Category: Daily Monitor

The Weekend Monitor reported that Parliament’s Physical Infrastructure Committee has been asked to withdraw from investigating the Busega-Mpigi Expressway because security agencies are already examining the project. Committee chairperson Mwine Mpaka said the Speaker advised the committee to withdraw, leaving 202 prepared questions and a planned engagement with at least 10 parties in abeyance.

The decision may have been intended to avoid duplication or interference, but it risks confusing two enquiries that serve different public purposes.

The parliamentary committee had been examining the causes of delay and cost escalation, including reported weaknesses in design, changes in alignment and scope, and procurement initiated before a revised design was completed and approved. These are serious matters, but they are not, by themselves, proof that anybody committed a crime.

A criminal investigation asks whether somebody broke the law. Engineering forensics asks how the project broke down. Uganda needs answers to both. A charge sheet cannot reconstruct a design, and a technical calculation cannot establish criminal intent.

The Inspectorate of Government has publicly confirmed an investigation into alleged fund embezzlement and a value-for-money examination of the project. That work is legitimate and necessary. Investigators can examine possible theft, fraud, collusion, falsification, abuse of office or manipulation of procurement and compensation; trace money; secure documents; and assemble evidence that may support administrative action or prosecution. Nothing in the demand for parliamentary or technical examination should delay or weaken that work.

Engineering forensics begins from a different point. It reconstructs the project from the original need and brief through feasibility studies, ground and environmental investigations, design, cost estimation, procurement, construction, certification, variation, operation and maintenance.

According to the Weekend Monitor report, the committee’s preliminary scrutiny raised questions about incomplete interchanges, omitted toll facilities and link roads, the safety of the original Mpigi terminus, subsequent alignment changes and the expansion of the project scope. It also reported that works procurement began before the revised design was completed and approved.

These remain preliminary matters requiring evidence, but they point to the questions an engineering investigation must answer: Why was the original design accepted? What made the revisions necessary? Were the revised quantities and costs independently verified? Who authorised procurement before the design was final, and how were the resulting risks allocated?

The answers may reveal criminal conduct, but they may also reveal a chain of technical error, premature commitment, fragmented decision-making, inadequate financing or weak institutional control. Infrastructure projects commonly fail through several interacting decisions rather than one dramatic act.

If investigators search only for a thief, they may miss the system that made the loss possible. If engineers examine only the technical system and ignore possible wrongdoing, they may produce an elegant explanation that allows culpable people to escape consequences.

This is why the existence of another investigation should not automatically extinguish Parliament’s inquiry.

The immediate response should be coordination, not withdrawal. The Speaker can agree on rules with the committee and investigation leaders on preserving evidence, sequencing particular witnesses and protecting genuinely confidential material.

Parliament’s 202 questions can therefore be organised around four central issues. What was originally designed and approved? What changed, why did it change, and who authorised the change? What has actually been built and paid for? Which professional, administrative, financial and political controls operated, failed or were bypassed? These questions require the full contract, drawings, specifications, geotechnical and environmental reports, cost estimates, bills of quantities, variations, test results, payment certificates, land-acquisition records and the testimony of all the institutions that shaped the project.

The Uganda Institution of Professional Engineers has an important societal role in this moment. UIPE should not defend named engineers, accuse named officials or compete with investigators. It should insist that engineering evidence forms part of public accountability, help explain the technical questions citizens and Parliament should ask, and offer independent expertise where requested.

Politics determines what a nation wants to achieve; professional expertise helps determine whether it is actually being achieved. Uganda should therefore resist the idea that one investigation makes the other unnecessary.

A criminal investigation asks whether somebody broke the law. Engineering forensics asks how the project broke down. Busega-Mpigi needs answers to both, because Uganda must punish any wrongdoing that occurred and ensure that the same failure is not designed, procured and financed again.

Parliament has approved the deployment of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) as part of the proposed international stabilisation force in Gaza. Government presents this as another chapter in Uganda’s proud history of international peacekeeping.

Uganda has indeed carried significant security burdens in Somalia, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. But history alone is not a foreign-policy doctrine. The question is not whether peace in Gaza is desirable. Of course it is. The question is simpler and harder: What exactly is Uganda’s national interest in putting Ugandan soldiers in the middle of one of the world’s most politically, religiously and militarily explosive conflicts?

This is not an ordinary peacekeeping mission. The proposed force is expected to monitor the ceasefire, support security arrangements, facilitate humanitarian operations and help establish stability. But Gaza is not a conventional peacekeeping environment. What happens when armed groups refuse to disarm?

What happens when the force is attacked? What happens when its mandate conflicts with the security objectives of Israel or the political aspirations of Palestinians? At that point, Ugandan soldiers could move very quickly from peacekeepers to peace enforcers. And once soldiers begin using force, neutrality becomes considerably harder to maintain.

Uganda should therefore be cautious about entering a mission whose political end-state remains complicated and uncertain. Who commands our soldiers? Who defines the enemy? Who decides when force is necessary? Who pays for the mission? And who decides when Uganda comes home?

Our troops have spent years fighting al-Shabaab in Somalia, paying a significant price in blood and resources. Uganda has also intervened militarily in South Sudan and participated in operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo. These interventions demonstrate Uganda’s willingness to contribute to continental security, but they also demonstrate how easily military missions become prolonged, expensive and politically complicated. Gaza is arguably even more complex.

This is not simply an insurgency threatening a neighbouring government. It is a decades-old conflict involving competing national claims, territorial disputes, armed groups and powerful regional and international actors.

Israel, Palestine, Iran, the United States and several Arab states all have strategic interests in its outcome. Uganda risks importing that geopolitical complexity into its own foreign policy.

There is also a broader African question. Why must African armies continually become the infantry of international crises while Africa itself struggles to resolve conflicts on its own soil? Sudan remains at war. Eastern Congo remains unstable. South Sudan remains fragile. The Sahel continues to experience insecurity. Somalia still requires international military assistance. Uganda itself has security responsibilities in its immediate neighbourhood.

Sending scarce military resources to Gaza therefore requires more than an appeal to Uganda’s proud peacekeeping tradition. It requires a convincing explanation of Uganda’s national interest. There is nothing wrong with Uganda helping Gaza. But Uganda can contribute in ways that do not unnecessarily expose its soldiers to a highly volatile conflict.

Uganda could offer diplomatic support, humanitarian assistance, medical personnel, reconstruction expertise and political backing for a durable settlement. A Ugandan doctor treating a wounded Palestinian is a symbol of compassion. A Ugandan soldier shooting at an armed Palestinian is something altogether different. That distinction should not disappear beneath the comforting language of “peacekeeping.”

Soldiers are not diplomatic currency. Their lives belong neither to presidents nor foreign powers. They belong to their families and, ultimately, to the Ugandan people. Uganda can be a force for peace without becoming a force in someone else’s war.

Our foreign policy should therefore begin with a brutally simple question: Does this serve Uganda? If the answer is unclear, then the gun should stay in the barracks.

Uganda has enough unfinished wars it can assist with closer to home. We should not be searching for another one thousands of kilometres away.

The change in curriculum at all levels of education in the country has had many starts and stops since the conversation began more than 10 years ago. In January 2020, government announced that the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) would start the roll-out of the new Lower Secondary Curriculum with training for 1,600 teachers.

However, just before the roll-out could happen, Parliament stepped in February 2020 to halt the implementation of the curriculum, for the second time in four years. This was to allow government to fix deficiencies. The deficiencies cited included the lack of textbooks and teaching aids. Head teachers were also said to be green about the curriculum.

In spite of the hiccups, by mid-2022, many schools had registered for the new curriculum, an encouraging development.

Teachers pointed out though, that some of the challenges with this learner-centred approach were that it required Internet, textbooks to do research and materials to complete projects.

In 2024, the Ministry of Education, Uganda National Examination Board (Uneb) and the curriculum developers overcame many of the hitches that dogged the lower secondary school curriculum, succeeded in training more than 50,000 examiners and enabled O-Level finalists to sit examinations under the new curriculum for the first time in 2024.

After that, the challenge has been extending the benefits of the revised competence-based curriculum to A-Level and higher education levels, among others.

This process has had its own false starts. Many of the same challenges faced with the lower secondary school curriculum implementation have been cited with the latest curriculum change-a lack of instructional materials and trained teachers among them.

The National Council for Higher Education roll-out of the higher education curriculum change is due to conclude in 2028, the same year that (Uneb) has announced it will unveil the Senior Six grading after the conclusion of the curriculum reform process.

We have less than two years left to the conclusion of the curriculum reform process, the education authorities need to do better consultation, develop materials and carry out a massive public awareness campaign.

As the implementation of the Lower Secondary Curriculum change showed, education on the new curriculum should go beyond schools, ministry officials and examiners.

If we change the curriculum and grading, parents who are footing the education bills should be able to understand the aims of the change and the grades their children eventually bring home after the reforms.

For the pupils of King David Junior School, the trip to Sipi Falls was supposed to be an educational adventure. Instead, the journey ended in tragedy.

In July, the school bus carrying the children crashed in Kapchorwa as it returned from the trip. More than 20 pupils and an adult were killed, while several others were injured.

The crash renewed questions that Uganda has wrestled with for years: Are school buses safe? Are drivers working beyond their limits? Are vehicles properly maintained? And are traffic laws enforced before, rather than after, lives are lost? The questions are bigger than one school bus.

Uganda recorded 26,044 road crashes in 2025, up from 25,107 in 2024, according to the Uganda Police Force Annual Crime Report. Deaths rose from 5,144 to 5,383, while 18,444 people were seriously injured.

Motorcyclists accounted for 2,525 deaths, indicating that the road-safety crisis reaches far beyond buses and trucks.

Now, following a series of crashes and dangerous transport practices, government is tightening enforcement.

Police tighten the net

The Directorate of Traffic and Road Safety has intensified nationwide checks on public service vehicles, focusing on route charts, roadworthiness, driver qualifications and other transport regulations.

Traffic Police spokesperson SP Michael Kananura says officers intercepted and impounded 51 buses at highway checkpoints in one week. Of these, 41 were operating outside their approved route charts, while 10 failed to meet requirements, including valid driving licences, driver badges and identification photographs. Several drivers were taken to court.

Kananura says route charts are more than paperwork. They regulate departure and return journeys and are intended to prevent unauthorised trips, reduce driver fatigue and discourage competition that can encourage risky driving.

The enforcement has also exposed a wider problem: rules can exist on paper, but their value depends on whether they are followed consistently.

Police have warned that officers who knowingly allow non-compliant vehicles through checkpoints will also be held accountable.

Watching drivers closely

One proposed change could take road checks beyond the roadside. The Ministry of Works and Transport is considering an electronic clocking-in system for public service vehicle drivers to monitor their working hours.

The idea addresses a risk that a routine inspection cannot easily detect. A driver can have a valid licence, a roadworthy vehicle and all the required papers, yet still be too tired to drive safely.

An electronic record of when a driver starts and ends journeys could help authorities identify operators who breach working-hour requirements.

Road safety specialist Benson Kilama says monitoring driver hours could help prevent fatigue, particularly where drivers make return journeys. But, he says, such a system will only work if operators cannot bypass it and authorities follow up on violations.

For passengers, that distinction matters. A bus may look perfectly safe from the outside, while the person behind the wheel may have been driving for hours.

Children remain vulnerable

Recent enforcement operations show how easily children can be exposed to unnecessary risks.

On July 30, Traffic Police in Old Kampala stopped a Toyota HiAce carrying 36 pupils to a swimming activity after a member of the public raised an alarm. The driver was arrested and taken to court. The teacher accompanying the pupils was still being sought, while school administrators were summoned to record statements.

In Gomba, police intercepted a Fuso truck carrying 221 people, including pupils, teachers and support staff from two primary schools. They were travelling to Lugaaga Village for zonal ball games.

The pupils were returned to their schools using appropriate transport. The driver was detained, while the head teachers of the two schools, who authorised the journey, were also detained.

In Jinja, another Toyota HiAce carrying 28 pupils from Buikwe for a football tournament was intercepted.

The cases are a reminder that unsafe school transport is not simply a driver problem. School administrators, teachers, parents and transport providers all have a role in ensuring children travel in suitable, properly maintained vehicles without dangerous overloading.

Driving school instructor and road safety expert James Mulakha says vehicles should undergo thorough mechanical checks and be serviced before long trips.

Heavy trucks face tougher checks

Government’s response is also extending to heavy commercial vehicles. Authorities have introduced mandatory inspections for Sinotruk trucks amid concerns about the roadworthiness of heavy-duty vehicles.

Assistant Commissioner in-charge of Road Transport Regulation and Safety Apollo Kashanku says mechanical checks are necessary because defects on heavily loaded trucks can have serious consequences.

‘These trucks are accident-prone because they carry a lot of tonnage, and we need to inspect and clear them for roadworthiness,’ he says.

The issue, however, should not simply be whether Sinotruks are dangerous. The bigger questions are whether heavy trucks are properly maintained, correctly loaded and driven within safe limits.

Mechanic Richard Kilama says he often encounters problems involving braking systems and gearboxes. On a heavily loaded truck, a brake failure can be catastrophic because of the vehicle’s weight and stopping distance.

Mandatory inspections, he says, can identify defective vehicles before they return to the road and force owners to address problems through preventive maintenance.

Commissioner for Transport Regulation and Safety Winston Katushabe says the ministry will hold a consultative meeting with Sinotruk owners and operators, Traffic Police and other stakeholders on implementing the inspection programme.

The enforcement approach is expected to extend to other categories, including taxi operators, boda boda riders and motor vehicle bond operators.

Enforcement is only part of the answer

After a fatal crash, it is tempting to look for one culprit: the speeding driver, the defective vehicle or the poor road. But crashes rarely have a single cause.

A driver may be speeding while a vehicle has worn brakes, a road has poor lighting or markings, and pedestrians have limited safe places to cross. Each weakness adds to the risk.

This is where the Safe Systems approach becomes important. It treats road safety as a shared responsibility involving roads, vehicles, speeds, enforcement and road-user behaviour to prevent mistakes from becoming deaths.

Makerere University’s Centre for Trauma, Injury and Disability Prevention has brought together road-safety researchers, urban mobility specialists, KCCA, Traffic Police and others to examine why road deaths remain high despite repeated enforcement campaigns.

Road-safety advocate Ziraba Katende of Mukono says Uganda needs better driver training alongside stronger enforcement of vehicle mechanical standards.

He also points to the roads themselves, arguing that widening roads and improving their condition could reduce crashes linked to poor road infrastructure.

The public is increasingly becoming part of this enforcement system too.

Kananura says members of the public have become more vigilant in reporting traffic violations, particularly vehicles carrying children. In the Old Kampala and Gomba cases, public warnings helped authorities intervene before tragedy occurred.

Will the measures work?

Uganda does not lack road-safety laws. It has regulations covering vehicle roadworthiness, driver licensing, seat belts, motorcycle safety and other aspects of road use. The bigger challenge is consistent enforcement.

A route chart cannot prevent fatigue if operators find ways around it. Vehicle inspections mean little if defective trucks return to the road without repairs. Driver-monitoring systems achieve little if they can be manipulated.

The latest enforcement drive should, therefore, be judged by more than vehicles impounded or drivers prosecuted. If measures are consistently enforced, they could save lives. But if enforcement fades, the underlying problem will remain.

Police detectives have taken suspects in the killing of Sports Club Villa Football team captain back to where they allegedly attacked the footballer as investigators reconstruct the crime scene.

At least five suspects were driven in from Katwe Police Division to different parts of Makindye Division in Kampala City where the attack on David Owori is said to have taken place.

Ms Rachael Kawala, the Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson, said they carried out scene reconstruction in four areas in Makindye Division, including Dubai Zone, where Owori was allegedly attacked.

Owori was reportedly hit with a blunt object by a gang of youth, who later fled with his mobile phones and other personal belongings on Tuesday night. Owori succumbed to his injuries the following day.

Police have so far arrested 17 suspects connected to the incident. Earlier, detectives recovered the deceased’s mobile phones, shoes and other personal items from the residences of some of the suspects.

The suspects showed detectives where they planned the attack, where they hit Owori and how they fled the crime scene.

Each suspect told detectives the role they played in the attack. Detectives recorded every movement and even asked the suspects questions.

The detectives took the suspects to Kataka Playground, where local leaders and residents confirmed knowing them for wrong-doing.

The locals said although they were aware the suspects were involved in suspicious activities, they didn’t confront them or report to police for fear of being targeted.

Reconstruction of the crime scene is usually one of the last processes before the police winds up its investigations and hands over the file to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions for sanctioning.

Suspects are often taken for reconstruction of the crime scene when they have admitted to participating in the criminal offence.

On Sunday, police raided one of the suspects’ home, but he was reportedly alerted and fled. Detectives only found his wife, whom they arrested.

Police allegedly recovered items in the house, including the deceased’s bag, his football effects and books. The items have been tendered for forensic examination.

The wife of the suspect told police that her husband was following police investigations about Owori on social media. She told the police that the suspect often contacted his accomplices on the phone about the murder case. She said on the fateful day, her husband returned home at around 1am with the deceased’s bag.

He also reportedly returned with wallets and all other items suspected to be stolen.

As schools officially break off for second term holidays on August 21, the Uganda Police Force and the Ministry of Education and Sports have implored schools to adhere to the new road safety guidelines while transporting learners, which officials say will guarantee the safety of about 15 million learners.

The ministry warned that failure by schools to follow the prescribed guidelines will lead to the impounding of vehicles and the arrest and prosecution of offenders.

The 25 road safety guidelines are contained in the Basic Requirements and Minimum Standards for Schools, which the ministry released in May 2025.

The emphasis came after the Uganda Police Force also issued guidelines to schools on Monday, August 11.

Dr Denis Mugimba, the Education ministry public relations officer, told The Daily Monitor yesterday that the guidelines are aimed at ensuring that learners remain safe on roads.

Stakeholders, including road safety campaigners and private school owners welcomed the guidelines, which they described as timely, but they implored the government to come up with a comprehensive road safety guideline that will serve all the time.

“To ensure that the road is safe for more than 15 million learners in primary and secondary education who are breaking off for holidays, all vehicles transporting learners to and from school should have a valid Private Motor Omnibus (PMO) licence with JOV certification.

The ministry adds that the drivers list should be roadworthy with clearance from the police and Works ministry to be on the road.

Before transporting the learners, all vehicles transporting learners should be labelled with the school’s name while thin guidelines extending to learners who will walk home, as they should be escorted by a trusted caregiver.

Mr Hasadu Kirabira, the chairperson of the National Private Educational Institutions Association (NPEIA), said seeking the Works ministry and police permission is a temporary measure, calling for a permanent solution.

“We will not be frequenting the police and Works ministry to seek permission every time we want to move, because schools have their own programmes, so the ministry should look for a permanent solution,” he said.

Under human resources, the ministry is demanding that schools with vehicles have drivers who have appropriate valid driving permits for specific vehicles, a designated staff member with a letter of assignment indicating clear roles and responsibilities to accompany learners to and from, and clear code laid down for both the driver and transport assistant with clearly displayed identification badges.

“Vehicles found carrying an excessive number of learners beyond the recommended capacity will be impounded and their drivers arrested, according to the guidelines. According to the Works ministry, only 14 people are allowed to sit in a Toyota HiAce van. At the same time, minibuses carry up to 30 passengers and buses carry not more than 60 passengers.

On vehicles:

“Any other vehicles used to transport students, other than the designated school buses, must be mechanically sound, properly licensed and operated in full compliance with all traffic regulations and applicable safety requirements,” *the guidelines read in part.*

Schools are also required to have a policy on the transportation of learners, and learners should not be exposed to any verbal, audiovisual, or print media materials unrelated to learning.

Before a school transports a learner, the management is obligated under the new guidelines to seek written consent from the parents. The ministry has also set between 6am and 6pm as the only agreed time when learners should be transported.

Before transporting learners, schools are required to document full details of learners and all other people aboard, where a copy remains at school and the other with the driver. A logbook will also be maintained.

Other guidelines, which also affect the transportation of learners, especially during learning days, include parents approving plans of their children, maintenance of route charts and logbooks, and a regular roll call at boarding and dropping off of learners.

The guidelines come barely a month after a bus that was transporting close to 70 learners of King David Junior School crashed in Kyankwanzi, killing 24 learners.

The police on Monday released similar guidelines, saying school buses operating outside their usual authorised routes must obtain the necessary permission from the Ministry of Works and Transport before transporting learners.

Police have also directed that all vehicles intending to transport learners must have valid inspection reports and comply with all applicable vehicle inspection requirements.

Further, the traffic police also require school transport services to be undertaken between 6am and 6pm. “Drivers must strictly observe all traffic laws and regulations. They must not engage in speeding, dangerous overtaking, overloading, dangerous loading, reckless driving or any other traffic violations,” the guidelines read in part.

They add: “Any other vehicles used to transport students, other than the designated school buses, must be mechanically sound, properly licensed and operated in full compliance with all traffic regulations and applicable safety requirements.”

Road safety experts welcomed the new move but called for more, noting that there is need for a permanent solution.

“Everyone should be involved including parents, drivers, among others. For example, we should have a specialised training for people transporting learners the same way we have that for people who transport specialised goods,” said Mr Sam Bambanza, a road safety advocate and the founder of Hope for Victims of Traffic Accidents (HOVITA).

He added: “Vehicles need to undergo routine inspection not only at times like these when learners are breaking off because safety should be continuous, not periodic. We should also enforce guidelines so that the traffic police do what they are intended to do.”

The guidelines

All vehicles transporting learners to and from school should have a valid Private Motor Omnibus (PMO) licence with IOV certification.

The school van should be roadworthy.

Passenger vehicles should seek clearance for roadworthiness from the appropriate authority.

All vehicles transporting learners should be labelled with the school’s name.

The school should have a driver with an appropriate valid driving permit class for a vehicle.

It should have a designated staff member with a letter of assignment indicating clear roles and responsibilities to accompany learners to and from.

The driver and the transport assistant shall be in uniform and always display their identification badges.

Vehicles carrying learners should adhere to the recommended vehicle capacity.

Schools should have a policy for transportation of learners.

Learners should not be exposed to any verbal, audio visual, or print media materials that are not related to learning.

The parent shall give written consent for the learner to be transported.

Learners should be transported during the daytime between 6 am and 6 pm.

A record of learners transported should be kept with the transporter, and a copy left at school.

A logbook to be maintained.

Tours to be approved by parents.

A route chart and logbook should always be maintained.

A roll call at boarding and dropping off should be done. Police guidelines:

School buses operating outside their usual authorised routes must obtain the necessary permission from the Ministry of Works and Transport.

All vehicles must have valid inspection reports and comply with all applicable vehicle inspection requirements.

School transport journeys must be undertaken between 6:00am and 6pm.

Vehicles must have all mandatory documentation and requirements, including valid PSV documentation, PMO, driver badges, valid driving licences and any other applicable documents.

Drivers must strictly observe all traffic laws and regulations. They must not engage in speeding, dangerous overtaking, overloading, dangerous loading, reckless driving or any other traffic violations.

Any other vehicles used to transport students, other than the designated school buses, must be mechanically sound, properly licensed, and operated in full compliance with all traffic regulations.

All journeys transporting students must be undertaken between 6am and 6pm, in accordance with the applicable road safety requirements.

Bugisu Sub-region is one of the highly disaster-prone areas in Uganda. Government and private players over the years have concentrated their efforts in conserving the existing ecological spaces and restoring ravaged areas on the slopes of Mount Elgon.

For more than two decades, many environmental activists have carried out tree-planting, sensitised farmers to practice scientific methods of cultivation and planting of grass and trees along river banks. These efforts are intended to restore the green cover on the bare hills to reduce erosion and prevent big stones from rolling down.

Districts on the slopes of Mt Elgon such as Bududa, Sironko and upper Bulambuli, experience climate change-related disasters such as landslides during the heavy rains, while the lower belt of Bulambuli experience heavy flooding.

Manafwa District also experiences flooding from River Manafwa, which has its source at Mt Elgon. Namisindwa and some counties also experience flooding from several rivers such as Khamitsaru. In Mbale District, sub-counties in hilly areas such as Busano,Bubyangu and Wanale also experience falling stones from Wanale hill.

Several programmes including promoting the integrated landscape management approach for conservation of the Mt Elgon landscape (Mount Elgon project) by National Environment Authority and Ministry of Water and Environment have been implemented. Others also include Strengthening the Adaptive Capacity and Resilience of Communities in Uganda’s Watersheds (SACRiAC), Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (EbA) and the Mount Elgon Tree Planting Enterprise, among others.

The five-year Mt Elgon project under Nema is a government project which was launched in 2023.

According to Mr James Okiria Ateker, the Mount Elgon project manager, the initiative is aimed at enhancing food security and conservation of ecosystems that benefit rural communities.

Mr Ateker explained that communities around Mt Elgon have embraced conservation efforts and are reaping benefits from conservation activities. ‘With food security, we are focusing on four staple crops: maize, beans, Irish potatoes and bananas. We want to improve their production, but we are also working on additional crops such as coffee,’ he said.

He added, ‘We are teaching farmers to dig contours, trenches and retention ditches in the hilly areas. We also guide them on how to plant trees to improve the nutrients of the soil and also cover crops so that when it rains, the rains don’t directly wash away the soil,’ Mr Ateker, said.

According to Nema, the project has restored 127 hectares of wetlands since it started, 410 hectares of forest reserves, specifically River Namatala forest reserve shared between Mbale and Sironko districts.

‘We first developed the restoration action plans for forests, river banks, swamps and hill tops, rivers such as Makhoba, Khamitsaru in Manafa, Sironko, Kaptokwoi in Kapchorwa, Sundet in Kween and we are also working on River Manafwa,’ Mr Ateker, said.

Mr Victor Nahabwe, the commissioner in charge of Environment Enforcement and Field Operations at the Nema, says their goal is to ensure that all degraded areas in the Mount Elgon region are fully restored and they are seeking to replace all the foreign species of trees with the indigenous ones which are friendly to the ecosystem.

‘For this specific area we are opting for indigenous species such as Prunus Africana and Bamboo because of their ecological functions, like climate modification as opposed to eucalyptus, which drains much water and leads to scarcity of water during the dry season,’ he said.

Nahabwe said they plant more than 50,000 tree species in different areas annually. Ms Hellen Sarah Madanda, the Bulambuli District natural resources officer, revealed that all the fragile areas in the Elgon which have been degraded are facing landslides in the upper belt and floods in the lower belt, have got projects aimed at restoring the hilltops, river banks, water and soil conservation initiatives.

‘When we have heavy rains, we get landslides in the mountainous areas of Bumasaobo, Buluganya, Soti, Nabiwutulu,Lusha, Namisuni. The lower part of Bulambuli in the other part experiences flooding in areas like Bukhalu, Burnaware, Buwanyanga, Bwikhonge, Bunambutye, Nabbongo, Bumufuni and Bulegeni,’ she said.

Mr Michael Benard Ikanut, the Nema assistant commissioner for eastern region, said locals, especially on the slopes of Mount Elgon should embrace planting bamboo.

‘The choice of bamboo was not a mistake, it’s the best thing to do. I want to request the people around here to ensure that they are protected,’ he said.

Mr George Sikoyo, the executive director of Mount Elgon tree-growing enterprise, said they have planted more than 25 million trees across the districts on the slopes of Mount Elgon and turned conservation into a lucrative business for the community.

‘By last year, we had distributed and planted more than 25 million trees in Elgon Sub-region. We have engaged in restoration of rivers like Nabuyonga Nambale. We are now setting up community nursery beds that are attended to by the locals in their groups,’ he said, adding that they plant fast maturing trees to provide firewood, fruit trees and bamboo as the best remedy for the ravaged areas and destroyed river banks.

Eighteen years after the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) acquired a chunk of land in Temangalo, Wakiso District, its long-standing ownership dispute has once more taken centre stage, with Parliament probing why the Fund has failed to take full possession of its property.

Yesterday, the Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) inspected the NSSF land as part of its investigation into queries raised by the Auditor General in his 2023 value-for-money report.

The contested land

At the centre of the query is 55 acres of the 463 acres of the controversial land that NSSF bought from businessman Amos Nzeyi and Arma Ltd at Sh11 billion in 2008.

Despite the Fund securing the land titles in its name, Mr Nzeyi has continued using the 55 acres of the land, leaving NSSF with no access.

As the legislators inspected the contested portion of the land yesterday, it remained occupied by animals on the farm, farmhouses and a residential house, which NSSF said belongs to Mr Nzeyi, the seller.

“When we moved to the 55 acres of land in question, it was fenced off, even NSSF could not lead us through. They also have no access to the land,” Mr Muwada Nkunyingi, the Cosase chairperson said during the visit to the land.

Mr Muwada said the committee intends to summon both the Fund and Mr Nzeyi next Monday for an interrogation on why he has continued to deny access to the land even when he had sold off the land.

But Mr Isaac Ogwang, the NSSF’s senior manager for enforcement and litigation, told the committee that the Fund is in the process of evicting Mr Nzeyi after the expiry of the eviction notice he was given on June 15, 2026, giving him until the end of the same month.

With the deadline having passed without the disputed portion being handed over to NSSF, Mr Ogwang said the Fund has started the process of securing a court order to evict the occupants.

“We have to get a court order for the eviction and the process has started,” Mr Ogwang said.

Responding to why it has taken them unnecessarily long to get access to the land, the NSSF managing director, Mr Patrick Michael Ayota, said they have been battling court cases, which delayed the process.

“In Uganda, anybody will take you to court for anything and you will have to go through that process until it goes through, you can’t do much. We can’t break somebody’s leg as some other people may do. We have to be legal as an entity,” he said.

During the visit, the MPs also noted that part of the 72 acres is being developed for the Temangalo housing project, where 550 units are under construction by a Chinese contractor, Henan Guoji Industry Group.

Even as the MPs were impressed with the development, the committee members expressed concern over the sizes of the rooms, saying they were small and had dilapidated walls in some of the incomplete units.

MPs’ queries

“We sought the technical documentation to ascertain the size of the rooms because the contractor said her duty was to put into practice what she was given. We now need to seek clarity on the size of the rooms, which appear rather small. But we shall also need a technical explanation,” Mr Nkunyingi said.

The MPs also visited other NSSF assets, including the land and housing estate in Lubowa, off the Kampala-Entebbe highway; the buildings in Kampala, including the Pension House at Nakasero, whose completion they said had stalled.

The building, which started in 2018, was supposed to be completed in three years, but has since taken seven years, with the Fund now saying it will be completed by the end of January 2027.

Mr Ayota said the project was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced the works to be halted for some time.

“There were delays, but some of them were beyond our control. We started this phase in 2018, and the idea was to do it in three years, but Covid came and closed us for two years. Even when construction was allowed to go on, we lost close to 75 percent of our workforce because they couldn’t come and attend, which had a major impact on what we have in this place,” Mr Ayota said.

Background

The contested Temangalo land ownership involves a 463-acre property in Wakiso District, it centres on a 2008 deal where NSSF bought land from Mr Nzeyi and former prime minister Amama Mbabazi for Sh11 billion, which later triggered a multi-layered fraud and political corruption investigation.

On a scorching afternoon in Abedober Village, Aloi Sub-county, Alebtong District, Betty Akullo crushes shea nuts on a flat stone. She sets a fire, roasts the nuts in a battered clay pot, grinds them down, boils the mash, and slowly coaxes out a dark, smoky butter.

It is a process as old as the land itself, turning a forest treasure into what local generations have long called “skin’s best friend.” While dermatologists count more than 50 distinct skincare benefits in natural shea butter, Ms Akullo’s four children remain unimpressed when she offers them the golden paste.

“Mama, we want blue,” her 13-year-old daughter says, pointing instead to a perfumed, mass-produced petroleum jelly.

Ms Akullo’s day is built around fire and stone. Shea nuts do not surrender their oil easily; hours of painstaking manual labour yield only a single container of dark butter, rich in vitamins A and E, antioxidants, and fatty acids that heal cracked heels, soften elbows, and soothe a baby’s skin.

“They say it’s smoky, it’s dirty,” Ms Akullo laughs, wiping sweat from her brow with her wrapper. “They want the blue one with the nice smell from the shop.”

Her household reflects a broader cultural shift across northern Uganda. Cheap, heavily perfumed petroleum jellies have flooded local markets, promising soft skin without the labor-intensive process of natural production. Pervasive advertising reinforces the perception that modern skincare comes in a plastic tub rather than from a forest tree, leading a younger generation to view natural shea butter as outdated.

Health experts note that the synthetic alternatives carry hidden risks. Added fragrances can irritate sensitive skin, while mineral oils in petroleum jelly form an occlusive film that prevents skin from breathing, offering none of the active nutrients shea provides naturally.

Yet, beyond the domestic hearth, Uganda’s unique wild shea tree-Vitellaria nilotica-remains a prized asset in the international cosmetics market.

In Lira City, Dr Surjit Singh, Managing Director of Guru Nanak Oil Mills, has spent nearly three decades developing a commercial ecosystem around the same nut Ms Akullo roasts over an open fire. Arriving in Lira in 1996 as a small trader, Dr Singh recognised the untapped potential of northern Uganda’s wild stands.

Today, Guru Nanak Oil Mills stands as Uganda’s largest exporter of shea products and a rare industrial success story in a sector still dominated by manual methods. Holding organic certifications from ECOCERT, the US National Organic Program, European Union standards, and the Uganda National Bureau of Standards since 2006, the processor has built a robust export network.

“We can export our shea butter to any country with confidence,” Dr Singh says.

The company’s annual processing volume has expanded from a single sack of nuts at its inception to 500 tonnes, up from 300 tonnes in the previous year. This growth injects an estimated Shs2 billion annually directly into northern Uganda’s farming communities.

“We believe in adding value at every stage, from sourcing to production,” Dr Singh explains. “Our state-of-the-art technology allows us to produce high-quality shea butter while retaining its natural healing properties.”

Unlike traditional open-fire processing, which leaves the butter dark and smoky, Guru Nanak uses steam-mediated heating to produce a lighter, refined product without sacrificing vital nutrients. This output is exported to more than 25 countries and has earned the company Uganda’s President’s Export Award twice.

Despite this global acclaim, Dr Singh shares Ms Akullo’s concern regarding local consumer preferences.

“Human skin is a very sensitive part of the body,” Dr Singh notes. “Sometimes we apply various types of moisturisers or creams. Mostly these creams are synthetic products, which can be harmful in the long run. But if we use organic products such as shea butter, this will keep our skin healthy. The petroleum product, I’m telling you, has zero benefit for the skincare, whereas Ugandan shea butter has 50 benefits.”

This shift in consumer habits poses a direct threat to the trees themselves. Because shea remains an uncultivated species, trees are increasingly targeted by charcoal burners seeking fast cash, destroying slow-growing stands that could yield income for generations.

“I beg you, don’t cut trees,” Dr Singh urges local landholders. “Please, these are gifted by nature to Uganda. Don’t undermine it, don’t undervalue it. These are treasures for us. They will give you money. With time, you will enjoy it. Even when you have one nut, we will come and buy it from you. But don’t cut shea trees.”

To counter the charcoal trade, Guru Nanak guarantees cash-on-delivery purchases for any volume, aiming to provide a reliable revenue stream that protects the wild Nilotica trees.

Historically, the June-to-July harvest formed a vital rhythm in northern Uganda, where women collected and processed the nuts for skincare, culinary use, and traditional medicine. Today, processors like Guru Nanak require farmers to dry the nuts before purchasing, sorting the supply into certified organic and conventional grades.

Despite its deep cultural roots, Uganda’s shea industry operates far below its potential. According to data from the Uganda Investment Authority, global demand for shea nuts exceeds 350,000 tonnes annually. However, Uganda produces approximately 3 tonnes per year, a tiny fraction compared to West African producers like Ghana, which outputs 60,000 tonnes.

With the global shea butter market projected to reach $2.9 billion, driven by rising international demand for organic cosmetics, investors are targeting a expansion of Ugandan production toward 2,000 tonnes annually.

Whether the regional industry can bridge this gap depends as much on commercial investment as it does on domestic perception. Back in Abedober, Ms Akullo continues her daily routine at the grinding stone, facing the challenge of convincing the next generation that the treasure in the forest holds far greater value than the synthetic jars on the shop shelves.

For millions of young Ugandans preparing to enter the world of work, the country’s youthful population carries both a promise and a warning.

The promise is a generation large enough to provide the workers, entrepreneurs and consumers capable of powering the next phase of economic growth. The warning is that the economy must first find productive work for them.

That challenge is becoming increasingly urgent. Uganda will need to create more than 600,000 jobs every year before 2030, with the requirement rising to more than one million jobs annually by 2040, according to estimates cited by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Behind those numbers is one of the world’s youngest and fastest-growing populations.

Uganda’s population reached an estimated 53 million in 2026, after growing at about 3 percent annually since the 1960s. Three-quarters of Ugandans are below 30 years, and the working-age population is projected to expand by 60 percent by 2040.

It is the kind of demographic profile that could transform an economy. But without enough productive jobs, the same population boom could instead increase dependency levels, criminality, and slow down growth.

Uganda is already creating jobs, but absorption challenges remain.

According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) Human Resource Survey Report 2023/24 published in April, the economy is estimated to have created 618,503 new jobs between 2023 and 2025.

On the surface, that represents significant employment creation. But set against what lies ahead, the number takes on a different meaning.

Those 618,503 jobs created over the period are roughly equivalent to the minimum number of jobs Uganda needs to create every year before 2030, and by 2040, the annual requirement would have climbed beyond one million.

The IMF’s wider assessment similarly shows the scale of the mismatch. It says fewer than 400,000 jobs were created between 2021 and 2024, while the number of people entering the labour market over the five years exceeded six million.

The arithmetic points to an economy that must dramatically increase its capacity to employ people over the next decade.

Carrying the burden

If Uganda is to make that leap, the jobs are unlikely to come predominantly from government.

In its report, Ubos estimates total employment in formal establishments stood at 2.2 million workers, of which 1.7 million worked in the private sector, compared with 503,738 in the public sector.

Put differently, the private sector accounts for roughly 77 percent of workers in the formal establishments covered by the survey.

That makes Uganda’s million-jobs challenge as much a private-sector growth story as an employment-policy question. But there is another complication: simply creating jobs will not be enough. The created jobs must also be more productive.

The productivity problem

The IMF describes Uganda’s labour market as dominated by informal employment and relatively low productivity. More worrying is that labour-productivity growth has been limited over the past decade, leaving Uganda behind regional peers.

The IMF’s productivity chart modelled each of East Africa’s member states’ 2003 productivity level at 100.

By 2025, Rwanda’s index was approximately 250, while Tanzania stood at around 190, Kenya at about 160 and Uganda at roughly 150.

This means that Uganda has added workers and grown its economy, but output per worker has not improved at the pace achieved by some of its neighbours.

Rwanda has pulled so far ahead that the IMF uses it as the ‘EAC frontier’ when modelling what a Ugandan productivity recovery might look like.

IMF calculates that an additional one percentage point of productivity growth annually between 2026 and 2040 would allow Uganda to close half its productivity gap with Rwanda.

Why does productivity matter?

The IMF’s modelling provides an answer. In one scenario, Uganda’s labour supply increases by 1 percent every year between 2026 and 2040 without an accompanying productivity acceleration.

More people find themselves competing within an economy that has not become sufficiently more productive.

The result is falling real wages. Without productivity growth or fiscal intervention, the IMF says excess labour supply would reduce household living standards and weaken Uganda’s economic growth potential.

With productivity improvements and greater public investment, however, the model shows the downward trajectory in wages being reversed while employment increases.

Thus, Uganda cannot solve its employment problem simply by counting jobs. A young person moving into poorly paid, low-productivity informal work may technically be employed, but that does not necessarily represent the economic transformation promised by a demographic dividend.

Therefore, the IMF suggests that Uganda needs to deal with barriers that continue to curtail productivity growth.

The IMF points to limited access to finance, bureaucratic licensing procedures, high business costs, inadequate human capital and institutional weaknesses as key constraints on productivity.

Thus, it notes agricultural productivity needs to improve through better infrastructure, higher crop yields and land reforms, while on the other hand, education must equip workers to move into higher-productivity industries and services, while weaknesses in transport, communications and energy infrastructure need addressing.

If this happens – combining productivity gains with broader fiscal reforms – employment could increase by about 60 percent by 2040, broadly matching the projected expansion of the working-age population.

But this, it notes, depends on sustained reforms, credible institutions and a stable macroeconomic environment.

But all this, the IMF says, must happen fast or now, because every year, another generation of youth moves closer to the labour market.

By 2040, the economy will need to be capable of generating more than one million jobs annually, and those jobs will need to be more productive than many available today.

The private sector is already Uganda’s largest formal employer. The bigger question is whether businesses and the economy around them can grow quickly enough to absorb a workforce that will be 60 percent larger.

If they can, Uganda’s youth boom could become one of its greatest economic assets. But if productivity and job creation fail to keep pace, the demographic dividend may prove far harder to realise.