Museveni will NOT leave power, even if he loses.

Ugandans went to polls this morning to decide who takes the country’s top job. There are 8 candidates in the race but the two dominant contenders are; Yoweri Kaguta Museveni (who is trying to extend his 30 year old regime) and Forum for Democratic Change’s, Dr. Kizza Besigye (who is contending for the forth time).

Yahoo Photo. A Ugandan casting a ballot earlier today.

In Kampala, the capital, voting started between 2 to 7 hours late at most of the polling stations. Voters who turned up at 6am to queue up, anticipating of start casting their votes at 7am were disappointed when they learned that the Electoral Commission (EC) had NOT delivered the ballots and other supplies on time. The voters braved the hot sun for hours waiting for the commission to deliver ballot papers and boxes. Some of the polling stations received the ballot papers 45 minutes before the 4pm, when the voting exercise was set to end. Kampala and neighboring Wakiso are believed to be opposition strongholds and the delay to deliver voting material has been viewed as a deliberate act to deny the opposition the much-anticipated victory.

Live television coverage and social media updates from various parts of the country reveal that the process was mostly peaceful but with many inexcusable glitches caused by the EC. Cases of people found in possession of pre-ticked ballot papers have been reported around Kampala and Ntungamo. In fact, one polling officer allegedly issued two pre-ticked ballots in favour of Museveni to one of the voters – this caused some tension at the polling station.

This morning, the Uganda Communications Commission issued a directive to internet and mobile money service providers to block access to Twitter, Facebook and the mobile money transfer services. The ingenious citizens were one step a head of the technologically inept commission. They resorted to VPNs and Proxies to stay connected. Some of the incidents that happened at the polling stations were exposed on social media – with video and photo evidence.

The incidents Ugandans witnessed today show the problem with “Uganda’s democracy”, it is hooked to Museveni’s influence on the entire electoral process. These incidents assert fears expressed by Museveni’s contender that the vote was rigged long before the election day.

Museveni’s regime has mastered the art of not only keeping the opposition in check but also tightened its grip on the media making it impossible for journalists to report freely and openly about issues of service delivery, let alone election irregularities. The ruling NRM party has used the loopholes in the government’s institutionalized corruption to continue tightening its grip on power. The police and the army have on several occasions made controversial stands and remarks siding with the regime.

During the campaign period, the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development have shown their support to Museveni through using public funds to sponsor TV commercials that are partisan. The adverts show how the government has focused on building and equipping hospitals, and creating opportunities for the youth in the past 30 years.

Museveni’s has used national television to openly intimidate people using the rhetoric that quite frankly suggests that if Ugandans vote him out of office, there will be no peace. Infact, the Secretary General of NRM, Justine Kasule Lumumba warned “the state will kill your children” if they try to disorganize stability and she added that “the government of NRM is NOT going anywhere”.

But Uganda’s problem is far beyond voting one man, Museveni, out of power. The problem is more about getting rid of a regime that has infested every public office, media house, corporate company with its own ideals and priorities at the expense of the needs and freedom of Ugandans.

Uganda has a very painful past and many quite frankly agree that let Museveni rule until he is tired. Ugandans just want peace and a peaceful transfer of power. This does not mean that many or even majority of Ugandans do not want change, but every time this discussion comes up the big question remains:

“At what cost?”

Uganda Electoral Commission under pressure over 20K “ghost voters”

A recent data analysis that found discrepancies in the Uganda Electoral Commission voter count has put some voters on high alert, and consequently increased the anxiety about the upcoming presidential elections.

The data on Electoral Commission (EC) had indicated that there are 15,297,197 registered voters in Uganda. On the contrary, an independent data analysis found a 20,000 voter error margin. Here is another blog showing how we exposed the discrepancies and TMS Ruge’s breakdown of the data.

The Electoral Commission was notified about the discrepancies immediately. Instead of giving a detailed account of what happened, the commission made demeaning remarks – arguing that the analysis was baseless.

Please ignore those baseless reports! Our register is electronic and clean. Ghosts have no place on our register https://t.co/bFSow85oiF

— #AskEC2016 (@UgandaEc) February 9, 2016

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But this was not good enough for the Ugandans who were eager to know what was going on.  They continued to pressure the EC through its official Twitter account, demanding that the issue should be taken seriously. In the meantime, media houses started reporting on this issue – pressure was mounting on the commission.

The Spokes person of the commission, Jotham Taremwa finally agreed – that this was a “statistical error”.

Good morning- the ghost workers on the electoral register. You said baseless rumors, then statistical error.
Which? https://t.co/p83aO6WUzC

— Samira Sawlani (@samirasawlani) February 11, 2016

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WHAT THE DATA ANALYSIS REVEALED:

Analysis of voter data per polling station revealed that some polling stations had way more (some over 400) voters than they should have while others had way less.

At Nkokonjeru Primary School, a polling station in Ruharo Parish, Mbarara District; the Electoral Commission data shows that there are 436 Female Voters and 359 Male Voters – the total voter count (Female + Male) =387. Once we analyzed the data, we found that 408 voters were not accounted for.

At Nyamitanga Muslim Pri Sch, in Katete Parish, Mbarara District; the data indicated that there are 247 Female Voters and 202 Male Voters – the total voter count according to the commission = 900. Our analysis found that this was NOT correct.

Overall I personally came to the conclusion that there are probably not just 20,000 ghost voters but many more. If the Electoral Commission indicates that there are 387 voters at a given polling station and yet when I add number of Female (436) + (359) Male voters at the same polling station I get 795 I cannot help but wonder where the commission put the missing 408.

This morning (11, February), the commission quietly took down its website and removed the document we analyzed and replaced it with a new document with changes that seem to address the concerns we had. Well, some tweeps noticed that the website was down, which forced the EC to make this lame excuse.

Our website is under routine maintenance. All inconveniences are regretted. Thank you

— #AskEC2016 (@UgandaEc) February 11, 2016

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If you ask me, @UgandaEc looks really bad & incompetent right now, taking down their website after being busted with register discrepancies.

— Solomon Tumwesigye (@Soloestee) February 11, 2016

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FAST FORWARD

With just 5 days to the polls I am not convinced that the commission is prepared to handle emerging issues especially when they involve discrepancies.

If the commission failed to compute the sum of a couple of hundreds (as indicated above), how can they convince Ugandans that they are ready to tally millions of votes from over 28,010 polling stations country wide?

Stn: Hw cn one trust @UgandaEc to conduct an election with so mch tallying to do whn thy can’t do males+females=total voters? #UgandaDecides

— kintu kenny (@KintuKenny) February 11, 2016

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EC went into a coma after we published a simple analysis of data they should have crosschecked and rechecked many months and weeks ago. If anything, this shows how unprepared the commission is.

@nbstv @dfkm1970 @UgandaEc Do we expect a free and fair election? The answer is no beyond reasonable doubt. Thanx to Namara

— JAMIL (@JAMIL613000) February 11, 2016

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Even though the commission has finally realized that our analysis was NOT baseless (as it originally claimed) – seeing that EC has updated its data to match our figures, the manner in which they did it is unacceptable. With no explanation to the public. What is even worse, in the latest version of data, EC has eliminated the columns showing the number of Male and Female voters per polling station leaving just the total voter count per polling station.

Taking away the demographics makes it impossible for us or anyone else to do further analysis – and that is probably what the EC wants. But, this does not mean that there are no more loopholes in the voter registers.

.@UgandaEc That said, we need an explanation on why the male/female columns have been eliminated in the new data released. 2/3

— Evelyn Namara (@enamara) February 11, 2016

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@enamara @jssozi @UgandaEc @tmsruge @nbstv they can’t just fix the online thing, need complete scrutiny if the registers at pol stations

— Mulindwa (@PrinceMulindwa) February 11, 2016

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.@UgandaEc Thanks for making changes to the data on your website to reflect the (15,277,197 +1) Ugandans registered to vote 1/3

— Evelyn Namara (@enamara) February 11, 2016

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“Luckily”, the EC has procured handheld Biometric Voter Verification Systems and they are expected to catch any anomalies the commission might have missed. But, I have a feeling that at many of the polling stations, especially the rural ones (which are the majority in number), they will have to rely on the paper based register – because (sometimes) technology fails.

For now, I will keep crunching the voter register data as I anxiously await for the EC to deliver its promise of a “free and fair election”!

At least 20,000 “ghost voters” in Uganda’s voter register: 9 Days to Elections

With just about 9 days to the 2016 presidential elections, many Ugandans are itching to vote. According to the Electoral Commission (EC) of Uganda, almost everything is in place for the February 18th polls and a free and fair election is guaranteed.

But the polling station  (accessible here) voter counts released by the Electoral Commission show a major flaw in the upcoming elections.  The data shows that there are 15,297,197 voters in Uganda. In terms of gender demographics, the document indicates that there are 8,027,803 Female and 7,249,394 Male voters. However, the sum of female and male voters as indicated in that document yields 15,277,197   NOT the said 15,297,197 (as indicated in the document). Note the difference of 20,000 voters.

When a friend (@enamara) alerted me about this irregularity, I took the data provided by the Electoral Commission and converted the PDF document to Excel and started analyzing the data per polling station. I inserted one more column “Analyzed Voter Count” in the document and I put it side by side with EC’s Voter Count for easy comparison.

First I applied a simple formula to get the sum of Male and Female voters per polling station. Once I got the sums, I compared my sum per polling station with EC’s Voter Count (sum) per polling station. The results speak for themselves, showing the disparities. Many of the polling stations have voters that are ‘unaccounted for’.

The cells highlighted with a red background indicate polling stations with what I can only term as “ghost voters”. Overall, there are 20,000 voters who are unaccounted for based on the gender demographics.

At the moment it is not clear whether this is a systematic way of fixing votes or a “human error”. Regardless of where these 20,000 ghost voters come from, with such flaws, a free and fair election is still a dream. If the electoral commission cannot deal with these simple numbers – especially now that there is no major rush, can we trust them with vote tallying in one day?

Evelyn Namara noticed these disparities 3 days ago and she contacted the commission via Twitter. She has not received a response from the commission since.

.@UgandaEc – Total No. of females = 8,027,803, Total No. of males = 7,249,394 Total sum shows, 15,297,197 instead of 15,277,197 2/3

— Evelyn Namara (@enamara) February 7, 2016

We should condemn this negligence and call up on the Electoral Commission to account for the 20,000 voters.

The screenshot below shows further analysis and the number of “Ghost voters” per polling station (see column Q – extreme right).  Statistics by Polling Station – Data Analysed –Showing Ghost Voters

Download the Statistics by Polling Station – Data Analysed -Uganda – this is the Excel Sheet with data I analyzed. I have password protected the document just to make sure that no “unintended” alterations are made. If you want to do further analysis, tweet me @jssozi and I will give you the password.

You can also use this Electoral Commission Database (http://www.ec.or.ug/ps/list/) to verify number of voters per polling station and also download polling station information including voter registers.

Museveni’s word against Mbabazi’s: Let the scapegoating begin

This morning I watched President Museveni’s reaction to Mbabazi’s 2016 presidential bid and I think that the president rushed it. The president used 18 minutes to respond to Mbabazi’s 5 minutes declaration – now given that much time, I expected the president to deliver much more than the anger and scapegoating portrayed in his video. I expected to hear what the president would do differently if Ugandans gave him another chance to keep the top job, instead;

• The president seemed rather too angry and frustrated to address the country. If you watched the video you probably noticed that the president was even rude to his aids who were helping him to deliver this speech (see minutes 4:41 and 5:00).
• Museveni argues that Mbabazi should be held responsible for government’s failure to deliver its promises. Well, the president could be right but then again did it take the president 10 years to learn that Mbabazi was “not performing”?

If this is how the president is going to handle the presidential campaigns, looks like we are headed for a long rough ride – the same rhetoric that has failed governance and obstructed accountability. It looks like all the dirty linen is going public – the NRM will exonerate itself from all the failed government projects, name the officials who failed to deliver [just like the president did in his reaction to Mbabazi] and that will probably be a good thing. I mean, the famous “Temangalo” story is coming back to haunt Mbabazi and I am sure he has his own version of the story and I am quite eager to hear more about it but I am also interested in mature politics – blackmail does NOT count as mature.

The problem with this kind of politics or electioneering is it does not seek to improve service delivery or accountability, instead it is manipulative. It’s only aim is to create an enemy safe to hate to protect the party.

I hope that the presidential candidates will reduce on the amount of scapegoating, take responsibility where they have gone wrong – failed to deliver and most importantly convince Ugandans that they have the vision to “nurse the tired country”.

I hope that Mr. President will not be inclined to think that I am “misusing social media” when one of his “young people” show him this blog post!

Is NTV Uganda the new Lokodo: Staff fired over nude leaks

Nude photos of Fabiola Kyalimpa leaked in February 2015: thanks to a local tabloid, the photos made rounds on social media. This afternoon NTV Uganda announced (internally) that Fabiola who was a TV show host at this station was asked to resign her duties effective immediately. An email NTV management sent to the staff reads:

Dear Enablers,

This is to notify you that Anita Kyarimpa a.k.a. Fabiola has been asked to resign her position as Presenter (Be My Date). This, she has done and it takes immediate effect. The reason emanates from her nude pictures that have been doing the rounds on the social media circuit.

Those in the habit of engaging or those contemplating in doing the same are strongly advised to think thrice of its repercussions. This tarnishes our brand image and values; a foundation on which we are built and respected….

Now, I understand that NTV feels very highly about its brand/ image. However this totally took me by surprise. Is NTV implying that this TV host wanted her nude photos to leak?

Nude photo leaks are becoming a common occurrence in Uganda and the media (especially tabloids) are making a good cut off the leaks. We can blame social media and the lunatics who make it their business to share leaked nude photos wide but the real problem lies with the responsibility and role of the media. As it is, our local tabloids do not have the etiquette to refrain from publishing the photos but what are other media houses doing about it – especially when one of their own is a victim?

The answer lies in the email NTV sent to the staff, a precise warning. Once your nude photos leak, show yourself the door and never come back! Clearly NTV’s response to Fabiola’s incident is rather appalling. Absolutely zero pity, instead, she is being punished for a “crime” she did not commit. This reminds me of Lokodo, who often thinks that women go around leaking their nude photos and that victims of revenge porn “should be locked up and isolated”. Yes, I do not see a difference between Lokodo and NTV.

In the email above NTV claims that its protecting the “brand/ image” which is rather absurd because NTV seems to be mixing two things – private and professional life of the TV host. Who is the real victim here: the station’s brand or Fabiola (who is dealing with nude leaks and involuntary loss of a job)? I see NTV’s problem, the management probably thinks that the employees do not have a private life or if they do, they should be very careful what they do with it.

When corporate companies respond to these kinds of situations like this, I wonder whether they think about the implications of such decisions.

• For example, we now know how easy it is to end the career of any of NTV’s employees – leak their nude photos. How convenient or rather, absurd.
• November 2014, NTV invited one of the victims of nude leaks to a morning show to talk about her experience and how she was handling the public humiliation. You invited one victim to share her experience on TV and yet you are dismissing your own?  This makes me question NTV’s (social) responsibility claim.

The fact that NTV is willing to tell the story of one woman whose nude photos have leaked tells me one thing – that NTV does not mind talking about nude leaks victims on TV for selfish reasons (to make money for the station). Yet, when nude pictures of a station employee leak, that is the end of her story and job!

Bravo NTV Uganda, that is as selfish as you can get.

Meanwhile, some folks are demanding NTV to #BringBackFabiola on Twitter. Photo by Muhereza Kyamutetera ‏(@MKyamutetera)

How to make Chapati – a Ugandan delicacy

Chapati is a delicacy in Uganda. They look almost identical to “tortilla”. In fact, you can use chapati to make wraps! Its something you can have for breakfast, lunch or dinner – depending on how it is prepared and served. Chapati is also 100% vegan!

Chapatis can be categorized as fast food, snacks etc. You can buy then off the streets from the capital, Kampala to the border in Malaba.. Commonly served as “rolex” (when rolled with an omelet) or “kikomando” (when served with beans).

The recipe I am sharing is one I have used to make some of the most delicious chapati I have ever had.

Ingredients:
-All purpose flour,
-Onion,
-Carrot,
-Cold water,
-Salt,
-Cooking oil

The music is the background is timely because Christmas is here.. Celebrating Uganda’s finest musicians of all time – Philly Lutaaya.

You shared Luzinda’s nude photos? STOP FORWARDING VIOLENCE!

Desire Luzinda’s nude photos are making a wave on the internet – thanks to Ugandans who have made it their business to not only share the photos widely but also to ‘play Luzinda’ in the photos. What is rather appalling is the fact that many parents (or people) have made their children mimic these poses.

Desire is a really good singer. However, I had never imagined writing a blog about her. Her life, (turbulent as it is) is her personal business. Yet, seeing people go gaga over nude photos makes it my business to say a few things:

What have we learned about Ugandans who have gone gaga over those nude photos?

1. They are immoral people. We claim to be a country of high morality and yet our actions do not depict that so much. Seeing how much people are talking about Luzinda’s nude pictures in the past few days is proof that many Ugandans are always looking for an excuse to publicly share pornography.
2. They are violent people. Nude pictures leak all the time. But, the Nigerian man who leaked those photos wanted to humiliate Luzinda. When you make it your personal business to share those pictures publicly, you strip her of the (little) dignity (left).
3. They do not know the difference between what is cool and what is stupid. I have seen a bunch of men doing the so-called “luzfie” pose and shared photos on Facebook and Whatsapp – that is NOT cool, it is stupid.
4. They are shallow minded people with lots of time to kill. Someone has printed t-shirts with stick figures mimicking a pose in the nude pictures. While this is a business idea, its not appropriate. Use something more culturally appropriate, something that does not offend a woman!

What is rather more disappointing is the Minister, Lokodo who wants Desire Luzinda (who by the way is the victim) arrested over violation of the Anti-Pornography Act. This Minister who probably knows nothing about Facebook said “you can imagine how she exposed pictures on Facebook, she should be locked up and isolated” – Daily Monitor. Lokodo is not any different from those hooligans who blame a victim instead of helping them to solve the problem at hand (which to me is thousands of Ugandans: (a) exposing children to pornography,  (b) stripping a woman of her dignity).

I was against the Anti-Pornography Bill before it was enacted because some of the clauses are aimed at censoring the media and freedom of expression. However, now that it is a law, perhaps it should be used to punish the people who are sharing these nude pictures – starting with the man who leaked them. Hopefully the parents or adults who got children to mimic the nude poses will get a life sentence.

Apparently the Nigerian man who leaked the nude photos holds a Ugandan passport. I am not surprised that many Ugandans ignored the fact that many Ugandans struggle to get a Ugandan passport and yet many foreigners hold Ugandan passports.

I can only relate this hooliganism to sadists who undress women claiming that they are wearing “mini-skirts”. Just like those sadists, you don’t care about dignity of women, you just want to strip them naked and laugh about it.

Perhaps you are wondering why Desire agreed to take those photos if she did not want them shared publicly? Well, even someone who has never taken a nude picture would know that you don’t want it on Facebook and the only person who has the moral right to share it is you – no one else.

When you forward/ share a picture of a naked woman (or man) on the internet, you are forwarding violence. Violence against women is not cool, it is a crime! Stop forwarding the violence.

We have a homosexuality situation – the law should solve that; and HIV? That too!

The HIV Prevention and Management Law is a double-edged sword that threatens to impair Uganda’s positive progress in reducing HIV (over the decades) and to play into the hands of those who seek to stigmatize people living with HIV.

I have never been more disappointed in the parliament of Uganda. Some people say that being an MP is the lowest job – NOT in terms of pay, in terms of work done and results.

Parliament has become a house where political interests are fronted and these parliamentarians forget that they represent the people, and that they legislate for the people.

When the anti-homosexuality bill was presented before parliament, politicians said that it as a foreign-induced problem or a habit influenced by the western culture. Once this had been established, the solution to homosexuality became very simple – crimininalize it and that will be the last we hear of homosexuality.

As far as I know, homosexuality has been around (Uganda) for decades, perhaps centuries. In Uganda, homosexuality has been highly pronounced in prisons, single sex schools and very recently in churches. Of course the prison wardens, teachers and religious leaders have always disregarded these allegations – claiming that they are unfounded rumors aimed at tarnishing their reputation.

In fact, we have even seen more bizarre occurrences in different parts of Uganda – men having sex with cows, donkeys, and goats – thanks to the restless media!

Last year, a very prominent priest, Fr. Musaala wrote an open letter to the Catholic church. In his letter, he noted that homosexuality (or call it men having sex with men/ boys) was on the rise among priests and that perhaps its time to consider allowing Reverend Fathers to lawfully get married. He also noted that many Catholic priests were indulging in fornication.

I must say that I was very disappointed in the Catholic Church’s reaction to this letter – they threatened, harassed, censored and even dismissed Fr. Musaala. Why? Catholics are Christians. Christians listen, forgive and try to solve problems – they do NOT run away from problems. At least that’s what the Bible says.

Now, I am literally a Catholic because my father is a member of that Church. So, spare me your Reverend Fathers are NOT allowed to marry and they know it, they took oath, extra – because I already know it.

What I don’t know is why Christians choose to be so heartless.

But, that is NOT the real story. The real story is, many Ugandans have failed to understand the difference between culture and conservativeness.

When we claim that homosexuality is induced by the west and we hurriedly introduce a law to criminalize it, we are being conservative.

We should be mature enough to understand that criminalizing behaviour does NOT solve the problem but drives behaviour underground. We can NOT look at the law as a silver/ even gold bullet to solve even the smallest of our challenges or “problems”.

This afternoon, Parliament of Uganda passed the contentious HIV Prevention and Management Bill. This law criminalizes attempted (clause 39) and intentional transmission (clause 41) of HIV among other things.

The HIV Prevention and Management Law is a double-edged sword that threatens to impair Uganda’s positive progress in reducing HIV (over the decades) and to play into the hands of those who seek to stigmatize people living with HIV.

I totally understand that the HIV challenge has been a round for decades and that HIV is one of the leading killer diseases in Uganda and the African continent at large. Question remains, given what we (Ugandans) know about HIV, why is the prevalence still very high in Uganda?

HIV prevalence (estimated at 7.3%) remains very high in fishing villages, among the youth and interesting among married couples in Uganda. This is a behaviour issue. I probably dont have to iterate that majority of the people who transmit HIV are not aware of their own status and the same applies to those who get infected.

May I remind you that only 35% of Ugandans know their HIV status! With the HIV law in place, we are likely to see reduction in number of people who voluntarily take the HIV test.

Technical experts rejected the contentious clauses in the HIV Bill since 2010 and warned the Members of Parliament that if this bill is passed, it will have dire consequences on the HIV struggle. Experts from Uganda AIDS Commission, Ministry of Health and other prominent Ugandan scientists/researchers proved their arguments to the members of parliament.

A public health expert speaking to MPs and key stakeholders during a dialogue meeting on HIV Bill

I attended a bunch of meetings where MPs interfaced with these experts and dozens of members of parliament understood consequences of such a law. In fact, some of these MPs were against this legislation. This afternoon the MPs decided to ignore the evidence and guidance from public health experts and key stakeholders.

Passing of this law proves the notion that – the lowest job in Uganda is being a Member of Parliament. What are we (Ugandans) going to do about this? Are we going to allow  these “no-brainers” to determine the fate of our country?

You might also want to read:

HIV bill: here’s what constitutes a crime

Did President Museveni sign the Anti-Homosexuality Bill for “mercenary reasons”?

Over the past few weeks President Museveni has made headlines in both local and international news to the extent that he attracted the attention of President Obama, which ended into a mini-cold-war of a sort.

Even though Museveni agrees that he knows (so) little about (the cause of) homosexuality, he puts it very bluntly that homosexuals are NOT normal, that homosexuality is a product of the western culture and that it has no place in Africa. Well, this is an opinion that many Ugandans (or should I say Africans) share.

After a long contentious debate, President Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill into law yesterday. The President made it clear that he wanted the whole world to witness this; most of the world’s popular media houses witnessed the occasion.

The international community has expressed its disappointment in Museveni and Uganda in general. In fact a number of countries have threatened to cut aid to the Uganda government.

“The United States is deeply disappointed in the enactment of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement. “This is a tragic day for Uganda and for all who care about the cause of human rights. Ultimately, the only answer is repeal of this law. Via Aljazeera

Some people say that Museveni only signed the bill because “Obama dared him”. Obama warns Uganda over anti-gay law – Reuters.

Museveni responded to Obama with no kind words. “Countries and Societies should relate with each other on the basis of mutual respect and independence in decision making,” Museveni said in a statement. – New Vision

Apparently, Museveni wanted to put the leaders of the west in their place, to show them that they don’t have power or control over sovereign African states.

But what would have happened if Obama had NOT “dared” Museveni? Maybe things would have turn out differently? I don’t think so. I am sure that Museveni has been looking for an opportune moment to hit the west where it hurts most – to show them that he is the ONLY person who has power and control over Uganda.  This is why he wanted the signing of the bill to be covered widely.

And this is where I suspect that there is more to the signing of the Anti-Gay Bill than meets the eyes. It’s not just about “our culture” or homosexuality, it is about power, control and ego.

A friend of mine wrote on Facebook “Obama was only 24 years when Museveni came to power. How can he caution him?”

Why are African Presidents feeling threatened?

Over the past few months we have seen African leaders ganging up against their counterparts in the west – saying that the west is remotely controlling Africa. That African Presidents are being still overlooked and treated unfairly. A key example is the recent trial of President Uhuru Kenyatta at International Criminal Court (ICC).

African leaders reached a compromise – to boycott the ICC. The leaders agreed that African problems should be solved by Africans. Since then, African Presidents have upped their hostility towards the ICC and leaders from the west.

President Museveni is one of the political “giants” on the African continent – not because he has been in power for almost 3 decades – no! Because, over those years he has proven to be an asset to other leaders (or rulers like some people prefer to call him) of his caliber. Hence he is deeply respected in those circles.

Personally, I have this feeling that African Presidents are secretly executing a project – the “Anti-West Influence/ Control” project. And they are always looking for an opportunity to rub it in the faces of leaders like President Obama.

Therefore wonder whether Museveni might have signed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill for “mercenary” reasons.

1. Did President Museveni sign the bill to “mark his territory”? There has been increasing speculation in Uganda that if anyone is to save Ugandans from Museveni’s regime, it will come at the might of Obama (administration). Today, Museveni is trying to demystify such speculations.
2. Museveni has also made it clear that he is going to contest in the 2016 Presidential elections and he knew that by enacting this law, he would win the hearts of many Ugandans who share his opinions on issues of homosexuality. He is basically hitting two birds with the same stone.

After all has been said and done, many LGBTI rights activists still have hope that this law can still be nullified through the court. But the question remains, what’s Museveni’s agenda (if he has any)?

“The nurse who injected a child with HIV blood”: Media propaganda in Uganda

You have probably seen or heard the story of “the nurse who injected a child with blood”. Yes? Well the nurse’s name is Namubiru. I saw this story on NTV Akawungeezi – the Luganda version at seven in the evening. See the video clip below.

My first reaction was irritation and deep inside I was wondering, how could a nurse who is over 50 (judging from her looks) be so heartless? At the same time I was reflecting on a post I wrote on the recent World AIDS Day – Are we “Getting to Zero”?: The HIV/AIDS blame game in Uganda.

This story really bothered me, the thought that a nurse could do such (to a child), made me sick in the stomach. Since then, I have followed the developments on this story. Once in a while I could catch a news byte to update myself on the case.

As I continued to follow the story I learned that there were actually two different narratives and both of them were victimizing the nurse. One said that “the nurse used the same syringe she had used on her self to give a child a shot yet she was aware that she is HIV positive” while the other said that “the nurse had injected the child with HIV positive blood”.

Mid last week I was listening to Sanyu FM’s news and the nurse’s case was mentioned again “the trial of the HIV positive nurse who injected a child with blood is set for Friday this week….. After the incident, the child was tested and found HIV positive yet the parents of the child are both HIV negative..”

The other day I met some people who are following this nurse’s case. They mentioned that they were from court and that the nurse had been denied bail. They asked whether I knew anything about that case.

I told them what I knew – basically the narrative that the media was spreading wildly; that the nurse injected a child with blood and infected her with HIV. Little did I know that this was far from the truth.

This is how I learned the other story, one that is not known to many. According to the people who have interacted with the nurse and the parents of the child, the nurse did not actually inject the child with blood.

What happened is that the child was on treatment and this nurse was supposed to administer a shot. Of course the nurse had a syringe in her hand. But we all know how much children fear pricking. So the child tried to resist and in the process the nurse pricked her (index) finger.

The mistake the nurse did is going ahead to use the syringe that had pricked her on the child – why she didn’t do this, you and I will probably never know but she (the nurse) insists that she didn’t have any ill intentions against the child.

The other thing I learned is, even though the nurse is HIV positive, apparently the child has been tested for HIV at least twice since the incident and she has tested negative on both occasions. If this is true, why does the Urban TV report – “Baby infected with HIV“?

What does this kind of reporting mean for the child in question. If the child is HIV negative, how will the narrative be reversed? Of course normally the media will rush into reporting without thinking about the damage this could cause to this child, her family or even the nurse who now seems to be a public enemy.

The media has succeeded in telling us just what we want to hear. Human nature is characterized with complaining, victimizing and well, hypocrisy; the media uses those same characteristics to tell us a story that we can identify with, a story that will win our hearts. The New Vision picture below shows a picture of the nurse, Namubiru looking terrified.

Once the media has set the ground with all their propaganda, the nurse story becomes of no relevance, even if she tells her story, how many people will be interested in listening to it? And this is where the danger of a single story comes in.

In the end, media houses have nothing to lose. People enjoy reading these unbalance because they are easier to understand and easy for the journalists to compile in a short time.

Here are some of the headlines from some of the most popular media houses in Uganda.

Nurse Who Injected Child With HIV Blood Denied Bail – Red Pepper

Woman arrested for injecting baby with HIV infected blood – New Vision

How a nurse injected baby with HIV blood – The Observer

Baby infected with HIV – Urban TV

Lack of professionalism  or Ignorance?

When I see stories like this in the media only one thing comes to my mind – that after many decades of reporting on HIV/AIDS, journalists and editors have learned nothing, nothing at all. Many journalists have failed to understand that they have a role to play in the fight against HIV/AIDS and that their role is not to spread the gospel of discrimination but to educate people through telling true and balanced stories.

“Our health reporting is really lacking, we need training to help us understand those scientific terms and jargon language….” I have seen journalists front this excuse on several occasions. Well, I am NOT buying that no more! We are talking about the basics here, if you cant tell a simple story as it is, without fabricating the facts, am afraid even training on health reporting won’t benefit you much.

When I look at how the media has portrayed this nurse’s story, I feel hopeless. I learned that this nurse has a daughter. With this kind of reporting, the nurse becomes a public enemy even before the public knows verdict.

However, I still have faith that when the media and journalism is dies (if its not dead already), there are still people who are willing to tell and hear the balanced story, not to victimize or discriminate but to seek justice and make the world a better place.