meet expectations, consequences must be calm and predictable. Sometimes, natural outcomes are the best teachers, a missed homework deadline leading to a poor grade speaks louder than a lecture.

Ultimately, a child who is lazy or unmotivated may be due to several issues.

By shifting our perspective from one of frustration to one of empathy, we can better understand the underlying challenges our children face.

Those familiar with my writings in the Monitor and my utterings on social media will know that I place great importance on the data generated by the American technology giant Google.

Google’s user data – based on billions of monthly searches, YouTube views, Google Play app store downloads, Google Maps references, Chrome browser cookies, and Android mobile operating system data – is the most comprehensive and most accurate picture of the world today.

For practically any topic, one gets a snapshot of the world’s tastes, interests, habits, and thoughts. Since we are now in the 2026 General Election season, I am naturally turning to Google’s tracking data to get a feel of the national mood and the prospects of the various presidential candidates and political parties.

One particular trend stands out – the National Unity Platform (NUP) appears to be gaining traction across Uganda.

NUP was founded in Kampala around 2017, at the fringes of the city economy and revolving around the local Afrobeat music scene, originally the populist, grassroots movement dubbed People Power.

In 2020, as NUP emerged from its embryonic form in the People Power movement and became a mainstream political party, it was perceived as a Ganda nationalist party, with all the political baggage that, historically, comes with all things Buganda.

When it embraced defecting members of the Democratic Party (DP), NUP changed from an image of a group of inner-city, marijuana-smoking youth into a kind of neo-Uganda Young Democrats, the student arm of the DP.

Over the last few years, barely noticed, NUP has evolved once more. NUP’s roots in the People Power movement led to perceptions of it as Buganda-focused, tied to Uganda’s historical ethnic dynamics.

Although it was founded in Buganda, NUP has three powerful westerners at the helm: Barbie Kyagulanyi, wife of party president Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine; David Lewis Rubongoya, party secretary general; and Benjamin Katana, party national treasurer.

Ms Kyagulanyi, who holds no formal position, is very influential and active in party events. Rubongoya is the heart of the party, an all-round, indefatigable activist and spearhead of the party’s endless legal battles with the NRM State and visits to prisons to check on NUP activists in jail.

Katana, quiet and low-key, manages the party’s finances. Viewers of NTV, this newspaper’s sister media house, might recall a bitter Katana live on NTV from Namboole stadium in January 2021, denouncing the Electoral Commission’s announcement of NRM candidate Yoweri Museveni as the winner.

In Uganda, where the NRM State has managed to infiltrate and compromise almost every public institution, these three westerners in prominent positions in NUP have inevitably attracted quiet whispers about their possibly being moles of the State.

But they also inadvertently helped NUP with a nagging problem – its image as a Ganda entity, a latter-day Kabaka Yekka party. With a large youth majority demographic and the sheer fatigue of 40 years of the same government, many in western Uganda hunger for change, but also are wary of being led by a Baganda-dominated government.

As time has gone by, over the past five years, much of the country has overcome the initial visual shock of People Power/NUP as an outfit of the riff-raff, school dropouts of inner-city Kampala.

Traditional besuited politicians such as Mathias Mpuuga and Joel Ssenyonyi, as NUP leaders of the Opposition, and other senior NUP figures such as Medard Sseggona have helped portray NUP as a conventional, sensible party.

Many older, more traditional, old-school people hesitated about supporting NUP in its earlier People Power image of unwashed school dropouts. Given the weak standing of the Muslim-founded party, Justice Forum (nicknamed Jeema), NUP provided a refuge for many Muslims who felt hounded by the NRM State, particularly in the way Muslims tend to be the vast majority of those arrested in the wake of terrorist incidents – or purported terrorist incidents.

Bantu-speaking eastern Uganda areas like Bugisu and Busoga were natural cultural extensions of NUP’s support. What was missing was support for NUP in western Uganda.

Recent reports show NUP fielding candidates in areas like Rubirizi and Ibanda, with their new manifesto aiming for a broader nationwide appeal.

What is the result of all this? Why, NUP as it is in 2025, is an interesting inversion of the 1981 National Resistance Army (NRA)-Buganda alliance that created the NRM? In February 1981, a band of mostly Banyankole and Banyarwanda Tutsi mutineers in the new national army, the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA), launched a guerrilla war led by Yoweri Museveni.

Being ever the politically minded, Museveni knew that his rebel group, the Popular Resistance Army (PRA), could only gain broad support if it could find a way of winning Buganda support, preferably in some form of alliance.

Talks between PRA and the Uganda Freedom Fighters (UFF) of former president Yusufu Lule led to their merger in June 1981 to create the National Resistance Movement (NRM) and its military wing, the NRA.

The most powerful alliance since 1962 was between Baganda and westerners, with affiliated Rwandan refugees. That’s what created the NRA-NRM and, arguably, explains the NRM’s longevity in power these 40 years.

Baganda elite like Lule, another former president Godfrey Binaisa; John Nagenda, Israel Mayengo, and many others in 1981 brought respectability to the westerner NRA perceived at the time as a “riff-raff” group. Now, in NUP, key westerners at the party headquarters bring a formality and respectability to the NUP “riff-raff”.

Westerners at the helm of NUP headquarters, combined with Baganda leaders like Bobi Wine, Ssenyonyi, and many others, is a powerful combination.

It is reminiscent of the Buganda-western Uganda alliance that was the NRA-NRM of 1981. In the southern half of Uganda, there is this mostly youthful, Luganda-as-lingua-franca, Bantu ethnic mass, represented by NUP.

In a nutshell, the NUP of 2025 is a mirror image of the NRM of 1985, forty years ago.

Colloquial Luganda, rather than formal, dictionary Luganda, is the lingua franca of Uganda and de facto national language. This youthful, Luganda-speaking, Bantu, NUP-leaning demographic in the southern half of Uganda (Buganda, Bugisu, Busoga, parts of western Uganda), is the most important political and social fact in Uganda today. It explains why the NRM state is so nervous about Bobi Wine rallies.

As the Kira MP Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda remarked on a local radio station last week, nothing unnerves President Museveni like the sight of large crowds turning up at Opposition rallies.

NRM propaganda has convinced Ugandans that the NRM is everywhere, and efforts to challenge them both electorally and militarily are futile. Isolated in their personal frustration and struggle, many are pleasantly surprised to discover at campaign rallies that thousands of other, ordinary Ugandans share their sentiments.

Watch for police efforts to be stepped up even more when Bobi Wine takes his campaign to western Uganda, and his wife Barbara starts addressing crowds in Runyankole or Kinyarwanda – the NRM’s worst nightmare that NUP is no longer a Ganda party, but is evolving into a replica of the NRA-Buganda alliance.

On a regular afternoon in downtown Kampala, a boda boda rider leans against his motorcycle, nursing a bandaged arm perhaps with vivid healing wounds or visible scars on his face. The motorcycle, his lifeline, is scarred with a cracked fender from a minor accident the week before or a day before.

He still has to pay the bike owner daily rental fees, buy fuel, and send money home to his family in the countryside. This is a common story for many boda-boda riders. When asked how they handled the hospital bill, they say their friends collected some money for them.

For thousands of boda riders across Uganda, one incident on the road can derail not only their ability to work but also the survival of the families that depend on them. Yet, most of these men and women, who form the backbone of Uganda’s urban transport, move through life without any insurance cover.

And that’s where the question arises: what happens if your boda guy had insurance? Uganda’s roads remain among the most dangerous in Africa. In 2024 alone, the country recorded 25,107 road crashes, a 6.4 percent increase compared to 2023. These accidents resulted in 25,808 casualties, up from 24,728 the year before. Of these, 4,434 crashes were fatal, according to police data.

Boda bodas are at the centre of this crisis. At Mulago National Referral Hospital, the country’s largest emergency care facility, the statistics are grim. Dr Justine Okello from Mulago’s accident and emergency unit, says at least 30 of the 40 admissions his department receives daily are accident-related, with more than 60 percent involving boda boda riders or their passengers. ‘People think treatment in government hospitals is free of charge,’ Dr Okello explains.

‘But there is no free medical care. The government pays part of the cost through taxes, but the sheer numbers of road accidents overwhelm the system. We see patients who need surgeries costing between Shs10m and Shs20m, sometimes more. Without insurance, these families are left destitute.’ Despite the risks, Uganda’s insurance penetration remains below 1.0 percent. Most car owners stick to the bare minimum: statutory third-party cover, which offers little protection beyond a small payout for bodily injury. A 2020 Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) study showed that 86 percent of motorists buy third-party insurance, while only 14 percent opt for comprehensive cover. Worse still, many Ugandans still see third-party cover as nothing more than a ‘police tax,’ something to show at checkpoints, not a shield against risk. For boda boda riders, the picture is even bleaker.

Few have any form of cover, leaving them and their passengers entirely exposed to the financial shocks of accidents. This is the backdrop against which a wave of insurance innovation has begun to emerge, driven by partnerships between technology platforms, banks, and insurers. Christian Wamambe, country director of SafeBoda Uganda, recalls how the journey began.

‘Every week, we would check on drivers who were no longer active. Many of them told us the same story: they had an accident, they were sick, or they had a family emergency. They simply didn’t have a safety net,’ he says. SafeBoda, which started as a boda-hailing platform, but has since expanded into car-hailing under the brand SafeCar, realised that offering affordable insurance could be a game-changer. In 2022, the company partnered with Liberty General Insurance and Stanbic Bank Uganda’s bancassurance arm to introduce a low-cost insurance product for riders and passengers.

Customers could opt for trips with built-in accident cover. Within months, more than 1.5 million insured trips had been taken. ‘For the drivers, it was about peace of mind,’ Wamambe explains. ‘For passengers, it meant protection if anything went wrong. We wanted insurance to be as easy as sending a WhatsApp message.’

Building on that foundation, the three partners have now launched Protecta Bode, a product designed for SafeCar drivers but with lessons that resonate across the entire transport sector. The name itself is a nod to Uganda’s cultural roots. ‘Protecta’ borrows from the English word ‘protect,’ while ‘Bode’ is derived from the Luganda word for ‘body,’ emphasising the focus on the car’s physical structure. According to Liberty’s head of marketing, Raphael Bisaso, Protecta Bode was designed to address the gap between third-party insurance (cheap but insufficient) and comprehensive insurance (thorough but too expensive for most Ugandans).

For a premium of just 1.5 percent of a vehicle’s market value, this product offers comprehensive coverage. It includes protection for accidental damage to the car body, covering costs for repairs, panel beating, and the replacement of parts. Additionally, the policy addresses third-party liabilities, covering expenses related to bodily injury, death, or property damage caused by the insured vehicle. Finally, it provides medical benefits for the driver in the event of an accident.

For SafeCar drivers, many of whom operate lower-value vehicles like Spacios, Wish, and Vitz, this offers affordable peace of mind. A bumper replacement or cracked windscreen that might once have forced a driver off the road for weeks can now be handled more easily. But the principle goes beyond cars. As Wamambe notes, the same thinking can and should apply to the boda riders who ply Kampala roads every day.

Insurance for boda riders is not just a concern for the riders themselves, but for everyone, due to three compelling reasons. First, it involves protecting livelihoods: a single accident can be financially devastating. A rider typically earns between Shs20,000 and Shs40,000 on a good day, but one crash can wipe out weeks of earnings, particularly if hospitalisation is required.

When a riders’ income vanishes, their entire household, including wives, children, and siblings suffers. Insurance acts as a crucial cushion, helping riders recover and return to work faster, stabilising their family’s finances. Second, it is essential for safeguarding passengers. For the passengers who rely on boda bodas, an accident can instantly translate into sudden, unexpected hospital bills. When insurance is incorporated into the service, passengers gain essential peace of mind, knowing they won’t be left financially stranded after a crash.

Finally, insuring boda boda riders helps ease the massive strain on the national health system by reducing pressure on hospitals. Public facilities like Mulago hospital are already buckling under the weight of accident victims. If more riders were insured, a significant portion of their treatment costs would be covered privately, directly reducing the burden on taxpayers and the country’s limited resources. As Dr Okello aptly summarises, “Every boda rider insured is not just protecting himself, it’s protecting the hospital system and the country’s limited resources.” Insurance innovations like Protecta Bode are possible because of Uganda’s insurance sandbox, introduced by the IRA in 2020. The sandbox allows companies to test products in a controlled environment without going through the full licensing process immediately.

‘Traditional insurance would never have allowed a product like Protecta Bode to launch as quickly as it did,’ says IRA’s Erimo Marcos from the Department of Strategy and Market Development. ‘The sandbox gave Liberty the flexibility to test it. If it works, it can later become a fully licensed product.’ The regulator has also introduced the Insurance Innovation Awards to reward creative solutions, many of which target low-income or underserved groups. Liberty, Stanbic, and SafeBoda’s earlier collaboration, SafeRide, won the Most Innovative Bancassurance Agent Award in 2023. For Stanbic Bank, the partnership is part of a broader vision of financial inclusion. ‘Insurance is not a luxury. It’s an investment in resilience,’ says Samuel F Mwogeza, the bank’s executive director and head of personal and private banking.

‘Products like Protecta Bode allow us to bridge banking and insurance, making protection simple and affordable.’ The bank’s language is clear: choose resilience over risk, security over uncertainty, and progress beyond fear. For Liberty General Insurance, it is about building products that speak directly to the lived realities of Ugandans. ‘We found that eight out of 10 cars on the road have a dent or a scratch,’ says Bisaso. ‘That’s the everyday problem drivers face. Protecta Bode addresses it without demanding they pay for full comprehensive cover they can’t afford.’

Ayeee-yee! Welcome October! Iyaaa-yaa, I see you December! Brethren, this is me doing a traditional dance to welcome the new month. Three more months and boom, we are done with 2025. I think decluttering is always a good way to usher in a new season.

But let us leave aside the old jerricans, car tyres, broken plastic basins etc, that are probably cluttering your house right now, have you tried digital decluttering? Last weekend, my husband left his phone at home.

At some point, I noticed that he was receiving messages from a WhatsApp group that he was no longer involved in.

I got curious and took a look at his other groups (do not worry, he did not mind, we actually know each other’s passwords, unlike those married people who would rather die than let their spouse touch their phone) and what did I discover? He was in not one, not five, not 10 but almost 20 defunct WhatsApp groups.

Later that evening, we went through the groups one by one, exiting and deleting them. One particularly striking one was a group where the members were, wait for it, himself and only himself! And that was because everyone else had already left.

Like me, I am sure you often despair over just how many WhatsApp groups you have to be in for the purposes of work, fundraising and family communication.

Why be in any unnecessary group? If the person you were raising funds for got buried, the photos were shared and the reconciliation of moneys done, it is time to leave the group, or are you hanging around until it is your turn to need a burial committee?

Do you know the term for people who stubbornly stay in groups they should have left a long time ago? Monitoring spirits.

Stop hanging around for gossip and memes and just leave! This will save you the heart palpitations and acute embarrassment of being kicked out of a WhatsApp group once the admins notice that their 100-strong group only has 25 active members and 75 monitoring spirits.

Declutter your WhatsApp groups today and experience freedom!

The former Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of Kampala, Rt Rev. Dr. Hannington Mutebi, has condemned the rampant abductions of opposition members by security forces, saying it undermines the spirit of humanity.

While officiating at the confirmation of 47 young faithful at St. John’s Church, Makerere, on Sunday, Dr. Mutebi emphasized that the ruling government should champion the rule of law rather than abducting citizens and others with dissenting views.

“The torture of people who are not part of the ruling class, where we see people being tortured, put in safe houses, and some in prison, not brought to the courts of law, we want a country where everybody’s rights are respected,” he said.

His message came two days after reports emerged that two Kenyan activists, Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo, were allegedly abducted by plain-clothed gunmen after attending the campaign rally of Robert Kyagulanyi, the National Unity Platform (NUP) party flag bearer in Namutumba district.

Mr Kyagulanyi condemned the abduction, saying, “We condemn the continuing lawlessness by the rogue regime and demand that these brothers be released unconditionally!”

Dr. Mutebi also called for a peaceful presidential campaign, urging security to respect the Electoral Commission’s program.

“As people are going to the campaign, it started well, but we have started seeing some pockets here and there, where those campaigning are prevented from reaching certain places where they are supposed to go,” he said.

The NUP President, Mr Kyagulanyi, was forced to suspend his two planned rallies in Iganga Municipality and across Iganga District after police and military officers blocked key roads.

Mr Nathan Nandala Mafabi of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) also faced a similar challenge when police tried to block his entrance of Iganga district on his third campaign day.

The confirmation was held under the theme “Church as a caring family.” Dr. Mutebi emphasized that the church must be felt in the community, saying, “The church must be felt in the community, that is why we have been encouraging people to go out and visit the sick, prisoners, feed the hungry, and this is the ministry of the church, and by doing that we are doing what Jesus is supposed to do, meaning he is doing it through us.”

The saying that politics is a dirty game is parroted by National Resistance Movement (NRM) bigwigs like an article of faith you would be proud of. Indeed, when the ruling elite wants people in institutions like churches and traditional palaces to keep quiet, one of the arguments fronted is that these people should not soil their images in the dirt of politics.

Never mind that the holy and the dignified are sometimes wretched and deplorable. The assumption is that in the pursuit of power, it is normal to act like a crook.

The politician is expected to tell lies to win the hearts of voters and subjects. The politician is thought to be smart if his capacity for intrigue is high. The politician can be forgiven if he turns to blackmail to undermine an opponent and throw him off balance.

A politician who steals public money or goods can go scot-free if he can arrange to hold accountable the technocrats he used to execute the theft. Politicians can even commit murder if their reasons are clearly political and the differences between the perpetrators and the victims cannot be resolved in the courts, as long as the action is not repeated so frequently that the incidents can no longer be described as ‘isolated’.

The NRM has embraced those guidelines; not formally in writing, but in practice. After 40 years of NRM parading the dirt attributed to politics, the party chairman, President Museveni, is standing again for re-election in January 2026.

This week, while launching his manifesto for 2026-2031, the President made a reference to a security issue; the stealing of livestock that is now rampant in the countryside.

And it is not only livestock, but almost any farm product; from coffee beans to Matooke and maize; and of course the stealing of land itself.

President Museveni has talked about dealing with the actors involved in land grabbing and the displacement of peasants for as long as we can remember, but the general perception is that the crime and injustice are simply growing, the victims multiplying.

The success of the NRM government at reducing abject poverty in rural areas has already been shown to be patchy, and the menace of the village thief is undoing the little progress. Beneficiaries of programmes like Parish Development Model spend sleepless nights protecting or worrying about the products of their labour, as well as facing the threat of losing their very land.

Being in this situation is so demoralising that there are now people in the villages who feel betrayed and are talking of doing any work other than farming. When the NRM/A seized power in 1986, these peasants were President Museveni’s pet subjects, giving him wholehearted support even when some elitists remained sceptical.

Now the President and his security outfits seem incapable of protecting the peasants and their property from their tormentors. These tormentors, the huge pool of village criminals, are themselves children of NRM rule, most of them under age-40 and unemployed. It is the 1986 generation of loyal peasants that has bred and nurtured the new generation of young village hoodlums and gangsters.

Above them are (mostly NRM) local council chiefs and NRM bigwigs who believe that their occupation, politics, thrives on criminality and impunity. Honesty, hard work and slow money are despised. To be a thief of public resources is to be smart. What if stealing farm products is also for the smart? Has the young village thief learned from and been emboldened by singers of the doctrine that politics is dirty?

The Badman from Kamwokya is seeking to become the ‘baddest’ man for State House. Accordingly, during the week, he was reported to have spoken up for value addition in factories to lift Uganda’s farmers up to where they belong. He added that sugarcane farmers can’t even afford sugar under current government policies.

The Badman’s evident concern for the farmers is familiar. It recalls the movie Head of State, a 2003 American political comedy film about an African-American alderman (Chris Rock as May Gilliam) from Washington, DC, who is now thrust into the US presidential elections of 2004.

During a campaign stop, Gilliam says, [as crowds get more agitated] ‘How many of you work in a city you can’t afford to live in? That ain’t right! How many of you work in a mall you can’t afford to shop in?

That ain’t right! [crowd responds with That ain’t right! with every question] How many of you clean up a hotel… you ain’t never gonna be able to stay in? That ain’t right! And we got nurses that work in hospitals they can’t even afford to get sick in. It ain’t right! It ain’t right. It ain’t right. [to campaign staffers] It isn’t right! [to crowd] That s**t is wrong! It’s dead wrong!’ It makes sense now.

By juxtaposing the conditions of farmers alongside the conditions they find themselves in, he uses contrast to reveal an absurdity. This aberration in the nation, as Badman would sing, reveals farmers who produce what they don’t consume and consume what they can’t produce.

In the process, they even get diabetes from the sweet nothings the government promises them. It’s a cold world (and politics is ice). One in which sugar is no longer a term of endearment. It now represents a bitter reality. Sure, the sugar farmers have the opportunity to transform this situation by electing Badman to do good things.

However, sugar is too sweet a factor to address the sourness in our politics. Badman should instead address himself to the matooke farmers. Because, quite frankly, everything seems to have gone bananas right now. Furthermore, in view of us being what we eat, we have lost it.

But the matooke farmers have not. They do not eat matooke. It is too expensive. So they eat cassava, as nobody has ever advised them to eat cake. The Badman will do well to address the matooke farmers.

That’s because matooke is green, like Badman when asked about fiscal policy. This is a perfect fit. When policy knowledge reflects the conditions which gave rise to that policy, it’s called consistency. And that’s what the Ugandan voter wants.

Consistency implies that when candidates become leaders, they stay in candidate mode. Thereby continuously wooing us towards a better Uganda.

Consistency also means that the taxes we pay square with the incomes we have. It follows simple maths. One plus one equals more when the taxes we pay approximate a less-is-more mentality. In this vein, candidates for the highest office in the land should say less. In this way, the mystery surrounding their ‘intelligence’ remains a mystery. One similar to where all the taxes go. We know Mzee is not eating the money. He only has one white shirt.

The minister in charge of youth would say that white is the new orange, but those are his things. Let him solve those with the fashion police. They have been trying to lock him up forever over his previous ‘one man, one shirt’ policy.

It may sound democratic, but people like Mzee approach fashion the way they approach the truth. They acknowledge its versions and not its absolutism. That is why Mzee has many versions of that one UPM-white shirt he wears like body armour protecting him from a past in which he had to go to the bush due to a failed election.

Being surrounded by Mao, who is suddenly everywhere, he can simulate the green that comes with the bush just in case he needs to take a selfie that shows everyone he is still bush-compliant.

Badman is reportedly going to meet rice farmers next. He understands that some Ugandans call them ‘lice farmers’, courtesy of the Runyankore learnt in The Basement.

Police in Kisoro District in Kigezi Sub-region have detained a woman and her son on allegations of killing her 52-year-old husband in a domestic fight after he reportedly sold part of the family land without their consent.

Francis Hitimana, a resident of Rukoro Village, Muhindura Parish, Kanaba Sub-County in Kisoro District, is said to have been attacked by members of his family on October 4, 2025 following a disagreement over a land transaction.

‘It is alleged that the deceased was attacked by his wife, son, and two daughters, who beat him and cut him on the head, leading to his instant death,’ Kigezi regional police spokesperson, ASP Elly Maate, said.

The family’s rage reportedly stemmed from Hitimana’s sale of a piece of land three days earlier without their consent.

‘They refused to sign the land sale agreement, and this disagreement escalated into a fatal assault,’ Mr Maate added following the 10 am attack.

In a chilling attempt to conceal their crime, the suspects allegedly moved Hitimana’s body from their home to a nearby road toward Gasheregenyi before returning it to the sitting room, where they placed it on a mat.

A vigilant neighbour who noticed bloodstains around the home alerted the village chairperson, who in turn reported to the police, leading to the arrest of the suspects.

‘I saw what looked like blood all over their compound, and I knew something was terribly wrong,’ said the neighbour, who requested not to be named in this story.

Police visited the crime scene, recorded witness statements, and recovered suspected murder weapons, including a panga, hoe, and axe.

‘We have exhibited the weapons and conveyed the body to Kisoro Hospital mortuary for postmortem as inquiries continue,’ Mr Maate confirmed.

The gruesome killing and arrests have sent shockwaves through the Rukoro community.

‘This is a quiet village; we never expected such a tragedy from a family dispute,’ said one of the residents, Mr John Nteziryayo.

Authorities are urging anyone with information to come forward as they work to uncover the full details of the brutal killing.

Fatal land disputes are common in Uganda, partly due to poverty, greed or ignorance, among others.

According to the latest annual crime report, at least 397 cases of land-related crimes were reported to the Police in 2024, compared to 271 cases reported in 2023, presenting a 46.5 per cent increase in the crimes reported in this category.

By the end of 2024, a total of 1,016 cases of Murder by Mob Action were reported to the Police compared to 1,039 cases reported in 2023, giving a decrease of 2.2% in this crime category. Victims of mob action were mainly suspected to have committed the following offences: Theft, Robbery, Murder, Witchcraft, and Burglary, thereby making suspects take the law into their own hands.