Category: Daily Monitor

The Anti-Corruption Court has issued criminal summons for former Trade Ministry Permanent Secretary Geraldine Ssali, after she failed to appear for the mention of a Shs3.8 billion fraud case in which she is jointly charged with three Members of Parliament (MPs) and other officials.

During Monday’s session, acting Assistant Registrar Patrick Talisuna issued the summons after prosecution informed court that Ms Ssali was absent without any communication.

Senior State Attorney Raymond Mugisa told court that ‘the accused are present except for ‘accused six (A6)’. We seek criminal summons for A6, and we await communication from the Constitutional Court regarding the human rights application filed, which has an impact on this case.’

The case was scheduled for mention as the parties await a ruling from the Constitutional Court on an application filed by Busiki County MP Paul Akamba, who seeks dismissal of the charges, claiming his human rights were violated during arrest and prosecution.

Counsel holding brief for Ms Ssali’s lawyer told court that her surety, Kiwanuka, was present but offered no explanation for her absence.

Meanwhile, lawyer Sydney Odong, representing MP Akamba, asked court to set a new mention date after the general elections, ‘owing to what is going on.’

Registrar Talisuna adjourned the matter to February 5, 2026, extending bail for all accused persons except Ms Ssali.

‘Bail for the accused persons is extended. Criminal summons are issued for A6,’ he ruled.

Ms Ssali is jointly charged with MPs Michael Mawanda, Ignatius Mudimi Wamakuyu, and Paul Akamba, alongside lawyer Julius Taitankoko Kirya and principal cooperative officer Leonard Kavundira.

The group faces charges of abuse of office, conspiracy to defraud, money laundering, and causing financial loss in relation to compensation funds meant for Buyaka Growers Co-operative Society.

Prosecution alleges that during the 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 financial years, Ms Ssali irregularly added Buyaka Growers Co-operative Society to the list of groups eligible for war-loss compensation, despite the group not appearing in the approved supplementary budget.

It is further alleged that she authorized irregular payments totaling Shs3.8 billion to Kirya and Company Advocates, a law firm owned by co-accused lawyer Taitankoko, purportedly to compensate war-loss claimants.

The state contends the payments violated the 2017 Treasury Instructions and caused financial loss to government. The accused MPs are alleged to have conspired with Ms Ssali and other officials to divert the funds.

In October, trial judge Justice Jane Kajuga Akuo halted proceedings after ruling that the court must first determine MP Akamba’s human rights application against the Attorney General.

‘The law is clear. The trial judge is required to determine the application before proceeding,’ Justice Kajuga stated.

With the latest adjournment, the case returns to court on February 5, 2026, pending guidance from the Constitutional Court.

Persons with disabilities (PWDs) have appealed to the government to ensure that health facilities are easily accessible and their amenities are user-friendly to PWDs.

Speaking at the 38th advocacy commemoration in Hoima City on Friday last week, Ms Esther Kyozira, the chief executive officer of the National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda (NUDIPU), said: ‘Access to health is a human right, and when we talk about equality and equity, we emphasise equal access to quality health services for everyone. The communication gap between health workers and patients with disabilities remains one of the most serious challenges in the healthcare system.’

She added: ‘We still struggle with the attitudes of some health workers who think persons with disabilities do not have equal rights when it comes to accessing health services…Some refuse to communicate with us simply because we do not speak. Others fail to get information from us because they assume we cannot hear or understand.’

Ms Kyozira further pointed to the growing number of PWDs in the country. ‘According to the most recent national census, 13.2 percent of Uganda’s population are persons with disabilities. This is a significant proportion that cannot be ignored,’ she noted.

Ms Hashimu Mukama, the chairperson of Bunyoro People Living with Disabilities, said there is a need to protect patient privacy, particularly for individuals who have a hearing impairment and require sign language interpreters.

‘Health workers should at least possess basic sign language skills as part of their training,’ she said.

The Hoima Resident City Commissioner, Mr Badru Mugabi, said the government and other stakeholders should ensure that an inclusive health system that leaves no person with disability behind.

The Managing Director of Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL), Paul Mwesigwa, has revealed that the company has lost four million units of electricity, translating into billions of shillings, due to the vandalism of transmission towers in Mukono.

“We sell about 16 million units monthly in the area, and being off for six days means we have lost about four million units,” Mwesigwa said during a meeting between investors and officials from UETCL and UEDCL on November 22, 2025.

The power blackout, which has lasted for four days, has affected 128,000 customers, including 200-300 manufacturers. Mwesigwa stated that the company is planning to restore power after a six-day blackout, probably on Tuesday.

“We are supposed to get 157 megavolts; unfortunately, we can only get 15 from the alternative supply, and that is SCOUL. So we are in a shortage of over 90 percent of the energy that we need to supply to our customers in the region,” he said.

UETCL Chief Executive Officer Richard Matsiko appealed for calm among the affected investors and communities, assuring them that restoration efforts are in progress.

“We have mobilised adequate resources, and supply is expected to be restored by early next week,” Matsiko said.

Investors have expressed deep frustration over the power blackout, which has severely disrupted production across multiple factories.

“The impact is growing by the hour,” said Sam Mukisa, the Human Resource Manager at Landy Industries Limited. “We can not run the machinery on generators, and our workers who earn daily wages are idle.”

Gavran Dwivedi of Tembo Steels Limited warned that the outage is significantly affecting their steel operations. “We request the government to restore the supply immediately and reinforce security on the transmission lines to prevent a recurrence,” he said.

The power blackout has also affected water supply, with the National Water and Sewerage Corporation reporting a reduction in water production capacity.

“Because of the vandalism, the electricity that has been replaced by UETCL is not able to produce enough water; we are instead producing about 50 million litres, meaning we have lost half of our production capacity,” said Samuel Apedel from National Water and Sewerage Corporation.

The affected areas without water include Eastern Kampala, Mukono district, Namugongo, Gayaza, Kamwokya, Kireka, Mbuya, Matuga, and surrounding areas.

Eng. Protaze Tibyakinura, Chief Engineer for Technical Services at UETCL, confirmed that three substations were affected, cutting off supply to multiple facilities/industries, including Tian Tang, Kampala Cement, Quality Plastics, Landy, Abacus parenteral drugs limited, the Katosi Water Project, Mpoma, Mbalala, and the Tembo substations.

He also said that in the process of vandalism, one of the suspects was electrocuted and his body was removed by the technical team.

Technical teams have been deployed to work around the clock to restore supply.

It had come down to Game Six – give or take. City Oilers win it and Judgement Day is postponed to Friday, but should Namuwongo Blazers subject the 10-time champions to their fourth successive finals series defeat, it would be all over. New dawn!

The clock ticked, and the ball arced through the air, a fleeting prayer in a cauldron of noise. The rim rattled, the crowd erupted, and the floor vibrated – literally, Tonny Drileba swore it – with the weight of a ‘nation’s relief’.

Oilers stranglehold

In that moment, on a sweaty Wednesday night of November 5, 2025, Namuwongo Blazers clinched the National Basketball League (NBL) title, snapping the Oilers’ 10-year stranglehold.

Drileba, the soft-spoken point guard with a scholar’s mind and a soldier’s grit, was at the heart of it.

His ninth championship, his first with the Blazers, was more than a trophy; it was a revolution.

Basketball love at first sight

Drileba’s story did not begin in the spotlight but in the shadows of Kampala’s courts, where a boy from Revival Junior School trailed his big brother Patrick Yiki to Mengo Senior Secondary School.

It was 2005, and young Drileba, barely in Primary Five, watched his brother hoop with a hunger that would define him.

‘He was calm, soft-spoken,’ Drileba, whose name means ‘good luck,’ recalled, ‘and that shaped me.’

Basketball wasn’t just a game; it was a language of discipline, learned in a household where his father, a technical drawing teacher, and his late mother, a businesswoman with a heart as wide as Lake Victoria, instilled order and empathy.

‘We had a curfew, no alcohol, no clubs,’ Drileba, who sat across from me in The Game of Life Podcast studio narrating his odyssey in such polished detail only comparable to his dad’s carpentry work, intimated to me. ‘To this day, nightlife feels alien.’

That discipline forged a player who, by 2011, was captaining Mengo to a national schools championship title.

Attracting Oilers attention

Yet, Drileba’s rise was never loud. He joined Abacode, a Mengo community club born from a French-Canadian initiative, and helped propel it from Division Three.

By 2015, City Oilers, the brewing ‘dictator’ of Ugandan basketball, had come calling.

Ben Komakech, a legend whose game Drileba studied like scripture, recommended him.

‘I didn’t even know the Oilers management was watching,’ he said of a standout game against UCU JV.

The Oilers signed him, and the fledgling dynasty embraced a new cog. Eight championships followed, each a masterclass in Drileba’s understated brilliance.

Student of the game

He was the facilitator, the coach on the floor, breaking down plays with a notebook full of scribbled tendencies – how many times an opponent went left, who favored the pick-and-roll.

‘I’m an extension of the coach,’ narrated the point guard, a mantra that earned him praise from former Silverbacks assistant coach and current Portland Trail Blazers assistant GM, Mike Schmitz.

According to Silverbacks national team manager Albert Ahabwe, Schmitz told him during a qualification phase to the 2021 Fiba AfroBasket in Alexandria, Egypt that Drileba’s game intelligence was so good he could walk into an NBA assistant coaching role ‘today.’

This hit deep, and then Silverbacks

Yet, 2018 stands out, not for tactics but for heart. Reeling from his mother’s death, Drileba played through grief, some of his teammates perhaps unaware of the weight he carried.

‘I keep things private,’ he admitted. ‘I’d laugh, joke, play – no one knew.’

The national team noticed and beckoned him over. In 2019, at the Zone 5 tournament in Kampala, Drileba donned the number 12 jersey – Stephen Omony’s, a giant of Ugandan basketball who was injured at the time.

Team manager Ahabwe handed it to him with a charge: ‘You’ll do this jersey proud.’ Drileba did, leading Uganda to a breakthrough.

By 2021, he was guarding stars like Cape Verde’s Ivan Almeida on the road to AfroBasket in Kigali.

Battered and bandaged from the physical strains subjected to him by Egypt and Morocco in Alexandria, he limped into coach George Galanopoulos’s room and literally begged for the assignment.

‘I was all over him,’ Drileba said, grinning. Almeida scored seven points and Uganda won – the Silverbacks adding to their earlier victory over Morocco to advance to the final phase of qualification.

Reliving AfroBasket in Kigali

At AfroBasket in Kigali after the Silverbacks had beaten Morocco, again, to book a slot at the table of men, Uganda finished sixth, beating Nigeria and Cameroon.

‘We actually thought we could go all the way,’ Drileba declared,’ yes we did.’ Was the conviction bred by the coach or the players? ‘Both,’ emphasised Drilaba. ‘We had the belief and determination. Just finer margins cost us.

Yet Drileba, 32 in December, is not known to give up. He wants more in national colours and will keep pushing for it.

‘The World Cup,’ he declared, ‘The World Cup and Olympics. One or both. That’s the dream. And we’re not far. The talent is there.’

Oilers to Blazers – the untold story

Back at City Oilers, where Drileba owes most of his basketball story – both at home and on the continent – national titles never stopped flowing.

But dynasties, even personal ones, can fray. By 2023, Drileba and teammates like James Okello and Jimmy Enabu felt stifled by the Oilers.

They strongly believed that they had given their all to the club and now wanted some modifications to their contracts to match life’s demands, seniority and their own aspirations.

‘We’d grown,’ he explained, ‘but they still saw us as kids.’ The breaking point came in Tanzania, during a Road to BAL qualifier.

Injured and exhausted, Drileba dragged himself onto the court after a desperate plea from coach Mandy Juruni.

‘I played the second half, made crucial plays, and we qualified,’ he said. Yet, Oilers’ reliance on foreign imports for BAL left Drileba feeling expendable.

‘You play all year, then they bring ‘real’ players,’ he complained, the wound still raw.

When management called them ‘ungrateful,’ Drileba had sat on a contract offer from DRC’s Chaux Sports reluctant to leave. ‘That hurt,’ he said.

But when Okello and Enabu departed, he followed, playing three months abroad before Blazers called.

Namuwongo Blazers weren’t just a team; they were a mission. Coach Stephen Nyeko and management saw Drileba, Okello, and Enabu, plus another former Oiler in Ivan Muhwezi, as the missing pieces.

‘The objective was clear: win the league, play BAL,’ Drileba told me. They rolled through the regular season, even trouncing the Oilers twice.

Chaotic start, and then, cometh the hour.

But the finals were chaotic. A scheduling dispute – Fuba’s insistence on a Friday start after Blazers, who had returned from the Road to BAL assignment just days earlier, expected Sunday – left the team scrambled.

‘We decided at 5 p.m. to play at 9,’ Drileba said. Oilers took a 2-0 lead, exploiting the disarray and Blazers’ fatigue and from BAL qualifiers.

Game three was do-or-die. Drileba, still nursing an injury, returned to orchestrate a comeback.

‘They’d never lost four in a row,’ he said of the Oilers, dissecting the series like a chess grandmaster. ‘We just needed one.’

They got it, then another, and another. By game six, Drileba’s calm under pressure – fixing teammate Arthur Wanyoto’s flare-up mid-game – set the tone.

That Wednesday, they closed it out, ending the Oilers’ stranglehold on the title and delivering Blazers their very first ever. Euphoria!

‘The floor vibrated,’ Drileba narrated, the memory electric. ‘It was a relief, for us, for the fans.’

Giving refugees a chance

Off the court, Drileba’s impact is quieter but no less profound. For over a decade, he has run free basketball clinics in Kampala’s slums and Nakivale refugee camp, Isingiro District, mentoring kids, securing bursaries, and teaching life skills.

In 2023, the Basketball Africa League honoured him with the Ubuntu Trophy, recognizing his community work. ‘It was humbling,’ he acknowledged.

‘Actually, people were shocked – they didn’t know.’ His next trip to Nakivale happened immediately when he stepped out of the studios, another chance to pass on the game that shaped him.

Drileba’s mantra is simple: ‘Anything worth doing, do it 100%.’ It’s why he played through pain, why he studies films of opponents like a professor, why he fights for every loose ball.

At 31, he surely still has some more fight in him. The World Cup dream stays, another BAL run awaits, and Blazers eye a dynasty of their own.

But for now, Drileba stands as Uganda’s silent warrior – a champion who speaks softly but carries a fight of a lion.

Drileba’s bio

Full name: Tonny Drileba

Date of birth: December 19, 1993 (31)

Place of birth: Kampala, Uganda

Ancestral home: Arua

Position: Point Guard, Namuwongo Blazers

Former club: City Oilers

Achievements

9 National Basketball League titles (8 with City Oilers, 1 with Namuwongo Blazers, 2025)

National Schools Championship with Mengo Senior Secondary School

2021 AfroBasket, 6th place with Uganda Silverbacks, beating Nigeria and Cameroon

Played in Fiba World Cup qualifiers, Zone 5 (2019), and Road to BAL

2023 Basketball Africa League Ubuntu Trophy for community impact

Fiba coaching certification

Off the Court

Runs free basketball clinics in Kampala slums and Nakivale refugee camp, mentoring youth and securing scholarships.

Mantra: ‘Anything worth doing, do it 100%.’

On an ordinary morning in October 2025, a quiet line was crossed in Uganda’s democratic life. Without a formal order, without a public explanation, and without any lawful process, journalists from Nation Media Group Uganda (NMG-U)-one of the country’s most influential independent newsrooms-were barred from covering Parliament. Early this year, they were also blocked from covering President Museveni’s activities.

At the heart of this crisis lies a constitutional question Uganda cannot ignore. Article 29(1)(a) of the 1995 Constitution guarantees press freedom and freedom of speech; Article 41 gives every citizen the right to access information held by the State except where the release of the information is likely to prejudice the security or sovereignty of the State or interfere with the right to the privacy of any other person. Neither of these provisions is conditional on whether the government approves of a media house’s editorial stance. A president is not a private citizen selecting preferred interviewers. Parliament is not a gated estate choosing which journalists may observe its proceedings. These are public officials and institutions whose legitimacy depends on unfettered scrutiny.

Global jurisprudence reinforces this. In Sherrill vs Knight (1977), a US Federal Court held that government cannot deny press access arbitrarily or as punishment for critical reporting. The principle is simple: access is not a privilege granted by power; it is an obligation imposed by democracy. Uganda government’s restrictions on NMG, therefore, carry not only political weight but constitutional illegality.

History provides sobering precedents. In 1972-74, then US President Richard Nixon waged a silent war against The Washington Post after it exposed the Watergate scandal. Unable to shut the paper down legally, his administration weaponised access: The Washington Post reporters were barred from White House events, editors were smeared, and financial pressure was exerted to choke the media company. It was an attempt to starve dissent of oxygen-the government could be employing the same tactic in Uganda. History vindicated the The Washington Post, proving that restricting press access is the first instinct of governments fearful of scrutiny.

Elsewhere, the apartheid regime in 1977 banned The World-South Africa’s leading Black newspaper. Under editor Percy Qoboza, The World exposed police brutality and the killing of Steve Biko. The State responded with the blunt tools of repression: the newspaper was shut down under ‘security’ regulations, its staff detained without trial, and public access to truthful information criminalised. South Africa now remembers the ban on The World as one of the clearest markers of authoritarian descent.

These examples-one from a democracy confronting corruption, the other from a racial dictatorship enforcing silence-reveal a universal pattern: governments restrict critical media not to correct reporting, but to protect themselves from accountability. Uganda’s present moment follows that script.

The explanations for excluding NMG-U from claims of ‘misreporting’ to vague security investigations lack procedural fairness and legal grounding.

More revealing is the institutional confusion: State House denies a total ban, Parliament blames security, and security officials offers no clarity. A democracy that cannot explain its censorship is a democracy in retreat. The consequences extend beyond NMG-U. When one newsroom is silenced, citizens lose access to verified information. Parliamentary oversight dims and Executive power expands without witness. Rumour replaces fact, and intimidation replaces dialogue. A nation cannot hold leaders accountable if it cannot see them.

Uganda now stands at a historical threshold. If the ban on NMG-U stands, it will not merely be a dispute with a media house-it will redefine Uganda’s political future and seal a legacy no regime can escape. Yet if history teaches anything, it is that governments never win by silencing the press: heads, truth prevails; tails, power crumbles. A State that chooses repression wages a battle it cannot win.

Uganda’s export receipts to Kenya at the end of 2023 continued rising despite trade blockades, with earnings hitting $62.7 million (Shs226.63b), the highest in over three and a half years.

According to a monthly Bank of Uganda (BoU) report, the country’s exports to Kenya registered an increase from the $46.8 million (Shs169.16b) earned in October 2023.

BoU records further indicate that the 2023 revenue was the highest since May 2019, when the country exported goods to Kenya worth $72m (Shs260.25b).

Responding to this performance, Dr Fred Muhumuza, an economist and lecturer at Makerere School of Economics, said: ‘This is a good trend, but we now need to see its mirror image from Kenya. How much are we importing? Also, check the actual imports and exports across the border.’

Cumulatively for the last four years, the export trend has been on an upward trajectory. Looking at the BoU statistics for the period December 2021 to November 2022, the country recorded $568m (Shs2.05 trillion).

This was higher than the $533m (Shs1.92 trillion) the country earned the previous year in review (December 2020-November 2021).

In the same way, the record further shows that in the cumulative period 2019-2020, the country earned $447m (Shs1.61 trillion), which was higher than $428m (Shs1.54 trillion) the country earned in 2018 to 2019, respectively.

Surprisingly, this when trade tensions and tempers have been flaring between Uganda and Kenya authorities, in which Ugandan exporters have, in the last four years, suffered numerous losses through unexplained blockades and non-tariff barriers.

Several Ugandan products, including sugar, milk, poultry and beef products, sugarcane and maize, have for long been subjects of blockades, occasioning huge losses to exporters.

Dr Muhumuza said: ‘Blockades come and go, especially on matters of food. More so, some people use alternative routes and export.’ Uganda is one of Kenya’s biggest export markets, earning the country in the excess of $1b (Shs3.61 trillion) annually.

However, whereas Kenya continues benefiting from Uganda’s open trade policies, blockades have cost Uganda more than 114,810 jobs, particularly in manufacturing and the agricultural value chain.

Earlier this month, Kenya and Uganda agreed to focus on industrial policy at the regional level instead of engaging in ‘unnecessary and costly competition’, the Finance Ministry Permanent Secretary, Mr Ramathan Ggoobi said.

The move followed discussions, in which Mr Ggoobi had paid ‘a courtesy call’ to his Kenyan counterpart, Dr Chris Kiptoo, the new Kenya Principal Secretary, National Treasury, to discuss trade and non-tariff barriers.

DNA test results for Melisa Aneza, 15, a student of Naalya Secondary School, Lugazi, whose body was found dumped in a swamp in Mukono District, have confirmed a perfect match with those of her parents.

Mr Luke Owoyesigyire, the Kampala Metropolitan Police deputy spokesperson, said yesterday that the report was released by the Police Forensic Laboratory team on Friday last week.

He added that police pathologists at Mulago National Referral Hospital handed over the body to the parents following the DNA confirmation.

‘The parents signed to receive the body from City Mortuary Mulago and have proceeded with burial arrangements,’ Mr Owoyesigyire said.

The family held the final vigil and funeral service in Makerere-Kikoni, a Kampala suburb, before laying her to rest at their ancestral home in Kabuga, Kanungu District, on Saturday.

Mr Owoyesigyire confirmed that police detectives are pursuing investigations to trace her killers, determine their motives, and ensure they face prosecution in court.

Mysterious disappearance

Aneza disappeared on November 4, with her case reported to police on November 6. Her body was later discovered on November 11 in Musaale Swamp, Namulaba Village, Kyampisi Sub-county, Mukono District.

On November 10, photos of an unidentified body circulated on social media, prompting her parents to report to Nagalama Police Post on November 11 to verify the report.

Witnesses noted that the body was dressed in a navy-blue student skirt labelled Nanyonga VII, suggesting the victim was a student.

Both parents told this publication that they had identified the body through a photo posted on social media by local authorities in Kayunga.

However, police reportedly blocked them from accessing the crime scene and asked them to return the following day, November 12.

By then, the body had already been buried. Authorities later exhumed the body to conduct a postmortem examination and DNA testing, which confirmed Aneza’s identity.

Eighty-one suspects linked to the November 1, 2025, coordinated attacks in the Rwenzori sub-region were arraigned on Monday before the High Court in Kasese, charged with terrorism, treason, financing terrorism, murder, attempted murder, and aggravated robbery.

The suspects, including two women, appeared in court amid tight security and were remanded to Mubuku Government Prison in Kasese District until December 23, 2025, when they are expected to reappear for the hearing of their cases.

Chief Magistrate George Mfutindinda presided over the session held at Rukoki Court Chambers. He instructed prison authorities to ensure that any sick suspects receive appropriate medical attention.

‘Prison authorities should allow and ensure that those who are sick receive appropriate medical attention,’ he directed.

The suspects, who appeared anxious and wore ordinary clothes, were not allowed to enter any plea.

They had been arrested in districts of Kasese, Fort Portal, and Bundibugyo before being transported to court for the proceedings. At least three other alleged attackers remain at large.

The attacks, carried out at around 5:00 a.m., targeted military and police installations in Bundibugyo and Kasese districts, while another group attempted to raid two educational institutions in neighbouring Fort Portal City, all close to Uganda’s border with the DR Congo.

In Bundibugyo, militants struck the Malindi and Kakuka UPDF detachments. In Kasese, the Rwenzori East Central Police Barracks was attacked, leaving one police officer injured and a police uni-pot set ablaze.

Assailants also reportedly attempted to raid Canon Apollo Core Primary Teachers College and Nyakasura Senior Secondary School in Fort Portal North City Division.

The militants, mostly young men, were armed with a few AK-47 rifles, and each carried a panga, knife, or catapult. They were dressed in new black gumboots and jackets. Many were found clutching an eggplant and carrying herbs, which they allegedly believed would protect them from bullets.

The arraignment marks a key stage in ongoing investigations into the coordinated attacks, which raised national security concerns across the Rwenzori sub-region.

Have you ever noticed a white, hard substance stuck to your teeth that does not seem to get off, however hard you brush? That is most likely dental calculus. Dental calculus, also known as tartar, is the hard, yellowish or brownish deposit that forms on teeth, especially along the gum line and between teeth.

Formation of calculus is a process that starts with the formation of dental plaque. Plaque is a film of bacteria that forms on teeth within minutes of eating. If not removed within 24-72 hours, minerals from saliva (mainly calcium and phosphate) are integrated into the biofilm and cause it to harden. Once hardened, no amount of brushing or home remedies can remove it.

There are two types of calculus: supragingival (above the gum line, usually yellowish) and subgingival (below the gum line, often dark and more harmful). Some people form tartar at a faster rate due to high salivary mineral content, dry mouth (xerostomia), crowded teeth, smoking, or poor oral hygiene.

Calculus is a big discomfort for some activities enjoyed by adults. However, it is even more insidious because its rough surface traps more plaque, creating a cycle that leads to swollen, bleeding gums (gingivitis), persistent bad breath, gum recession, loose teeth (periodontitis), and even higher risks of heart disease and diabetes complications.

Calculus can only be removed by a professional: a dental surgeon, dental hygienist, or a public health dental officer. During scaling, the dentist or hygienist uses ultrasonic instruments and hand tools to break off the hard deposits.

Root planing smooths the tooth roots when subgingival calculus is present, followed by polishing to leave teeth smooth.

Regular cleaning

Most adults can benefit from professional cleaning every six to 12 months. Individuals with gum disease may, however, need it more frequently, say every three to four months, until their condition stabilizes.

Prevention is simple and effective:

Brush twice daily for two full minutes with fluoride toothpaste, focusing on the gum line.

Clean between teeth daily using floss, interdental brushes, or a water flosser.

Use tartar-control toothpaste containing pyrophosphates or zinc citrate.

Stop smoking or chewing tobacco.

Visit your dentist regularly for early detection and cleaning.

If your teeth feel rough or your gums bleed when brushing, book a professional dental cleaning appointment. The procedure is quick, usually painless, and instantly refreshing.

As Hoima continues to evolve from a Town Council to a fully-fledged City, debates surrounding the future of the 6.7-acre Hoima Boma Grounds continue to resurface with renewed intensity. For years, these grounds have faced proposals for redevelopment in various ways.

Among the dangled options have been redevelopment of the facility into a high-level health facility, and/or a modern multi-sports training complex in preparation for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon). The latest push by the National Council of Sports (NCS) requires transfer of land ownership from Hoima City to facilitate construction of a multi-sport facility. Notwithstanding the seemingly innocent good plans, behind these ambitions lie a set of environmental, social, and urban planning concerns that remain largely unaddressed.

In spite of the scale of the proposed infrastructure, a comprehensive Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) has not been brought before the District Council or the public. This omission contradicts both the Albertine Graben Environmental Management Plan (AGEMP) and Environment and Social Safeguards (ESS) that demand environmental safeguards for major projects. Hoima City hosts the regional National Environment Management Authority (Nema) offices, making the lack of environmental scrutiny even more baffling.

At a time when Uganda is committed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), notably SDG 11 on Sustainable Cities and SDG 13 on Climate Action; failing to prioritize environmental due diligence is inexcusable and threatens the long-term urban resilience of the district eco-system. Hoima Boma Grounds remains the city’s only formal emergency assembly point-a vital asset given the city’s rapid, and often unplanned urban expansion. During football matches for Kitara FC and Buhimba Saints, crowds and traffic overwhelm city centre, highlighting existing infrastructural weaknesses. With the Hoima City Stadium located less than five kilometres away from Kyarwiru (the location of Hoima City Stadium), concentrating two major sports facilities within such proximity could paralyze mobility and disrupt local businesses, including those linked to the emerging oil and gas sector.

At a time when Uganda’s Vision 2040 emphasises resilient, orderly urban development; reducing emergency spaces and worsening congestion would undermine the city’s preparedness and competitiveness. A more sustainable solution lies in distributing large-scale infrastructure across the city. Prioritizing the modern training facility for Hoima West Division would reduce pressure on the central business area while promoting balanced development-a core objective of Vision 2040. Schools such as Parajwoki, Karongo, and Bulemwa, among others already possess playgrounds that could be upgraded and co-utilized, supporting educational co-curricular activities and aligning with SDG 4 on Quality Education.

In addition, shared infrastructure investment across Hoima East and Hoima West Divisions would complement ongoing road network improvements and address decades-old challenges tied to the city’s 400 kilometers of poor-quality roads. Hoima’s development trajectory must be guided by proven planning models. Approaches such as the Garden City concept and incremental planning can help the city manage population growth, protect green spaces, reduce pollution, and integrate recreation areas into residential neighbourhoods.

This aligns with global sustainability principles and Uganda’s national development aspirations. As the debate over Hoima Boma Grounds continues, the question is not whether development should happen-but how it should happen. Uganda cannot afford to have an infrastructure that undermines environmental sustainability, worsens congestion, and/or compromises public safety. The citizens of Hoima deserve development that respects both their immediate needs and the long-term vision of a modern, resilient, and well-planned city.