Mwenda Double jeopardy; The Rise and Fall of Andrew Mwenda the Erstwhile Fighter For Social Justice Now Turned Total Sycophant

 

Mwenda Double jeopardy; The Rise and Fall of Andrew Mwenda the Erstwhile Fighter For Social Justice Now Turned Total Sycophant

Last week Andrew Mwenda stormed the offices of the freshly unveiled National Unity Party (NUP) and declared his intentions to contest against party president Hon Robert kyagulanyi.

Although this move was considered a prank by serious observers, it also   demonstrates that perhaps the motor-mouthed journalist misses opposition politics which made him the biggest brand in the country.

Mwenda has been a bitter critic of the People Power Movement (a pressure group that metamorphosed into the National Unity Party) and considers them intolerant, uncouth, primitive and probably worse than Museveni.

He considers them (PP) a terrorist group that has hallmarks of radical group similar to that of the Libyan rebel forces known as the Misratta brigade that participated in the overthrow and eventual death of Libyan despot Col Muamar Ghadafi.

So for Andrew Mwenda to visit the offices of ‘the Misratta brigade’ was indeed historic.

He later posted a very friendly post in which he said that he found them (NUP) more tolerant, and accommodative than he had expected. He also promised to contest against Bobiwine with the hope of defeating him at the party’s delegate’s conference. Looking at him speak was like watching Mr. Bean, the comedy man.

MWENDA OF THE PAST

All indications are that Mwenda misses the aura and the believability he used to enjoy when he was still associated with fighting for social justice.

Although he was a mere journalist, Mwenda made his name by opposing most of the injustices occasioned by president Museveni’s regime.

While journalism presupposes objectivity, fairness and giving all sides the chance to give their opinions about a given issue, Mwenda had deliberately made it clear that he had an inclination for giving more traction and space to the opposition.

He had become the voice of the opposition in the media. He made his name by not only criticizing but also by literally abusing by president Museveni.

Case in point; when Col John Garang perished in a helicopter crash, Mwenda accused president Museveni for causing the death of the SPLA leader. He went on to call Museveni a villager who had failed to govern the country.

He was incarcerated for a few days before he went back to his radio program on K-fm radio and writing in the daily.

Later on Mwenda quit the newspaper basing on the reason that it was no longer an objective vehicle for fighting social injustice in the country because the owner, the Agha khan, was in bed with president Museveni.

He promptly started his own media house, The Independent Magazine in which he continued his attacks against the NRM regime, drawing attention to the nepotism that was being practiced by president Museveni by mentioning all his relatives working for government.

OFF TO KIGALI

For reasons not known immediately, Mwenda started doing public relations for the Rwanda government

His job in kigali was to do propaganda that would project rosy growth figures and ‘wonderful’ economic growth statistics which made Rwanda ‘the shining star’ in the region. The project initially worked because everyone started believing in Rwanda and quoting it as the benchmark for better governance, sound polices etal.

Mwenda also resurrected the Kisangani battles that had been fought in 1999-2003 between the UPDF and RDF by focusing more on the battles where UPDF was beaten badly by RDF.

He had totally sacrificed his mother country for the few pieces of silver from Kigali.  

Soon, the cold war erupted between two erstwhile countries got to a breaking point.

Trust vintage Mwenda, for he was the man who brokered the deal to reconcile presidents Paul Kagame and Yoweri Museveni. We have been reliably informed that Mwenda made dollars and pounds from that deal to reconcile the two leaders.

But the contradiction of all is that both leaders have failed to fully reconcile, to-date- Rwanda has still not opened its borders with Uganda to-date.

It’s believed that although the leaders of both countries loathed each other so much, they were also not ready to get to full-scale war against each other.

 Mwenda has however always insisted that he cannot rule out that one day these countries will fight each other-notwithstanding the cover up diplomacy.

TIES WITH KAMPALA

Interestingly while Mwenda was working for Kigali, the reality was that he had very close ties with almost the entire power brokers in Kampala.

For instance he has very strong friendship with first son Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, and enjoys comradely bond with Museveni’s brother Gen Salim Saleh.

He  is also in a an enviable position of being in talking terms with almost all the top UPDF generals both in government and those who quit and are in opposition politics in the country.  

Recently, a few years ago, it was rumored that Mwenda had been sacked by the Kigali establishment. But he immediately found vacancy at state house Nakasero, where he is known to be one of the top informal advisors for president Museveni, a feat that makes him the only journalist who has worked for two states that are hostile to each other.

ASSOCIATION WITH MAFIA

But working closely with the Ugandan state has come at a cost. Today Mwenda is associated with the mafia group that runs errands for the Ugandan president around state house.

Although he holds no official position in government he wields a lot of influence in the corridors of power. He can influence the deployment, appointment and sacking of public officials, influence policy and can influence or tilt decisions made by the president.

 All these machinations and contacts have made Mwenda one of the richest journalists in Uganda.

The Paranoia Of Losing It All

But Mwenda seems to suffer from the same disease that affects most Ugandans who have amassed a lot of wealth during Museveni’s 34 year reign--the paranoia of losing it all.

Although they made the wealth through Museveni, they also find Museveni’s continued stay in power a big risk to their wealth.

Although Museveni has guaranteed peace and stability for the last three decades, his continued stay is becoming more of a liability than an asset for the wealthy class. The trends in world politics have demonstrated that regimes in third world countries cannot guarantee stability without sanitizing the politics.

In Uganda the agitation for regime change has grown to a level where it cannot be ignored because Museveni has failed to guarantee peaceful transfer of power amidst agitation for him to handover to another leader.

There are fears that the forces of change might violently sweep Museveni of power and endanger the stability of the country like it was with Sudan president Omar Bashir, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, in Libya with Col Muamar Ghadafi and many other leaders who had failed to create peaceful transition power. In such situations the masses have risen up and dethroned their intransigent leaders.

President Museveni’s failure to undertake a peace transfer of power has put him in the spotlight as one of the leaders to face the same fate like the aforementioned leaders.

Interestingly, Mwenda chose to work with Kampala at a time when president Museveni had lost the moral authority and respect after amending the constitution two times (lifting the term and age limits).

That has come with money and power, but attracted negative fame for him (M9).

He is no longer believable and lacks the moral authority to direct debate like he used to do in the past when he was inclined to the fight against social injustice.

That has put him in a catch twenty two situation. He is enjoying money and fraternizing with powerful members of the regime but lacks the believability of the society.

In fact, today Mwenda is considered a serious member of the mafia group that is fleecing state resources. His last mention in the media was when he was involved in withdrawing billions of shillings from bank of Uganda.

The Mwenda who was a mere journalist is now in a position where he cannot influence debate, cannot be trusted as a journalist and cannot join the forces of change.

CONCLUSION

It’s a pity that Mwenda has reached a point where he can only make pranks about national issues. His comical visit at the NUP offices have not only demonstrated that he is indeed a lost brand but have also proved that he no longer takes himself seriously.

Instead of making an objective analysis about the fate of NUP he chose to go and make a mockery of himself!

It’s about time we ran a story narrating the rise and fall of the once great Andrew Mwenda, the man who used to talk and move the airwaves and leave Ugandans in awe about his intellect.

Today he is widely regarded as the one of the biggest sycophants for the regime he used to criticize so much. It’s totally uncertain whether Mwenda will ever rise again.

What a waste of brain power!

The author Fred Daka Kamwada is journalist and a blogger

Chat him up on; Kamwadafred@gmail.com

 

Are the 2021 Elections Already Rigged?; President Yoweri Museveni Has Resorted To Milton Obote’s Gerrymandering Tricks Of 1980

Are the 2021 Elections Already Rigged?; President Yoweri Museveni Has Resorted To Milton Obote’s Gerrymandering Tricks Of 1980

On Thursday 29^th July 2020, the Ugandan parliament passed a resolution that led to the creation of 46 newly created constituencies. The net effect was that the parliament will have 46 more members of parliament, making it a whooping 526 mps in the house!

The approval in the plenary session chaired by Speaker Rebecca Kadaga followed a motion by the Minister for Local Government, Raphael Magezi in which he said that the counties are created basing on a population quarter of 150,000, means of communication, level of economy, wishes of the people and others.

The creation of more counties was also premised on the argument of effective representation, but the timing itself, in a campaign period make it look like an election strategy to win the 2021 elections.

Given the fact that almost 85% of the created constituencies are NRM strongholds, this strategy fits in the category of a mischievous political trick called Gerrymandering.

Be critical enough to note there was no mention of the same in opposition hotspots like Kasese , Arua , Gulu, kampala etc.

 

Instead there was prominence in NRM strongholds of western Uganda where you have mention of Ruhaama, Ruhinda ,Rwampara , Bugangaizi , , Buhweju,Kiboga Mitooma, kagadi etc and many others which will obviously add numbers to NRM in parliament.

 

History repeats itself

Interestingly, when Obote was strategizing to win the 1980 elections, he used the same gerrymandering tricks.

Candidate Obote smartly identified all the UPC strongholds and divided them into new constituencies.

For instance he divided the strongest UPC Strongholds of Opac district into Opac north, Opac south, Opac west and Opac east. He went on to do the same in most of eastern and northern Uganda which were all UPC strongholds.

This gerrymandering gave Obote an immediate advantage in the 1980 elections..

Obote was also smart enough NOT TO make the mistake of dividing areas opposed to UPC and much more aligned to DP like Mpigi district which remained big but with just one member of parliament.

One important aspect about the 1980 elections, and which is not talked about these days, is that it was contested in a parliamentary format which prescribes that the party that wins more seats in the form of members of parliament makes government.

Due to this gerrymandering exercise it meant that UPC already had 17 unopposed seats even before vote was cast. This clearly shows that UPC was bound to win the elections, notwithstanding the DP dominance in Buganda.

The problem (that led to insinuations of rigging) was that the army of the time was more aligned to UPC and was central in making a lot of human rights violations that undermined Obote’s victory.

The partisan UNLA army, committed crimes of torture and killed most of the opponents of the UPC.

It these violations that made the 1980 elections look like rigged elections. In fact the UNLA army made Obote himself look like one of the worst killers, yet there is a lot of evidence to show that he wasn’t.

For instance, if you want to find out Obote’s track record, you look at how he handled the political personalities who had opposed him in the 60s.

In fact even the man, who had tried to assassinate him at Lugogo, was simply arrested and jailed at Luzira prison. I think I am digressing because the subject was gerrymandering and not Obote’s human rights record.

BUT THE DIGRESSING WAS CONTEXTUAL.

I was simply saying that politically speaking, the landscape of the 1980 favored UPC to win those elections.

But since history has mostly been written by the victims and losers of the 1980 elections, they combined the atrocities committed by the army and combined them with the political fate of the time.

Politically speaking Obote was in a better shape than all the other contestants and would have won those particular elections, anyway-notwithstanding his unpopularity in Buganda.

When BBC stringer Robin white interviewed the then army chief of staff Maj gen David Oyite (the clip is there on YouTube) he asked him about the fate of the elections, he simply told him (Robin White) to go and ask same question to the common wealth observers who had come to cover those elections.

The unanimous view of the commonwealth observers was that the elections had been won by UPC, notwithstanding the unfairness that preceded them.

So when the Ugandan parliament sat and created another 46 constituencies, it was a case of history repeating itself.

Gerrymandering was a waste of time

 Just like it was with UPC dominating all the newly created counties, the NRM is dominant in all the newly created counties and will therefore boosted by an additional number of members of parliament to continue endorsing their views in the august house.

The only difference is that this time we are conducting elections basing on a presidential system contrary to 1980 when it was done under a parliamentary system where it was deemed vital to have more MPs in the house.

But while the NRM strategists might be boasting about their gerrymandering tricks, we need to remind them that they are not enough to win the 2021 elections. Why?

One;, because this is a presidential system where an election is conducted on a one man, one vote basis. This means that the person who gathers more aggregate votes throughout the country can become the next resident of Uganda.

The gerrymandering would have been very effective in a parliamentary system because of the big number of assured members of parliament that arose from the creation of new counties.

Secondly, this also means that someone can have fewer MPs in the august house and still become president. So the gerrymandering was advantageous in as far as dominating parliament is concerned and not in influencing the aggregate outcome of the presidential elections.

So when you think deeper, you find that since NRM was already dominant in the parliament, then the gerrymandering was simply a waste of time in as far as influencing the outcome of the presidential elections is concerned because they already had control of the august house.

And the economic consequence is that the cost of expenditure on parliament alone has risen to over Shs 500 billion per annum.

The way forward

The creation of more counties simply means that the house will have over 600 members of parliament. This obviously will result into calls for the creation of another forum for effective representation.

 This will simply mean that we have two houses, the lower and upper house akin to the senate and the congress to create room for more effective debate.

Otherwise I shudder to think that the speaker can identify the eloquent legislators in a house of over 560 mps, it looks like a complete circus.

If the NRM doesn't make some of these corrections , especially in regard to reducing the cost of public expenditure , then it will be incumbent on the next govt to do so.

The author Fred Daka Kamwada is a journalist, socio-political analyst and a blogger

kamwadafred@gmail.com

 

 

THE INDICTMENT OF 21ST CENTURY MEDICAL SCIENTISTS; President Museveni Glorifies Scientists But Forgets That They Have So Far Failed To Find Vaccines For Hiv/Aids, Ebola, Zika Virus, And Don’t Have A Conclusive Scientific Study About Covid-19

THE INDICTMENT OF  21^ST CENTURY MEDICAL SCIENTISTS; President Museveni Glorifies Scientists But Forgets That They Have So Far Failed To Find Vaccines For Hiv/Aids, Ebola, Zika Virus, And Don’t Have A Conclusive Scientific Study About Covid-19

During his recent 22^nd July 2020 covid-19 speech, president Museveni stressed that most of the actions (the harsh restrictions including the much dreaded lockdown) that were undertaken in regard to combating the spread of the corona virus were science-led.

While science on its own is always full proof and can be trusted by virtue of the fact that it is more experimental based and goes through thorough analysis that gives definite results, the approach towards the corona virus was not based on science at all.

The truth of the matter is that this time the scientist did not make enough experiments or enough scientific studies about covid-19. They even admitted that they were not well versed with all the nitty-gritty about covid-19.

Their actions were more presumptive than scientific, more haphazard than methodical and more panic driven than scientific driven.

That’s why they have not even come close to discovering the vaccine that can cure this deadly pandemic. That also explains why they have failed to find out how people are recovering from the virus in big numbers even when there is no known vaccine.

While Ugandans medics suggested that they have used hydroquinone to treat the covid-19patients, the medics from the western world have dismissed it as a mere placebo.

The medics from the western world tried to suggest that the drug called Remedsvil can treat covid-19 but they soon found out that it couldn’t work.

The Remedsvil drug had been made to treat Ebola, but the it failed in that assignment and they shelved it.  They were now speculating that they could transfer a drug meant for Ebola to treat covid-19 , but it still failed to work.

This simply exposes these scientists as a bankrupt lot that shouldn’t be relied upon without asking some logical questions.

THE CLASH OF ORIGINS OF COVID-19

The scientist have clashed on the origin of the corona virus; while some claim that it originated from animals without stating specifically which animals, others claim it originated from bats, yet others claim that it came from pigs or birds etc.

But the politically motivated scientists (mostly the Americans) are still adamant that it was manufactured in a Chinese laboratory of Wuhan.

Now once there is a clash about the origin of the problem, then you know that the solution is far from being found. I wonder which scientific position president Museveni regards as the source of covid-19.

THE CLASH ON HOW IT IS SPREAD

Then the scientists also clashed in regard to the way the virus was spread.

While others claim that it spreads through close contact between people in a congested area, another group of scientists came up with another version that stated that it is airborne.

Common sense shows that an airborne disease can spread with or without close contact between people.

Another born of contention is about the lifespan of the virus itself on the surfaces. While you hear some claims that the virus can last more than fourteen days on a given surface others are giving contradictory answers.

Now how can a sane person believe in these contradictions?

THE VERACITY OF THE GUIDELINES

 When the corona virus broke out in Wuhan at the end of 2019, these scientists in conjunction with the idiots at the world health organization designed health guidelines that practically consigned the world economy to its knees.

They suggested suicidal guidelines like staying at home in total isolation for the entire population, even when the disease trend showed that the virus was very specific in attacking older and vulnerable people.

They recommended staying at home completely without exercising, yet evidence proved that the disease was easily averted by some degree of exercising by running outdoors.

A frightened Population was confined in their homesteads and were exposed to air conditioners which further undermined their health systems.

These guidelines of confining people in their homes killed thousands of people than covid-19 itself in countries like Italy, Spain, Germany, china, USA etc.

Actually there is a lot of evidence to show that more people died during a complete lock-down in those respective countries than after relaxation of restrictions.

Forcing people in self isolation came with the unintended consequences of traumatizing people used to social interaction and moving around freely.

THE VOICE OF REASON

Some of us who had read through the lines, rejected most of these scientists mostly because the scientists themselves had not used scientific means to arrive at those protocols they designed to either combat or avert covid-19

We thought some wise world leaders should have opposed SOME OR EVEN most of those suicidal guidelines, but very few leaders possessed the wisdom to put up some resistance.

The only world leader who almost discovered the mediocrity of these scientists was American president Donald trump who attacked the world health organization and opposed some stupid guidelines like lock-down.

At one time he even tried to rally the Americans in Michigan, Ohio, and Florida to come out and work.

At one time he even opposed the idea of making mandatory wearing of masks, saying that others may have to wear them, not him.

Other brave and logical leaders who questioned the silly health guidelines like Brazilian president Brosonaro were silenced by the high number of infections and deaths to covid-19.

Yet the truth is that those high number of infections and deaths would have occurred irrespective/ with or without the health guidelines.

Why? Because some of these pandemics are like a wave that sweeps through a given territory irrespective of how prepared you are.

Ineptitude of 21^st century medics 

 

Florence nightingale

The mediocrity of these scientists, particularly of the 21^st century, is more pronounced by their clear failure to come up with vaccines for the various pandemics like HIV/Aids, ebola, Sars, zika and corona virus respectively.

In fact there are suggestions that these scientists have been using 19^th century methods to cure diseases of the 21^st century!

Gone are the days of the great scientists like Louis  Pasteur the man who researched about germ disease , joseph liter who made important discoveries  in antiseptic surgery, Florence nightingale in the field of nursing and many others i couldn't list here.

Therefore suggestions that president Museveni was led by scientists to impose the restrictions that led to the suffering of Ugandans was absurd.

What m7 should have done

As a leader with some personal intelligence and some degree of independent reasoning, president Museveni should have applied some logic before implementing those guidelines.

For instance, he should have questioned how people were to survive without working for more than 120 days?

He should have been honest enough to tell those scientists that Uganda as a country doesn’t possess the welfare structure or capacity to feed Ugandans for even 20 days.

He should also have reasoned that the virus can be handled by observing some basic protocols that CANNOT hurt the economy like mandatory wearing of masks, washing of hands, social distancing, etc.

As we speak right now, president Museveni has no idea how people with closed businesses in the private sector will deal with paying rent, paying loans, monthly remittances to NSSF, paying salaries etc.

CONCLUSION 

Therefore while president Museveni can claim that he was led by scientists, it’s clear that they did well in misleading him than offering more logical solutions in the fight against the corona virus.

While it’s true that science provides more tried and tested methods of work for humanity, there is a lot of evidence to show that the scientists of today don’t seem to posses the scientific capabilities of the scientists of the previous centuries.

The medical scientists of today lack the innovative mind, the proclivity for research and the general prowess to be relied upon.

President Museveni therefore shoots himself in the foot when he claims that he Was science-led in a venture (of covid-19) where there was little or no application of science in the first place.  

I rest my case

 The author Fred Daka Kamwada is a blogger, social critic and political analysts

kamwadafred@gmail.com

Challenges of a liberalized economy; It’s The Market Forces Which Will Determine Whether Sanyu Fm Management Was Wrong To Sack Its Employees

This week has been dominated by the news of the impromptu sacking of Sanyu fm radio workers by the management. It is believed that the Sanyu management had imposed a 25% salaries cut of the workers, who in turn, flatly rejected the idea leading to an exodus from the radio station.

Many have expressed shock that an employer can wake up one day and sack the entire work force especially during this unforgiving tough economic covid-19 period.

You can as well say that all those complaints are premised on ignorance of the workings of the current economic structure of the country.

You need to know the rules of the game to complain about the decisions of the referee.  It’s clearly obvious that most Ugandans don’t understand the working philosophy of the Ugandan economy-which is really absurd.

The Cold War Phenomenon

The reason why there was very protracted cold war between the capitalist west and the socialist / communist west was exactly because of those arguments like job security, wages control, price controls and others.

They were about who controls economic decisions and how they should be imposed on the populace.

While the capitalists adored and actually employed the capitalist system which was premised on dictates of a free market economy where demand and supply determined the flow of economic activities, the socialists/communists believed in a centrally planned economy which was dictated by the state.

In a capitalist setting there is belief in a liberalized economic environment, where the private sector is controlled by market forces of demand and supply.

In such a structure the employers and indeed the employees decide where to get/take their labor and at what rate. They make individual decisions with the sole intention of catching up with the dictates of a free market atmosphere.

That is the major reason why the minimum wage couldn’t and cannot work in a liberalized economic environment because that is determined by the labor market forces.

If the worker is talented or highly qualified, he attracts the attention of high paying organizations and vice-varsa. This gives the indispensable worker the right to make a case for how much he will be paid.

If the worker is not skilled enough or not productive enough or doesn’t contribute to the profitability of the company, then he s/he should expect anything ranging from low pay or even getting sacked.

Capitalisms is very harsh to lazy, unskilled and unproductive workforce.

In a socialist setting, however, the state determines the price of the goods on the market, determines the wages through a very strict minimum wage policy.

Socialism therefore protects laziness, un-productivity, and unprofitability.

Socialism in Africa

In Uganda of the pre-1986 era, government used to set the prices of sugar paraffin and other goods. That’s why the Ugandans had every justification to listen to the budget speech at all costs. This was mainly because the country was operating a socialist policy which is largely centrally planned.

The objective of the socialists/communists is to get rid or deter exploitation. They therefore envisage an egalitarian society where all citizens are equal irrespective of the effort they invest in their work.

The problem is that it also condoned laziness, mediocrity and paid no attention to profitability.

On the other hand the capitalist approach rewards innovation and hard work because it’s premised on the pursuit of profit.

The difference between the two philosophies was the one that led to the cold war between America and the western world at large that espoused capitalism and Russia and the eastern bloc which espoused communism and socialism in varying degrees. Russia led the eastern bloc of communists and socialists while America led the capitalist bloc.

Both powers went on to share the world basing on the two principals of capitalism versus communism.

A defeated Germany after the Second World War was divided by the Berlin wall between capitalistic western Germany and communist eastern Germany.

Korea was divided into capitalistic South Korea and North Korea (communist). America had to fight a very costly war to avert the emergence of communism in Vietnam.

The eventual outcome

The outcome of both polices is well reflected at how the countries fared in terms of economic development. The results showed that the countries that espoused capitalistic systems developed more than the communists.

In the end the communism was defeated and the Berlin wall was broken down in 1990.  From that moment on, the debate of whether a country was pro-west or pro-east never made sense because the cold war had come to an end.

During the cold war era most African leaders had adopted a socialist leaning approach. Leaders like Mwalimu Julius Nyerere , Milton Obote , kwame Nkrumah all espoused socialistic tendencies.

Patrick Lumumba was assassinated because his socialist beliefs.

It must however be honestly be emphasized that socialism was the best option for African countries because they had not developed the character to handle the exploitative challenges associated with capitalism.\

So you can as well say that the post independence African leaders were right to adopt a socialist option.

Africans had not developed the innovative character to deal with the challenges of capitalism because they were not productive enough to satisfy the supply side for goods.

For instance at the time of independence sixty years ago, most businesses were run by Indians while Africans only had to till the land.

You find that an Indian only had to hoard a given good to create scarcity which would then lead to a rise in demand and in turn a rise in price of a product.

This exposed them to exploitation from the Indians. One can also say that this was the major reason why President Idi Amin was compelled to expel the Indians from Uganda in 1972.

That scenario couldn’t happen in a socialist setting because the prices were set by central authority.

Uganda today

Today Uganda runs a mixed economy but which is largely liberalized private sector led. This approach makes it very difficult for government to provide employment to Ugandans or to even protect the citizens from exploitation.

The principal of fairness is therefore left for market forces to iron out.

The god thing is that unlike in the past, today the Ugandans have increased their level of productivity which can sustain the supply aspect of the equation.

On the labor aspect, most Ugandans have achieved some level of skill to attract a good wage.

If a given worker is skilled and productive enough, he will dictate how much he gets paid. If the workers are in big supply then their wages will go down.

Now the situation at Sanyu fm is not unique to Sanyu fm alone. It is the order of the day in all organizations around the country because of the reasons (market dictates) advanced above.

Since we have no minimum wage , like I reasoned at the beginning of this article , the employer is at free will to determine how much to pay.

But since , like I said earlier,  the employer is motivated by profit , then there is no way he will decide to either sack or cut the wages of workers who are contributing to the profitability of the organization.

Principally speaking, it’s imagined the Sanyu fm management made that decision because the revenues and profit books were not balancing.

Am not saying that employers are always right or motivated by profit all the time. Of course they make irrational decisions which are normally punished by the market forces.

What am saying is that if the employees feel that they were contributing to the profitability of Sanyu fm, then they should simply quit and take their skills elsewhere.

Personal experience

I was working at one media house, but when it made a mess of my wages, I quit. And you know what happened?

When I quit that print media house, its copy sales fell drastically to the extent that you hardly see its circulation on the streets or in the super markets any more.

But when I was still there, that paper was the talk in town, and its circulation and copy sales were felt all over the country.

The point here is that when an employer doesn’t recognize the efforts of the good worker, he pays the price. So let’s see if the market forces will punish Sanyu fm for its decisions. That is the beauty of the free market economy.

The author Fred Daka Kamwada is political journalist and a blogger

kamwadafred@gmail.com

HERE IS A LASTING SOLUTION TO RACISM; Black Police Officers Should Be The Ones Assigned To Arrest Black Americans, Period

HERE IS A LASTING SOLUTION TO RACISM; Black Police Officers Should Be The Ones Assigned To Arrest Black Americans, Period  

The horrifying death of George Floyd has left the world wondering whether racism and racist tendencies will ever come to an end. The style with which the white policeman called Derek Chauvin killed Floyd by simply placing his knee on his neck was also another killing technique for the commandos to ponder about.

That knee-on-the-neck killing style has never been applied anywhere, not even in the most imaginative movies and will forever remain eked in many peoples minds. 

Looking at the clip, you see the policeman completely oblivious of the harm he was inflicting on his victim. His face is without emotion. I mean he doesn’t show that he was carrying out something nasty.

Normally when someone is undertaking a malicious act, his malicious act is normally reflected by the evil looks on the face. The killer normally has to clench his teeth and add some emphasis with a very malicious look.

This was certainly not the case with Officer Derek Chauvin. This means that perhaps, you will excuse me for expressing this, but I got the feeling that the policeman never knew the gravity of his actions. He never seemed to know that he was actually killing George Floyd!.

One may ask why then didn’t he listen to the pleas for mercy from Floyd?

Because he probably thought that Floyd was feigning it (Am just trying to be empathic to the policeman Derek Chauvin)

THE SPONTANEOUS REACTION

But moving forward, the outcome has been very welcome. This time the mass protests have certainly given meaning to the Black-Lives-Matter-Campaign.

The protests have been unanimous in the way they have united the whole world against racism.

The good news is that the whites have been the majority in condemning the death of George Floyd.

This simply means that racism as an act is now unacceptable in the circles of the civilized world. We shouldn’t be having more debates about that anymore.

At least we are not at the same level of the 1960s when racism was institutionalized. In South Africa racism was manifested through the apartheid system which lasted for very many years.

At that time the world was divided between those who justified the racism and those who opposed it. Unfortunately, the world powers like America and Britain were the biggest supporters of the racism.

That explains why South Africa had to even legalize apartheid as a system where the whites lived in a different setting from the blacks. The blacks couldn’t share a bus seat, toilet, or table in the hotel with the whites. They had to leave apart from each other-by law.

The likes of martin Luther king and Malcolm x struggled to bring attention to the racial injustice to no avail. Blacks continued to suffer at the hands of the white supremacists.

I read Malcolm X‘s biography and he talks about the hate that the Whiteman imposed on the blacks. He also said that the hate that the white man had inflicted on the black man was going to boomerang and beget more hate from the black race.

When President Kennedy was assassinated in the 60s, Malcolm x made a hate statement that resulted into his death when he said that ‘the chickens had come home to roast’.

Elijah Mohammed, the then leader of the nation of Islam foundation, to which Malcolm x belonged, swore to kill him (Malcolm ) for advancing a hate campaign and eventually fulfilled his wish.

You can as well say that Malcolm was killed for trying to push the hate agenda beyond the accepted limits. He thought the black race needed to advance a radical hate agenda against the whites, but his message never seemed to percolate.

Nevertheless the struggle for racial equality has been going on with some slight success. The end of apartheid thirty years ago in South Africa was the first victory against racism.  But in the western world, especially America, the white policemen have continued to kill blacks.

At times the issue has blown out of proportion, at other times it has been a case of mere misunderstanding about the circumstances under which the death has occurred.

At other times the policemen have been in a dilemma dealing which young black Americans who are hardcore criminals.

You find that even when the white policeman kills an afro-American criminal, the story will change (into a race issue) as long as the said criminal is black and the police officer is white.

The way forward

Why should the white policeman bother to arrest a black wo/man? The solution is to simply assign black police officers to handle the blacks. For instance the police vehicle should have both white and black officers to cater for specific cases to avoid turning honest police work into a racist issue.

The American police should use the same strategy used to avoid gender confrontations between men and women where a police woman is the one assigned to arrest a fellow woman.

It will be interesting to see how the world will react when a black police officer kills a fellow black man. We shall debate the issue on its own merits rather than rush to make it look like a racial issue.

That policy is definitely set to end the racial confrontations which we have witnessed for very many years.

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

kamwadafred@gmail.com

ITS ONE THING HAVING RISING NUMBER OF INFECTIONS, IT’S ANOTHER HAVING DEATHS TO COVID-19; Third World Countries Like Uganda Have Got No Social Structure To Handle Challenges Associated With Lock-Down

ITS ONE THING HAVING RISING NUMBER OF INFECTIONS, IT’S ANOTHER HAVING DEATHS TO COVID-19; Third World Countries Like Uganda Have Got No Social Structure To Handle Challenges Associated With Lock-Down

 There are believable reports that the entire cabinet of the government of southern Sudan including vice president Riak Machar have all tested positive to the corona virus.

 According to the world media, the entire covid-19 taskforce of the juba authorities, with the single exception of the health minister, have been infected with the pandemic.

It’s obvious that the covid19 pandemic has indeed taken its toll on humanity all over the world.

Lets Interrogate The Exaggerations

 But it’s also a fact that the extent of its devastation has been blown out of proportion. We need to interrogate whether the health measures which WHO instituted were well informed or out of panic. There is overwhelming evidence which attests to the fact that some measures were not well thought out.

While there are alarming levels of infections, the deaths are relatively not that alarming. Its one thing having people testing positive to covid-19 and it’s completely a different story having them die of the same.

 We should debate along those lines. For instance while America has lost over 100,000 people to covid-19, Uganda has lost none!

Uganda is, however, eager to pose as an endangered country by virtue of the 212 people who have tested positive to covid-19 with 68 people who have recovered and zero deaths.

Why should Ugandan adopt the same measures like America?

These are two different dimensions which we should interrogate accordingly.

But let’s talk logically.

If so many people are getting infected, how many are recovering?

Globally 5.43m people have been infected, 2.18 have recovered while 0.345 thousand people have perished.

If you factor in the number of a little more than a quarter a million people out of the global population of 7.8 billion people, you simply realize that the figures and stats are entirely not in favor of sacrificing the global economy in the name of fighting a pandemic.  There was NO need to enforce the lock-down to fight covid19 whatsoever.

Now if the number of people recovering is far bigger than those perishing then we should be having a different narrative. We should be employing a strategy that is not as panic-driven as the one which was designed by the world health organization that obliterated the world economy.

If people are recovering even before a vaccine is found then we should be confident that covid19 can be contained without sacrificing the livelihoods with a lock-down.

WE CAN LIVE WITH COVID19

We should be honest and concede that mankind can live side by side with the corona virus, like we have done with the previous pandemics which have had a devastating effect on the world.

As we speak now, there is no direct vaccine for the Ebola virus, the aids pandemic, SARS and the ZIKA virus. But those pandemics have somehow evaporated.

We are almost certain that the vaccine for the corona virus will not be found in the near future. There is a very good chance that it might simply evaporate on its own without the healing powers of a vaccine or health guidelines that were issued by the inept world health organization.

And the narrative now is that ’its one thing registering a big number of people infected with covid-19, and it’s another thing altogether to have people perishing to covid-19.

THE IMPLICATIONS

The implication is that we should base our decisions in the fight against tcovid19 more on the number of deaths than on the number of infections.

Because if we base on the number of infections to institute tough measures we shall be missing the whole point.

Experience has so far proved that most African countries took the drastic measures to enforce the lock-down before they even knew what the whole fracas was all about.

They based on scanty information from WHO to force their citizens into self isolation even when it’s clear that they (most African countries) don’t have the necessary social economic structures to shutdown their economies.

As time goes by, the world will come to realize that the lock-down was one of the most idiotic measures ever undertaken in the fight of the corona virus.

The Ugandan government, for instance caged people in a complete lockdown in the entire country for more than two months but failed to feed even one percent of the population.

When the population cried out, the government dispatched food, in the form of rotten beans full of stones and poor quality posho which they tried to serve in just two towns of Kampala and wakiso.

They Ugandan government has even failed to those two respective districts. It’s a shame of the highest proportions.

This is where the world health organization carries a bigger blame coz they were the authors of that lock-down idea as a one of the guidelines to stop the spread of covid-19.

Once dictatorships got the WHO instructions they used them as a weapon to suppress and subjugate their people and as an opportunity to demonstrate power.

They confined people in their homes without food for more than sixty days. And when they delivered the rotten food, it was not sufficient enough to cover that period of the quarantine.

THE CONDEMNATIONS

The world should condemn these inhuman acts that have been done in the guise of fighting covid-19 by some demonic African governments.

Although these governments couldn’t feed their citizens, they also made it a criminal offence for anyone to volunteer assistance to the suffering people in the form of food grants.

If you cannot feed your people, why don’t you allow them to get the assistance from other sources?

In Uganda, one Member of Parliament called Hon Francis Zaake tried to help out his people by distributing some food items, but he was arrested and tortured to near death by the Ugandan police.

The police was acting on the orders of president Museveni who had instructed the immediate arrest anyone found distributing food, citing attempted murder as the charge that would be used against the volunteer.

The Ugandan government has so far collected over shs40bn from wiling citizens as donation fund to fight covid19, but there is little chance that it will be accounted for.

The health care system is in shambles but government has got no single idea of revamping it using those newly generated resources.

PRECEDENCE

Yet there are plenty of case studies to learn from in other countries. For instance in china, when covid19 broke out, the Chinese government managed to build a make shift hospital in just two months!

Okay, you can claim that china is a first world country that can afford such an indulgence.

But look at Kenya; they have made a big investment in the health sector by increasing the number of beds in all hospitals around the country. They have revamped the staff of hospital workers by recruiting new personnel in almost all hospitals around the country.

The Kenyan government has even made an economic stimulus package that will see Kenyan youth receive cash handouts from government.

What has the Ugandan government done so far?

Nothing apart from posturing that they are fighters, and taking credit for the zero deaths of Ugandans to covid19.

Well, the Ugandan government doesn’t deserve any credit for the fight against covid-19 because they were accomplices in allowing it to spread in the country in the first place when they took long to close Entebbe airport.

The majority of the covid19 cases have all been imported from outside the country –which is a direct primary responsibility of government to deal with incoming persons.

Interestingly, last month some members of parliament passed a motion recognizing president Museveni as hero who has fought and defeated the corona virus! Oh dear! What an irony.

Wonders indeed never cease.

The way forward

There is no justification for the continued lock-down when countries that have lost more people have opened up to normal business.

Open up now. Ugandans are yearning for their right to earn a living!

The author Fred Daka Kamwada is a political journalist, blogger and currently an anti-lock-down activist.

kamwadafred@gmail.com