Uganda conservation news update – Queen Elizabeth NP now subjected to land grabbing too

PARK LAND GRABBING SPREADS TO QUEEN ELIZABETH NP

News came to light late yesterday, that residents living at the Katunguru trading centre, just across the bridge spanning the Kazinga Channel, have attempted to ‘grab park land’ in an overnight ‘raid’.

It is understood from a usually reliable source at Uganda Wildlife Authority, that this may be a ‘copycat’ action similar to the situation at Mt. Elgon National Park, where politicians incited people to indiscriminately move into the park, appropriate themselves land, cut trees and build makeshift huts to try and firm up their claims that the lands belongs to them.

The same ‘arguments’ emerged according to the same source when UWA staff discovered that makeshift huts had been erected on demarcated national park land. This also sheds more light on the recent poisoning of ‘Mary the elephant’ who was a regular visitor at the Katunguru trading centre where it amused tourist visitors but angered shopkeepers, who claimed the animal was a danger and prevented them from doing business. The animal was less than two weeks ago found dead and suspicions are, though no hard evidence has been discovered so far, that locals had their hand in the poisoning.

Tourism is a major source of income for locals living in and around national parks, and grabbing land and poisoning of animals is not only criminal but counterproductive. Local political leaders need to understand that tourists shun ‘hot spots’ and places of controversy and if they do want their own people to benefit from tourism income and employment opportunities, they need to embrace conservation fully and not sit on the fence, pay lipservice only or as seems the case here fundamentally oppose it.

Watch this space.

 

Uganda news update – Perverting the ‘Walk’ is insulting those who have to

PERVERTING ‘THE WALK’ RIDICULES THOSE WHO HAVE TO

The stage managed and as previously suggested media scripted events of recent days in parts of Kampala have now led to the main ring leaders be kept in remand, while awaiting their cases of public order offences be heard in court after the Easter break. Notably, neighbours and residents of the area where one of the opposition (mis)leaders lives and from where he staged his ‘walk to work’ campaign, have also told him off in a determined fashion, suggesting he takes his political issues elsewhere and leaves area residents alone or else move away so that calm can return to the neighbourhood. This did ostensibly not please the man, who angrily argued with his neighbours letting his fury and anger get the better of him, further denting his already strained relations with people in the very place where he chose to live.

Meanwhile though have the international media picked up on the stream of deceptive and often patently untrue reports sent from Uganda by agitators and propagandists, including several well known ‘journalists’, some of whom are thought to have assisted in the scripting of daily events and where then conveniently at hand to film and record when ‘spontaneous protests’ attracted a response from security organs aimed to keep the roads open and rowdy ‘rent a crowds’ at bay and prevent them from looting during the melee and diversions they created.

Uganda is fundamentally a peaceful country, just conducted orderly elections where a clear winner emerged in the person of the incumbent Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, beating his main rival by a substantial margin, as incidentally predicted by all opinion polls including those commissioned by the opposition. Having lost at the polls and faced with a more than 2/3 government majority in the new parliament, sections of the opposition then took it upon themselves to resort to incitement and allegedly planned violent gatherings, yet notably several opposition leaders who stood for president have denounced the action and called themselves for calm, exposing the instigators of the present propaganda campaign for exactly what they are. They at least accepted that the present rise in fuel prices, which triggered an acceleration of inflation and hit the ordinary people hardest, was not to be resolved on the streets but by deliberate measures to create more jobs and move forward on domestic oil production and processing.

Many Ugandans walk to work daily, as repeated morning visits to the ‘Clock Tower’ conclusively prove, and they are neither hindered nor stopped by police and other security organs. In fact, thousands of them stream into the city every day on foot with a few claiming it is for ‘fitness’ while most of course cannot afford bus and matatu fares. According to feedback received from a top police office in Kampala, none of those having to walk to work was committing any offence and not one police officer would find cause to charge them, haul them to court or otherwise impede their free movement in the city. Quoting him, although not aware this would be reproduced here, he said: ‘there are many Ugandans who are struggling to make ends meet. If they cannot afford fares every day they walk to work. That has long been the case and is not changing in the future. I sympathize with them, and in fact many of our own officers walk to their assigned duty stations. The force would never interfere with their freedom of movement, never. But those politicians have turned the daily challenge of life of ordinary Ugandans into something perverted. They assemble TV teams at their house and then begin a political demonstration from there. If you want to demonstrate in Uganda you apply for a permit. If the opposition wants to demonstrate we can give them a permit for a stadium, or the Kololo airstrip [ceremonial parade ground], they can go there and talk and peacefully leave afterwards. But this is not what they want, it gives them no publicity. They want chaos, block traffic, create unrest and they bring the same crowds every time, known hooligans who loot and steal on the sidelines. It is this we are here to prevent, to maintain order’.

A quick chance poll amongst tourist visitors to Uganda, met in Kampala, showed also that they enjoyed their holiday in the country and were not confronted by nor had they witnessed any of the scuffles, which took place mainly in areas already notorious for ‘rent a crowd’ appearances and not on any tourist itinerary, other than the global media hunting for stories where there are none.

Suggestions therefore made in the global media, by bloggers and by tweets, that Uganda is descending into a police state and be mentioned in the same breath as Libya, are without foundation and only driven by the dented egos of a few, who once again failed to impress Ugandan voters and are now in the political cold. Uganda is fine and at peace, while a few clearly are not.

Happy Easter to everyone.

Uganda news update – Construction of second Nile bridge set for August 2012

NEW NILE BIRDGE CONSTRUCTION SET FOR AUGUST 2012

The Uganda National Road Authority has yesterday confirmed that all components were being put into place to have construction on the new bridge across the Nile in Jinja commence by August next year. Once construction has gone underway it will take up to four years to complete the works including the construction of several new access roads linked to the present main highway approach towards the Owen Falls dam, where traffic currently passes.

More than half of the property owners affected by the project have already been compensated, while negotiations with several others are in an advanced stage of reviewing values and relocation while a few owners have failed to respond to UNRA or could not be physically traced, leaving compulsory acquisition of those parcels of land as the only option.

Invitations to contractors for pre-qualification are due to go out through the media within the next two months it was also revealed, laying to ground work for formal tenders to be issued and a contractor to be selected. The Government of Japan has agreed to fund the bridge and has only this week reiterated that their bilateral cooperation with Uganda would continue and strengthen inspite of the problems caused in Japan by the recent wave of earthquakes and the devastating tsunami which then hit parts of the coastline.

Once the new bridge is ready, expected by 2016 going by present schedules, the main traffic axis from the Kenyan port city of Mombasa into Uganda and beyond will be substantially strengthened, as the current works carried out at the Owen Falls dam bridge will further ensure that a viable second crossing will remain in place, where all traffic from Eastern Uganda moves into the central part of the country to the main highways to Western Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Eastern Congo and Southern Sudan.

Aviation news update – Second B787 assembly line now subject to federal complaint process

MORE TROUBLE BREWING FOR BOEING’S DREAMLINER?

Information was received overnight that a complaint by the relevant trade union over Boeing’s second B787 assembly line in South Carolina has now brought the National Labour Relations Board on the scene. The company was served with a notice by the NLRB over allegedly victimizing union members, who had in the past repeatedly gone on strike at the main Boeing plant, by transferring production to a non – unionized plant back in 2009. From details provided it appears that the unions may have a strong case as Boeing executives at the time made repeated public reference to strikes and options to prevent further industrial action by moving production away.

Both parties are now able to seek a negotiated solution but if by mid June no progress has been made or settlement be reached  between Boeing management and union representatives the matter may then have to be decided by a NLRB judge, which could trigger lengthy appeals in federal courts and spur further industrial action by the unions. How this would affect the production of the long delayed new airliner is hard to judge but the second plant was to assemble three aircraft a month while the main plant is due to assemble 7 B787’s a month, all of which are scheduled for deliveries to customers already angry and frustrated over the three year delays. It can only be hoped that a negotiated settlement can be reached in due course as here in East Africa Kenya Airways only last week re-affirmed their order for 9 of the B787’s while neighbouring Ethiopian Airlines too has a substantial number of the new aircraft on order. Neither airline has officially reacted yet to these news but will certainly be monitoring these developments with concern, as will other Boeing customers with pending orders for the ‘Dreamliner’.

Watch this space.