News analysis Health Business

Education is no HIV eliminated Africa’s historic

longer about a job from DNA free trade deal

Issue No. 580 July. 12 - 18 2019 Ushs 5,000,Kshs 200, RwF 1,500, SDP 8

Fighting new
crime wave
Experts react to Museveni strategy

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July. 12 - 18 2019 1
inbox

Issue No. 580 July. 12 - 18 2019

News analysis Business Health Arts Motoring

Cover story
Fighting new crime wave
Experts react to Museveni strategy

5 The Week
30 Comments
The UK Pledges New Support to the Global
Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Thumbs down to Facebook’s
currency: Governments should
shut the Libra down immediately
9 The Last Word
if it uses of the financial system to
The corruption of Uganda football: facilitate crime
How the Cranes blundered in Cairo
when they went on strike over pay
32 Health
and refused to train
HIV eliminated from
14 Analysis DNA: The work is a
critical step to a cure for
What’s the point of education?: human HIV infection
Education is no longer just
about getting a job
35 Arts & Culture
27 Business
Connection in isolation:
Africa’s historic free trade deal a game changer?: The odd link between
Economists say significant challenges remain, Ntensibe and Klimt’s art
including poor road and rail links, excessive
border bureaucracy and petty corruption

STRATEGY & EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Andrew M. Mwenda WRITERS:Ronald Musoke, Flavia Nassaka, Ian Katusiime,
MANAGING EDITOR: Joseph Were Patricia Akankwatsa, Julius Businge.
INVESTIGATIONS EDITOR: Haggai Matsiko DESIGN/LAYOUT: Sarah Ngororano
BUSINESS EDITOR: Isaac Khisa CARTOONIST: Harriet Jamwa

PUBLISHER: Independent Publications Limited, Plot 82/84, Kanjokya Street, P. O. Box 3304, Kampala, Uganda
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2 July. 12 - 18 2019
 inbox

“At any stage, when a society lags

behind in technology, they become
slaves. We cannot lag behind
again”Museveni at Block chain

Government urged Ugandans to take up innovations aimed at addressing the effects of weather
changes this was during the climate change symposium and expo held on July 4 at Hotel Africana,
organised by the Ministry of Water and Environment and development partners; under the theme:
“Accelerating climate Actions through Innovations,”.  INDEPENDENT/ALFRED

Music and Events

promoter Andrew
Mukasa aka Bajjo
has been sent back to “Chameleone joining DP should not
Luzira Prison after the
trial magistrate Stella
excite anyone because at one time
Maris Amabilis was he announced that he had joined
away on leave, Bajjo Islam but eventually came back to
appeared at Buganda
Road Court on July the Catholic Church. But the onus is
5, for the ruling of on him to prove that the chameleon
his bail application, thing ends with his music”-Betty
however, the grade
one magistrate, Nambooze on Chameleon’s DP membership
Gladys Kamasanyu
(R) told court that she
was instructed to fix
July 11, for the ruling. 
INDEPENDENT/ALFRED

The Ikumbania of
Bugwere, Wayabire
passes through his
subject, on July 6,
during his 5 coronation
anniversary at Saza “I think this country would be better off
ground Budaka district.
he urged his subjects without RDCs. In fact they undermine
to work hard while the integrity and autonomy of local
President Museveni governments’ and are considered to
who was the chief guest
said people should use be above the police and district local
the small resources
available to eradicate
councils. The president controls the police
poverty.   INDEPENDENT/ and that is why it is has weakened”-
ALFRED Former DP president Paul Ssemwogerere

Shs. 3 Shs. 10.5

Number of people living money government Money EU gave

300,000
with HIV to be enrolled is expecting to the OPM to boost
on TB treatment by
Ministry of Health trillion get from health
insurance billion countrywide
nutrition

July. 12 - 18 2019 3
week

Uganda cranes bow out of AFCON Infinix unveils Note 6

Uganda Cranes painfully
bowed out of the 2019 Africa
Cup of Nations, falling 1-0
to Senegal in the round of
16 games at the Cairo Inter-
national Stadium on Friday
night.Forward Sadio Mane
struck the lone goal of the
physical contest.
The UK Pledges New Support to the Global
Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
The UK government pledged
further support to the Global
Fund to fight AIDS, Tubercu-
losis and Malaria to help save
millions of lives around the
world.
Since 2002, The Global Fund
has helped save more than
27 million lives and reduced
deaths from these three killer
infectious diseases by more
than a third in the countries
which it invests in.
The UK’s new three-year
funding pledge will help pro-
vide life-saving antiretroviral
therapy to more than 3.3 mil-
Mane beat goalkeeper Denis
Onyango after the opening
quarter an hour to give the
Terenga Lions a half time lead.
The goal arose following a
mistake from left back God-
frey Walusimbi whose pass
was blocked 30 yards away
before an on-rushing Mane
lion people with HIV; provide
TB treatment and care for 2.3
million people; provide 120,000
people with treatment for mul-
tidrug-resistant TB; distribute
92 million mosquito nets to pro-
tect children and families from
malaria; and strengthen health
systems and promote global
health security.
International Development
Secretary, Rory Stewart said
that they were deeply proud
of our efforts with the Global
Fund to fight AIDS, Tubercu-
losis and Malaria, but far too
many people still die from these
shot with the left foot for the
goal.
Uganda Cranes suffered an
injury set back when defender
Hassan Wasswa Mawanda
pulled a hamstring and his
place was taken by Timothy
Denis Awany.
diseases.
“We’re going to continue to
invest in controlling and ulti-
mately ending these diseases,
and we will be making sure
other countries contribute gen-
erously. These diseases cross
borders. Therefore, our support
is something that helps the
poorest people in the world, but
is also something that keeps us
safe here at home”, he added.
British expertise is at the
heart of global efforts to tackle
AIDS, TB and malaria. The new
pledge will average £467 mil-
lion a year.
on Ugandan market
Infinix Mobility on July.08
unveiled their latest devices
Note 6 on
the Ugandan market, signaling
its appetite to tap into the grow-
ing
smart phone market.
The latest device that comes
in black, blue and brown, has
a 3-days battery life, a 4GB
RAM and 64GB internal stor-
age capacity, providing a user
with space enough to store over
15,000 pictures, videos and
smooth user experience.
The Note 6 also comes with an
Augmented Reality (AR) core,
AR measure, Quick note and a
powered X-pen that has a lot of
functions including automati-
cally detecting and connecting
phone numbers, reminders and
alarm clocks from the content
recorded.
In addition, the X-pen has
intelligent gesture that quick-
ly erases the modified con-
tent, export pictures/format
easily to spreadsheets, word
document and the handwrit-
ten font easily translated into
text. Solomon Semuyaba, the
product service consultant
at the Infinix said the new
device targets the elite and
the business community glob-
ally. He said the recommend-
ed retail price for the device
is Shs739, 000.
This development comes as
the smart phone makers make
efforts to introduce affordable
smart phones targeting Afri-
ca, Middle East, South Ameri-
ca and Asia regions.

Top gaming officials charged with theft of Shs. 712.5 million

The Executive Director of Gaming and
Lotteries Regulatory Authority, Edgar Agaba
and manager of Finance Administration,
John Patrick Kazoora were charged with
stealing Shs. 712.5 million belonging to the
Board. They appeared in the Anti- corrup-
tion court before Chief magistrate Pamela
Lamunu Ocaya.
Prosecution that was led by Abigail Agaba
charged the two senior officials for stealing
Shs. 352.5 million between 17th October 2018
and 14th February 2019.
The second charge was for stealing Shs.
360 million. Prosecution informed court that
John Patrick Kazoora and Edgar Agaba
the two released Shs. 470 million on 14th
February 2019 purportedly for paying hotel
bills for an event that ran for one day yet
they reported that it ran for four days.
It was stated that this caused the institu-
tion a loss to a tune of Shs. 360 million. They
also faced an alternative charge for having
approved Shs.280 million for a sensitiza-
tion workshop for boda boda riders from
Kawempe.
They pleaded not guilty to all charges
and were released on a cash bail of Shs.
20 million each and were required to
deposit their passports at the court. Their
six sureties were each bonded at a non-
cash of Shs.250 million.

4 July. 12 - 18 2019
 week

Rwanda celebrates 25th liberation day
Rwanda celebrated its
25th liberation anniversary
at the Amahoro National
Stadium in Remera for
which is ran under the
theme, “Together, We Pros-
per’.
At least seven foreign
Heads of State from across
Africa and other high-pro-
file government delegates
and international icons
graced the main celebra-
tions at the 25,000-seat
arena.
President Paul Kagame,
who successfully led the
liberation struggle between
1990 and 1994, to delivered
the keynote address at the
event, which was charac-
terized by a parade of the
Rwanda Defense Force,
performances from the
national ballet Urukerereza
and several other artistes.
The movie ‘The 600’
was premiered. The movie
is about the heroism and
bravery that characterized
600 soldiers of the RPA that
were stationed at the cur-
rent Parliamentary Build-
ings in Kimuhurura where
they were protecting RPF
politicians designated for
a unity government under
the Arusha Accords.
However, the peace deal
collapsed when the regime
started to implement the
genocide agenda and the
liberators launched highly
risky operations to rescue
people across Kigali.
Earthquake shakes
Southern Carolina
The biggest earthquake in Southern
California in 20 years caused damage
and fires near the Mojave Desert Thurs-
day. The 6.4-magnitude earthquake
rocked parts of Southern California and
Nevada, rattling people as far as Los
Angeles and Las Vegas, more than 100
miles from the epicenter.
The quake was recorded outside
Ridgecrest near the Mojave Desert,
according to the U.S. Geological Survey
(USGS). Local authorities reported dam-
age to buildings, roads and gas lines––
resulting in multiple fires.
Fire departments across the region
responded, including medical assistance.
There were dozens of aftershocks,
including one registering 5.4-magnitude
early Friday, following the quake.
“This earthquake is the largest in
the Little Lake area in the last cen-
tury,” seismologist Lucy Jones told
reporters at a press conference Thurs-
day afternoon, referring to the fault
zone where the earthquake occurred.
Jones added that it was the biggest
quake in Southern California in at
least 20 years.

Desabre resigns
Sebastien Desabre resigned as the Uganda
cranes coach just hours after the team was
knocked out of the ongoing AFCON.
On the 6th of July 2019, both FUFA
and National Team Head coach of the Ugan-
da Cranes Mr. Desabre Sebastien Serge Lou-
is mutually agreed to terminate the contract
between the two parties….,” reads part of
the statement.
“The reasons for termination of the
employment contract are for the benefit and
growth of both parties.
“FUFA recognizes the contribution by Mr.
Desabre for the improvement of the sporting
and professional organization of the Ugan-
da Cranes inclusive of qualification to the
AFCON 2019 Finals and also to the Round
of 16.”
The FUFA revealed that they will
announce any development in regards to
the new technical staff to handle the national
team.
“FUFA will communicate any further
development about the Uganda Cranes
technical staff and future programmes of the
National senior team in the nearest future.”
Desabre joined the Cranes in December
2017, permanently replacing Micho who had
quit to join South Africa’s Orlando Pirates.
There are reports that the French is court-
ed by Al Ahly, the biggest club in Egypt.

AfricellUG @AfricellUG

Dial *133*2# *terms and conditions apply |

Regulated by Uganda Communications Commission

for more bundles

July. 12 - 18 2019 5
week
Shell select customers rewarded with a kitchen makeover
Vivo energy Uganda, the shell license in
Uganda rewarded five lucky customers with
a kitchen makeover. These lucky customers
participated in the promotion dubbed, “win
a kitchen makeover” that run from 1st April
2019 to 31st May 2019 at 21 selected shell shops.
The kitchen makeover promotion was
open to all customers. To participate,
customers were required to visit any of the
participating shell select stores, spend at least
Shs. 50,000 and fill in a raffle ticket to enter
a weekly draw to win free shopping worth
Shs.50, 000. This automatically entered them
6 July. 12 - 18 2019
into the grand draw to stand a chance to
win kitchen essentials including fridges,
12kg shell gas lite cylinders, microwaves,
blenders, kettles and coffee makers.
Speaking at the award ceremony held
at shell Bugolobi, Evelyn Driciru the
brand manager convinience retail said,
“We want to thank all our customers
who participated in the kitchen makeover
promotion in the month of April and
May 2019. Because of your support and
loyalty towards shell, we are committed to
rewarding you”.
UFZA signs MoU with NEC
Uganda Free Zone Authority (UFZA)
signed a Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) with National Enterprise Corporation
(NEC) to construct the initial phase of a pub-
lic free port zone at Entebbe International
Airport in Uganda.
The MoU was signed by the Executive
Director of UFZA Richard Jabo and the man-
aging director James Mugira at NEC offices
in Kampala.
A statement from UFZA indicated that the
authority acquired five acres of land from
Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for develop-
ment of free port facilities in 2018. This is part
of the master plan for the rehabilitation and
expansion of Entebbe International Airport.
“This is part of the Master Plan for the
rehabilitation and expansion of Entebbe
International Airport. Works on Entebbe
Airport Free Zone will commence upon con-
clusion of the Feasibility and Master Plan in
quarter two of the 2019/20 [financial year],”
the statement said.
The free port zone is estimated to create
about 200 direct jobs upon completion. The
target sectors include food processing, horti-
culture, logistics and mineral processing.
Works on Entebbe Airport Free zone will
commence upon conclusion of the feasibility
and master plan in Q2 of FY 2019/2020.
Humour Did you know?
Denied Android apps can
track your phone

When you explicitly tell an Android

app, “No, you don’t have permission to
Landlords have appealed to President Museveni not to sign into law the track my phone,” you probably expect
Landlord and Tenant Bill in its current form that it won’t have abilities that let it do
that. But researchers say that thousands of
apps have found ways to cheat Android’s
permissions system, phoning home your
device’s unique identifier and enough
data to potentially reveal your location as
well.
Even if you say “no” to one app when it
asks for permission to see those personally
identifying bits of data, it might not be
enough: a second app with permissions
you have approved can share those bits
with the other one or leave them in shared
storage where another app — potentially
even a malicious one — can read it. The
two apps might not seem related, but
researchers say that because they’re built
using the same software development
kits (SDK), they can access that data, and
there’s evidence that the SDK owners
are receiving it. It’s like a kid asking for
dessert who gets told “no” by one parent,
Members of Parliament have tasked the Judiciary to explain how they so they ask the other parent.
constructed toilets of Shs450m. According to a study, we’re talking
about apps from the likes of Samsung
and Disney that have been downloaded
hundreds of millions of times. They use
SDKs built by Chinese search giant Baidu
and an analytics firm called Salmonads
that could pass your data from one app to
another (and to their servers) by storing
it locally on your phone first. Researchers
saw that some apps using the Baidu SDK
may be attempting to quietly obtain this
data for their own use.
That’s in addition to a number of side
channel vulnerabilities the team found,
some of which can send home the unique
MAC addresses of your networking
chip and router, wireless access point, its
SSID, and more. The study also singles
out photo app Shutterfly for sending
actual GPS coordinates back to its servers
without getting permission to track
locations — by harvesting that data from
Artiste Joseph Mayanja commonly known as Jose Chameleone has officially joined the Democratic Party. your photos’ EXIF metadata.

July. 12 - 18 2019

Inbox
Letters are
welcome !
The Editor welcomes short and
concise letters from our esteemed
readers on topical issues. Please
send them to:
The Editor, The Independent
Publications Ltd,
P.O Box 3304,
Plot 82/84 Kanjokya St,
Kamwokya.
Kampala,Uganda.
Email: editor@independent.co.ug
Museveni favours
corruption
Refer to: “UTL: How Musev-
eni overruled Anite” (The
Independent Online July 04).
Here one will know that Ugan-
da stands on corruption! How
can the whole President of the
nation accept decision of no
auditing of UTL yet he is the one
who appointed Evelyn Anite to
the position of Minister of State
for investment with his powers
and gave her powers to perform
with her duties?
Vuku Issa
FUFA bonus arrears
caused Cranes loss
Refer to: “Uganda Cranes
back, Museveni to host them
Monday” (The Independent
Online July 07). I loved the spirit
exhibited by the Cranes at the
AFCON. Let the FUFA evaluate
their management techniques to
promote confidence among the
players. Otherwise the 0:1 loss
against Senegal was a planned
failure by the Cranes due to
accumulated bonus arrears.
Gilbert Ecima
8 July. 12 - 18 2019
Follow us on Twitter @
http://twitter.com/#!/ugandatalks
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www.facebook.com/TheIndependentMagazineUganda
Why preserve Murchison when Ugandans suffer without electricity?
Refer to: “Fury over Mur-
chison Falls: Govt proposal to
build a sixth power dam on
the Nile kicks up storm” (The
Independent July 05) The elitist
Dickens Kamugisa, of Africa
Institute for Energy Governance
(Afiego) and the other environ-
mentalists forget that only 15%
of Ugandans have access to
electricity and that the quoted
consumption is but only a small
fraction of the potential and real-
ly rapidly expanding demand/
consumption of electricity.
These environmentalists are
not concerned about the 85%
majority who depend on fire-
wood and kerosene for cooking
and lighting and the attendant
health and environmental risks
UTL: national
interest versus
personal interest
Refer to: “Fight over UTL:
The powerful people behind
Bemanya” (The Independent
July 05). Let’s borrow a leaf
from our neighboring coun-
try – Rwanda. Such intrigue of
so called untouchables flexing
their muscles has no space at all
there. While this may be deemed
dictatorial, the nation’s interest
is never lost to individualised
interest. As a result the country
keeps moving forward. You
need a more forceful President
when it comes to public servants
being dealt with when national
Interests are undermined. Imag-
ine the employment opportunity
that is being tossed left right
center at the whims of individ-
ualised interests/legalisms etc.
In Rwanda by now the Admin-
istrator would have been fired
together with the Minister – and
a new team tasked to finalise the
deal in a given timeline.
George
of using these sources of energy
or even that most of that other
15% mostly use charcoal for
cooking further destroying the
environment and is unsustain-
able. Solar power and solar
panels need and cover up large
areas of valuable and scarce
land. With Uganda’s rapidly
expanding population, Uganda
will need every inch of soil to
grow food for its people. As for
wind, Uganda has a maximum
realisable wind power of less
than 100Mw and also wind is an
unreliable source of power.
And the tourism which oppo-
nents of Murchison dam are
obsessed with, it is very unreli-
able for if Ebola, civil unarrests
etc. break out in Uganda, tour-
UTL success manipulated
Refer to: “UTL: How Musev-
eni overruled Anite” (The Inde-
pendent Online July 04). The
Minster of State for Investment,
Evelyn Anite is right. The suc-
cesses being reported by the
Administrator of UTL, Twebaze
Bemanya, are manipulated with-
out proof. UTL worker’s pension
has accrued to close to Shs300
billion. How can he claim a debt
of only Shs500 billions? Why do
Don’t sanitise
UTL dirt
Refer to: “UTL:
How Museveni
overruled Anite” (The
Independent Online
July 04). Why resist
audit? It means there
is something being
hidden. The AG office
should allow UTL to
be audited instead of
sanitising the official.
Victor
News analysis Health Business
National health Prostate cancer Behind Russia’s growing
insurance scheme treatment influence in Africa
Issue No. 579 July. 05 - 11 2019
Ushs 5,000,Kshs 200, RwF 1,500, SDP 8
Fight over
UTL
The powerful people behind it
www.independent.co.ug
ism and the tourism revenue
will be dead there and then and
take decades to recover. Not for-
getting during Uganda’s darkest
days the old Owen falls dam
faithfully powered the surviv-
ing parts of the economy when
tourism could not and allowed
a quick rebuilding of the econ-
omy. Hence It would seem silly
to preserve Murchison falls for
a few foreigners to come look
at for enjoyment while millions
of Ugandans health is damaged
while using charcoal, firewood,
kerosene or are unemployed
due to businesses lacking power
for their operations.
Tang
they not want to be audited? The
president is always misinformed
and he puts such people in
office because the seal rots and
portray him the way he wants.
People with knowledge are on
the streets. Pay people’s pension
please. The money will still go
back to the economy.
Alphonse Kidega
Good gesture on Cranes
Refer to: “Uganda Cranes
back, Museveni to host them
Monday” (The Independent
Online July 07). That is a very
nice gesture for President
Yoweri Museveni to host the
boys and motivate them. At
this rate, am optimistic that we
shall do wonders in the 2021
tournament in Cameroon. Long
live the President, long live the
cranes.
Bruno Namisi

The corruption of Uganda football
By Andrew M. Mwenda
How the Cranes blundered in Cairo when they
went on strike over pay and refused to train
L
ast week, the Uganda Cranes players
went on strike in Cairo Egypt,
where they were competing in the
Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
They accused officials of the Federation
for Ugandan Football Association (FUFA)
of plotting to cheat them of their bonuses
for qualifying for the knockout stage of 16.
Knowing the corruption that has eaten the
entrails of our country’s moral fabric, I could
not put FUFA above these accusations. I
was therefore among those who tweeted
highlighting the concerns of our players.
I had sources connected to the players.
The players had been paid all their other
allowances. However, they were entitled
to a bonus for qualifying for the knockout
stage. They feared that if they were
knocked out by Senegal, a very strong
team, FUFA would not pay their bonuses
for qualifying to the group of 16. It was
therefore prudent to leak this concern to
people on social media in order to raise
the alarm, shame FUFA and force it to
pay them.
I felt both sympathy and solidarity with
the Cranes players given my knowledge,
not of FUFA specifically, but of Ugandan
officials generally. However, I was later
disappointed to learn that the players
had gone on strike and refused to go for
training unless and until their allowances
are paid. I felt that the players had
betrayed their professional aspirations,
the team and the country. To appreciate
my disappointment, and that of millions
of Ugandan football fans, it is important
to place this strike in its proper context.
AFCON is the most prestigious football
tournament on our continent. Uganda
had not qualified for it since. For the last
ten years, our country has been obsessed
with qualifying. Indeed, it would be
appropriate to say that it became the
most important national goal that united
our country. It was therefore gratifying
when, in 2016, Uganda qualified for this
tournament after 38 years.
There was euphoria across the entire
nation. Even the First Lady, who had also
been appointed minister of Education
and Sports, attended the games, cheered
with other fans, tweeted the progress and
was in the stadium when we qualified.
However, the Cranes performed poorly
and did not win a single game and were
The Last Word
eliminated in the preliminaries. It was,
therefore, even more gratifying when
they qualified the second time in a row in
2018. All eyes of Uganda were thus on the
team to make Uganda proud.
And the Cranes did not disappoint.
They played well and qualified for the
knockouts. The whole country was
behind them. They made our country
proud. Yet it was at the height of their
achievement and nationwide popularity
that Cranes players foundered. They
went on strike over pay. The fear that
FUFA officials may not pay their bonus is
legitimate. But to go on strike and refuse
to play because of this was a blunder. It
demonstrated the players’ loss of focus
from the main issue to subsidiary ones.
What exactly did the players think
was their main aim in Cairo? Playing
for one’s national team is not a regular
job from which a player should expect
income. It is a national duty where any
monetary compensation is a reward,
not a precondition for playing. To
make monetary compensation the main
condition for playing shows that our
players have a mercenary mentality.
Mercenaries are soldiers for hire. They
lack an emotional commitment to the
cause. In this case, our players were not in
the game because of a passionate desire to
win the trophy but to make money.
This reflects the culture that has come
to dominate our national consciousness,
most especially in politics. There is a
belief that people support a cause or a
candidate only if there is some personal
monetary benefit. This attitude started
with NRM but has grown and become
even more perverse in the opposition and
the wider society. For example, among
opposition pundits, if anyone expresses a
view contrary to theirs, and which favors
President Yoweri Museveni, it means the
president has paid for it. This does not
reflect the character of the person they are
criticising but their understanding and
thus expectations of power.
This tragedy within the opposition was
born within the NRM. The NRM’s climb-
down from an ideologically anchored
political movement to a cash and carry
government has been one of the most
dramatic and tragic developments in our
history. Here is a movement that began
opinion
with high ideals. People abandoned their
families, studies, businesses and homes
to join the struggle in Luwero. There was
no salary for participation. There was
little expectation of a quick victory. There
was no housing, medical care or food.
The movement was driven primarily by
a commitment to its political objectives:
ending corruption, promoting democracy,
fighting sectarianism and developing the
economy.
But once in power, NRM changed its
basis of support from high ideals to crass
materialism. Today, it is pale shadow of
its former self. Its Members of Parliament
can only vote for something because
they have been paid. Its supporters are
paid to attend rallies. At every meeting of
every organ of the party, its officials want
to be paid for attending. This behavior
is no longer unique to NRM. Anyone
reading commentaries and posts by our
opposition activists can see – not the
moral outrage over such attitudes – but
the envy and jealous towards those who
are in power and profiting from it.
This brings me back to the Cranes.
Money is important and I defend their
right to be paid as per their contracts.
However, monetary compensation cannot
be the main incentive for national players.
Assume they were offered an option to
be paid Shs100 million each but they get
knocked out in the first round, or they get
paid nothing but win the trophy, what
would the players choose? Nationalist
players would choose the trophy. By their
strike, the Cranes made their choice clear:
money over the trophy. Tragic.
Yet choosing the trophy over pay is not
altruism. It is a self-interested decision
that brings many benefits but largely
in the long term. The first reward is
prestige, and this is something that
money finds difficult to buy. Imagine the
adulation and respect they would get
if they returned to the country with the
trophy. The second is economic: many
international clubs would begin scouting
Uganda for players. Our players chose
short-term gain over their long-term
prospects. Sad!
amwenda@independent.co.ug
July. 12 - 18 2019 9
cover story

Fighting new
crime wave
Experts react to Museveni strategy
By Patricia Akankwatsa

President Museveni in the CCTV command centre

10 July. 12 - 18 2019
R
espond to fire with fire.
That appears to be the
strategy behind President
Yoweri Museveni’s recent
restructuring of the police
force and deployment of
military generals to head four of its
19 directorates. According to security
experts, however, more needs to be
done or else the situation worsens.
Museveni on July 02 deployed
army Brig. Jackson Bakasumba, Brig
Geoffrey Golooba, Col.Sserunjogi
Ddamulira and Col Jessy Kamunanwire
to the police force.
The strategy behind the deployment
is shrouded in secrecy but it is being
sold as a shoring up of support to
a police force in shambles. The
deployment of soldiers in police has, as
expected, been criticized by believers
in the separation of civil from military
forces. But both the army and police
communication on the deployment
has concentrated on the UPDF being
a stable force and helping building
capacity of the police in terms of
personnel resources, administration,
training and intelligence.
The deployment was announced
just three days after a CCTV grab
video of the gruesome murder of a
boda boda rider by attackers who took
his motorbike in Rubaga Division of
Kampala City went viral and shocked
the nation.
The incident was captured on the
CCTV cameras of a nearby nursery
and primary school and appeared
to be a plus for Museveni who has
aggressively pushed for the cameras to
be deployed widely.
While commissioning the Shs
500billion CCTV camera installation
project in October last year, President
Museveni then said that the game
was “finished” for criminals. With
the CCTV cameras, he said, it will be
very easy to track down the criminals
because not only do the cameras
record everything day and night,
they can be rolled back to see which
security officials failed on their job.
“The problem of urban insecurity
perpetuated by armed assassins riding
boda bodas will be solved. What we
needed were eyes, ears and a nose to
sense them. It is what the cameras will
do. Once we see these criminals, we
shall get them,” said Museveni.
But the killing that shocked the
nation followed a spate of brazen
attacks that have happened, sometimes
under the full glare of cameras.
There have been murders of mobile
money kiosk operators around the
city and the daring daylight attack
on a construction materials business
in Nansana, another city suburb, in
which thugs shot several people dead.
There has been an aura of general
lawlessness, with thugs rampaging
unfettered in parts of downtown
Kampala; especially in the Kisekka
Market-Nabugabo Street Area,
pouncing on motorists held up in
traffic jams; especially in the Clock
Tower area and the Masanafu areas of
the Northern Bypass, and demanding
money and valuables.
Just before the gruesome June
murder of the boda boda rider,
the police had in April announced
results of an internal mini-survey it
conducted that showed that up to 28
boda boda riders had been murdered
and their bikes stolen over the
previous three months. Only five bikes
were recovered, the police said.
cover story
How army generals control police
To counter the escalating unchecked
crime, Museveni appears convinced
that a military response is required.
He has since May deployed 6000
Local Defense Unit (LDU) personnel
in the central districts of Kampala,
Wakiso, and Mukono. The LDUs are
a paramilitary group attached to
the army. Museveni has previously
deployed armies of crime preventers;
armed vigilantes attached to police.
But the direction now appears to be
towards militarization of police work.
So all the army generals deployed
recently will be at the rank of
Assistant Inspector General of Police
(AIGP) which is the rank of heads of
directorates of police and just below
the Inspector General of Police, John
Martins Okoth-Ochola and his deputy,
another army general; Maj. Gen.
Sabiiti Muzeeyi.
Significantly, Brig. Bakasumba is to
be head of the Chiefs of Joint Staff, a
newly created position that could see
him in the leading role of convening
meeting of all police directors and
advising the Inspector General Of
Police and his deputy.
Bakasumba, who has been
commandant of the army’s Peace
Support Operations Centre in Singo,
appears to have been carefully chosen
for the policing role. The other
army generals will head the police
directorates of crime Intelligence,
human resource development and
training, and human resource and
administration.
An analysis of the deployment shows
that Museveni believes the police force
has an attitude problem. As a result,
basic crime intelligence is not gathered,
the police rarely respond to emergency
calls, and police stations are havens of
corruption where basic services are for
sell to the highest payer.
The police leadership appears to
miss this general picture of a crime
and incompetence-ridden force and
routinely tout its excellence.
When the force released its latest
crime report in last May, it focused
mainly on what it claimed was a
reduction in crime.
According to the report, the volume
of crime reduced by 5.2% from 238,746
cases registered in 2018 compared to
252,065 cases registered in 2017. Theft,
assault, and sex and economic crimes
were the most registered cases.
Sex related crimes, robbery, and
political and media crimes saw the
biggest jump in occurrence in 2018.
Murders, break-ins, and narcotics
remained almost flat while theft, child
related crimes, economic crimes, and
July. 12 - 18 2019 11
cover story
general crime went down dramatically
according to the police report.
But just six months into 2019, it
is difficult to believe crime is going
down. Instead, it appears, few cases of
crime are being reported to the police.
This could, in fact, be a bigger problem
for the police because it appears to
confirm what is generally believed; the
reporting a crime to police is a waste
of time and money. Victims of crime
generally feel their reports will not be
taken seriously. Instead, the police are
most likely to use reporting a crime as
a perfect chance to extort money from
the victim.
The relationship between police
and civilians is in tatters as the public
name the police as the most corrupt
institution year after year.
As a result, many crimes; from
street snatching thefts, break-in, car
vandalism, number plate thefts, taxi
robberies, and trade in stolen motor
vehicle and cycle parts is rising
without being reported. The feeling of
being unprotected is spreading.
Tom Katamba, the chairperson
of Kampala Mobile Money Dealers
Association says that they attacked
because they move with cash and they
feel helpless because they cannot hire
safer premises.
“These killings are happening every
week, every month. We are sure living
under God’s mercy,” Katamba told The
Independent.
“This is very little money. You can’t
afford renting a shop and hiring a
guard while making such profits a
month. That is why most dealers resort
to renting space on shop verandahs in
town which are completely unsafe,”
he added; commenting on the
commissions they get off the business.
Meanwhile, Peter Kankaka, the
chairman of Century Boda Boda
Riders Association says the new wave
of attacks on his members are by
members of the rival Boda boda 2010
who are released from prison. He says
12 July. 12 - 18 2019
they are the master planners of boda
boda thefts around town.
“If you look at one year ago when
they were in detention, the vice had
died out. But now they are free and
have recruited new members to begin
where they stopped,” Kankaka says.
“This new police force is not
listening and we don’t trust them after
the experience with Kahiyura. Some of
these local police connive with these
thieves. We are teaming up our boda
boda security and urging our members
to reduce on the working time,” he
adds.
He says that the attack on the
boda boda rider in Rubaga was the
fourth attack in that week. He said
the Rubaga attacked gained publicity
because it was on CCTV camera.
“I know how they work. They
attack, steal the bike and kill the
rider. No leaving trace. They know
what leaving trace behind has caused
them,” he adds.
Kankaka said most of the riders
targeted are those who acquired bikes
from Boda Boda 2010.
“Some riders had gotten bikes on
loan and when their lenders were
arrested, they jubilated. They thought
they had won but these guys have
come back to take back what belongs
to them,” he adds.
Going forward, he says Century
Boda Boda want to work with security
agencies to hunt down the attackers.
Until that happens, the criminals Sabiti and Ochola
realize there is almost zero chance of
being caught – and they become even and murders and the increasing
bolder. Many of the criminals know boldness of the criminals, many
police weaknesses very well because people are questioning the police’s
they are either serving soldiers, approach to fighting crime; including
police personnel, or members of the the relevance of the cameras that are
myriad private security firms set up costing taxpayers billions.
to fill the gap left by the incompetent Egesa says failure of police to
and overstretched police. Others conclusively investigate crimes and
are retrenched or demobilized arrest criminals is fueling the belief
former security personnel. Many are that crime is on the rise. He says police
ex-convicts. has shown ability to solve cases of
reckless lovers fighting and killing
Experts explain crime wave each other but are woefully unable to
Freddie Egesa, a private investigator solve cases of wise criminals.
and security commentator says many “Murder is not a new thing in
crimes are incubated in prisons Uganda; it has always been there only
because the government does not that it didn’t have publicity,” he says,
have an after service programme that “Now with technology, social media,
follows up ex-convict activities. it is easy to know who has died where
“These criminals live alone in and how many people have died.
prisons, create associations, design “It is not that murder has overshot
conspiracies, and create solidarities. the numbers. The problem lies with the
They have a feeling that the world police. They are incapable of closely
hates them and want to revenge. detecting, conclusively finding the
So they come up with a crime killers and persecuting them.”
brotherhood. And because there is no The police’s own statistics seem
after service programme, no one knows to support Egesa’s view. According
what these ex-convicts do,” he says. to the Police Crime Report 2018, of
Following the recent armed robberies the few 238,746 crimes registered,

only 73,035 cases saw suspects taken
to court. Of these, only 22,263 cases
were convicted. This means that 91%
of people who committed crimes in
2018 have not been convicted. Of these
38,425 cases are pending and 90,763
cases are still under inquiry. The result
is that many people languish in prison
without police presenting them for trial
in court.
“There is poor handling of cases,”
says Frank Beine; the public relations
officer of the Uganda Prisons service,
“You find that out of 1000, only 100 get
convicted and the rest are just dumped.
It is really a challenge.”
Solomon Matsiko, a scholar of
security studies and international
relations, says “the situation requires
intelligence and soft power more
than law and order and military”.
He says the new crime wave has
erupted because security agencies lack
information about what is going on in
the community.
“There seems to be lack of
connection between security agencies
and the people,” he says.
But the police say the public is to
blame.
“Personally I think these crimes
are a problem of personal security,”
says Luke Owoyesigyire, the Kampala
Metropolitan police Spokesperson.
“For example these mobile money
operators hire guards from wherever
who turn against them. If not that, the
guards are poorly equipped without
guns,” he told The Independent.
Owoyesigyire says mobile money
operators should hire guards from
authentic security firms that are well
equipped with guns.
“Personal security and vigilance
within the community is very
important,” he adds.
Regarding following up on
ex-convicts, he says, the police has
intelligence surveillance of ex-convicts
involved in violent crimes.
“We are just going to put more
resources in it and make sure that it is
extra effective,” he says.
The police is also deploying more
security cameras. Between May and
June an additional 60 cameras were
installed in Kampala Metropolitan
area, Wakiso and Mukono.
Up to 2,547 cameras out of a planned
3,233 for the greater Kampala area had
cover story
been installed, according to the Police
Spokesperson, Fred Enanga. However,
only 1,565 are online and active.
But Egesa says CCTV cameras
should be an addition but security
agencies should be focusing on core
intelligence gathering. He says security
agencies are making a mistake by
locking the public out of their strategy
and concentrating of army and LDUs.
“They should train the public on
domestic security,” he says, “This is
not an external invasion that needs
militia. It is a case of domestic of
security.”
Patrick Onyango, the Kampala
Metropolitan police spokesperson
agrees.
“People should not be fooled by
installed CCTV cameras because
their main purpose is helping in
identifying and tracing suspects in
criminal activities, but they cannot stop
criminals from attacking,” he says.
“CCTV cameras and LDUs are for
purposes of ensuring general security
which is security for everybody. In this
case, we emphasize personal security,”
he says.
July. 12 - 18 2019 13
news analysis
Hugo Chavez and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visit a soy farm in El Tigre in Venezuela’s Anzoategui state, Oct. 30, 2009.
Planting seeds of
regime change
How GMO seeds and Monsanto
are driving US policy in Venezuela
By Whitney Webb
A
s the political crisis in Venezuela
has unfolded, much has been said
about the Trump administration’s
clear interest in the privatisation
and exploitation of Venezuela’s oil reserves,
the largest in the world, by American oil
giants like Chevron and ExxonMobil.
Yet the influence of another notorious
American company, Monsanto — now
a subsidiary of Bayer — has gone largely
unmentioned.
While numerous other Latin American
nations have become a “free for all” for the
biotech company and its affiliates, Venezuela
has been one of the few countries to fight
Monsanto and other international agrochem-
ical giants and win. However, since that vic-
tory — which was won under Chavista rule
— the U.S.-backed Venezuelan opposition
has been working to undo it.
Now, with Juan Guaidó’s parallel gov-
ernment attempting to take power with the
backing of the U.S., it is telling that the top
political donors of those in the U.S. most
14 July. 12 - 18 2019
fervently pushing regime change in Vene-
zuela have close ties to Monsanto and major
financial stakes in Bayer.
In recent months, Monsanto’s most con-
troversial and notorious product — the pes-
ticide glyphosate, branded as Roundup, and
linked to cancer in recent U.S. court rulings
— has threatened Bayer’s financial future as
never before, with a litany of new court cases
barking at Bayer’s door. It appears that many
of the forces in the U.S. now seeking to over-
throw the Venezuelan government are hop-
ing that a new Guaidó-led government will
provide Bayer with a fresh, much-needed
market for its agrochemicals and transgenic
seeds, particularly those products that now
face bans in countries all over the world,
including once-defoliated and still-poisoned
Vietnam.
In 2004, then-president of Venezuela,
Hugo Chávez, surprised many when he
announced the cancellation of Monsanto’s
plans to plant 500,000 acres of Venezuelan
agricultural land in genetically modified
(GM) soybeans. The cancellation of Monsan-
to’s Venezuela contract led to what became
an ad hoc ban on all GM seeds in the entire
country, a move that was praised by local
farmer groups and environmental activists.
In contrast to anti-GM movements that have
sprung up in other countries, Venezuela’s
resistance to GM crops was based more on
concerns about the country’s food sovereign-
ty and protecting the livelihoods of farmers.
Although the ban has failed to keep GM
products out of Venezuela — as Venezuela
has long imported a majority of its food,
much of it originating in countries that are
among the world’s largest producers of
genetically modified foods — one clear effect
has been preventing companies like Mon-
santo and other major agrochemical and
seed companies from gaining any significant
foothold in the Venezuelan market.
In 2013, a new seed law was nearly passed
that would have allowed GM seeds to be
sold in Venezuela through a legal loophole.
That law, which was authored by a member
of the Chavista United Socialist Party of
Venezuela (PSUV), was widely protested by
farmers, indigenous activists, environmen-
talists, and eco-socialist groups, which led
to the law’s transformation into what has
been nicknamed the “People’s Seed Law.”
That law, passed in 2015, went even farther
than the original 2004 ban by banning not
just GM seeds but several toxic agrochemi-
cals, while also strengthening heirloom seed
varieties through the creation of the National
Seed Institute.
Soon after the new seed law was passed in
2015, the U.S.-backed Venezuelan opposition
led by the Roundtable of Democratic Unity
(MUD) — a group comprised of numerous
U.S.-funded political parties, including
Guaidó’s Popular Will — took control of the

country’s National Assembly. Until Venezu-
ela’s Supreme Court dissolved the assembly
in 2017, the MUD-legislature attempted to
repeal the seed law on several occasions.
Those in favour of the repeal called the seed
bill “anti-scientific” and damaging to the
economy.
Despite the 2017 Supreme Court deci-
sion, the National Assembly has continued
to meet, but the body holds no real power
in the current Venezuelan government.
However, if the current government is over-
thrown and Guaidó — the “interim presi-
dent” who is also president of the dissolved
National Assembly — comes to power, it
seems almost certain that the “People’s Seed
Law” will be one of the first pieces of legisla-
tion on the chopping block.
The AEI axis
Some of the key figures and loudest voices
supporting the efforts of the Trump adminis-
tration to overthrow the Venezuelan govern-
ment in the United States are well-connected
to one particular think-tank, the American
Enterprise Institute (AEI). For instance, John
Bolton — now Trump’s national security
advisor and a major player in the admin-
istration’s aggressive Venezuela policy —
was a senior fellow at AEI until he became
Trump’s top national security official. As
national security adviser, Bolton advises the
president on foreign policy and issues of
national security while also advising both
the Secretary of State and the Secretary of
Defense. As of late, he has been pushing for
military action in Venezuela, according to
media reports.
Another key figure in Trump’s Vene-
zuela policy — Elliott Abrams, the State
Department’s Special Representative for
Venezuela — has been regularly featured
at AEI summits and as a guest on its panels
and podcasts. According to Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo, Abrams’ current role gives
him the “responsibility for all things relat-
ed to our efforts to restore democracy” in
Venezuela. Other top figures in the admin-
istration, including Vice President Mike
Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo,
were featured guests at the AEI’s “secretive”
gathering in early March. As MintPress and
other outlets have reported, Guaidó declared
himself “interim president” of Venezuela at
Pence’s behest. Pompeo is also intimately
involved in directing Trump’s Venezuela
policy as the president’s main adviser on
foreign affairs. Other connections to the
Trump administration include Secretary of
Education Betsy DeVos who was previously
on AEI’s board of trustees.
AEI has long been a key part of the “neo-
conservative” establishment and employs
well-known neoconservatives such as Fred
Kagan — the architect of the Iraq “troop
surge” — and Paul Wolfowitz, the architect
of the Iraq War. Its connections to the George
W. Bush administration were particularly
notable and controversial, as more than 20
AEI employees were given top positions
under Bush. Several of them, such as Bolton,
have enjoyed new prominence in Trump’s
administration.
Other key Bush officials joined the AEI
soon after leaving their posts in the admin-
istration. One such was Roger Noriega, who
was the U.S. representative to the Organi-
sation of American States (OAS) during the
failed, U.S.-backed 2002 coup and went on
to be assistant secretary of state for Western
Hemisphere affairs from 2003 to 2005, where
he was extremely influential in the admin-
istration’s policies towards Venezuela and
Cuba.
Since leaving the Bush administration
and promptly joining the AEI, Noriega has
been instrumental in pushing claims that
lack evidence but aim to paint Venezuela’s
current President Nicolas Maduro-led gov-
Then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo speaks at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, Jan. 23, 2018.
ernment as a national security threat, such
as claiming that Venezuela is helping Iran
acquire nuclear weapons and hosts soldiers
from Lebanon’s Hezbollah. He also lobbied
Congress to support Venezuelan opposition
leader Leopoldo López, Guaidó’s political
mentor and leader of his political party, Pop-
ular Will.
Not only that, but Noreiga teamed up
with Martin Rodil, a Venezuelan exile
formerly employed by the IMF, and José
Cardenas, who served in the Bush adminis-
tration, to found Visión Américas; a private
risk-assessment and lobbying firm that was
hired to “support the efforts of the Hondu-
ran private sector to help consolidate the
democratic transition in their country” after
the U.S.-backed Honduran coup in 2009. In
recent months, Noriega and his associates
have been very focused on Venezuela, with
Cardenas offering Trump public advice
about how “to hasten Maduro’s exit,” while
Rodil has publicly offered “to get you a deal”
if you have dirt on Venezuela’s government.
While the AEI is best known for its
hawkishness, it is also a promoter of big
agricultural interests. Since 2000, it has host-
news analysis
ed several conferences on the promise of
“biotechnology” and genetically modified
seeds and has heavily promoted the work of
former Monsanto lobbyist Jon Entine, who
was an AEI visiting fellow for several years.
The AEI also has long-time connections to
Dow Chemical.
The most likely reason for the AEI’s
interest in promoting biotech, however, can
be found in its links to Monsanto. In 2013,
`The Nation’ acquired a 2009 AEI document,
obtained through a filing error and not
intended for public disclosure, that revealed
the think tank’s top donors. The form,
known as the “schedule of contributors,”
revealed that the AEI’s top two donors at
the time were the Donors Capital Fund and
billionaire Paul Singer.
The Donors Capital Fund, which remains
a major contributor to the AEI, is linked
to Monsanto interests through the vice
chairman of its board, Kimberly O. Dennis,
who is also currently a member of the AEI’s
National Council. According to AEI, the
National Council is composed of “business
and community leaders from across the
country who are committed to AEI’s success
and serve as ambassadors for AEI, providing
us with advice, insight, and guidance.”
Dennis is the long-time executive chair-
woman of the Searle Freedom Trust, which
was founded in 1988 by Daniel Searle after
he oversaw the sale of his family pharmaceu-
tical company — G.D. Searle and Company
— to Monsanto in 1985 for $2.7 billion. The
money Searle had made from that merger
was used to fund the trust that now funds
the AEI and other right-wing think tanks.
Searle was also close to Donald Rumsfeld,
who led G.D. Searle and Co. for years and
was Secretary of Defense under Gerald
Ford and George W. Bush. Searle was also a
trustee of the Hudson Institute, which once
employed Elliott Abrams.
After the family company — which
gained notoriety for faking research about
the safety of its sweetener, aspartame or
NutraSweet — was sold to Monsanto, G.D.
July. 12 - 18 2019 15
news analysis
Searle executives close to Daniel Searle rose
to prominence within the company. Robert
Shapiro, who was G.D. Searle’s long-time
attorney and head of its NutraSweet divi-
sion, would go on to become Monsanto’s
vice president, president and later CEO.
Notably, Daniel Searle’s grandson, D. Gide-
on Searle, was an AEI trustee until relatively
recently.
Why is a top to Marco Rubio increasing
his stake in Bayer while others flee?
Yet, it is AEI’s top individual donor noted
in the accidental “schedule of contributors”
disclosure who is most telling about the
private biotech interests guiding the Trump
administration’s Venezuela policy. Paul
Singer, the controversial billionaire hedge
fund manager, has long been a major donor
to neoconservative and Zionist causes —
helping fund the Foreign Policy Initiative
(FPI), the successor to the Project for a New
American Century (PNAC); and the neocon-
servative and islamophobic Foundation for
the Defense of Democracies (FDD), in addi-
tion to the AEI.
Singer is notably one of the top political
donors to Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and
has been intimately involved in the recent
chaos in Venezuela. He has been called one
of the architects of the administration’s cur-
rent regime-change policy, and was the top
donor to Rubio’s presidential campaign, as
well as a key figure behind the controversial
“dossier” on Donald Trump that was com-
piled by Fusion GPS. Indeed, Singer had
been the first person to hire Fusion GPS to
do “opposition research” on Trump. How-
ever, Singer has largely since evaded much
scrutiny for his role in the dossier’s creation,
likely because he became a key donor to
Trump following his election win in 2016,
giving $1 million to Trump’s inauguration
fund.
Singer has a storied history in South
America, though he has been relatively quiet
about Venezuela. However, a long-time
manager of Singer’s hedge fund, Jay New-
man, recently told Bloomberg that a Guaidó-
led government would recognise that
foreign creditors “aren’t the enemy,” and
hinted that Newman himself was weigh-
ing whether to join a growing “list of bond
veterans [that have] already begun staking
out positions, anticipating a $60 billion debt
restructuring once the U.S.-backed Guaidó
manages to oust President Nicolas Maduro
and take control.” In addition, the Washing-
ton Free Beacon, which is largely funded
by Singer, has been a vocal advocate for the
Trump administration’s regime-change poli-
cy in Venezuela.
Beyond that, Singer’s Elliott Management
Corporation gave Roger Noriega, the for-
mer assistant secretary of state for Western
Hemisphere affairs under Bush, $60,000 in
2007 to lobby on the issue of sovereign debt
16 July. 12 - 18 2019
and for “federal advocacy on behalf of U.S.
investors in Latin America.” During the time
Noriega was on Singer’s payroll, he wrote
articles linking Argentina and Venezuela
to Iran’s nonexistent nuclear program. At
the time, Singer was aggressively pursuing
the government of Argentina in an effort to
obtain more money from the country’s prior
default on its sovereign debt.
While Singer has been mum himself on
Venezuela, he has been making business
decisions that have raised eyebrows, such
as significantly increasing his stake in Bay-
er. This move seems at odds with Bayer’s
financial troubles, a direct result of the slew
of court cases regarding the link between
Monsanto’s glyphosate and cancer. The first
Hedge fund manager Paul Singer has raised
millions for a pro-Marco Rubio super PAC. Moritz
Hager | World Economic Forum
ruling that signaled trouble for Monsanto
and its new parent company Bayer took
place last August, but Singer increased his
stake in the company starting last December,
even though it was already clear by then that
Bayer’s financial troubles in relation to the
glyphosate court cases were only beginning.
Since the year began, Bayer’s problems
with the Monsanto merger have only wors-
ened, with Bayer’s CEO recently stating that
the lawsuits had “massively affected” the
company’s stock prices and financial perfor-
mance.
Forcing open a new market for RoundUp
Part of Singer’s interest in Bayer may
relate to Venezuela, given that Juan Guaido’s
“Plan País” to “rescue” the Venezuelan econ-
omy includes a focus on the country’s agri-
cultural sector. Notably, prior to and under
Chavismo, agricultural productivity and
investment in the agricultural sector took a
backseat to oil production, resulting in under
25 percent of Venezuelan land being used
for agricultural purposes despite the fact
that the nation has a wealth of arable land.
The result has been that Venezuela needs to
import much of its food from abroad, most
of which originate in Colombia or the United
States.
Under Chávez and his successor, Maduro,
there has been a renewed focus on small-
scale farming, food sovereignty and organic
agriculture. However, if Maduro is ousted
and Guaidó moves to implement his “Plan
País,” the opposition’s coziness with for-
eign corporations, the interests of U.S. coup
architects in Bayer/Monsanto, and the oppo-
sition’s past efforts to overturn the GM seed
ban all suggest that a new market for Bayer/
Monsanto products — particularly glypho-
sate — will open up.
South America has long been a key mar-
ket for Monsanto and — as the company’s
problems began to mount prior to the
merger with Bayer — it became a lifeline for
the company due to less stringent environ-
mental and consumer regulations that many
Western countries. In recent years, when
South American governments have opened
their countries to more “market-friendly”
policies in their agricultural sectors, Monsan-
to has made millions.
For instance, when Brazil sought to
expand biotechnology (i.e. GM seed) invest-
ment in 2012, Monsanto saw a 21% increase
in its sales of GM corn seed alone, gener-
ating an additional $1 billion in profits for
the company. A similar comeback scenario
is needed more than every by Bayer/Mon-
santo, as Monsanto’s legal troubles saw the
company’s profits plunge late last year.
With countries around the world now
weighing glyphosate bans as a result of
increased litigation over the chemical’s links
to cancer, Bayer needs a new market for the
chemical to avoid financial ruin. As Singer
now has a significant stake in the company,
he — along with the politicians and think
tanks he funds — may see promise in the
end of the anti-GM seed ban that a Guaidó-
led government would bring.
Furthermore, given that Guaidó’s top
adviser wants the Trump administration to
have a direct role in governing Venezuela if
Maduro is ousted, it seems likely that Sing-
er would leverage his connections to keep
Bayer/Monsanto afloat amid the growing
controversy surrounding glyphosate. Such
behavior on the part of Singer would hardly
be surprising in light of the fact that inter-
national financial media have characterised
him as a “ruthless opportunist” and “overly
aggressive.”
Such an outcome would be in keeping
with the increased profit margins for Mon-
santo and related companies that have fol-
lowed its expansion into countries following
U.S.-backed coups. For instance, after the
U.S.-backed coup in Ukraine in 2014, the
loans given to Ukraine by the International
Monetary Fund and the World Bank forced
the country to open up and expand the use
of “biotechnology” and GM crops in its agri-
cultural sector, and Monsanto, in particular,
made millions as the prior government’s ban
on GM seeds and their associated agrochem-
icals was reversed. If Maduro is ousted, a
similar scenario is likely to play out in Vene-
zuela, given that the Guaidó-led government
made known its intention to borrow heavily
from these institutions just days after Guaidó
declared himself “interim president.”
Source: mintpress
By Isaac Khisa
T
he European Union in partnership
with the Food and Agriculture Orga-
nization has unveiled a new five-year
project that seeks to empower Ugan-
da’s rural communities in most vulnerable
districts located in the cattle corridor.
The project dubbed Global Climate
Change Alliance Plus (GCCA+), now in its
second phase (2018 –2023) and with funding
of €8 million (Shs33.8 billion) from the EU,
will help to scale up agricultural adaptation
to climate change in the rural areas, enabling
rural households to become more resilient to
climate change effects and food insecurity by
promoting sustainable and gender transfor-
mation actions.
The GCCA+ Project will be implemented
in nine districts of the central part of the
country’s cattle corridor, including six pre-
vious beneficiary GCCA districts of Naka-
songola, Luwero, Nakaseke, Mubende,
Kiboga and Sembabule and three new
adjacent, vulnerable districts of Kalungu,
Gomba and Lyantonde.
The new phase of the Project builds upon
the successful implementation of the first
phase of the GCCA project, implemented
from 2012 to 2017, which helped to make
Uganda one of the leading countries in Afri-
ca undertaking climate change adaptation.
This comes as Uganda’s cattle corridor
remains one of the most vulnerable areas to
the impacts of climate change characterized
by erratic rains, floods, frequent and pro-
longed droughts.
Earlier, Emmanuel Zziwa, the coordi-
nator for climate change adaption at FAO
told The Independent in an interview that
the project implementation in the cattle
corridor was based on the fact that it was
the most affected part of the country with
inherent water scarcity for crop growing
and pasture scarcity, yet it accommodates
over 80% of the ruminant livestock popu-
lation. He said the cattle corridor supports
more than 40,000 heads of cattle per annum.
“This region provides 95 % and 80-85%
to the country’s beef and milk production
respectively,” he said. “Given that cattle
is so much vulnerable, it means that if
(drought) is left uncontrolled, there’ will be
no milk and beef production in the coun-
try.”
EU Ambassador to Uganda, Attilio Paci-
fici, said climate change impacts on the joint
efforts towards sustainable development.
“Actions are urgently needed to preserve
and expand key ecosystems such as forests,
to use natural resources sustainably and to
promote ecosystem services,” he said.
“The action we are launching is comple-
mentary to other EU supported initiatives
in the sectors of transport and energy
infrastructure and agriculture, which are
all implemented with the goal of ensuring
inclusive and sustainable social, economic
FAO Uganda Country Representative, Mr Antonio Querido, the EU Ambassador to Uganda, H.E. Attilio Pacifici,
the Agriculture Minister, Hon. Vincent Ssempijja. Visit one of the stalls at the launch in Kalungu.   (PHOTO/FAO
Scaling up climate
change adaptation
EU, FAO unveils a Shs 33.8 billion project to
combat climate change in the cattle corridor
and environmental development.”
Some of the interventions in Phase 1
included construction of 15 valley tanks
and rehabilitation of five old ones, forma-
tion of 168 Farmer Field Schools, with about
4,000 farmer households, establishment of
about 700 hectares of bioenergy plantations
to enhance sustainable energy production
and formation of 400 farmer groups with
over 10,000 farmer households.
Phase 1 also witnessed the establishment
of 380 plots to demonstrate and promote
field adaptation practices for coffee.
GCCA second phase will augment the
earlier milestones, this time, targeting more
households and more people. It will witness
the establishment of six valley tanks that
will cater for about 12,000 livestock, distri-
bution of 5,000 energy saving cook stoves,
and installation of 300 small scale irrigation
schemes benefiting 25,000 people in the nine
beneficiary districts, among many other cli-
mate change adaptation interventions.
Speaking during the launch of the project
at Kalungu District Headquarters on July.03,
the FAO Representative to Uganda, Antonio
Querido, said there’s need for the country
to adapt to and mitigate climate change
impacts, because with no action “in the com-
ing decades, climate change will severely
affect food production and have other cata-
strophic impacts depending on our choices
as individuals and governments.”
“For Uganda, the next ten years are crucial
to make a difference through effective, inclu-
sive and efficient climate change actions.
Building the resilience of people and the
natural resources base that are adaptive to
climate change while leaving no one behind
through an integrated response is crucial if
we are to succeed in our current efforts,” he
said.
Querido revealed that FAO will be
working with the Uganda government
in the next five years to strengthen
national and district knowledge and
skills to support agriculture adaption and
community resilience to climate change
in 33 districts, with financial resources of
about US$30 million.
Vincent Ssempijja, the Minister for
Agriculture, Animal Industry and
Fisheries (MAAIF), urged the local
political and cultural leaders to become
ambassadors for climate change mitigation
and adaptation in their localities by
carrying out the basic recommended best
practices in agriculture.
“Climate change is real and agriculture
is the most affected sector; if our negative
actions persist, we will not be able to feed
our people,” he said.
”I therefore call upon all leaders to
become role models in their areas and
advocate for better practices that can stall
and address climate change”, he added.
Ssempijja commended researchers
under the National Agricultural Research
Organization (NARO) for developing
improved crop technologies such as high
yielding, early maturing and fortified
crops such like iron-rich beans. These, he
said, are critical for food security in the
face of changing climate.
July. 12 - 18 2019 17
news analysis
Tourists view giraffes in Uganda’s Kidepo National Park.   COURTESY PHOTO
Sharing tourism revenues
Why communities living closest to African
wildlife conservancies are demanding more
By Ronald Musoke
C
ommunities that live closest to wild-
life conservancies across Africa want
their contribution to the continent’s
booming wildlife-based tourism
recognized – with a bigger cheque. The com-
munities are targeting money from govern-
ments, the private sector and international
organisations.
“If we are to compare what we get in
terms of tourism receipts and the average
that a casual labourer gets in a tourism ven-
ture, can we really talk about an economic
justice system that is delivering opportuni-
ties for all and that can lift everybody out
of poverty?” said Masego Madzwamuse, a
human rights activist from Botswana.
She added: “The sector also needs to
address the issue of human dignity; there is
no dignity in living side by side with wildlife
(that is) generating large sums of income
when you struggle to feed your family.”
She was speaking at the first ever Africa
Wildlife Summit convened between June
23-25 by the UN Environment Programme
18 July. 12 - 18 2019
(UNEP) and the African Union (AU).
Held in the Zimbabwean town of Victoria
Falls, which is within the expansive Victoria
Falls National Park with the smoky Victoria
Falls on the Zambezi river in the backdrop,
the summit was graced by Presidents
Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe, Mok-
gweetsi Masisi (Botswana), Hage Geingob
(Namibia) and Edgar Lungu (Zambia), as
well as business leaders, academics, civil
society and ministers from across Africa.
Several speakers spoke about the future of
Africa’s people and wildlife, how to unlock
investments using wildlife, how the private
sector can effectively invest in the wildlife
economy and how communities living adja-
cent to wildlife conservancies need a “new
deal” and not the current “raw deal.”
“We feel that the governments and other
partners understand the importance of the
communities in conservation and as care-
takers of protected areas, we should see this
reflected through the revenue these areas
and wildlife bring in,” said Ishmael Chauku-
ra, a Zimbabwean community leader.
In the end, a declaration signed by 40
community representatives from Botswana,
DR Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique,
Namibia, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda,
Zambia and Zimbabwe, called for urgent
reforms in the management of wildlife con-
servation zones.
“We need to see reform, where our com-
munities are put in control of the nature
and wildlife they live with. At the moment,
decisions are taken by others and imposed
on us,” said Chaukura, the Zimbabwean
community leader.
He added: “Communities see only a frac-
tion of the income from wildlife and nature
earnings, yet we bear the costs of living with
wildlife.”
Tourism drives 8.5% of Africa’s GDP and
provides 24 million jobs with four of every
five tourists visiting the continent coming to
see wildlife in Africa’s 8400 protected areas,
according to data communicated at the
summit. These tourist excursions earn gov-
ernments across the continent up to US$48
billion.
But, delegates were told, Africa’s national
parks and other state-owned conservancies

could earn even more. Hospitality and recre-
ation spend could double to more than US$
260 billion by 2030 and provide significantly
more tourism jobs.
A working paper presented at the summit
by Space for Giants, a Nairobi-based inter-
national conservation non-profit noted that
bringing new private-sector investments to
underfunded protected areas to capitalize
on surging interest in nature-based tourism
would help fund conservation without
draining state finances, while driving sus-
tainable local and national development. The
paper was co-authored by Space for Giants
and Conservation Capital; a conservation
business and finance advisory firm.
Titled `Building a Wildlife Economy: Devel-
oping Nature—Based Tourism in African state
protected Areas,’ the paper noted that capi-
talizing on surging interest in nature-based
tourism by bringing new private-sector
investments to underfunded protected areas
could help fund conservation and drive
sustainable local and national development
without draining state finances.
Currently, the natural assets that give
Africa its global competitive advantage—its
wildlife and landscapes—are under acute
threat and could be lost forever unless they
urgently prove their economic as well as
ecological value.
According to the Intergovernmental Sci-
ence-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and
Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Global Assess-
ment released in May, this year, land and
nature managed by local communities is
under increasing pressure, but is declining
President Mnangagwa Doreen Robinson
less rapidly than in other lands.
Matters are worsened when these
so-called frontline communities who often
face the wrath of wild animals like ele-
phants, rhinos, buffalo, lions, hippos and
leopards, hardly see benefits.
Joyce Msuya, UNEP’s deputy executive
director agreed with the communities not-
ing that when communities living closest to
wildlife have a clear role and stake in man-
aging nature, they have a stronger incentive
to conserve it.
“A sustainable wildlife economy benefits
people and nature, using habitats and wild-
life in an ecological, economic and socially
sustainable way.”
“It is central to the efforts of African lead-
ers to improve the quality of lives of millions
of people on the continent.”
But even as the rosy picture of Africa’s
wildlife economy was painted at the sum-
mit, there were also disgruntled voices,
led by the southern African presidents in
regards to the legalization of sale of wildlife
resources.
Take for instance, Emmerson Mnangag-
wa, President of Zimbabwe; a country that is
at the moment struggling economically even
though it has one of the most robust wildlife
economies on the continent.
With 26% of its land reserved for wildlife
conservation, it is one of the countries on
the continent that according to Mnangagwa
have kept “God’s promise of being good
stewards of His creation.” For this, Mnan-
gagwa said, the international community
appears to be punishing Zimbabwe.
The country cannot sell part of their excess
elephant population because of a morato-
rium that was slapped on the jumbos by
the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species (CITES).
Zimbabwe also has in stock US$ 600 mil-
lion worth of ivory and rhino horn most of
which is from natural attrition according to
Mnangagwa but this too cannot be sold.
Ahead of the CITES COP 19 summit
in Geneva in August, Mnangagwa
led the lobbying by southern African
governments for the abolishing of the ban
on key wildlife products and in particular
ivory and rhino horn.
In his key note address to the summit,
news analysis
Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe will continue
to call for the free trade in hunting products
as these have a positive impact on the
national and local economies of African
countries.
“Thriving wildlife resources have tremen-
dous potential to be instrumental in sustain-
able socio-economic development through
associated wildlife-oriented businesses such
as eco-tourism, hunting and photographic
safaris.”
“If we are allowed to dispose these stocks
under agreed parameters derived from the
sale, it would be enough to finance conser-
vation efforts for the next two decades.”
Mnangagwa said proceeds obtained from
hunting are re-invested towards provision of
water in this era of climate change.
“The animals also need fencing so that
quarrels reduce between them and our peo-
ple and of course law enforcement against
poachers requires funding among other con-
servation initiatives.”
Going forward, Mnangagwa said Zimba-
bwe encourages a world that embraces the
principles of a shared responsibility where
natural resources are utilized in accordance
with the principle of sustainability.
“We encourage a process where accruing
benefits from natural resources are fairly and
equitably shared among communities living
within wildlife conservation areas. This way,
wildlife resources add value and improve
the quality of life of local communities and
the animals themselves.”
It was a mixed picture, however, as del-
egates from East Africa insisted that all ele-
phant populations on the continent; includ-
ing the huge herds in Botswana, Namibia,
South Africa and Zimbabwe, remain com-
pletely protected from hunting and sale.
They say the last time southern African
countries asked and got a one-off sale of
elephant products to Japan and China, there
was a marked increase in poaching across
East and southern Africa.
Doreen Robinson, the wildlife unit chief
at the UN Environment told The Independent
on the sidelines of the summit that the idea
of holding the first ever wildlife economy
summit was to convene people from across
the continent to raise issues and cause agen-
da change.
“The potential of the wildlife economy
in sub-Saharan Africa is enormous and it
is even more enormous if you embrace the
full concept of wildlife economy,” Robinson
said.
“What we are trying to bring to the fore
is that wildlife should be on par with other
sectors such as agriculture when people are
talking about the economy.
“So I think we have the mandate to go
forward and start to find better and more
tangible solutions for the continent,” Robin-
son told The Independent.
July. 12 - 18 2019 19
 news analysis
Idi Amin playing an accordion on Buvuma Island in October 1971. Courtesy of the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation, Author provided
By Derek R. Peterson & Richard Vokes
I
n 2015, researchers working in the
storeroom at the Uganda Broadcasting
Corporation forced open the lock on an
unremarkable filing cabinet.
Inside were thousands of small wax enve-
lopes, neatly arranged in rows, each con-
taining a number of medium-format pho-
tographic negatives. In all there were 70,000
images. The vast majority of them date to the
1970s and the presidency of Idi Amin.
Amin is one of the 20th century’s most
notorious dictators. In a recent PBS television
series, he features alongside Kim Il Sung,
Mussolini and other “Profiles in Tyranny.”
In Uganda, the memory of the Amin years
has been suppressed by a government keen
to promote political amnesia. There are no
memorials to the dead; neither are there
monuments or other institutions that encour-
age deliberation over the Amin years.
These photographs offer one of the first
opportunities for public reflection, and a
small selection of them – about 150 images
– are now on display at the Uganda Muse-
um in Kampala. The exhibition, which we
helped curate, is titled “The Unseen Archive
of Idi Amin” and will be open until the end
of 2019. For Ugandans and other visitors it is
a place where a traumatic and divisive histo-
ry can be assessed.
20 July. 12 - 18 2019
Life under Idi Amin
Thousands of recently discovered
photographs document his reign
Amin’s aggressive populism
Idi Amin came to power in 1971 after
overthrowing the government of Milton
Obote, the president who had presided over
Uganda’s independence from British colo-
nial rule.
Obote had relied on state-run media
to amplify his political power, and Amin
inherited a powerful network of radio sta-
tions. The extensive reach of official media
encouraged Amin and his officials to think
of themselves as spokesmen for Ugandan
commoners. Issues that had formerly been
decided behind closed doors were discussed
openly; matters that had once been deter-
mined by experts were made subject to the
popular will. For some people it was hugely
empowering. For others – especially for civil
servants and other professionals – the Amin
government’s aggressive populism was a
mortal threat.
Photographers were a constant presence
on the occasions when Amin and his officials
addressed the public. For the whole period
of his presidency, a dedicated team of pho-
tographers from Uganda’s Ministry of Infor-
mation followed Amin around the country,
snapping photos at press conferences, rallies,
parties and other events.
As far as we know, very few of the photos
they took were ever printed or published.
The film was developed, and then the nega-
tives were placed in envelopes, labeled and
placed in a cabinet.
This had been, until now, an unseen
archive.
Making a show of criminality
So why were these photos taken?
It seems that they served, primarily, as
documentation.
Amin’s administration governed Uganda
with the fervor and energy of a military cam-
paign. It targeted otherwise obscure social
issues – smuggling, overcharging consum-
ers, the dominance of Asian business inter-
ests in the economy, the cleanliness of city
streets – and transformed them into urgent
political problems that demanded action.

For example, in 1972, tens of thousands
of South Asians were obliged, by presi-
dential decree, to leave Uganda. The Amin
government labeled them as usurpers of
black Ugandans’ economic power, a foreign
minority whose usurious self-interest ran
against the majority.
The cameras made the evils of usury,
stealing and smuggling visible. People
accused of criminal acts were paraded before
the cameras, with crowds often gathered to
witness the occasion. There, the evidence
was laid out for all to see. Here are jerrycans
full of smuggled paraffin, arranged in long
rows; there are neat piles of hoarded cash,
signifying the evil of South Asians’ domi-
nance of the economy; there are bottles of
gin, stacked up around an accused smug-
gler.
The camera brought the judgment of the
Ugandan commonwealth to bear in specific
times and in specific places. In the presence
of photographers, campaigners could show
themselves to be acting in the interest of the
majority. In the presence of a camera, the
struggles and exertions of the decade could
be seen as historically consequential.
The Amin government’s photographers
were part of a media ensemble that helped
craft a narrative of meaning, direction and
national purpose to the age. That’s why so
many Ugandans found reason to support
the Amin government. The presence of cam-
eras at public events transformed mundane
and forgettable occasions into moments in
a chronicle of national struggle. Many peo-
ple felt as if they were acting in the light of
history.
What the cameras didn’t capture
While there’s a richness to the documen-
tary nature of the photographs, there are
very few that capture the harsh realities of
daily life in Uganda in the 1970s, such as
unaccountable violence, a collapsing infra-
structure and shortages of the most basic
commodities.
As many as 300,000 people died at the
hands of men serving Amin’s government.
This violence – the torture and murder of
dissidents, criminals and others who fell
afoul of the state – largely took place out of
public view, and there’s no trace of it the
Uganda Broadcasting Corporation archive.
In 1979, the Amin regime was overthrown
by a force of Ugandan exiles and Tanzanian
troops. Since then, there have been scant
opportunities for Ugandans to learn about
Amin’s presidency. After a decades-long
exile in Saudi Arabia, Amin died in 2003. His
remains are still buried there, awaiting repa-
triation to Uganda.
Debate around his legacy is only now
finding a place in Uganda’s public life. So
the thousands of recently discovered neg-
atives – which were digitised as part of a
preservation project organised by the Ugan-
da Broadcasting Corporation, the University
of Michigan and the University of Western
Australia – are significant historical docu-
ments.
But when designing the Uganda Museum
exhibition, we agonised over the absence
of images that reveal suffering and death
as facts of life in the 1970s. So we made an
effort to present the photos in a way that
news analysis
President Amin joins entertainers of
World Refugee Day, June 1975 (©
Uganda Broadcasting Corporation)
Lt. Col. Sule arrests overchargers in
Bulemezi (© Uganda Broadcasting
Corporation)
Money in the mosque, October
1972 (© Uganda Broadcasting
Corporation)
Idi Amin celebrates 50th birthday at
Nile Mansion, 1 January 1978 (©
Uganda Broadcasting Corporation)
acknowledges their status as instruments of
Amin’s political self-interest.
In one part of the exhibition, we juxta-
posed photos of the momentous events of
public life with portraits of deceased people.
In another part of the show, we highlighted
particular episodes – the expulsion of the
Asian community, the Economic Crimes
Tribunal, the crackdown on smuggling
– during which innocent people became
victims of the regime. At the end of the exhi-
bition, we put on display images of govern-
ment torture chambers.
The exhibition opened in mid-May this
year with a series of panels featuring peo-
ple whose lives were intertwined with the
Amin regime. The opening panel featured
politicians who served in Amin’s cabinet; on
another night, journalists who covered his
government discussed their work; on a third
evening, we heard from people who had lost
loved ones in the hands of his thugs.
We had intended to convene a fourth pan-
el where Idi Amin’s family members would
discuss their memories of their father. But
15 minutes before we were to go on the air,
they announced that they would no longer
participate. They thought the exhibition
didn’t adequately acknowledge their father’s
achievements. Their reluctance to speak
highlights the tensions that undergird public
discussion around the Amin regime today.
Derek R. Peterson is Professor of History
and African Studies, University of Michigan
and Richard Vokes is Associate Professor of
Anthroplogy, University of Western Australia
Source: the conversation
July. 12 - 18 2019 21
NEWS ANALYSIS
By Luke Zaphir
F
or much of human history, education
has served an important purpose,
ensuring we have the tools to survive.
People need jobs to eat and to have
jobs; they need to learn how to work.
Education has been an essential part of
every society. But our world is changing and
we’re being forced to change with it. So what
is the point of education today?
The ancient Greek model
Some of our oldest accounts of educa-
tion come from Ancient Greece. In many
ways the Greeks modeled a form of edu-
cation that would endure for thousands
of years. It was an incredibly focused sys-
tem designed for developing statesmen,
soldiers and well-informed citizens.
Most boys would have gone to a learn-
ing environment similar to a school,
although this would have been a place to
learn basic literacy until adolescence. At
this point, a child would embark on one
of two career paths: apprentice or “citi-
zen”.
On the apprentice path, the child
would be put under the informal wing of
an adult who would teach them a craft.
This might be farming, potting or smith-
ing – any career that required training or
physical labour.
In Ancient Greece, boys would become
either apprentices or citizens. Women and
slaves didn’t get any education. Wikime-
dia Commons, CC BY-SA
The path of the full citizen was one of
intellectual development. Boys on the
path to more academic careers would
22 July. 12 - 18 2019
What’s the point
of education?
If it’s no longer just about getting a job
have private tutors who would foster
their knowledge of arts and sciences, as
well as develop their thinking skills.
The private tutor-student model of
learning would endure for many hun-
dreds of years after this. All male children
were expected to go to state-sponsored
places called gymnasiums (“school for
naked exercise”) with those on a mili-
tary-citizen career path training in martial
arts.
Those on vocational pathways would
be strongly encouraged to exercise too,
but their training would be simply for
good health.
Until this point, there had been little
in the way of education for women, the
poor and slaves. Women made up half of
the population, the poor made up 90% of
citizens, and slaves outnumbered citizens
10 or 20 times over. These marginalised
groups would have undergone some edu-
cation but likely only physical – strong
bodies were important for childbearing
and manual labour. So, we can safely say
education in civilisations like Ancient
Greece or Rome was only for rich men.
While we’ve taken a lot from this mod-
el, and evolved along the way, we live in
a peaceful time compared to the Greeks.
So what is it that we want from education
today?
We learn to work – the ‘pragmatic
purpose’
Today we largely view education as being
there to give us knowledge of our place in
the world, and the skills to work in it. This
view is underpinned by a specific philosoph-
ical framework known as pragmatism. Phi-
losopher Charles Peirce – sometimes known
as the “father of pragmatism” – developed
this theory in the late 1800s.
There has been a long history of philos-
ophies of knowledge and understanding
(also known as epistemology). Many early
philosophies were based on the idea of an
objective, universal truth. For example, the
ancient Greeks believed the world was made
of only five elements: earth, water, fire, air
and aether.
Peirce, on the other hand, was concerned
with understanding the world as a dynamic

place. He viewed all knowledge as fallible.
He argued we should reject any ideas about
an inherent humanity or metaphysical real-
ity.
Pragmatism sees any concept – belief,
science, language, people – as mere compo-
nents in a set of real-world problems.
In other words, we should believe only
what helps us learn about the world and
require reasonable justification for our
actions. A person might think a ceremony is
sacred or has spiritual significance, but the
pragmatist would ask: “What effects does
this have on the world?”
Education has always served a pragmatic
purpose. It is a tool to be used to bring about
a specific outcome (or set of outcomes). For
the most part, this purpose is economic.
Why go to school? So you can get a job.
Education benefits you personally because
you get to have a job, and it benefits society
because you contribute to the overall pro-
ductivity of the country, as well as paying
taxes.
But for the economics-based pragmatist,
not everyone needs to have the same access
to educational opportunities. Societies gen-
erally need more farmers than lawyers, or
more labourers than politicians, so it’s not
important everyone goes to university.
You can, of course, have a pragmatic pur-
pose in solving injustice or creating equality
or protecting the environment – but most of
these are of secondary importance to making
sure we have a strong workforce.
Pragmatism, as a concept, isn’t too
difficult to understand, but thinking prag-
matically can be tricky. It’s challenging to
imagine external perspectives, particularly
on problems we deal with ourselves.
How to problem-solve (especially when
we are part of the problem) is the purpose of
a variant of pragmatism called instrumen-
talism.
Contemporary society and education
In the early part of the 20th century, John
Dewey (a pragmatist philosopher) created a
new educational framework. Dewey didn’t
believe education was to serve an economic
goal. Instead, Dewey argued education
should serve an intrinsic purpose: education
was a good in itself and children became
fully developed as people because of it.
Much of the philosophy of the preceding
century – as in the works of Kant, Hegel and
Mill – was focused on the duties a person
had to themselves and their society. The
onus of learning, and fulfilling a citizen’s
moral and legal obligations, was on the citi-
zens themselves.
But in his most famous work, `Democracy
and Education’, Dewey argued our devel-
opment and citizenship depended on our
social environment. This meant a society was
responsible for fostering the mental attitudes
it wished to see in its citizens.
Dewey’s view was that learning doesn’t
just occur with textbooks and timetables. He
believed learning happens through inter-
actions with parents, teachers and peers.
Learning happens when we talk about mov-
ies and discuss our ideas, or when we feel
bad for succumbing to peer pressure and
reflect on our moral failure.
Learning would still help people get jobs,
but this was an incidental outcome in the
development of a child’s personhood. So the
pragmatic outcome of schools would be to
fully develop citizens.
Today’s educational environment is some-
what mixed. One of the two goals of the
2008 Melbourne Declaration on Educational
Goals for Young Australians is that: “All
young Australians become successful learn-
ers, confident and creative individuals, and
active and informed citizens”.
But the Australian Department of Edu-
cation believes: “ By lifting outcomes, the
government helps to secure Australia’s eco-
nomic and social prosperity”.
Education needs
to focus on
developing the
personhood
of children, as
well as their
capability to
engage as
citizens (even
if current
political leaders
disagree)
A charitable reading of this is that we still
have the economic goal as the pragmatic
outcome, but we also want our children to
have engaging and meaningful careers. We
don’t just want them to work for money but
to enjoy what they do. We want them to be
fulfilled.
And this means the educational philoso-
phy of Dewey is becoming more important
for contemporary society.
Part of being pragmatic is recognising
facts and changes in circumstance. General-
ly, these facts indicate we should change the
way we do things.
On a personal scale, that might be recog-
nising we have poor nutrition and may have
to change our diet. On a wider scale, it might
NEWS ANALYSIS
require us to recognise our conception of the
world is incorrect, that the Earth is round
instead of flat. When this change occurs on a
huge scale, it’s called a paradigm shift.
The paradigm shift
Our world may not be as clean-cut as
we previously thought. We may choose to
be vegetarian to lessen our impact on the
environment. But this means we buy quinoa
sourced from countries where people can
no longer afford to buy a staple, because it’s
become a “superfood” in Western kitchens.
If you’re a fan of the show `The Good
Place’, you may remember how this is the
exact reason the points system in the afterlife
is broken – because life is too complicated for
any person to have the perfect score of being
good.
All of this is not only confronting to us in
a moral sense but also seems to demand we
fundamentally alter the way we consume
goods.
And climate change is forcing us to reas-
sess how we have lived on this planet for
the last hundred years, because it’s clear that
way of life isn’t sustainable.
Contemporary ethicist Peter Singer has
argued that, given the current political cli-
mate, we would only be capable of radically
altering our collective behaviour when there
has been a massive disruption to our way
of life.
If a supply chain is broken by a cli-
mate-change-induced disaster, there is no
choice but to deal with the new reality. But
we shouldn’t be waiting for a disaster to kick
us into gear.
Making changes includes seeing ourselves
as citizens not only of a community or a
country, but also of the world.
As US philosopher Martha Nussbaum
argues, many issues need international
cooperation to address. Trade, environment,
law and conflict require creative thinking
and pragmatism, and we need a different
focus in our education systems to bring these
about.
Education needs to focus on developing
the personhood of children, as well as their
capability to engage as citizens (even if cur-
rent political leaders disagree).
If you’re taking a certain subject at school
or university, have you ever been asked:
“But how will that get you a job?” If so, the
questioner sees economic goals as the most
important outcomes for education.
They’re not necessarily wrong, but it’s also
clear that jobs are no longer the only (or most
important) reason we learn.
Luke Zaphir is a Researcher for the University
of Queensland Critical Thinking Project; and
Online Teacher at Education Queensland’s
IMPACT Centre, The University of
Queensland
Source:theconversation
July. 12 - 18 2019 23
Africa’s historic free trade deal
Economists say significant challenges remain, including poor road
and rail links, excessive border bureaucracy and petty corruption
O
By Agencies
n July. 07, African nations
officially unveiled a land-
mark trade agreement at
the African Union Summit
in Niamey, Niger, with the
long sought-after agreement
hailed as a historic step towards “peace and
prosperity” across the continent.
After 17 years of tough negotiations, the
AU unveiled the “operational phase” of
the African Continental Free Trade Area
(AfCFTA) in what AU commission chairman
Moussa Faki had described as a “historic”
moment.
“An old dream is coming true, the found-
ing fathers must be proud,” said Faki, add-
ing that AfCFTA would create “the greatest
trading area in the world”.
Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou
hailed it as “the greatest historical event for
the African continent since the creation of
the Organisation of African Unity in 1963,”
referring to the AU’s predecessor.
AU officials announced the launch of the
five “operational instruments” of the African
Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Nations agreed to shared “rules of origin,
24 July. 12 - 18 2019
the monitoring and elimination of non-tariff
barriers, a unified digital payments system
and an African trade observatory dash-
board”, the AU commission announced.
The agreement was given a boost when
the presidents of Nigeria and Benin append-
ed their signatures onto the continental’s
trade deal early in the morning at the two-
day summit.
With Nigeria and Benin on board, 54 of
the 55 AU member countries have now
signed onto the deal, with holdout Eritrea
announcing it will consider joining the pact.
Around 4,500 delegates and guests --
including 32 heads of state and more than
100 ministers – attended the AU summit
in Niamey, which has been revamped and
boasts a brand-new airport, upgraded roads,
and new hotels for the occasion.
‘Game changer for Africa’
The agreement was formalised at the end
of April when the agreement crossed the
launch threshold, which required ratification
by at least 22 countries.
The zone will be operational from July.01,
2020, giving countries time to adapt to the
agreed changes, Issoufou said.
Malawi’s director of trade, Christina
Chatima, told AFP the trade agreement as a
“game changer for Africa.”
“Most of us export with Europe and the
US. It’s about time we started trading more
with each other,” she said.
However despite the launch, there are still
key issues leaders have yet to resolve. Lead-
ers could not agree on a common criteria for
rules of origin for some sectors.
“An agreement has not yet been reached
on some of these issues,” Chatima said. “On
textiles, even the automotive sector. The AU
secretariat is meant to come up with propos-
als on how we can agree,” she added.
The AfCFTA commits the majority of
countries to 90 percent tariff cuts within a
five year period -- reducing barriers to trade
on the continent. Countries on a United
Nations list of ‘Least Developed Countries’
will have 10 years to cut tariffs, whilst a
group of six countries – including Niger and
Malawi – will have at least 15 years, Chatima
said. Amaka Anku, Africa analyst at Eurasia
group, described the deal as a positive step
but said implementing the AfCFTA was
still “a long way from taking off”, with con-
cerns on how many of the new regulatory
agencies for the trade agreement would be
funded.
 business
The AU estimates that the deal will lead
to a 60-percent boost in intra-African trade
by 2022.
At the moment, African countries trade
only about 16 percent of their goods and
services among one another, compared to
59% in Asia and 69 percent with European
countries.
Country’s conflicting motives is also
expected to be an obstacle during negoti-
ation. For instance, Nigerian officials have
expressed concern that the country could be
flooded with low-priced goods, confounding
efforts to encourage moribund local manu-
facturing and expand farming, according to
Reuters news agency.
On the other hand, South Africa’s manu-
facturers, which are among the most devel-
oped in Africa, could quickly expand outside
their usual export markets and into West and
North Africa, giving them an advantage over
manufacturers from other countries, said
John Ashbourne, the senior emerging mar-
kets economist at Capital Economics. Werikhe (in a yellow necktie) touring one of the factories at the Park.

Mbale industrial
The vast difference in countries’ level of
economic development is another complicat-
ing factor in negotiations. Nigeria, Egypt and
South Africa account for over 50% of Africa’s

park good for jobs

cumulative Gross Domestic Product, while
its six sovereign island nations represent
about 1%.
“It will be important to address those dis-
parities to ensure that special and differential
treatments for the least developed countries By Julius Businge Paul Zhang, the chairman of the

are adopted and successfully implemented,”
said Landry Signe, a fellow at the Brookings
Institution’s Africa Growth Initiative.
Economists say other challenges likely
to remain include poor road and rail links,
excessive border bureaucracy and petty
corruption that have held back growth and
integration.
Security on the continent
Also on the summit agenda was security
-- an issue afflicting the Sahel in particular.
Summit host Niger has faces constant attacks
by jihadist groups.
Its fellow members in the G5-Sahel secu-
rity pact – Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso and
Mauritania – sought backing at the AU sum-
mit to push for a greater UN security force to
address the terror threat.
The countries hope to activate Chapter
VII of the UN Charter, a Nigerien security
source told AFP. The chapter allows for the
UN Security Council to determine a threat to
peace and propose measures, including mili-
tary deployment, to deal with it.
“No prosperity, no integration is pos-
sible without peace,” said Faki, who
stressed the importance of an AU Peace
Fund launched in 2018 to finance security
activities and called on member states to
fulfil their financial promises. So far, only
$116 million has been received for the
envisaged $400-million fund.
C
hinese firm, Tian Tang Group,
has opened the Sino-Mbale
Industrial Park in eastern town
of Mbale, an investment its
executives say will create at least 2,000
jobs to the local population.
The firm’s executives say three
investors have already set up in the
park and that six more are expected
before the end of the year.
Some of those that have already
shown interest include; Pearl Light
technology Limited, Ubon technology,
Victoria Cable limited and Rongsheng
Development Limited, mainly dealing
in LED lighting, washing products,
wire, cable and clothing.
Shawn Lee, the deputy general
manager at the Park said a number of
professionals are being trained to be
provided with 600 jobs.
“We feel so proud of what we have
done and we are doing more to realise
our target to attract 60 investors and
create 1, 500 jobs,” he said. The Park’s
construction started in March 2018,
sitting on a 2.51 square kilometer piece
of land.
So far, geological survey, planning
and power connection have been
completed while construction of
internal roads is ongoing.
Park, said a professional team was
deployed in different provinces of
China to attract investors for the park.
He said 20 acres out of the 619-acre
park has been designated for a small
and medium enterprise, with a total
investment of $80million.
The State Minister for Trade Micheal
Werikhe said the new Park creates a
big milestone for Uganda’s economy.
“These companies are going to work
with us so that we train our young
people to ensure that we compliment
their creation of jobs,” he said.
Currently, the country has 22
Industrial and Business Parks that it
intends to attract investors so as to
create jobs, reduce imports as well as
boost export earnings.
This is also expected to boost the
industrial sector’s contribution to the
economy that stands at merely 25% to
the Gross Domestic Product.
Uganda’s industrial development is
detailed in the National Development
Plan II, building on the NDPI as part
of the journey to achieving the Uganda
Vision 2040.
Critics however say implementation
remains uncoordinated and non-
coherent, mainly because the country
has a weak National Industrial Policy.

July. 12 - 18 2019 25
 business
Is blockchain technology
gaining traction?
African countries have a long way to go as they
continue being recipients of this technology
By Julius Businge
B
lockchain technology
has recently emerged as
one of the biggest inno-
vations in the world.
Michael Niyitegeka, a Kampa-
la based information technology
expert explained to this reporter
that blockchain technology gen-
erally brings to the fore every
transaction one can think of
online. “It means that if I initiate
a business with you and some-
body else owes you money, they
will know that you have been
paid because it will all be done
on a platform that we are calling
blockchain,” he said. “It enhanc-
es transparency on who is doing
what and at what time,” he said,
“All the people on the chain get
notified,” he added.
Increasingly, experts say, this
technology it is having a ripple
effect on various sectors includ-
ing financial, manufacturing,
agriculture, education, health
and more. They can make banks
to change their form of opera-
tions, once the advantages of a
safe ledger without transaction
fees is widely understood and
implemented, with bankers
becoming merely advisors,
not gatekeepers of money.This
technology, however, is yet to be
appreciated locally despite a few
steps made so far.
Ruhakana Rugunda, Ugan-
da’s Prime Minister, who spoke
on behalf of President Yoweri
Museveni during the Second
Africa Blockchain Conference
at the Kampala Serena Hotel on
July 3-4, said the government
will work with the private sector
and other players to ensure that
blockchain technology helps the
country deal with healthcare
challenges, increase household
income and fight unemploy-
ment as well as poverty among
the population. He said the
government continues to invest
26 July. 12 - 18 2019
President Maada Bio (left), Ruhakana Rugunda (right) attending the conference
heavily in sectors of education,
information communication
technology, energy, defense and
security where blockchain tech-
nology will also be applied.
Rugunda, however, empha-
sized that young people should
take the lead in harnessing the
opportunities in these new
technologies. This could be
because the country has one
of the youngest populations in
the world, with over 70 % of
it being under 30 years of age
and, many are jobless. State
Minister for Planning, David
Bahati said the government fully
supports blockchain technology
as evidenced by the continued
investment in the National Back-
bone Infrastructure to support
internet connectivity and related
sector investments. Current-
ly, it is possibly only the beer
maker, Nile Brewieres Ltd that
is enhancing economic oppor-
tunities for smallholder farmers
within its supply chain through
blockchain technology.
Started in 2018 in Sebei sub
region, the pilot in eastern
Uganda recorded 349 transac-
tions worth over Shs880million
on 587 tonnes of barley from
the 316 registered farmers. The
programme is being implement-
ed as a partnership between
Top brewer ABInbev, the par-
ent company and BanQu, a
non-cryptocurrency blockchain
platform, with Barley farmers in
Uganda and cassava farmers in
Zambia being the pilot.
Through this collaboration,
NBL executives are providing
farmers with access to digital
payments and technology to fur-
ther their economic opportunity
as a means of achieving agricul-
ture sustainability goal and, to
have 100% of its direct farmers
skilled, connected and finan-
cially empowered by 2025. “The
technology allows transparent
real time transactions with end
traceability. Farmers’ data is
recorded on spot and the farmer
owns this data and is able to
access it from anywhere,” said
Theunis Coetzee, the agriculture
manager EA AB Inbev.
“This therefore increases
accountability, and the same
data of produce and earnings
enable farmers have better
access to financial tools,” he said.
BoU, CMA following suit?
Kwame Rugunda, the chair-
man for Africa Blockchain con-
ference organising committee
and chief executive officer for
CryptoSavannah said they are
currently building on the success
of the first conference to support
the blockchain technology.
He said the Bank of Ugan-
da has already put in place a
blockchain working group to
study the new technology and
forge ways for its application in
Uganda. The Capital Markets
Authority has drafted the cryp-
tocurrecy regulations and at
national level, the government
has set up a national taskforce to
drive the fourth industrial revo-
lution, Rugunda said. However,
Sierra Leone’s President, Julius
Maada Bio, who graced the con-
ference under the theme ‘Prepar-
ing Africa for the 4th Industrial
Revolution’ said whereas Africa
remains a recipient of new
technologies, by embracing
blockchain technology, countries
would go a long way to achieve
their development goals. He said
African governments must first
work towards fighting corrup-
tion, strengthening government
institutions, reviewing policies
and laws, harnessing trade inte-
gration and curbing land and
property rights conflicts. On
policies, Maada said the African
governments have to target
information technology as a
key sector for driving the fourth
industrial revolution. He also
said Africa must invest heavily
in healthcare, education and
technology and innovations.
Globally, banks and financial
tech companies are increasingly
embracing blockchain’s native
capabilities as the basis for
cross-border payment networks.
J.P. Morgan is said to have
created one of the largest block-
chain payments networks,
according to Computerworld.
The financial services com-
pany is said to have announced
in 2017 that the Royal Bank of
Canada and Australia and New
Zealand Banking Group Ltd
are the first two banks to join
the blockchain network, “repre-
senting significant cross-border
payment volumes.”
J.P. Morgan created the Inter-
bank Information Network
(IIN), which it said will signifi-
cantly reduce the number of
participants needed to respond
to compliance and other
data-related inquiries that delay
payments. Similarly, Citibank
has partnered with Barclays to
launch a blockchain app store.
 Executive Style
Empowering women in business
Briefly share the overview
T
of the initiative?
he programme
was established in
February 2007 to
create an enabling
environment for women
entrepreneurs to thrive in
a highly competitive space
where they ordinarily
maybe facing numerous
challenges. It provides
financial management and
literacy training, networking
opportunities, business
coaching, mentoring and
preferential borrowing
rates. Our approach is to
offer solutions that adequately
meet the unique financial
needs of women in categories
including young professionals,
entrepreneurs or traders and
those in agro-business. The
head office team is comprised of
two people who are supported
by Branch Champions and
Regional Managers.
How would you describe the
journey so far covered?
We currently have over 250,
000 women registered with us
for this initiative. Of these, 50,
000 have benefited from the
capacity building sessions and
over 20, 000 have benefited
from our loan offerings. This
is significant considering the
challenges in accessing credit.
As part of the programme, we
have an established Business
Advisory Centre to offer one-
on-one advisory services to
our women. Our partners like
the Uganda Law Society, the
Institute of Certified Public
Accountants of Uganda,
Investment Clubs, Enterprise
Uganda and Makerere
University Business School
provide a vast range of resources
we can tap into to make this
programme a success.
How do you rate the success of
this programme to-date?
Based on a report that one of
our partners has done I would
put it at 54%. The women
that we started with have
regularly shared their success
stories and these range from
businesses that started out
with a handful of employees
to larger workforces which
speaks to employment creation;
we have several businesses
that started out with very low
turnovers and are now turning
over millions and paying more
taxes. We have a lot more
women accessing credit facilities
to grow their businesses,
formalizing their businesses
which was a challenge in the
past but also doing a lot for their
communities. We still have a
long way to go because we see
opportunities in women yarning
for business knowledge.
Most businesses succeed once
they embrace partnerships.
How has this worked under
this initiative?
Exposure and networking
is a critical part of the Rising
Woman initiative. The women
entrepreneurs who take part
are not only encouraged to
see out partnerships but also
facilitated to do so. Early this
year, we sponsored 10 of the top
women in business on a study
excursion in Nairobi, Kenya.
They are now better placed to
tap into the Kenyan market for
further networking, marketing
of products, benchmarking,
and guidance in the event they
want to engage in cross border
trade. We have also established
linkages in-country where
we take our women for value
addition or further studies.
dfcu, one of Uganda’s
largest banks by assets
has been running a
Women in Business
initiative/programme
since 2007. The
Independent’s Julius
Businge spoke to
Victoria Byenkya,
the Manager for the
programme on how it is
empowering women to
succeed in business.
How is this initiative feeding
into government’s move to
empower women in business?
Women have for a long time
owned and run businesses but
have not been recognised or
given credit or maybe floated for
government tenders. You also
recall that societies never fronted
a woman. The programme
has enabled them gain
managerial and related skills.
Government has made progress
in empowering women. We are
complementing this move by
the government. Government
needs to have partnerships
with financial institutions.
It also needs to be strict on
accountability so that the funds
allocated for this purpose in the
budget are well utilised.
How have you deployed
lessons learned from
institutions investing in similar
initiatives outside Uganda?
In Nairobi people engage
their families in their businesses
right from inception to ensure
continuity. This is what
Ugandans have to do.
What kind of exposure have the
beneficiaries gotten from the
study tours they have been on
courtesy of dfcu?
As part of the broader Women
in Business programme, we
conduct at least two in-country
study tours for an average of 80
women. Depending on the focus
for the year, the beneficiaries
are exposed to best practice in
July. 12 - 18 2019
urban farming, value chain
addition, food security and
more. In the past, we have
taken groups of women
to Turkey and China and
more recently Nairobi. The
Nairobi tour was put the
women on contact with
Kenyan women who had
been in business for over
two decades exposing them
to skills in building lasting
empires through tough
economic times.
What management tips
would you advise women
managers/entrepreneurs to
deploy?
They need to learn to
delegate; they should not
micro-manage or try to be the
alpha and omega. Let them join
networks or form partnerships.
Social media is also very good
– they need to learn to become
tech-survy so they can take their
businesses to the next level. Let
them join sectors of their choice
but follow the right steps for
growing a business.
How best can women
entrepreneurs go about
their business without
compromising their domestic
and other social related roles?
It is no longer a duty for a
woman to do everything at
home. We need to learn to trust
other people to do certain things
for us so we can have our other
arm to do our business. They
need to identify and hire the
right people in their business
and pay them well.
And lastly, is this programme
going to end at some point?
It is here to stay. Women
empowerment is top on our
agenda as a bank. We will
continue to invest in women
entrepreneurship because we
believe it will benefit the women
in business. We are continuing
to grow, seeking strategic
partnerships. I urge women
out there to come and join the
programme.
27
business
AVIATION
KQ selects GE
aviation for digital
flight operations
K N
enya’s national carrier,
Kenya Airways, has
selected a U.S based
GE Aviation for the
Flight Operations suite of
digital products across the
airline’s fleet of Boeing 737, 787
and Embraer E190 airplanes.
KQ’s fleet adds to the
15,468 unique aircraft
assets that are connected
to GE Aviation’s digital
solutions. Implementation
is currently underway with
completion this year.  The
airline’s director for operations,
Paul Njoroge, said the
partnership with GE Aviation
will empower Kenya Airways
to optimise its fuel costs and
excel in flight operations. “GE
brings a wealth of knowledge
to help the airline fast
track efficiencies enabling
improvements in operations
and customer experience,” he
said. The Flight Operations
suite integrates GE’s Event
Measurement System (EMS),
flight analytics, FlightPulse
and fuel efficiency services.
Currently, GE’s EMS and
FOQA systems are being used
on 8,932 aircraft including
flight analytics service
integrating data sources like
flight information, weather,
navigation, flight plans, and
other operational data to
provide valuable insights for
airline customers around fuel
use and operations. KQ flies
to more than 50 destinations
across the world.
CSR
Airtel rewards subscribers
S
lightly over 1500
Airtel money lucky
subscribers and
agents have been
rewarded in Airtel Uganda’s
ongoing ‘sukuma cash
promotion’. The promotion
that started 10 weeks ago
has rewarded winners
with Shs500, 000 daily for
simply sending money from
28 July. 12 - 18 2019
BANKING
Owor (centre) spoke to journalists on July 02 about the upcoming conference.
Bankers’ conference to discuss agric finance
T
he 2019 Bankers Confer-
ence is set to take place
on July 16 in Kampala
with a theme ‘de-risking
financing and investment in
agriculture to promote decent
youth employment and inclu-
sive growth’. According to the
organisers – Uganda Bankers
Association – the 3rd conference
will attract 500 participants.
Wilbrod Owor, the UBA exec-
utive director and Patrick Mwe-
heire, the UBA chairman told
reporters on July 2 in Kampala
AWARDS
Coca-cola recognized
C
oca-Cola has been
recognized as
the overall most
admired brand
in Uganda for 2018/2019,
according to the 7th
annual Brand Africa
100: Africa’s Best Brands
report released by Brand
Africa in partnership
with Brand Leadership, Miriam Limo (centre), Coca Cola’s brand manager work that has been done
Geopoll and Kantar and received the award from the organisers.
Publics Africa. The list is
based on the comprehensive
Pan- Africa survey of the
one account to another.
Under the promotion, the
company slashed sending
rates up to 60% with three
prices respectively; Shs100,
Shs500 and Shs1, 000 across
all bands. Winners are
simply dialing *185# and
sending money or carrying
out any other Airtel money
transactions.
that the conference participants
will deliberate on the challenges,
opportunities that the agricul-
ture sector faces in Uganda
and suggest possible solutions.
Participants will look at issues
including market incentives, use
of technology, agriculture insur-
ance, research and specific pol-
icy frameworks to guide sector
operations. The sector accounts
for approx. 20% of Uganda’s
GDP and employs between
70-80% of the total population.
most admired brands among
African consumers. Mariam
Lucky winners expressing their happiness in a group photograph.
AVIATION
Air Kenya unveils
flights to Entebbe
airport
airobi based Air Kenya,
has unveiled flights
connecting Masai Mara
via Kisumu to Entebbe
International Airport as it seeks
to tap into the tourist sector.
From Entebbe is Air Kenya’s
local partner, airline Aerolink,
which will then uplift the tour-
ists and fly them on to an airfield
near Buhoma, the gateway to
Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
Gorilla National Park.
This comes as a similar service
is offered by Coastal Aviation
in Tanzania from the Serengeti
to Kigali, for tourists to take
advantage of a direct flight link
via Mwanza. There, they clear
customs and immigration before
flying across Lake Victoria to the
Rwandan capital, from where
access to the Volcanoes National
Park then takes two hours by car,
according to ATCNews.org.
Limo, the company’s
brand manager in Uganda
welcomed the news and
said that they are working
tirelessly to create positive
change in the daily lives
of their consumers and
the communities they live
and work in. “This award
is an affirmation of the
to create a positive brand
image through our various
campaigns, quality products
and promotions,” Limo said.
 business

Private sector activity

improves-Markit survey
By The Independent staff els and looked for alternative

U
markets in the region.”
ganda’s private sector The Rwandan government
activity increased in on Feb. 27, closed the border
June on the back of posts of Gatuna-Katuna in
increased demand for Kabale District and Cyanika in
various products and services. Kisoro District accusing Ugan-
The Markit Stanbic Bank da of harbouring its enemies,
Uganda Purchasing Managers’ the accusation the latter has
Index (PMI) for manufacturing denied. The survey also shows
and services increased from that output prices rose as com-
57.3 in May to 57.8 in June. panies passed on higher cost
Anything above 50 denotes burdens to their customers. It
growth; anything below, con- also shows that stronger client
traction. demand and positive expec-
Jibran Qureishi, the Stanbic tations around future activity
Uganda marked the international cooperative day celebrated on
July 6, in Wakiso district. General Moses Ali (2nd R), the first Bank Regional Economist for levels led firms to increase their
Deputy Prime Minister says government has earmarked Shs40bn to East Africa said the PMI once purchasing activity at the end
facilitate the operations of cooperatives through Operation Wealth again rose to a record high, of the second quarter.
Creation.   INDEPENDENT/ALFRED OCHWO and that the expansionary “Predictions of further
fiscal policy outlined in the improvements in demand and
FY2019/20 budget should con- business expansion plans sup-
tinue to support activity espe- ported confidence that output
cially if the absorption of the will rise over the coming year,”
development budget improves. the survey said, adding that
“Moreover, the good rains three quarters of respondents
over the past couple of months were optimistic regarding the
will also probably bode well for 12-month outlook.
the agriculture subsector in the The survey, sponsored by
second half of 2019,” he said. Stanbic Bank and produced by
“Interestingly, private sector IHS Markit, has been conduct-
firms in Uganda seemed to ed since June 2016 and covers
have shrugged off the trade the agriculture, industry, con-
standoff with neighbouring struction, wholesale & retail
Rwanda as they have perhaps and service sectors.
realigned their business mod-
L-R; Ian Mutibwa, a member of Uganda law society, Mona Ssebuliba,
the aBi chief operating officer, Wilbrod Owor, the Uganda Bankers
Association ED and Rashmi Pillai from the Financial Sector Deepening
Uganda discuss the importance of data sharing in financial Inclusion.
This was during the Compuscan Credit Reference Bureau symposium
held on July 2 at Serena Hotel in Kampala.  INDEPENDENT/ALFRED
Weekly share price movement (July 01)
Security July 01 June 10 Movement
BATU 30,000 30000 00
BOBU 128 128 00
CENT 1,169 1,225 4.5
QCL 160 170 5.8
DFCU 650 670 2.9
EABL 7,211 7,593 5.0
EBL 1,390 1,474 5.6
JHL 14,432 14,666 1.6
KA 142 132 7.5
KCB 1,377 1,470 6.3
NIC 13 14 7.1
NMG 1,745 2,023 13.7
NVL 330 330 00
To improve road safety and reduce traffic congestion in the city, the Ministry
of Works and Transport, Kampala Capital City Authority on July 4 commenced SBU 29 29 00
a series of engagements with key stakeholders about the proposed Statutory UCHM 18 18 00
Instrument for regulating Heavy Goods Vehicles.  INDEPENDENT/ALFRED UCL 15 15 00
UMEME 300 300 00
ALSI -- -- --

July. 12 - 18 2019 29
business

Mobile money
help for the poor
Digital cash has the potential
to break the cycle of poverty
By Ben Fox Rubin & Katie Collins M-Pesa is now used by more than two- Foundation. There, the 22-person team

J
thirds of Kenya’s adults. M-Pesa offers a prototypes and commercialises financial
ohn Kunze walked into a check-cash- glimpse of how other systems could work. products for the developing world. The
ing store along Lexington Avenue In Kenya, you simply hand cash to one of scale of the mission is huge, since about 85%
in Manhattan a few months ago. It Safaricom’s agents (often in the same shop of transactions worldwide are still done in
had red neon signs in the windows, selling airtime), who credits that money to cash. One of these efforts is called Kionect,
cold fluorescent lights and a loop of muzak your M-Pesa account. Transferring money a new way mom-and-pop shopkeepers in
piping through the speakers. He wasn’t is as simple as calling up a menu on your Kenya can buy supplies via text messages on
impressed. feature phone. their feature phones. Used by 1,500 retailers,
The PayPal executive pointed to a wall “I think the (unbanked) numbers will go the system helps shops build up financial
poster showing the store charged $1 to cash down, but how we judge them will change histories they can then use to gain access to
a $25 check, up to $40.60 for $2,000. “That as well,” says Mike Elliott, a Mastercard credit, loans and insurance.
would be kind of neat if we could put checks executive focused on giving more people “People are really familiar with cash,
into PayPal and not charge that number,” he access to payment and money transfer tools, and that’s the challenge for us,” says Elliott.
says about the higher figure. Kunze hit on often referred to financial inclusion. But “People don’t wake up in the morning
a reality that billions of people worldwide access is just the first step, he says. How an saying, ‘I really want to make a digital pay-
know too well: Being poor can cost you a lot account will actually be used will be even ment.’”
of money. more important.
About 2 billion people, including an
estimated 9 million US households, do not Unbanked in Africa
have bank accounts or access to a financial Elliott oversees a Mastercard lab in
institution. According to the World Bank, Nairobi, Kenya,
about 20% of these “unbanked” adults get that’s funded
their wages and pay their bills in cash. That’s by the Gates
risky and makes it harder to save, two rea-
sons the Gates Foundation sees digital mon-
ey -- which can be received and transferred
using even the simplest feature phones -- as
key to helping break the cycle of poverty.
Now payments and tech heavyweights
including PayPal, Mastercard, Amazon and
Samsung, along with a growing list of finan-
cial tech startups, are working to offer more
banklike services -- including apps, mobile
systems and cryptocurrencies -- to those
often ignored by traditional banks. But pro-
viding new financial services to those who
never had them comes with challenges.
Tech companies have to educate people
on the basics of these payment systems,
such as remembering a PIN and how
they can deposit, withdraw and send
money, the World Bank says. Companies
also have to shell out the upfront costs
for a reliable payments infrastructure,
or few will use it. And they have to prove
to consumers that their services are trust-
worthy and safe. Kenya’s M-Pesa mobile
money system shows it can be done.
Launched 11 years by Safaricom, the
country’s largest mobile telecom operator,

30 July. 12 - 18 2019
 business
Then there’s Samsung’s Contactless
Companion Platform, or CCP. Introduced
Mobile Money usage around the world (%)
in 2017, the system uses NFC technology
that lets a phone, wearable or key fob make
small digital payments.
Samsung initially viewed the system as
a way to help adults in Europe and the US
give their kids some pocket money. But the
Germany-based engineers who designed it
-- all with bank accounts, credit cards and
smartphones -- didn’t anticipate how far
this idea would resonate.
“Over the last 12 months, we’ve received
inquiries from all over the world,” Sam-
sung’s Thomas Arenz says.
Samsung ran a pilot program in East
Africa, where mobile money networks,
such as Kenya’s M-Pesa, are already widely
used. Two more pilots -- one in the Baha-
mas dubbed “Island Pay,” and another in
Central America -- are set to kick off in the
coming months.

Crypto for all

Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin offer anoth-
er option for serving the world’s unbanked.
Sebastian Serrano, CEO and co-founder
of Ripio in Argentina, is on the forefront of
this effort.
Ripio offers a mobile bitcoin wallet and
a cryptocurrency-based loan network in
Argentina and Brazil, countries where bank-
ing and credit customers pay high interest
rates, have fewer banking options and
struggle with unstable currencies, he says.
“Our mission is to give access to this new
network of bitcoin and other cryptocurren-
cies, and use it as a tool for financial inclu-
sion,” Serrano says.
Similar to Prosper or Lending Club,
Serrano’s company allows regular folks to
lend money using cryptocurrencies that are
converted to Ripio’s own digital coin, called
RCN, and converted again into a local cur-
rency. The process allows Ripio to offer the
service to lenders all over the world, not just
local markets.
Sure, people from countries with a stable
currency may scoff at investing their nest
eggs in bitcoin. But Serrano says that, despite
its own volatility, virtual currency can be
a safer bet than the Argentine peso, which
suffers from rapid inflation and repeated
collapse.
“You know for sure it will lose value,”
he said of the peso. “There is an outlook for
bitcoin to appreciate.”
Greta Bull, a director at the World Bank
and CEO of the Consultative Group to Assist
the Poor, disagrees. She doesn’t think bitcoin
is the right tool for enable financial inclusion.
“If you look at markets like Africa, you
still have to get cash in and out of the sys-
tem,” she says. “People can’t go and buy
feed for their cattle using bitcoin.”
Others are using bitcoin’s underlying
technology, called blockchain, to offer new
financial tools. Take Bitt, a startup in Barba-
dos that has created a merchant network of
240 retail sites on the island nation. People
can use this network to load Barbados dol-
lars into a digital cash account, accessible
through Bitt’s free app. They can then use
the app to pay utility bills or purchase some-
thing from a retailer in Bitt’s network. Bitt
charges retailers 1 percent for digital transac-
tions, roughly half of what Visa and Master-
card charge, says Bitt CEO Rawdon Adams.
Both Bitt and Ripio use blockchain to cut
out middlemen and costs. The software
distributes information across multiple
computers and hard-wires trust into transac-
tions, reducing the need for more expensive
payment networks.
Bitt also lets customers buy and sell
bitcoin, but for regulatory reasons doesn’t
allow retail sales using the cryptocurrency.
“We want to offer something like a bank
on a phone,” Adams says. “I don’t think
anything will displace cash in this region.
But it’s faster, cheaper and more secure than
cash in many cases.”
Digital inclusion
PayPal’s Kunze didn’t mention it at the
check-cashing store, but his company was
already developing a new digital check cash-
ing feature.
Earlier this month he said PayPal started
testing the service, which charges 1 percent
per deposit -- about half the fee charged by
the check-cashing place -- or free with direct
deposit.
Amazon, too, created a way for more
customers to shop on its website, launch-
ing Amazon Cash. The service lets people
instantly add money to their Amazon
accounts when visiting more than 10,000 US
retail locations. PayPal offers a similar ser-
vice at more 20,000 stores.
“Our job isn’t to put these alternative
financial service providers out of business,”
Kunze says about check-cashing business-
es. “It’s to provide customers with more
options.”
Bull from the World Bank argues that
“technology is the easy part.” Simply tell-
ing people their lives will be better if they
embrace these new services doesn’t always
work.
“Behavior change sometimes requires a
bit of a jolt,” she says.

July. 12 - 18 2019 31
R
By Agencies

esearchers have for the first

time eliminated replica-
tion-competent HIV-1 DNA
-- the virus responsible for
AIDS -- from the genomes
of living animals. Genomes
are complete DNA sets of an organism,
including genes. The study marks a critical
step toward the development of a possible
cure for human HIV infection. In this major
collaborative effort, researchers at the Lewis
Katz School of Medicine at Temple Univer-
sity and the University of Nebraska Medical
Center (UNMC) have for the first time elim-
inated replication-competent HIV-1 DNA
-- the virus responsible for AIDS -- from
the genomes of living animals. The study,
reported online July 2 in the journal `Nature
Communications’, marks a critical step to-
ward the development of a possible cure for
human HIV infection.
HIV eliminated
from DNA
“Our study shows that treatment to
suppress HIV replication and gene editing
therapy, when given sequentially, can elim-
inate HIV from cells and organs of infected
animals,” said Kamel Khalili, PhD, Laura H.
Carnell Professor and Chair of the Depart- The work is a critical step to a
ment of Neuroscience, Director of the Center
for Neurovirology, and Director of the Com- cure for human HIV infection
prehensive NeuroAIDS Center at the Lewis
Katz School of Medicine at Temple Universi-
ty (LKSOM). In previous work, Dr. Khalili’s team used From there, the nanocrystals, stored within
Dr. Khalili and Howard Gendelman, MD, CRISPR-Cas9 technology to develop a nov- cells for weeks, slowly release the drug.
Margaret R. Larson Professor of Infectious el gene editing and gene therapy delivery According to Dr. Khalili, “We wanted to
Diseases and Internal Medicine, Chair of the system aimed at removing HIV DNA from see whether LASER ART could suppress
Department of Pharmacology and Exper- genomes harbouring the virus. In rats and HIV replication long enough for CRIS-
imental Neuroscience and Director of the mice, they showed that the gene editing sys- PR-Cas9 to completely rid cells of viral
Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases at tem could effectively excise large fragments DNA.”
UNMC, were senior investigators on the of HIV DNA from infected cells, significant- To test their idea, the researchers used
new study. ly impacting viral gene expression. Similar mice engineered to produce human T cells
“This achievement could not have been to ART, however, gene editing cannot com- susceptible to HIV infection, permitting
possible without an extraordinary team pletely eliminate HIV on its own. long-term viral infection and ART-induced
effort that included virologists, immunolo- For the new study, Dr. Khalili and col- latency. Once infection was established, mice
gists, molecular biologists, pharmacologists, leagues combined their gene editing system were treated with LASER ART and subse-
and pharmaceutical experts,” Dr. Gendel- with a recently developed therapeutic strat- quently with CRISPR-Cas9. At the end of
man said. “Only by pooling our resources egy known as long-acting slow-effective the treatment period, mice were examined
together were we able to make this ground- release (LASER) ART. LASER ART was for viral load. Analyses revealed complete
breaking discovery.” co-developed by Dr. Gendelman and Ben- elimination of HIV DNA in about one-third
Current HIV treatment focuses on the use son Edagwa, PhD, Assistant Professor of of HIV-infected mice.
of antiretroviral therapy (ART). ART sup- Pharmacology at UNMC. “The big message of this work is that it
presses HIV replication but does not elimi- LASER ART targets viral sanctuaries takes both CRISPR-Cas9 and virus suppres-
nate the virus from the body. Therefore, ART and maintains HIV replication at low lev- sion through a method such as LASER ART,
is not a cure for HIV, and it requires life-long els for extended periods of time, reducing administered together, to produce a cure for
use. If it is stopped, HIV rebounds, renewing the frequency of ART administration. The HIV infection,” Dr. Khalili said. “We now
replication and fueling the development of long-lasting medications were made possible have a clear path to move ahead to trials in
AIDS. HIV rebound is directly attributed to by pharmacological changes in the chemical non-human primates and possibly clinical
the ability of the virus to integrate its DNA structure of the antiretroviral drugs. The trials in human patients within the year.”
sequence into the genomes of cells of the modified drug was packaged into nano-
immune system, where it lies dormant and crystals, which readily distribute to tissues Source: Medical News
beyond the reach of antiretroviral drugs. where HIV is likely to be lying dormant.

32 July. 12 - 18 2019

By Agencies
N
ew research
overturns the
widespread notion
that humans,
unlike other mammals,
process pain more slowly
than touch. The findings
may have significant
implications for the
diagnosis and treatment of
pain.
Until now, the scientific
consensus has been that in
humans, the nerve signals
that “communicate” touch
to the brain are faster than
those that relay pain.
This difference in speed,
researchers believed, was
due to the fact that touch
signals travel through
nerves with a thick coat of
myelin — the insulating
layer of lipids that forms a
protective sheath around
the nerves. Myelin helps the
nerves conduct signals more
quickly.
In contrast, pain signals
travel through nerves that
either do not have myelin at
all or have only a very thin
layer.
Other mammals
have so-called ultrafast
nociceptors (pain receptors),
that is, afferent neurons with
a thick coat of myelin to
convey pain signals as fast
as possible. But, is the same
true for humans?
Saad Nagi, a principal
research engineer in the
Department of Clinical and
Experimental Medicine and
the Center for Social and
Affective Neuroscience at
Linköping University in
Sweden, recently led a team
of researchers looking to
answer this question.
“The ability to feel pain
is vital to our survival,”
explains Nagi, “so why
should our pain-signaling
system be so much slower
than the system used for
touch and so much slower
than it could be?”
To find out, the scientists
applied a technique called
microneurography, which
allowed them to visualise
and track the neural traffic
from “peripheral nerves
leading to muscle and skin.”
Man feeling pain. Signals may travel just as quickly
as touch signals in humans, new research suggests
Treatment
of
pain
How fast do we feel
pain? Study overturns
previous notions
Nagi and team applied
this technique to 100 healthy
study participants and
published the findings in the
journal Science Advances.
Pain travels just as
rapidly as touch
The technique of
microneurography,
or “single-unit axonal
recordings,” enabled the
researchers to track pain and
touch signals in the nerve
fibers of a single neuron. Nagi
and team looked for neurons
that carried signals as quickly
as touch but also behaved like
nociceptors.
The study revealed that
12% of the neurons with
a thick myelin coat had
the same properties as
nociceptors, in that they could
detect and convey “noxious
stimuli,” such as coarse brush
stroking or pinching.
July. 12 - 18 2019
health
Pain receptors do not react
to soft touch, and neither
did these neurons, which
the researchers tested by
applying soft brush strokes.
Finally, these nerve cells
conducted pain signals just
as quickly as touch-sensitive
neurons.
To check that the function
of these superfast nerve
cells was indeed to convey
pain, the researchers used
measurement electrodes
to apply short, precise
electric bursts that targeted
individual nerve cells. As a
result, the study participants
reported feeling sharp
pinprick sensations.
“When we activated an
individual nerve cell, it
caused a perception of pain,
so we conclude that these
nerve cells are connected to
pain centers in the brain,’’
says Nagi.
“It’s becoming evident
that thickly myelinated
nerve fibers contribute to
the experience of pain when
it has a mechanical cause.
Our results challenge the
textbook description of a
rapid system for signaling
touch and a slower system
for signaling pain. We
suggest that pain can be
signaled just as rapidly as
touch,” Saad Nagi said.
Nagi and colleagues also
examined people who had
experienced nerve damage
that caused them to lose
thickly myelinated nerve
cells but did not affect their
thinly myelinated nerve
cells. As a result of the
damage, these participants
cannot feel light touch.
Nagi’s team hypothesised
that losing myelinated nerve
fibers would also affect the
newly discovered superfast
network of nociceptors.
The researchers found that
these individuals could not
experience mechanical pain.
The findings; explain the
scientists, may help doctors
diagnose pain-related
conditions and provide
better care for people who
experience this symptom.
Source: Science News
33
comment
By Joseph E. Stiglitz
Thumbs down to Facebook’s currency
Governments should shut the Libra down immediately
if it uses of the financial system to facilitate crime
F
acebook and some of its corporate
allies have decided that what the
world really needs is another cryp-
tocurrency, and that launching one
is the best way to use the vast talents at their
disposal. The fact that Facebook thinks so
reveals much about what is wrong with
twenty-first-century American capitalism.
In some ways, it’s a curious time to be
launching an alternative currency. In the
past, the main complaint about traditional
currencies was their instability, with rapid
and uncertain inflation making them a poor
store of value. But the dollar, the euro, the
yen, and the renminbi have all been remark-
ably stable. If anything, the worry today is
about deflation, not inflation.
The world has also made progress on
financial transparency, making it more
difficult for the banking system to be used
to launder money and for other nefarious
activities. And technology has enabled us
to complete transactions efficiently, moving
money from customers’ accounts into those
of retailers in nanoseconds, with remarkably
good fraud protection. The last thing we
need is a new vehicle for nurturing illicit
activities and laundering the proceeds,
which another cryptocurrency will almost
certainly turn out to be.
The real problem with our existing cur-
rencies and financial arrangements, which
serve as a means of payment as well as a
store of value, is the lack of competition
among and regulation of the companies that
control transactions. As a result, consumers
– especially in the United States – pay a mul-
tiple of what payments should cost, lining
the pockets of Visa, Mastercard, American
Express, and banks with tens of billions of
dollars of “rents” – excessive profits – every
year. The Durbin Amendment to the 2010
Dodd-Frank financial-reform legislation
curbs the excessive fees charged for debit
cards only to a very limited extent, and it did
nothing about the much bigger problem of
excessive fees associated with credit cards.
Other countries, like Australia, have done
a much better job, including by forbidding
credit card companies from using contrac-
tual provisions to restrain competition,
whereas the U.S. Supreme Court, in another
of its 5-4 decisions, seemed to turn a blind
eye to such provisions’ anti-competitive
effects. But even if the U.S. decides to have
34 July. 12 - 18 2019
a non-competitive second-rate financial
system, Europe and the rest of the world
should say no: it is not anti-American to be
pro-competition, as Trump seems to have
recently suggested in his criticism of Euro-
pean Commissioner for Competition Mar-
grethe Vestager.
One might well ask: What is Facebook’s
business model, and why do so many seem
so interested in its new venture? It could be
that they want a cut of the rents accruing to
the platforms through which transactions
are processed. The fact that they believe that
more competition won’t drive down profits
to near zero attests to the corporate sector’s
confidence in its ability to wield market
power – and in its political power to ensure
that government won’t intervene to curb
these excesses.
With the U.S. Supreme Court’s renewed
commitment to undermining American
democracy, Facebook and its friends might
think they have little to fear. But regulators,
entrusted not just with maintaining stability,
but also with ensuring competition in the
financial sector, should step in. And else-
where in the world, there is less enthusiasm
for America’s tech dominance with its anti-
competitive practices.
Supposedly, the new Libra currency’s
value will be fixed in terms of a global basket
of currencies and 100% backed – presum-
ably by a mix of government treasuries. So
here’s another possible source of revenue:
paying no interest on “deposits” (traditional
currencies exchanged for Libra), Facebook
can reap an arbitrage profit from the interest
it receives on those “deposits.” But why
would anyone give Facebook a zero-interest
deposit, when they could put their money
in an even safer U.S. Treasury bill, or in a
money-market fund? (The recording of cap-
ital gains and losses each time a transaction
occurs, as the Libra is converted back into
local currency, and the taxes due seem to be
an important impediment, unless Facebook
believes it can ride roughshod over our tax
system, as it has over privacy and competi-
tion concerns.)
There are two obvious answers to the ques-
tion of the business model: one is that people
who engage in nefarious activities (possibly
including America’s current president) are
willing to pay a pretty penny to have their
nefarious activities – corruption, tax avoid-
ance, drug dealing, or terrorism – go unde-
tected. But, having made so much progress
in impeding the use of the financial system
to facilitate crime, why would anyone – let
alone the government or financial regula-
tors – condone such a tool simply because it
bears the label “tech”?
If this is Libra’s business model, govern-
ments should shut it down immediately. At
the very least, Libra should be subject to the
same transparency regulations that apply
to the rest of the financial sector. But then it
wouldn’t be a cryptocurrency.
Alternatively, the data Libra transactions
provide could be mined, like all the other
data that’s come into Facebook’s possession
– reinforcing its market power and profits,
and further undermining our security and
privacy. Facebook (or Libra) might promise
not to do that, but who would believe it?
Then there is the broader question of trust.
Every currency is based on confidence that
the hard-earned dollars “deposited” into it
will be redeemable on demand. The private
banking sector has long shown that it is
untrustworthy in this respect, which is why
new prudential regulations have been nec-
essary.
But, in just a few short years, Facebook
has earned a level of distrust that took the
banking sector much longer to achieve. Time
and again, Facebook’s leaders, faced with a
choice between money and honoring their
promises, have grabbed the money. And
nothing could be more about money than
creating a new currency. Only a fool would
trust Facebook with his or her financial
wellbeing. But maybe that’s the point: with
so much personal data on some 2.4 billion
monthly active users, who knows better than
Facebook just how many suckers are born
every minute?
Joseph E. Stiglitz, University Professor
at Columbia University, is the co-winner
of the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize, former
chairman of the President’s Council of
Economic Advisers, and former Chief
Economist of the World Bank. His most
recent book is People, Power, and Profits:
Progressive Capitalism for an Age of
Discontent.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2019.

By Alexandra Borchardt
Restoring trust in media
Journalists must adhere to codes of professional
and ethical conduct, with oversight bodies
I
n most industries, a quality product is
easy to identify, thanks to markers like
price, brand, and reviews. But in jour-
nalism, discerning quality is becoming
increasingly complicated, not least because,
in the digital age, trusted brands like the
BBC or The New York Times, which can be
expected to adhere to long-established jour-
nalistic standards, are vastly outnumbered
by upstart publications, blogs, and commu-
nity reports.
Not surprisingly, therefore, as claims
of “fake news” have proliferated in
recent years, trust in news media – estab-
lished and otherwise – has plummeted.
According to the Reuters Institute’s Dig-
ital News Report 2017, those who regu-
larly consume news do so with significant
skepticism. Only about 50% of users
trust the media brands they choose to
consume; far fewer trust outlets that they
do not use. With too many options and
too little confidence in media, nearly one-
third of people have given up following
the news altogether.
But news journalism is not an expend-
able luxury. It is a critical public good,
enabling citizens to make informed
decisions, while helping to hold those
in power accountable. It can serve that
function only if it is a quality product –
and people know that. Delivering such a
product, however, is no straightforward
task.
The first problem is that there is no clear
definition of what constitutes quality
journalism, which raises the risk that the
standard of “quality” will become a tool
of censorship. When Adolf Hitler wanted
a book burned, he would assert that it
did not meet the “standards” of Nazi
ideology. Similarly, a government today
could cite quality issues to attack critics’
credibility or to justify denying them jour-
nalistic credentials.
Some organisations concerned with
the future of the media are trying to cir-
cumvent this danger by developing trust
indicators. Most notably, the Journalism
Trust Initiative, led by Reporters Without
Borders, is creating voluntary guide-
lines and a best-practice framework that
will evolve into an official certification
process. Some organisations champion
traffic-light indicators, like those used in
food labeling, while others argue for an
ISO 9000 system reminiscent of industrial
quality management.
But what, exactly, would these systems
be certifying? The most logical answer
might seem to be media organisations.
But even first-class newsrooms produce
plenty of second-class content, owing to
factors ranging from a lack of available
sources to simple human error. This
implies that not all content from a given
organisation can be trusted equally.
Of course, some organisations have a
proven track record of following certain
procedures to minimise mistakes and
respond to errors that do slip through.
But these are likely to be the same organ-
isations that already enjoy significant
public trust. Whatever trust they have lost
in recent years will not be offset by a new
label affirming their quality.
As for the publications that would ben-
efit from such a label, they are more likely
to be smaller, newer, and thus poorly
equipped to deal with the extra layer of
bureaucracy that a certification proce-
dure would entail. Organisation-level
quality certifications could thus hurt new
entrants, while helping incumbents.
The alternative to organisation-level
certification would be to focus on indi-
vidual pieces of content. But this would
be a herculean task in terms of volume;
worse, it could create perverse incen-
tives, as journalists chase certifications in
much the same way they now may chase
awards, sometimes to the detriment of the
work. The German reporter Claas Relo-
tius won multiple awards for his brilliant
storytelling before it was revealed that the
stories he was telling were not true.
In any case, the question remains what
exactly constitutes a quality piece of con-
tent. Does it simply have to be fact-based?
Does it apply only to serious political and
business news, or does it include lifestyle,
entertainment, or human-interest stories?
These questions are complicated further
in the digital ecosystem: some blog posts
may count as journalism, but that cer-
tainly isn’t the case for all of them.
Journalism will never be like, say, the
airline industry, where strict standards
comment
and procedures apply to every action
and product. But, until recently, it didn’t
need to be: journalists adhered to codes
of professional and ethical conduct, and
were overseen by bodies that took action
in the event of a breach. Doing it right
was the default – even though the concept
of “right” has always been open to inter-
pretation.
That is how societies work. An indi-
vidual does not need a “trust certifica-
tion” to participate in a family or commu-
nity (though China’s government would
like to change that). The social contract
establishes certain behavioral norms with
which people generally comply; labels are
needed only when trust is broken.
This is the status quo to which jour-
nalism must return. That means, first and
foremost, individual organizations taking
responsibility for the quality of their
content and adhering to a set of rules,
including oversight and editing, to ensure
it. When this cannot be done within the
organization itself – say, when a citizen
journalist is operating in an anti-dem-
ocratic environment – external bodies
could do the job.
In establishing such systems, lessons
could be learned from collaborative
reporting projects like the one that
covered the Panama Papers, in which
researchers enjoyed individual freedom –
ensuring a plurality of voices and healthy
competition – but had to meet certain
standards. As technology advances,
automated fact-checking could also be
introduced, especially in less-resourced
newsrooms.
In an age of unprecedented access to
information, true and otherwise, people
of all ages must improve their media lit-
eracy. But that does not let media organ-
isations off the hook. With the help of an
aware and critical audience, they must
monitor themselves and one another, as
they have done in the past.
Alexandra Borchardt is Director of Leadership
Programs at the Reuters Institute for the
Study of Journalism.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2019.
July. 12 - 18 2019 35
comment
By Simon M. Mutungi
Facebook’s currency and Africa
Libra’s entry into the continental finance system
presents complex regulatory issues for authorities
S
ocial media titan Facebook is set
to roll out its own cryptocurrency
dubbed “GlobalCoin” in 2020 with
trials starting later this year. This is
global cryptocurrency aims to be used across
state borders. Unlike traditional cryptocur-
rencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum that are
highly volatile, Libra is a stablecoin that is
pegged to a basket of major currencies and
securities whose stable value makes the Libra
stable with a conversion rate, for example, of
1 Libra equals $1 USD.
Although it is initially running in only
a dozen countries, the idea behind it is
to expand the concept to every country
that accesses the Facebook platform. As
of 2017, Africa was home to 170 million
Facebook users. It is therefore suffice to
note that if the Libracoin is successful, it
will impact the financial system land-
scape on the continent. There are, there-
fore, political and socio-economic impli-
cations that need to be considered about
this global currency idea in the African
context.
Unlike other decentralised blockchains
and cryptocurrencies that facilitate dis-
tributed governance and open access,
the Libracoin and its blockchain are not
entirely decentralised contrary to their
founders’ claims. Libra is controlled by
Facebook and the other 27 founding
companies forming the Libra Association
that run their own nodes and validate
the transactions on the Libra Blockchain.
This means one would require permis-
sion from this group to trade in Libra
which effectively bestows unfettered
control of this financial system to a small
consortium of mainly western powered
companies, a reminiscent concern of past
colonial and present neo colonial times in
Africa. So politically speaking, the Libra
Association may want to address this
issue by involving African authorities
such as central banks as the continent is
not about to cede its independence any-
time.
A fundamental objective of the Global-
Coin according to the Libra white paper
is to improve global financial inclusion.
Approximately 1.7 billion people remain
unbanked worldwide with the African
banked population standing at just 34%
36 July. 12 - 18 2019
as of 2015 according to World Bank data.
A key challenge to such low financial
inclusion in Africa is the exorbitant bank
fees, documentation, and banks being too
far away from the people. This is where
Libra comes in and considering that 94%
of Africans on Facebook use a mobile
phone to access the social network, this
would alleviate some of the aforemen-
tioned constraints to financial inclusion.
Borrowing lessons from the impact
mobile money financial technologies have
made on the finance sector, this statistic
is foretelling as to the impact the Libra-
coin can have in driving Africa’s financial
inclusion if successfully adopted.
An advantage flowing from improved
access to finance provided by the Libra-
coin is that it could make remittances less
costly and as fast as sending a photo from
one Facebook or WhatsApp account to
another. According to World Bank data,
remittances to Africa grew to $37 billion
in 2017 and are expected to clock $40 bil-
lion this year yet the cost of sending cash
in Africa is 20% higher than any other
region in the world mainly due to extor-
tionate fees charged by some banks and
remittance service providers.
Since the Facebook platform operates
via the internet and is to some extent
This would help
realise the
objectives of the
recently signed
African Continental
Free Trade Area
Agreement by
facilitating
intra and inter-
continental trade
borderless, the sending and receiving
of money through this channel should
be cost effective and fast. The Libra is
however likely to meet some regulatory
resistance in some countries like South
Africa that have exchange controls on
how money flows in and out of their
jurisdictions.
Another probable, albeit ambitious
benefit is that the Libracoin perhaps sets
up the infrastructure (or we could pick
lessons from it and build our own infra-
structure) that finally sees Africa someday
implement its Afro in a digital sphere. The
Afro is born of monetary union where the
continent uses one currency across bor-
ders. Robert Mundell, a Nobel-winning
economist, points out the benefits of such
unions and states that, “if a...single cur-
rency is used, there would be a common infla-
tion rate and similar interest rate, a consider-
able growth in trade, productivity and finance
integration, all of which would generate a
considerable increase in economic growth and
well-being”. This would help realise the
objectives of the recently signed African
Continental Free Trade Area Agreement
by facilitating intra and inter-continental
trade. By pegging the Libra to the Afro, or
a basket of regional currencies such as the
Eco in West Africa and the Shilling in East
Africa, the GlobalCoin could help traders
purchase goods and services across
borders without worrying about costs
flowing from foreign exchange rates. This
however is not to suggest that the conti-
nent is ready for the implementation of
the Afro just yet.
In conclusion, Facebook’s entry into
finance presents new and complex regu-
latory issues for authorities. For instance,
Libracoin by its digital nature could easily
facilitate money laundering and terrorist
financing if the clients on the platform are
not well vetted. Therefore while there are
benefits, the risks too cannot be ignored
and African governments are urged to
assess and address them swiftly.
Simon M. Mutungi is a joint PhD candidate
(Financial Technology Regulation) at the
University of Cape Town and Yale University
 ART | BOOKS | SOCIETY | TRAVEL | CULTURE
Connection in isolation
The odd link between Ntensibe and Klimt’s art
G
By Dominic Muwanguzi
ustave Klimt and Joseph
Ntensibe can’t have been
born and bred more differ-
ently. They lived and prac-
ticed their art in different
periods and cultural worlds.
Klimt is an Austrian 19th Century painter
who lived between 1862 and 1918 when
art movements like symbolism, neoclassi-
cism, romanticism, and Vienna secession
prevailed. On the other hand, Ntensibe is a
living Ugandan artist, born in Masaka; the
rural district in south central Uganda, who
likes rustic symbolism inspired by his rural
childhood.
Yet their work shows amazing similarity.
Both choose intertwining the human figures
with geometrical patterns on canvases.
Klimt was among the generation of art-
ists termed as `Art Nouveau’ who rebelled
against already established concepts and
styles in Europe- and decided to adopt it in
his paintings. He preferred “provocative
themes” of the nude. Although Ntensibe
prefers to remain conservative, the similarity
in execution connects them.
Klimt’s `Beethoven Frieze’ which is one
of his most famous paintings- depicts three
female figures: one pregnant with bare- sag-
ging breasts, another tactfully covering her
genitals and breasts with a folded leg and
hair twirling down her bosom and the other
hidden in the background. The painting is
identical to `Hope ll, 1907-08’ that shows
a woman figure pregnant and with bare
breasts and elaborate shawl.
Ntensibe has a similar painting; of a man
playing hide and seek with two or three
ladies; one figure disappearing into another
and emerging on the other side of the paint-
ing. With the same style, Ntensibe painted
`Peacemaker’ portraying an older sister cud-
dling and embracing her two siblings. It is a
gesture of love and responsibility.
The geometrical patterns noticeable in
Klimt’s `The Kiss’ and other paintings are
visible in the `Peacemaker’. It is amazing
how the irregular shapes sometimes washed
in a bright palette saturate Ntensibe’s work
like in the series of `Disappearing (Budongo)
Forest, 2011’. In Klimt’s most famous paint-
ing of all time; ` The Kiss, 1909’ the artist
depicts two lovers embracing on the edge of
a field of flowers.
It’s clear that regardless of the context
within which they are working and gener-
ation they belong to, these are kindred cre-
ators of art. It is not imitation but a genuine
response to a subject matched with artistic
ingenuity and studio dexterity and tech-
nique.
The connection between Klimt and Nten-
sibe’s work shows that artists do not work in
isolation of their surroundings, encounters,
and times. Ntensibe with a background of
art teaching may have come across Klimt’s
work and was immediately struck by its
unconventional approach. Today, Ntensibe
is regarded as one of the greatest artists of
his time in Uganda because he took that first
step to learn and adopt what the masters like
Gustave Klimt had done before. It formed
his unique identity.
Ntensibe image courtesy of Startjournal
July. 12 - 18 2019 37
Nurses get free thank you cake, get high on cannabis
When a grandfather wanted to thank nurses laced with cannabis; making it what is often
at Warrington Hospital in Cheshire, UK, for referred to as a “space cake”.The granddad was
their care of a relative, he bought them cake. unaware of the cake’s additional ingredient
But after staff ate the red velvet sponge from as he had taken it from his grandson’s 18th
the “nice old man” they were reportedly “off birthday party before presenting it to nurses.
their faces” and police had to be called in. A member of staff, said “three or four” nurses
The thank you cake present was apparently were feeling “relaxed” after their slices of cake.

Chinese city bans
‘Beijing bikinis’
Each summer men across
the country roll their T-shirts
up above their stomachs to
help stay cool in sweltering
temperatures. But the so-called
“Beijing bikinis” have now
been banned after they were
deemed “uncivilised” by
authorities in Jinan city of 8.7
million people. The notice
also states that members of
the public should not remove
their shirts while outside.
The cooling method is said
to be based on a theory in
traditional Chinese medicine,
where exposing one’s midriff
helps air out of the warm “chi”
energy around the internal
organs. Jinan authorities made
the demand as temperatures
rose to a sweltering 36C (96F).
The order has attracted a back-
lash from social media users,
with one person commenting:
“Being shirtless cuts more car-
bon emissions than turning on
AC (air conditioning).”
Woman only runs backwards
Runner Shantelle Gas-
ton-Hird gets some funny looks
when she trains for her latest
race in her local park - because
she only runs backwards.
Shantelle, 32, loves to start her
weekend with a leisurely back-
wards jog - but she can clock an
11 minute mile in training. She’s
even been crowned the fastest
backwards runner in the UK -
and while most fellow joggers
shout words of encouragement,
she does admit being shouted at
by drivers to turn around. Shan-
telle, from Irlam, Greater Man-
chester, said: I know it seems a
bit weird but I just think it’s so
much more fun than running
forwards. Shantelle even runs
backwards while training on
the treadmill.
Mrs Trump statue
cause controversy
A life-size wooden statue of
US first lady Melania Trump
has been unveiled in her birth
country of Slovenia, but not
everyone is pleased with it. The
sculpture was erected next to
the Sava River in the village of
Rozno, around 8km from Mrs
Trump’s hometown of Sevnica.
It was commissioned by Brad
Downey, a Berlin-based Amer-
ican artist, and sculpted with a
chainsaw by local folk artist Ales
Zupevc. But it appears to show
very little likeness to the first
lady - promoting some people
to brand it “a scarecrow”. But
Downey defended his art work,
insisting it was “absolutely
beautiful”. He said he wanted
to “have a dialogue with my
country’s political situation”
and show Mrs Trump’s status
as an immigrant who is married
to a man who has pledged to
reduce immigration in the U.S.
Zupevc, the sculptor, was born
in the same hospital and in the
same month as the first lady and

Solving Rubik’s Cubes with feet Woman kills friend works mostly as a pipe-layer.
As part of a short film for the

Most people competitions

struggle to solve a
3×3 Rubik’s cube
with their hands,
but there are
people out there
who can do it in
under 20 seconds,
using only their
feet. In fact, feet
solving a Rubik’s cube is actu-
ally a quite common event at
speedcubing events. Official feet
solving events require special
timers that competitors interact
with using their feet. The cur-
rent format when judging such
over SIM card exhibition, Zupevc highlights
the inequalities between them,
is Mean of 3, The 27-year old Alice Jari- saying: “Let’s face it, she owns
in which par- son was having a drink with half of America, while I have
ticipants get her friend, Charity Diamond nothing.”
three tries to Wiseman in Mabvuku, a high
solve the puz- density suburb of the Zimba-
zle with their bwean capital Harare, when
feet and mean she did a very unwise thing.
is calculated After a misunderstanding over
from the 3 a mobile phone SIM card, she
solve times. According to pushed Wiseman onto a hard
WPDH, the current record for surface and killed her. Wise-
the fastest successful attempt man was ferried to Parirenyat-
was set by 15-year-old Daniel wa Group of Hospitals, where
Rose-Levine who lost year she was pronounced dead on
solved a 3×3 Rubik’s cube in just arrival. Jarison was arrested
16.9 seconds. and charged with murder.

38 July. 12 - 18 2019
When your tyre bursts
Save driving tips in highway emergency
By Motoring Guru
I
magine you are driving at 140km/hr or
over and your vehicle tyre bursts; what
is the right way to react? A wrong move
could lead to major problems; including
loss of vehicle and lives. Therefore, all driv-
ers need to be prepared for this unusual but
potentially major accident. It does not matter
if you are the smartest driver or your vehicle
is the best maintained; a tyre burst can hap-
pen to you due to any number of reasons.
Your tyre could be slashed by debris on
the road surface, the vehicle could be over-
loaded or the tyre pressure could be lower
than recommended. Also the tyre could
be weakened by constant bangs and poor
wheel alignment, driving in extreme heat, or
aging. Therefore, always check the condition
of your vehicle tyres constantly.
If, in spite, of all proper maintenance and
precautions you get a burst tyre, the most
important thing to do is to remain calm. As
a human being facing danger, the natural
instinct is panic. Try to overcome this by
thinking about the consequences of your
positive reaction. If you react right you
could be saving your life and that of other
road users. But if you react wrong, you
endanger everyone. So do not panic and
step hard on the break. This could cause
the car to spin, roll over, or tumble and you
lose control. Instead, ease off the accelerator
slowly. In any case the car slows down auto-
matically.
You main job is to steer the vehicle. This is
mainly because the steering will turn in the
direction of the burst tyre. So correct this by
steering in the opposite direction. However,
this should be gentle or else the car could
spin out of control.
Your steering must also consider which
tyre has burst. When a front tyre bursts, it
can often cause more steering problems than
if a rear wheel burst. The car will naturally
pull to the side whose tyre has burst, so you
will need to counteract this by turning the
wheel in the opposite direction.
On the other hand, it the rear tyre bursts,
the vehicle will most likely swing from one
side to the other. But this is only if you were
driving at slow speed. In case, of fast speeds,
the effect is more dramatic. So always drive
at slow safe speeds.
In case of rear tyre burst, you must hold
steering firmly with both hands and direct
the vehicle in your desired direction until it
slows down. Don’t step on brake. Instead,
use engine breaking to slow vehicle down.
Or if you sense that it is safe, you may
use the handbrake; pulling and releasing
it gently as required. If your vehicle has
cruise control and it is activated, switch it off
immediately.
Once you regain stability, let the car move
with the decelerating engine speed and let it
stop once you get to a safe spot. Do not stop
in the middle of the road, if you can, as this
could lead to a massive collision.
When your car has safely stopped and
you’ve put up your safety alerts, including
the emergency triangle, you can then safely
get your car sorted out. You can either do a
quick DIY and change the tyre yourself with
your emergency kit or call for help. What-
ever you decide, always remain alert and
consider your safety. Don’t try driving to
the nearest garage as this may cause further
damage to your car – unless you are in an
unsafe area.
July. 12 - 18 2019 39
global comment
By Marcia Ashong and Akinyi Ochieng
African women in the boardroom
Continent where 95% of CEOs are men could
benefit from bringing more women in boardrooms
B
y 2050, one-quarter of the world’s
population will be African, which
means that one in eight people will
be an African woman. Yet, within
the continent, let alone internationally, Af-
rica’s women lack the economic clout their
numbers might suggest. That disconnect has
severe adverse implications for Africa’s pros-
pects. In fact, the only way to tap Africa’s
full potential is by dramatically improving
women’s representation in the workplace,
including in senior executive roles.
The contribution women can make
to Africa’s future should be obvious.
Worldwide, consumer spending – which
is growing three times faster in emerging
markets than in developed economies
– is largely controlled by women. This
implies a powerful incentive for compa-
nies to bring more women into their deci-
sion-making processes.
Yet, even as the number of women
sitting on the boards of global compa-
nies rises, progress is slow, and African
women have been largely left out – with
notable exceptions, such as Ngozi Okon-
jo-Iweala, a former Nigerian finance
minister and World Bank managing
director, who was appointed to the board
of Twitter last year, undoubtedly because
of the platform’s growing popularity in
Africa. But Okonjo-Iweala is an outlier
– few African women hold similarly influ-
ential positions at global corporations.
African women are barely present even
in boardrooms within Africa, where 95%
of CEOs are men. According to data from
the African Development Bank, women
hold only 12.7% of the board seats in Afri-
ca’s top listed companies.
This reflects a broader lack of gender
equality across the African private sector
that is preventing the continent’s econ-
omies from reaching their full potential.
New research from the International
Monetary Fund shows that countries
ranked in the bottom 50% for gender
equality globally – including large African
economies like Ethiopia, Morocco, and
Nigeria – could add a whopping 35% to
their economies, on average, by bringing
more women into the workplace. Having
more women in senior leadership roles
is critical to catalysing a shift, given the
powerful role that diversity at the top
40 July. 12 - 18 2019
plays in shaping organisational priorities.
As Africa is already home to six of the
world’s ten fastest-growing economies,
achieving gender balance in the work-
place could deliver a significant boost to
global growth.
This growth “bonus” reflects more than
just an expanded labour force; a large
body of research shows that companies
benefit substantially when they include
more women, with their unique talents,
skills, and perspectives. For example,
research by the McKinsey Global Institute
reveals that businesses achieve higher
financial returns when led by boards with
greater ethnic and gender diversity.
Likewise, according to MSCI, a leading
provider of investment-decision support
tools, companies lacking in board diver-
sity have an above-average likelihood of
enduring governance-related controver-
sies. Companies with a critical mass of
women in senior leadership positions,
meanwhile, tend to perform better on cor-
porate social responsibility.
Ghana’s worst-ever banking crisis,
which erupted in 2017, was the result of
years of weak risk management and poor
corporate governance. It is probably no
coincidence that UT Bank and Capital
Bank, the institutions that ultimately
collapsed, lacked diversity in both their
executive and non-executive leadership
teams. Different backgrounds and cog-
nitive styles are critical in order to avoid
homogenous groupthink and manage risk
effectively.
Companies that rank poorly in terms
of gender equality often claim that there
are simply too few woman candidates
available who are qualified for non-ex-
ecutive-board leadership. But there are
qualified women everywhere, and, thanks
to rising female participation in higher
education, their numbers are growing. In
fact, women are more likely than men to
complete their degrees; but, as they climb
the career ladder, they disappear from the
ranks. Corporate gender strategies must,
therefore, address the dynamics that
inhibit women’s career progression, from
support networks to family leave and
childcare, as well as policies addressing
harassment in the workplace.
To find the female leaders they need,
firms should also check their blind spots,
including the biases, conscious and
unconscious, that may be impeding the
advancement of their female employees.
Women should also be encouraged to join
networks and work with organisations
that focus on finding and cultivating
strong female leadership in order to
enhance their visibility for new oppor-
tunities and increase their influence in
existing roles.
The rapid gains in female representa-
tion in African governments underscore
the availability of highly qualified and
capable women. In Rwanda, women
hold over 60% of parliamentary seats, the
largest share in the world. Senegal also
ranks in the top ten countries worldwide
in this regard. And in Ethiopia, Prime
Minister Abiy Ahmed’s cabinet is 50%
female, and he has appointed Sahle-Work
Zewde, the former United Nations rep-
resentative to the African Union, as Ethi-
opia’s first female president. According
to the World Bank’s Women, Business
and the Law report, in the last decade,
Sub-Saharan Africa has implemented
more reforms aimed at boosting women’s
economic inclusion than any other world
region, but these numbers are largely pro-
pelled by a handful of economies on the
continent. It is time that these advances
are reflected in more countries, as well as
in the region’s private sector.
As African women make greater
strides in getting their voices heard,
governments and businesses within the
region and around the world should
embrace this trend and bring more
of them into their executive teams
and their boardrooms. Given Africa’s
swelling population and growing inter-
national influence, the effects of such a
shift will be profoundly positive.
Marcia Ashong is Founder and Executive
Director of TheBoardroom Africa. Akinyi
Ochieng is an adviser to TheBoardroom
Africa.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2019.
 A pivotal role
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