300 delegates for Kigali international agric event

About 300 people will gather in Rwanda March 31 – April 2, 2014, to discuss how to get nutritious foods to more people.

Speakers lined up for the 2^nd Global Conference on Biofortification include Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, the first recipient of the World Food Prize and Father of India’s Green Revolution as well as Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and Forbes Africa ‘Man of the Year.’

I (Chairman Uganda Science Journalists Association) will be at this event courtesy of HarvestPlus. I look forward to feeding you with news, features and analyses.

For details about the event click here

Police Commander Kawesi washes dirty linen in public

Given the way some issues are handled by the Uganda Police, one would be forgiven if they described the force as a media house. Commander for Metropolitan Kampala Andrew Felix Kawesi decided over the weekend to go with camera-wielding journalists on his trip to embarrass seven of his colleagues. 

Kampala Police boss Kawesi

Like a chameleon looking to catch a fly, Kawesi, in civilian clothes, with dark glasses covering his eyes, went after his prey. He found his fellow police bosses at fault. They were missing where he expected them to be.

After accusing them of negligence of duty, he had them arrested in front of all us – I watched this on TV and saw it in newspapers. These guys had not murdered, neither had they robbed. Negligence of duty is a big case they have to answer but, why embarrass them in this way? Is there no better way of punishing them internally, without having to show us that they are incompetent? How do you expect the public to respect the Police when you are parading yourselves as useless people? 

On several occasions police bosses have unnecessarily embarrassed their colleagues in public by inviting journalists to record as they are arresting them. I am thinking this is bad for the image of the force!

Who lit the mini-skirt fire?

Some Ugandans had started to undress in public women wearing short clothes claiming that the anti-pornography law banned them. How did they get there?

Daily Monitor started it off with this:

Government tables Bill to outlaw miniskirts

Wearing of miniskirts could soon land one in jail or attract heavy fines if Parliament approves a new piece of legislation that seeks to further clarify the offence of pornography in Uganda’s laws. (April 5, 2013)http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Government-tables-Bill-to-outlaw-miniskirts/-/688334/1739768/-/p77d82/-/index.html

Then came this:

MPs pass Bill against miniskirts

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/2119246/-/4qwev6/-/index.html (Dec 19, 2013)

Now in this editorial of Feb 25, 2014:

Anti-pornography law is being abused

http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/Editorial/Anti-pornography-law-is-being-abused/-/689360/2220278/-/ifre1uz/-/index.html

Daily Monitor says: “The media has also been remiss in its duty to properly explain the nitty gritty of the Act. Nowhere in the 19 pages of the Act is the word miniskirt mentioned, yet it has been dubbed the anti-miniskirt law by some.

“What the law does prohibit, however, is pornography which it defines as “any representation through publication, exhibition, cinematography, indecent show, information technology or by whatever means, of a person engaged in real or stimulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a person for primarily sexual excitement.”

DM, you lit the fire. Thank you for leading the efforts to stop it. Sensationalism can be costly!

Drogba could return to Chelsea

Didier Drogba at 40 may just play for Chelsea. The Ivorian footballer loves the Club. Interesting stuff from BBC here:

Didier Drogba: Galatasaray striker on his Chelsea love affair

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/26325234

Anti-gay law: What will the west lose?

The Guardian quotes President Museveni after he signs the anti-gay law: "Outsiders cannot dictate to us. This is our country. I advise friends from the west not to make this an issue, because if they make it an issue the more they will lose. If the west does not want to work with us because of homosexuals, then we have enough space to ourselves here."

What will the west lose?

Pastor Martin Ssempa (at National Theatre) shields his eyes from a dust storm just before the afternoon downpour yesterday. If those youth were employed I doubt they would be standing there with him

Interestingly politicians have made the populace believe that this law is important, more important than access to food, water, good healthcare, good education and meaningful employment.

An excited shoe shine somewhere near Parliament,  whom I have known for many years to be a critic of Museveni's government exclaimed when he saw me: "There was rain when the president signed [the anti-gay act]." What he meant was that Museveni's signature was a blessing. When I asked him how relevant the law was to him and his family he said: "Very important. We don't want those things [homosexuality]"

In writing this I may have already broken the law as this could be interpreted as promoting the practice of homosexuality. But I still insist that it is not laws against homosexuality or pornography that we need now. If we want respect from the west, we have to work towards political and economic independence. You don't achieve that by spending time drafting and passing laws against the minority. You need to pass laws that can liberate the majority.

We need fresh start in Uganda!

 

What if Museveni signed the anti-gay bill?

The President of Uganda Yoweri Kaguta Museveni

                                                                                                                                                                       President Museveni may be aging but the man still knows the tricks of playing Omweeso: be fast going forward, reverse for a catch and fake a step when your opponent blinks.

His return for the Presidency in 2016 is not surprising because he, in 2005, did not move to remove presidential term limits to benefit anyone else. But his pronouncement on Sunday that he would sign the anti-gay bill caught many by surprise – yet it must have been calculated.

If his signature, or even just stating that he would sign, can serve as ample reward to his NRM party MPs for nominating him as the unopposed NRM candidate for Presidency in  2016 then why not?

If public servants are unpaid for four months then why not promise them an anti-gay signature so that they have something else to talk about other than crying “poverty”, “poverty” all the time?

Why not provoke Obama on the anti-gay front so he has something else to attend to other than Uganda in the South Sudan conflict?

To Museveni, this quote from Obama’s reaction must have not been unexpected:  “As we have conveyed to President Museveni, enacting this legislation will complicate our valued relationship with Uganda. At a time when, tragically, we are seeing an increase in reports of violence and harassment targeting members of the LGBT community from Russia to Nigeria, I salute all those in Uganda and around the world who remain committed to respecting the human rights and fundamental human dignity of all persons.”

So, what if Museveni signed the anti-gay bill?

Some circles suggest that Museveni would sign it knowing that it would be challenged in the courts of law because Parliament passed it without quorum. And he would find some people to blame for “misleading” him into signing it. Life would continue as usual. After all, he has ever appointed former Kampala mayor Ntege Ssebagala minister knowing that he would never go past the Parliament appointments committee given his criminal record and insufficient education.