Category: Daily Monitor

Kenya and Uganda’s newly-signed Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) on agricultural produce is a diplomatic document with potentially wider ramifications on regional trade and food security. Signed in Lusaka on December 4, 2025, on the sidelines of the 46th COMESA Council of Ministers meeting, it commits the two East African neighbours to recognise each other’s inspection, testing and certification of staple foods. In a region where non-tariff barriers, not tariffs, now do most of the work in blocking trade, that formal shift from suspicion to structured trust is significant.

And the timing matters because across Eastern and Southern Africa, droughts, currency weakness, and conflict are pushing up food prices, even as governments promise that the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will open regional markets.

Non-tariff barriers

Up to 70 percent of reported non-tariff barriers in the COMESA region stem from technical regulations and sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures. The Kenya-Uganda MRA is one of the first attempts to address this problem at its source, by aligning how countries assess whether food is safe and meets the agreed standards.

COMESA reckons that the agreement is a key outcome of the ‘Enhancing Regional Agricultural Commodity Trade in COMESA’ project, backed by the agriculture development agency, AGRA and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). It focuses on maize, groundnuts, soybeans, rice, beans and sorghum – the six heavily traded staples in the region.

Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Investments, Trade and Industry, Lee Kinyanjui, and Uganda’s Minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, Francis Mwebesa, signed the pact in Lusaka with the COMESA Secretary General as the witness.

In practical terms, a mutual recognition agreement on conformity assessment means that, once the deal is fully implemented, test results and certificates issued by recognised laboratories and authorities in Kampala will be accepted by officials in Nairobi, and vice versa.

Instead of re-sampling a consignment of maize at the border and sending it for new tests, customs and SPS officers will rely on existing certificates, as long as they were issued under agreed standard operating procedures and within trusted systems.

This goes to a core friction that has, for years, slowed down regional food trade. Even where countries already share regional standards, they often do not trust each other’s enforcement. For example, maize imported into Kenya from East African Community partners must comply with the East Africa Standard EAS 2:2013, which sets limits on moisture, aflatoxin and grain quality. Yet consignments are still subjected to repeated sampling and testing on both sides of the border, raising costs and causing delays, particularly for small traders.

Research by COMESA and partners has recently shown how costly these frictions can be. One policy brief cites work in the East African Community, which found that non-tariff barriers account for about 35 percent of the total cost of moving maize across borders.

Eliminating those barriers could generate social welfare gains estimated at U$2.3 billion in Kenya, US$0.8 billion in Uganda and US$1.8 billion in Tanzania in maize and beef value chains alone.

A separate COMESA-linked analysis notes that SPS and technical measures make up the majority of reported non-tariff barriers in the bloc.

The political fallout from past food safety disputes helps explain why the new agreement is significant. In 2021, Kenya imposed a sudden ban on maize imports from Tanzania and Uganda, citing high levels of aflatoxin contamination. The East African Law Society branded the move a violation of EAC protocols and described it as yet another non-tariff barrier undermining regional integration.

Long queues of trucks formed at border posts, and traders complained of lost income and wasted stocks. While the new MRA does not stop either government from acting in a crisis, it creates a shared framework that should make unilateral bans harder to justify if trusted systems are in place.

The Lusaka signing also crowns a long and uneven technical journey. COMESA’s first attempt at a mutual recognition framework for aflatoxin-safe maize between 2015 and 2017 built common sampling protocols, laboratory proficiency testing schemes and grading systems, but collapsed before any agreements were signed, largely when funding ended.

In 2021, COMESA, AGRA and the UK’s FCDO relaunched the effort on a broader footing, covering six countries (Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe) and six commodities. Under that project, experts developed and validated core ‘pillars’ for mutual recognition to include harmonised sampling and inspection protocols, agreed test methods, a regional testing scheme for laboratories, and common grading criteria for grains.

In effect, this work aimed to prove that labs in Nairobi and Kampala could generate comparable results, and that inspectors were working to the same rules at silos, warehouses and border posts.

Even with those technical foundations, politics proved a drag. COMESA’s own policy brief notes that getting MRAs cleared and signed has taken more than four years, slowed by the political nature of legal vetting and the failure to fully fund key governance bodies such as the project steering and technical committees. The Kenya-Uganda deal, and an earlier MRA between Malawi and Zambia signed in Lusaka, suggest those bottlenecks are now easing, but they also show why implementation cannot be taken for granted.

The new agreement is, therefore, best read as a bridge between technical alignment and real-world trade. If it works as intended, a trader moving a truck of maize or beans from Uganda into Kenya will face fewer duplicative tests and shorter waiting times at the border.

The direct savings are fees for laboratory tests and inspections. The indirect gains are lower spoilage, fewer informal payments and more predictable delivery schedules. For small and medium-sized enterprises, which COMESA identifies as central to regional economy, those margins can decide whether cross-border trade is viable.

There are, however, reasons for caution. A recent study on SPS barriers under the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) highlights persistent weaknesses in African non-tariff barriers, including inconsistent legal frameworks, under-resourced regulators and limited infrastructure such as accredited labs and cold storage.

These structural gaps mean that, even with an MRA, enforcement at busy border posts like Busia and Malaba could remain uneven. Some officials may continue to re-test consignments out of habit or fear of blame if something goes wrong, while traders may struggle to secure certificates from recognised labs in rural areas.

Food safety advocates also worry that mutual recognition can be misused to lower standards if governments recognise each other’s systems before they are fully equivalent. That means the credibility of the Kenya-Uganda arrangement will depend on how rigorously these safeguards are applied, and how transparent governments are about lab performance and incident reporting.

Meanwhile, the digital side of the agenda remains unfinished. One of the original project objectives was to design and pilot an electronic MRA system, embedded in COMESA’s planned Digital Free Trade Area and regional single window. That would allow certificates and test results to move electronically, reducing the scope for forgery and easing verification.

Yet project documents note that work on this ‘e-MRA’ has lagged, partly because the broader COMESA digital trade infrastructure is still under development and partly because partners agreed to get the legal agreements in place first.

Ultimately, the Kenya-Uganda signals to other COMESA States that political leaders are willing to sign what technocrats have spent years preparing. If more pairs of countries follow, the bloc could gradually stitch together a web of mutual recognition arrangements that, in effect, create a zone of trusted standards for key staples across Eastern and Southern Africa. And in the broader AfCFTA context, this is one of the more concrete examples of how regional economic communities can advance continental goals.

But even with the agreement signing milestone, parliamentarians and line ministries in Nairobi and Kampala still need to domesticate the MRA into national law and practice. Border agencies must train staff, update manuals and align internal incentives so that officers actually rely on recognised certificates. If, over the next two to three seasons, traders report fewer disputes over test results, shorter clearance times and lower costs, the Kenya-Uganda MRA will stand as proof that technical cooperation can move the dial on food security.

Public debt continued to rise in the first quarter of the 2025/26 financial year, largely driven by increased public expenditure, even as government attempts to keep borrowing in check.

The Debt Statistical Bulletin and Public Debt Portfolio Analysis published on Tuesday by the Ministry of Finance shows the stock of public debt rose to Shs119.4 trillion ($34.2b) in the three months to September, a 2.5 percent increase from Shs116.19 trillion ($32.3b) in June.

In dollar terms, external debt rose during the review period, but in shilling terms it declined due to exchange-rate movements. External debt stock rose from $15.54b in June to $15.89b, while in shillings, external debt reduced from Shs55.85 trillion to Shs55.44 trillion, due to appreciation of the shilling against the dollar during the period.

The Ministry of Finance noted that external debt rose mainly because the disbursements of $590.84m exceeded principal repayments of $277.52m.

A major contributor was Afrexim Bank’s budget financing of $316m, disbursed in the first quarter of the 2025/26 financial year. The report also notes that exchange-rate effects added about $30m to the external debt stock.

Despite the rise in nominal external debt, external debt as a share of GDP fell from 24.7 percent to 24.3 percent, largely due to the appreciation of the shilling (from 3,594.6 per dollar at end-June to 3,490 at end-September) and an upward revision of the 2024/25 financial year nominal GDP figures by Ubos in October.

Domestic debt rose sharply, reflecting heavier reliance on Treasury securities, with the stock surging to Shs63.94 trillion ($18.3b) from Shs60.34 trillion ($16.8b) in June due to higher financing requirements, with a notable shift toward longer-term borrowing.

Between June and September, government issued domestic securities worth Shs6.057 trillion, of which Shs2.692 trillion (44.4 percent) were Treasury bills and Shs3.365 trillion (55.6 percent) bonds, which aligns with government’s strategy to issue more long-term debt.

The cost of servicing debt also increased over the review period, with interest payments to GDP rising from 4.4 percent to 4.7 percent. Domestic interest payments increased from 3.8 percent to 4.1 percent of GDP, while external interest costs remained broadly stable at 0.6 percent of GDP.

Ministry of Finance reported that average interest on total debt remained around 8.6 percent, with external loans staying largely concessional at 2.3 percent and domestic debt remaining high at an average of 14.5 percent.

Fixed-rate debt accounted for 63.81 percent ($10.14b), variable-rate (20.51 percent, $3.26b), and no-interest-rate (15.69 percent, $2.29b).

Fixed-rate and no-interest debt shares fell slightly, while variable-rate debt increased, largely attributed to disbursements including $316m (Afrexim Bank), $5.12m (AfDB), and $0.65m (Standard Bank).

Among bilateral variable-rate creditors, China held the largest stock ($779.01m), followed by commercial creditors such as Standard Bank ($727.6m) and Afrexim ($631.18m). Under multilateral creditors, the African Development Bank contributed $386.71 million to variable-rate debt.

Friday morning’s clash between Gladiators and Blasters is the final chance to keep the Maxx T20 Challenge Cup alive as a contest.

Victory for Kenneth Waiswa’s Blasters seals the title with a game to spare, but a Gladiators win would drag the race into the final day, opening the door to net run rate calculations and late drama at Entebbe Oval on Sunday.

Gladiators arrive for this fixture riding momentum rather than comfort. Their 34-run victory over Strikers Thursday morning was not pretty, but it was purposeful.

Grinding it out

Defending a modest 104, they bowled with discipline, fielded sharply and showed the kind of collective urgency that defines teams still fighting for relevance late in a tournament.

On a sluggish surface, Gladiators’ batting was about accumulation rather than dominance. Suleman Sharif (25) provided early resistance, while Paul Mulongo’s unbeaten 24 ensured the innings held together. The late burst from Musa Majid Ramathan (18) pushed the total past 100 – not imposing, but defendable with intent.

Bowling blueprint

The win was built by the ball. Aziz Abdul Tandia (1/6 in 4 overs), Suleman Sharif (2/13 in 4 overs) and Ramathan (2/11) strangled the Strikers through the middle overs, while Edwin Nuwagaba (2/6 in 1.5overs) cleaned up the tail. That same discipline will be essential against a Blasters side stacked with top-order firepower.

Who must deliver

To unsettle the table-toppers, Gladiators will look to Dan Keith Amani (135), their leading run-scorer, for stability at the top, while Mulongo (121 runs)’s calm finishing has become increasingly valuable.

With the ball, Tandia (12 wickets) and Nuwagaba (11 wickets) must strike early to disrupt Blasters’ rhythm, particularly against in-form batters Simon Ssesazi (279 runs) and Charles Musemeza (209 runs).

MAXX T20 CHALLENGE CUP

Result

Gladiators 104/7 | Strikers 70/10

Gladiators won by 34 Runs

Warriors 146/7 Titans 114/8

Warriors won by 32 runs

Fixtures – Friday

Gladiators vs. Blasters – 10am

Titans vs. Royals – 2pm

Maj Gen (Rtd) Mugisha Muntu, presidential candidate for the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT), has assured President Museveni of maximum security and full retirement benefits if he agrees to a peaceful handover of power ahead of the January 15, 2026, elections.

Speaking during a campaign tour on Thursday in Kisoro, a district bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Muntu said Museveni fears prosecution for alleged crimes if he relinquishes power.

‘The reason President Museveni is unwilling to relinquish power is his fear of revenge and prosecution for alleged crimes,’ Muntu told supporters.

He promised that an ANT-led government would protect Museveni and guarantee all privileges due to a former head of state.

Muntu criticised the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) for perpetuating poverty in Kisoro despite strong voter support, citing poor healthcare, failing schools, deteriorating roads, and limited electricity.

He highlighted Uganda’s natural resources, including oil, gold, cobalt, and uranium, and blamed annual corruption losses of over Shs10 trillion for citizens’ suffering.

Describing himself as a strategic leader focused on long-term institution-building rather than populist theatrics, Muntu urged voters to choose change in 2026.

Residents at the rallies cited high taxes, poor school performance, hospital extortion, cross-border challenges, and harassment of small traders by local authorities.

In Bunagana Town Council, near the DR Congo border, Muntu called for regional and international action to resolve prolonged conflicts in eastern DRC, including recent escalations by the M23 rebel group.

He appealed to the East African Community (EAC) and neighbouring countries to act collectively, noting that the DRC borders five EAC member states whose trade is disrupted by instability.

Muntu also pledged to revive Kisoro’s neglected tourism sector, particularly gorilla tracking, which attracts numerous visitors annually.

‘I urge immediate improvement in the tourism sector, which has been ignored despite Kisoro hosting many tourists,’ he said.

Campaigning alongside ANT’s Bufumbira South parliamentary candidate Adam Munyambabazi, Muntu promised a government based on integrity, accountability, and competence, free from bribery and nepotism.

He urged voters to reject vote-buying and embrace transparent leadership.

The campaign tour began in Kyanika Town Council, proceeded to Nyarusiza Sub-county, and concluded in Bunagana Town Council. Poor roads prevented a rally in Kisoro Municipality, according to district ANT administrator Laban Niyongabo.

Muntu, a former military chief, is among seven opposition candidates challenging Museveni’s bid to extend his rule beyond 40 years in the 2026 election, a race that also includes former presidential challenger Bobi Wine.

President Museveni on Thursday acknowledged long delays in fixing roads and delivering basic services in parts of the country, blaming competing national priorities, particularly security, as he campaigned for another term ahead of elections early next year.

Addressing a rally at Kibaale playground in Byakabanda Sub-county, Rakai District, Museveni said government resources had been directed first to stabilising the country after years of conflict.

‘Your roads would have been constructed a long time ago, but we had to first deal with security. Some of our soldiers are still sleeping in huts, but we had to buy guns to protect Ugandans,’ Museveni said, adding: ‘Security comes first. Without peace, there is no development.’

He said the focus on security had also constrained the government’s ability to raise salaries for some civil servants, including teachers, an issue that has drawn public criticism.

‘I’m now harsh. I don’t want to listen to issues of salaries anymore,’ Museveni remarked.

He added: ‘I’m happy that even my daughter, the Speaker of Parliament Anita Among, no longer reminds me about salary increments. You now have phones, you have some services. We had to secure the country first.’

Museveni pledged that if re-elected, his government would intensify efforts to repair dilapidated roads, expand access to clean water and strengthen social services.

Citing official records, he said Rakai had made progress in water coverage, telling residents: ‘My file here shows that out of the 446 villages, 405 villages have clean water, which is about 90 percent coverage. Is it true?’

However, Rakai District NRM chairperson and Buyamba County MP Gyaviira Ssemwanga challenged the figures, saying actual access was far lower.

‘Your Excellency, our water coverage currently stands at about 25 percent. Some water sources are recorded as functional, but in reality they are not safe or reliable,’ Ssemwanga said, drawing applause.

Museveni, 82, acknowledged the shortfall and said the government would extend clean water from River Kagera, a regional project already serving neighbouring districts.

‘Areas like Mbarara and Isingiro are already benefiting from this project. Since Rakai neighbours Isingiro District, it will be easier to extend clean water here,’ he said.

The president also said oil revenues expected to start flowing next year would be channelled into infrastructure development.

‘Oil was hidden for a long time, even when the whites were here, but it was only discovered under the NRM government,’ Museveni said. ‘Oil money is coming next year. We want to construct roads, railways and electricity lines, not just give out money for salaries to be eaten.’

He pledged to upgrade several health facilities to Health Centre III status and assured residents that electricity access would be expanded to all sub-counties.

Closing his remarks, Museveni cautioned against focusing solely on infrastructure.

‘People talk about roads, but you can have a tarmac road like Kyotera Road for many years and still find people living near it who are poor,’ he said. ‘Let us also focus on wealth creation at household level.’

Museveni will be hoping to stretch his rule to over 40 years if he defeats seven opposition candidates in early next year’s vote.

Last election

During the 2021 general election, President Yoweri Museveni secured 47,288 votes (57.83%), while his closest challenger, National Unity Platform (NUP) candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, garnered 33,267 votes (40.69%).Other candidates trailed far behind: FDC’s Patrick Amuriat received 219 votes (0.27%), DP’s Norbert Mao 99 votes (0.12%), Alliance for National Transformation’s Mugisha Muntu 105 votes (0.28%), Joseph Kabuleta 129 votes (0.16%), John Katumba 122 votes (0.15%), Willy Mayambala 33 votes (0.28%), Fred Mwesigye 105 votes (0.13%), and Henry Tumukunde 214 votes (0.26%).

For a club supposed to celebrate their golden anniversary this year, the governance and ownership structure at the record 17-time Uganda Premier League (UPL) champions SC Villa remains a truly thorny issue.

The club, on Tuesday, finally broke their silence after a series of queries raised by former club president Ben Misagga, regarding the club’s future at a press meeting called by the club’s trustees at the City Tyres Kamwokya Branch in Kampala.

Misagga has questioned the legality of the current Omar Mandela led executive whose four-year term expired in November.

Mandela returned to the club as president in 2021 after a previous electoral process failed with factions trading accusations of being affiliated to rival political parties.

According to Gerald Ssendawula, the chairperson for the board of Trustees this is a situation the club is keen to avoid.

Once bitten twice shy

‘We have the political elections due to be held in January. Plans to hold elections have been going on since mid this year or even before that. We would not have wished Villa being bargained at a political rally. I am the one who is going to do this. Please elect me as a member of parliament,’ Ssendawula explained.

‘When we realised this then we decided to let the general election out of the way. As trustees we felt that was proper,’ added Ssendawula who expects the elections to be held in March.

Accountability call

Misagga also wants the club to account for the Shs3.02b received from the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) as compensation fees for SC Villa Park in Nsambya.

‘For us we saw this compensation as an opportunity for us to have our own home and accordingly started looking for a piece of land that can help us as Villa to set up our own stadium,’ Ssendawula shed more light.

‘Given that we have grown to a level that we are more in Kampala, we are looking for land that is closer to Kampala. We did not want to spend the money on the running of the team and we put it on a fixed deposit account.

‘That arrangement gives us a rate of Shs34m each month. As we speak today, we can comfortably say the current figure is Shs4.5b which is still accumulating. We are not using that money for day-to-day running of the club.’

Big plans ahead

‘When we got that money word went around that the government was about to procure land around the Kampala neighbourhood for investors. So we approached the investment authority people and we said we are showing our interest if and when this opportunity arises. We have been following this and at the same time our money continues to earn interest,’ Ssendawula concluded at the well-attended meeting.

EVENTS CHRONOLOGY

2018: The club was under an interim committee led by William Nkemba since 2018 after Ben Misagga’s departure.

2021: Two previous attempts to hold elections in August 2021 were halted by court injunctions due to alleged irregularities.

Mid 2021: Omar Mandela emerged as the sole candidate after picking up nomination forms including a Shs19.5m fee and a complete executive list.

November 2021: Mandela, a former club treasurer who had left the club in 2005, returned as president.

November 2025: Mandela four-year term ended

When Barbara Kiwanuka took a shot at the game of golf about two years ago, she never gave it her all initially.

It all felt like a stop-start affair. She got a rude awakening at a tournament at Uganda Golf Club in July when she was honoured with the ‘Piga Mingi’, a prize given to encourage the worst player on the day.

And then on, the perceptions on the game all changed for Kiwanuka and as well, with support from a friend. ‘My first year (of golf) was really learning and this year, polishing up. I paid more attention and time to this game in the second half of this year,’ admitted Kiwanuka.

On Saturday, she was simply unstoppable. Playing off handicap 35, Kiwanuka returned the best score of 64 nett to floor a gigantic field of 209 players to win the Entebbe Grand Tee of Tees presented by her employers MTN.

‘I believe in consistency, it has been the key to my success. I have put in a lot of time. I have tried to be on course at least twice a week,’ said the lady who works in events and sponsorship at MTN.

‘This (tournament), I was looking forward to because of the time I have put into the game. I didn’t expect to win because I had a long night on Friday. But when I put my time into something, I commit fully,’ she said.

Kiwanuka admits she faced a bit of torture on the first nine holes and recovered on Holes par-3 No.2 and par-4 No.3 but par-4 Hole No.4, one of her favourites, blew her up.

‘I started thinking about my best holes. On (par-3) Hole No.10, I got a double-bogey, we had a bit of pressure to re-start,’ she recalled.

The par-5 Holes No.11 and No.15 had always been challenging but the former seemed to give her utmost confidence. ‘The drift of my driver on No.11 gave me life, I got a bogey there, I normally get double-bogey or even eight.

A big part of her review towards the game came to an understanding of her expenditures in the sport, from paying green fees, caddying charges, to a coach and more. ‘It is a huge investment,’ she added.

Perhaps, the biggest winner could have been Kiwanuka’s employer who laid the platform to have her introduced to the game.

ENTEBBE MTN GRAND TEE OF TEES

TOURNAMENT RESULTS

Overall Winner: Barbara Kiwanuka 64 nett

Guest Winner: Kejem Ntombi 55 nett

Seniors’ Winner (55+): Tonny Kisadha 71 nett

GROUP WINNERS – MEN

GROUP A

Winner: Allan Muhereza 68 nett

Runner-Up: Ronnie Kasirye 73 nett

GROUP B

Winner: Philemon Akatuhurira 67 nett

Runner-Up: Collins Nuwagira 68 nett (c/b)

GROUP C

Winner: Mathias Kalule 66 nett

Runner-Up: Lloyd Busuulwa 67 nett (c/b)

GROUP WINNERS – LADIES

GROUP A

Winner: Rita Apell 73 nett

Runner Up: Rukia Nalwoga 74 nett

GROUP B

Winner: Charity Tushabomwe 70 nett

Runner Up: Peace Hellen 72 nett

NEAREST TO THE PIN

L: Martha Babirye

M: Ivan Ssetimba

LONGEST DRIVE

L: Peace Hellen

M: Peter Magona

StarTimes Uganda Premier League pace setters KCCA head into the impending Afcon-induced break sitting pretty at the summit with 26 points from 11 matches, and if there is one side that might not have welcomed the pause, it is the Kasasiro Boys.

They have clearly hit top gear. Their narrow but controlled 1-0 victory over struggling Buhimba on Tuesday not only extended their winning run to five matches but also opened a five-point gap at the top.

Rogers Mugisha’s composed first-half finish proved decisive as KCCA dominated large spells, limited Buhimba’s threat and showed the kind of game management that often defines champions.

That form has set the pace for the chasing pack, and one of the sides keen to keep KCCA within sight is Kitara.

Wasswa Bbosa’s men arrive in Entebbe on the back of an impressive resurgence that has yielded four straight victories, pushing them to 19 points from nine matches.

Wins over Bul, Police, Maroons and URA have underlined Kitara’s growing maturity and consistency, and today they will seek another statement result when they visit Entebbe UPPC at Bugonga Fisheries Ground.

However, this is far from a straightforward assignment. Abdallah Mubiru’s Entebbe UPPC have been one of the season’s most refreshing stories.

With 17 points from 10 matches in their maiden top-flight campaign, the Printers have proved they are no pushovers.

Organised, fearless and particularly strong at home, UPPC will be keen to sternly question Kitara’s credentials and their ability to keep tabs with the league’s established heavyweights as the competition heads into recess.

For Kitara, the stakes are high. A fifth straight league victory would lift them above Matia Lule’s Police, who temporarily climbed to second on 21 points after a convincing 3-1 away win over Bul in Njeru.

In that match, Police showed their attacking edge, with Bedia Ikamba, Daniel Jakony and Biran Obedi on target to punish a profligate Bul side.

To maintain their upward momentum, Kitara will once again look to six-goal talisman Patrick Kaddu to unlock the UPPC defence.

His cutting edge could prove decisive as Kitara aim to keep pace with leaders KCCA and head into the break firmly in the title conversation.

StarTimes Uganda Premier League

Thursday

Entebbe UPPC vs. Kitara, 4pm

Bugonga Fisheries Ground – Entebbe

For many SMEs, the decision to train staff is a hard one. Money is tight, cash flow is uncertain, and time spent training can feel like time taken away from making sales.

In this situation, the fear that trained staff will leave for competitors is understandable. Many employers have seen it happen. However, most businesses do not fail because trained staff leave.

They fail because work is poorly done, customers are handled badly, money is mismanaged, and decisions are slow. These are not market problems, but skills problems.

Part of the confusion comes from mixing up training and skilling. Training usually focuses on tasks such as how to use a system, follow a process, or complete a specific job.

Skilling goes deeper. It builds judgement, problem-solving, and the ability to work well even when situations change. Many SMEs train people to do tasks but fail to skill them to think, decide, and take responsibility. That gap shows up in daily operations.

The real issue is not whether SMEs should train their staff, but how to do it realistically.

Many employers hire people and expect them to perform immediately. There is little onboarding, little guidance, and unclear expectations.

This plug-and-play approach may seem practical, but it often leads to frustration and poor results. Experienced staff can perform faster, but they also cost more.

When businesses hire cheaply and expect high performance, disappointment is almost guaranteed. Social hiring adds another layer to the problem.

Hiring relatives, friends, or referrals is common, and in some cases, this works. But hiring for trust alone is not enough.

Without clear roles, basic rules, and consequences, even trusted staff will underperform. Training cannot fix everything, but the lack of skilling makes these problems worse.

For SMEs, skills development should be simple and focused. It does not have to mean expensive courses or long workshops.

It means showing new staff how things are done, setting clear responsibilities early, helping them understand why decisions matter, and following up on performance.

Skills grow when learning is linked to real work and accountability. Employees also have a role to play.

In today’s economy, workers cannot wait for employers to teach them everything. People who take responsibility for learning grow faster and become more useful to their organisations. Skills development works best when both sides are committed.

Training alone will not save a business. Poor leadership, bad planning, and weak cash management can still cause failure.

But refusing to build skills out of fear only makes these problems worse. In the long run, the bigger danger is not trained staff leaving.

It is unskilled staff staying and slowly holding the business back.

As the year comes to an end, this is a good time for business owners to step back, honestly assess what is working and what is not, and decide whether unskilled staff may be one of the quiet risks holding their business back.

I did not know what to expect from ‘Through the Lens’, NMG’s photo exhibition of Uganda’s elections. Having been intimately involved in the last five elections, I did not expect to be surprised, yet I was, in unexpected ways.

First, the format. The world today is, at present, observed in a stream of high-definition, full-colour video. Everything is live, and video-streaming or serving platforms like TikTok enjoy the commanding heights of the attention economy.

This is supposed to make photography, by comparison, staid, stable and even old school. But it is this attribute that makes photography and the photo moments it births memorable. Take the photo of President Museveni and Dr Kizza Besigye shaking hands at the Namugongo Martyrs Shrine during Pope Francis’ papal visit in November 2015. You can watch a video reel of the event as many times as possible, but only a photograph captures the moment of brief respite between two great political rivals, only weeks before what was to be the fourth and possibly last electoral contest between the two men.

Or consider the photo of President Museveni lying face down, supported by his arms, on the campaign trail in November 2021. Fountains, whether of the honourable or decorative type, tend to be upright, so, at first glance, it looks as if the photo has been installed at the wrong angle. It soon becomes clear to the viewer that the President was, in fact, doing push-ups.

What looks like merely the physical is acutely political. Facing a youthful rival in Robert ‘Bobi Wine’ Kyagulanyi, the push ups were to show voters that the old workhorse still had the horsepower to carry the burden of leadership.

Few candidates beat the Old Man at political symbolism. In one photo, from 2006, he is the passenger on a boda boda, a gimmick recycled from 2001 when he arrived at Kololo on the back of a boda. This was ostensibly to beat the traffic but was, in fact, a well-planned and clever political move.

Missing from the exhibition, and hopefully to be included at some point, are at least four other symbolic photos. Two of President Museveni are of him carrying a grinding stone (lubengo) and being carried by an old grandmother on her lap, both from the 1996 race, if memory doesn’t fail me.

Another is of Dr Besigye with a hammer, from 2001 when he was baptised “Ssenyondo”, or the one who could remove the cotter pin, Museveni. Juxtaposed with another infamous photo of Gilbert Arinaitwe smashing the window of Besigye’s car with his pistol grip, the images, and many more in between, are a reminder of just how vicious and violent our elections have tended to be.

The fourth photo is of a young man doing a defiant split in the middle of a city road that is deserted, save for the clouds of teargas billowing around him, and other protestors in the background contesting the political space.

This young, rebellious and unaccountable spirit, of which more will be said in future, has become the febrile undercurrent of our politics and perhaps national psyche collectively.

If each photo is a piece of the mosaic, the picture that emerges gives a warning and a reminder. The missing pictures from 1962 to 1980 stand as a stark reminder that power in the formative years of our country was exchanged and managed through military might and means.

Also missing in this exhibition is a photograph of a Ugandan president handing over power peacefully to another elected leader. It is missing because it does not exist. And this is the warning that emerges from the exhibition.

Elections are a tool through which citizens choose their leaders. It presupposes change as well as continuity if incumbents are still popular. Why, then, does it feel, at our seventh time of trying, that Uganda’s inevitable leadership transition will not happen through an electoral process?

This fear is not captured in any one photograph in the exhibition. It is captured in absence, and in the things that are felt but unseen, incapable of being captured by even the best photographers because they do not as yet exist. It is a haunting take-out from all the hope and possibilities frozen in time, space, and photo frames.