Commentary

In the last two years, COVID-19 pandemic, left the world in utter misery. However, not all was lost because there were some bright spots. For example, Kenya conducted its election peacefully and had a smooth transition of power, a rare feat in Africa. Brazil’s by-elections, won by ex-President Lula, occurred without the anticipated violence by former President Bolsonaro’s supporters. Similarly, the USA has just concluded its mid-term election without the anticipated overwhelming victory or violence by ex-President Trump’s far-right election denialists. 

That every country has the right to celebrate its independent day is incontestable. But what is contestable is what the government does during the celebration relative to its responsibilities for serving all citizens equitably. On October 9^th, this year, Uganda celebrated its  60^th year of independence with pomp and circumstance. One thing struck me among all that happened at the Kololo Hill celebration in Kampala. It was the national Air Force flyover.

Uganda’s Owen Falls hydropower plant has a rich history that predates the country’s independence in 1962. The plant is located across the White Nile and sits between the towns of Jinja and Njeru on the shores of Lake Victoria. It is about 85 kilometers east of Kampala.

Uganda was a protectorate of the British empire from 1894 to 1962. In 1947, English engineer Charles Redvers Westlake recommended the construction of a hydroelectric dam at Owen Falls that was supposed to be East Africa’s largest power project.

We were standing in Hiroshima looking at a stonewall. All there was to see was a shadow of a man which had been etched into the wall at the moment of his obliteration by the blinding light of the first atomic bomb. Olof Palme, prime minister of Sweden, stared hard at it. An hour later he had to give a speech as head of the Independent Commission on Disarmament of which I was a member. "My fear", he remarked, "is that mankind itself will end up as nothing more than a shadow on a wall."

First, I want to apologize to our esteemed readers for not bringing forth the July and August editions of our journal. The mind was willing to produce the editions as usual, but the body was unwilling to do so. I was faced with some health challenges which did not allow me to produce the journal. I appreciate your patience and I am happy to be back online this month.

Even the most unobservant person will notice inequality in society regardless of gender, organization, geography, or nationality. Often, inequality has been around us from childhood that many people consider it natural. Worst of all, they think it is written in stone, unchangeable to the extent that some Church leaders feel that they are entitled to be driven in Mercedes Benz cars and to live in palaces; a president can shamelessly proclaim that he works for nobody but himself and his family etc.

A couple of months ago, there was much fury about the demise of the late Speaker of Uganda’s Parliament, Jacob Oulanyah. It began when it was discovered that he was flown to Seattle, Washington, USA, for treatment. Some people demonstrated against him for wasting government money instead of spending it on improving the national health services. And when he died, some people celebrated his demise because they accused him of being one of the enablers of the autocratic rule. They attribute the regular violation of human rights: extrajudicial killings, disappearance of government critics, torture, etc. in Uganda when he presided over the amendment that removed the age limit which allows President Museveni to rule indefinitely. Some of the most vulgar poems were even written in celebration of the Speaker’s demise.

For over two years now, the world has been captivated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Like the unwelcome guest we would so badly wish to go away soon, the virus keeps rearing its ugly head in different forms. Believe it or not, we are now getting mutants of mutants, partly because some people are obstinate about being vaccinated or have no access to the vaccine, thus allowing the virus to multiply and mutate. As if that is not a big enough problem, we now have a new virus with an ugly syndrome, the monkeypox virus, making its round in several countries in Europe and America. The good thing is that the virus is not as dangerous as COVID-19 in terms of infectivity and pathology.