Travel to Zambia

I traveled to Zambia on these weird 5:00am flights through Nairobi. I hate that flight because you do not sleep if you have something to clear in the evening before you travel. I have been to Lusaka twice, this is my third time .Zambians are quite different thanks to the times of Kaunda. My impressions of Zambia have always been that they are very organized. 

As a poor country you see order, not the chaos that is spread throughout Uganda as a result of our land ownership system and its respect for law. In Uganda, everybody wakes up in the morning, builds a house without a plan and makes it face anywhere. The next day another person will build and will have his pit latrine next to your sitting room. Even in kololo today developers would use all the space in the plot just to maximize the space they own and in the process the residential area in the country has turned into a real income housing marketing. Of course it still has it name but the glamour is gone. The problem is enforcement of laws. We have very many good laws on the books but few are implemented. Uganda’s ranking as an investment country is agley affected by the inability of the country to enforce laws. What strikes you in Zambia, Lusaka is the fact that people should abide by the laws. If you drive in Uganda our crazy driving techniques do not work in Lusaka. There is respect for one another on the road; there is respect of those who have the right of the way. The bad driving doesn’t work in Lusaka they are decent guys. One of the striking features of Lusaka is the planning of roads unlike our chaotic Kampala. While there is no much glamour of wealth, the city is well planned, it has more wide roads than Kampala, and where the roads are not constructed, the plan for them is there. 

In Uganda we have lost opportunities to plan wide roads and yet we had it. Look at the Entebbe Kampala highway most of the built-up area on this road, wouldn’t exist if we had planned 20 years back. Well that opportunity is gone. We have to live in a chaotic city and the narrow roads. But probably one the of the most important things Zambia has had is to have organized grave yards both in town and in rural areas. They don’t bury people on small plots of land. Every body goes to the grave yard. The more wealthy people go to a place where they charge you more rather than scatter everywhere in the country. Uganda needs to think about this.

Kenya Moves Ahead..

The development of the community goes with the development of infrastructure and of course the people. If we are looking ahead, East Africa must develop common infrastructure. I have said in column that it is the Kenyan business people who are driving the community. It is not surprising that Kenya is growing alone on the broad gauge railway. The article below will give you the details...

Kenya, China quietly strike deal on modern railway line

Kenya has turned to China to fund the building of a new standard gauge railway line between Mombasa and Nairobi, potentially upsetting current infrastructure arrangements with its neighbors.

The railway line, which is to be built according to Chinese railway design standards, will carry freight trains at speeds of up to 80 kilometres per hour, and passenger trains at up to 120 kilometres per hour.

It will be completed in five years, with the cost of the track alone estimated at a massive $2.6 billion.

Away from the limelight, the Chinese construction company — China Roads and Bridges Company — has already signed a commercial contract with the Kenya Railways Corporation, under an arrangement that commits the state-owned company to deal only with the Chinese company.

Naturally, Uganda — one of the biggest users of the Mombasa Port — as well as Rwanda and Burundi, will be following the dealings between China and Kenya closely.

The viability of the new standard gauge railway is based on the assumption that it will be part of a seamless system connecting Kenya and Uganda, and also serving landlocked Rwanda and Burundi.

The new deal will have far-reaching implications for the existing concession agreed to with Rift Valley Railway in both Uganda and Kenya.

Under the current agreement, RVR’s interests are guaranteed by clauses that stipulate that the governments of Kenya and Uganda cannot — during the tenure of the concession — introduce changes that jeopardize RVR’s profitability.

The new plan is that the Chinese-built railway will be operated under an arrangement known as “open access,” where multiple operators will be allowed to operate freight businesses on the standard gauge railway system in competition with RVR.

Kenya and Uganda could find themselves in court battling it out with RVR over access to the new railway line.

Kenya has stepped up diplomatic activity to include Uganda in its dealings with the Chinese and secure support for the new railway. Two weeks ago, the two countries negotiated a new bilateral deal on the standard gauge railway system.

Alternative routes

Meanwhile, Tanzania and Uganda have been seeking to expedite the construction of Tanga-Musoma railway line through the Central corridor in Tanzania to link Tanga and Dar es Salaam ports.

Since Kenya’s 2007-08 post-election violence, Uganda has been trying to open a reliable southern route to the coast, to avoid the recurrence of the damage to the Uganda economy witnessed then. Kenya, the EAC partner state that is Uganda’s main transit route, goes to the polls next year.

Tanzania already has sections of its railway on the broad gauge Uganda appears to be left out in the cold. Read the article below...

Tanzania and Zambia are set to complete 12 new projects worth $42 million after securing funding from China under their joint railway, Tazara.

Officials from the two countries said the funding under the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (Tazara) gives the firm the financial muscle to execute the projects agreed in March by China, Tanzania and Zambia under the 15th Economic and Technical Co-operation Protocol.

Akashambatwa Mbikusita-Lewanika, managing director of Tazara, said the new projects include the rehabilitation of 42 passenger coaches and supply of four new main line locomotives, two shunting locomotives and rescue and lifting equipment.

More than rails

Other projects will address the supply of track trolleys, assorted spare parts and training of railway staff.

Tanzania and Zambia recently committed to providing funding to the struggling Uhuru Railway so that it can settle outstanding terminal and pension benefits for its workers.

The economic and technical support under the 15 protocols signed so far is what has kept Tazara going while awaiting for much needed recapitalisation, reconstruction and restructuring by the shareholding governments of Zambia and Tanzania.

Once fully executed, the projects are expected to greatly enhance Tazara’s capacity, doubling the number of locomotives in operation by the year 2015.

Currently there are, on average, only 10 main line locomotives available daily, for main line activities covering the entire 1,860km railway, stretching from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to New Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia.

“We need to ensure that Tazara is able to provide guaranteed service, acquire new engines and maintain existing ones” said Tanzania’s Minister for Transport Harrison Mwakyembe.

Tree Planting at Luzira prison

This afternoon (November 19, 2012) we launched a tree planting campaign in Luzira prison. We want to plant some 50 acres of trees if they are available in the next 3 years. This will include Eucalyptus, pine, fruits among other types of trees. This is part of our Corporate Social Responsibility. We are already running certificate and diploma programmes in Luzira prison. Tree planting is an additional effort. But what we found in prison was good news. The Uganda Prison Service has now turned from a place where people to be punished to a place where people go to be rehabilitated. I was pleasantly surprised by the Luzira women’s choir and the songs that they composed. It was a good experience. My other small shock was that the women inmates were said to have been committed to Luzira due to passion related crime and this has implications on conduct on people or most of those innocent looking young women had crossed a line. The world is an interesting place with all kinds of things happening, some of which we never think about

East African Community

I was recently requested to present a paper on “Challenges of the East African Community (EAC)” in a seminar which was subsequently postponed indefinitely. I remembered some papers I wrote in the 1990’s about the EAC and European community. On the EAC, I was lamenting about its collapse in the 1970s. On Europe, I wrote a paper in which I said “Europe would never unite politically”. The title was too proud to unite... Looking at the EAC, I think pride is a major issue. In 1977, it led to the collapse. Pride may be the reason the EAC may never work. We may integrate, whatever you may want to call it, but the process will be driven by business rather than politics. The alert businessmen will see the advantage of a politically encircled market but economically disintegrated would go ahead and take advantage of it.

The original EAC that was preceded by the East African Common Services Organization, developed organizations that served the region as a whole. This was a strong organization built by a common political unit, the colonial government. It did it very well till the countries became independent in the early 1960s. The community split in 1977. The split was due to two major factors.

1) Idi Amin and his filtration with politics claiming parts of Kenya, Tanzania which caused political conflicts and hence the need for a political divorce among the EAC.

2) Economic. Kenya the economic power house in the region found advantage in splitting the community as you know he took most of the assets, trains, planes and literally everything that moved. At that time Tanzania which was still experimenting with socialism did not have the economic muscle to stop Kenya.

The community is a good institution, it provides a wider market, it increases trade, and it can promote development. The East African countries saw this and revived it in the early 1990s. The new community has admitted Rwanda and Burundi besides the original Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. These countries naturally fit into the community since culturally there are lots of similarities and their economies are closely inter-related with those of EAC members. The new community is very ambitious. It has a four stage process including with a customs union, common market, monetary union and the political union. The first two are under implementation albeit with problems. The weaker countries and of course this is Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda are complaining about their inability to meet the requirement. There are lots of battles raging from the community about these aspects. The third stage is the monetary union. Having sat on the board of Bank of Uganda for some years, it was clear that this was an objective that will not be achieved in the short run. No country is ready yet to surrender its monetary policy to some unknown authority. Here we are talking about a common currency, a common central bank. Definitely none of the countries is ready and if you are to implement it now you would be handing over monetary policy to Kenya. By the way, it is not that the monetary policy management but Kenya is the biggest economy in the region. Like Germany in the European Union it will have a bigger step and say in shaping and controlling the monetary policy. If you look back, at one stage there was one common currency in the EAC however this was abandoned in 1966. This was a few years after the independence of these countries (Tanzania 1961, Uganda 1962 and Kenya 1963). Prior to that these countries were controlled by one common government, the British Colonial Government. A common currency was therefore possible and a common political dominion. It is not surprising, when the countries became sovereign; the common political interest went away. Whether monetary union can be achieved is questionable. It may only be possible if there is a political union first. This is because politics would unify policy, however political union is the most difficult to achieve because of the selfish economic interest of different business groups in different countries. Mark, not political but business groups.

Political union is most crucial if the community is to succeed and serve the interest it is intended to. But of course this assumes these are the right intentions. If we pursue the current objectives of the EAC, the results will primarily benefit selected businesses. It is crucial that the community political leaders will think the mission of the community and the strategies to achieve this mission. The role of government is to ensure highest level of living standards of the people. A political union among countries should also have similar objective. My contention is today, while the EAC may have the intent to achieve the objective of improving living standard of people in the community that is not what the current strategies are trying to do. A Political union that is evolved with the right mission would serve the purpose of transforming the lives of the people in the community. The revenues of the community would go towards government programmes intended to raise the standards of living of people in the region. There will be one government which would sit down and plan the development in the region and use resources for that purpose. Without political union a few companies in the EAC would take advantage of the big market for the benefit of the shareholders. Look at the benefits Uganda is getting out of the political reform in its neighboring countries. Uganda helped Rwanda, Congo, Southern Sudan, it is now in Somalia. It helped political stabilization of these places, unfortunately no economic benefits. Uganda has no company with the economic muscle and interest to be able to do business formally in these countries. Today Kenya Airways and its shareholders reap from the benefits in the stability of Rwanda, Burundi, Congo and I guess Somalia where Uganda has spent resources to create the political stability. Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) and many other Kenyan institutions are in these markets making a killing. Uganda has failed to capitalize on its military prowess to do business in the region. Who then is a primary beneficiary of a common market that has no common military objectives. It is primarily the business owners mainly Kenyan companies, the host government where the businesses are registered in this case, the Kenyan government it has nothing to do with the ordinary East Africans. For a common market to develop, Kenya would synchronize its infrastructure development plans with her neighbors.

The evidence is clear, the countries have signed the various agreements however there are no good results unfortunately. We are not enjoying full free movement of goods. See what is happening to Ugandan sugar, there is no free movement of capital or labour. Countries are protecting their local companies and local markets. The integration is yet to show up. The deadline is set and being frustrated by internal resistance of member states and lack of political will. There are road blocks in implementation. Rwanda appears to say that it will not be part of the single currency. The individual countries are doing more business with other countries outside the community. I do not think that our political leaders are on the same page. They are not about to deliver the political union.

MUBS Takes the Day

Listening to my young colleagues at the ORSEA conference, I felt a sense of satisfaction that the effort we were putting in research was working. They were brilliant presentations. One after the other, the MUBS staff made us proud. I must say thanks to Prof. Munene and Professor Ahianzu who rubbish bad presentations and force staff to do better. ORSEA is the Operations Research Society in East Africa and the membership is MUBS, the University Of Dar-es-salaam Business School and the University of Nairobi School of Business. It was founded 10 years ago to promote operation research studies in the region. This was the 8th conference and out of the 42 papers, MUBS had 20 of them.

Travelling out of the Country

This followed security fears after the Al-shabbab bomb attacks on the last day of the world cup in 2010. The Civil Aviation Authority made arrangements to have people lift luggage from the staircase of passenger who walked from the parking towards the departures on the terminal building. This is the first time it happened not finding a single soul to help with a luggage. I was able to lift the luggage and got to the top of the stairs sweating profusely as I crossed the road to go to the terminal building. Some vehicles passed me carrying non-Ugandan passengers who were going to check in like I was. Whenever I have gone to the airport, I have seen that the vehicles carrying visitors from Munyonyo Common Wealth Resort are allowed to drive up to the terminal building of course the other people are the VIPs. Do not ask me if I am a VIP. If I was, possibly I wouldn’t be writing this. Allowing these vehicles carrying international visitors is probably the biggest threat to the airport security. You know we tend to look at foreigners with respect than we do to fellow Ugandans. This is not only a problem of our unnecessary fear for foreigners but also a reflection of our lack of self-esteem. We continue to think other people are important than us. If we are to become independent, these are decisions we would rather not take. We should be proud Ugandans. There is nowhere in Uganda other than in Uganda that a Ugandan would ever be important. We are a long way from this. I know I am somebody because God doesn't make junk. I hope the security authorities could see this.

Barbara Kemigisa's Brave world living with HIV/AIDS

Barbara Kemigisa is an HIV positive young girl who has come to tell her story with a view of cautioning other young girls. Kemigisa has a sad story of parental neglect, peer group pressure and social influence. Barbara did not live with her parents and was sexually abused from the age of 6 by her uncles. Not knowing what was being done to her, she thought that this was ok and did not know its negative impact until when she was eleven. The challenge here was the absence of parents or bad parents in this case the uncles who took advantage of her. The consequence is that she admits she got sexually addicted. Her real father having got another family did not care much about her and she says that the whole family, father, step mother, step sisters and step brothers did not care about her. She resorted to social groups and took to drinking, smoking and as she says sleeping around with numerous sexual partners. The challenge here was lack of parental guidance or parental neglect. The consequence was social outcast and risky behaviors. Barbara says she left home and went on the streets. Out of frustration and feeling of rejection, the calls of this were again parental rejection and the consequence was creation of a street child. Barbara says she stayed on the streets for about a month and thereafter she was taken to a church which attempted to rehabilitate her. She went back home but still felt the rejection when she started falling sick. She felt nobody cared. This forced her into trying to live on her own but continuing her risky sexual behaviors. The consequence was a pregnancy and later on discovering she was HIV positive. Barbara’s inner beauty and inner social nature come out when she learns she is HIV positive. Barbara tells all men who approach her that she was HIV positive. She did not want to infect them. The different boys who wanted to have sexual relations with her respected her for coming out to tell them her status. She is going through difficult times but she has the following message to young people and parents To parents: All children whether produced accidently or out of wedlock, are children and they have no fault. Please look after them and most importantly give them parental love. To young people: Peer pressure is the most dangerous thing in your life. Do not do things because others do them. Do not smoke because others are smoking. It is not fashionable to have sex simply because others are having it. If you must have sex, use protective methods. If you become HIV positive, be open about it, you are not alone. Barbara has a three and half year old beautiful girl. She needs support to pursue a career in communication.

Floods at the Dam!!

I was returning from Jinja on Saturday night and I spent one and half hours at the roundabout from Jinja. The reason, the dam had flooded. What a shame! This is not the first time this is happening, I have heard it has happened before and i guess it will happen for many other times. The Owen Falls dam is famous for many things; 

1) Connecting the eastern part of the country to Kenya and to the rest of the country,

2) For generating electricity,

3) For the picturistic beauty the dam has created over the years and it’s now famous for the floods that prevent the bridge from serving its purpose or linking two pieces of land separated by the Nile River.

The River Nile particularly this place in the last 10 years been in the news for the right things and in some cases for the wrong things. It is said that the dam has been condemned and may not last for many years. It is reported that the Japanese have given Uganda money to build another dam. You know this is a typical Ugandan problem, you never have enough money to do anything. Sometime back, there was a decision to create a new dam to generate additional electricity. Before this decision, the dam used to have water that was gushed out the turbines and creating a foam like impression that amused children. Children used to think that this was soap from the river. That is long gone. There are also reports that this diversion was a mistake. Before this settled down, the Bujagali came to the table. The Bujagali was recently opened by President Museveni as part of the 50 years of independence in the country. Sitting in my car waiting for this long made me think of why countries like Uganda cannot develop as we want it to. If a bridge so important as the Jinja one flooded, in the developed countries, they would not rest until this has been fixed. I do not think anybody from the ministry of works has been to this bridge since it got this problem. Such is the nature of backwardness.

Busitema 3rd Graduation Ceremony

I attended the 3rd Busitema graduation ceremony. The Vice Chancellor Prof. Mary Okwakol is a very hardworking lady whom I knew from the time she was in Makerere. She moved from Makerere to Gulu University in the early 2000 as Deputy Vice Chancellor before moving to Busitema University. She has been there now for five years. What struck me as I approached the university was how big the campus was and I pitied myself as a Ugandan on how we plan and execute things. Busitema University was established when MUBS was demanding for independence. The members of parliament from eastern Uganda said the East must have a university before MUBS becomes a university. Before I proceed, I must mention that to date MUBS has been denied a university status purely on political grounds. Some people feel we are too abrasive as an organization and we do not deserve that status. The saying goes “you can never get what you deserve” if it was so MUBS would be a university but I rest that case.

The creation of Busitema University had several implications, good and bad. On the good side we have an additional university with its attendant benefits but I think that’s all I would say about Busitema. The dark side is we again cannibalized vocational / technical institutions to create an academic institution. We had earlier killed the National College of Business Studies, the Uganda polytechnic Kyambogo and ITEK. Vocational institutions create graduates with a get-up and go skills. Universities may not necessary have graduates with practical skills. Of course the exception has always been medicine, engineering and such similar courses. Busitema was an agricultural engineering institution donated by the then soviet Union to Uganda. It produced people with skills to do mechanized agriculture. I think Busitema is maintaining that though with difficulty. The second challenge is unplanned creation of an institution. Busitema took over existing institutions. Five years later on, the place is still in dilapidated buildings which, because of age and lack of maintenance, may not be ideal for the purposes intended. The third is Busitema University is supposed to have numerous campuses including Namasagali, Arapai among others. This poses a problem of Management. The managers in these campuses are now supposed to pay their due respect and obedience to the team at Busitema main campus. How practical this is, it is hard to speculate but it has challenges. It challenged us when MUBS was formed, taking over the National College of Business Studies. It has continued to dodge Kyambogo University, we do not know where that will end. As I left I kept on wondering when shall we sit down as a country and plan for the development of our institutions. In Kenya, if an institution wants to put up a new building, when you justify it they give you the money! Recently pictures were shown on TV of the washroom facilities in Kyambogo, they were not good pictures but a sign of lack of funds and probably how we use the funds. Busitema is a long way in terms of infrastructure to recovery later on to attaining an international competitive position but I trust Prof. Okwakol will do it if the conditions are right for it.

Red Pepper Allegations

Today’s red Pepper carried unfortunate allegations about my young brother Baker Balunywa and myself stating the numerous imaginary properties that I possess. As a Head of Institution every two year I make returns of my wealth to the IGG under the leadership code. Today’s pepper carried false stories about my young brother Balunywa and many untruths about me regarding my properties. One of the two properties photographed is mine (the Entebbe one). Those who know me closely know this is my dream house. It is a good house I must admit, full of good ideas with a very beautiful garden. If you have been to MUBS you will know what I am talking about. But I do not own a petrol station at all, I have no property where a Kenyan expatriate pays 1,500 dollars per month, I do not live in Kololo, I do not have monster vehicles. Those who know the MUBS Nissan vehicle will be embarrassed that I still drive that vehicle. I do not own any apartments, I have no state of Art in Ntinda “where I spend my Thursdays” I do not have a residence in Kawuku, I do not have farms in eastern Uganda except the one in Entebbe where I grow pineapples and pine trees. I have no commercial structure at all later on in the city centre. Yes I have a house in my village town in kasolo Iganga (I always joke with my friends that my village is the most industrialized village in Uganda because it has a steel rolling mill). I have no storeyed posh residence near Archbishop Nkoyoyo’s entertainment centre. My young brother Baker Balunywa was referred to as “the reclusive civil servant tycoon is stubbornly rich” yes he has a residence in Seeta but that is all. What comes to mind is that the revelations we have been looking at appear to be sham after all. I thought that my friends at the Red Pepper had started something good in terms of revealing what people owned with an intention of shaming those that were looting public funds but looking at what they have done makes me think twice. I was informed by my housekeepers at my Entebbe residence that somebody had come with a camera and taken pictures of the house from outside the fence and he ran away when approached by the people in the house. These people were travelling in a Toyota Premio, similar people were seen at my brothers residence in Bweyogerere and were reported to the police. Anybody who is interested in knowing my personal property, I file my returns to the IGG under the leadership code. I am a public servant who is controversial and cannot afford to make silly mistakes that would cost me my hard earned image. I earn reasonably well and I do not have the skeletons in the drawers that Red Pepper has made. I wish they would do more research. Otherwise I now look at what has been published with scorn. I want to tell my FB friends that it is possible to create wealth legitimately especially through buying and selling property. Please read the poor dad rich dad book, you will make money legitimately and you will not be ashamed of it. I have sent a personal message to my friend Rugyendo on his private facebook account. Please address this problem, we have talked about this before. Please do not destroy people’s careers with false information published against them.