Category: Daily Monitor

As the cost of animal feeds continues to rise in Uganda, many farmers are searching for affordable and sustainable alternatives to feed their livestock.

One solution that is gradually attracting attention is Azolla, a small floating water fern that can provide nutritious feed for poultry, pigs, fish, rabbits, and cattle.

Although it looks like an ordinary green mat floating on water, Azolla is often referred to as ‘green gold’ because of its rapid growth, high nutritional value, and ability to improve farm productivity at a low cost.

What is Azolla?

Brian Aganyira of Bakuuku Azolla Farmers says Azolla is a tiny aquatic fern that grows naturally on the surface of ponds, swamps, and slow-moving water bodies. It has a unique relationship with a blue-green alga known as Anabaena, which enables it to capture nitrogen from the atmosphere.

This natural process makes Azolla rich in protein and an excellent feed supplement for livestock and poultry. Under favourable conditions, the plant can double its biomass within three to five days, making it one of the fastest-growing plants in the world.

Why farmers are embracing Azolla

For many livestock farmers, feed accounts for the largest share of production costs. Poultry farmers, fish farmers, and dairy farmers often struggle with rising prices of commercial feeds. Aganyira says:

‘Azolla offers a cheaper alternative because it can be produced on the farm using locally available materials. Once established, a small Azolla pond can continuously provide fresh feed throughout the year.’

The plant contains between 20 and 30 percent protein on a dry matter basis, as well as essential amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. These nutrients make it suitable as a supplementary feed for various farm animals.

Feeding dairy cattle

Dairy farmers can also benefit from Azolla cultivation. Fresh Azolla can be mixed with grass, maize bran, or other feeds and offered to cattle. Because of its protein content, Azolla helps improve feed quality, particularly during dry seasons when pasture quality declines.

Some farmers report increased milk production when Azolla is regularly included in dairy cattle diets. The plant is soft, palatable, and easy for livestock to digest.

Benefits for poultry farmers

Poultry farmers can mix fresh Azolla with other feeds for chickens, ducks, turkeys, and guinea fowls, according to Aganyira.

He says: ‘Farmers who incorporate Azolla into poultry diets often report improved egg production, stronger eggshells, better growth rates, and reduced feed expenses. The plant also contains carotenoids that can enhance yolk colour in laying birds.’

However, experts advise that Azolla should be used as a supplement rather than a complete replacement for commercial feeds to ensure balanced nutrition.

A valuable feed for fish and pigs

Fish farmers can use Azolla as a supplementary feed, especially in ponds stocked with tilapia and other herbivorous fish species. The floating plant can either be fed directly or incorporated into formulated feeds. Pig farmers can also mix chopped Azolla with other feeds. This helps reduce feeding costs while supplying additional nutrients. Rabbit farmers similarly use fresh Azolla as a protein-rich supplement.

Improving soil fertility

Beyond livestock feeding, Azolla offers important benefits for crop production.

‘Since it fixes atmospheric nitrogen, the plant acts as a natural fertilizer. Farmers can incorporate harvested Azolla into crop gardens where it decomposes and enriches the soil with nutrients,’ says Aganyira.

Rice farmers in Asian countries have used Azolla for decades as a biofertilizer. In Uganda, it can also be used in vegetable gardens, banana plantations, and other cropping systems.

The plant contributes organic matter to the soil, improves soil structure, and supports beneficial microorganisms.

How to establish an Azolla unit

One reason Azolla is gaining popularity is that it requires very little land. Farmers can establish production units using small ponds, lined pits, plastic sheets, old fish ponds, or concrete tanks.

Environmental advantages

Azolla farming offers several environmental benefits.

‘The plant captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and helps improve water quality by absorbing excess nutrients. Its ability to fix nitrogen reduces dependence on chemical fertilizers,’ Aganyira says.

Because it grows rapidly and requires minimal external inputs, azolla contributes to more sustainable agricultural systems. For smallholder farmers facing climate change challenges, Azolla can provide a low-cost resource that improves both crop and livestock production.

Challenges farmers should consider

Despite its advantages, Azolla farming is not without challenges. The plant requires a reliable water supply throughout the year. Prolonged drought can reduce production unless farmers have access to irrigation or stored water.

‘Extreme temperatures can also affect growth. In addition, farmers need proper training on feeding rates because excessive use may affect feed balance in some animals,’ Aganyira says.

Obtaining quality starter cultures can also be difficult in areas where Azolla farming is still new.

As Ugandan farmers seek affordable ways to improve livestock productivity and food security, Azolla presents an opportunity that many farmers have yet to explore. With its high protein content, rapid growth, low production costs, and soil improvement benefits, the tiny floating fern has the potential to become an important component of integrated farming systems.

Production

To start production, a farmer needs:

A shallow pit or pond measuring approximately two to five metres in length.

A plastic liner to prevent water loss.

Water with a depth of about 10 to 15 centimetres.

Cow dung or compost manure.

Starter Azolla culture.

After preparing the pond, the farmer adds water and manure before introducing the azolla culture. Within a few weeks, the plant spreads and covers the entire water surface.

Basic management practices

Successful Azolla production requires regular management. The water level should be maintained throughout the growing period.

The pond should be located where it receives partial sunlight because excessive heat can damage the plants.

Organic manure should be added periodically to replenish nutrients. Farmers should also remove weeds and monitor for pests such as snails that may feed on the Azolla.

Regular harvesting is important because overcrowding reduces growth rates.

A farmer can harvest a portion of the biomass every day while leaving enough plants behind to continue multiplying.

In renewed efforts to fight corruption and improve efficiency, government has announced it will fully roll out a mandatory electronic government procurement system in all institutions by July 1, 2026, phasing out manual procurement systems to promote digital governance.

The rollout is intended to eliminate corruption scandals associated with procurement, reduce bureaucratic delays, and improve accountability in public spending, while modernising public administration and strengthening transparency.

Speaking during the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) ISO certification handover ceremony in Kampala on Friday, PPDA Executive Director Benson Turamye announced that electronic procurement will become mandatory across government institutions.

‘By July 2026, we are going to roll out e-government procurement to all government agencies, we are going to phase out the manual procurement systems as we fully transition to an electronic procurement system,’ he announced.

Mr Turamye said at least 36 government agencies are already using the electronic procurement system. From July 2026, it will be mandatory for all government agencies, a critical reform he said will reduce manipulation in procurement processes.

‘We are not creating a new process, but digitising the existing analogue process. All government agencies, from local government to cities, public universities, and government hospitals, among other institutions, must adopt the trend,’ he added.

According to PPDA, public procurement contributes nearly 18 percent of Uganda’s Gross Domestic Product. Mr Turamye noted that 65 percent of the 2026/27 budget is going to procurement.

The PPDA ED stated that maintaining international standards, information security, and accountability remains essential to building trust and safeguarding integrity in public procurement. He announced PPDA’s next focus will be on strengthening cybersecurity to protect users.

The announcement comes as government increases investment in digital infrastructure under the 2026/27 budget. In the 2026/27 financial year, government allocated Shs1.140 trillion to Science, Technology and Innovation, ICT and the creative industries. Key priorities include expanding digital infrastructure to increase coverage, reliability and affordability of internet, government services and e-commerce.

Minister of ICT and National Guidance Justine Kasule Lumumba urged government agencies to embrace digital governance, arguing that technology offers one of Uganda’s strongest responses to corruption and inefficiency.

She said migration from analogue to digital systems would improve service delivery, increase transparency and restore public trust in government operations.

Ms Lumumba stressed the need to secure protection of procurement data, including financial information, supplier records, bid documents and contract information, to guarantee value for money and improve traceability in public expenditure.

‘We need to bring more ideas, develop more software to fight corruption because this is an effort to show that we can fight corruption but also be able to compete at the global level in technology,’ she urged.

As government accelerates digitisation, she encouraged public institutions to adopt internationally recognised digital standards to support electronic governance and strengthen service delivery.

The push for digital governance also aligns with broader procurement reforms announced in the national budget, including stronger internal controls, tighter audits and enhanced accountability measures intended to improve public resource management.

Last month, Ministry of Finance Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury Ramathan Ggoobi warned that Uganda’s ambition to grow its economy to USD500 billion by 2040 could be undermined by corruption, delays and inefficiencies in procurement.

A widow in Mbarara City is appealing to the government and well-wishers for assistance to repatriate the body of her daughter, who reportedly died under unclear circumstances in China.

Syson Karungi, 30, a resident of Taso Village in Mbarara City South Division, travelled to China in 2023 through a recruitment agency in search of employment opportunities.

According to her mother, Mable Bamutorana, Karungi initially struggled to find stable employment and later relocated to Beijing, where she worked as a casual labourer. Her employment reportedly ended in April, leaving her without work for two months.

Bamutorana said the family lost contact with Karungi on January 19, 2024, after her known phone numbers became unreachable.

Their concerns deepened on March 5, 2026, when a man who identified himself as an employee of the Ugandan embassy contacted the family seeking details of Karungi’s sister but provided no information regarding her whereabouts.

The family later learnt that Karungi had died in China after reportedly collapsing while having dinner at a restaurant.

Bamutorana said they have not received an official explanation regarding the cause of death and maintain that Karungi had never complained of any serious illness.

According to information relayed to the family by a Ugandan friend living in China, police transferred Karungi’s body to a mortuary in another province.

The family says the mortuary charges 600 yuan per day for storage, adding to the burden of repatriating the remains.

Bamutorana said efforts to seek assistance from Ugandan officials had yielded little progress, while a company reportedly willing to facilitate repatriation quoted approximately Shs96 million for the process.

“We want to bring our daughter home and give her a dignified burial, but we do not have the means,” she said.

Karungi’s sister, Shyrose Mutungi, said the family remains in contact with people willing to assist with the repatriation process but lacks the funds required.

The family has appealed to President Museveni, government authorities and well-wishers to support efforts to return Karungi’s body to Uganda as they continue to seek answers about the circumstances surrounding her death.

The very first significant business of Uganda’s current Parliament was, regrettably, to do something quite predictable if egregious – that is, approve increasing the size of Cabinet. This was a repeat of what the first Parliament under the 1995 Constitution (the Sixth Parliament) did by amending a newly-passed Constitution to allow the President to appoint more ministers than initially provided for. Since 1996, Uganda’s Cabinet expanded exponentially, from 41 to 62 in 2002, nearly 80 at the close of the 2000s and now stands 82 strong. But it is not just the size of Cabinet, it is the entire public sector that holds the hallmarks of a bloated system bereft of rationalisation and fiscal prudence.

In 1995, Uganda had only about a dozen presidential advisors. Today, there are more than a hundred or, to put it in more apt terms, the number is hard to pin down. There was a time when someone was appointed presidential advisor on poverty in Ruhweju District in exchange for withdrawing from a parliamentary race for that district. Similarly, we had a presidential advisor for Ruharo affairs, the base of the East Ankole Diocese.

We have presidential advisors for poverty in different regions and sub-regions, a presidential advisor for this and that, from security and political mobilisation to cultural and community matters. The expansion of the Executive branch through ministerial appointments is squarely matched by the staggering growth in the size of the other political branch of government, the Legislature, such that today Members of Parliament cannot find where to seat during plenary proceedings. The space on the floor was designed for a much smaller number than the total of MPs elected today.

Uganda’s Parliament was 279 members in 1989, today, it is 529 plus several ministers who are not elected MPs but are ex-officials, taking the number in the House to as many as 540. In absolute terms, even disregarding population and geographic size, Uganda has one of the largest Parliaments in the world! Compared to other countries that are geographically massive or have humongous populations or both, our Parliament is ridiculously huge.

Worse still, Uganda had 39 districts in 1991. Today, they are 146, a nearly four-fold expansion of chairpersons, RDCs and Chief Administrative Officers. Even if we took the stylised argument of population growth and the need for serviced delivery, at about 50 million Uganda’s population has expanded less than three times. The bloated public sector, starting with Cabinet, is officially justified on account of better delivery of services to the people. It is a hollow argument. Consider the docket of justice. In the past, the Minister of Justice was also the Attorney General. Today, the two are separate, each with a deputy. But access to justice has arguably worsened. A separate Attorney General’s office, a Justice ministry, a substantial expansion in judicial personnel, but also a corresponding expansion in corruption that undercuts justice.

We used to have just a prime minister, now that office has three deputies. When Dr Specioza Kazibwe was Vice President, she was also Minister of Agriculture; now the latter has its own four ministers! Perhaps the most absurd is the Ministry for Gender, Labour, and Social Development. It has a total of six ministers: the ‘full minister’ and five State/deputy ministers in charge of culture, youth, elderly, disability and labour!

In Parliament, we have MPs representing the army and other special interest groups: workers, youth and elderly. Other than serving as avenues for elite access to the spoils of the system, these political positions do little, if anything, to serve the needs of the average Ugandan. Consider the case of Mr Ofwono Opondo P’Odel, a long-surviving regime propagandist. He may have realised he was out of favour in the evolving power realignment and succession dynamics, so he pivoted to a convenient opening, purporting to represent elderly people in eastern Uganda! Strictly speaking, Mr Opondo is neither an elderly person nor rooted among the elderly people in eastern Uganda as to represent them, yet he was declared unopposed for that seat!

Similarly, Ms Jacquline Mbabazi was once at the centre of a bitter fallout in the inner sanctum of the ruling NRM a decade ago when her husband, Amama Mbabazi, sought to wrestle power from Mr Museveni. In a dramatic comeback last year, she too was elected unopposed as MP representing the elderly in western Uganda. She is now a State minister for the elderly! The late Joseph Tamale Mirundi (I was never a fan of his raw rhetoric) captured these sorts of jobs and appointments as ‘welfare’.

But it is also how Mr Museveni has succeeded in ruling the country by distributing opportunities for personal aggrandisement and accommodating potential political troublemakers. A leading member of Museveni’s Cabinet was once sacked; he retorted that he was ‘capable of causing trouble’! Cabinet appointments and others are a way of mollifying would-be troublemakers but also to appease whole constituencies. This is flat-out political corruption, which otherwise is euphemistically called patronage!

Wakiso District has adopted a five-year communication strategy aimed at improving public awareness and rebuilding trust in government programmes after a study found widespread information gaps among residents.

The strategy, covering 2026 to 2030, follows research that found many residents lacked information about key government initiatives, including the Parish Development Model (PDM) and projects under the World Bank-funded Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area Urban Development Programme (GKMA-UDP).

According to the study conducted by Ultimate Multimedia Consult (U) Ltd, 72 percent of residents lacked trust in district communication channels, while 71 percent had never attended district meetings. Only 12 percent understood their rights and project timelines under GKMA-UDP.

The research also found a 68 percent information gap regarding the PDM, with only 14 percent of respondents saying they understood how the programme operates.

“There’s a lot of dissatisfaction in communities, with many residents expressing grievances about district authorities,” said Gerald Businge, the lead researcher.

The study, conducted across Wakiso’s municipalities, town councils and sub-counties, surveyed 1,500 residents and included interviews with district leaders, focus group discussions, digital communication audits and media assessments.

Researchers also identified staffing shortages within the district’s communication unit, which currently relies on a single senior communications officer to serve a population estimated at 3.4 million people.

The report recommends recruiting additional communications officers, holding quarterly community barazas and strengthening engagement with local council leaders to improve information flow and feedback mechanisms.

“If this is done within 12 months, we expect an improvement in the flow of information from the district to the intended recipients,” Businge said.

Senior Communications Officer Prossy Nakalembe acknowledged existing communication challenges and said the strategy would help improve public engagement and participation in government programmes.

“All the loopholes are going to be fixed in this strengthened communication line to ensure that the district serves its people satisfactorily,” she said.

Officials said poor communication has previously affected implementation of government projects, citing resistance by some traders to register for stalls at the newly constructed Kawuku Market because of fears of eviction.

The district hopes the new strategy will improve access to information, strengthen public trust and encourage greater participation in government initiatives.

In an era when novels about colonialism tend to preach to the converted or drown in solemn misery, Yáng Shuang-zi’s Taiwan Travelogue arrives like a perfectly braised bowl of pork rice; modest, unassuming, and utterly devastating in its quiet brilliance. The 2026 International Booker Prize winner is that rarest of literary creatures; a romance that doubles as an incisive postcolonial critique, a metafictional puzzle that never loses its emotional core, and a translation that sings.

Love under the gaze of empire

The premise is deceptively simple. It is May 1938. Aoyama Chizuko, a young Japanese novelist with a famously monstrous appetite, arrives in Japanese-occupied Taiwan. She has no interest in the colonial government’s banquets or imperialist agenda. What she wants is real island life, authentic cuisine, and freedom. Enter Chizuru; a Taiwanese interpreter younger than Chizuko, sharing the same characters in her name, who proves equally adept at arranging scenic train rides and cooking exceptional meals.

What follows is a slow-burn romance conducted across braised pork rice, winter melon tea, and lively banter. But this is no mere period love story. As judge chair Natasha Brown observed, the novel teases out an agonising question: ‘Can love overcome a power imbalance?’ The answer, Yáng suggests, is both yes and no, and the ambiguity is the point.

The cipher and the stomach

Chizuru is the novel’s great achievement; a character so carefully constructed that her unknowability becomes the engine of the plot. She is enchanting yet distant, professional yet intimate, always holding something back. Every attempt by Chizuko to pierce her mask fails. It is only after a heartbreaking separation that the truth begins to emerge; that the power dynamics of coloniser and colonised cannot be dissolved by good intentions or romantic longing, no matter how genuine.

Yáng, who is Taiwanese, has spoken about the ‘conflicted mix of distaste and nostalgia’ with which many Taiwanese regard the Japanese colonial period. Unlike the uniformly resentful memory of Japanese rule in Korea, Taiwan’s relationship with its colonial past is more tangled. Taiwan Travelogue refuses to flatten this complexity into easy outrage. The novel acknowledges oppression without reducing Taiwanese identities to suffering alone. As translator Lin King puts it: ‘To suggest otherwise is to reduce a culture to its trauma.’

A metafictional masterstroke

The novel’s formal invention deserves equal praise. Disguised as a translation of a rediscovered Japanese travel memoir, complete with introductions, footnotes, and afterwords, Taiwan Travelogue wraps an intriguing metafictional layer around its core love story. King’s translation, maximalist, rule-breaking, and experimental, perfectly conveys the novel’s layered narrative voices. She worked closely with editor Yuka Igarashi at Graywolf to produce what she calls ‘an experimental, multilayered work.’ The footnotes alone are a delight, occasionally veering into scholarly deadpan humour, never disrupting the emotional momentum. This is a book that knows it is a translation, knows it is playing with authenticity, and wants you to know it too. Rather than breaking the spell, this transparency deepens it.

Why it won

The 2026 judges, a panel including mathematician Marcus du Sautoy, translator Sophie Hughes, and novelist Nilanjana S. Roy, chose Taiwan Travelogue from a strong shortlist that included Shida Bazyar’s The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran and Marie Ndiaye’s The Witch. What tipped the scales, I suspect, was the novel’s double feat; succeeding as both a tender romance and a sharp postcolonial novel, without ever letting one mode undermine the other.

Yáng has joked that researching the novel’s food and travel themes ‘made my savings go down and my weight go up.’ That pleasure principle, the belief that humans ‘always manage to find flickers of levity and deep wells of love’ even under oppression, infuses every page. This is historical fiction that refuses to be strictly miserable, and it is all the more truthful for it.

The opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) is mourning yet another tragic loss following the death of Sarah Nantumbwe Ddamulira, the wife of missing opposition supporter John Ddamulira.

Nantumbwe’s passing on Saturday, June 13, 2026, marks a painful chapter for families of missing persons in Uganda. She spent her final five years desperately searching for her husband, who was abducted by security operatives from his shop at Kisekka Market in 2020.

Nantumbwe’s death mirrors the tragic demise of Monica Nabukenya Kibalama, who died in November 2025. Nabukenya was the wife of another missing NUP supporter, John Bosco Kibalama, an accountant who vanished on June 3, 2019. Top NUP leadership expressed profound heartbreak over Nantumbwe’s death, emphasizing the heavy psychological toll inflicted on families of the disappeared.

“Like other family members of those disappeared, Sarah has spent the last five years moving everywhere looking for her husband. It is most painful that she has passed on without finding any answers. Kitalo nnyo (How sad),” announced NUP Secretary General David Lewis Rubongoya. The Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Joel Ssenyonyi, revealed that Nantumbwe had a premonition of her death during a recent hospital visit.

“She shared with us her feeling that her life was nearing its end, but she was deeply pained by the possibility of leaving without knowing what happened to her husband,” Ssenyonyi said. “Her children are now left without a father and mother. May God see it fit that justice be served to families like Sarah’s.”

The trauma confronting these families was previously highlighted by the mysterious death of Monica Nabukenya Kibalama. Nabukenya was found dead in her bathtub by her children at their home in Seeta Village, Kasangati Town Council.

At the time, Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson Patrick Onyango stated that an initial autopsy at the City Mortuary was inconclusive, forcing police to dispatch samples to the Government Analytical Laboratory. Before her death, neighbours reported that Nabukenya was under immense emotional distress, facing property disputes with her husband’s relatives and carrying severe security fears that prompted her to install CCTV cameras. Her mother, Joyce Mwetise, noted that Nabukenya had developed diabetes and high blood pressure following her husband’s disappearance.

John Bosco Kibalama, who had defected from the ruling NRM to join Robert Kyagulanyi’s People Power movement (now NUP), was forced into a Toyota Hiace ‘drone’ van by armed men on Lumumba Avenue. His vehicle was found abandoned on the Gayaza-Kampala road.

In a twist of events in 2023, Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja claimed in Parliament that Kibalama was in government custody over murders in Luweero District, a statement she later retracted under intense pressure from the opposition. Nantumbwe’s death occurs against a backdrop of mixed developments regarding state-engineered disappearances. Just a day prior, on June 12, 2026, the Amuria District Woman Member of Parliament, Margaret Etilu, was released. MP Etilu had been missing for weeks after being picked up by security operatives, sparking nationwide outrage.

While Etilu’s safe return brought brief relief to the political landscape, it stands in stark contrast to the fate of ordinary citizens. NUP maintains a list of at least 18 prominent members who have been missing for years across Kampala and other parts of Uganda.

NUP President Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, previously lamented the heavy burden placed on these families, stating that it remains deeply painful for young children to be left entirely helpless while the state continues to withhold answers regarding their fathers’ whereabouts.

There are moments, Sam Mwesigwa, aka Xamie says, when even he does not fully understand what just happened. He will be on stage, guitar in hand, fingers moving almost instinctively, and the audience moves with the music.

‘It is a beautiful feeling. You are not speaking, but you are playing notes that somehow speak louder than words ever could,’ he says.

And then, sometimes, he pauses just to say thank you.

‘I just say, ‘God, thank you for this gift.’ Because sometimes what I play blesses me first.’

Mwesigwa did not think he would be a guitarist. He thought he would be a dancer because he was good at it, dancing for his mother, training church groups, even leading his school’s dance team to victory at the first high school Kadanke competitions. But guitar was also there, in the background. During his Primary Seven vacation, he heard a neighbour playing and ran to his place immediately to ask for lessons. The neighbour was busy, but Mwesigwa sat on his veranda every single day, waiting. Sometimes he would get the guitar for five minutes. He would sit with it for hours, figuring things out.

‘When I learnt my first three chords, I went and played for my family. They were impressed. I think I was about 14,’ he says. His first paid gig came in Senior Four for a birthday party where he earned Shs100,000. ‘I realised, oh, guitar can actually pay.’

The moment that decided

In October 2016, everything changed. Travelling at night on a hilly murram road to a show, the driver lost control. The car flipped about eight times. Mwesigwa was in the front seat without a seatbelt and his guitar between his legs. When the car stopped, he was already outside. No one knows how. He hit his head, spine, and pelvis. He had internal bleeding and a concussion. When he woke up, he had no memory of the accident.

‘I kept asking my dad, ‘What year is it? Where is my guitar?’ I could not even recognise my own phone.’

His whole body was paralysed except for his hands and neck. But when they brought him a guitar, he played it. His fingers still knew.

‘That moment gave me so much relief. I realised I had not lost everything.’

Doctors said he might never walk again. He spent five months lying flat on his back. Slowly, he started moving, then walking. It took three to four years to recover. That was when he accepted that dancing had to stop. From that point on, he focused entirely on guitar.

Goal changes

Like many young musicians, there was a time when the goal was to be seen. But somewhere along the way, that changed. Now, he is intentional when playing for secular audiences and for worship.

‘In a concert, yes, you can shine. But in worship, you have to know that it is not about you. It should never be about you,’ he says.

The temptation is always there; the fast runs, the impressive solos, the moments that make people turn their heads.

‘You can play the most beautiful, complex things and people will leave saying, ‘That guitarist was amazing.’ But the real goal is for someone to get lost in worship.’

To him, success is not applause. It is invisibility. The kind where the music becomes a bridge, and he becomes almost invisible within it.

On leading others

One morning on his way to the gym, a young man stopped him on the road.

‘He said, ‘Excuse me, sir. I am really blessed by what you do. I follow you online.” Mwesigwa did not recognise him. Just someone who had been watching from a distance.

There have been other encounters too. A girl at a school camp saw him play in Senior One. She went home and told her parents she wanted a guitar. Now she plays and sings.

And there are the messages on social media: ‘You inspired me to start playing guitar.’

Income and discipline

‘In this line of work, income is unpredictable,’ he says plainly.

There are seasons when the money flows and you can make about Shs3m in a week, and months when earnings drop to Shs300,000 a month or less. What has sustained him is discipline.

‘While I was still living with my parents, I always saved 100 percent of my income.’ Even now, he saves 70 to 80 percent of what he earns. ‘If I get Shs300,000, I can save Shs250,000 and live on the rest. I do not consider it as mine. It is untouchable,’ he says.

Faith

Growing up in church, there were expectations about where one should play and who one should work with. But being a working musician forced him to confront a deeper question.

‘I realised my relationship with God has to be personal. Not based on what my church expects. Not based on what my parents expect. But what I truly believe.’

That clarity has shaped his boundaries. He does not drink. He avoids substances. ‘I know how it could affect me. Being on stage, travelling, working with big artistes all comes with pressure. So I try to be as sober as I possibly can.’

On rejection

Rejection has shaped him too.

‘I used to be very shy. Even afraid to approach people because I feared being rejected.’ But over time, his understanding changed. ‘Now I see rejection as redirection. Sometimes it is simply not the right time. Sometimes it is God saying, ‘This is not for you.” ‘I became mostly self-taught. The people who trained me gave me 10 percent, the rest I learned by listening, watching, and practising for hours. I cannot read music, but I can hear and play.’

He studied a diploma in Software Engineering while paying his own tuition through gigs. By 2018, his music career took off. He toured Europe with Vision for Africa; Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in three months.

‘That experience completely changed my perspective,’ he says. ‘I wanted to become a versatile musician, someone who can fit anywhere, adapt, and keep evolving.’

He chose to focus on gospel music because that is where his heart is, but he developed a unique sound influenced by RandB and neo-soul. Today, whether on stage or alone in his room, the guitar is the first thing he plays when he wakes and the last thing he plays when before he sleeps.

‘Because sometimes what I play blesses me first,’ he says. ‘And that is enough.’

Globally, agriculture faces mounting pressures. These are driven by climate change, land degradation, labour shortages, supply chain disruptions and the demand for food from a growing population.

At the same time, productivity is uneven. For example, maize yields in the US often exceed 9,071 kilogrammes per hectare.

These high yields are driven by mechanisation, improved seed varieties, irrigation and efficient input use, supported increasingly by precision agriculture technologies. In contrast, yields in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa remain around 2-3 tons per hectare.

This reflects constraints like limited access to inputs, reliance on rain-fed systems and weaker infrastructure and institutional support.

Smallholder farmers make up around 80 percent of farmers in developing countries. They often struggle with low yields due to limited access to key agricultural inputs such as improved seeds, fertilisers and agrochemicals (herbicides and pesticides).

They are less likely to rely on irrigation and farm mechanisation. They also have high vulnerability to climate shocks.

Conventional farming practices, including reliance on rain-fed agriculture, the use of low-yielding local seed varieties, sub-optimal input application and heavy dependence on manual labour, are increasingly insufficient to meet the demands of 21st Century food systems.

AI has strong potential to improve agricultural productivity and resilience. But this potential depends on supportive policies, reliable infrastructure and equitable access. Without these, the technology could reinforce existing inequalities rather than reduce them.

The potential and the gaps

Patterns of AI adoption: including the extent of uptake across regions, and types of AI applications used in agriculture (such as precision farming, disease detection, yield prediction, and smart irrigation) Levels of infrastructural readiness: including the availability of electricity, broadband connectivity, digital literacy support, data management systems, smart devices, and extension or technical support services necessary for effective AI adoption

Key concerns around ethics and data governance: including data ownership, privacy and security, informed consent, algorithmic bias, transparency, accountability, and equitable access to AI-driven agricultural technologies. AI is increasingly shaping agriculture in developed countries. Technologies such as precision farming tools are helping improve fertiliser use, irrigation, yield prediction and pest management, while also supporting more efficient resource use and greater resilience to climate variability.

The factors that made this possible included:

Digital infrastructure: In many developed countries, reliable internet, satellite systems, cloud platforms and connected sensors enable continuous data collection and analysis. This supports real-time farm decisions and the seamless use of precision agriculture technologies.

Strong institutional support: This has enabled rapid uptake of innovations in agriculture. The support includes established governance frameworks that provide operational clarity on data privacy, transparency and accountability. This enabled more responsible technological innovation.

Reliable electricity: This is essential for AI-driven agriculture. It ensures the continuous operation of digital systems and technologies such as sensors, automated irrigation, drones, and data platforms.

But we found that AI adoption remains limited in developing countries, where smallholder farmers dominate food production. The limiting factors included:

Frequent quarrels and conflicts are major drawbacks in farming households. Failure to be transparent about financial matters and inability to agree about how to handle family income are big stumbling blocks to development and poverty eradication.

Many people are poor not because they have no income-generating projects but because they lack financial discipline. It is one thing to plant coffee or to invest in livestock keeping and another to achieve a satisfactory regular income and progress.

It is no use getting Parish Development Model (PDM) or Emyoga loans or whatever financial support if the husband and wife are not transparent and ready to manage the activities that generate it.

Take the example of Henry who planted coffee on about an acre of the family land some five years ago. His wife takes care of the banana garden and also grows vegetables and some potatoes and cassava. Henry always refers to the coffee garden as his, personally.

He alone usually works in that garden. Sometimes, as head of the family, he orders their grown up sons and a daughter to do some work in the garden if he is around to supervise whatever they do. The sons and daughter go to secondary school but it is the mother who struggles to meet their school needs.

Henry likes spending his evenings in the nearby shopping centre where he also drinks some alcohol. He is also known to have two girlfriends in the shopping centre.

When he harvests the coffee, it is sold at once and no other family member ever gets to know how much money he gets.

Sometimes the adolescent children use his absence to go to his garden to harvest and sell the coffee without his knowledge in order to buy books and other school requirements that their mother cannot provide.

The mother grows and sells vegetables in the local market. She is always careful never to let her husband know where she hides her money. Last year she was granted a PDM loan, which must be paid back.

However, there is an urgent need for a new pit latrine in the home and she has contracted some men to do the work.

The boys own a pig, which is about to deliver piglets. They want to buy a solar-powered lighting system just for their bedroom so that they can read their books at night.