Sunday, May 25, 2008
Bemba in, Kony out
Jean-Pierre Bemba, once the most feared warlord in eastern Congo, is now in the custody of Belgian police. Mr Bemba, who had a stint as President Joseph Kabila's deputy, was secretly charged with rape and torture, and will be transferred to The Hague within a week. Mr Bemba, 45, is accused of war crimes committed in the Central African Republic in 2002-2003. If Mr Bemba's arrest is a victory for the International Criminal Court, which is desperate for some respect, then it is a conquest for Mr Kabila, who once accused his former deputy of treason. Yet it is still early days to determine the practical impact of the arrest; Kinshasa could erupt in riots by illiterates who feel that Mr Kabila's administration played a role in the arrest. Mr Bemba’s destiny is likely to have a sobering effect in Uganda, where the country’s best efforts to bring lasting peace to northern Uganda look set to fail. Rebel leader Joseph Kony has so far refused to sign the final peace deal, saying the arrest warrant against him is a deal breaker. The arrest of Mr Bemba may not motivate Mr Kony to commit more crimes, but it may embolden him to stay in the jungles where he feels safest. Mr James Mugume, the permanent secretary at Uganda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said both parties to the Juba peace process “would have to re-examine whatever position they had taken” since the talks started in July 2006.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Spare us the crap, Kivejinja
Mr Kirunda Kivejinja, the septuagenarian minister who speaks for the government in Kampala, might have to be relieved of his duties before he embarrasses himself irretrievably. Even if Mr Kivejinja is in serious need of some attention, he can't seek it at the expense of his own dignity. The Kivejinja we have come to know is a man who rants like an idiot, a man who has lost his sense of direction. But because there is no sure way to tell if he is aware of his condition, it is very easy to sympathise with him. Others might find him funny. But the real Kivejinja is as misguided as some of his ideas about what responsible journalism is all about. Today he successfully blew about 60 minutes of reporters' time at a press briefing that should never have happened. Instead of reporting on the proceedings of a recent retreat of ministers, the greying one from Bugweri ended up reminding us that he needs a new challenge.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
A car fit for a pastor
The revelation last week that a Pentecostal pastor may have stolen a car has added a new twist to what we can expect from our clerics. From defilement to fraud, the allegations have come fast and furious, and there are hints that we will be entertained. Mr William Muwanguzi, the Kampala pastor who allegedly stole a Land Cruiser, is a disturbingly flamboyant man who has promoted himself as Kiwedde, his crude way of saying he has found El Dorado--that things will never be the same again. So when a colleague, reacting to Mr Muwanguzi's arrest, opined that God's will had been done with the pastor, the cynicism was understandable. But the problem is that Mr Muwanguzi's real chickens came home to roost in a way that even he would not have prophesied. And it is difficult to imagine that many Ugandans felt sorry for him.
Monday, March 27, 2006
Take me to Rwenzori
William Stanley, the great grandson of explorer Henry Morton Stanley, recently trekked to the top of Mt. Stanley and proposed to his girlfriend. Rodney Muhumuza met the duo...
Between 1887 and 1888, the British-American explorer Henry Morton Stanley embarked on his last expedition to relieve Emin Pasha, the Equatorial Province governor who had been cut off by the Mahdist revolt in Sudan. As head of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, a mission funded essentially by the Royal Geographical Society, Stanley (born John Rowlands in 1841) found himself traversing previously uncharted terrain in the Ituri rain forest. Stanley, according to the BBC history archives, "found" the Rwenzori range, effectively becoming the first European to reach (and map) the area. Also known in the Congo as Bula Matari (Breaker of Rocks), Stanley returned to Europe with the credentials of a hero, a former journalist who had conquered barriers and demystified Africa.
On February 3, over a century since the death in 1904 of the legendary explorer, another Stanley was here to acquaint himself with his great grandfather's conquests. But William Stanley did not come to navigate lakes or to break rocks. He was a man on a different mission; a man in love. Along with his fiancée, Stanley took to the Rwenzoris and there, he trekked to the top of Mountain Stanley, the highest of the three that make up the Rwenzoris. And once he was there, the young man accomplished what had been on his mind since he took the flight from London to Entebbe: he proposed to his girlfriend Rebecca Unwin and she accepted to marry him.
At the Speke Hotel veranda, where I found the two lovebirds relaxing, Stanley was helping himself to some beer and Rebecca, who had never been to Africa before, was chatting with a local travel agent. As love birds, it must be said, they never gave away too much save for occasional glances in each other's eyes. There had to be a tip, and it came from a colleague seated nearby who motioned to me, "That's the 'Speke' guy, and that's his fiancée."
I had been misinformed that a direct descendant of John Hanning Speke, another of the great European explorers, was in town and would be leaving soon. The young 'Speke', I had been told, was tracing his ancestor's footsteps in the countryside. "So you are the new Speke, a great grandson of John Speke," I offered when we met. Stanley was mortified - judging by his slight grin, and told me plainly, "That's very wrong. I am the great grandson of Henry Morton Stanley."
Stanley IV, as I would have liked to refer to him, spoke with the confidence of a media savvy executive and rarely joked. He, however, struggled to get certain things right. When I asked him about some of the sites he had been to in Uganda, he told me that Kigali National Park was one of them and we had to be sorted out by a third party seated nearby. 'Kigali', it turned out, was his pronunciation of Kibaale. "I came specifically to climb the Rwenzori Mountains, to climb Mountain Stanley," he said. "I love the vegetation, it's amazing to see. There is so much in Uganda that a lot of people don't know about."
But he dismissed any suggestion that his adventurous ways were so much because he wanted to emulate his illustrious ancestor. "I have climbed Moutain Kilimanjaro as well but the Rwenzoris are more challenging," he said. But, he admitted, he found some inspiration from being the great explorer's direct descendant.
"I proposed to her on top of Mt Stanley; we are now engaged," he said excitedly, making no secret of admiration for 'Stanley I'. His expedition to Uganda, which lasted well over a fortnight, saw him visit a handful of protected areas from Kibaale National Park to the Rwenzori Mountain National Park to Lake Mburo National Park. He loved what he saw, as he did, seven years ago when he first visited Uganda. "A lot has changed," he said. "The place is beautiful. But I have been to other parts of Africa and there is more wildlife there. More people go to Kenya or Tanzania."
His father, Stanley said, had also been around Africa and was keeping the family's adventurous trait alive; he has climbed mountains in South America and visited sites in South Africa. He is the only one of three siblings who has been to Africa, and described himself as "adventurous".
While the man from the south west of England does not regard highly Uganda's tourism potential beyond making the Rwenzoris a love zone, he rates the local folks handsomely.
"Ugandans are more friendly, in comparison with the Kenyans or the Tanzanians, because they are not after the money," he said. "I am not complaining." Rebecca agreed without saying it. She came across as a taciturn person, and Stanley must have had that in mind when he allowed me "only two minutes" to put my case to her.
Between 1887 and 1888, the British-American explorer Henry Morton Stanley embarked on his last expedition to relieve Emin Pasha, the Equatorial Province governor who had been cut off by the Mahdist revolt in Sudan. As head of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, a mission funded essentially by the Royal Geographical Society, Stanley (born John Rowlands in 1841) found himself traversing previously uncharted terrain in the Ituri rain forest. Stanley, according to the BBC history archives, "found" the Rwenzori range, effectively becoming the first European to reach (and map) the area. Also known in the Congo as Bula Matari (Breaker of Rocks), Stanley returned to Europe with the credentials of a hero, a former journalist who had conquered barriers and demystified Africa.
On February 3, over a century since the death in 1904 of the legendary explorer, another Stanley was here to acquaint himself with his great grandfather's conquests. But William Stanley did not come to navigate lakes or to break rocks. He was a man on a different mission; a man in love. Along with his fiancée, Stanley took to the Rwenzoris and there, he trekked to the top of Mountain Stanley, the highest of the three that make up the Rwenzoris. And once he was there, the young man accomplished what had been on his mind since he took the flight from London to Entebbe: he proposed to his girlfriend Rebecca Unwin and she accepted to marry him.
At the Speke Hotel veranda, where I found the two lovebirds relaxing, Stanley was helping himself to some beer and Rebecca, who had never been to Africa before, was chatting with a local travel agent. As love birds, it must be said, they never gave away too much save for occasional glances in each other's eyes. There had to be a tip, and it came from a colleague seated nearby who motioned to me, "That's the 'Speke' guy, and that's his fiancée."
I had been misinformed that a direct descendant of John Hanning Speke, another of the great European explorers, was in town and would be leaving soon. The young 'Speke', I had been told, was tracing his ancestor's footsteps in the countryside. "So you are the new Speke, a great grandson of John Speke," I offered when we met. Stanley was mortified - judging by his slight grin, and told me plainly, "That's very wrong. I am the great grandson of Henry Morton Stanley."
Stanley IV, as I would have liked to refer to him, spoke with the confidence of a media savvy executive and rarely joked. He, however, struggled to get certain things right. When I asked him about some of the sites he had been to in Uganda, he told me that Kigali National Park was one of them and we had to be sorted out by a third party seated nearby. 'Kigali', it turned out, was his pronunciation of Kibaale. "I came specifically to climb the Rwenzori Mountains, to climb Mountain Stanley," he said. "I love the vegetation, it's amazing to see. There is so much in Uganda that a lot of people don't know about."
But he dismissed any suggestion that his adventurous ways were so much because he wanted to emulate his illustrious ancestor. "I have climbed Moutain Kilimanjaro as well but the Rwenzoris are more challenging," he said. But, he admitted, he found some inspiration from being the great explorer's direct descendant.
"I proposed to her on top of Mt Stanley; we are now engaged," he said excitedly, making no secret of admiration for 'Stanley I'. His expedition to Uganda, which lasted well over a fortnight, saw him visit a handful of protected areas from Kibaale National Park to the Rwenzori Mountain National Park to Lake Mburo National Park. He loved what he saw, as he did, seven years ago when he first visited Uganda. "A lot has changed," he said. "The place is beautiful. But I have been to other parts of Africa and there is more wildlife there. More people go to Kenya or Tanzania."
His father, Stanley said, had also been around Africa and was keeping the family's adventurous trait alive; he has climbed mountains in South America and visited sites in South Africa. He is the only one of three siblings who has been to Africa, and described himself as "adventurous".
While the man from the south west of England does not regard highly Uganda's tourism potential beyond making the Rwenzoris a love zone, he rates the local folks handsomely.
"Ugandans are more friendly, in comparison with the Kenyans or the Tanzanians, because they are not after the money," he said. "I am not complaining." Rebecca agreed without saying it. She came across as a taciturn person, and Stanley must have had that in mind when he allowed me "only two minutes" to put my case to her.
A presidential debate?
At the Sheraton's Rwenzori Ballroom on Wednesday evening, there was a wave of expectation among guests as independent presidential candidate Abed Bwanika and Uganda Peoples Congress leader Miria Obote walked in a few minutes past 8 p.m. If Bwanika was scared about his next challenge, it did not show in his bright eyes. And whether or not Miria's grin was a reflection of her confidence is a debatable affair. In the end there were only two real presidential candidates out of a possible 5: President Yoweri Museveni snubbed the event, and his main challenger, FDC's Kizza Besigye, asked to be represented by his envoy, Beti Kamya. And septuagenarian DP leader Ssebaana Kizito was absent with apology. But the evening's moderator, Mr Gawaya Tegulle, was still not reluctant to call it the first presidential debate in the history of Uganda and East Africa. Miria soon found out that she would answer the maiden question of the evening, and that it would be about how her government would tackle the employment and poverty problems in the country. "I have been around the country and seen poverty...One of the reasons is that the present government destroyed agriculture," she claimed as she decried the collapse of the cooperative movement in Uganda. Often referring to "those days" when the arrangement was "employing a lot of people", Milton Obote's widow said: "Without the cooperative movement, the farmers have nowhere to sell their goods at reasonable prices; they are still at the mercy of middlemen." Bwanika then got his chance to rebut Miria's proposals, and he wasted no time explaining how Museveni's government was losing it on corruption, unbalanced trade, and unnecessary wars in the Great Lakes region. Bwanika called for a rearrangement of priorities, reminding the audience of his so-called 4-way vision. But he risked sounding like Mr Museveni: "I have been around the world. Our pineapples are the sweetest in the world. Our honey is good. We can find market," he said. Really?
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Rodney Muhumuza who?
The publisher of The Kampala Review is a Kampala journalist who likes to think of himself as a reporter at large. That claim is vain before it's anything else, of course, but who am I not to dream when I can? To be sure, there has been some growing up to do in the years since I penned my first post. So much, in fact, that I cringed in embarrassment when I signed in for the first time in two years. As we say in Kampala, never rush a Mirinda.
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