Category: Daily Monitor

On April 1, the Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) released a circular to all heads of primary and secondary schools, district education officers and school inspectors across the country, in which it guided on registration of students for national examinations right from primary to higher secondary education.

Registration fees for Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) were set at Shs34,000, while late registration for PLE was set at Shs68,000; registration fee for each Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) candidate was set at Shs164,000; addition fees for each private UCE candidate was set at Shs15,000; registration fee for each Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) candidate was set at Shs186,000; additional fee for each private UACE candidate was set at Shs18,000.

The circular stated that late registration fees for each UCE and UACE candidate can attract a surcharge of between 50 and 100 percent of the total registration fee, depending on the payment period.

This particular provision means that late registration fees would range between Shs246,000 and Shs328,000 for a UCE candidate and between Shs279,000 and Shs372,000 for a UACE candidate.

Unfortunately, many schools have ignored the provisions of the circular and are demanding late registration fees of up to Shs450,000 for UCE candidates and Shs600,000 for UACE candidates.

That means that they are demanding Shs130,000 more than the official fee prescribed by Uneb for UCE candidates and more than Shs227,778 more than for UACE candidates. This is unacceptable.

These extortionist demands come at a time when most ordinary Ugandans are going through tough times.

Most parents have only been able to send their children back to school for the second term of the academic year by entering into some arrangements with the schools to have the school fees paid in a staggered manner.

The Ministry of Education and Sports, which is supposed to regulate the education sector, is and has been missing for quite a while now.

The failure to enforce an August 31, 2023, declaration that schools were not allowed to hike school fees without clearance from the permanent secretary, the chief administrative officers or the town clerks is testimony enough.

The government is constitutionally mandated to provide basic and higher education as a social service to its citizens.

The failure to regulate has increasingly turned education into a money-making enterprise and not the social service that it is meant to be.

Officials from the Ministry of Education must wake up and smell the coffee.

The Education and Sports ministry has stated that secondary school learners nationwide will only be allowed to possess smartphones and other ICT-related gadgets in schools after the government enacts specific policies permitting their use.

The revelation was made this week by Mr Abubaker Bbuye, a principal education officer at the ministry, during the launch of a new report on the readiness of Uganda’s secondary schools to implement digital learning. Mr Bbuye warned that allowing secondary learners to bring smartphones and mobile gadgets to school for ICT integration, without proper ministry gatekeeping, could have serious consequences.

‘I do not want to commit myself until we come up with the right kind of guidelines, because giving them the computers or the machines in their hands without guidelines would be the worst case. We are coming up with guidelines to allow that to happen, not simply just giving them out,’ Mr Bbuye explained.

He added: ‘Some schools are letting this happen-the students even have phones, but they only use them on strong school-based policies that dictate when, where and how to use these gadgets.’ Mr Bbuye was reacting to calls by education sector stakeholders that the ministry should reconsider its position that banned possession of smartphones by learners in schools, arguing that it would significantly boost ICT learning in schools across the country.

Mr Robert Magemeso, a senior official at the Uganda National Institute for Teacher Education (UNITE), Kampala, while reacting to the findings of the research report, explained that allowing students to own the gadgets will close the urban and rural divide between learners and boost their performance.

‘If possible, the ministry should consider permitting secondary school learners to have gadgets like telephones and tablets, and parents could be permitted to acquire those gadgets for the learners,’ Mr Magemeso said. He added: ‘As we look into that, we need to put into our minds that the issue of disparity between the urban parents and the rural environments will come in the future, but the ministry should consider looking into this capability; otherwise, we might see the gap widening.’

Under consideration

For more than a decade, the government has maintained the ban against handheld mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, etc., for use by learners on school premises. This, it adds, is until a guiding policy is developed and passed. The policy will ensure teachers are taught how to use the machines in the classroom, and they will be able to design class activities and control how learners use the gadgets. Some schools have policies where learners go with laptops, and they are stored in the classroom and are only pulled out for use once a teacher has prepared a lesson that requires ICT, Mr Magemeso further revealed.

On Tuesday, Education ministry officials, heads of schools, and other education stakeholders gathered in Gulu City for the launch of a report titled From Unplugged to ICT-Ready, a Digital Readiness Assessment of Secondary Schools in Uganda. The new report by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef), conducted in 3,257 schools countrywide, points to critical gaps that continue to constrain learners from embracing e-learning.

Ms Janet Akao, an education officer at Unicef Uganda, called for the fast-tracking of the policy since allowing individual students to own their personal gadgets will boost ICT learning among them.

‘With ICT, once you have access to it (equipment), you are more likely to know how to use it better and faster, and I know that, but what we are seeing is that there is a need for guidelines and frameworks for how devices are used in schools, especially in secondary schools, and the ministry should speed it up.’

‘The ministry is making efforts with the development of the digital agenda strategy. There are also efforts to develop guidelines for specific things like cyber security, data privacy, use of phones in schools, and for us to localise our digital learning, we need to mine about the educational resources,’ Ms Akao added.

Findings

The study established three distinct digital readiness profiles of Uganda’s secondary schools, where it categorised 671 (20 percent) of the schools as ICT-ready with reliable electricity, stable internet, and better device ratios. It also classified 1,372 (41 percent) as semi-connected schools with electricity and some connectivity, but experiencing frequent disruptions, making consistent digital integration difficult for teachers.

Another 127 schools (39 percent) were classed as completely unplugged schools, with no internet, limited electricity, and the highest learner-to-device ratios. ‘Government-aided schools form the largest group and account for the highest share of semi-connected schools, while private community schools have the highest share of unplugged schools, which are more prevalent in rural areas and in the Eastern and Northern regions,’ the study said.

While the findings show that Uganda has solid foundations to build on for its digitalisation agenda, the report reveals that such foundations remain uneven.

‘Learners across secondary schools have very different experiences of digital learning depending on their school’s profile. One-size-fits-all approaches that disregard these differences can be inefficient for ICT-ready schools, or insufficient for unplugged schools, and may widen gaps rather than closing them.’

The researchers explained that the situation was influenced by electricity reliability, internet access, and device allocation.

The factors that the researchers reckon are also closely interrelated include: unreliable power makes internet access volatile, and internet access without adequate devices limits its value for learners. Understanding them together, the researchers added, is important for designing effective interventions.

Fifty percent of schools were found to have high access (16+ hours per day), 35 percent moderate (5-15 hours), and 15 percent low access (under 5 hours per day). ‘Among schools not connected to the national grid (17 percent), 72 percent rely on solar and generators (23 percent) for electricity access. These schools experience power disruptions daily.

A school with fewer than 5 hours of daily power cannot meaningfully run a computer lab, charge devices, or deliver internet-based lessons,’ Ms Akao revealed. When power is unreliable, digital learning risks complicating rather than supporting teaching and learning, and geographically, the gap is most pronounced between rural and urban schools, and between the Northern region and the rest of the country, she said.

Power deficits

Government-aided schools, which are more concentrated in rural areas, were found to be twice as likely as private schools to have low electricity access. Only 39 percent of government-aided schools reach high-level electricity access, compared to around 60 percent of private schools. Among connected schools, internet reliability was also found to vary considerably. Ms Akao said nearly one in three experience daily disruptions and a further 26 percent experience them weekly.

‘This reliability gap is what distinguishes ICT-ready schools from semi-connected ones. The no-internet gap and reliability challenges are more concentrated in rural areas and in Eastern and Northern regions,’ she said. The core challenge is not the number of devices in isolation, but the number of learners per device. Device ratios differ across readiness profiles: ICT-ready schools have a median of 29 learners per device, compared to 36:1 in semi-connected schools and 50:1 in unplugged schools, she added.

The study was commissioned last year by Unicef and the Ministry of Education with funding from the Mastercard Foundation to assess the ICT infrastructure needs in secondary schools, to find out information related to access, use and the capacities of schools for ICT integration. It is meant to guide the strategies of implementing the Leaders in Teaching Uganda programme, a five-year (2025 -2030) initiative that seeks to transform secondary school education in Uganda by improving the quality of teaching and learning in 2,091 schools across the country.

Of the 3, 257 schools in which the assessment was conducted, 1527 were government-aided secondary schools (47 percent), 1040 were private community schools (32 percent), 521 private faith-based schools (16 percent), 17 were universities and one UNITE (Uganda National Institute for Teacher Education) campus.

What next?

Giving the example of her own school, Sr Hellen Lamunu, the headmistress of Sacred Heart (Girls) School in Gulu City, explained that unless the government invests in deploying more professional ICT teachers, fixing the gaps in ICT learning in secondary schools will remain a challenge. Uganda has placed digital transformation at the centre of its national education agenda, committing through the National Digital Agenda Strategy (DAS) and the Education Sector Strategic Plan 2026-2030 (ESSP) to leverage technology to improve education quality and prepare learners for an increasingly digital labour market.

Ms Proscovia Aber, the Gulu City Inspector of Schools, said: ‘These findings, for the case of Northern Region Uganda, are worrying, because as the region is trailing in almost everything- internet connectivity, we are at the lowest, ICT infrastructure and electricity connection, we are still at the lowest, including the capacity of our teachers.’ However, she expressed optimism that the education departments in districts across the region and stakeholders are working on policies that can help bridge the gap in ICT learning in secondary schools.

Meanwhile, Mr Bbuye admitted that the country lacks professionals and that a few who the government trained left for greener pastures. ‘We recruited a big number, and we gave them (instructors) the opportunity to go and study; they used their two years to get better qualifications and went elsewhere for greener pastures. If you had 106 recruited, only about 46 are in service; the rest went for better opportunities,’ Mr Bbuye said. When reacting to the inadequacy of human resources, Mr Bbuye said the government is banking on a yet-to-be-disseminated research by the World Bank on the ICT-readiness in schools across the country.

Even before the 12th Parliament gets down to the real business, there are real question marks over the political future of Ms Shamim Malende, the Kampala District Woman Representative (DWR). The uneasiness in the relationship between Ms Malende and the leaders of her party, the National Unity Platform (NUP), was on display when she made a rare appearance at the party’s headquarters during the unveiling of Jinja South East legislator, Mr Paul Mwiru, as their candidate in the speakership race. When Ms Flavia Nabagabe Kalule, emcee of the function, was introducing Ms Malende, she said they hoped that the Kampala DWR would remain a permanent fixture in NUP activities.

‘We hope she will remain with us in the coming days,’ Ms Kalule, who lost the Kassanda DWR seat in January, said. Ever since Ms Malende was retained as the Kampala DWR, she has neither appeared at any NUP activity nor issued any statement explaining her absence. Ms Malende, it is said, jetted out of the country as soon as she secured a second term in Parliament to get specialised treatment. Still, she kept silent until the week of her swearing-in function.

Sources within NUP said as much as Ms Malende has claimed that she has been sick, her disappearance has angered foot soldiers. ‘We are not convinced that she is just sick,’ a foot soldier said on condition of anonymity.

Feebleness

The relationship between Ms Malende and the party had sunk so low that those within NUP had expected that she would be one of the lawmakers who would defy the party’s position and attend President Museveni’s swearing-in ceremony at Kololo Independence Grounds in Kampala last month. ‘We had got information that she would join those celebrations, but she eventually didn’t attend. We don’t plan with her for the future,’ a NUP member said on condition of anonymity, adding that the party is not short of worthy replacements for Ms Malende, including Ms Shamim Nambassa, the former Makerere University guild president, who has just been elected to represent Kawempe South as the Woman LC5 Councillor at Kampala Capital City Council Authority (KCCA)

By the end of last term, sources said NUP leaders were ready to move on from Ms Malende.

This was shown when NUP leadership asked Ms Zahara Maala Luyirika to first set aside her ambitions to represent Makindye West and take an interest in the Kampala DWR slot. ‘We are in a democratic country, and NUP is a democratic party. I’m not standing against my sister Shamim Malende. I saw a vacuum, and I’m stepping up to fill it,’ Ms Luyirika said at the time. She added: ‘I recognised my strength and believe I have served well as KCCA speaker alongside my fellow councillors. Now, I want to take the next step and serve the people of Kampala. I am a loyal person who respects my party’s procedures.’

Once Ms Luyirika showed interest in replacing her, Ms Malende, who was seeking specialised treatment in Nairobi, Kenya, had her posters put up in every corner of Kampala with the NUP election slogan: protest vote. This was a message of defiance in the context that she realised that NUP’s honchos had been reconsidering the party’s position on who should be its flag-bearer in the Kampala DWR race. Ms Malende, who, like several NUP legislators, was a debutant in the 11th Parliament, spent most of her tenure bedridden either in Kampala or Nairobi.

Despite her inconsistent health situation, Ms Malende insisted on standing in the 2026 polls, forcing her to send political messages from her hospital bed as a way of keeping in touch with the electorate. For instance, when the government moved to make amendments to the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) Act that would reintroduce the trial of civilians in military courts, in complete defiance of a Supreme Court judgment, a visibly frail Ms Malende sent a political message from her hospital bed.

‘I concur with the Supreme Court that civilians shouldn’t be tried in the Court Martial. If the State suspects that civilians have done something wrong, they should be taken to a civilian court. We know that many people, including the president, [Robert] Kyagulanyi, have been threatened with being taken to the basement to learn Runyankore,’ Ms Malende said. With Ms Malende insisting that she was strong enough to go through another gruelling campaign, NUP leadership was resigned to having her on the ballot. ‘It would look insensitive if you dumped her right now. How can a party dump a party member just because she is sick?’ one of the NUP honchos told this publication late 2025, on condition of anonymity.

The catch-22 for NUP was that Ms Malende framed her hospitalisation through the lens of violence inflicted on her by the State as she engaged in the political struggle. ‘I was beaten during the standoff in Parliament as we rejected the Coffee Bill. I have had operations here in Nairobi, and I think I will recover,’ Ms Malende said. Ms Malende jumped out of her hospital bed last year to join Ms Luyirika in picking forms from NUP’s headquarters, asking to represent Kampala women. This left the party in a fix. If the flag was to be handed to Ms Malende, as it eventually was, a solution around the Makindye West constituency had to be found.

Mr Ali Nganda Kasirye, alias Mulyannyama, and Mr Allan Ssewanyana, the then incumbent, looked set to lock horns. To solve this impasse, NUP leaders gave Mr Mulyannyama the Makindye East slot, though he had not applied for it. As a result, Ms Luyirika was given Makindye West, though she hadn’t formally applied for it, and then Ms Malende retained the Kampala DWR slot. Lady luck smiled on NUP in the sense that, despite this clearly dangerous political game of changing candidates from one constituency to another, as if they were playing chess, Mr Mulyanyama, Ms Luyirika, and Ms Malende all emerged victorious in the January 15 elections.

History repeats self

Ms Malende isn’t the first Kampala woman legislator to come under pressure after falling out with her party. Her predecessor, Ms Nabilah Naggayi Sempala, who got three terms, was also accused of not effectively representing the women in Kampala. Politically, Ms Naggayi’s downfall came after her fallout with the Opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party top brass that accused her of being a mole. By 2015, it was apparent that Ms Naggayi had fallen out with FDC leaders, that she placed adverts on radio stations calling people of Kampala to turn up in big numbers as former Prime Minister John Patrick Amama Mbabazi, who had fallen out with his boss President Museveni, was being nominated to run for President in 2016.

Yet days later, when then FDC’s presidential flagbearer Dr Kizza Besigye was being nominated at Namboole stadium, Ms Naggayi showed up at the Electoral Commission offices and sat next to Dr Besigye. The seat had been reserved for Dr Besigye’s wife, Ms Winnie Byanyima, who wasn’t in the country. Mr Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, then Kira Municipality lawmaker, would later disclose that he wanted to dislodge Ms Naggayi from the seat, but he was stopped by Dr Besigye. Internally, though Ms Naggayi had been nominated as an FDC candidate, the party had resolved to support Ms Shifrah Lukwago, then a close ally of the then Lord Mayor of Kampala,Mr Erias Lukwago, but she has since retired from elective politics after Mr Museveni appointed her a commissioner at the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC).

During the final stretch of the campaigns, Dr Besigye, a crowd puller, stormed Kampala, and this is when Ms Naggayi muscled her way to get a vantage seat from which she was able to often stand alongside Dr Besigye on his car’s rooftop and wave to the crowd. With Kampala voters voting mainly for candidates that had the key-FDC’s symbol-Ms Naggayi retained her seat after garnering 174,125 votes. The Democratic Party’s Florence Nakiwala Kiyingyi-who had the backing of the Mengo establishment-came second with 101,763 votes. Elsewhere, NRM’s Asia Kinaabi Nabisere came third, and Ms Lukwago placed fourth with 84,574 votes.

Having won the race, Ms Naggayi would go on to disappear when FDC launched what it termed the defiance campaign against Mr Museveni’s government after another contested poll. Ms Naggayi would also disappear when the Opposition tussled with NRM party over eliminating presidential age limits from the Constitution, something that ensured Mr Museveni would effectively rule Uganda for eternity. ‘Why didn’t you die?’ Mr Nathan Nandala Mafabi, FDC’s secretary general, [in]famously pushed back against Ms Naggayi’s claim that she missed the age limit showdown because she was sick during a talkshow on NTV Uganda, this publication’s sister TV station.

With that, FDC tapped Mr Museveni’s virulent government critic on social media and researcher Dr Stella Nyanzi, but she wasn’t able to overcome the umbrella wave as Ms Malende stormed to victory with 314,865 votes in 2021. If Ms Malende then represented a new crop of Opposition leaders, the start of her new term in Parliament kind of represents an end since she hasn’t been appointed to the Shadow cabinet and/or to lead or deputise any leader of the parliamentary committees. In January 2023, Ms Malende was appointed Shadow minister for human rights.

‘We assign responsibilities to people who are available and are committed to the struggle; not those who are just interested in parliamentary positions,’ one of NUP’s leaders explained why Ms Malende wasn’t assigned any responsibility in the shadow cabinet. Her future looks bleak. But Mr David Lewis Rubongoya, NUP’s secretary general, on Thursday gave this publication a general comment, saying: ‘ We are looking at all our members to see how they will perform in this term. The party is interested in strong performers.’

Over the past decades, countries around the world adopted laws that permit someone to hold more than one citizenship.

The definitive legal evidence for one’s claim to citizenship is a national passport or, internally, a national identity card. When a Ugandan living and working in, say, Germany maintains his/her Ugandan citizenship, or a German who marries a Ugandan takes on the latter’s citizenship, that person becomes a dual citizen.

Poor countries in the so-called global south came around to appreciate the rewards from allowing individuals who are citizens of, say, Britain, but had to renounce their original citizenship of, say, Ghana, to hold passports of both countries.

In the past, if a Ugandan moved to Canada and became a citizen of that country, he/she had to give up their Ugandan citizenship.

Uganda’s immigration law prohibited keeping a Ugandan passport when taking up citizenship of another country.

In effect, this Ugandan, now Canadian, would return to Uganda as a foreigner.

They had to apply for a visa, pay for it and enter the country under the same status and legal conditions as any other foreign national.

This is not just inconveniencing, it is utterly humiliating – entering your ancestral homeland as a foreigner when socially, economically, politically and everything else, you are as Ugandan as any other citizen!

Substantively, there are invaluable benefits that accrue to a poor country when its nationals abroad can retain their legal status as citizens.

It is easier to do business, buy property, undertake investment ventures, proudly and proactively mobilise resources from abroad when you do not have to deal with the displeasures of being a foreigner to the very country of your ancestors.

As a universal policy and practice, national laws tend to be discriminatory against non-nationals in a variety of ways.

Ironically though, by dint of our colonial mentality, it is common for Ugandan authorities, the average Ugandan too, to grant preferential treatment to a foreigner, especially a White!

Being a national confers certain exclusive privileges and rights, including participating in national politics and engaging in commerce without restrictions that otherwise apply to a non-national.

All things considered, there is every good reason for a government, particularly of a poor country struggling to break out of the shackles of poverty, to let their nationals simultaneously hold two or more citizenships.

But governments or specifically states, as enduring entities with certain institutional interests, have political considerations and calculations that inevitably lead them to impose some limitations on dual citizenship. This can be couched in terms of national security.

All countries, whether developed or underdeveloped, global north or south, democratic or otherwise, practice some form of citizenship discrimination, how one became a citizen or if they hold citizenship of another country.

In the case of Uganda, the subject of so much brouhaha following President Museveni’s Cabinet announcement last week is whether a Ugandan holding citizenship of another country qualifies to be a member of Cabinet.

I know nothing about Uganda’s laws, but from media commentaries, dual citizenship is a disqualification for appointment as a government minister regardless of one’s ethnicity, race, qualifications and competencies.

The core controversy turned on one Dr Lawrance Muganga (PhD), currently Vice Chancellor of Victoria University in Kampala, who is no stranger to controversy, as not too long ago he was arrested on allegations of working for a foreign government!

In fact, at the time of his arrest, it was alleged that he was a ‘foreigner’ working illegally in Uganda. Apparently, Dr Muganga carries passports of Canada and Rwanda but insists he was born and raised in Uganda, which would make him a Ugandan like any other compatriot. Under the current legal regime, however, he cannot be a member of Cabinet.

There were other cases of nominees for Cabinet who reportedly held dual citizenship but told Parliament they had renounced and retained only the Ugandan one.

But renouncing citizenship is a process, not a mere self-declaration or something that is merely waved away.

Whatever ultimately happens, including all the noise getting swept aside and the nominees taking their seats in Cabinet or dropped, there is quite a bit of egg left on the face of the appointing authority and apparatus of State.

Often, there’s little regard and respect for the law, certainly not consistently, in the way Museveni’s government operates, so it is possible to sweep aside or even find a way of bypassing any legal obstacle.

But if members of Cabinet must go through the rituals and motions of vetting by Parliament, surely, the State’s intelligence and counterintelligence agencies should first thoroughly vet them.

In the case of Dr Muganga, predictably, much of the noise is on his Rwandan roots, which he spiritedly denies, insisting he is not anything other than a Ugandan of Rwandan descent.

This shouldn’t be an issue as Banyarwanda are Ugandans and have served in prominent public positions, especially under Museveni’s regime, but dating back to the dawn of independence.

The Ministry of Water and Environment has handed over a site in Omoro District for construction of a water quality monitoring and management laboratory, marking the start of works on a Shs7.3 billion project.

Financed by the Government of Uganda with support from the European Commission and German Government through KfW, the facility in Bobi sub-county will serve Lango, Acholi and West Nile sub-regions upon completion.

The infrastructure includes a water quality laboratory to ensure standards are met, a centralised warehouse for pipes and consumables to enable rapid response to bursts, administrative offices, and a training centre to upskill artisans and plumbers from across the northern region.

Consulting Engineers Salzgitter is the project management and implementation consultant while Zhonghao Overseas Construction Company Ltd is the contractor.

The handover on Friday, June 5, 2026, was described by the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Water and Environment, Dr Alfred Okot Okidi, as a critical step in decentralising water management in northern Uganda.

By combining quality control, logistical storage, and professional training in a single hub, the Northern Umbrella of Water and Sanitation is positioned to enhance service efficiency and water security for the region.

Dr Okot Okidi thanked Omoro District for providing 20 acres of land free of charge, expanded from the initial 8 acres to accommodate current and future facilities.

‘In today’s Uganda, it is very difficult to get a generous district like Omoro, where they give you land free of charge,’ Dr Okot Okidi said. ‘This facility is going to enhance service delivery because we are now going to be nearer our infrastructure. We are going to have training facilities. We are going to have workshops. We are going to have stores. And we are going to have our team based here. So it will be quicker for us to reach our people.’

Eng Yusuf Lule, deputy branch manager of WSDF-N, said samples from different regions will be brought to the facility for testing. ‘So, we are grateful that there is an opportunity to ensure that whatever we produce, especially to do with water, meets the quality before we supply it to the communities within the region.’

Dr Martin Wamalwa, manager of Northern Umbrella of Water and Sanitation, said: ‘When we have a water quality laboratory here, which will ensure the water that you drink meets the quality standards.’

Omoro Deputy RDC Geoffrey Akol welcomed the project and cautioned the contractor. ‘And I want to assure the contractor, we shall support you in this project. If something is wrong, please, share, so that we get quality work here. We don’t want you to come and play with the project. Please, do quality work. One year, the project must be here.’

Chief Administrative Officer Donato Oola Olam said the district is ready to provide more land if the technical scope requires it. ‘I want to commit myself on behalf of the administration that we shall continue to support this initiative. We shall support in terms of coordination, and where there are challenges which require technical input from the administration of the district, we shall always be available,’ Mr Oola said.

Ms Therese Scholl from Consulting Engineers Salzgitter said after a year of collaborative efforts, the project has reached the milestone of beginning physical work. ‘The focus now should shift toward a successful implementation phase that aligns strictly with the requirements established in the contract,’ she said.

The contractor has 12 months to deliver the facility. The CAO and district technical team will conduct regular site visits and coordination meetings to monitor progress.

What happens when the soul feels like a stranger inside its own body? Four digital artists have spent a month trying to answer that question. Tonny Mpungu, Osward Tayebwa, Maria Byoma, and Aliguma Mugisa have held an art exhibition titled Native in a New World at the Xenson Art Space in Kampala. The month-long show, which opened on May 2, and closed on May 30, is a groundbreaking digital art exhibition marking the first-time digital artists have taken centre stage at the venue. The exhibition brought together the four artists whose works explore identity, movement, and belonging in an ever-changing world, where tradition does not disappear but shifts, adapts, and finds new places to live, the curatorial statement reads.

A language of laughter and discomfort

Through illustration, cartoons, comics, and layered digital forms, the artists reflect everyday realities that feel familiar. You may recognise something from your commute, your home, or shared cultural memory. You may laugh at situations that are deeply serious or even uncomfortable. This tension forms the language of the exhibition; playful yet critical, light yet deeply honest.

‘The works soften heavy realities without losing urgency,’ the curatorial statement explains. ‘They invite viewers to loosen up and face the world as it is.’

The body as foreign land

Among Mugisa’s artworks are Native in a New World; The Noise of Beginnings; Eye in the Mad; The Weight of Thought; The Beginning of Escape, and The River That Carries Us. All are ephemeral digital prints on paper.

In Eye in the Mad, a figure drifts between collapse and awareness beneath a watchful presence. The eye above does not judge or intervene. It simply sees. In a place where everything feels buried or lost, perception remains, quiet and unyielding. Mugisa explains that his artworks explore the experience of a soul navigating and inhabiting the human body as though it were unfamiliar territory.

‘I approached the body as a kind of landscape, one that is both intimate and disorienting, where identity is not fixed but constantly forming,’ he says.

‘Through recurring symbols such as the African pot in place of the head, fragmented figures, and shifting environments, the work reflects a journey of self-awareness, displacement, and adaptation. It is about what it means to exist in a space that feels both like home and foreign at the same time.’

Rituals, gifts, and belonging

Tayebwa’s artworks include The Give Away; Nakasero; Taxi; The Aunties; Standing Tall, and Kalele.

The Giveaway captures the gifts delivered by the bridegroom to the bride’s home during traditional marriage ceremonies; known as okuhingira in Ankole and kwanjula in Buganda.

‘The Giveaway explores ritual, exchange and celebration as central pillars of cultural identity,’ Tayebwa says. ‘Within the broader theme of Native in a New World, the work examines how ceremonies, particularly those involving gifting, carry deep symbolic meaning beyond materialistic value. The act represents unity, respect, family bonds and the movement of social capital.’

He adds: ‘This work invites viewers to reflect on how cultural practices adapt without losing their symbolic weight. By focusing on the act of giving, the work emphasises connection, showing cultural sustainability through reinterpretation. At its heart, it is about connection, participation, generosity, and the reaffirmation of collective values.’

A new chapter for digital art in Kampala

The exhibition marked a milestone for digital artists in Uganda. By taking centre stage at Xenson Art Space, a venue traditionally dominated by painting and sculpture, Mpungu, Tayebwa, Byoma, and Mugisa proved that digital art can hold its own in conversations about identity, belonging, and the landscapes we carry inside us.

Mpungu has a comic project about the making of the matooke dish the right way or old way, which also includes a display of mats, banana leaves, empombo in banana leaves placed in baskets, and gourds, among others. Mpungu says his work on the theme at had explores the tension between cultural preservation and modern transformation through visual storytelling grounded in African experience.

‘In my comic project, I focus on how tradition is remembered, reinterpreted, and sometimes diluted in the current world, using the familiar staple of matooke as a central symbol, I tell a story that reflects broader questions of identity, heritage, and authenticity.’

According to Mpungu, the comic follows a young girl documenting her visit to a cultural museum, where matooke is presented not as a lived experience, but as a curated artifact.

‘This shift from everyday nourishment to preserved display mirrors the gradual distancing from tradition that many societies face. What was once a communal, hands-on process rooted in care, patience, and shared knowledge becomes simplified, aestheticized, and disconnected from its original meaning.’

‘Through this narrative, I examine how cultural practices are ‘downgraded’ in modern context not necessarily in value, but in depth. The preparation of matooke, once an intimate ritual involving peeling, steaming, and collective participation, is reduced to a surface level experience. This reflects a larger pattern where cultural identity is consumes visually rather than lived authentically,’ he adds.

Byoma has a video installation and comic about Kanga and Banana. She says the project was created as an extension of the comic story, which follows a young girl named Banana whose family lives near the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.

‘Her father is a tour guide, and she is constantly begging to accompany him to work because of her love for the gorillas she has grown up alongside. This work explores the relationship between two major groups of inhabitants within the Bwindi ecosystem, and the delicate balance that defines how they coexist.’

He adds: ‘The video installation, currently playing exclusively at Xenson Art Space as part of the exhibition, offers a sneak peek into what will become the final animation. It presents the sequence of events that form the story, giving audiences an opportunity to experience the comic in motion. This complements the printed work by revealing nuances and transitions that may not be immediately apparent on the page.’

When asked how far she has reached with the production, Byoma replies: ‘The animation is currently well into production, following the completion of the animatic. It is scheduled for public release later this year. With the story and characters already established, the remaining stages involve refining the animation, recording dialogue, developing sound design, and bringing all elements together into a final piece.’

President Yoweri Museveni has declared that Uganda has officially transitioned from the cluster of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to a Lower Middle-Income status, driven by sustained industrial growth, agricultural surpluses, and a structural shift toward a knowledge-based economy.

Delivering the 2026 State of the Nation Address (SONA) at the Kololo Ceremonial Grounds on June 4, the President painted a picture of a resilient economy that has expanded 17-fold over the last four decades. He assured both citizens and foreign investors that the country is now locked into a trajectory of faster growth and structural transformation.

According to the President, Uganda’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has grown exponentially from $3.9 billion (Shs14.8 trillion) when the National Resistance Movement (NRM) took power in 1986, to the current $69.3 billion (Shs263.3 trillion) using the foreign exchange method. When measured by Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), the President placed the economy at $197.1 billion.

“The GDP per capita has risen to $1,278 (Shs4.8 million), surpassing the international threshold for lower middle-income status, which stands at $1,136,” Mr. Museveni said. He added that household poverty had drastically declined from 56.4 percent in 1992 to 16.1 percent today, while life expectancy has jumped from 43 to 68 years. Infant mortality rates have similarly dropped from 122 deaths per 1,000 live births to 36.

The five phases of development

To contextualize the current economic posture, President Museveni outlined five distinct phases of development that Uganda has undergone since 1986.

The first phase focused on emergency recovery, which involved restoring the “3Cs” (Colonial, Cash crops, and Cooperatives) and the “3Ts” (Tourism, Tea, and Tobacco) of the old colonial enclave economy. This phase, he noted, successfully dismantled the informalized, chaotic economy inherited from Idi Amin’s regime, which was defined by magendo (smuggling), kibaanda (forex black market), and kusamula (reckless speculation).

The subsequent phases involved expanding and diversifying the economic enclave. Mr. Museveni highlighted how unconventional cash crops have transformed rural livelihoods. “That is how the dairy sector changed the cattle corridor, and how cassava is changing many parts of Uganda. These are totally new cash products,” he noted.

The fourth and fifth phases, according to the head of state, involve adding value to raw materials-such as refined gold-and ushering Uganda into a knowledge-based economy focused on domestic manufacturing of automobiles, medical vaccines, and computers.

Double-digit growth before first oil

Looking ahead, the President announced ambitious growth forecasts, projecting that the economy will grow by 6.4 percent in the current financial year before accelerating to a staggering 10 percent in the next financial year. This acceleration is expected to push the total size of the economy to $80 billion.

Notably, Mr. Museveni emphasized that these milestone figures are being realized even before Uganda begins commercial oil production from the Albertine Graben.

The country’s export basket has significantly widened, adding 31 new products over the last 15 years. Total exports reached $18 billion in the 12 months ending March 2026. Uganda now exports highly sophisticated and manufactured items, including pharmaceuticals, refined gold, structural steel, ICT components, ceramics, plastics, and dairy goods.

“The 67 percent of the people that have listened to our message, and friends from outside that have invested here, have turned our country into a country of surpluses,” the President stated.

To back his claims of agricultural and industrial abundance, the President rolled out a comparative statistical breakdown of Uganda’s production growth since 1986:

Product / Commodity

1986 Production

Current Production (2026)

Milk

200 million litres

5.4 billion litres

Coffee (60kg bags)

2 million bags

9.3 million bags

Fish

Negligible / Untracked

727,000 Metric Tonnes

Cement

4,900 Metric Tonnes

7 million Metric Tonnes

Maize

200,000 Metric Tonnes

5 million Metric Tonnes

Bananas

6.6 million Metric Tonnes

11 million Metric Tonnes

Sugar

152,000 Metric Tonnes

700,000 Metric Tonnes

Security and infrastructure backbone

The President, however, warned that wealth creation cannot sustained in a vacuum, asserting that peace, law, and order remain the ultimate prerequisites for economic success. While he commended the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF) for guaranteeing national peace, he challenged the Police and the Judiciary to step up and strictly enforce law and order.

On infrastructure, Mr. Museveni detailed the NRM’s deliberate strategy to tarmac core national transit corridors connecting Uganda to its neighbors. Highways now run seamlessly from northern border points like Oraba, Nimule, and Musingo down to southern frontiers including Mutukula, Katuna, and Bunagana. Similar links connect eastern points like Busia and Malaba to western borders like Mpondwe and Ishasha, alongside dedicated tarmac networks linking vital water transport hubs like Jinja, Port Bell, and Bukakata.

To preserve these multi-billion-shilling road networks from premature wear and tear, the government plans to shift bulk haulage to alternative routes.

“We are revamping the metre-gauge railway and building the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). We are also working with Kenya and Tanzania on pipelines for crude petroleum and refined products,” Museveni said. “This will move heavy cargo and petroleum products away from the roads to the railways and pipelines, leaving roads primarily for passengers and light cargo.”

In the energy sector, power generation capacity has expanded from a meager 60 Megawatts (MW) in 1986 to 2,098 MW. The President revealed that the long-term state target is 50,000 MW, to be tapped from a mix of hydro, solar, gas, wind, geothermal, and nuclear energy sources.

Capital injection into households

Addressing wealth distribution, the President criticized land fragmentation, noting that in developed nations, very few individuals own large tracts of land, yet they maximize output. He directed local leaders to ensure that government wealth-alleviation programs are effectively “downloaded” to the grassroots.

Over the next five years, the state intends to ensure every household with land accesses low-interest capital through the Parish Development Model (PDM). According to executive data, Shs 557 million has already been disbursed per parish, reaching 3.7 million households.

The government commits to injecting Shs 100 million annually per rural parish-plus an additional Shs 15 million for local leaders-while urban wards will receive Shs 300 million plus Shs 15 million for leadership structures. This will run alongside the Shs 760 billion already funneled into the Emyooga initiative operating at the constituency level.

“We are now set for further and faster growth,” the President concluded, urging all leaders to closely monitor these funds to wipe out the remaining 33 percent of homesteads still trapped in subsistence agriculture.

Ugandan rugby has been thrown into mourning following the death of Rugby Cranes and Stanbic Black Pirates forward Sydney Gongodyo, prompting the postponement of this weekend’s Uganda Rugby Premiership semi final between Black Pirates and Heathens.

Gongodyo, 27, a student at Makerere University died on Friday evening after sustaining injuries in a mob attack in Kampala that is now the subject of a police murder investigation.

Mob violence

Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson SP Racheal Kawala confirmed that a case of murder by mob action was registered at Kira Road Police Station following an incident at approximately 2pm in Masulira Zone, Bukoto I Parish, Nakawa Division. Officers responded to the scene and rushed Gongodyo to Mulago National Referral Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries at around 7pm.

‘Efforts are underway to identify and apprehend the suspects involved so that they can be brought to justice,’ Kawala said.

Police have not disclosed what triggered the violence, though unverified accounts circulating on social media suggest Gongodyo may have been involved in a road accident shortly before the attack and was set upon by boda boda riders and a section of members of the public as he attempted to explain the situation. Authorities have not confirmed these claims.

Served with honour

The news sent shockwaves through the rugby community. URU president Godwin Kayangwe described the death as a monumental loss to the sport, saying Gongodyo had ‘served Uganda with honour, discipline, and exceptional commitment’ through his contributions to Black Pirates and the Rugby Cranes.

Kayangwe directed that Sunday’s semifinal be postponed, that a moment of silence be observed before all sanctioned matches this Saturday and that national team players and officials wear black armbands in forthcoming fixtures. URU said it will work with Black Pirates and the Gongodyo family to ensure a befitting send-off.

A reliable presence in the Pirates forward pack, Gongodyo featured in the club’s 2025 Premiership title win and travelled with the squad for last week’s Enterprise Cup final against Kabras Sugar in Nairobi. He had also established himself as a regular for the Rugby Cranes at the XV-a-side level. A new date for the postponed semifinal is yet to be confirmed. Police investigations remain ongoing.

Farmers across the country have been advised to use agro inputs such as pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers, among others, to improve soil fertility, manage pests and achieve maximum yield.

However, some of these agrochemicals farmers are using in their farms are hazardous to human health and the environment.

As such, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries recently banned the use of nine agricultural agro chemical inputs since they pose human health and environmental hazards. This was revealed during the second annual Crop Life Symposium held in Kampala.

Background

While these synthetic inputs significantly increase harvests, they also raise critical concerns regarding food safety, ecosystem health and human toxicity.

Many smallholder farmers particularly in the western and central regions report that using fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides has effectively doubled their yields and profit margins for cash crops like maize, tomatoes, Irish potatoes, and beans.

Agricultural companies, often working with the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) and the Ministry of Agriculture are transitioning away from generalised fertilisers to crop-specific blends to maximize nutrient absorption and prevent soil degradation.

The experts believe some of the challenges which must be checked include Food Safety and Health Hazards because the excessive or improper use of agrochemicals leads to elevated chemical residues in food products like vegetables and milk.

Studies have raised alarms over highly hazardous pesticides some of which are banned globally finding their way to local markets.

Counterfeits and misapplication can be a problem because a lack of regulatory oversight in village markets means farmers frequently purchase counterfeit products or use chemicals without observing safe pre-harvest intervals

It is because of these challenges which led the Ministry of agriculture to ban 9 agro chemicals in the market and imposed restrictions on nine other agrochemicals for farmers to use on specific crops.

Insights by Crop life experts

The Chief Executive Officer Crop Life Africa Middle East, Ms Stella Simiyu, explained that Crop protection which emphasises the use of quality seed and advanced technologies such as Biotechnology is key for farmers to achieve better yields.

She contends that it is impossible to achieve food security, trade and sustainable goals unless regulatory systems are put in place to enable effective agri input innovations for farmer uptake.

She called upon African countries including Uganda to adopt fit for purpose emerging agricultural technologies, apply science and risk based assessments for agricultural products and link regulation to farmer access.

Banned and Restricted Chemicals

The Commissioner Crop Inspection and Certification Ministry of Agriculture Dr Paul Mwambu, explained that Crop Life raised concern for the ministry to review 18 agro chemicals about the risks of their ingredients which the ministry experts did using scientific laboratory tests.

This regulatory review was triggered by emerging international scientific evidence and trade concerns relating to potential risks posed by certain active ingredients to human health, environmental safety, food systems and compliance with international residue standards on agricultural commodities

Therefore, following technical review by the Agricultural Chemicals Control Technical Committee and final consideration by the Agricultural Chemicals Review Committee, the government reached a decision of phasing out nine active ingredients.

These include Alpha-cypermethrin and Chlorothalonil which are pollutants of water and may end up destroying aquatic life and they are toxic to beneficial insects such as bees.

Others are Atrazine, Butachlor and Carbofuran which are toxic to underground water and the environment.

The former causes reduced male fertility, coma and circulatory collapse as well as gastric bleeding while the latter irritates the skin and eyes and causes toxicity to fauna and flora.

Dichlorvos is acutely toxic to environment while Dimethoate causes reproductive disorder and is toxic to pollinators Meanwhile Diuron and Propanil cause Kidney failure, spleen and liver damage.

The nine active ingredients which the committee placed under restricted use for specific crops include Ametryn which is restricted for sugarcane and pineapple weeding while Carbendazim is restricted for use on cashew nuts only.

Chlorpyrifos is restricted only for use on ants in anthills and Fipronil is restricted in controlling termites in building sites.

Imidacloprid is restricted to seed companies for seed treatment and Indoxacarb is restricted for use on tomatoes to control tuta absoluta and diamondback moth insects.

There is no alternative at the moment for Mancozeb and yet it is critical for fugal management of several fungal diseases in fruits, vegetables and crops such as potatoes and tomatoes among others.

The ministry is retaining it for the next five years as alternatives are being sought.

Profenofos has been restricted for the control of fall armyworm and Thiamethoxam is restricted for use on coffee to control black coffee twig borer and in Maize to control fall army worm.

Dr Mwambu notes that the banned agro chemicals have other alternatives and that the decisions made are part of the government’s obligation to ensure that only safe, effective and internationally acceptable agricultural chemical products remain in circulation and use by farmers.

Lango sub-region is grappling with high cases of crime threatening the security of residents, with authorities linking most incidents to alcoholism, drug abuse and violence at night discos.

Lango sub-region consists of nine districts and a city: Alebtong, Amolatar, Apac, Dokolo, Kole, Kwania, Lira, Otuke, Oyam Districts and Lira City. The trend is spreading across all of them.

The Police Annual Crime Report of 2025 puts Lango sub-region, or North Kyoga Policing Region, at number 4 among the top 10 policing regions with the highest crime rates out of 32 regions in Uganda. North Kyoga registered 12,728 criminal cases reported to police in 2025.

The trend has continued into 2026, with cases of murder by mob action, murder, theft, assault, rape and defilement among the common cases being registered. Authorities say most of these crimes are committed either under the influence of alcohol or during night discos, which have become common at trading centres.

The most recent cases include a fight over girls between students of Apac Seed Secondary School and the community at a disco on April 3, 2026, Easter Sunday, at Agweng Trading Centre in Apac Subcounty, which left seven students injured.

On May 3, 2026, Kenneth Odon, 16, a student of Kangai Secondary School in Dokolo District, was stabbed to death at a disco in Arwotcek Parish, Arwotcek Subcounty, Amolatar District during a fight over girls.

In Lira City, a 20-year-old woman was gang raped on May 2, 2026 by a group of over ten men who were already intoxicated with alcohol. The victim, a resident of Amuca, was returning from a hangout at Grand Paradise Hotel in Amuca along the Lira-Kamdini Highway.

In April, police in Lira City East Division arrested 100 suspected criminals at several drinking joints on the outskirts of the city.

The high influx of illicit alcohol in the local market has made crude alcohol accessible to low-income earners including youth, resulting in abuse and high consumption. Authorities say this is increasing school dropout, family breakups and poverty.

Bonny Okello Alele, the Assistant Resident City Commissioner for Lira City, said alcoholism is becoming a security threat. ‘Some of you would see security as thugs, Malaya mentioned them but alcoholism is now one of the big threats in our city. This alcohol of Shs 1000 per bottle is a danger to this society already,’ he said.

Okello added that some dangerous alcohols are being sold in open markets and the youth are the highest consumers. ‘Some of us do day operations, we arrested about 27 around VH Public School by 9am they were drunk and dead. You just pick them like the grasshoppers,’ he said.

Alex Ogota, the LC3 chairperson of Ibuje Subcounty in Apac District, said thieves are taking advantage of sound pollution from night discos to steal. ‘We have bars at the trading centres where they play loud music at night. The thieves stay here and deep in the night they go to people’s homes where they steal cattle, chickens, goats and break into the houses,’ he said.

Pastor Thomas Opio Okene, the senior pastor at Amuli Baptist Church in Kwania District, asked local authorities to regulate night discos and alcoholism since it is compromising security.

‘The government has under looked these issues of alcoholism and night disco for a very long time but it’s now costing us. Many lives have lost, properties destroyed, families broken because of these issues. People are no longer drinking responsibly. More sensitization is needed so that this vice is reduced,’ he said.

However, North Kyoga Region Police Spokesperson Patrick Jimmy Okema said the cases are isolated and do not represent a general security threat.

‘Those are isolated cases that we cannot term it as a very big issue in terms of security but all the things that the different stakeholders should look into, the religious leaders, the media, the CSOs should come in and join hands to deal with such,’ he said.