Emigres Should Not Be Afraid Returning To Uganda.

By Arthur M. M. Katabalwa.

Yesterday I met up with a British man at one of the exclusive shopping malls in Uganda. He had contacted me through certain social media sites. We met up for a drink and he started telling me about what he was doing in the country. This man from Cornwall decided to move to Uganda six months ago to try out his luck in financial services management. I found it rather curious that here was a 25 year old Cornish man in Uganda, still dressed very much like one would expect a blue eyed business executive to be dressed on The Stand in London. Sharp suit and very clued on.

We had a chat and then to lighten up the mood, I shared my experiences with him about my travels in Cornwall, England. And we discovered that we both knew the same villages and towns. Even the rivers and the coves. I have stayed at a farm in Trelights and this man has spent a weekend at a hotel near this farm.

I asked him why he chose Uganda of all countries. And he told me it was due to the business opportunities here. Granted his expertise is looking after the finances of foreign residents in Uganda but he told me that Ugandans are also quickly having loads of investments outside and that was his main thrust in business. He also highlighted another major event; that at the moment, the number of Ugandans choosing to travel abroad compared to those returning will soon be less. And I agree with him.

When I returned to Uganda over a year ago, I found a country that has moved on way beyond what I had left nearly two decades ago. Thankfully I had been returning periodically but it is different to when you actually live here. Over the months I have been asked by many of my colleagues who still live abroad how I have managed to settle back so quickly. Even my friends in Uganda still ask if I am here to stay. A huge number of Ugandans abroad want to come back to Uganda but for so many reasons find that they are stuck in whichever country they are in. Well, here is my advice;

If one wants to come back to Uganda, put a date on your return which you cannot put off. Many people that I have spoken to when I have traveled back to the UK have no concrete dates. The excuse is that "We are still planning, saving enough money...." or something along those lines. If one is following that, more often than not that date will never arrive.

I once called a number of friends in Uganda while I was in the UK looking for some form of work. Peter Kasedde a businessman  and a very close friend of mine said that he would only look at offering me a job if I was in the country. I was mistakenly thinking that if I rang a few numbers and said that I had this particular kind of experience and I was calling from the UK they would jump at the chance. I am Managing a Media company in Uganda now and if I got such a call I would think one is being rather pretentious.

I have had another friend of mine berating me to get him a job before he moved to Uganda I said that the best bet is when one is on terra firma. He could not understand why I, a Ugandan, was not offering him a job on the plate after all he was calling from New York City with impeccable qualifications. I was frank with him. I said things didn't work like that. You have to be in Uganda.

Some returnees make a mistake of thinking that they will come and recreate the conditions that they have left in whichever countries they live in here. I was again having a conversation with a man who wanted to relocate from London back to Kampala and he was complaining that the city had no pavements and no National Health Service (NHS). I nearly slapped him. When one is returning to Uganda, leave the UK at Heathrow. Leave the US at JFK. Leave Japan at Sapporo airport. Come back to Uganda and know that this is another country.

I have also been the victim of translating my expenditure in British Pounds to my financial detriment. Once I went out for a drink and I calculated that a pint of beer in Uganda cost 75 pence compared to the GBP2.30 that I was used to. So I indulged myself forgetting that my earning power is not the same in comparative terms. And that is at times translated into the long term where people start spending in Uganda like they would abroad. If my food bill was about GBP70 a week in the UK as a single man I would not be spending nearly UGX400000 at current rates. The problem is then thinking that your food bill is cheap because one has spent UGX150000 in Uganda which is equivalent to GBP27. If in the UK one is earning about GBP2000 gross on average per calendar month, the same job in Uganda will not pay nearly 12 million shillings a month gross. It will pay much less but then the cost of life is much lower. People who will do the same job will earn maybe even 30% less and then have a very comfortable life which would equate to one earning about GBP3000 gross in real terms. That is the cost of life. In investment terms figures I have from The Uganda Revenue Authority show that one will get a much higher return on their investment per dollar in Uganda.

Twenty years ago when I boarded that GulfAir flight on my initial adventure to the UK, my friends in Uganda were also preparing to go to University. On my return last year, they are Managing Directors of companies, Consultant Anesthetists, one is a Ministerial Permanent Secretary, members of the Judiciary, lectures and University Professors. That, if one is not of solid personal confidence, can be very intimidating. Yes, my friends that I was with all those years ago are in similar positions in the UK but when one returns to Uganda the sheer numbers can be frightening. I was sharing my thoughts with Simon Kaheru one of the leading media personalities in Kampala and he corrected me by saying that whereas I was also developed in my own way, it was in another country. No one is aware of it.

For the ladies returning can even be more daunting. Again depending on one's age, if one left in the 1990s' you will find that your associates and friends have moved on. Men in general can be more flexible with their time. I have found however that ladies will naturally head back home as soon as they are done with work. Ladies will not easily come out for a drink even if it is in a group. And then even after the tendency is to gravitate towards their husbands family. Now if you are a lady returning and you are beyond 40, your friends whom you left when they were in their 20s will not have any time for you. They will be looking and running round after a family that you don't know about. She will have a husband you don't know at all and will be engaging in activities now which when you left then, you considered archaic, like attending Mothers Union meetings.

We all had our reasons to emigrate to far off lands. But there is proof that even if it is a trickle at the moment of Ugandans coming back, this is a trend that is only increasing. There are many difficulties one will find when they return. Certainly the first few months will be horrendous but you will be home. My friend Paul Bagyenda lifted my spirits once when I was in a depressive mood. He said to me: "Arthur, this is home. This is Uganda. Remember here you are part of the establishment." I have never looked back since. Let me hope that indigenous Ugandans also join in the search for other business opportunities here in Uganda just as that lad I spoke to from Cornwall.

mwenky99@gmail.com

Kampala; A City Of Many Tales.

By Arthur M. M. Katabalwa.

What a weird week we have had here in Uganda. Two main stories have held the nation to its grips. First there was the absolutely shocking death of General Aronda Nyakairima on a flight from Seoul Incheon airport to Dubai. The details are well known. If not where have you been? Then of course we have had the debacle at The Democratic Alliance TDA offices, The TDA is a loose coalition of opposition people who want to remove the government in the general election next year. The four main protagonists have been trying to work it out who will be the "flag bearer" (I hate that term) of TDA. The two main English daily newspapers have actually summed up the confusion by either one of them leading on one of the stories; The death of Aronda Nyakairima and the TDA.

Amama Mbabazi (left) and Kiza Besigye

The issues with TDA have been a while in the making. But the death of Aronda was shocking. And not only in the traditional sense of "shocking" because a death has happened, especially in the manner and location by which it happened; but by the general reaction of the public.

Aronda by all intents and purposes was a government insider. We have a problem here where everyone is certain that the top brass of the army are government supporters. They are not just sympathizers. So when Aronda passed away, with the degree of government opposition in certain circles of the public one thought that they was going to be a sort of "good riddance" reaction. But no! It is incredible that there has been a near universal approval of the man. Once I had a radio station try to dig up some "dirt" on him but the discussion died as soon as it started.

I was riding pillion the other day through the city and I engaged the boda boda man in a conversation about the death of Aronda and he was deeply saddened. He said: "Aronda ye tabadde na taboo" (Aronda had no problems). I said that but he was a member of the government to which he was quite disparaging but he seemed to lift and defend Aronda from that.

That brings me back to TDA. Isn't it incredible that three out of the four main contenders of the TDA flag bearer are former (if you can say that with certainty) members of the ruling National Resistance (NRM) stalwarts? What does that say of the NRM? And what does it also say of the TDA. Well, many have contended, like Keith Kalyegira, that it is a creation of Mbabazi . This man is capable of anything I must say.  He must be illuminati (which has been another story in the papers...illuminati people in Uganda? Give me a break!) I wonder why the opposition can't have someone they feel like can challenge the NRM other than Norbert Mao.

But this is why; and I have argued this before. On January 29th 1986, the then a youthful Yoweri Museveni made probably the most famous speech in Uganda's political history on the steps of the parliament. He was being sworn in as the President. He alluded to the fact that on that day we were not only seeing a change of guard. We were seeing a fundamental change. He believed it. We believed it. The generals in the army believed. Do we believe in that now? But then probably the whole country believed in the work ethics of the NRM/NRA and they thought that the system would work.

Museveni was that a "mere change" of guard?

Fast forward to today and there is a lot of discontent. In my view and in reading the way that boda boda man reacted to the death of Aronda Nyakairima and the fact that the TDA has three people who are trying to be its flag bearer from the NRM stock, that ideal espoused on those steps in 1986 has been lost. In my view the public may still believe in what the NRM stands for but ironically the NRMs most selling individual may as well be its main vote looser. So the NRM is incapable of looking beyond Museveni the NRM founder. The TDA is also proving that it is incapable of looking beyond two other formerNRM founders. What a curious situation!

Most political parties in Uganda as I have argued before have no coherent vision for Uganda other than the desire to remove Museveni from power. Unfortunately at the moment the TDA is also coming together for that sole purpose. And there are egos here to massage. Besigye has been beaten and tear gassed in part by a security apparatus that he was once part of and later on an apparatus that Mbabazi, with whom he is now sharing a platform also controlled. The sooner they come up with a strategy and position themselves as an alternative to the NRM the better. But I am yet to see that. And they need to learn that being in opposition doesn't mean being a refusenik of all government programmes. One might say that the government should not also see the opposition as enemies of the government and Uganda.

As of now, the TDA is yet to pronounce itself as to who will be its flag bearer. And my hope is that when they do the national interest will be put at the forefront. As for the passing of Aronda, I will refer to the words said by the FDC Party President when he had an altercation with some hapless security man "My friend, be sure that you are safe when you finally retire from that uniform."  According to the reaction I have seen in Kampala over the past week, I think Aronda was safe even when he was still in uniform. Are the ideals that Museveni so eloquently put forward on that January day in 1986 all clad in combats still safe?

FDC President Mugisha Muntu.

mwenky99@gmail.com

Open Letter to the Senior Pastor Of Winners Chapel, Rubaga. (And all other Pastors)

Dear Pastor,

This is an open letter to you and your church. Let me start like this: I am not happy. In fact I am completely incensed because I have woken up grumpy. Why? Because you lot decided you wanted a party lasting the whole night.

At 2200, after I thought I had taken enough, I marched from my house to your church and demanded that the noise be turned down a bit because I wanted to sleep. Some lackey was sent to the door to find out what this mad man was going on about. And you know what he asked me first? "How long have you lived in that house?" Like it mattered. So, because I am aware of the finer details of the "house" which is my home I confidently answered "since 1992."

This lackey then had the audacity to question why I had not been before to complain about the noise. I said to him that there comes a time when ones patience is broken and action must be taken. So he then decided to fob me off. He said that the noise would be turned down within thirty minutes as they were having a "Praise and worship" session. I said to him that I also want to put in a "sleeping session" and as it was that late in the night and I had lived there longer, my expectation was reasonable.  Somehow he managed to placate me and I left, with the noise still on in the belief that they would see sense and turn it down.

0200AM and they had connected another amplifier!!! It was like a rock concert in full blast. So this time I stormed out of my bed with a dark cloud hanging over my head. This time I was not taking any prisoners. Bang! Bang! I went on the gate. The local stray dog, Star, with whom I have struck a good relationship also saw the gravity of the situation and started howling round my feet. The lackey came again to the gate and that was when I discovered that he was a Pastor from Hoima.

Bishop David Oyedepo of Winners Chapel.

You had decided to have a knees up with your chums from across the country. And for our discomfort, you were having this party. He tried to fob me off and this time I had him for dinner! He knew I was spitting fire so he called the "big man" you, in the hope that you would intimidate me. I have grown up surrounded by men of the cloth from the Church Of Uganda and whereas I respect them, I am never intimidated by them. So you, with the title of "Bishop" was not going to wash on me. We locked horns straight away to the shock and amazement of all your other chums the Pastors from across the country. All 20 of you.

This was what was going on in my mind; Monday night Bishop Ojukwu (not his real names) had invited his chums round and they were having a ball. Yet they saw it necessary to switch the loud speakers on. And by the way one of your pastors punctuates his speech with a "Hallelujah?" every 50 words or so. I asked him to mind his grammar and speak better. His response? "Amen Brother" I reminded him we were not brothers at that time.

You see my anger with Pentecostal churches does not stem from the fact that I am steadfastly an Episcopalian Christian. No. It is the feeling of entitlement that because you are worshiping everyone should rejoice with you regardless of the time. And as observed earlier, most of your flock are not even local to my suburb. They come from wherever they may live and come and raise the roof on someone else's turf then they go home leaving us to pick the pieces.

I am not against what goes on in your church at night. That is for you to worry about. But I ask that we work together and compromise. Our Christian faith is known for tolerance. I tolerate your noise during the day (I am not at home anyway) but please let me have my rest at home. I think that it is incumbent on you to make sure that people who live within the vicinity of your church get some shut eye. That they enjoy the fruits of their labor while in the confines of their homes.

God Bless You.

Yours,

Disgruntled neighbor.

mwenky99@gmail.com

What Really Happened In Jinja.

By Arthur M. M. Katabalwa.

Police firing tear gas at the public in Jinja.

There times when a society reaches a nadir, when suddenly events as they are are no longer sustainable; when we need to check and question our conscience. Europe is currently going through a refugee crisis. For a while, most of the population was in the "not in my back yard" mood. As long as the refugees stayed on far off flung shores, that was somebody else's problem. That was until a crisp clear photo of a young boy, face down in the sand dead showed up in the media. That was when people stopped and noticed.

Yesterday in Jinja, the Uganda police shot canisters of tear gas near a school. That is a fact. And that is very shameful. The Uganda Police should hang its head in shame that at a certain point yesterday, children as young as 8 were in the streets crying asking why they had been targeted. No one was giving them a plausible answer only that Amama Mbabazi was in town as a presidential aspirant. But after that many questions are now being asked of which the answers may never come.

Questions have been asked...what is wrong with being a presidential aspirant? The government is quoting the law verbatim. But you see, there is perception and this is what I have been writing about. In the law, an aspirant is just that (in brief) and as such that person needs to ask their supporters if they think that person should stand. That is easy isn't it? But then how would an aspirant then try and convince their supporters that they have what is takes to be a presidential candidate? I suppose they have to lay out what they will do. That is where the government comes in and says that that is campaigning. Which all becomes confusing.

Last night a lawyer said on one of the local televisions that when the law was being drafted and implemented, they never saw a problem like Mbabazi. And that the law never said what "consulting" actually entailed. The Electoral Commission was arguing that an aspirant needed to consult with their supporters in town halls or small groups not have rallies. In their contention, the EC then said what they didn't want to say. That the powers that be had not actually thought that Mbabazi was going to be pulling the crowds we are seeing today. Where in certain instances we are seeing NRM supporters ditching NRM shirts in the road. That is in itself selective because Muntu and Besigye had rallies. But the EC say that they were doing that within the FDC party structures. Well, Mbabazi doesn't have a party he is representing. He is independent.

But as we saw the truly shameful pictures from Jinja and Soroti over the last few days, Uganda has sank to a new low. Weather one supports Mbabazi or not, the actions of the police should be condemned in the strongest terms. Yet we will, in no doubt roll over and let what happened as an unfortunate event in the history of this great nation. Where laws are interpreted selectively and people can be beaten up and tear gas let of in crowds with wanton abandonment, without any regard to what our image is like in the international community. Whatever the government says, our image is being battered left right and center.

The law as the government is crying itself horse has been violated by Mbabazi. They may have a point there. I am not here to interpret the law. But in the implementation of justice, it has to be seen that justice is being done. And right now the public, even those who may not have sympathy as yet for Mbabazi are not seeing that. And in so doing, they are driving away support in droves. When Mbabazi announced his intentions to stand, the government went into panic mode. They started off by ill advising the President to hold a press conference when he was off a four hour flight from South Africa. He was irritable. And soon after, they went from one crisis after another, changing laws where the public is growing increasingly suspicious that they were designed to frustrate Mbabazi. Yesterday, yet again, as the President was strutting around on the international stage, meeting the Emperor of Japan, the Uganda police threw another spanner in the works. I wonder who advises the police on their public relations? This is truly a bad time for them. And the army? I bet they must be laughing because as they had a bad press since independence, now no one can say a single squeak about them.

mwenky99@gmail.com

"During our days............!"

By Arthur M. M. Katabalwa.

That really funny cartoon was circulating on the internet yesterday. A man lay slumped on his settee, his lights completely out with a doctor leaning over him asking his wife what she had told him that had led him to conk out. Her response? She had told him that the school holidays had come to an end! The poor man could not take it. He fainted. Not because he was still enjoying the company of the kids, it was because of the expenses that all parents are facing round about now.

I also received a call as well from a cousin of mine who happens to be a teacher. I joked with her that the time was about right that the little cretins went back to school leaving the world to adults. She complained as well that the holidays have been too short. So it isn't just the parents who are dreading the end of the school holiday, the teachers also don't want the kids back!!!

The problem is the preparations that parents have to go through so as to get their kids back to school. I have watched a colleague of mine preparing and I have been shocked. Her son goes to a boarding school on Masaka road and I thought that she was shopping for a shop! Crates of soft drinks, cartons of UHT milk accompanied with powdered milk, cakes and all sorts.  And I hear that the price of powdered milk has gone up. I asked her whether the kids were not fed at their school and she said they were. In fact at this school they are given buns every breakfast with their porridge.

I used to hate a conversation with my father which started "During our days......", well during our days we were never like this. If one had an extra metallic box full of "grub" they were lucky. Things have changed. Kids are very, very expensive these days. When I went to boarding school at Busoga College Mwiri I was lucky if my father gave me more than UGX10000 for the month. The other day I heard of a student at one of the leading boarding schools (on Masaka road again they seem to be rich down there) who was found with 2.5million shillings as pocket money. Now I wonder who has sense: the parent or the student. Some students at this school have been given so much money by their wealthy parents that they have now started speculating on the currency markets as their school shop never at any one time have that much stock so they have to find ways of using their money. Else, as I have been told they on occasion escape to Kampala to better spend their money.

Other than the mounds of "grub" that parents have to take I have heard allegations that there is a school that is advising parents that students can have mobile phones. Mobile phones? This is leading down a slippery slope I must say because one cannot then give their child a "kabiriti" phone. For those who don't know what a "kabiriti" phone it is the most basic phone that one can master. They can just about make a phone call but they have a battery with a life one might say it runs on plutonium. The batteries run for a whole week. Students are going to ask for the latest gadgets. And then what are they accessing on the internet? "During our days......." the joy was in the letters we wrote quoting verses from songs sung by Lionel Richie or the Bangles to impressionable girls. The cards sent had to be from Aristoc else it would be sent back. Now they are going to whatsapp themselves writing in that ghastly short text.

"During our days...." one could book for a space on the school bus which would help parents and pick kids up from the City Square now known as The Constitutional Square. In fact so many schools had buses wait for their kids that it was the last time that many students had the chance to see off their sweethearts. Now? No way. A student would rather be seen dead than being seen boarding the school bus at the beginning of term  and for that matter all roads will be a nightmare on Monday and the subsequent days as all these spoiled brats are ferried back to school in the air-conditioned comfort of their parents 4X4s.

I used to tell my father that times had changed from when they used to walk God knows how many miles to school.....bare foot in the dark through forests....on beds of thorns... ( I think some of that stuff was made up) but I will also pull that stroke. "During our days..." and I hope that parents taking back their over pampered children borrow a leaf from what our "good old days" used to be like and let the kids enjoy their childhood and not transfer home comforts to school. But then so many of us are the main culprits because we have let the situation just like our parents let us have it so easy in their eyes.

mwenky99@gmail.com

FDC Party Debate: A Glimpse Of Future Maturity In Political Debate?

By Arthur M. M. Katabalwa.

A lot is being said about the just concluded FDC party leadership debate and the coming delegates conference.  I never the watched the debate live. And that was a decision that I took trying to see how the messages that came from it would be received. As a consummate journalist, I spend an inordinate amount of time online and on social media. This time around, I decided to gauge how Joe Blogs, down in the not so fashionable suburbs and the villages of Uganda would get what transpired. How they felt about it.

Mugisha Muntu arriving at the delegates conference this morning.

You see, many people are blaming those of us who have access to such technologies of being out of touch with what is happening on the ground. For example, there is a belief among some quarters in Uganda that the Mbabazi campaign is being run on social media. I can say that that is not entirely true but I can see where they are coming from. Certainly the people in Mabanda are not bothered about what is trending on twitter. And neither do many of them read that many papers. A lot of what is heard is sometimes pure gossip or what is being said on radio.

The debate, I am sorry to say, went down like a lead balloon. Not that many people have been enameled by it. First of all holding it on a Sunday evening on TV was not a brilliant idea.  There is a problem which even Kiza Besigye acknowledged he found as he traveled in the country. Digital migration!!The debate was on TV and there are a lot of people who have "migrated" from TV because they have to pay for it. And 2200 hours on a Sunday is hardly prime time.

Then there was the setting; Sheraton hotel Kampala. Well, other than Serena Hotel one could not have had a more exclusive venue than that. That then excluded a huge chunk of the public. I would struggle to find that many people who would want to attend such a function, where the two protagonists were actually from the same political fold (we only saw fireworks maybe once or twice?).

Kiza Besigye and his wife Winnie Byanyima.

But that aside, the debate was a good thing for Ugandan democracy. Certainly the ruling NRM party pales in the distance with this debate. They are not coming out smelling like roses as dissenting views seem to be stifled. Maybe we could organize for a debate between Mr. Odrek Rwabwogo and Mr. Matayo Kyaligonza? The two are vying for the NRM chair in the west which has rubbed the nose of the war veteran Kyaligonza. But Odrek is one of the Presidents sons in law. Which really becomes difficult for The President. Hajji Nadduli from Luwero the other day laid in on the issue basically saying that Kyaligonza as a veteran should be left the seat. He agitated against Rwabwogo especially because of his connections. But then Nadduli himself is shamelessly positioning his son to take over his seat in Luwero.......Confusing? Last night Rwabwogo shot back on TV saying that millions of kids have been born in Uganda since 1986 and they need fresh ideas. Mr. Rwabwogo,........ have you got that comment cleared by your father in law?

Ronnie Mayanja, Editor of The Uganda Diaspora news writes today in his editorial piece of the FDC debate: "For a first both candidates showed political maturity by subjecting themselves to such scrutiny." That maturity was commendable. It has been nothing like we have seen before as they have traversed the country. The winner will be the FDC not an individual. And whether the country as a general goes on to win in the short term remains to be seen.

Mayanja continues to highlight a further spat between retired FDC (and NRM) stalwart Amanya Mushega; "Mushega's opinion piece/open letter in one of the dailies exposed Besigye especially his back-tracking and failure to support Muntu after stepping down from the FDC party leadership." This is the last thing that the FDC wants at this time. Maybe even to them democracy is young. They have the delegates conference coming up soon and Uganda demands that what was started with that debate, however faltering, that "maturity" is built upon also as an example to the rest of the political elite.

mwenky99@gmail.com