Elizabeth Agiro
29 November 2008
Kampala — IN a country where the president encourages the people to produce as many children as possible because a bigger population presents a bigger workforce and hence bigger market, the health minister blames the high population on donors.
The president actually wondered that if Uganda's population was checked, how about China's?
But minister Stephen Mallinga blamed the high population on the failure by donors to increase funding for population programmes for the poor population policies in developing countries. He said the donors have not delivered on a promise made during the Cairo Conference of 1994 where both developing and developed countries agreed to increase resources for population programmes.
To tame the galloping population, a contraceptive, danazol, will soon be available on the market. Previous contraceptives have targeted women. This time round, the burden of family planning will not only fall on the women, but the men as well. When the pill finally arrives, it will add to other means men have applied before such as vasectomy, condoms and withdrawal.
Meanwhile, President Yoweri Museveni has stopped the leasing of forest reserves to individuals to plant trees, a big contrast from his earlier plan to give part of Mabira Forest to the Mehta Group to plant sugarcane. labelling them criminals, he said the individuals had abused the reserves by cutting down trees and mining sand.
On his part, local government minister Maj. Gen. Kahinda Otafiire has said it is not yet time to replace Museveni. Speaking in football terms, Otafiire said it did not make sense to change a football team if it was winning. He accused the opposition of calling for the president's replacement, arguing that they want the National Resistance Movement to lose in the next elections.
Choosing DDT or Icon is not an option for Conservative Party president-general John Ken Lukyamuzi, who has condemned it as a crime against humanity. In opposition of the resolution by parliament to allow the use of DDT, he said he would not stand by and let people be destroyed by a toxic substance banned in several countries worldwide. Speaking at Napier Market grounds in Jinja, Lukyamuzi said under such circumstances, a criminal case would be opened against Museveni.
One criminal, Godfrey Kato Kajubi, faces several years in jail after it emerged that he hired a traditional healer, Umaru Kateregga and his Tanzanian wife Mariam Nabukeera to kill 12-year-old Joseph Kasirye for ritual purposes.
The couple said they beheaded the boy at Kajubi's request, an allegation the businessman denied only acknowledging the existence of the couple. In a Police statement, the couple said the owner of numerous houses in Kampala promised to pay them sh12m, but only delivered sh350,000.
As the practice of child sacrifice escalates, another woman was nabbed trying to sell a 15-year-old boy at sh23m. Scovia Mbabazi, of Rwandese origin was arrested after she tried selling the boy to a police officer pretending to be a businessman.
In China, four Ugandans are set to hang after they were convicted of drug smuggling. The Ugandans are part of five women and three men convicted of drug trafficking. They were sentenced to death with a two-year stay of execution. This can be converted to a life sentence depending on the prisoner's behaviour over the next two years.
On the domestic scene, prices of manufactured goods and construction material have risen to 22% and 15% in the last couple of months. This has been attributed to the increased cost of raw materials and transport.
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