The Brexit Has Exposed the Deficiencies of Regional Integration And Globalization

The Brexit Has Exposed the Deficiencies of Regional Integration And Globalization

• ·         Uganda Has Not Built Enough Production Capacity To Satisfy The EAC Market

• ·         The EAC May Not Be As Viable As President Museveni Is Making Us To Believe

A lot has already been said and written about last Thursday’s famous referendum that culminated into the exit of United Kingdom from the European Union.

The high and mighty powers in British circles seem NOT to have anticipated that the referendum would result into the exit of the English from the continental body.

But my view is that the outcome of the referendum (LEAVE) was long overdue.

Any country that seeks to integrate with other countries needs to first do three things;

1; To first build enough production capacity to satisfy the local market (36m people) before it embarks on the regional market (170m people)

2; First build concrete internal infrastructure (power , roads and railway transport)

2; To periodically consult its citizens (through referendum) about the viability of  integration with other countries

THE REALITY IN UGANDA

In Uganda our president, Yoweri Museveni has been a lone voice in propagating the voice of the east African integration. His argument is that our market is too small to accommodate our products.

 He therefore argues that we need to integrate our 38 million Ugandans together with the 45 million Kenyans, 50 million Tanzanians, 11 million southern Sudanese, 11 million Burundians, 12 million Rwandese to widen our marker base for our products.

The amazing thing is that no single Ugandan has ever challenged president Museveni on whether we have built enough capacity to produce for the regional market of 145 million people.

THE DEMERITS OF REGIONAL INTEGRATION

For very many years we have not asked ourselves what happened to regional bodies like ECOWAS, SADC, COMESA, PTA, and IGAD etc

Yet the truth is that all these blocs failed to work due to various reasons.

 The Brexit has therefore been an eye opener on the demerits of regional integration in particular and globalization in general.

When you observe critically, you will realize that the two concepts; globalization and regional integration actually mean the same thing.

This is because while regional integration is the harmonization of working relationships between countries with the objective of enabling free movement of goods and services together with the nationals of their nationals.

On the other hand globalization envisages a free movement of capital, ideas and technological innovations between the citizens of the globe.  

The difference between the two is that while integration is institutionalized by promulgating laws, globalization operates spontaneously.  In other words globalization is not regulated by legislation but integration is institutionalized through legislations and memorandum of understanding between countries with an objective of achieving a common good.

Regional integration is almost similar to cooperatives where a group of people who agree to join together as a group with an objective of achieving a common goal.

So while our president has been pushing us to integrate our country with the brothers in the region, I think he needed to first seek the permission of the citizens.

The question we needed to pose to president Museveni and other proponents of the EAC should be as follows;.

WHAT IS UGANDA’S PRODUCTIVITY

While president Museveni makes a very attractive argument about marketing Ugandan products in the region, we need to know whether Uganda has built enough capacity to produce for the east African market as a whole.

For instance can Uganda produce enough milk and meat products for the entire region?

Can we manage to satiate the market demands for agricultural products?

The truth is the Uganda as a country has not built enough capacity to fulfill the market demands of the east African market.

What we have actually been experiencing has been that whenever Ugandans have found market for their products outside Uganda, there has developed an immediate deficit in supply of those particular goods within the country.

For instance when president Museveni got investors in the fishing industry, leading to the emergence of very many fish processing industries, the local citizens have been starved of fish.

During the 2016 state of the nation address, President Museveni himself admitted that most of the fish processing industries had closed because there was not enough fish to meet the market demands of the industries.

He went on to blame the illegal fishermen for depleting all the fish from Lake Victoria by use of wrong fishing methods.

But the reality is that the fish reserves had been overwhelmed by the huge demand.

Now president Museveni has embarked on instituting very tough laws on fishing on al lakes of Uganda.

But he has forgotten the market is too big for the Ugandan fish reserves.

THE SOUTH SUDAN MARKET EXPERIENCE

Another interesting experience has been the perplexing story of southern Sudan.

When southern Sudan got independence and opened its borders for the Ugandan traders, all goods were sold to juba.

And consequence was that Uganda suffered an immediate shortage of foodstuffs like bananas, pineapples, oranges, mangoes and cassava.

In 2011, the Ugandan production potential was stretched to the limit to an extent that the country ran out of sugar leading to intolerable inflation levels.

The Ugandan opposition leader Col Kiiza Besigye exploited that inflation and shortage of sugar and staged walk to work demonstrations that almost brought down the NRM government.

Yet the truth of it all was that our country’s production potential had been stretched beyond its means by the market demands of southern Sudan.  

At that moment the solution was to adopt protectionist policies that restricted the movement of sugar from Uganda with the objective of meeting the demands of the Ugandan market.

Many times traders have bought cassava for the southern Sudan market when it’s still in the gardens!

This is a clear manifestation of our lack of capacity to produce for the regional market.

Therefore as president Museveni crusades for the east African community, we need to task him for the viability of the concept of regional integration.

In fact when war broke out between president salvar kiir and his deputy Dr Riek Machar  in southern Sudan it was a blessing in disguise for the Ugandan economy, as inflation went down because traders were no longer exporting goods to the Sudan market.

Once southern Sudan stabilizes and begins taking our goods we shall suffer from terrible inflation.

 Therefore the Brexit is one good illustration of the demerits of regional integration.

While many of you may appreciate it from the perspective of facilitating free movement of people across national borders , you don’t take time to look at the consequences of the free movement of goods that you don’t produce in enough quantities.

Therefore, I think , when subjected to scrutiny , the east African integration may not be as rosy as president Museveni is making us to believe.

The author Fred Daka Kamwada is a journalist, researcher and blogger

You can reach him on kamwadafred@gmail.com or 0782480121

  Ends

Is Gen Wamala Katumba Presidential Material?

Is Lt Gen Edward Wamala Katumba Presidential Material?

I have been an interested party into the succession politics of African countries in particular and the world in general.  The focus has always been on how people ascend to the helm of power and what they do to retain it for a long time.

One of the most enduring trends within the dynamics of succession politics is that most people who rise to positions of leadership don’t seem to have had any interest to lead the people in the first place.

Most of them normally are helped by circumstances to get there, while those who deliberately work very hard to become presidents normally fail along the way.

Of all the Ugandan presidents, only President Yoweri Museveni and Apollo Milton Obote put up structures to enable them rise to the Ugandan presidency.

  Obote used a political party (UPC )to scheme his way to power while Museveni built a guerilla outfit (the NRA ) that fought a five year bush war to deliver him to power.

Of course you can also mention that Uganda’s first president Fredrick Mutesa rode on the Buganda monarchy to get to the presidency.  But Mutesa is an exception because he was already a king of one of the most powerful kingdoms in Africa.

Others like Gen Idi Amin Dada, Professor Yusuf Lule, Geoffrey Binaisa, Paul Muwanga, and Gen Tito Okello Lutwa just benefited from circumstances to rise to the helm of Uganda’s presidency. In other words, they never had latent ambitions neither did they build structures to enable them to rise to power at any one time of their lives.

But circumstances played in their favor to get to the biggest office in the land.

And it’s interesting to note that of all the Ugandan presidents, only those who had prior ambitions and built structures managed to retain power for a longtime.

Those who got power accidentally and easily all, with the exception of Gen Amin who did nine years, all lost it very easily.  

The Hyena Hypothesis

The rest succumbed to the hyena theory of easy come easy go. The hyena is an opportunistic animal that doesn’t hunt for food but waits for to benefit from the hard work of other predator animals to get what to eat.

If you have observed critically you must have noticed that while the hyena doest waste any energies hunting, and therefore gets free game, it’s the most unattractive animal in the wild.

Ordinarily, you would reason that since the hyena doesn’t struggle for livelihood, it should look very good. But it’s the ugliest of all the animals and has a very bad scent to an extent that even predators don’t find it attractive enough to qualify it as a meal.

That’s why I coined the hyena theory which elaborates on the fact that parasites and opportunists get easy livelihoods but they never grow bigger than the predators. For instance while a rat eats free food, it rarely grows bigger than the cat.

Let me hope am not digressing.

The point I was trying to make is that while some people easily manage to get into power, they in most cases easily lose that power, especially if it comes so easy.

Only those who have struggled and worked hard for power manage to hold it for a very long time. You find that there is a clear pattern of succession politics which dictates that rewards those who sacrifice more than those who take advantage of circumstances to get to power.

Exceptions To The Rule

 But there are some exceptions to the rule where some others easily got into power and retained it for a relatively longer time than anyone’s expectation.

For instance in Kenya former Kenyan president Daniel Arap Moi took advantage of President Kenyatta’s death to easily get to the helm of Kenya’s presidency and managed 24 years in power.   

Despite of having been Kenya’s vice president and therefore constitutionally mandated to succeed president  Jomo Kenyatta, Moi was not considered as a favorite to rise beyond the vice presidency.

But circumstances played in his favor and he shocked his critics with a 24 year reign in power.

But Nigeria actually provides a good example of leaders who have had prior ambitions to rule Nigeria and managed to realize their presidential dreams.

In the 1960s, people like current president Buhari, former president Sani Abacha, former president Abdulsalam, former president Yar dua , former president Olsegun Obasanjo and former president Ibrahim Babangida all had prior ambitions of leading Nigeria and they all got the opportunity to do so.

Most of them were in the same age group and they joined the army at almost the same time. They fought the Biafra war and then embarked on fulfilling their dream of leading Nigeria.

Gen Olsegun Obasanjo enjoyed more having rose to the Nigerian presidency in the 70s before he handed over t civilian rule and returned again as a civilian president .

But Civilian rule failed to work because the Nigerian military had deliberate political designs to rule the country. That’s why while the military leadership was loathed by many , no single military ruler was assassinated.

 So you had gen Buhari taking over power in the early 1980s while in his 30s. Then Gen Ibrahim Babangida also took over in his early forties in mid 1980s.

Gen Sani Abacha also took his turn in the early 90s before he died in power in the 1998.

Although Nigeria is now firmly in the hands of the civilians, those young military officers of the 60s all took turns to govern it.

First forward to Uganda’s succession question

Many Ugandans are talking about the Muhoozi project, which is by definition president museveni’s presumed succession plan to have his son Maj Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba takeover from him when he retires.

But it’s silly to argue for or against the Muhoozi project at the moment. It may happen or not happen according to circumstances. But it cannot be ruled out.

But the fact of the matter is that Gen Muhoozi is well placed to takeover power, if the country requires a military solution.

The Gen Wamala Katumba Hypothesis

But other than Gen Muhoozi, another UPDF officer who is well placed to takeover should the country descend into a military-related situation is Gen Edward Wamala Katumba.

By virtue of his position as chief of defense forces, Gen Katumba is one of the people who can ascend to the Ugandan presidency as a compromise candidate.  

He has a moderate character, he is approachable and a willing listener.

Like Nigeria where a moderate Gen Abdulsalam was appointed by the provisional ruling council (that comprised of senior military officers) to takeover Nigeria after the unexpected death of Gen Sani Abacha, Gen Wamala Katumba is well placed to lead Uganda.

Of course, like all the leaders who have denied having presidential ambitions, Gen Wamala will tell you that he has got no presidential ambitions.

But as stated earlier, those who have exhibited prior presidential ambitions don’t usually rise to realize their dreams.  Remember former vice president Prof Gilbert Bukenya postured like a president in-waiting but fell far off the Cue  that he cannot even make it as member of parliament!

Former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi who had realistic dreams of ascending the Ugandan throne also suffered the same fate as Prof Bukenya. While Dr Kiiza Besigye who has been nursing presidential ambitions for the last twenty years might suffer the same fate as former serial leader of opposition in Zaire Etienne Tsesthekedi who opposed President Joseph Mobutu for many years also evaporated from the scene of Congo politics even after the death of Mobutu.

 But Katumba might hypothetically be the unexpected one to rise to the highest office in the land.

And he doesn’t have to scheme or work for it.

 Neither does he have to posture like a creature related to a presidential material. Its circumstances that MIGHT work in his favor.

 I don’t even think it’s fair to even debate Gen Katumba Wamala as presidential material as suggested by the headline of this blog. If you have read this far and you still doubt whether he is presidential material then you have a big intellectual problem.

Those who don't wish Gen Katumba to rise to power should pray that the country doesn't descend into chaos.

 Once the country descends into chaos , like its threatening to do at the moment, the political space will be open to all sorts of possibilities.

ends

The author Fred Daka Kamwada is a senior journalist and a blogger. You can reach him on kamwadafred@gmail.com or 0782480121

Uganda Is Currently Running A Betting, Bar And Boda-boda Economy

 Uganda  Is Currently Running A Betting, Bar , Rolex And  Boda-boda Economy

• Uganda's Tax Regime Focuses on Taxing Hardworking Ugandans And Exempts Idle Citizens, This Calls For Reviving of Graduated Tax To Stir the Spirit of Hard work

Last week a 26 trillion shilling budget was readout to Ugandans with the usual prioritization of infrastructure (roads and power ) peace and stability forming some of the the core objectives -priorities.
It was, however, not clear which sector contributed most to the gross national product.
For so many years ,  Uganda was thriving as an agricultural based economy to an extent of contributing 80% or more to its gross domestic product (GDP).
Never mind that the country had the potential of thriving on tourism that cuts across the country or even from mining (we had copper at kilembe mines ).

At that time (post independence era) the Ugandan economy was about three Cs,  coffee, cotton and copper as the main foreign exchange earners.
Its however not clear whether the three Cs-driven economy was footing Uganda\s recurrent and development budget.
The open truth is that post independence Uganda's budget was funded by donors.

With over ten major national parks and several animal species together with the various flora and fauna ,the tourism sector could have been the driver of our economy.

 But sustained insecurity and political instability right from 1966 accounted for the slow but systematic collapse of the tourism sector.

Although Uganda is fairly peaceful on the surface at the moment and President Museveni assures everyone who cares to listen that 'no one can disturb Uganda's peace at the moment', there is looming political suspense that is driving away investors and tourists in big numbers.
And that largely explains the poor state of Uganda's economy at the moment. 

The recent attacks on military installations in several parts of the country like Kasese, Mubende and  Gulu is not doing the country any good.

A SUPER MARKET ECONOMY?
President Yoweri Museveni recently lamented during the state of the nation address that he is not interested in overseeing a super market economy.
His lamentations seem to reflect the stagnation that has bedeviled the Ugandan economy.
 we cannot manufacture neither can we add value to our agricultural products through an aggro processing dimension.
Today the the economy operates on three Bs,; bars, boda-boda and betting.  

 The recent trends show that the economy has changed its complexion not only to a super market economy , as suggested by president Museveni , but to a gambling ,boda-boda and alcohol driven economy.

LISTEN TO THIS;In the old days Ugandans used to migrate from rural areas to urban areas halfheartedly without selling their land because agriculture provided the base for income generation
Today a typical Ugandan is abandoning the village by selling off all the land , including the graves of his ancestors and entering the urban areas.
And because of the inelastic nature of the economy ,whereby its difficult to start business and break even, the rural to urban migrant is investing the money he sold from his village land to either start a bar, operate a boda-boda or even gamble the money in what is popularly known as betting.

Popularly known as the boda-boda , the motor cycle is one of the few immediate business options which can make a decent living in Uganda.

A big number of youths are picking loans to buy motor bikes so that they can venture into the bod-boda business.
There is enough evidence to show that this boda-boda business is one of the fastest growing income generating ventures in the country.
And the reasons why its thriving  are many.

Tax Evasion Phenomenon
One is that the boda-boda businesses not regulated at all, meaning the proprietors of the bod-boda business don't pay taxes.
Yet government is very vigilant at taxing other businesses ventures like shops, saloons, hotels, clinics etc.
This tough tax regime has restricted business in Uganda.
Likewise , many Ugandans invest in bars because they can easily dodge paying taxes , since bars open at night when the authorities are not active

Government should have been very generous at business start ups by providing them with incentives like tax holidays. once you give a tax holiday , it gives you an opportunity to register that business for future taxation.
but since such an incentive is not there to encourage Ugandan to start up businesses without fear of immediate taxation , that have resorted to tax evasion.

A lowly Ugandan who starts a small shop with capital of less than a millions shillings (400 dollars) has got to pay a license of quarter million shillings (100 dollars) to start operating.
 On top of the license , you need to pay rent of three months (which most landlords in the Kampala business district charge in dollars )
Uganda runs a very tough tax regime which is normally focused on taxing success and exempts laziness. when you tax pay as you earn, value added tax, income tax,,it means you are focused on taxing the most productive citizens of society.
When you remain idle , you automatically evade those taxes and pay the consumption tax, otherwise known as VAT. 
In such a situation it would have been better if the tax is very well balanced and fair to the citizens. alternatively you can also think of reviving graduated tax that is paid by every adult Ugandan. This graduated tax will compel every Uganda to find work to be able to pay this tax.
But today the focus is on taxing hard working people. its really unfair. 

These unfair practices are the biggest hindrance that has led to the practical stagnation of the economy at the moment.
There is a lot of evidence to show that the Ugandan economy has shrunk in the last two years.

High Attrition rate of Business Entities

Without quoting figures , the attrition rate of big businesses is one of the biggest indicators that the economy is not doing well  at all.

Big companies are closing business at a very fast rate.
For instance in the last twelve months alone banks like Barclays bank , national bank of commerce have closed business.
President Museveni talks of super markets blossoming in Uganda , but forgets that Shop-rite which was one of the BIGGER supermarkets closed business because it was making loses.

 The telecommunications sectors is not doing well eitherbecause the people cannot communicate when there is not ENOUGH business.

Uganda telecom was the first to fold. Then Warid had to amalgamate with Celtel to from Airtel to survive the wrath of a declining economy.
MTN recently announced that it had lost a very big chunk of its customer base.

And the elective politics have not done the economy any good. During the campaign phase, a lot of liquidity was poured into circulation.

This affected the financial flows because most of that money is not followed by any economic activity.
In most cases such loose money leads to inflation as a lot money that is not economically explained goes into circulation.
Thats why the Ugandan economy always slows down during election years.
And to make matters worse, government invests a lot of resources into security (they purchase  expensive hi-tech weapons)
This leads to mis-prioritization and misplacement of resources.

  
Right now , the economy is limping. the Ugandan shilling which was depreciating in the last half of last year has now started appreciating against the foreign currencies. 
 

VOLATILITY OF THE DOLLAR
But since ours is mostly a consumerist economy of products that we don't produce , the volatility of the dollar normally brings our economy to its knees.
Most Ugandan traders couldn't buy products from foreign markets because the dollar had appreciated STRONGLY against the Ugandan shilling.
 Many Ugandan traders had to close business.

Thats why many shopping arcades are now vacant. the traders couldn't afford rent which are charged in dollars.
Matters are made worse by the mere fact that we don't have anything we can sell that can bring in dollars.
The tourism sector which is one of the biggest foreign exchange earners has been hurt by our volatile elective politics.
With this constriction of the Uganda economy, the unregulated sectors of the economy like boda-bodas , bars and prostitution are the ones thriving.

 And its important to note that they are thriving because they are not regulated (they don't pay  taxes)

Its therefore safe to say that Uganda is operating a boda-boda driven economy.
Otherwise, if someone can sell his land in the village and buys a motor bike and manages to live a decent life its obvious that our economy has changed from agriculture to something else.

The author Fred Daka Kamwada is a journalist and blogger
you can reach him on kamwadafred@gmail.com or 0782480121

WHY Social Media Is Quietly Killing The Main Stream Print Media Outlets

Why The Social Media Is Quietly Killing The Main Stream Print Media Outlets

• The Major Print Media Houses Need to Do A Lot of Brain Storming and Re-branding To survive the Social Media Revolution
• In The Next Five Years Many Newspapers Will Have Perished Completely

In the western world , most eminent people freely quote newspapers like the New York Times,The Time Magazine , The Sun  as a source of reference because of their impartiality in news reporting.
 in Uganda today its very difficult to hear an influential person quoting any of the Ugandan newspapers.
 This can easily be attributed to the rigid editorial policy of our papers which are aligned either as pro-government (like The Newvision) or anti-government (in the case of The Monitor) 

You find that objectivity and the truth is already a casualty.
Therefore you you to make value judgement about the Ugandan media industry is like extracting a jigger from a baby.

Ordinarily, many newspaper buyers will judge the papers by their content and editorial policy.

But on the other hand, many people instinctively judge a newspaper by the amount of shillings its copy costs on the streets.

 There is a presumption that the higher the price, the better the quality of the copy.

But that is misleading yardstick for judging a newspaper.  More shrewd people judge a given newspaper on the width of its readership and its circulation levels in general.

There is a high possibility that the higher the circulation the higher the length and width of its readership.

And for you to get to its real readership ratings you must get the copy sales-meaning the amount of copies it sells on a given day will obviously translate into the number of people who read it.  

But it’s difficult to get the true figures of the copy sales because of various challenges ranging from delays in tabulating copy returns (newspapers that have not sold) and getting to the bottom of the actual copies that have been sold at a given time.

Therefore judging a newspaper through the lenses of copy sales might turn out to be very tricky.

LOGICAL ANALYSIS

But if you want to ascertain the strength of a newspaper in terms of financial power, then you have to look at the adverts it carries.

The higher the number of adverts the more the revenue generated

If a given paper has very many adverts then there is a good chance that its writers are of very high quality because they are very well remunerated-because it generates enough revenue to pay quality staff.

There is a spontaneous expectation that once a journalist is paid a decent wage, you can be assured of a more balanced, researched, unbiased and engaging story.

Print Media houses that don’t pay well lead the journalists into temptation.

The Phenomenon Of Killing Stories

A journalist that is not paid well will not find it fitting to research the story because he is poorly or not motivated at all.

 Such a journalist will, in most cases, resort to extorting vulnerable news-makers. For instance if a powerful politician has got a scandal of let’s say corruption-related or sex-related scandal, the poorly paid journalist will use it as opportunity for extortion.

Instead of consulting the scandalized politician for his side of the story, he will get to him with the main objective of extorting money that will result into killing the story.

Once the powerful politician realizes that his scandal has been busted but has not been published as yet, he will certainly bribe the journalist to kill the story.

At the highest level, most of the media houses cannot publish stories that tarnish the reputation of their clients –who give them adverts.

That has been the story of Ugandan journalism for very many years. These are some of the reasons why people no longer trust the print media as a trusted source of information.

Very many journalists who are doing well did not get better through the per Diem from the media houses they work for.  

Many of them either threatened to blackmail a powerful person who bought them out of it, or joined government as cadre journalists to get an extra buck.

Talking of cadre journalists, this is a trend that has also taken root in Uganda.

Some journalists cannot publish scandals about government because they have hopes of landing jobs from government.

When a hungry journalist  get a scandalous story that can put government in a very tight political situation , he will obviously use it as an opportunity NOT TO prove how good and professional  he is at his job but to create connections with government officials.

Andrew Mwenda's Exhortations

For instance there a story of a very famous journalist who was known to be very hostile to government in the past.

 Andrew Mwenda got a story about ministers who had allegedly been bribed by powerful foreign oil firms.

there is some truth that the documents that verified the story was a forgery.

He was therefore expected to act professionally by exposing the said forgeries.

But instead Mwenda used it as an opportunity to meet president Museveni.

The controversial story which he refused to publish was linking three powerful ministers, the then prime minister Amama Mbabazi, foreign affairs minister Sam Kuteesa, and Hon Hilary Onek for receiving bribes from foreign oil firms.

Although the story was premised on false accusations, Andrew Mwenda should have published it and proved that it was a false story circulating around to preempt it.

But by not publishing it and exposing it as a forgery, Mr. Mwenda did a disservice to Ugandans because the whole thing managed to make IT to the floor of parliament and was debated for so many hours.

By NOT publishing this misleading story, as a misleading story for that matter, Mwenda gave the story the mileage to circulate within the corridors of power to the extent of getting debated in parliament.

However, despite of behaving unprofessionally, Mwenda managed to achieve his cardinal objective of wining back the trust of president Museveni which had been bruised in the past.

That story of the oil scandal is the one that re-connected president Museveni with Andrew Mwenda.

 Today Mwenda, who once called president Museveni a villager, is one of president Museveni’s biggest allies.  And consequence is that Mwenda is no longer regarded as a trusted source of information or source of guidance on national matters. 

But remember that Andrew had built his journalistic reputation by attacking and critiquing president Museveni ,in a one dimensional manner. so it was always hard to get objective journalism from him. because he was either purely against or for president Museveni at various points of his career.

And that is the tragedy of Ugandan journalism.

Andrew Mwenda is not alone. There are very many journalists who have built their careers from abusing president Museveni or praising him.  

 there is a phenomenon which shows that many journalists who start by abusing Museveni normally end up in the same bed with him and vice varsa.

 For instance the current government spokesman Mr Ofwono Opondo started his journalist career as a rabid critic of president museveni before he was co-opted into the NRM. 

This has left the country without a reliable journalist.

 Yet a professional journalist should neither be against or for government but for objective journalism.

The Inevitable Rise Of Social Media

 all these anomalies have forced the citizens to resort to social media as a source of information , its imperfections notwithstanding.

And I like to think that social media is completely going to kill the print media. People who are connected to social media don’t have to buy copies of newspapers to get informed about what is going on in the country.

  

No print media house can get a story which has not first leaked to the social media. By the time the print media gets a story, the people will have already read it on social media.

And this is bad news for print media which is now becoming an endangered species at a very first rate.

The way machines replaced manpower is the same way email replaced post office, the same way mobile money is replacing banking and it will be the same way social media is replacing print media.

The effects are already visible.  The Ugandan papers are becoming weaker in content and weaker in financial power.

Today the papers have got no attractive stories, they have reduced on circulation and they have very few adverts.

What has remained relevant in many of these newspapers are columns of opinion writers. In the near future the readers will buy newspapers basing on the quality of opinion writers it has in them.

Other than that, the print media will die a slow death. Only media house with printers will survive.

And even these media houses with printers will have to either reduce on the price of the copy or be very creative to survive.

The major print media houses need to do a lot of brain storming and re-branding the social media revolution.
In fact when social media became fashionable around 2008, some of  us pressurized Red-pepper newspaper  director Mr Arinitwe Rugyendo to start a website for the pepper.

But he tactfully brushed off our arguments by reasoning that  it (publishing stories online) would affect the copy sales.   With time Mr Rugyendo has proved to be prophetically right.
Most people will not buy a copy of newspaper as long as they are assured of reading it on social media.
Some newspapers delay to share their stories on social media to compel people to buy the copy. but many of them have given up and are sharing stories of the whole newspaper on social media.
 i personally read Bukedde and The Observer online. that means i cannot spend a coin on the publication. that puts the print media industry in danger of extinction.
it obviously means that we should not send our children into the journalism profession.

Could this mark the slow death of print journalism?

Veteran journalist and former private secretary to the Ugandan president Mr. Tamale Mirundi once said that there is no money in journalism. He says that for him he started as a newspaper vendor, wrote stories, owned a newspaper, but has only benefited when he is clocking sixty years. And he has benefited after getting adopted into government as an assistant to the president and not as a journalist.

Ends

  The author, Fred Daka Kamwada-Kamwada is a senior journalist and a blogger;

  

   Connect with him on kamwadafred@yahoo.com or 0782480121