There’s a lot of justified anger at the state of affairs in Uganda but anger alone is not enough, it’s possible, even with a change of guard that’s publicly hailed, we could remain in the same state - or worse.

How are we thinking strategically about how to govern Uganda? 🇺🇬 I’ve often asked my friends who are a heartbeat away from the presidency what would the first 100 days of their leadership look like? Because if you cannot imagine them, then you cannot implement them.

THREAD:

The response to a march on parliament, surely, cannot be violent breakup, detentions, arrests and intimidation. It is, counter-productive, unhelpful and dangerous both in the short and long run.... The Ugandan state is the net-loser in corruption. For all the revenue the country collects [25.2 trillion shillings]. Core investment in health & education is still dismal. Investment in health per person is 27,000 shs per person per year & education at 185k per person per year

Small Thread:

We don't talk about wealth as a matter of public policy and yet that is one of the ways in which it represents itself. In our lifetime, ofcourse, some people will have a lot more money than others, that isn't the problem at all. The rich getting rich isn't a problem - we shouldn't atleast make it a problem. The problem is the poor getting poorer and being unable to afford basic public goods; health & education and being unable to live decent life; free from fear, anxiety and basic human dignity

Small Thread;

I see that legislators have now lost all sense of shame about the immoral plunder and legislated corruption of public funds. It’s important that this moment is captured right in Ugandan history

Why? The stated outcome for legislation globally and nationally is to make law for the good governance, peace and order and development. To do this Uganda’s parliament is parceled into constituencies and the total number of MPs from those are 519 [elected] 38 [elected non-suffrage]

Events like Nyege Nyege aren't where the 'Uganda' project, they are in fact where it thrives. If I sat in a corner office of govt, I'd do the following 1. Have a registration stall at the entrance for taxes, pension [nssf], national ID's and a general QR code survey for gov't services delivery

2. I'd get the DEO, DHO districts in the East to exhibit, register volunteers for teaching, health services and private donations

Small thread for journalists/journalism students and enthusiasts on managing access, ethical considerations and sourcing from the Rwenzururu story. I’d always passionately covered the tensions in Rwenzururu from my earlier days at @ugandarn I infact won a grant from @ACME_Uganda to investigate the land conflicts there and during that story I could tell there were deep seated grievances btn the kingdom and govt

The new @naviomusic song with an Elly Wamala sample of ‘Hamadi’ is such a rich work of art.

Hamadi was originally recorded in 1966 in Nairobi. The ‘Mengo crisis’ had led to the death of social life in Uganda and many artists went to record in Kenya… In Hamadi, Elly Wamala tells the fable of losing his father at an early age and having to come to the ‘city’ to find work and decent living.

Hamadi is a luganda slang for Ahmaddiya - a religious movement that seeks to revive pure Islam. It was prominent in Buganda’s 1930’s

In a few minutes, I’ll be hosting a Twitter space on studying in Ireland - and studying at higher university outside of Uganda in general. Uganda currently provides for about quarter a million students at higher education, a small proportion of less than 10k leave to study abroad - source NCHE

Where you eat from, what you eat there, how you pay for what you eat are all very political as they come - and I’m glad the conversation on class in Uganda’s restaurants has started - albeit from the service angle. Kololo & Nakasero became centres of wealth due to the concentration of colonial administrators in them. Naguru, Mbuya & Bukoto became centres of wealth due to the concentration of public servants of the Uganda administration in them.

In the initial phases of entrepreneurship is when friends are needed most.

If you’re a friend to an entrepreneur please recommend their product[s] to anyone you can. Personally endure the early bad service because that will provide much needed capital to your friend … Talk about their story to the friends you recommend. Give them the ‘why’ of the business. We have way too many businesses without soul.

I hosted the #AFMIndex2022 launch today which is a report on the financial markets of 26 African countries done by @Absa The first and most impressive detail from the launch is here; a breakdown of the markets by size, liquidity and product diversity. Markets are impressive when measured by GDP but the heat is real when that comes to ‘liquidity’ [Cash is king] #AFMIndex2022

There are 6 overbearing points in #AccessToInfo that many Ugandans should pick interest in.

I'll list them.... 1. Alot more citizens think government should only withhold information if it affects national security

#AccessToInfo

So guys, I want to invite you to what I think will be an amazing twitter space starting in a few minutes -

Here's why

#SautiUG From @twaweza_uganda 's recent data on businesses and taxation, these facts emerged clearly

1. 45% of the respondents said they had owned a business in the last three years, 24% of those said their business had since collapsed

#SautiUG

There's alot of people asking what the new @nssfug smart card means;

Here's a breakdown of the functionalities it gives to its holder; #DoMore As a smart card with @nssfug it helps with;

1. Management of your @nssfug account. This includes withdrawing your savings upon qualification, make voluntary contributions to your savings plan, identification as a member at various branches

#DoMore

We need to make an urgent case for improving family relations/social ties to create shared wealth- only this time, to save our environment.

Here’s why.... I spent my weekend with our family matriarch. She lives in Bunyagabu, a place hailed for clean air, large farms, strong inter-family relations and a conservation.

Not ‘cool and sexy’ Maaga!

The facts are there to show. The term Karuzika [to bury] is attached to the HQs of Tooro as a polity. Previously the Kong sat in Butiiti but the Abarusura captured that.

To fend off the attack, the reorganization of Bagabu [The shield clan] 1/4

https://twitter.com/MargaretMuhanga/status/1431989976909205505

Together with the Nubian soldiers [Abanubi] fought and stopped the advance of the Bunyoro soldiers. After the defeat of Kabalega, the Tooro palace was established because it was where all clans surrendered their fighting weapons. It became an armoury. Hence the name Karuzika 2/4

Small Thread;

On murders, shootings, assasinations etc...

In 2012, when I first joined @ugandarn I was firmly placed on the security desk, a colleague @malabatom handled police, so I was sent to the army. The task was to always do a story on that beat every three times a week Inevitably, a lot of this reporting led me to get into contact with multiple army documents - some high profile and capturing public attention whilst others outright boring.

In 2013, I investigated the exchange of Israeli refugees [mostly from Ethiopia & Eritrea] for guns & intelligence. The things I learnt then were that Uganda’s ‘goodwill’ was infact a hand-in-glove gesture.

I want to hope the Afghan deal is in goodwill, but I know it isn’t Uganda is at its lowest ebb in relations with the US signaled mostly by sanctions to serving officers of government here. Despite open bragging of the insignificance of the sanctions, a govt sponsored lobby is in Washington doing bidding to undo some of those sanctions

Sure.

Three weeks ago I tested positive for #COVID19 . My sample which had been taken by @RocketHealthUG came back positive. Because I’d been working mostly from home I had less contacts [4] and I quickly informed each of them.

@Rita_Kanya tested -ve at first but later +ve

https://twitter.com/rkabushenga/status/1409427745445187589

We immediately went into isolation. We had been due for a family wedding that day, we cancelled it. In the first few hours we dealt with a lot of anxiety. What happens next? Would we end up in HDU or even ICU?

Short term memory lapse is the folly of many operatives of the shadow state.

A small thread here.... In the run up to the 2016 election, a black site operation run simultaneously out of police [CPS] was set up. The reason: To stop P10.
P10 was FDC's vote protection team that sought to defend and protect the votes of it's candidate then @kizzabesigye1

I have a somewhat newly formed view on corruption; indulge me if you will.

Capitalism’s survival depends very greatly on its ability to [re]distribute wealth from the rich to the poor.
Taxes, currently are the most robust form of wealth redistribution. / 1 To succeed, good tax systems have to demonstrate fairness [in picking more as a % from the rich] and taking less [still as a %] from the poor. To do that, they require efficient application, the kind a good government provides / 2