“Project Muhoozi” takes new twist in the press

The Gen. David Sejusa (also known as Tinyefuza) saga this week is another muddled paragraph in an already muddled plot, the succession of President Museveni. Gen Sejusa, and please if you are a screen writer this is the stuff you should be paying attention to, wrote to the Director General of the Internal Security Organisation asking him to investigate allegations that senior military officials want to frame and kill other senior military officials in a project whose ultimate aim is to make way for Brig. Muhoozi Kaineruga, Museveni’s son, to succeed his father.
“… The reason I have written this letter, is in regard to the very serious allegations that have appeared in the press that IGP, Brig. MK, Gen. SS, one Kellen and others hatched an evil and extrajudicial plan of stage-managing the attack on Mbuya barracks [in March] so as to frame some senior members of this government especially I, [Prime Minister] Amama Mbabazi and CDF, Gen. Aronda and those perceived to be anti-Brig. Muhoozi project,” the Daily Monitor quoted him.
The police chief and army chief have all come out to deny these claims.
Government also vehemently denied the claims in a statement read to parliamentarians by Defence Minister Cripus Kiyonga.

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Mobile money grows by bounds in 2012

Uganda now has more mobile money users than it has bank account holders, following the tripling of users in the last year. According to a Bank of Uganda official, mobile money users grew to 8.9 million at the close of 2012 from 2.9 million in 2011. Meanwhile, bank accounts in December 2012 were at 4.9 million. The volume of transactions across the platform increased from 87.5 million in 2011 to 242 million at the end of 2012, while the value rose to Shs11.7 trillion from Shs3.8 trillion.
This phenomenal growth is partly because banks have failed to swiftly adopt electronic money payment systems, letting mobile money fill the gap. There is also the relative ease of opening and operating a mobile money account as compared to traditional banking. Mobile banking also has a deeper penetration. These make it attractive to subscribers. Telecom companies operating here have been able to tweak it to suit it to the local situation. In any case, it was always a service suited to the challenges and opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa: a high mobile phone penetration, large rural populations, and a large number of unbanked people.
The success of mobile money shows that there is no shortage of innovative solutions to hindrances, considering that it was an African innovation. And it’s these that we, especially the government, have to pay attention to.

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Man collapses after theft of dowry cattle

There is a porous section of our border with Kenya and South Sudan where illegal guns pour into the country (or used to). That section is also used by pastoralist tribes across three countries – Uganda, Kenya, and South Sudan – to steal cattle from each other. President Museveni had that in mind when, during the swearing in of Uhuru Kenyatta, he said the Kenya Pokot tribe had been stealing “his” cows.
“I thank the government of Kenya. They gave me a new MP from West Pokot to bring me here. Pokots have been stealing my cows. I have agreed with that MP. I want to ask President Uhuru to ensure that the people of West Pokot stop stealing my cows.”
Of course none of Museveni’s cows have been stolen by the Pokot since he keeps them in Kisozi and Rwakitura, although the Kenyans, especially their idle Twitter gang, took his remarks literally. But, since he approaches the presidency with a similar attitude...
This week, though, the Daily Monitor reported of a Ugandan whose cows had been stolen by rustlers from South Sudan, with undesirable consequences. “A 23-year-old man in Lira District collapsed on Tuesday after learning that stolen animals, which he had prepared for dowry, will never be recovered… His father said his son’s marriage is now in jeopardy since he has no animals that will help to get him a wife.

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Bangladesh factory death toll passes 1,000

Initially reported at 300, the number of people killed in the collapse of a garment-factory building in Bangladesh two weeks ago had by Friday risen to 1033. Although the collapse of the Rana Plaza is being called the country’s worst industrial disaster, it wasn’t exactly a surprise. Thousands of workers in that country’s textile sector toil under unbearable conditions. According to Quartz, “The country is a giant textile exporter—second only to China—and it owes its position primarily to its desperate poverty, which has resulted in the world’s lowest factory wages.”
Quartz says the Bangladesh government “has been unable to enact any meaningful safety reforms to prevent horrific factory fires and cave-ins,” and clothing companies are not doing anything substantial to protect the people who make the clothes for them. But, you can do something: don’t buy from those companies. It named firms, which will not be listed here because of potential legal ramifications. Even then, few Ugandans buy clothes directly from those firms. Instead, we buy imported second-hand clothes. But, according to an article on CNN’s website, those clothes “are hurting African economies.” They have “undermined growth opportunities for many local industries and led to the closure of several African clothing factories.” Should you boycott them? Only if you are availed similarly affordable options.