President Yoweri Museveni has blamed past leaders and colonialists for Uganda’s poverty, saying they “poisoned the minds’’ of hardworking farmers.

“When the colonials came here, they made our people grow the crops they wanted: cotton, tobacco, coffee, tea, and then our leaders just copied what the colonialists told them...So, when I studied the issue, I could see danger, number one was only working for the stomach.

“They (locals) must work for the stomach and the pocket. But secondly, even the ones who are working for the pocket do so without cura (calculations). That is how you get West Nile growing tobacco. If you grow tobacco on one acre, you will never get out of poverty…” he said.

Mr Museveni made the remarks while addressing leaders from the Acholi and Lango sub-regions at Baralegi State Lodge in Otuke District on Saturday.

The President encouraged poverty-stricken Ugandans to carefully select good enterprises such as coffee, fruits, dairy cows, poultry, piggery, and fish farming.

“You should select enterprises which have a big demand within Uganda, Africa and internationally,” Mr Museveni said.

He also told farmers that vanilla has a good market, but the people who were promoting it didn’t check the global demand. “So, when our people rushed there, production was big, the price collapsed.”   

Poverty levels

In the first half of 2021, Uganda’s Ministry of Finance reported that 28 percent of Ugandans were poor. In line with World Bank practice, the official poverty line is the equivalent of $1.90 purchasing power per day and head. The ministry also noted that two thirds of Ugandans had lost at least some income due to the Covid-19 crisis. 

Extreme poverty data reveals that northern and eastern parts of Uganda have higher poverty headcounts than the other parts of the country.      

This was echoed by the Acholi Parliamentary Group while meeting the President on Saturday. The government of Uganda estimates that poverty numbers, according to the national poverty line, could increase by 2.6 million people (source: Development Initiatives). - DAILY MONITOR

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Wiper Democratic Movement Party Leader Kalonzo Musyoka has promised to have Machakos Wiper governorship candidate Wavinya Ndeti and Chama Cha Uzalendo candidate Nzioka Waita agree on who should step down for whom.

This, as it was clear who his preferred candidate was.

Kalonzo was speaking during Azimio La Umoja Coalition public rally addressed by Presidential Candidate Raila Odinga at Masinga in Machakos County yesterday (Sunday). 

He said that he would speak to Waita to step down for Wavinya since she is the most popular candidate on the ground.

He urged Waita not to emulate Kavaluku’s political strategies. [Kavaluku (Rabbit) is the nickname for the outgoing Governor Alfred Mutua in reference to his shifting and, at times, bewildering political moves].t two general elections emerging second behind Governor Alfred Mutua and that if no agreement is reached, the seat might go to Kenya Kwanza Alliance.

“I will be reaching out to my sister Wavinya Ndeti and my brother Nzioka Waita so that they reach an agreement for one of them to go for the Machakos Governorship seat. We cannot afford to lose the Machakos governorship due to friendly fire,” said Kalonzo.

Wavinya served as Kathiani MP after being elected in the 2007 general election and served as an Assistant Minister in the Ministry of Youth Affairs. After losing to Mutua in the 2017 election, President Uhuru Kenyatta appointed her as the Chief Administrative Secretary in the Ministry of Transport. 

She resigned recently to run for Machakos governor.

Waita served as State House Chief of Staff and Head of Presidential Delivery Unit before resigning to vie for Machakos Governorship seat. He previously worked as Corporate Affairs Director at Safaricom Limited which he joined in 2001 as a legal officer.

The former Vice President said that the Wiper Democratic Party had fielded strong candidates for various seats in Machakos, Makueni and Kitui counties and would be leading talks among the Azimio Coalition parties to ensure that they identified the most popular candidates to run.

Kalonzo said that the Kamba nation needed to speak with one voice in order to have a formidable bargaining power should Azimio form the next government since he had carried out fruitful negotiations where community interests are well catered for.

He dismissed leaders from the Akamba community who were “misleading” the locals to support Kenya Kwanza Alliance which he said did not have any interests of the community.  By Edwin Nyarangi, The Standard.

There was panic at Workers House on Monday evening after a fire alarm went off shortly after the signing of an MOU between the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the United Kingdom High Commissioner to Uganda Kate Airey to establish a virtual academy for prosecutors.

The MOU followed a request by DPP’s office to the UK government for technical assistance to design and deliver an online platform for prosecutors to build their capacity in order to effectively and efficiently manage criminal matters. However, the fire alarm went off while officials were entertaining questions from the media, sending panic amongst the attendees. 

This prompted the DPP, Jane Frances Abodo to apologize and order whoever was in the meeting on the 12th floor to vacate the building using the stairs. Security officers immediately evacuated the DPP and the UK officials. The remaining people also vacated the 14-floor building via the stairs. 

There was utter confusion on the stairs as people including expectant mothers and guests who had come to various offices ran for their lives and assembled in front of the building to ascertain what was going on. Later, a man wearing a reflector jacket branded Workers House Fire Marshal told the dozens of people who looked scared that one of the capacitors of the fan on the ninth floor had burnt but didn’t affect anything. 

Some security personnel told URN that the fire alarm was triggered by burnt wires in the air conditioning systems on the 11th floor. The security later told the people who were gathered outside to return to the building.     

The fire scare has come at a time when the country has registered several fire outbreaks mostly in schools and offices without any conclusive report. - URN/The Observer