from the press

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