Despite concerns over political and corporate corruption combined with failures in accountability and transparency worries, the government of Uganda seems set on bulldozing ahead with the planned Bujagali Dam, write Muramuzi Frank and F.C. Oweyegha-Afunaduula. The dam would destroy the Bujagali Falls on the Nile and affect the livelihoods of about 6,800 people.

The Bujagali Dam project, which was proposed in the late 1990s, is one of the most controversial dam projects in the world, and according to the Uganda government is set to continue. The government in April this year announced that it had selected the Aga Khan’s Industrial Promotion Services (IPS) to build the Dam at Dumbbell Island 8 km from the Owen Falls Dam downstream of the river Nile.

According to government, it is “electricity loadshedding” which is driving it (government) to have this dam built as soon as possible, ostensibly to solve the problem. Therefore, this means that it is not the development effectiveness of the project that is driving the process. However, it is now well known that Bujagali Dam is not the least-cost option of the several dams that were proposed in Uganda’s Energy Master Plan ten years ago because it does not seriously factor in costs due to losses in tourism, environmental quality, culture and spirituality as well as socio-economic and socio-political stability. Moreover, it has been established that the cost of Bujagali Dam was skewed to make it appear as if it is twice as cheap as Karuma Dam further downstream of the Nile. Karuma in fact is cheaper and, if built, will not be environmentally, socially and culturally destructive. Even in terms of tourism, there will be virtually no destruction because the dam will not affect the Falls. Further the Karuma dam’s electricity will be cheaper.

Despite government determination to continue with the discredited Bujagali Dam project, many issues remain unresolved. Even the World Bank’s own transparency and accountability watchdogs, the International Finance Corporations (IFCs) Ombudsman and the Inspection Panel found in 2001 and 2002 respectively that the issues involved were critical and required attention. They recommended that if the project were to have development effectiveness, they should not be ignored. The issues of concern remain at the core of civil society action on the Bujagali dam. Unfortunately, they are being ignored and have been loosely explained away by Uganda’s Ministry of Energy in its March 22nd 2005 response to outstanding Bujagali environmental issues raised by National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE) on February 28th 2005.

The issues, which Ugandans have repeatedly and increasingly raised, include the following:
- The political and corporate corruption in the dam process;
- The opportunity cost of Bujagali Falls based tourism;
- Resettlement and compensation related issues;
- Under-valuing of spiritual and cultural wealth of the Bujagali Falls;
- The Government’s failure to show that the price of electricity from the proposed Bujagali Dam will be affordable by the majority of Ugandans;
- The fluctuating cost of the building of Bujagali Dam, which a 2002 study by Prayas of India found to be too costly and not conforming to international standards in the dam construction industry;
- Ignoring the cumulative impacts of Kiira Dam, Nalubaale Dam and the proposed Bujagali Dam, which are close to each other;
- Ignoring comprehensive assessment of the available energy alternatives;
- Falling water levels in Lake Victoria, which unfortunately government has variously blamed on drought - ignoring the real possibility that the reason could be the construction of two dams parallel to each other and drawing water from the same source point;
- Deliberate exclusion of accountability and transparency from the Bujagali Dam process.

The World Bank’s private investment arm, the IFC, was to be the major lender for the project, but pulled out after AES withdrew in August 2003 due to the unresolved controversies surrounding the project. The Bank has not indicated whether or not it will get involved this time. Since the World Bank backed off from the project in 2002, the Ugandan government has proposed various funding mechanisms, from an infrastructure development bond to raiding the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) to pay for the dam. NSSF is a fund to which the country’s workers contribute monthly towards their social security after they have retired from active service.

It is now clear that if government is bent on pursuing the project, the already overtaxed citizens will have to shoulder the cost of the dam as this year’s national budget further vividly suggests. However, the recent debt relief extended to the poorest of the poor countries of Africa of which Uganda is one, might as well be another source of badly needed funds for this dam burden. Yet debt relief indicates that Uganda cannot sustain its economy nor bear the burden of further debt. The wise thing to do with the debt relief is to use the money, which would have been used for debt repayment, to provide social services and security to the citizens’ health and education.

Unfortunately civil society’s views continue to be dismissed by government as encumbrances to industrialization, poverty eradication, economic growth and availability of electricity. NAPE and others who have been raising these issues are not anti-hydropower or against development but work for sustainable development in Uganda’s energy sector, evaluation of technologies and the pursuit of the best energy option for Uganda.

* Muramuzi Fran is Executive Director of the National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE); F.C. Oweyegha-Afunaduula is Coordinator of the Save Bujagali Crusade.

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Ugandans are voting in a referendum to decide whether to adopt a multi-party political system. Parties have been virtually banned for nearly 20 years in an attempt to end years of sectarian violence. Five years ago, in a similar referendum, Ugandans chose to keep the restrictions on the parties.

On the face of things, the conflict in Northern Uganda provided an ideal first test for the new International Criminal Court (ICC). Analysts say it expected local applause for launching an investigation last July into atrocities by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and its elusive leader Joseph Kony. But one year on - with arrest warrants for the self-styled mystic and five of his commanders expected to be issued next month - the probe remains controversial, and Ugandans are divided over what impact it will have on the war.

HIV-positive vendors in East Africa's largest market, which is located in Kampala, Uganda, will be able to access antiretroviral drugs at no cost through a new HIV/AIDS treatment clinic, the Monitor/AllAfrica.com reports. The Uganda Cares-St. Balikuddembe Market Clinic, is the result of a new partnership among the Kampala City Council, the United Market Vendors Association, Development Initiatives International, Marie Stopes Uganda and AHF Global Immunity, an international program of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

Children have petitioned Parliament to legislate a policy that would make Universal Primary Education (UPE) completely free. They also petitioned the government to provide free uniforms, mid-day meals and scholastic materials. They presented their two petitions to the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Edward Sekandi and State Minister for Children Affairs Felix Okot Ogongo at the launch of Uganda Parliamentary Forum for Children on Friday.

Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, our regular columnist, reflects on Norway’s decision to suspend some of its aid to Uganda as a result of faltering democratic reforms. It’s interesting that the West is only now starting to express concern over Uganda after treating President Yoweri Museveni as its ‘darling’ for many years, points our Abdul-Raheem. Museveni’s response of rejecting foreign interference and claiming that the Ugandan electorate should decide on his third term is also questionable. Why didn’t he reject foreign interference when it worked in his favour and why didn’t he consult the electorate when the World Bank and International Monetary Fund came knocking on his door?

Norway has cut some Aid to Uganda reportedly in protest against the 'slow pace and direction of democratic reforms' in the country. The Norwegian Ambassador to the country, Tore Gjos, put a sum to this displeasure at "mishandling of the democratic process'' at a whopping amount of $4 million which is ten percent of total Norwegian Aid to Uganda. The British government earlier in April took a similar line when it withheld $9.5 million in budgetary support to the Uganda government.

It will not be surprising if one or two more so called Donor countries took similar action. But they will be merely symbolic. It is important to note that both the British and the Norwegians talk about 'withholding' not canceling their Aid altogether. So the opposition need not congratulate itself that its campaign against Museveni is succeeding.

No doubt the withholding of Aid has something to do with the stated displeasure at the zigzags in the transitional politics of the country from a virtual one party state to a formal multi party system. The irony is that return to multi-partyism canvassed by both the opposition parties and donor friends of the President for many years - especially after the first ten years of division of Labor between them and the President - is exactly what Museveni has come round to. Is it now a case of not heading the advice: 'Be careful what you pray for, you may just get it'!

From 1986 to 1996 as a reward for bringing Uganda up from the backwaters into a 'positive' role model through macroeconomic reforms Museveni was given a huge discount on the usual democratic conditionalities beloved of Western countries when it pleases them. For being the apostle of IMF/World Bank Structural Adjustment policies he was more or less allowed to shape the politics of the country in his own image. He left the economy to them and they left the politics to him. He became the darling of the west and Kampala a must destination for Western delegations desperate for some good news from Africa or wanting to feel good about themselves.

However the romance has gone bad for many reasons. One, Uganda is no longer the single success story it used to be. Just look at the stories about Mozambique today and you wonder if you were not talking about Uganda of the 1990s. Two, almost all African countries have accepted the reactionary neo-liberal orthodoxy that proclaims that there is no alternative to the market. With so many of them prostrating before imperialism there is no need to be specially disposed towards one particular state or leader.

Three, imperialism has only permanent interests, not permanent friends. This is something that African and other Third world leaders always miss. They think they are so close, so popular and well liked in Washington, Paris, London or Brussels and delude themselves that they are indispensable. They are as dispensable as disposable towels in a toilet. When their Western patrons are tired of them they turn off the tap. The same people who praise them to the heavens as 'the best leader possible' 'the savior of the country', 'the best they can offer' or 'without him there will be chaos' will turn round to condemn them in the direct opposite of those praises.

Four, one of the consequences of the collapse of the Soviet bloc is a more positive environment for democratic politics to take root in many countries. While the West is not necessarily interested in democracy but continuing domination / exploitation, in recent years they are becoming more sophisticated in trying to give democratic legitimacy to their domination through some legitimate domestic processes. Partly this is because civil society in the West itself demands that their governments support what they preach although where their interests are more threatened like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Pakistan, they do not shout so much. Also domestic pressures in many countries challenge the West's hypocrisy and double standards but also make democratic claims on their rulers. However for the many Banana/Ugali republics in Africa their shouts are much louder and impact more direct.

President Museveni and his supporters have generally reacted in two predictable ways. One, they consider the threats of cutting Aid or withholding such and critical comments on the political transition as unacceptable foreign intervention. Their second counter is a seemingly democratic one. All the political issues, they argue, are to be decided by 'the people' therefore it is undemocratic for foreign countries to think they know better than the Ugandan electorate.

In principle both counters are legitimate but the politics is not. Uganda and President Museveni enjoyed so much foreign patronage and basked in it for so long that it is too late in the day to start decrying foreign intervention. They are not opposed to foreign intervention in principle as long as it is on their side. They obviously think that the saying 'those who pay the piper dictate the tune' does not apply to them.

The second argument about letting the people decide is the most unconvincing of the various populist responses from the NRM. They did not ask the people of Uganda when they went to the IMF/World Bank and prostituted themselves to all kinds of donors and foreign interests in the name of inviting investors to Uganda and building a middle class, so why now ask the people to decide only when you have contradictions with your friends? It is not every time that people vote that there is democracy or even a democratic outcome. Even Hitler came in through the ballot box.

The bitter truth though is that after this process is all over the same donors will crawl back to the state house in Kampala bearing their Greek gifts and the president will make his usual jokes, pet talks and foreign rounds and things will return to business as usual. It happened in 1996 and 2001 and who says it will not repeat itself even in the changing circumstances of 2006?

The NRM has succeeded in creating an opposition whose internal bickering and inconsistencies make many to fear them more even when they are alienated from the government. The opposition must learn from the experience of other pro-democracy groups in Africa like Senegal where it took more than forty years and an alliance of 17 opposition parties to get rid of Abdu Diouf or Ghana where Jerry Rawlings' party was fought to a standstill and eventual surrender through consistent battles within democratic spaces opened up through a constitution that he had orchestrated to perpetuate himself or his party if self -succession failed.

Or just look across to neighboring Kenya where after several years of squabbles and internecine warfare, once Moi was not in the picture the opposition was able to get rid of KANU. In both Ghana and Kenya it was important that the long-term ruler was not standing in the election. This is where the removal of limitation on presidential terms in Uganda posits different challenges for a coalition of opposition parties. As long as the President is standing it may be extremely difficult but as the Abdu Diouf experience in Senegal shows, it is not impossible.

What unites all three examples is the continuing engagement by the political parties within the skewed and unbalanced political field but at the same time niggling away at the authority of the ruling party. They did not achieve their victory through boycotts and I do not see how Uganda's anti-NRM groups will use boycott to get rid of Museveni and the NRM. How can they boycott a referendum simply because the government is on the same side. Why bother about the reasons of the NRM instead of concentrating on their own intentions for supporting a return to multi-party democracy? Why boycott the referendum and then contest the election to follow?

* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa. ([email protected] or [email][email protected])

* Please send comments to [email protected]

This report seeks to engage in the current debate on issues of post-conflict reconstruction and appropriate mechanisms of justice within northern Uganda. It begins by outlining both the goals of any reconstruction phase, as well as defining the two words, peace and justice. It considers the current and potential role of traditional, or localised, mechanisms of justice within the conflict zone and in any future period of transition.

Today (July 01), the length and breadth of Kampala, Capital of Uganda is soaked with messages of solidarity and the Global Call to Action against Poverty on this second international White Arm-Band Day. As early as 4 a.m. banners were erected in strategic positions of the city calling upon Ugandans to speak out with one voice and send a clear and powerful message to Prime Minister Tony Blair, President George Bush, the rest of the G8 leaders as well as our President Museveni.

Peace may yet be possible in Northern Uganda in 2005, says the International Crisis Group. "Many elements seem to be in place, but they need to be pursued by President Museveni's government in a more comprehensive framework, given stronger international support and - most urgently - be committed to by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in the context of a specific process with a clearly definable endgame."

At least 60 percent of women in the largest camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in war-torn northern Uganda have encountered some form of sexual and domestic violence, a new survey has revealed. The report, titled "Suffering in Silence", was based on the findings of a joint government and UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) nine-month study in Pabbo camp in Gulu District, about 380 km north of Uganda's capital, Kampala. "Research revealed that six out of ten women in Pabbo Camp are physically and sexually assaulted, threatened and humiliated by men," UNICEF and the government said in the report.

The Council for Economic Empowerment of Women (CEEWA) in collaboration with Uganda National NGO Forum on behalf of the GCAP coalition in Uganda organized civil society events for the first GCAP White Band Day, Day of the African Child in Uganda. Over 500 children from within the city and from the internally displaced camps in the war affected districts of Northern and parts of Eastern Uganda were mobilized and gathered at the Centenary Park in the Kampala city to participate in the events and the street march.

Aminah Mukasa, the formidable headmistress of Masindi Secondary School in western Uganda, is on a mission - she wants to raise enough money to pay her teachers a decent wage. Her methods are simple, brutal and effective - she has all the students who have not paid their fees locked out of the school.

Finance minister Dr. Ezra Suruma in the budget speech shattered teachers' hopes of earning at least sh200,000 as promised by President Yoweri Museveni last year. Suruma instead announced a sh10,000 increment on their current salary of sh130,000. John Situma, the deputy secretary general of the Uganda National Teachers' Union (UNATU)described the increment as a mockery to the teaching profession and an abuse of the President's pledge. In protest, Kampala primary school teachers took to the streets to air their displeasure.

Cholera outbreaks in Uganda have killed at least 10 people, while hundreds of others have been treated for the disease, health officials said last Thursday. The outbreaks were recorded in a congested Kampala slum; in Jonam County in Nebbi District, 300 km northwest of the city; and in a camp for internally displaced people in Gulu District, 380 km north of Kampala. In the slum, north of the city centre, four deaths and four cases of infections have been recorded. The slum is home to an estimated 30,000 people.

Nations like Uganda that host hundreds of thousands of refugees from neighbouring African conflicts should serve as a lesson to the West, where asylum has become confused with terrorism and crime, the new head of the U.N.'s refugee agency said. Marking World Refugee Day with his first overseas trip in the role, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres was visiting camps in one of the most remote corners of the world -- northwest Uganda near the borders with Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Rape, sexual attacks and child abuse are common in northern Uganda's biggest refugee camp, where tens of thousands of people shelter from 19 years of war, the United Nations children's agency said. Some 1.6 million northerners have been uprooted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebellion, triggering a crisis aid workers have called the world's worst neglected emergency. They live in squalid, sprawling settlements where overcrowding, despair and a "culture of silence" allow sexual violence to thrive, especially against children, a study by UNICEF and local officials said.

Uganda's constitutional court on Friday rejected an appeal by hundreds of death row prisoners to outlaw capital punishment, but ruled in favour of putting an end to laws prescribing death as a mandatory sentence for certain crimes. "The death penalty is not unconstitutional because it is given by the laws as punishment after due process," Galdino Okello, who headed the team of constitutional court judges, said.

CEDOVIP is a vibrant NGO working to prevent domestic violence in Uganda. We are looking for an experienced and committed professional for the post of Coordinator. The Coordinator is responsible for the day-to-day management of CEDOVIP including staff supervision, fundraising and donor relations, program development and monitoring. The successful candidate will be an articulate and dynamic individual with demonstrated commitment to promote women's rights.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni changed his stand on Wednesday and said he would campaign for the country's return to multiparty politics during a referendum scheduled for 28 July. For the past two decades, Museveni has strongly opposed party politics and claimed they were the source of Uganda's political upheaval during its post-independence era.

Eight people are shot, hacked and beaten to death and their bloodied corpses dragged to the middle of a dirt road for aid workers to find. Six other fatally wounded victims are left lying nearby, screaming in agony. They die hours later. After nearly two decades of bloodshed, Ugandans are asking why atrocities such as this May 27 attack by Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels still plague the traumatised people of the north - and why they seem to have been forgotten by the world.