from the press

Health & Living July 30, 2009

JOSHUA MASINDE

Jane Namala writhes in pain. She tightly clutches her temple with both her hands. She cannot speak but only mutters a few words, expressing the intensity of the pain she is feeling. She has a dental problem and has come to have her two decayed yet painful teeth extracted.
A few metres away, Aisha Nalubega has brought Tatya Nankumba, her 11-month old baby for medical check-up. The baby has an umbilical hernia (an elongated navel), which has given both mother and baby endless nightmares.
Dr Patrick Kaliika, a clinical director who examined Nalubega’s baby, referred them to Masaka District hospital for an operation. Nalubega cannot help but say she does not have money for the operation.
All this unfolds at Mulabana centre, a remote area on Ssese Islands in Kalangala District. Many of the patients suffer silently for many months as there is no trace of a hospital or clinic nearby, but a small health centre located many kilometres away. The health centre often lacks the drugs to meet the patients’ health needs, according to Richard Kirule, the President of Rotary Club of Kampala, Ssese Islands.
At Mulabana centre, patients are strewn all over. Their genuine search for medical examination and attention is written on their faces. For some, especially the women and young children, pain, suffering and destitution are hidden beneath their smiling countenances.
Their wait for the free medical examination and free drugs, even when it’s once per annum, is worth it as they are now receiving free medical care from the members of Rotary Club, Ssese Islands. The opportunity is a God-send to the inhabitants of this almost God forsaken area. The patients are too willing to tell the two doctors, two dentists and the team of Rotarians examining them, of their sicknesses, woes and names.
Richard Kirule, says the free medical outreach extended to the people of Ssese islands, is conducted three times a year. The three times are allotted to different centres of the Ssese islands, in order to reach to a sizeable population of those in dire need of the free medical care. “Coming here quarterly is not enough but it is expensive in terms of time and money,” says Richard. He adds, “We spend a lot of money like Shs2m on doctors and other expenses.” The drugs alone cost them Shs1m.
The medical outreach covers all ailments like malaria, STDs like HIV/Aids, typhoid, flu, ringworms. They also conduct counselling on nutrition and immunisation. According to doctor Kaliika, they also do HIV testing and counselling. “For those who are positive, we refer them to Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC) in Kalangala town,” he says.
In addition to this, they not only de-worm the community members, but also give supplements and distribute condoms to those who are in need. The crowd of patients at Mulabana centre, had more dental cases than any other. Most of the patients like Jane Namala and Francis Ziwa, a photographer, had their teeth extracted.
Before the extraction of Namala’s two premolar teeth, she was feeling acute headache. She was unable to express herself. But, Francis Ziwa’s aching tooth took a dentist fifteen minutes to extract. “It was my first time to come here for dental examination,” says Ziwa, adding “It was very painful.” He developed the toothache a year ago, though he would not go to the Health centre in Kalangala town for check up because he could not afford the charges.
Dr Barbarah Nabageraka, who is a dentist based in Kalangala District acknowledges that many of the dental problems are due to the type of food like fish and bread which accelerate teeth decay. “Bad oral and personal hygiene, type of food like fish, which is sticky, make teeth decay quickly,” says Dr Nabagereka. The remedies she and her co-dentist handled were refilling, removal of scales on those with gum diseases and extraction of decayed painful teeth. However, she says there were few cases of refilling as opposed to extractions.

M2: Features July 7, 2009
Benefiting from illegal electricity connections
JOSHUA MASINDE
http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/features/Benefiting_from_illegal_electricity_connections_87634.shtml
Jimmy is the caretaker of a residence in Mukwenda Zone, Kawempe Division. For about 10 years, even before he became caretaker, the residence had been glorying on the blessing of illegally connected electricity.
For all that period, they paid little or no bills to Umeme, since their electricity metre couldn’t indicate the watts of power used. In any case, Jimmy says that at various points, it was Umeme which owed them money.
However, their day of reckoning arrived when Umeme officials came calling after someone had tipped them of the illegal connection. “Umeme said someone reported us and we suspect it is the former caretaker, whom we had asked to repay the money he had swindled,” said a forlorn Jimmy.
The money amounted to about Shs2.5m but he is said to have repaid only Shs300,000. Umeme officials estimated the illegal connection to have been in existence for at least two years.
Umeme backdated the bills to two years and it amounted to Shs12m, which they warned that it either be paid or a legal option would be considered. But, after protracted negotiations, at which the culprits confessed the illegal connection was just a few months old, they settled at Shs2.5m, after which a reconnection was made.
Many culprits are yet to be caught, Jimmy admitted. Within the same area, there are many residences, homes and even maize mills, which connect power illegally and have never paid a single cent to Umeme. This has and continues to cost Umeme as they have to grapple with high operational and maintenance costs.
Some maize mills with not only illegal connections but also operating without licenses, are situated in banana plantations, hidden within dwellings. They often operate at night like one in Mukwenda, Kawempe in which they mercilessly utilise the stolen electricity.
The operators of such maize mills could at times be seen climbing electric poles, attached to a transformer, in order to connect power. There is an incident when the transformer was overloaded that it blew up and many residents in the area lost most of their electrical equipment due to the power surge.Though, such illegal connections are costing Umeme, those in the habit claim they can’t afford the high charges on electricity.
This has nevertheless, sometimes driven Umeme to increase power costs to exorbitant rates. At times, they are even forced to overcharge most of their loyal customers, as Abiaz attests.
“They look at your building and set the price for you,” says Abiaz, whose family was once a victim of such exaggerated power costs, despite meeting their past bills religiously. He says nobody was staying at home during that month but they received a bill of about Shs1.6m.
However, he adds that when they brought the case with Umeme officials and when the metre was crosschecked, the bill dropped to about Shs70,000.
But Abiaz says the owner of the former residence where he rented a room, was also surviving on illegal power connection. But, the owner could not allow tenants to use electric coils while cooking or boiling water, to cover any suspicion from Umeme.

News May 1, 2009
Makerere
Makerere University has barred Boda Boda cyclists and taxis from entering the institution between 9.00pm and 6.00 am to strengthen the security. The decision was reached during a meeting that was held by the university administration last week.
A letter from the deputy vice chancellor in charge of Finance and Administration Prof David.J Bakibinga dated April 22, 2009 to the Chief Security Officer, said that Boda Boda cyclists will only be allowed to operate at the university during day hours.
“Motor-cyclists shall only be permitted to enter the campus to drop the passengers between 6.30 a.m and 9.00 pm,” Prof Bakibinga said adding that those who contravenes will be liable to have his Motorcycle impounded.
The impounded property will only be returned to the owner upon payment of Ushs10,000 and an additional Ushs10,000 per day for each day impounded and unclaimed, which money he said will be deposited in the security department account to top up the salaries of the security staff.
The move is aimed at protecting students at the university campus.
This decision came barely a month when the Chief Security Officer Mr. Bahimbise Johnson wrote a letter to the university warning that the institution has become a target of terrorists.Mr Bahimbise said the terrorists have enlisted the university as one of their targets, who often use boda boda riders as accomplices to fulfill their acts of terror once they reach the university premises.
"Most crimes which have been committed herein have always had involvements of such boda boda riders. Very rarely they are on the subject of investigations," the letter reads in part. He said female students and staff are the most affected by the suspects. "Most of our female students and female staff have been victims to their practices," Bahimbise reiterated.
Over the last two months, female students and lecturers have had their property worth thousands of shillings stolen including phones, lap tops and cash. He warned the university community against disclosing their whereabouts.However, the University Publicity Mr Gilbert Kadilo said the decision was administrative and no one will be compromised upon violating it.
Isaac Khisa & Joshua Masinde

http://anax1b.pressmart.net/dailymonitor/DM/DM/2009/04/01/PagePrint/01_04_2009_031.pdf
Mr Tapiwa Kamurako was just 17 years old when he fought in the Zimbabwean guerrilla war against Ian Smith’s government. That is way back in the late 1970s. When Zimbabwe was granted independence in 1980, Tapiwa went back to school.
Since then, he has never stopped studying. Courtesy of his unending penchant for learning, the Mass Communication department at Makerere University could be on its way to produce a first international PhD student.
He currently resides in Germany where he works with the UN Volunteers.
“I have tried the delicate balance of working and studying,” he said.
He enrolled for an undergraduate degree course in Development Studies at the University of Zimbabwe in 1983, before pursuing a diploma in Mass Communication and another course specialising in communication at the same university.
In the early nineties, he pursued a Masters degree at Leicester University and picked up a second Masters degree at the University of Malmo in 2002, where he studied Communication for Development.
He turned down partial scholarships to study for his Phd in Australia and Britain to end up at Makerere.
“Makerere has a historical tradition in higher education. Most of our leaders have passed through the university,” he told Daily Monitor.
The research for his PhD thesis pivots on ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and
development, with a focus on Uganda and Zimbabwe. In Uganda, he is focusing on Nakaseke Telecentre in Luwero as the case study for his thesis. He says that the media environment
in Uganda is far better than in Zimbabwe.
“I am extremely impressed by Uganda. I think Uganda has one of the most promising media environments in Africa,” he said.
Joshua Masinde

http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/sunday_life/Ladies_black_is_beauty_81939.shtml
Sunday Life March 22, 2009
By Joshua Masinde
Book: Butterflies of the Nile
Author: Jane Musoke-Nteyafas
Publisher: Cook Communications
Reviewer: Joshua Masinde
She writes poetry, short stories and plays. She is distinctly feminine, describing the African woman’s beauty with a passion. Such is her description: “In the beginning, God populated the earth with black women and he made them a rich embellishing combination of all colours and shades.
They were beautiful rainbow complexions of coffee, cocoa, and ebony, chocolate…” she writes on, “and the Devil came along and created skin lighteners…”
Butterflies of the Nile by Jane Musoke-Nteyafas, is drawn from a poem by the same title. The poem is an artistic and compelling praise of African beauty (read African women’s beauty).
Despite the beauty the African women are endowed with, it is strange but uncommon how the natives of Africa, especially the men who live in exotic lands, have alienated many things African by having a chronic penchant for exotic tastes. Muhwezi, in Prom Night, passes for one of such alienated blokes.
He is a Ugandan-born, Canadian-bred chap who does not appreciate his Ugandan-born Canadian girlfriend, Aisha. Despite her breathtaking beauty, which is admired by many a man, Muhwezi does not appreciate such African beauty.Aisha is authentically beautiful.
But, as Muhwezi does not appreciate her as much as she deserves, she puts on makeup and uses lots of beauty enhancing elements to appease him. Nevertheless, he does not still appreciate her spruced up appearance meant to placate him.
In a drunken stupor, he abuses her instead. Nteyafas writes of deep love and affection in Nakimera’s Love. Nakimera and Rwomushana, both from Uganda but living abroad, meet on an online chatting site.
Although they live continents apart, they fall deeply in love such that Nakimera does not object to his suggestion of going to England to stay with him. Nakimera’s Love is an enchanting love story of the African love, which brings together and binds her and Rwomushana. Through her, Rwomushana appreciates how beautiful women from his home country are.
Modernity has brought with it myriad makeup, which most women use to appear (beautiful), fashionable and sophisticated. The face presents such a scenario. Katrice, an African woman, though beautiful in her natural way, uses a lot of makeup to fake artificial beauty, which unfortunately she does not attain.
She has the body and features, which though she dislikes, present her as more beautiful than one would ever think. After adorning the makeup, she is visibly ugly and is abandoned by her boyfriend.
However, her second boyfriend dissuades her, just like her mother did sometime back, to stop using makeup as it exaggerates her looks and makes her appear ugly. After ridding herself of all makeup, her authentic African beauty stuns her boyfriend, who vows to keep by her side forever.
Nteyefas is potently feministic, championing the rights and place of women in modern society. In her simplicity, she writes strongly and passionately of the beauty of African women, love and relationships.
The themes run through the plays, poems and short stories, with a touch of biblical allusion spicing up some stories. She writes to heal the distorted stereotypes and misconceptions attached to African women’s beauty. It is powerfully written, passionately moving, truly sensitive, and ecstatically enchanting.

http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/smartmoney/Banking_fortunes_on_the_betting_game_83250.shtml
Smart Money April 16, 2009
Justus Lyatuu & Joshua Masinde
Kampala
In a pure game of chance, many Ugandans are increasingly placing their hard earned cash into a growing betting industry that is attracting especially younger people who enjoy the thrill of betting.
The betting industry in Uganda is not exactly young but is emerging from the informal and stagnated into a modern business enhanced by technology and innovation.
Justine Mwanje, a student, has been betting since 2005. Last year, he placed Shs10,000 and won Shs250,000. He says such fortunes have encouraged him to frequent betting stores. He also admits that betting is addictive. He has also made losses.
“Every weekend I bet roughly Shs10,000, but for the last two weeks I have lost,” he adds. Adam Sebugeni, House Manager, Sports Betting Africa – one of the betting companies, Bwaise branch told Smart Money that in February this year he won Shs150,000 after making a bet with only Shs10,000.
Betting stores are fast becoming places for people to spend most of their time attracted by the thrill to win while others have been knocked of their feet by the addiction that comes with playing the game many times.
Betting companies have cunningly moved into sports activities attracted by the growing number of Ugandans who love sports especially top European soccer leagues such as the English, Spanish and Italian.
Cricket and rugby have also become popular attracting many people especially foreigners to bet on them. At Sports Betting Africa in Bwaise, more than 200 participants place bets over the weekends. Mr Sebugeni says one can bet as little as Shs500 and a maximum of Shs150,000. The number of winners varies but Sebugeni says about 50 people win cash on a good weekend.
Royal Sports Betting, another of the flourishing betting companies, holds a record of losing Shs34 million to a lucky customer in one single bet, according to proprietor Zaheer Nathani.
He also said a customer once lost Shs5 million to the company. Mr Nathani says that betting has become a competitive business with more companies entering in the industry.
Some of the companies in the betting business include; Sports Betting Africa, Royal Sports Betting and Kings Betting among others. These compete directly with casinos such as Simba casino and Kampala casino.
Royal Sports Betting started four years ago and according to Mr Nathani business is booming. He says he found out that people could not afford to go to expensive casinos and needed something cheaper and less frightening.
At Royal Sports Betting, one can bet with as low as Shs500.“We wanted something that even a common man could afford. We give the best odds to our people though high profile people get special odds depending on the game,” he says.
The service provider presents the betting odds, from which clients choose. Odds are figures for betting, the betting can be conducted on any game though betting on the English Premier League matches is the most popular and attracts a big number of clients.
He says the trick – indeed one needs to be good at trickery to participate – for success is being knowledgeable about the teams one is betting on.
Royal Sports Betting has machines connected to the internet and provides key information to sports novices. Much of the information is available and helps customers acquaint themselves before going to bet. Royal Sports Betting handles between 400 to 500 customers a week.
To attract more customers, betting companies have invested heavily in electronic gagdets like computers with internet and clients can get their results online.
In the meantime, Kampala City Council makes Shs446,500 from issuing trading license to the betting companies and the Ministry of Finance, also collects an annual fee of Shs300,000 from the businesses as well.

Eng. Semuli Moses is the brain child of the Rural Transport Vehicle, a product of Makerere University’s Faculty of Technology and Katwe Metal Fabricators Cluster. The vehicle looks like an old disused lorry, although, from afar, it can easily be mistaken for an old tractor. By all means, this vehicle, made almost from a scratch, with different scraps of metal and engines put together, pulled crowds at the Freedom Square, Makerere University.
As Eng. Semuli said, the vehicle is designed with one piston. This makes it a highly fuel efficient machine. The vehicle uses diesel. A litre is enough to power it for 20 kilometres. Although there’s no complete combustion of the fuel, Eng. Semuli insisted that its degradation of the environment is very small compared to human beings.
“The engine requires tuning so that the air mixtures can enable it to start,” said Eng. Semuli adding that it is an internal-combustion diesel engine.
The vehicle has eight major sections, of which the breaking system is the most important.
Bicycle technology, motorcycle technology, vehicle and aviation technology were used to bring the vehicle into being. The compatibility and use of such technology makes it easy to repair when the vehicle breaks down. “If it gets a problem in the garden, one can repair it from there,” Eng. Semuli noted.
Although the vehicle is still a prototype (not a complete/finished product), the Ushs9 million injected into its assembly from a scratch have seen to it that it runs. It was manufactured using the tri-lemur philosophy of economy, energy and environment.
Specifications from abroad were used to test it for quality and safety standards since the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) does not have the machinery to carry out the tests. According to him, every engine has got three standards; emissions, vibration and sound. “It should not exceed 70 decibels when you are a metre from it.”
However, he often drives the vehicle to Uganda Police and to the Central Materials Laboratory at the Ministry of Works for mechanical audit and evaluation.
The engineer, who is an electrical engineer by training, with a speciality in small and industrial machinery, acknowledged the effort injected to come up with the eye catching vehicle.
“If you saw this vehicle during Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in 2007, it did not have an engine. And the first time we tried it, we used an engine of 6.5 horsepower, which was donated by Car and General Uganda Ltd. It (the vehicle) could not even climb a hill. People had to push it,” he said. Now they keep improving it day by day although whatever is left is for professionals.
The project was started in 1993 when Eng. Semuli was still a university student in Punjab, India. What inspired him to venture into the task many people find tasking to undertake, was the way people in India overcame their transport problems with ease. They apply their knowledge to the indigenous systems to make something that can sustainably work for themselves.
“I said, can’t I copy this and take it back to Uganda?” He did it. But when he came back to Uganda, he did not get any attention. He professed that when he went to Uganda National Council of Science and Technology (UNCST) to solicit for the hardware, he couldn’t get the assistance he needed.
“I couldn’t even get attention,” he said. “That is why I decided to try a ‘Jua Kali’(local/domestic industry). So, in 2006, after gathering all the required data, I got a job in Sudan. I was working as a maintenance engineer for United States Agency for International Development (USAID). All the money they paid me, I just put it in the research.” So far, the research he initiated in 1998, has run into Ushs400 million, which has been spent on air-tickets and research material.
The notable thing with the vehicle is that it is a jack of all trade, with the multiplicity of tasks it can perform. It can act as a welder and at the same time a generator, when it’s put on. It generates 7.5 Kw of electricity. It can also be used in mining and transportation. The vehicle was nicknamed the ‘punda’ because of its capacity to do such a lot of work.
Lack of partnership and funding he requires has impeded him from manufacturing more of these vehicles. Granted that he gets the funding, they will start to manufacture these vehicles for the mass market, although, no demand from the people has yet been forthcoming.
Eng. Semuli not only works at Victor Machinery as the technical officer, where he is one of the members of the Katwe Metal Fabricators Cluster, but he is also a part-time lecturer at Kampala Polytechnic in Mengo. He teaches Workshop practice to certificate and diploma students and engineering to higher diploma students.
He credits Eng. Dr Yasin Nakuzirawa, of Makerere University Faculty of Technology for helping him with materials and stress test since 2006. Eng. Mutambi Joshua helped him with capacity building, patronage and co-ordination.

By Joshua Masinde and Nelson Wesonga

In 2007, residents of Ajia sub-county, Mvura County in Arua initiated a project to power their health centre III using solar energy, which is comparatively cheaper than electricity. The majority of the population of 23, 000 people, most of whom are women and children, according the Ajia Sub-county LC III chairperson, Mr Santore Alekua, could not afford paying for electricity connection from the West Nile Rural Electrification Company (WENRCO).
Previously, due to lack of power, the Ajia health centre stored its vaccines at the Arua Government hospital and Kuluva Missionary hospital. But this often delayed the immunisation exercises in Ajia Sub-county because the health personnel had to wait for the transportation of the vaccines from the two hospitals.
Then, there came the idea of the use of solar energy, as an alternative source to enhancing service delivery to the community members. Although, the area is a tobacco growing zone, the community members faced problems in raising money to buy a solar panel to power the health centre, which was a blessing to them in many ways. However, necessity pushed them to raise Ush2.5 million last year, which money they used to purchase a solar panel, and a deep freezer to store vaccines.
With such sacrifice on their part, the solar project has now begun to pay off, especially in terms of enhanced health service delivery. Eighty percent of the children under the age of five (approximately 4000 in number) were recently immunised. The immunisation level improved from less than 60% of their targeted number of children under the age of five in the previous years to more than 70% of the children on a weekly basis.
“Previously, we could not carry out immunisation because we had no fridge to store vaccines,” said Santore Alekua, the LCIII chairperson of Ajia Sub-county in Arua district. “But now, our children have been immunised because of solar power.”
Needless to say, the community’s access to solar energy has enabled the health centre to operate even at night, unlike in the previous occasion when there was no electricity or other source of power at the health centre. This has tremendously improved service provision as the health workers are now working during the night. The benefit of the solar project was also elicited during the outbreak of meningitis in the northern region, of recent. People were able to rush the patients to the health centre quickly, and they would be attended upon even at night.
Now, both the health and commercial necessity of the solar programmes have been of great importance in the Ajia sub-county. The ministry of health donated two fridges to the health centre. These fridges are sufficiently powered by the solar energy. More solar panels were donated to the Ajia Trading Centre Community Project by the Joint Energy and Environmental Projects (JEEP).
Despite the notable changes seen in the access of solar energy, the Ajia health centre is still dogged by various challenges. The centre lacks the necessary solar equipment as they are expensive to acquire and maintain. Similarly, the panels, whose main purpose was to light up the health centre and to power freezers, which are key to storing medicine and other medical supplies, are at times overloaded as people also charge their mobile phones.

THE semester began with the merging of day and evening programmes in many departments at the Faculty of Arts. Students in the day programmes will study with their colleagues in the evening class in some select course units.
Dr George W. Lugalambi, head of Mass Communication department told third year students the adjustments have been made necessary due to changes in the staffing policy, which has to do with shortage of instructors and insufficient funding.
In an earlier communication to the Mass Communication staff and students, Dr Lugalambi noted, "This decision has been forced on us by the staffing gaps that the department is experiencing. But, we believe it is better to find a way to continue running these classes under schedules that some may find inconveniencing than to cancel them altogether."
Such changes are proving to be a challenge to some students who have decided to study such course units that have been merged and run late into the night. Others feel uncomfortable adjusting to the improvised schedules.
Diana Nabiruma, who freelances with The Weekly Observer, finds it hard to come from work to attend lectures, unlike in the previous occasion where she could first attend her day lectures and go to work.
But Justus Lyatuu is comfortable with the changes and says he wouldn't mind if some lectures ended at midnight. "The changes don't interfere with my programme. I think it is blessing to me."
Dr. Hanington Sengendo, Dean of the Faculty of Arts attributes the merging of some lectures at the faculty to a shortfall of instructors. He cited some members are on study leave. This has affected the departments like Mass Communication, Geography, Tourism and Urban Planning, which don't have established teaching structures. This exposes a visible need for more lectures, though, as he says, "It depends on how the university is facilitated."
Joshua Masinde

Julius Ocwinyo, author of Fate of the Banished says nothing really prompted him to start writing. He talked to Joshua Masinde about his family, literary work and role models
Julius Ocwinyo can pass for an ordinary bloke, until you get to know he is the author of Fate of the Banished, a high school set book, and other novels. He is a 48-year-old, seemingly quiet man, who admits having led a happy childhood and loved occasional fights with his childhood friends.
His father, Kelemente Ochen, worked in the Prisons Service in different parts of the country. In 1961, while Ochen was still stationed in Masaka District, Ocwinyo was born. While growing up, he not only had the privilege of living in Masaka but he also lived in Lira, Gulu, Adjumani, Mutukula and Kampala.
Living in different parts of the country exposed Ocwinyo to various cultures quite early. Such exposure gave him an opportunity to appreciate them. This enabled him to speak Acholi first, and not Lango, his mother tongue.
“Fate of the Banished itself is not about Lango but different parts of the country,” Ocwinyo pointed out. Such rich diversity in terms of thematic concerns and messages portrayed in Fate of the Banished is what contributed to its consideration as an A-level set book last year. For this opportunity, he has reason to smile. So far, it remains one of his biggest achievements, though more challenging situations keep coming up.
As a writer, the monetary value gained from the sale of his books is relative. The 10 per cent royalty the author receives from such sales isn’t all that handsome. But, the sales of Fate of the Banished have increased, something for which he’s grateful. Other cases like invitations to important events or occasions like writer-in-residence and book fairs and to attend conferences of international organisations like Unesco and Unicef present a good opportunity in terms of monetary gain. He was a writer-in-residence in Cumbria in Northern England for two weeks in 2003.
“The sponsors were British Council and Cumbria Arts Council.” His father wasn’t highly educated because education was not highly encouraged then. He passed away in 1994 aged about 70 years.
“He was still very fit,” Ocwinyo says fondly of him. His mother, who is a housewife, is in her 70s. Ocwinyo is a family man, with one wife and four children, three of whom are boys. He lives in Kisaasi.
“Writing is easy,” so said one writer. It is as easy as getting a blank piece of paper and gazing at it until droplets of blood form on your forehead. Regardless of that, nothing really prompted Ocwinyo to start writing. “I just found myself writing,” he remarked, after a brief reflection.
“My first book was a play called Tangled Strings.” He wrote it in 1986, though it is still unpublished. Before that, he wrote poems. Some of them were published in the Uganda Poetry Anthology in 2000. He wrote Fate of the Banished in 1993. It took him the months of November and December to complete writing it.
He still prefers to write by hand rather than using a typewriter or computer, especially when writing creative works. However, apart from writing poems and novels, he does not fancy writing the short story.
“I wrote only one but it wasn’t published,” Ocwinyo remarked, adding that he can’t recall the title. Why can’t he publish them now that he is not only a celebrated writer but also a book editor with Fountain Publishers? He thinks otherwise. To him, it does not make a difference whether or not they are published.
At his Fountain Publishers’ office, located at Makerere University, his work mostly involves editing textbooks and creative works for both children and adults and from primary school to university. He also executes a lot of administrative work like soliciting books from authors. Because of his tight schedule, he does not edit a lot of creative works.
For a man whose values rotate around hard work and honesty, his role models are as diverse. He considers Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Albert Camus, William Faulkner and Jean Paul Sartre as his literary role models. Nelson Mandela is his other role model, considering his integrity and perseverance during the apartheid era in South Africa.
Ocwinyo, who likes being quiet, travels to his rural home in Teboke once or twice a year, because of the distance and his busy schedule. He enjoys photography although, “I don’t have a camera yet,” and “walking… a lot of walking. That is why I am so trim,” he observes.
Occasionally, he takes some time off, especially on Sunday afternoons to walk from Kisaasi to Kiwatule, along the Northern By-pass and back.
Apart from Fate of the Banished (1997), Ocwyino has also published The Unfulfilled Dream (2002), and Footprints of the Outsider (2000). Born in Teboke village in Apac District, Ocwyino studied at Aboke Junior Seminary and Lango College.
He later joined the Institute of Teachers Education, Kyambogo, where he earned a Diploma in Education. Later, he went to Makerere University, where he received a Bachelor of Education Degree. He taught at various educational institutions before becoming an editor for Fountain Publishers, Kampala.

Daily Monitor Business February 18, 2009
Joshua Masinde
Kampala
Although, it is the most profitable company, and also boasts the cheapest local rates in East Africa, Safaricom’s subscribers in Uganda are complaining about the newly introduced exorbitant calling and short message (sms) rates in Uganda.
Previously, the subscribers, most of whom are Kenyans, were being charged Kshs8 (Shs192) per minute on Ongea Tariff, and relatively the same charges on other tariffs like the belated Jibambie.
This has been increased by over 200 pc. The rates now stand at between Kshs25 (Shs600) to Kshs28 (Shs672) per minute and Ksh10 (Shs240) for a text message.
“Safaricom is charging us expensively,” remarked Scola Kamau, a Kenyan student in Uganda.This is affecting Safaricom’s subscriber base in Uganda as it is losing out most of them to Zain and MTN.
When contacted to explain the phenomenon, a Safaricom customer care personnel claimed the tariffs for Safaricom subscribers who go out of Kenyan borders will not be the same as was the case.
The roaming service, a new name for tariffs charged for its customers who go out of Kenyan borders, is the burden that many Kenyan Safaricom subscribers in Uganda are trying to avoid.
The exorbitant taxation system in Kenya could be one of the reasons for the hike in tariffs that will mostly hurt subscribers outside of Kenya.
Currently, the Value Added Tax is as high as 26 per cent and it could be more, hurting investors, even though they rake in millions of shillings in profits each year.
However, what explains the new charges is a technical hitch the telecommunications Company experienced in late January this year.
For about two days, it was glee for Safaricom subscribers in Uganda whenever they would top up their accounts with MTN credit cards. A top up of Shs500 (approximately Kshs20) would recharge the subscriber’s account to Kshs2000 (more than Shs48,000).
Taking advantage of the technical hitch, some people would top up to as much as Kshs200,000 (approximately Shs4.8 million) and transfer as much as they wanted,” said Innocent Masaki, who works as a customer care agent with Zain-Uganda.
He personally topped up more than Kshs150,000 (approximately Shs3.6 million) though he wouldn’t transfer more than Kshs10,000 (about Shs240,000) per day. However, the lucrative loophole was short lived as all sim cards were blocked but activated with a credit-less account.
“Safaricom must have made losses and they want to re-coup the money they lost during the technical error,” says one subscriber.
“We are all paying for the sins of a few people.”“I have money but I fear to top up,” said Wycliff Mugun. He added that Safaricom is for receiving only.
And, indeed, Safaricom might also pay for the exodus of a few of its subscriber base to its local competitor or to its Ugandan counterparts MTN, Zain, Warid and Uganda Telecom.

MAKERERE University has become a target by terrorists, the Chief Security officer of the University, Mr. Bahimbise Johnson has warned. The terrorists who have enlisted the university as one of their targets often use boda boda riders as accomplices to fulfil their acts of terror once they reach the premises of the university.
“Most crimes which have been committed herein have always had involvements of such boda boda riders. Very rarely they are on the subject of investigations,” Bahimbise’s a communication to the administrators and security contingent at the university read. He added that some of these terror suspects were commanded by an insider with an intention to assault a security guard who was lawfully on duty and they vowed to continue.
“Most of our female students and female staff have been victims to their practices,” Bahimbise reiterated.
He asked the university community to be wary of them by not disclosing their areas of residence to such suspicions individuals as they would easily fall prey to acts terror. Other areas like embassies, banks and micro-finance institutions, major restaurants and hotels in the city have put measures to keep them far from their premises.
However, it has become increasingly difficult to clear the boda bodas from the university as some community members also own motorcycles, which they use as their transportation means. Nevertheless, they risk having their motorcycles being impounded to ease their operation against boda bodas.
When contacted by the Daily Monitor over the phone, Prof Livingstone Luboobi, the university Vice-Chancellor, declined to elaborate on the matter, saying he will do so once he is informed.
Joshua Masinde