CAPA Experience

The Commonwealth of Association and Polytechnics in Africa (CAPA) closed its June conference in Mombasa yesterday and the closing ceremony was addressed by Dr. Manu Chandria. One of East Africa’s leading entrepreneurs. Dr. Chandria is a polished well educated and highly entrepreneurial person. I hate to use the word wealth but indeed he is one of the wealthiest persons in the region and he features in the forbes list of wealthy people in Africa. I hate to use the word wealthy because it includes those who may have simply grabbed money from somewhere and put it onto their accounts. I want to make a distinction by referring to him as an industrialist. While being introduced among the things that were said about him was that he has been on the Nairobi University Council for a long time and he is also the Chancellor of a technical university of Kenya. He is the Chairman and CEO of the Comcraft group of companies. A company with a presence in over 40 countries. He has a Masters degree in engineering from the University of Oklahoma.

Dr. Chandria who was in the company of his wife talked off the cuff, he had no prepared speech. He addressed the issue of Africa’s development. He said, Africa had the responsibility for its development.no foreign inspired solution would solve Africa’s problems. Africa must work and not wait for donations. And he further said that one of the hindrances of Africa’s development was a vision of people based on religion, tribe and colour. Development was not based on religion or tribe and noted that this was one of the challenges Africa was experiencing and a hindrance to Africa’s economic growth. Having grown up in the East African region with one currency, he had noted with sadness the disintegration of the East African community which he said was a result of people’s egos. He urged the audience to out their egos in their pockets if they want to see development in their countries. Dr. Chandria who owns a vocational institution said Africa will not develop unless it also put emphasis on the development of vocational institutions. 

CAPA brings together technical and vocational universities and institutions in Africa sadly Uganda has no strong presence. It is only MUBS that participates taking to the group the entrepreneurship otherwise it is a crowd with mostly technical and vocational institutions. Uganda aspires to industrialize but does not have the key human resource. This is because joining a TVET is a punishment or a reward for failure. It is only those who fail to make in the academic mainstream that go to TVETs. So TVETs admit dropouts as a result very few people want to go there. Secondly the admission requirement into these institutions are similar to those of the universities so why do you go to TVET when you can go to a university. People end up there either because they are government sponsored or because they do not have the money to pay for a university degree. The consequence of this is low the registrations in the TVETs. It is also true to a greater extent that the conversion of Uganda Polytechnic into part of Kyambogo University killed TVETs in the country. Britain converted its TVETs into universities in the 1980s. This followed the de-industrialization of Britain in the 1980s. As factories moved to Asia and Britain turned into a services and financial hub, there was no more need of training of technicians in large numbers. Germany which retained industries and continues to be the world’s industrial power continued to have TVETs. Many African countries have converted TVETs into universities. Some have succeeded others have failed in their objectives of doing so. Kenya converted its biggest TVETs, the Nairobi Polytechnic and the Mombasa Polytechnic into the technical university of Kenya and technical university of Mombasa respectively. Listening to the Vice Chancellor of the Technical University of Kenya Prof. Adwol you can see clearly that there are clear about their mission, the production of technologies rather than simply university graduates without purpose. The figures of Uganda are disheartening. The number of students in TVETs in Uganda is approximately 70,000. When the number of students in universities is over 200,000. It should be the other way round. For every graduate we need, 3 to 6 technicians and/or technologists. The second revolution in education and preparing for industrialization in Uganda will depend on how we are able to do that.

Whenever we return from these CAPA conferences, we appeal to government to style its TVETs policy but this is a seed that possibly lands on the hard rock. Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa have organized TVETs so well that they are indeed on the right path to industrialization. No wonder they already have some semblance of industries in their countries. Uganda needs to overhaul its TVETs structures if it is to even attempt to catch up with its sister countries on industrialization. Dr. Chandria owning a TVET institution and one of the region’s biggest industrialist sends a message on his understanding of what industrialization requires. One of the interesting things about Manu is his simplicity, approachability and an unassuming character and a man who carries his ego in his pocket. There are lessons to pick from this great industrialist.

THE MILLION DOLLAR PICTURE.

 A picture with one of Kenyans leading Entrepreneurs, businessmen.one of the 20 Forbes magazine Africa's wealthiest people. I don't want to use the word wealth but rather a person who has come out with the largest business ideas to solve society's problems in Kenya. Dr Manu Chandaria.reading about him in 1981 I meet the humble Manu years later. Picture at PrideInn paradise Hotel Mombasa. Dr Chandaria is here to close the CAPA 2016 MOMBASA Conference. Great day for me

MUBS staff in eLearning training

MUBS has over the years been implementing effort as part of its strategy to increase access to education and reduce costs. The Africa Development Bank extended funds to government of Uganda to support improvement in high education with emphasis on science and technology. All the 8 public universities including the degree awarding institutions have benefitted from this. MUBS has received a building for computer science and a smaller one for business incubator. ADB has also funded a variety of other programmes including gender mainstreaming, people with disabilities, activates and eLearning among others.

MUBS eLearning Centre conducted a five day training at the Jinja Ci’sand hotel. Each academic department in MUBS has an elearning champion and one other person was nominated to attend the eContent development training workshop. The training was intense and staff felt they were ready to go but it requires management to ensure that the facilitating conditions are in place. The training was intended to be in three groups of 12 people however the groups were combined. The training of the three groups were combined together to be able to get the necessary synergy among those who had some knowledge with those who did not. In the past, the Commonwealth of Learning has supported the MUBS eLearning programmes. The developing countries have challenges that while the developed world has already adopted the facilitating condition for eLearning are poor in many developing countries including Uganda. 

Not many Ugandans have computers and if they do, internet may not be available. For some even if it is available, they cannot afford it. There is also the electricity challenge. While some people may have the computers, the knowledge and the internet he or she may not have electricity or it may not be stable. In Uganda, access to electricity is limited to 20% of the population. With 80% of the population in rural areas even knowing about computers or elearning is a major issue. With this in mind, MUBS will proceed with caution on how it will implement its elearning strategy.

My Response to Media

If you are a public servant, the day you appear in the newspapers for the wrong reason is the day you know you have become possibly famous and important. There are thousands of people but they do not show up in the newspapers unless if they have done something stunning. The press acts as a media to inform the public and very importantly acts as a watch dog for the public. As society starts recognizing you, they start keeping a tab on you. As an important person in society, you have to be accountable for your actions and if you are not the press will tell the public so. But at times the press can also just take you down for no good reason. In most cases, malice or those who want to pull you down. It is not new it is only natural as human beings we are envious. It can be positive, it can be negative. Positive envy results into an individual aspiring to be like that person he envies. They are motivated. Negative envy however is that which wants to pull you down. People want to be like them or worse than them. Whenever I did something good, you have a small print about it in the paper. Good things do not make news anyway. Allegations or something really bad will attract all the space the newspapers require. If there is a detractor pushing it and paying money to those who publish. 

More than a year back as they renewed my contract as Principal of MUBS, detractors went to the press and made allegations about me which made headlines. We almost lost Norwegian funding for our PhD programme because of the allegations. This was followed by court cases including a criminal one which was thrown out. I have been sued so many times over these “what I call stupid allegations”. I say so because the haters who used them knew they were stupid but that was not the point. They wanted to create an impression in the public that this angel you see is actually a devil.

These allegations attracted the IGG and made investigations within them. The IGG has dismissed these allegations. However, on one count they have requested me to refund the money. This is money that my colleagues felt due to my contribution to the School they would support a heart operation of my mother in India. The IGG investigated this case and in the report It is said that some of the people who were in the meeting the Chair of that meeting denied having extended this facility to me. It is amazing but that is human nature, several of the senior colleagues denied having agreed to this. I was not in that meeting. Those who recall the meeting are shocked by what our colleagues said to the IGG. Before you get to my age, you never know that human nature is treacherous. So the IGG requests that I pay back this money. The IGG’s office has done it role. I appreciate it and thank it. They have only been fair. The last time the IGG wrote a report about me it had falsifications in it. I challenged it in court and I had it set aside. Public office is not easy. What is interesting this time round is that I found the colleagues who leaked this IGG report to the press. You will be amazed when you know who did it, how they did it and why they did it. The current story appeared in the Monitor today has also been leaked and it is not surprising. I expected it and from the newspaper article and the details from the school Council meeting is not surprising.

The press can be unforgiving if they are driven by detractors who want to get even with you. Hardly a week back, the name Balunywa and MUBS was in the press. Again for negative reasons, this particular article appearing in the sun reflected on how people can stoop so low to go towards destroying an individual. The Sun report talked about Balunywa of MUBS. For those who read the story, they wondered why it was written. For those who did not read the story but saw the headline wondered what was wrong with this Balunywa of MUBS and wondered why he was doing this. The Sun was talking about one Yusuf Waiswa a lecturer in MUBS and fabricated some story about him. They were told this person was associated with Balunywa and this story could be used to get at Balunywa. Indeed they got to me because I was embarrassed by it. Guess who provided this information? A senior colleague in MUBS. Watch out for the people you sit on the same table with, they stab you in back! I think The Sun newspaper owed me an apology but when you come to know what they were pursuing, you do not even have to ask for the apology. YOU CAN NEVER WIN A PRESS WAR. SO DO NOT START ONE OR GET INVOLVED IN ONE. When they drag you into it, keep out of it. If you were in the wrong, apologize and move on. Nobody is an angel, we all make mistakes. However those of us in public office have more obligations to provide the necessary leadership to the public. I think the press needs to be more professional in their job. They have an obligation to investigate and report facts. Our leaders in our various capacities get there because of one reason or the other. They need to be protected rather than destroyed especially if the investigations reveals that there is no case but they should not take pleasure in discrediting people who have taken their time to serve the country. 

The famous primarily artists are more prone to primarily scandal but let all those in the government key jobs be aware anytime you will be a target. I thank those who have found me fitting to be written about because they value the small contribution I have made to the country and I detest those who use the mistakes we committed if at all to demonize us. Fortunately, there is the good news. The world is changing and the press especially for those with internet is losing its values. I can also post this on facebook and I am able to tell my story. I dare the Daily Monitor newspaper to publish it so that other people can hear my views. The journalists who are taking the money have their days numbered because they no longer have the monopoly of reporting. I have seen the reaction on the monitor story