I have over the years maintained that behind every problem is the problem of leadership. The leaders choose the policies to guide them in how to govern their countries. Frequently however, they may choose policies that would have even been more suitable in the 20th Century and impose them on the 21st Century, which therefore, manifest more as a pollutant than suitable blueprints.
Unlike the 20th Century, which was more suitable for influencers that preferred similarity, simplicity, monolithism, monoversity, non-renewability of leadership, no change and disintegration, the 21st Century is far more suitable for difference, complexity, diversity, pluralism, renewability of leadership and fast change.
So we require leaders this Century who value difference, complexity, diversity, pluralism of thought and practice, renewability of leadership, integration and change at all levels of society and all stations of life.
Such leadership is the type we require to build an integrated and self-sustaining economy. But we have not been keen, politically, to have such leadership in place, and have preferred to carry the characteristic leadership of the 20th Century over into the 21st Century.
We needed an education system that is integrative and integrating to produce leaders that would constitute such leadership at all levels of society and in all stations of life. Unfortunately, your education system decided to stay in the 20th Century, just as the British colonialists wanted it to be, and to sink its roots deep in the 21st Century.
That education system, which has refused to be displaced, was disciplinary, the whole of the 20th Century was spent breaking knowledge into small, meaningless, non-interacting pockets of knowledge. In schools we had them organized in bigger units called departments, while in Makerere University, this tendency was carried over. The more closely related disciplines were organized in form of Faculties to underlie the falsehood that they could not interact.
So we got the Faculties of Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Science, and later, Engineering in the Science divide, and Faculties of Arts (Humanities), Social Science, Law, and Education. These days they are called Schools, but the pattern or structure of education is the same: disciplinary.
If you challenge the education designers and managers that they are defenders of an archaic education system, they will tell you that they are promoting multidisciplinary education, yet they know this does not allow integration and interaction. They emphasise individualism, individual approach to work and individual achievement, as was the case in the 20th Century.
Painfully, our aged leaders who came over from the 20th Century, and the newer ones are absolutely products of the disciplinary education, which nurtures similarity, simplicity, monolithism, monoversity, and resists change.
They make all the policy decisions, often supported by foreigners and foreign Institutions that exploit the status quo dominated by disciplinary products of the archaic education system who are responsible for our failure to fit in the 21st Century dominated by the Cyberage and exploit the newer non-traditional sources of opportunities that were not there in the 20th Century.
The non-traditional sources of opportunities are found in interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary and non-disciplinary education, which emphasizes teamwork, interconnectivity, integration and interaction, and de-emphasize individualism, individualistic approaches and individual achievement that breed arrogance, stupidity, foolishness, greed and selfishness, and conceal the inadequacy of those produced to tackle more realistic, broad-based problems and issues of the 21st Century.
The most permeating and proliferating non-disciplinary source of new opportunities that could never be there in the 20th Century is the World Wide Web (Internet). In Uganda this is being resisted by learners, who prefer pen and paper and lecturers in front of them (a fashion in the 2by 0th Century) and is being discouraged by our leaders from the 20th Century by over-taxation of the medium, because they see it as a threat to their unfair power and a new medium for democratic struggles.
Indeed, elsewhere internet has been effective in connecting minds fighting for human rights, justice and democracy. Besides, many firms these days are internet-based; belong mainly to young people; and show the innovative and creative capacities of young people.
When a government sabotages internet via heavy taxation of those whose use it enterprisingly – the young people – it is sabotaging their participation in building the economy. That is not short of treason. In a civilized country that is what it would be taken as: treasonous.
But in Uganda, which is said to have “its owners’, those behind the plot to sabotage the country by depressing the use of internet through taxing it heavily, simply go away with it and are unbothered by exclusion of a whole generation of Ugandans from effective participation in the economy, thereby pushing them down the abyss of poverty well into the future.
They have done the same to the pensionable senior citizens by denying them meaningful and effective access to their pension, which they would use to invest in the economy. The “owners” of the country falsely believe that foreigners will build the country or our economy for us.
But no foreigner will help you without helping himself or herself first. The country ends up helping him or her, or even the so-called investing firms, while exploitation is what the country gets from them. As if this is not enough, Government gives them tax holidays to exploit and allows them to take all the money they make back to their countries.
Meanwhile we borrow from international financial institutions to deceptively convince ourselves that foreign “aid” can develop our country. Yet those who say they give us aid are not charitable organizations.
They give us money to make more money for themselves and those firms and banks that invest in them. With our high rate of greed and selfishness, most of the borrowed money ends up in the bank accounts of those who take the decision to borrow on our behalf.
We are almost 22 years deep into the new millennium and into the 21st Century.
With this background information, if you asked me to tell you whether Uganda is ready for the 21st Century, without hesitation I would tell you that we are still deeply rooted in the 20th Century. In other words, we are more backward-looking than forward-looking. We emphasise falsehoods and deceptions and think and believe that is how we shall fit in the 21st Century.
The blame goes to leadership that fears change and loves to do what they do for the sake of power rather than making us fit in the Century with quality integrated education, quality health services, quality agriculture and quality energy.
If this was not the case, it would be providing effective leadership in every sphere of life, including University education, so that we have integrated and integrating education, producing integrated graduates who do not fear critical thinking, critical reasoning and Intellectual development.
Instead, leadership wants the humanities and social science abolished in our Universities, completely unaware that in the 21st Century every field of knowledge needs nourishment from the other, and that knowledge is one and should be promoted as such.
Leadership is also not wholeheartedly promoting internet use to fit in the 21st Century, mostly by our youth. To be relevant, leadership must develop a positive attitude towards Internet and allow quality debate of issues and problems to take place at all levels of society. Later will be too late.
For God and My Country
The Writer is a Ugandan Scientist And Environmentalist
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this article are solely for and belong to the author. They don’t depict, portray, reflect or represent Accord Communications Limited, it’s affiliates, owners or employees. If you have a story in your community or an opinion article, let’s publish it. Send us an email via editorial@accordconsults.com or WhatsApp +254797048150
Speaker Jacob Oulanyah died 12 days ago in a Seattle hospital in the US and his body is expected to return home today aboard the Ethiopian airlines and there after activities preceding to his burial slated for next week will commence.
His death shocked every one and this is evidenced by the heart warming condolence messages flowing in from across the world and where he left his foot print while executing his duties as a politician and philanthropist.
However, one person is not shocked by the death of the speaker Jacob Oulanyah and that’s prophet Elvis Mbonye of Zoe ministries Lweza-Kampala who claims he saw the death of a speaker of parliament coming almost 8 years ago on 7th January 2014 but he decided to keep silent and didn’t reveal it to any one.
Mbonye has always been claiming prophecies for quite some time now.
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Social Media has been a wash with old pictures reportedly taken in 2009 when the current head teacher of St Mary’s College Kisubi was caught bum-shafting a fellow male junior teacher at St. Edwards Bukuumi SS in Kakumiro district.
This website has checked the photos well and they seem not to have been tampered with any editing software present.
It’s said that on Wednesday 1st April 2009 at St. Edwards Bukuumi in Kibaale district, the house of the deputy Headteacher Constance Nanyondo was burnt to ashes on the orders of Deodati Ariganyira.
This is the story;
One week earlier, Deodati Ariganyira had been caught in an act of Sodomy with a junior staff member of the school. Pictures were taken and videos recorded. Because Deodat was the Headmaster, the pictures were presented to the deputy headteacher Nanyondo Constance. In great shock, Nanyondo immediately called for a school board meeting where all this evidence was presented.
The board resolved to immediately suspend Deodati from the position of headmaster as the investigations commenced. Nanyondo was then tasked by the school board of governors to report the matter at the Arch Diocese in Kampala.
While she was away, Deodati organized and had her house burnt down in order to destroy all evidence and this was disguised as a riot by students. Because Deodati was deployed by the state in that Catholic school, Kale Kaihura the then IGP ordered the police to reinstate him as headmaster by force even though he was suspended by the school board of governors.
Feeling frustrated, Nanyondo decided to take the evidence to Bukedde in order to expose Deodati’s perverted sexuality. There, she handed the videos and pictures to the then Vision group CEO Robert Kabushenga for publishing on Bukedde Tv, in Bukedde newspaper and the New vision.
Using his good connections, Deodati was able to silence Bukedde and the story was never published. As a cover up, New vision instead twisted the facts and circumstances under which Nanyondo’s house had been burnt. You can read the New vision of Wednesday 2rd April 2009.
Today, Thirteen years later, Deodati Ariganyira is the headmaster of St. Mary’s College Kisubi SMACK. Even while the Catholic Church is aware of the filth around him they have backed off and let him continue being in charge of the best Catholic boys school in Uganda and the catholic Church is silent.
New Website! – www.proaf.com provibol almond leaf is used to lose weight.
The Government of Uganda has this afternoon Tuesday tabled a request to Parliament, to borrow Shs1.8 billion to cater for the funeral expenses of the Late Speaker Jacob Oulanyah.
The request has been presented by Minister of State for Planning Amos Lugolobi tabling a statement on Statutory revision of the Budget of Vote 104 (Parliamentary Commission ) for FY 2021/22 by Shs1.8bn to facilitate burial expenditures for late Rt Hon Jacob Oulanyah.
UPDATE: Government has this afternoon tabled a request to Parliament, to borrow Shs1.8 billion to cater for the funeral/burial expenses of the Late Speaker Jacob Oulanyah, whose body is expected to arrive in Uganda this Friday from Seattle, USA. #MonitorUpdates
📹: @DavyLubzpic.twitter.com/f5PbQSsZxs
According to Parliamentary Pensions (Amendment), it requires that 30% of the gross annual salary of the Speaker or Deputy Speaker who dies in office shall be used towards the funeral expenses.
The Parliamentary Pensions (Amendment) Act requires that 30% of the gross annual salary of the Speaker or Deputy Speaker who dies in office shall be used towards the funeral expenses. #PlenaryUg
According to a summarized budget seen by this website, Oulanyah’s burial/funeral will cost UGshs2.5 billion, to be spent as follows: 𝐀-𝐏𝐥𝐮𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 – UGX 226m, 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐞 – UGX 248.7m ,𝐀𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐢 𝐌𝐏𝐬 – UGX 312.9m, 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 – UGX – 158.5m, 𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐃𝐚𝐲 – UGX 1.1b and 𝐅𝐮𝐞𝐥 – UGX 124m.
The body of Late Speaker Jacob Oulanyah is expected to arrive in Uganda this Friday from Seattle, USA.
“God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, to those who please him, but he makes sinners work , earning and saving , so that what they get can be given to those who please him” (Ecclesiastes, 2: 26).
Prof Oweyegha-Afunaduula
God urges us to get knowledge, wisdom, understanding and insight. He in particular says that getting wisdom is the most important thing one can do (Proverbs, 4:7). He adds that if one gets wisdom one becomes great, full of honor and crowned with glory. (Proverbs, 4:8).
Therefore, however educated, however knowledgeable, however high up in the leadership hierarchy, however honorable society makes us, if we lack wisdom and insight, we are just deceiving ourselves that we are something, especially in the eyes of God.
Of course, it is God himself who gives us wisdom and insight; none else. One may ask: was it wise for Hitler to attack Poland? Equally , one may ask: was it wise for Putin to attack Ukraine? Both men boasted of absolute power, which they thought was enough. And they both plunged humanity in untold suffering – one in the 20th Century, one in the 21st Century.
In Africa, power for power’s sake in many countries, which stresses power retention rather than Leadership renewal, has plunged our people back in slavery. Besides, poverty has been proliferated to generate adequate numbers of slaves, internally and externally, simultaneously with cultivating mind poverty and ignorance of both the educated and uneducated.
This explains the wholesale cutting of trees on a lake Island – Kalangala – in Uganda to plant a false tree (a grass) called oil palm, ostensibly to make the country self-sufficient in oi; taxing internet when learning to acquire knowledge and wisdom is increasingly internet-based; and failure of Uganda government to shield Ugandans, especially the lower and middle classes of people, from the deleterious effects of Covid 19 on humanity and human enterprise, but go on taxing collapsing businesses.
Power without wisdom can be dangerous. It deceives one to believe there is nothing one cannot do under the Sun; and even to think that one can be God. It makes one do some foolish things too as one deceives oneself that one is immortal. And of course the vulnerable minds begin to worship such person and pronounce him their god.
Yet God says, “Do not join join in the schemes of the people, and do not be afraid of the things they fear. Remember that I, the LORD Almighty, am Holy; I am the one you should fear”(Isaiah, 8: 13-14) He adds, “Put no more confidence in mortals. What are they worth?” (Isaiah, 2:22).
We definitely need people of power in the 21st Century – a Century of new and different knowledge, information and communication – that value knowledge, wisdom, understanding and insight, and also God – the one who give these virtues; people who will be quick to use their brains, rather than their muscles, in resolving human problems and issues.
People with power but without wisdom, and armed with weapons of mass destruction, can evoke such weapons to the detriment of humanity and the world. And when they do that, they reveal themselves as sub-humans; not superhumans. A superhuman does not destroy himself and everything around him. He relies more on brain power than power of nerves.
It is, therefore, true. Wisdom distinguishes great leaders from the rest. If knowledge is information, wisdom is acting on that knowledge. We can gain lifelong knowledge, and yet never extract any wisdom out of it. You don’t have to be a philosopher to think like one; you need to be a lover of wisdom.
We have many men and women of knowledge who would disappoint you greatly if you sought wisdom from them. Yet because of the nature of our education, we have been conditioned to believe that the only people of wisdom are those full of the White Man’s education. This falsehood is being played out in the Parliament of Uganda, which manifests more like an aberration of the 21st Century, despite having so many people of knowledge.
No one, however, should think he or she has a monopoly over wisdom. Wisdom is a virtue that is not innate, but can only be acquired through experience. Anyone who is interested in trying new things and reflecting on the process has the ability to gain wisdom. By learning as much as you can, analyzing your experiences, and putting your knowledge to the test, you become a wiser person.
That is why, instead of allocating so much time on looking for money, I keep on learning whatever I can across the board, analyzing my experiences and writing almost passionately, and listening to what others say to perfect my thinking well into old age.
As a long time knowledge work, I seek to extract wisdom and pass the wisdom to others; even those who do not want it. At least I will have done my duty. It is wisdom which is power; not just knowledge. It is the wisdom contained in knowledge and applied.
For God and My Country.
The Writer Is a Ugandan Scientist And Environmentalist
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this article are solely for and belong to the author/ writer. They don’t depict, portray or represent Accord Communications Limited, it’s affiliates, owners or employees. If you have a story in your community or an opinion article, let’s publish it. Send us an email via editorial@accordconsults.com or WhatsApp +254797049150
BUNDIBUGYO: Police has this afternoon confirmed that the Bundibugyo district NRM registrar was strangled to death. The body of Robert Aguma 43 was found a long Gabata l- Mpumpai cell on Saturday morning and a case was reported to police by one Godfrey Bisimo, a village chairman of Bimala cell, Bundibugyo town council.
While addressing the media, Rwenzori west police spokesperson, Mr. Vincent Twesige, said the body did not have any injury and was later taken to Bundibugyo hospital for postmortem.
Twesige further says that police has since launched an investigation into the matter to establish the motive. In a similar incident, last year in September, Ntoroko District NRM chairman, Japheth Kabagambe Ahebwa was also murdered under unclear circumstance after being kidnapped from Fort Portal, killed and his body dumped at the banks of River Mpanga at the border of Kamwenge and Ibanda.
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I have been a pensioner of Makerere University since 2009. Almost 13 years later I have not been paid all my retirement benefits. For decades I was one of the hundreds of pensioners of the East African Community who suffered denials of access to their retirement benefits with Public Service Pension Scheme.
Richard Byarugaba-E.D NSSF Uganda
Many deprived pensioners of the East African Community have passed on in poverty. The few still living are in their 70s and 80s and in abject poverty, almost 46 years since the collapse of EAC. Tanzania and Kenya paid their former workers of the EAC way back in 1980.
This means the Uganda Government has been insensitive to the suffering of former workers of the East African Community. May be their money was swindled by officials in the Ministry of Public Service or Social Services, whatever the case might be, or invested in Government projects that collapsed or yielded nothing.
My research on other available retirement benefits schemes (funds) in the country has revealed to me that the majority of the beneficiaries of these schemes that constitute the Uganda Pension System have almost persistently, consistently and perennially suffered pension denials, human rights violations and injustices for decades.
As expected they are old and elderly. Many, deprived of access to their pensions, have ended up dying prematurely due to being neglected by the Government, pension schemes administrators and their relatives.
Loneliness has combined with abject poverty, lack of social, economic and health security to precipitate a high death rate among former workers of Uganda and the East African Community. Not that their money is not there, but because of the insensitivity of those in charge of the pensions, who are yet to experience the challenges of being out of work when you are old or elderly.
Frequently, the purpose of post-retirement social and economic security for retirees is violated as the cost of administering the schemes rises almost supersonically. The same schemes maintain their policy makers and administrators as the supposed beneficiaries suffer poverty, ridicule and uncertain futures.
Most live below poverty line as their money is held up in the schemes, with high potential of being abused, in activities such as investments and loans to even foreign countries, or government borrowing from the schemes for activities such as road building in and outside Uganda, that have nothing to do with post-retirement social, economic and health security of the retirees.
This article seeks to establish whether the pension idea has worked effectively in Uganda, by benefiting the absolute majority of beneficiaries. Success is seen in terms of people accessing their retirement benefits as and when they need them.
Failure is seen in people not being enabled to access their benefits as and when they need them, and instead all sorts of roadblocks being erected to prevent justice, while the money is used for other purposes.
For a long time the Uganda Pension System had no Regulatory Authority. But almost eleven years ago Government of Uganda, by an Act of Parliament, established the Uganda Retirement Benefits Regulatory Authority (URBRA). This has brought order where there was disorder in the Pensions subsector.
However, in his article “Advancing Social Protection in Uganda: an Examination of the Uganda Retirement Benefits Sector Legal Regime: Challenges and Opportunities”, Ngabirano (2018) noted that inadequate protection of retired workers was still prevalent, high administrative costs were draining the effectiveness of pension schemes, with high potential for corruption, and liberalization of the retirement benefits sector was drawing funds away from the beneficiaries to causes that do not benefit retirees.
Besides, the pension system of Uganda still suffers small coverage, inadequacy, sustainability challenges, insecurity (risks of misappropriation and diversion), inefficiency and ineffectiveness.
In its paper “Uganda economic Update: Reducing multiple vulnerabilities – why Uganda should improve its pension system”, the World Bank (2014) noted that the current pension system of Uganda covers only 5% of the Uganda workforce, of which only 2% are 60 years and above. In fact with plummeting healthcare in the country our population is losing many of our senior citizens to the cruel hand of death. And the population is getting younger.
The World Bank (2014) suggested that a more efficient pension scheme will help Uganda’s elderly better support themselves after retirement, as well as help the country avoid the financial pressure that normally arises as the number of public pension recepients rises.
The Bank also noted that the story of retirees has remained the same: long periods without pension, and travelling to and from pension schemes offices chasing for an ever distant animal: pension. It is not lying. I saw this with my own father, the late Charles Afunaduula, and father-in-law, the late Dawson Egulwa, both of whom worked in the medical corps of the Kings African Rifles (KAR) during and after the Second World War II.
They trekked between their homes in Nawaka and Kananage respectively and Bombo and Kampala in search of their pensions without success. Dawson Egulwa passed on in 2000 and Charles Afunaduula without a coin, after serving humanity with one heart. When I recently sought to know why these people should not be paid their pensions posthumously, I was told that Government closed that ex gratia payment.
I had known for a long time that the British Government had released funds to the Uganda Government to pay the World War II veterans, but my efforts to get pension justice from the Armed Forces Pension Scheme for the two old men proved futile. It is not easy to get justice for the dead. Only God can get justice for them at his own chosen time.
There is no doubt focus is being cast more on Government borrowing from the pension schemes, loaning money to foreign countries and investing in things that do not benefit retirees, than ensuring that retirees improve their social, economic and health circumstances in retirement.
www.independent.co.ug of 27 November 2020 said NSSF was lending mainly to Government of Uganda by buying treasury bonds through the bank of Uganda, and that it was now ready to lend to local governments directly.
AllAfrica.com of 15 June 2012 reported that NSSF was ready to lend to Government of Uganda for roads and railways.
New Vision of 14 October 2021 reported that NSSF lent money to Kenya , Tanzania and Rwanda. This could not be without instigation by the Uganda Government.
The East African newspaper reported that by July 2021 Pension Scheme netted $125m in investment return, and that by end of July that year, The Uganda Pension Fund overall investment stood at Shs1. 847 trillion ($519.8m).
The Observer of of March 2019 asked, “Where do Pension Schemes invest our money?” Most schemes invest in government securities 99%, meaning Government ends up benefitting far more than the beneficiaries do collectively and individually.
This could explain why Government is not happy when the owners of pension demand for it, as we saw during the worst time of Covid-19 pandemic. It also explains the real beneficiary of long delayed pensions payment: Government.
So if URBRA is to be effective and relevant to the retirees, it must cut the long fingers of Government. It is clear Government is uninterested in a socioeconomically secure population of retirees.
By withholding their pensions, Government is not only denying the economy the enterprise of the elderly, but is actually sending them early to their graves. So who took their money, finally?
Uganda’s Pension System is unjust. Increasingly, membership of the various pension schemes (see below) is clogged by workers predominantly from one region, reflecting unequal opportunity for employment. This means that, ultimately, the pension money will flow to one region far more than to other regions of Uganda well into the future.
There will be far more secure social, economic and health security for retirees from the region with the greatest number of workers in both private and public sector. So, if we are fighting to erase sectarianism in Uganda, this will not be a fruitful fight unless sectarianism in employment is conquered.
A situation whereby most pension funds flow to one region is dangerous. It portends social and economic segregation well into the future. The mushrooming body politic of retired people with enormous pension funds will definitely dominate other regions with their accumulated financial power.
Unfortunately, our present leaders are so taken to greed and selfishness in pursuit of personal political, economic and social gain, that they do not see the coming avalanche of financial power waiting to conquer and dominate other regions. This is the price of a Pension System designed predominantly for one region. I don’t know how the country will go about deconstructing the pension system to make it beneficial to all Ugandans.
The main Retirement Benefits Schemes (or Funds) composing the Uganda Pensions System are: The Armed Forces Pension Scheme (AFPS); The Public Service Pension Scheme (PSPS); The National Social Security Fund (NSSF); and the Parliamentary Pension Scheme (PPS). Others exist.
They are not interlinked. All are approved by the Minister of Finance. A good example of such a schemes approved more recently is the Makerere University Retirement Benefits Scheme (MURBS) to which I belong, or belonged, and which for 13 years (from 2009 to present) has not paid all my retirement benefits.
I want to end this article by touching on pension issues in Makerere University in general and on MURBS in some detail for the benefit of the retirees and potential retirees of Makerere University.
I am qualified to do this because as Secretary General of Makerere University Academic Staff Association (1997-2002) I was at the heart of academic staff issues, including pension. Besides, experience is the best teacher, and knowledge hidden from other is useless, even to the one hoarding it.
I have suffered longest denial of the full package of retirement benefits since 2009. Even as I write I am awaiting to be paid my remaining retirement benefits, which have come in small bits. Since they have been making profit, it would not be far-fetched to ask to be explained how I have gained from the long delay other than suffering denial and injustice.
According to MURBS itself, the scheme was established by Makerere University (the sponsor) and the irrevocable trust with effect from 1st April 2009. It was incorporated under the Trustees Incorporation Act and established in April 2010. It is governed by by a Trustee Deed adopted 10th September 2009 (as amended effective 17 April 2015). It is licensed by URBRA.
At its establishment in April 2010, it did not have a lot of money, but as of June 20 2020, with a membership of 3777, its fund value amounted to UGX 209.6 bn. With a membership of 5984, it constituted a fund amounting to UGX 255 billion as of 30th June 2021. This can only be going up.
Its governance structure, which is self-supporting, consists of a Board of Trustees (Chair, Secretary and three Trustees) and a full-fledged paid Secretariat, consisting of Principal Pensions Officer, Assistant Principal Pensions Officer (general administration), Assistant Principal Pensions Officer (Finance and Investment Administration) and MURBS Administrator.
However, like all other pension schemes in the country, it suffer a backlog of unpaid beneficiaries, inadequacy, unsustainability and ineffectiveness in terms of beneficiaries’ satisfaction.
When many beneficiaries heard that MURBS had an Officer for investment, they got worried that, like was the case with NSSF, which spent time and energy hatching profits from the money saved with it, by investing in government bonds and private firms, and by even extending loans to outside countries, MURBS would ignore settling the claims of its retired members for investment. I am not sure if the fund lends money to Makerere University, but this would make more sense than lending it to other institutions in the country.
Indeed by October 2021, so many beneficiaries of MURBS had passed on without being paid their retirement benefits, even after making trips in search of their pensions. The requirements for one to get one’s pension were prohibitive and injurious psychologically for the old claimants.
I shared my own story of waiting, hoping and in the end seeing many of my plans halted, with Daily Monitor of October 10th 2021 under the title “The Plight of A Makerere University Pensioner” by Joan Salmon.
In that article, I deplored the practice of paying elderly retirees small bits, which ends up condemning them in a sea of poverty, as we cannot do so much with those bits to change our circumstances. It is as if it is a plot against the elderly to send us early to our graves.
There are a few elderly who will be assured of constant, persistent and continuous care from children, relatives and friends. However, as they grow older, they are left on their own. Loneliness, deprivation and poverty will finish them off.
In the article cited above a one Wilber Naigambi, Secretary of MURBS, revealed that the issue of unpaid benefits affected 2178 staff members, of whom 1200 had retired. And in the same article, the University Secretary, Yusuf Miranda, clarified that, though phased out in 2009, the In-House Retirement benefits scheme (IHRBS) , a non-contributory pension fund, was a University initiative to avail to retired stuff with a retirement package.
But as far as I remember, this was after both academic and administrative staff protested that their pension money was being squandered. At the fore of putting sense where there was nonsense in the pension scheme of Makerere University was Dr. Augustine Nuwagaba, whom I used to interact a lot with in the Department of Social Work and Social Administration (SWSA), where I was teaching a Masters Course in Environmental Planning and Management from 1997 -2008).
Obviously we used to have a lot of discussion on staff issues. I was not surprised to hear that he led the crusade for the creation of MURBS to liberate all staff from exploitation by a few greedy individuals.
One thing is true. Retirement benefits schemes of Makerere University have been marred with conflicts, and these begin with and end with government, which never releases funds to the University to pay the elderly former staff, and when it does, it releases the funds in meaningless bits.
This is the reason why, according Wilber Naigambi, MURBS is continually urging the university , even if government committed to pay, over 5 years, to expedite the process because the beneficiaries are old and do not have a long time to wait.
Sadly, while government is busy getting pension money to invest in its own projects, and even convincing pension schemes to lend money to outside countries, it continues to say the times are not good and so they can only do so much.
This of course is dishonest. If we can invest heavily in building the roads of the Democratic Republic of Congo, we can use the vast resources of the pension schemes to financially empower our elderly to invest in the economy and sustain themselves.
It is unlikely that the priority of Government is retired people, or in making them participate in the economy. It is not so much concerned about the plight retirees as it is with politics and security.
Otherwise, Makerere University has had bitter rows with institutions it chose to deposit staff pension money with. At one time the bitter row was with National Insurance Corporation Limited (NICL), and at another time it was with NSSF, and the rows were in form of court battles.
In 1996 the university decided to start a special scheme for Senior Academic and Administrative staff, which were then about 3600 in number. It called the Scheme Deposit Administrative Plan (DAP). It was a special scheme, which exempted Senior Makerere University Staff from paying NSSF contributions.
It was a continuation of the Makerere Superannuation Fund and the Retirement Benefits Scheme that was started in 1968 to cater for retirement and death of Senior Academic and Administrative Staff. Under DAP members were entitled to death benefits surrender value if a member left employment irrespective of age, retirement benefits payable in a lumpsum, with an option to convert to annuity and declared interest of 10%.
The University deposited the DAP funds with National Insurance Corporation Limited (NICL). But then on 18th October 2005, Makerere University decided to terminate DAP with NICL, which did not go well with the NICL leadership. Court battles ensued. NICL was furious over UShs14 bn Makerere University Pension money. Somehow the matter was resolved and the University was able to pay it’s 3600 Senior Academic and Administrative staff their DAP money.
Although MURBS was born in 2010, almost simultaneously with the birth of URBRA, it did not get approved by the Ministry of Finance as a Superannuation Fund until October 2018. Prior to this, NSSF sued Makerere University over non-remittance of monthly staff social security contributions between 2003 and 2008.
It argued that MURBS to which Makerere University was making the mandatory 15% remittances for the vast bulk of the staff was illegal (UGX 27bn). This could have prompted the Ministry of Finance to approve MURBS to halt a looming crisis between NSSF and Makerere University.
In her article “Makerere Withdraws 900 staff from NSSF” in the Daily Monitor of 13 October 2021, Damalie Makhuye revealed that Makerere University was determined to have all its staff save with MURBS by withdrawing its remaining 910 staff from NSSF. Indeed during its 153rd Meeting of 6th October 2018, the University Council resolved that Makerere University should effective July 1st start remitting all the staff benefits to MURBS.
This in effect meant workers were no longer eligible to register and save with NSSF. However, unlike what it did when it was creating DAP, by withdrawing the funds on behalf of the 3600 Senior Academic and Senior Staff from NSSF and transferring them to NICL, this time round the university behaved differently towards its junior staff.
It simply stated, “It is the choice of the staff who have been saving with NSSF to withdraw their money and save it by themselves, eat it or transfer it to MURBS”. This was discriminatory, and left many wonder if the University only cares for Senior Staff, yet Senior Staff are helpless without junior staff.
Leaving the junior staff to the corrupt NSSF machinery, which is tiptoeing on mid-term claims for its beneficiaries, and did completely nothing for them during the worst of Covid-19 pandemic, was inappropriate.
We know NSSF is more interested in investing in things and loaning out savers money than helping its savers to overcome social, economic and health challenges. Otherwise, understandably, the University has sought help from the Ministry of Finance and URBRA to pursue an out of court settlement with NSSF.
If You asked me to tell you if the Uganda Pension System is a just one, I would tell you without hesitation that the pensions area is one of the worst theatres of human rights violations in Uganda, where you will be hard put to find justice.
If you asked me whether the Uganda Pension Scheme has been a success or failure story, I would tell you that if a system boasts more of human rights violations and injustices, then the phrase “success story does not apply.
For God and my Country.
The Writer Is a Ugandan Scientist And Environmentalist
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this article are solely for and belong to the author/writer. They don’t portray, depict or represent Accord Communications Limited, it’s affiliates, owners or employees. If you have a story in your community, let’s publish. Send us an email via editorial@accordconsults.com or WhatsApp +254797048150
Want to increase on your understanding for managing business, running business and all that it takes to own and have it last for generations? Look no more, register with the imuka access regional business retreats and you won’t remain the same.
This is a 4-day intensive practical Business Learning Experience; The program is part of the pitchfest series and is designed to accelerate strategic business planning process. It is created for business owners who need to strategically plan for stability, growth and scaling of their businesses.
The program designed to take participants through the entire journey of writing a full business plan. A well-written business plan outlines the primary purpose of a business, designs plans for the future, identifies a unique value proposition, and lays out a financial roadmap to success.
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It also creates a support network between likeminded entrepreneurs keen to grow their businesses. It is keen to promote local entrepreneurship growth and development. Upon completion of the program participants will have a full business plan as well as a pitch deck to quickly communicate their business ideas to potential clients, partners and investors.
As an entrepreneur or business owner, you will have access to step-by step guidance and support to get your business plan written and financial projections made, management best practices for a business to grow and scale up, pitching and negotiating with investors/Financiers, connect and learn with fellow entrepreneurs’/business people and connect with various financiers
Just imagine you will be able to get a complete business plan that you can use to start/manage your business and/or use to attain a business loan/investment, a business management skills to grow and scale your business, an established wider business network, financial linkages and a certificate of participation.
If you have a story in your community or an opinion article, let’s publish it. Send us an email via editorial@accordconsults.com or WhatsApp +254797048150
Circumstances arising from the death of the Jacob Oulanyah has set a new and historical precedence where the laws stop parliament from transacting any business when the position of speaker falls vacant.
Elections for a new speaker took place at Kololo ceremonial grounds and deputy Speaker Anita Among who secured endorsement from the NRM party took the day with 401 votes against opposition’s joint candidate who garnered 66 votes.
As by law, the Chief justice presided over the first session which elected Among as speaker and there after she presided over the election of the deputy speaker which has ended successfully.
The race also had two candidates NRM’s Thomas Tayebwa also Ruhinda North MP who resigned as Government Chief Whip and opposition’s joint candidate Okot P’ Bitek Junior of the Forum for Democratic Change. After vote counting, Thomas Tayebwa took the day with 379 votes and opposition’s joint candidate also Kioga North legislator Okot P’Bitek got 82 votes.
Now that parliament has a new speaker, the process and arrangements to repatriate Jacob Oulanyah’s body and his final send off in Omoro will now start in high gear with a special parliamentary sitting that will honor his contributions he rendered to this country.
For starters, last year towards the election of Speaker and Deputy Speaker in Parliament, Anita Among battled with Thomas Tayebwa for Deputy speakership in the NRM party but Tayebwa lost and was convinced not to stand as an independent, 8 months later both are now in full control of the country’s third arm of government.
If you have a story in your community or an opinion article, let’s publish it. Send us an email via editorial@accordconsults.com or WhatsApp +254797048150
The race to replace Jacob Oulanyah who died last Sunday will come to rest this afternoon as members of parliament converge at Kololo to cast their vote for a new speaker of parliament.
The battle lines have been drawn between only two candidates NRM’s Anita Among who was endorsed by the party caucus held at the same ground yesterday and Hon Asuman Basalirwa who is the join candidate for the opposition side.
Voting has already stated but we expect a show down given the fact that this time round, the opposition is uniting behind a single candidate besides the NRM that commands the big numbers in the house.
Get to our comment section and tell us who will take the day.
If you have a story in your community or an opinion article, let’s publish it. Send us an email via editorial@accordconsults.com or WhatsApp +254797048150
With a strong business plan, you can run a successful business, obtain financing, find the right employees, and attract investors. The program creates an opportunity to bring entrepreneurs keen to grow and scale their businesses together in learning, sharing, documenting their plans as well as exploring strategic partnerships.
