Author: Robert Atuhairwe

Bunyoro-Kitara Kingdom has expressed surprise at the continued British hesitance to return priceless artefacts taken from the kingdom by colonial officials. One of the artefacts was a nine-legged wooden throne known as Nyamyaro, a traditional treasure and symbol of royal authority which was snatched from the palace. All kings including the legendary Omukama Cwa II Kabaleega sat on the stool to proclaim the assumption of power. According to the Bunyoro folklore, Nyamyaro was sacred as it is still today that it could never be left unattended to at any one time. At least two of the king’s wives stayed with…

Police in Hoima are hunting for Justus Mukiibi a teacher at Premier Secondary School in Hoima City for allegedly assaulting a senior two student because of conversing during an academic test. The rowdy teacher assaulted a sixteen-year-old, Joan Nyangoma on the evening of March 17, as they were writing an entrepreneurship test. Sources allege that the teacher who was supervising the learners asked them to stand up and handover the papers since time was up. While in the line as learners were placing the papers on the table, a colleague asked Nyangoma to help her hand in her paper but…

The occupants of the former Nguse Ranchers land had expected peace after the compensation of the landlords two years ago. But last week’s events in which police and security forces dismantled makeshift structures erected by fresh wave of encroachers, is an indication that peace and tranquility for the residents is still a distant dream. The land on Plot 86 block 2 measuring almost 866 hectares formed what was known as the Nguse Ranchers Limited in Nsozi village, Kyangwali Sub-County, Kikuube district. Nguse Ranchers Limited was incorporated in 1990s and acquired a piece of land but 98% of it was encroached…

The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has started translocation of 200 Kobs from Kabwoya Wildlife Reserve to Kidepo Valley National Park in North Eastern Uganda. Sam Mwandha, UWA’s Executive Director in a speech delivered on his behalf by John Makombo, UWA Director for Conservation, while launching the exercise at the reserve which is situated within the Western side of the Albertine Rift Valley in Kikuube district on Thursday, said this is expected to last two weeks. On the first day, 30 Kobs were captured and immediately trans-located on a 485 kilometres distance by road to Kidepo Valley National park in Karamoja…

The Bunyoro-Kitara Kingdom, one of Uganda’s oldest monarchies, is fighting to preserve its unity against the backdrop of calls for breakup by secessionists said to be driven by the appetite for oil royalties. Those counter-secession efforts appear to be holding, according to confidant kingdom officials. They say that rebellious tendencies were first noticed in Bunyoro in 2013 when some elements from Bagungu began agitating for their own cultural institution. The Bagungu are one of the 64 indigenous communities in Uganda as of February 1, 1926, according to the third schedule of the amended constitution of Uganda. But for thousands of…

Hoima City’s business community is growing increasingly frustrated as road construction projects progress at a snail’s pace, disrupting their day-to-day operations. In November of last year, China Railway 18 Bureau Group Company Limited (CR18G) was awarded a contract worth sh30 billion to upgrade four kilometers of roads. These upgrades are being carried out as part of the Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development Programme-Additional Funding (USMID-AF), financed by a loan from the World Bank. The project aims to transform gravel roads into bitumen standards. The affected roads, including Perse-Commercial Street (0.4KM), Government Road Extension (0.46km), Circular (1.00km), Bikunya (0.26km), Tayali-Crown-Eka…

Sugarcane cultivation has emerged as a pivotal component of plantation agriculture in Bunyoro sub-region, essential for providing raw material for milling and supporting the burgeoning industrialisation efforts. Notably, Bunyoro hosts several prominent factories such as Bwendro Dairy Farm, Hoima Sugar, and Kinyara Sugar Works, collectively employing over 8,000 individuals. These establishments contribute not only to the local economy but also to national development by producing various goods and byproducts, including sucrose, jaggery, syrups, cellulose fiber, fodder, fuel (such as bagasse), and alcohol. The push for industrialisation, fuelled by the need for affordable energy sources, has been instrumental in supporting these…

The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) Limited, has embarked on offering skills training to young people through a vocational training programme. The programme which was launched on February 28 in Hoima City, will be implemented at selected institutions Hoima and Masaka as part of the livelihood restoration package of eligible project affected households along the pipeline districts. This is hoped to increase their opportunities to restore and improve their livelihood and to set up and or grow new enterprises, thereby increasing their incomes. The short-term (three-months) vocational courses will be given to two youth in each of the eligible…

It is indisputable fact that the idea of electoral reforms in Uganda is a total and unremediated chimera. It is as unnatural expectation, an insane delusion, almost a hallucination. It is consequently equally logical and pertinent to query: Has Uganda then become a madman’s bevy? And in which respects? And what….as everyone knows, after a power-hegemony 50 years magnitude virtually, down the road, moreover following regular “free and fair” elections, the patent panegyric is automatically and inevitably meaningful and effectual electoral reforms. Even a mere child could perceive that those 10 magnitude-plus general elections could not even remotely have been…

The Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) has faulted the Masindi district procurement department over what it calls a big and growing problem of corruption among the local government officials and contractors. Andrew Emejeit, the senior officer in charge of performance monitoring at PPDA, said the latest report was based on investigations conducted in November last year after they sampled some contracts which had been awarded by selective bidding in the financial year 2022/23. He said the investigations discovered a lot of chilling irregularities. Emejeit said it was discovered that most bidders are not comfortable with submitting bids…