Visit by Drake University

We have a collaboration with Drake university and every year we staff and students of Drake coming over to Uganda for a study visit as part of their internationalization program. This year, we are marking ten years of the collaboration. I normally host the group for lunch at my residence in Entebbe, however, on this occasion, it so happens that I had a program in Iganga and I requested they were visiting the source of the Nile; I therefore requested that instead of rushing through the traffic back to Kampala and back to Entebbe, why not have lunch at Iganga in our ancestral home. 

It so happened that there was an ongoing activity in our family compound and at the same time, we are hosting a group of Aiesec interns. Weekends are also occasions for the women group under the Balunywa foundation to meet. So we invited all these group to have lunch with the Drake people. It was an exciting afternoon.

Led by their PROVOST, Prof. Sue Mattison, the team arrived at 2PM and in his characteristic way, Ronald Kamweya aka Tush welcomed them and made them comfortable. We were had short reports from different people, the YPMA group, the Aiesec group, the women group and we were entertained by the +256 rappers.

After lunch, the group inspected the ongoing maternity project in memory of the Late Hajat Azena Kitimbo Balunywa and also planted some trees on the hospital project site. The closing function involved watching the maverick Jurncture walk his wire and YPMA offered cake that was distributed among the local community who attended the function.

There were some defining moments as the PROVOST went down in the Kisoga culture to greet old women in the home. The Drake international program has full meaning when somebody of that stature in the Drake hierarchy appreciates a culture and practices it as part of building the good will.

YPMA visits Nyendha hills

The Young Professional Managers Association (YPMA) brings together managers to fast track their management careers. Normally they have retreats to reflect on their activities and also take time off to have fun. They play games and visit possible tourist sites. They're in Iganga now.

Yesterday they visited the Nyendha hills on Iganga Mayuge road. Several years back on their programme when they were to visit this place, they were told they would be going to climb a mountain. There were some Bakiga in the group and when they got there, they complained that they had only seen a big anthill. They reconed that there is no mountain in Busoga. The Bakiga wake up every morning and they go up to dig. After that they go down to fetch water and it is therefore understandable when they don't see the mountains in Iganga.

Nyendha hills is one of the cultural sites of one of the major clans in Busoga. It is associated with Abaise-igaga in their traditional home called Busambira. The clan leader is Kisambira. Climbing the hill, there are three places of interest. Two of them for spiritual affairs. People go there to pray, asking their gods to solve problems for them. The third is the Karuhangas grave, the prince who came from Bunyoro and is believed to have been there and died while visiting the clan. This is one of Busoga's sites but little attention has been paid to to it

The Buveera (polythene bags) Nightmare in Uganda

As the year begins, one of the things on my thoughts is the challenge of plastic bags (buveera) mainly the polythene bags used for packing. Economic development has brought in its wake numerous challenges including global warming with its numerous consequences. A major challenge the world has faced as a result of the industrial development has been the disposal of industrial waste. This is coupled with the actual usage of resources. Today, the world is talking about sustainable development, can we use our resources in such a way that they can be sustained and used in generations? Unfortunately, this does not appear to be so. Developing countries are busy polluting the air. China and the USA are possibly the biggest culprits but the world is talking about it and putting measures to address it. Today there are challenges of air pollution, deforestation, desertification all emerging from industrial development. For the developing countries, while we sign up to international agreements on some of these issues very little translates onto the ground. The issue of polythene bags is one such. The challenge is growing uncontrollably mainly resulting from packaging of goods that we buy from commercial enterprises. Growing up, packaging of goods was mainly in paper bags, this was until business invented the plastic bag but the cost of the plastic bag to the earth is phenomenal. 

It is said that over 100 million tonnes of plastics have entered the oceans! There are also reports that in every square mile of the ocean worldwide, there are approximately one million pieces of plastic debris! Over two million birds and animals die every year due to eating of polythene bags or as a result of chocking. Plastic is choking rivers, tunnels and other water ways. In our poor countries, the tragedy has already happened but it is yet to show its ugly head. The consequences of the plastic bag and there disposal has already damaged most of our society. Some countries that have been wise have banned the usage of high density polythene bags. These include China, India, Bangladesh and Rwanda among others. Uganda’s attempt to ban these plastics was defeated by lobbyists, corruption and weaknesses in implementing the law. In some other countries especially developed countries, they have imposed a surcharge on usage of plastics but because they are more aware of the problem these cause, the disposal methods are strictly enforced. 

Uganda has a major challenge, every town, slum, trading centre is filled with debris of polythene bags. Of course we don’t have records of who has died as a result of swallowing or misusing of these bags. This includes animals and bats but definitely they exist. It is possible some people have died as a result of these two. As a country, we are very good at making policy but very poor at implementing it. There are very many things that we know we should not do but we ignore and do them. People will not get out of forests yet they know it is important to have forest cover to avoid problems of climate change. The plastic bag challenge is one of those things we must address. As a poor country, we cannot afford the costs associated with the hazards that poor disposal of plastic bags cause. We need to have sustainable economic development. We should take care of our forests, wetlands, lakes and rivers. We should sensitize our children in schools about the hazards of deforestation, desertification and global warming among other challenges. But most important, we should sensitize children in schools about disposal of plastic bags. It is a menace and a nightmare. I hope that the 10th Parliament will also take this matter seriously.