Category: Daily Monitor

Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL) says civil works and transmission line construction for the Uganda-Tanzania Power Interconnection Project are expected to begin in the 2026/27 financial year, with commercial operations targeted for 2029.

The 220kV Uganda-Tanzania Interconnection Project, UETCL says, is currently in the procurement and contractor mobilization phase.

The project will link Masaka in Uganda to Mwanza in Tanzania, creating a critical regional transmission corridor, with UETCL now finalizing preparatory activities and conducting early market engagement with prospective contractors and bidders for the construction of the Masaka-Mutukula-Mwanza high-voltage transmission line.

The utility is also completing the Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) to compensate Project Affected Persons (PAPs), a prerequisite before construction can commence.

The broader interconnector is expected to be commissioned between 2028 and 2029.

mobilisation

Meanwhile, the Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL) has launched a major distribution network upgrade in Greater Masaka and surrounding areas.

The works include the installation of new transformers, replacement of obsolete poles, rehabilitation of weak sections of the network, and interventions aimed at addressing recurring power outages.

The interconnector is expected to enhance electricity trade between Uganda, Tanzania, and the wider East Africa, while improving power supply reliability and energy security in both countries.

It will support economic development along the transmission corridor, strengthen integration between the Eastern Africa Power Pool and the Southern African Power Pool, and facilitate access to regional energy resources, including hydropower from DR Congo and Ethiopia, as well as geothermal energy from Kenya.

The project is also expected to reduce system losses and lower operational costs through coordinated power exchange.

Strategic importance

UETCL Chief Executive Officer Richard Matsiko described the project as a key component of the regional power integration agenda under the East African Community (EAC).

‘This transmission corridor is strategically important as it completes a critical link in the high-voltage transmission backbone around Lake Victoria, creating a robust regional grid,’ he said, noting that the corridor passes through areas with significant generation projects under development, including the 80MW Rusumo Falls Hydropower Project, the 87MW Kakono Hydropower Project, the 35MW Nsongezi Hydropower Project and the 14MW Kikagati Hydropower Project.

Matsiko also indicated that the project will facilitate cross-border power trade, enhance energy security, reduce reserve generation requirements, optimize operating costs, and support industrialization across the region.

Technical specifications

The transmission line will be approximately 298 kilometres long and designed as a 220kV double-circuit line, with provisions for a future upgrade to 400kV.

It will utilize self-supporting lattice steel towers fitted with ACSR ‘Zebra’ conductors or their equivalent. Approximately 700 to 750 transmission towers will be erected along the route.

The project will incorporate composite insulators for improved performance in polluted environments, vibration dampers for conductor protection, and Optical Ground Wire (OPGW) technology for communication and system control.

Modern gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) technology will also be deployed at substations where appropriate.

The line will have a transfer capacity of between 300 and 400 MVA, a right-of-way width of 40 metres, while substations will be equipped with 245kV-rated equipment and designed to withstand fault levels of up to 40kA.

The project includes the expansion of the Masaka substation in Uganda and the Mwanza substation in Tanzania, together with the installation of reactive power compensation equipment to maintain voltage stability. The transmission capacity is expected to meet projected regional electricity trade requirements over the coming decade.

The project will be financed through a blended funding model combining concessional loans from multilateral development institutions, potential grants for technical assistance and environmental and social mitigation measures, and counterpart funding from the governments of Uganda and Tanzania.

Expected financiers include the World Bank as lead financier, the African Development Bank, the European Investment Bank and Germany’s KfW Development Bank.

Preliminary financing discussions indicate a capital structure comprising approximately 80 to 85 percent debt financing from international financial institutions and 15 to 20 percent equity contributions from the two governments and their national utilities.

Market outlook

Regional electricity trade remains constrained by limited interconnection infrastructure despite the significant economic benefits associated with integrated power markets.

Studies indicate a strong potential for power exchange between Uganda’s hydropower-based system and Tanzania’s thermal and mixed-generation system, creating opportunities for seasonal and daily balancing of electricity supply.

The project is expected to remove a major infrastructure bottleneck in East Africa’s regional electricity market.

Faith already knows what she needs: Shs3m, a petrol supply contract, and a lender willing torecognise women’s economic potential.

Look at what she has actually built, which is three years of savings group discipline, consistent market trading, and a business plan with real numbers.

The problem is that the financial system has no mechanism to see it.

RelaThat is fixable. But fixing it requires naming, in sequence, the structural failures that produce her invisibility, and being honest about which are technical, which are political, and which are both.

The identity problem

Start with the most immediately solvable failure: 900,000 young women using mobile money through accounts registered in someone else’s name, according to Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Uganda’s latest study.

These women are not outside the financial system behaviourally. They transact regularly, with discipline and real demand. What they lack is legal identity within it, meaning the transaction history they are building accrues to someone else’s record.

Getting that identity is not technically difficult. Airtel has already built the solution.

Hope Ekudu, who leads Airtel Money’s operations in Uganda, explains that they have streamlined the ‘process so that if you get your national ID, you can come to any of our shops and actually deregister’.

‘Once you have deregistered and you now re-register in your name, all your information on Airtel Money remains there.’

Where the original account holder cannot be found, a statutory declaration suffices.

The national ID problem compounds this. Most young women in rural Uganda, where only 6.6 percent of adults have access to a formal bank account, live far from registration centres, research by FSD shows.

Justine Namata, Head of Financial Innovations at Bank of Uganda, names the institutional failure this creates.

‘We keep going to the financial service providers and saying, ‘ What are you producing that our young women are not using. And today I see that they actually don’t see the data. What they see is a male-registered account, and yet the SIM card is being used by a 17-year-old girl,’ she says.

The invisibility is built into how providers read their own numbers. One fix is the standard practice in countries with high ID coverage, where they bring registration to schools, health centres, and hospitals, where young women cannot miss going.

The National Financial Inclusion Strategy 2023-2028 already requires gender-mainstreaming and sex-disaggregated data collection.

Mobile, community-based registration is looked at as the logical next step.

The village Saccos’ crack

Many people in financial inclusion look at Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA) and see something primitive to replace.

A 2019 rigorous three-country study across Uganda, Ghana, and Malawi found that VSLA access increased the number of businesses members ran by 6 percent, extended their survival by 9 percent, and raised monthly profits by 24 percent.

These groups work because they run on something the formal system cannot manufacture: trust.

But the group has a ceiling. It cannot lend Faith Shs2m. The social capital is there. The capital is not.

Peace Gakwaya, the chief executive officer of Britam Asset Managers, says, ‘one of the greatest things about VSLAs is the trust they have created within the community’.

‘What we do is look at that ecosystem, especially how to plug in, not to replace, but to enhance the existing system.’

In that sense, the VSLA is the infrastructure through which formal finance should move in.

The mechanism already exists where digital group accounts record every contribution, loan, and repayment, giving each member their own verifiable transaction history, a foundation for credit access that does not require collateral.

Rani Deshpande, a financial inclusion consultant and the study’s lead researcher, found that some respondents had already grasped this intuitively, deliberately building transaction histories in anticipation of future borrowing, without anyone explaining the logic to them.

But she points out the main problem: ‘Many women do not know about mobile money savings accounts, which can help them save and grow their money.’

Health shocks are the mechanism that destroys what they build. Half of all young women in the FinScope 2023 survey cited family illness as their biggest financial shock of the past year.

A trader who has spent two years building business capital can lose everything to a single medical emergency, and in Uganda, where only 21 percent of women have ever accessed formal credit compared to 29 percent of men, there is no safety net to absorb it.

Gakwaya connects this to the product design failure: ‘About 50 percent of medical expenses were going not to them as an individual but to their family. The ideal client persona most service providers had in the beginning may not actually resonate well with the young woman we are looking at today.’

She believes the solution is to combine health insurance with savings groups, with insurance payments collected at regular group meetings and quick, practical benefits like money for transport to the hospital, daily cash support while admitted, so people can see the value of insurance right away.

Just 6.9 percent of Ugandan adults are currently covered by credit bureaus, according to a 2023 financial inclusion tracker by FSD, meaning that most borrowing remains informal.

Without gender-tagged data from Tier IV institutions like Saccos, digital lenders, and community micro-lenders, disciplined female borrowers remain invisible to the national credit ecosystem, regardless of their behaviour.

The tax the poorest pay alone

Every solution above hits a ceiling if digital participation is unaffordable, and in Uganda, it is deliberately expensive.

The numbers from a study by Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) show the most comprehensive assessment of telecommunications taxation.

The ICT sector faces an Average Effective Tax Rate of 68 percent of pre-tax profit, against 39 percent in retail finance, according to calculations by Unwanted Witness, a digital rights organisation.

The UCC study corroborates this, describing the sector as carrying one of the heaviest cumulative tax burdens in East Africa, with excise duties alone accounting for approximately 45 percent of total tax payments by operators.

Mobile money users pay a 0.5 percent excise duty on the full value of every withdrawal, plus 15 percent value-added tax on service fees and a 10 percent withholding tax on agent commissions.

Bank customers pay tax only on ATM withdrawal fees. Uganda is the only East African country taxing withdrawals this way. Withdrawing Shs50,000 costs a mobile money user approximately Shs2,250 in combined charges.

The UCC study found that when the mobile money levy was introduced in 2018, around 70 percent of users reduced how often they transacted, with some abandoning the service entirely.

Research from Makerere’s Economic Policy Research Centre shows that a 10 percent price rise drives a 20 percent drop in mobile money usage; the tax’s introduction collapsed usage by 40 percent.

The women whose savings groups are their only financial infrastructure are not collateral damage in this calculation. They are its primary target.

Entry-level smartphones, which are the devices that unlock merchant wallets, digital group accounts, and savings lock features, are taxed on import at rates raising their price by 30 to 50 percent above base value, to between Shs330,000 and Shs460,000: out of reach for most rural households.

Uganda Bureau of Statistics data shows that the median monthly income is closer to Shs300,000, as most Ugandans work in subsistence agriculture or the informal sector.

The UCC study calculates that the total cost of owning and meaningfully using a basic smartphone over three years, including device, charging, and data, amounts to roughly 10 percent of average annual per capita income, rising to 20 to 25 percent for households in the bottom 40 percent.

The UCC’s own fiscal scenario simulations show that removing the 12 percent excise duty on internet data, or reducing VAT from 18 to 14 percent, would expand the subscriber base, increase data consumption, and ultimately generate higher government revenues over the medium term.

The November 2025 Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) report estimated that removing just the 12 per cent excise duty on internet data could bring four million more Ugandans online by 2030, create 1.79 million jobs, and generate Shs14.6 trillion in additional economic value.

South Africa removed its entry-level smartphone excise duty in 2025 and recorded a 16 percent rise in first-time smartphone buyers within months.

Ekudu does not soften this: ‘I know that it’s a deterrent for people to actually use mobile money. We’re in discussions with the regulator to reduce this cost burden. Ideally, we want a tiered charge, even lower for people doing lower transactions.’

Uganda’s own Digital Transformation Programme had its budget cut 28 percent in the 2026/27 financial year, from 1 to 0.4 percent of the national budget, leaving a Shs318b financing gap.

The UCC study argues that ICT is critical to economic transformation, yet it is not financed at a level consistent with that claim.

actually to use mobile money

At least 10 percent of young women who don’t borrow cite ‘not being allowed by family’ as their reason, according to research by FSD, against just 4 percent of the general non-borrowing population.

Phones are gatekept. SIM registrations are controlled. Savings are monitored by household members who did not earn them.

The evidence on what works is that household dialogue programmes that engage men and boys, not as obstacles but as participants in a shared economic logic, produce documented shifts in gatekeeping behaviour.

The idea is that when men understand that a woman’s financial product strengthens the household economy, access changes.

The saying, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones’ is becoming a reality for some clergy in Uganda today. Some of them have entangled themselves in political issues, so much so that throwing a stone would mean death, closure, crippling, sanctioning, censorship, or complete abolition.

The architects of this glass house phenomenon smoothly executed it like a rat numbing one’s feet, only to wake up when the skin has been nibbled off by the same rat.

A dependence and survival button was pressed at some point, making it difficult for the said clergy and any other institution to operate without the State playing godfather to enable a breakthrough of a certain ceiling, posturing pseudo-success.

This fleeting pseudo-success offered to some clergy presented itself like an entitlement to the national cake.

Little did they know that it was a carrot that would lead them to a point of no return. To maintain this sorrowful pseudo success, many deals have to be made, dirty games have to be played to keep appeasing the insurmountable appetite and interests on both sides. The dirty games played by some clergy appear to be an exchange for some entitlements and privileges.

Much akin to the saying, ‘Scratch my back and I scratch yours’. You can do whatever you want, I will turn the other way like I didn’t see. These fleeting privileges take on many forms, especially material gains. This creates a feeling of arrivalism.

The Baganda put it so well when they say, ‘You don’t speak when you are eating’. This is akin to a saying by Martin Niemöller, a prominent German pastor and anti-Nazi dissident. Niemöller’s original words focus on how the Nazis systematically targeted different groups one by one, while good citizens remained silent because they didn’t belong to the targeted group.

“First they came for the communists, then they came for the socialists, then they came for the trade unionists, then they came for the Jews, then they came for me-and there was no one left to speak for me.”

Biblically, this is similar to a situation when an Egyptian Pharaoh, who didn’t know Joseph, took over leadership and all the privileges of the children of Israel were revoked overnight.

The writing is so clear on the wall, the clergy can read it, but the pseudo fleeting success and privileges have muted, blinded and deafened all their senses. Similar to the saying that they have ears but can’t hear, they have eyes but can’t see and they have mouths but they can’t speak.

The redeeming thing is, God always spares remnants who have not bowed to any idols, these speak the oracles of God either with the fearless courage of John the Baptist, or with the wisdom and humility of Prophet Nathan or the child like faith of David the giant killer.

But some like Pontius Pilate have washed the truth off their hands and opted to please the masses. Deceived in their mind that by doing this they will be protecting the pseudo success and privileges that have numbed the voice of God. In such a situation, God raises prophets from other nations to declare his Word, but when judgement comes, all are washed away, a part from those who will hearken to what the spirit is saying to the clergy and the nation.

God also uses such situations to distinguish the genuine from the self-seeking false men of God. The dilemma that hovers over every clergy, no matter the religion or faith, is whether to speak up and suffer the consequences or keep silent and suffer the consequences.

Every morning at 6am, while most students across Uganda’s higher institutions of learning are still asleep, a different rhythm unfolds at Bukalasa Agricultural College (BAC).

Students are already out on the land – they water, weed, mulch and tend their thriving vegetable plots in the lush expanse they proudly call ‘Paradise Garden.’

Ms Patience Jazmine Nankinga, a final year student, quickly explains that this daily ritual is not punishment; it is preparation.

‘We are in paradise, the garden, where we are planting various crops – different types of vegetables,’ Ms Nankinga, a certificate student, explains, pointing to flourishing cabbages under her care. ‘Some students are focusing on carrots, cabbage, sukumawiki, nakatti and others.

Everyone is having a plot.’ These are some of the crops with a ready market, and they are consumed both within the government-owned institution, which has over 2,000 students, and also outside. The college, which offers both certificate and diploma courses, is located in Luweero, about 50 kilometres from Kampala, Uganda’s capital city. Another student, George William Ntulume, sheds more light by unveiling his daily routine.

‘We grow vegetables and take care of them until maturity. We come here early in the morning and in the evening to do all the management practices for these plants,’ he says.

‘We do watering, weeding, pruning and mulching, so as to have a vibrant culture of agriculture, as well getting the skills we need in future for economic and knowledge purposes,’ he adds. Mr Ntulume says each student does all the practices individually.

He says they do the garden work between 6am and 8am. ‘After that, we go and prepare (clean up), then we have breakfast within the same hour before we go for lectures at 9am. Then we come back at around 5.30pm when lectures are done. I plan to do a diploma after this, and afterwards, I will also pursue a degree,’ he says.

Ms Nankinga, on her part, appears to be more interested in becoming an entrepreneur. ‘We have enough skills to start our projects, out there,’ she says.

‘We should focus more on the practical aspect while training as students; that is what will help us. Some other institutions largely focus on theory,’ she adds.

Information from the BAC Crop Science Department indicates that students are assessed on real performance in areas such as the quality of mulching, which must be weed-free, pest-free and effective at conserving soil moisture.

BAC is one of the key partners in the Proliferation of Local Expertise in Development of Green-growth Economy (PLEDGE) project, which seeks to transform training in higher institutions of learning to support green growth, practical skills development and sustainable economic transformation.

The project is being implemented by Mountains of the Moon University, along the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE), which has introduced competence-based training for institutions of higher learning.

Associate Prof Joshua Wesana, the dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at Mountains of the Moon University, says the PLEDGE initiative seeks to change both student and trainer mindsets.

‘In other institutions, if you tell a student to appear on the farm at 5am to prepare cows for milking, some take it as punishment,’ Prof Wesana says.

‘That kind of attitude is what PLEDGE is here to transform.’ He adds that the project will develop national strategies, policies and guidelines for green transition-focused agriculture training, while also building capacity among lecturers and strengthening university-industry linkages through professional councils.

A living model

Mr Gelvan Kisolo Lule, the principal of BAC for the last eight years and a staff member for nearly 30 years, has witnessed the evolution first-hand.

‘I came from university with a lot of theory. When I started training students here, I had to learn practical skills from the farm workers themselves. That experience was very valuable,’ he recalls.

Mr Lule says the BAC curriculum has always been rich with hands-on skills because it was primarily established in 1920 to train farmers. But he says along the way, things started changing as more trainers recruited after university education started introducing more theory than practical skills.

‘So, by the time we reached 1980-1990, we were now coming to about 70 percent theory and 20 percent practical skills,’ he reveals.

‘We were reviewing our curriculum in 2008-2009 and had a farmer stakeholder engagement. The participants were telling us that our students have a negative attitude towards work. They want to be on the farm only to supervise. They don’t want to ‘get dirty’,’ he says.

After the curriculum review, the institution returned to the first principles.

‘So, we said, we have to make them (students) be on the farm. So that’s when we reintroduced the farm practices culture,’ Mr Lule explains.

‘Here, whether you are doing human nutrition or agribusiness, you must be early on the farm every day. You must be on the farm at 6am. By 7am, they are done and starting to prepare for lectures,’ he adds.

Mr Lule also notes that the new curriculum for secondary education is already producing more confident and engaging students who are easier to train in higher institutions of learning.

The competence-based curriculum is designed to shift education away from rote memorisation towards practical skills, critical thinking, and real-world problem-solving

Adopting BAC culture

Prof Pius Coxwell Achanga, the vice chancellor of Mountains of the Moon University, after touring BAC and interacting with learners and tutors, says the model should be adopted even in universities to produce professionals with more practical skills. ‘If you want somebody to learn, you talk to them. If you want them to memorise, you show them. And if you want them to do something, you let them do it,’ he says, adding that universities have much to learn from Bukalasa’s model.

Prof Achanga says they will have deeper collaboration with BAC, including direct staff exchanges.

The NCHE says practical skills, competences and attitudes will, in the 2027-2028 academic year, account for at least 50 percent of students’ marks nationwide, up from the current 40 percent. The plan is to reduce assessments that are largely based on written exams. Prof Mary Okwakol, the executive director of the NCHE, explains further.

‘The competence-based curriculum is an approach which is supposed to equip the students with knowledge, competences, skills and attitudes that can enable them to perform their duties more effectively than they are doing now,’ she says.

The Electoral Commission (EC) Thursday declared National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidate Idah Nabayiga the winner of the Kalangala District Woman Member of Parliament by-election, amidst sharp protests from the leading opposition party, the National Unity Platform (NUP), which has rejected the outcome citing gross electoral malpractice.

According to results announced at 1:53am on June 25, 2026 by the Kalangala District Returning Officer, Mr Agaba Ronald, Nabayiga polled 12,642 votes to secure the parliamentary seat. Her closest rival, Irene Nampala of the NUP, came second with 7,474 votes, representing a victory margin of over 5,000 votes for the ruling party.

Independent candidates Sharifah Babirye, Flavia Hellen Nagawa, and Agnes Nasuuna garnered 244, 217, and 34 votes, respectively. Out of the 21,038 total ballot papers counted, 20,611 were valid, 427 were rejected, and 67 were spoilt.

“In accordance with Section 72 of the Parliamentary Elections Act, Cap. 177, I declare Idah Nabayiga, who has obtained the largest number of votes, to be the elected candidate,” Mr. Agaba announced.

The election, triggered by the death of the former lawmaker Helen Nakimuli, has been heavily overshadowed by accusations of state-engineered rigging. NUP officials immediately rejected the results, alleging that the military and other state security apparatuses took over several polling stations to tilt the vote in the NRM’s favor.

Throughout the voting process on Wednesday, June 24, and into Thursday, June 25, the opposition party utilized social media to share videos and photos purposed to show blatant ballot stuffing by security operatives and NRM mobilizers.

In a detailed statement shared on X (formerly Twitter), NUP claimed that their polling agents were violently forced away from voting centers to allow individuals to thumbprint entire booklets containing 50 ballot papers each.

“The broad daylight ballot stuffing as captured by vigilant citizens… Soldiers, goons, and even other security operatives were seen stuffing pre-ticked ballot papers in favor of the NRM candidate,” the NUP statement read in part.

The party highlighted specific discrepancies, pointing to a polling station where the NRM allegedly obtained 78 votes written in words, but recorded 125 in figures on the official forms. NUP further accused polling officials of directly indulging in altering results contrary to what was tallied on the ground.

Reacting to the development, NUP President Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, questioned the circumstances surrounding the by-election, drawing parallels to past controversial polls.

‘Looking at what the regime did in Kalangala yesterday, would anyone be wrong to assume that they killed Hon. Nakimuli to forcefully take over that District, the same way they killed Ffeffeka to take over Kayunga?’ Kyagulanyi posted on X on June 25.

Meanwhile, senior NUP leaders, including Deputy Secretary General Aisha Kabanda, Gorreth Namugga, and Habib Buwembo, revealed that the election was marred by targeted arrests. They stated that many of their supporters and polling agents remain in state detention, and efforts are currently underway to secure their release.

Conceding no defeat, the NUP candidate, Irene Nampala, maintained that she won the mandate of the islanders. She thanked the people of Kalangala for their resilience and noted that she is awaiting the party’s official declaration on the next course of legal or political action, expected tomorrow.

By press time, both the Electoral Commission and the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF) had not yet responded to the video evidence and rigging allegations presented by the opposition.

However, Justice Simon Byabakama, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, criticized the Police for failing to enforce a directive he had recently issued barring vehicles without number plates from participating in election-related activities.

Justice Byabakama stated that he had instructed that all such vehicles be impounded, but was surprised that, despite his orders, the police did not comply, as many vehicles without number plates were still seen operating during the election. He reminded the police of the importance of upholding and enforcing the law.

The EC chief also appealed to the people of Kalangala to continue maintaining the peace they have enjoyed and to avoid causing violence.

Sending money across East Africa or selling goods online to a neighbour should soon cost less and take less time after regional leaders meeting in Arusha this week moved to put money and projects behind long-awaited digital trade rules.

The East African Community is pushing to tear down digital borders, convening the 2026 Digital for Development Forum in Arusha to turn years of strategy papers into actual cables, code, and payment rails for 330 million people.

The high-level Forum opened Tuesday at the EAC headquarters, bringing together central bank governors, MPs, regulators, tech entrepreneurs and donors under the theme ‘From Strategy to Implementation: Building the Digital Single Market.’

Centurion and UKA Japan Motors-sponsored Pak Shaheens sealed promotion to the Silver Division of the CU Men’s 50 Overs League after a gripping round of Bronze Division semi-finals that mixed resilience, firepower and heartbreak in equal measure on June 21.

Centurion survived a tense early collapse before debutant Davis Karashani announced himself in style with a match-defining century, while UKA Japan Motors-sponsored Pak Shaheens produced a ruthless all-round display to crush Tornado CC and book their silver berth.

Centurion captain Allan Ssemakula admitted his side’s qualification journey was built on more than just match-day brilliance.

‘Qualification was built on consistency, discipline, and teamwork throughout the season,’ Ssemakula said.

‘Every player understood their role and bought into the team’s vision. We stayed united even in difficult moments.’

He added that the achievement was only the beginning of a longer project.

‘Our ambition is to continue growing, compete strongly at the next level and build a winning culture that lasts,’ he said.

The surge

At Lugogo Cricket Oval, Centurion were pushed to the edge after slipping to 24 for 3 in pursuit of 199 against Kifaru CC.

But what followed was a turnaround built on belief and composure, led by two former Cricket Cranes skippers; Karashani and Brian Mark Masaba, who stitched together a 174-run partnership that flipped the contest. Karashani struck a brilliant 103 off 84 balls on debut, while Masaba anchored the chase with an unbeaten 62.

Ssemakula later praised the calmness inside the dressing room when pressure peaked.

‘Naturally there was tension because the stakes were high, but nobody panicked,’ he said.

‘We trusted the players at the crease. Cricket is about partnerships and momentum can change quickly.’

For Karashani, the moment was not only a delight but also a statement of arrival.

His innings blended timing, patience and authority as Centurion recovered from a shaky start to seal promotion with 35 balls to spare. Masaba, often the quiet operator, ensured there were no late scares as he carried the chase home.

Shaheens power

At Florida Oval, alias The Akbar Baig Cricket Ground, UKA Japan Motors-sponsored Pak Shaheens delivered one of the most dominant performances of the round, hammering Tornado CC by 98 runs to confirm promotion.

Batting first, Shaheens posted 187 all out, with Sunil Kumar top-scoring on 56, while Yasir Malik added 40 and Abdul Basit Habib contributed 38.

Captain Muhammad Sarwar Raheel, who was mentored by Pakistan legend Saeed Ajmal, said the win carried emotional weight beyond cricket.

‘This Father’s Day was unforgettable,’ Raheel said. ‘I wore a ‘DAD’ cap during the match to carry my son with me onto the field as I was celebrating my first anniversary as a father.’

He dedicated the victory to his family. ‘Leading Shaheens to victory in such a pressure game made it even more meaningful. I dedicate this win to my son Zayan Raheel,’ he said.

Tornado wilt

Traditional giants Tornado never recovered from early blows as they were bundled out for 89 in reply, with UKA Japan Motors-sponsored Pak Shaheens’ bowlers tightening the grip through disciplined spells.

Cricket Cranes paceman Bilal Hassun and skipper Raheel led the charge as wickets fell at regular intervals. Elsewhere in Gold Division, Rounders CC’s survival hopes collapsed under pressure as they fell to Kutchi Tigers CC by 61 runs at Entebbe.

Their chase of 153 never recovered after an early collapse left them 26 for 4, eventually folding for 91 and confirming relegation.

Tough reward

Centurion and Pak Shaheens will now meet in the Bronze final this Sunday (June 28) at Lugogo after sealing promotion to Division Two in contrasting but commanding fashion.

Centurion did it the hard way – with recovery, patience and a debut century – while UKA Japan Motors-sponsored Shaheens stormed through with ruthless dominance.

Either way, both teams will leave the Bronze Division not only as mere winners but as teams ready for a bigger stage.

CU MEN’S 50-OVER LEAGUE

Results – Gold Division

Ceylon Lions 209/10 | Aboojo 186/9

Ceylon Lions won by 23 runs

Kutchi Tigers 152/10 | Rounders 91/10

Kutchi Tigers won by 61 runs

JACC 183/9 | Mukono Warriors 119/10

JACC won by 64 runs

Bronze Division – Semi-finals

Kifaru CC 198/10 | Centurion CC 202/4

Centurion CC won by 6 wickets

Pak Shaheens CC 187/10 | Tornado CC 89/10

Pak Shaheens CC won by 98 runs

In boardrooms, conference halls and high-level meetings across the world, Ambassador Frederieke Quispel has noticed a pattern that refuses to disappear. When the meeting begins, women are often the ones making sure everyone is comfortable, pouring coffee, taking notes or quietly supporting the discussion. By the time the real decisions are being made, many have already stepped back from the conversation. As she concludes her tour of duty in Uganda and prepares to return to The Hague, the Netherlands’ ambassador has one message for young women determined to lead.

‘Do not get the coffee, join the conversation. Stay at the table. Your ideas matter,’ Quispel urges.

Quispel believes confidence is rarely something people are born with. Instead, it is built through preparation, experience and the courage to speak, even when self-doubt whispers otherwise.

“If you have prepared, if you have done the work and if you have something to contribute, then speak,” she says. “The world needs your ideas just as much as anyone else’s.”

The advice carries extra weight because Quispel nearly abandoned her own dream before it had even begun. Today, she is ending a diplomatic assignment that caps more than two decades of service in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. She has represented the Netherlands in Rwanda, Burundi, Canada and Uganda, and will soon return to The Hague to lead the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department for Sub-Saharan Africa.

Childhood

But as a teenager growing up in the eastern Netherlands, she never imagined she would one day become one of her country’s senior diplomats. Born in the western Netherlands and raised in the east, Quispel grew up in a family where public service was part of everyday life. Her mother, a lawyer, was born in Indonesia during the period when it was still a Dutch colony, while her father served as a civil servant in the Netherlands. Today, she is married to Richard and is a mother of two children. Long before diplomacy entered her life, curiosity did. She spent hours reading books about distant countries, fascinated by cultures she had never experienced and people she had never met. Those stories sparked dreams of travelling the world and understanding societies far beyond her own.

“When someone explained to me what a diplomat was, I immediately thought, ‘That sounds like the most interesting job in the world,'” she recalls.

Yet one casual conversation almost shattered that dream.

‘A neighbour once told me that only the brightest students ever made it into the diplomatic service. The message stayed with me,’ Quispel says.

Instead of testing herself, she ruled herself out.

‘I remember thinking, ‘Well, then it is probably not for me.’ Looking back, it is funny because I rejected myself before I had even tried. Many women do exactly that,’ she recalls.

Today, Quispel says many young women continue to make the same mistake, disqualifying themselves before opportunity has the chance to do so. That early self-doubt, rather than examinations or interviews, became the first real obstacle she had to overcome. Everything changed during her university years when she secured an internship at the Dutch Embassy in Amman, Jordan. For the first time, diplomacy was no longer something she read about in books. She was living it. The experience erased years of uncertainty. Encouraged by what she had seen, she applied to join the Dutch foreign service, despite believing she was not among the country’s top students. Her father even showed her a newspaper photograph of the latest diplomatic recruits.

‘I looked at that photograph and thought, ‘That is exactly where I want to be.’ I was not top of my class, but I applied anyway,’ she explains.

She was accepted and began diplomatic training before serving in several overseas postings, including Rwanda, where she had her first assignment. Looking back, Quispel says decision taught her perhaps the greatest lesson of her career.

“People will always tell you that something is impossible or too difficult, or that only the very best can make it. What I have learnt is that you should never let other people decide your limits. Give it a try first. You might surprise yourself.”

Learning confidence, the hard way

Diplomatic training followed, and with it came a new environment, formal, competitive and filled with high expectations. Like many young professionals, she quickly discovered that a room full of senior figures can be intimidating.

‘When I was a young diplomat, I would sit in meetings surrounded by senior people and think they knew everything. Later, I realised confidence and expertise are not always the same thing.’ Instead, she says, preparation became her greatest strength.

‘I prepared thoroughly. I knew my files and my briefings. When I spoke, people listened because I knew what I was talking about. Preparation gave me confidence,’ she says.

Over time, the Dutch ambassador says she has learnt that credibility is not built on volume or dominance, but on readiness and clarity.

‘You do not always have to be the smartest person in the room. Sometimes you simply need the courage to prepare and speak,’ she explains.

First posting

Her first diplomatic posting was in Rwanda, an experience she describes as formative.

‘It taught me so much. I had almost entirely Rwandan friends because I wanted to understand the country. I spent a lot of time with local people,’ she reveals. Living in Kigali also introduced her to Uganda, just across the border.

‘Kigali was much quieter than Kampala,’ she says with a smile. She adds, ‘So whenever we wanted a lively weekend, we would come to Uganda. We would fly here with friends and enjoy the music, the energy and the atmosphere.’

Those early experiences in the region deepened her appreciation of East Africa’s complexity, warmth and cultural diversity, an understanding that would later shape her work as ambassador.

Focus on girl education

Over time, Quispel’s work expanded beyond traditional diplomacy into issues of gender equality and girls’ education. She says one of the biggest challenges facing girls begins at home, long before they reach school or the workplace.

‘Very often, if a family has limited resources, the boy will be prioritised over the girl. That means girls start their lives already disadvantaged. It is not because they are less capable. It is because society often expects less from them,’ she says. For her, this inequality is not a women’s issue alone, it is a societal one.

‘We often talk about the girl child as though she is the problem that needs fixing. Men, women, boys, girls, religious leaders, cultural leaders and parents all need to be involved,’ Quispel explains.

She adds, ‘Imagine missing nearly a week of school every month because you do not have access to sanitary products. That affects confidence, attendance and future opportunities.’

Simple solutions, she believes, can have significant impact.

‘Sometimes people think development must involve massive projects. But something as simple as reusable sanitary pads can completely change a young person’s life,’ she says.

Teenage pregnancy, she adds, remains one of the leading causes of school dropouts.

‘A significant number of girls become pregnant before the age of 18, and many never return to school,’ she says.

She insists that addressing such challenges requires open dialogue.

‘These discussions can be culturally sensitive, but avoiding them does not solve the problem. Young people need information. Parents, schools and communities all need to be involved,’ Quispel urges.

THE FUNSIDE

Favorite food: Cow peas stew and chapati rolex

Outside work: Working out, playing golf

One trait that you love import to Netherlands: Ugandans are fantastic people

Habit to drop: Always regretting

Police have arrested five suspects and recovered dozens of computer components during investigations into a break-in at Buwambo Seed Secondary School in Wakiso District, where thieves stole computer equipment valued at about Shs60 million.

According to police, unknown assailants broke into the school’s computer laboratory in the early hours of June 18 after cutting through the perimeter fence.

Preliminary investigations indicate that the suspects gained access to the premises at around 2 a.m. and stole four HP server central processing units (CPUs), causing losses estimated at Shs60 million.

Kampala Metropolitan Police deputy spokesperson Luke Owoyesigyire said detectives from Matuga Police Station launched investigations and traced the movements of the suspects, leading to the impounding of a motorcycle believed to have been used during the theft.

Police subsequently arrested two suspects, whose interrogation led investigators to locations in Kampala where some of the stolen equipment had allegedly been sold.

‘On June 23, 2026, a police team conducted an operation at E-Tower along Kampala Road, where 15 computer CPUs, nine UPS units and 11 HP monitors suspected to be stolen property were recovered,’ Owoyesigyire said.

He added that additional computer accessories were recovered from other premises linked to the investigation.

‘A total of five suspects are currently in custody as investigations continue to identify and apprehend other individuals connected to the theft and recover more stolen property,’ he said.

Police did not immediately disclose the identities of the suspects, citing ongoing investigations.

The recovery comes amid growing concern over thefts targeting schools and institutions. Investigations are ongoing.

The Deputy Chief Justice, Moses Kazibwe Kawumi, has urged judicial and investigating officers to pay attention to quality investigations for proper prosecution of cases and preserve exhibits properly.

The Deputy Chief Justice, who is also the head of the Appeals Court, was addressing judicial officers and litigants during the opening of the criminal appeals court in Arua on Monday.

‘Please prepare the records properly, how certified are the records to be presented to the courts. In courts, you see records with missing pages, you do not see the exhibits, you get perturbed, you write a letter to request the records, and files don’t come. Please and please, colleagues, let us do our work,’ he said.

The three-day appeals session will see three justices of the appeals court, Justice Christopher Gashirabake, Lady Justice Margaret Tibulya and Justice Cornelius Kakooza Sabiiti, listen to 28 appeals cases.

He continued: ‘I call upon investigators, prosecutors and judicial officers to pay particular attention to the quality of investigations, documentation and record management. Every testimony matters, every exhibit matters, every detail presented in the trial record must be preserved and presented to the appellate court.’

Among the cases lined up are 14 murder cases, 9 aggravated defilement, 2 aggravated robbery and 4 rape cases.

Mr Richard Muhereza, the representative of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions in the region, appealed to the Judiciary to operationalize the two high court circuits of Nebbi and Moyo districts, saying it was too costly for litigants in far districts to travel up to Arua. But Justice Kazibwe said he will present the issue.

Ms Daisy Yayi, the chairperson of West Nile Bar Association, also appealed to the Deputy Chief Justice to see to it that appeals courts for civil cases also sit.