Monday, April 27, 2026
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Ahead Of Christmas, Kinzi Apartments Presents Free Live Band, Come Party And Have Fun

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Christmas is a time for celebration, and what better way to celebrate than with some live music? Kinzi Apartments is excited to announce that they will be hosting a live band on Christmas Day. Kinzi Afro Jazz band will be playing a mix of holiday classics and contemporary hits. So whether you’re a fan of traditional Christmas carols or something a little more upbeat, there’s something for everyone.

The event will be held in the Kinzi Gardens on the Christmas eve till late with lots of refreshments available, as well as plenty of space to dance and mingle.

This is a great opportunity for revelers from around, patrons and residents of Kinzi Apartments to get together and celebrate the holidays. It’s also a chance for non-residents to check out the apartments and see what Kinzi has to offer.

Tickets

The event is free of charge and those attending will only be required to purchase a plate of food which will come with free beers and free sodaz.

We hope to see you there!

About Kinzi Apartments

Kinzi Apartments is a luxury apartment complex located in [insert city here]. The apartments offer stunning views of the city, as well as a variety of amenities, including a fitness center, pool, and clubhouse.

Pick your phone, call +256 705 533 833 or +256 772 131 595 or WhatsApp +256705 533 833 to place your booking. Come party and have fun on the Christmas Eve.

Media Misled About Minister Jane Ruth Aceng And W.H.O Billions

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By Joseph Oryem
A few days ago, online media reports popped up maliciously accusing Minister of Health Jane Ruth Aceng of something which she couldn’t have done even if she were to be the reckless dishonest person the authors intended to portray. The story talked about her using W.H.O to fraudulently access billions of shillings which is simply not possible. That there was USD1M which came from African Development Bank ostensibly to support the Ebola response and ended up coming to her through W.H.O as a conduit!

Just imagine W.H.O engaging themselves in something like that. Can anyone succeed doing that knowing how impeccable the UN controls and financial systems are? How then do they account for so much money to their superiors in Geneva? The story simply depicted and portrayed how simplistic it’s authors were.

That a journalist can allege one accessing and eating public money through the W.H.O systems is indicative of an author who doesn’t know how the the UN systems and agencies operate. It would be easier for anyone to eat such money through the GoU channels than United Nations. Any basic and effective journalist ought to know that.

The money being talked about was appropriately solicited from AfDB by the W.H.O Uganda Office whose officials characteristically fundraised by approaching several bilateral and multilateral agencies operating in or with representatives in Uganda to contribute towards the country’s overall Ebola response.

There is simply no way the Ministry of Health could be involved in the manner described by the authors of the online story. Briefly what happens is that the W.H.O autonomously or independently originates it’s funding request to say AfDB, or any other potential funder, and all the GoU does or is required/permitted to do is to signal its no objection to the arrangement and the same is done by the Finance Ministry and not one of Health which Dr. Aceng heads as the political leader.

Effective basic journalism ought to take cognisance of that basic fact as opposed to merely politicising and going after Dr. Aceng who merely is the political leader of the health sector. In any case, the money being so ineptly talked about [USD1m] hasn’t yet been released or made available by AfDB to even the W.H.O which is supposed to use it to roll out programs beneficial to the Ugandan people. All that is in place thus far is a commitment that they (AfDB) will make that contribution as a grant to enable W.H.O operations. When time comes and it’s released, the money goes to W.H.O to support implementation of planned and pre-approved activities over which a Minister like Aceng can never have any control.

Clearly targeted at politically demonizing the Minister and portray her as unfit to continue holding the Ministerial post besides being a woman MP for her district, the same online media story hinted on the change of source from where vaccines (to facilitate vaccination of children and infants in Uganda against Rota virus) will be coming from going forward.

The authors ineptly stated that the source where these vaccines are purchased was being changed by W. H.O at the instigation of Dr. Aceng. How can this ever be possible? Whoever knows how W.H.O, and all these UN agencies, operate would know this is simply not possible. Recently GAVI, through which procurement and purchase of such mass vaccines is effected, directed that all African countries that are recipient of it’s vaccines-related support will have to be supplied with Rotasil vaccine which is manufactured by Serum Institute of India and not by GSK of Germany which manufactures Rotavix (which GAVI decided couldn’t be relied upon anymore).

Gratefully, there is a recent official GAVI communication to that effect: not just to W.H.O Uganda office but all the other African countries that continue to be recipients of W.H.O-coordinated and validated support under the GAVI program. Dr. Aceng, mere Minister in government of Uganda, must be such a powerful actor to influence such high level decision-making inside GAVI.

There was also mention about routine changes of staff under the Health Ministry’s immunization program which isn’t as acrimonious as was portrayed. Some staff have previously, as expected, been assigned new roles besides others who landed better opportunities and eased out on their own volition, which no one can legally prevent them from doing.

What is also true, yet the authors didn’t address their mind to it, is that there has been some involuntary departures of contract staff from W.H.O Ugandan office affecting about 20 short contract employees who the organization hasn’t been able to retain following the conclusion of Ebola related operations. These are medics in the category of epidemiologists etal.

They had been part of the 30 basically data collection and surveillance enablers, doing basic work in the field, but have had to involuntarily leave at the end of their contract period. Cash-constrained W.H.O hasn’t been able to retain them since the anti-Ebola operations, for which they had been taken on (as temporary staff), have since come to an end.

Only 10 out of the original 30 such epidemiologists and surveillance enablers have been kept around to finalize some of the pending work related to the Ebola response. These, naturally, have attracted envy among the 20 who have had to involuntarily leave. And some of the 20 terminated contract staff have been grumbling while threatening to engage in some malicious online propaganda campaign to aimed at disparaging the W.H.O in the hope that managers at it’s Kampala office can become cowed into calling them back. This too explains the very unfounded and anomalous online media reports.

The other misinformation related to the GAVI money, which was reprogrammed to amplify the purchase of COVID test kits which the W.H.O procured and promptly passed on to National Medical Stores. There was delay relating to the arrival of those test kits because of the logistics movement complications deriving from the world-wide COVID-19 lockdown which globally paralysed movement of things, logistics and persons for a significant period of time. The author is a veteran community work on several donor-enabled programs and interventions in Karamoja sub region.

If you have a story in your community or an opinion article, let’s publish it. Send us an email via ultimatenews19@gmail.com or WhatsApp +255769138299

Reasons Why You Should Consider Accord Web Host For Your Website

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Here are a few reasons why you should consider Accord Web Host:

1. Reliability and Uptime

Accord Web Host is committed to providing you with a reliable and secure hosting platform. Their servers are housed in state-of-the-art data centers with redundant power and network connections, ensuring that your website is always up and running.

2. Speed and Performance

Accord Web Host uses the latest technologies to optimize your website’s performance. They offer a variety of features, such as caching and content delivery networks (CDNs), to ensure that your website loads quickly and efficiently for visitors around the world.

3. Security

Accord Web Host takes website security seriously. They offer a variety of security features, such as firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems, and malware scanning, to protect your website from attacks.

4. Scalability

As your business grows, your website needs to grow with it. Accord Web Host offers a variety of hosting plans to accommodate your needs, from basic shared hosting to powerful dedicated servers.

5. Customer Support

Accord Web Host is committed to providing excellent customer support. They have a team of experienced and knowledgeable staff who are available to help you with any questions or problems you may have.

6. Price and Value

Accord Web Host offers competitive pricing and a variety of features to fit your budget. They also offer a money-back guarantee, so you can be confident that you’re getting a great value for your money.

7. Ease of Use

Accord Web Host makes it easy to create and manage your website. They offer a user-friendly control panel and a variety of tutorials and documentation to help you get started.

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10. Community

Accord Web Host has a strong community of users and developers who are always willing to help each other. They offer a variety of forums and chat rooms where you can ask questions and get support.

Conclusion

Accord Web Host is a great choice for businesses and individuals of all sizes who are looking for a reliable, secure, and affordable web hosting provider. With a variety of features and excellent customer support, Accord Web Host can help you create and manage a successful website.

In addition to the above, here are some other benefits of using Accord Web Host:

  • They offer a free website builder, which makes it easy to create a website even if you have no coding experience.
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  • They offer a variety of green hosting options, which can help you reduce your environmental impact.

If you’re looking for a web host that can help you take your website to the next level, then Accord Web Host is the perfect choice for you.

NAMISI BRUNO: Stop Using Vulnerable Groups For Selfish Interests

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I write with great concern regarding the continued unabated vice of people using vulnerable persons as  baits for earning income. This concern is drawn from my personal experience and recent observations.  Using an example of what happened this year around Easter season, I met a passenger around Colline Hotel stage in Mukono town, looking stranded, wearing ram shackled clothes, with two children aged  between one and seven years.

This gentleman carried a placard which read that he lacked about five  thousand shillings (5,000/=), to meet the transport fare to his destination, from Mukono town. He looked  frail and indeed needed help, which I kindly offered through the taxi conductor.

Upon giving him Ten  thousand shillings (10,000/=), the conductor gave me back change of 2,000/= after deducting my fare of  3,000 and 5,000 for the stranded gentleman, and his children. Many passengers were so grateful towards  my act of kindness to this helpless man. Fast forward, three months down the road, I bump into the same  gentleman in the city center, with the same children, wearing same clothes, with a placard reading a  different message. 

As I narrated this story to one of my sisters-In-Law, she also told me about a scenario which befell her while in the middle of town. She told us of a lady who walks with a child, whose toes have been cut off, that she randomly throws onto any reveler’s laps, and, she starts weeping until she is paid to carry away that  child to her next victim. This conversation led me to recall the ploys I have personally seen being used by  

different individuals like wheeling the lame, walking with the visibly sick and frail patients through markets  and town centers, in the name of mobilizing support to take care of their medical bills. Some of these  people who are used as baits walk with open wounds on different parts of their bodies, which are  sometimes scary, especially to the young children, upon sight. 

Whereas, I personally appreciate the efforts of those who try to assist these vulnerable groups to access  something to eat and other basic needs, it is high time they changed the approach for achieving the same.  It should not be done in a derogatory manner. Furthermore, I have begun to suspect that some of these  helpers have found employment in assisting these vulnerable groups. However, they should recognize the  fact that some of their actions are at the expense of the victims’ human rights and dignity.  

By this letter, I therefore call upon those in authority especially the Ministry of Gender Labor and Social  Development, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Internal Affairs, and, any other stakeholders to pick interest in  this matter. Let there be more sensitization about this issue, and apprehension where need be. 

Namisi Bruno Ignatius 

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this article are solely for and belong to the author/ writer. They don’t portray, reflect or represent those of Ultimate News, 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 ultimatenews19@gmail.com or WhatsApp +255769138299

Early X-mas Gift: Mbarara Referral Hospital Clinical Laboratories Attain International Certification.

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MRRH Laboratory personnel in a group photo with the hospital administration shortly after addressing the media.

 

The staff at Western Uganda’s biggest facility, Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital(MRRH) are on cloud nine after the hospital Medical Laboratory made it to the list of those accredited internationally.

Sanctioned by The South African National Accreditation (SANAS), the accreditation certificate was unveiled by the MRRH Director Dr Celestine Barigye in a press conference held in the hospital boardroom.

Dr Barigye was accompanied by Ms Sarah Mulongo, the Principal Hospital Administrator; Mr Ojom Francis, Senior Hospital Administrator and the Laboratory team led by their Manager Mr Robert Wagubi.

Dr Celestine Barigye (in the middle) together with MRRH addressing the media on Thursday morning. Photo by Halson Kagure

 

Wagubi described the accreditation as one of the great achievements attained by his department under the leadership of Dr Celestine Barigye.

“I thank you the Director together with your administration for the support you have been rendering to our department from the word go. We promise that we shall not compromise the standard”, Wagubi said.

Wagubi, a Medical Laboratory Specialist reminisces days when samples were processed  in unpleasant room.  The narrative changed with the completion of Clinical Laboratories.

He reminded the general public on the accuracy of the laboratory results issued out adding that they are internationally recognized.

But , the staff  and the general public got to ensure that quality management system is upheld.

“When you publish a story that you conducted a test at our Laboratory but you were given wrong results and it is ascertained to be the truth, this raises a lot of questions”, he adds.

Mr Stephen Ralph Wanok, the Hospital’s Laboratory Quality Manager describes this as an early Christmas gift adding that it was a concerted effort as he appeals to the staff not to compromise the set standard.

To Wanok, the Laboratory which currently offers about 100 tests attracts over 300 clients on a daily basis and with this achievement the number is likely surge.

In his speech, Dr Celestine Barigye described this as an indication that the institution has quality system in place that reduce wastage through effective corrective and preventive actions.

The accreditation journey started way back in 2013 under the Stepwise Laboratory Improvement Process towards Accreditation (SLIPTA) program.

Dr Barigye acknowledged the support of the Government of Uganda and  USAID Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital Strengthening Activity.

“We have two big laboratories. Clinical Laboratory constructed by the Government of Uganda and Research and Histopathology Laboratory from the Americans which was commissioned by the USAID Mission Director Mr Richard Nelson and Permanent Secretary Ministry of Health Dr Diana Atwine on behalf of the government”, he said.

On the sustainability, Dr Barigye said they are confident with a dedicated team of medical laboratory personnel though he tasked the department leadership to jealously guard the accreditation status.

Currently, Mbarara Referral Hospital is the only Regional Hospital offering  super specialized services including special laboratory investigations.

About the Author(s)

Halson Kagure is the Public Relations Officer at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital and teaching affiliate of Mbarara University of Science & Technology

Breaking News: Scores Feared Dead In Kampala As Over 10 Vehicles Are Crashed

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News making headlines this evening indicate that there has been a terrible accident in Kampala in the areas of Namboole.

Eye witnesses who claim over 20 people might have died say the accident happened this evening and it was caused by a huge truck which failed to break and ended up crushing other vehicles in the line.

This has caused huge traffic in the city in areas of Namboole, Northern By-pass and Bweyerere.

At the time of publishing this story, police was still at the scene as we await official communication.

Details to follow….

If you have a story in your community or an opinion article, let’s publish it. Send us an email via ultimatenews19@gmail.com or WhatsApp +255769138299

OWEYEGHA-AFUNADUULA: Does God Really Exist? The Evidence

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By Oweyegha-Afunaduula

There is no question that has been asked everywhere on the globe far more frequently than the question “Does God Really Exist?” The high frequency reflects one human value known as “Curiosity”. It also reflects the human vice of doubt although doubt might be useful when pursuing the truth.  To fit in the world well, one must be curious enough to gain sufficient reason and information to say NO or YES from an informed vantage point to the decisions of others or to one’s own decisions or to what is dictated by the environment. The constant question leading to the question “Does God Really Exist?” is “How did we and other beings, and indeed the whole universe, of which we and other beings – living and nonliving – are integral to, come into existence?”

There are two sciences that compete in explaining how th universe and all beings came to be: 1) Creation Science (based on The Theory of Creation expressed as the Word of God); and 2) Evolutionary Science (based on Charles Darwin’s Theory of The Origin of Species, or the Theory of Evolution). Those who accept The Theory of Creation reject the Theory of Evolution, and those who accept The Theory of the Origin of Species, reject the Theory of Creation.

The complexity of the human-initiated debate of God’s existence reflects the limits to our knowledge of and reasoning about things that are beyond human imagination. Imagining God has proved a difficult challenge that Man has faced since he began to be aware of his own existence and the existence of other beings. There is always a new generation of people, especially among scientists and homosexuals doubting or even dismissing the existence of God.

The Theory of Evolution explains that we have not always been human beings, but evolved from more primitive beings that existed billions of years ago. It explains certain “difficult to explain” stages in our evolution by evoking the Theory of “Missing Links’ to other beings; mainly the Apes. According to evolutionary scientists, the progression of human evolution took billions of years, through numerous extinctions, to produce the humanity we are now part of, and expressed in diverse clans and cultures.

It includes academic Man, Homo sapiens academicus, which I belonged to from 1991 to 2009 as a lecturer of Zoology and Environmental Science at Makerere University, Uganda. However, there is also the startling idea, that first appeared in scientific form in 1931, in a paper by Georges Lemaître, a Belgian civil engineer-cum-cosmologist, Catholic priest and Astrophysics Professor at the Catholic University of Louvain, near Brussels (I visited the University in 1995, when I was invited to deliver a paper on Environmental Refugees in Africa): The Big Bang Cosmology and, hence, The Big Bang Theory, accepted by nearly all astronomers, many scientists and most homosexuals today, was a radical departure from scientific orthodoxy in the 1930s, which was driven by evolutionary science.

While Pope Pius XII referred to the new theory of the origin of the universe as a scientific validation of the Catholic faith, Lemaître said his theory remains entirely outside any metaphysical or religious question. His was a physical point of view and saw his theory as predicting the expansion of the real universe of galaxies that observations were only then beginning to suggest. Therefore, in opposition to God’s creation, humanity is divided between evolutionary Theory and Big Bang Theory.

The Theory of Creation, which stresses the centrality of God in the creation of everything, except God, explains that the creation act of God took place in 6 days and then God rested on the 7th day after pronouncing that everything He created was GOOD. He never used Best or Excellent to describe what he created. By the time he rested, the whole Universe was in place.

I credit biochemist Dr. Duane Gish, who, in 1963 together with others, founded the Creation Research Society, and then went on to provide evidence for divine creation, long before he died on 6th March 2013. Over the years, he participated in over 300 formal debates with evolutionists and, by all accounts, he won them all. Soon evolutionists were publicly appealing to fellow evolutionists all over the globe not debate with Duane Gish on creation and evolution because they would be miserably defeated. He disliked confrontations, but he valued and exploited the chance to present creation’s evidences.

Christian university campus groups reported “a great harvest of souls” following the debates that the biochemist-turned-divine creation’s apostle effectively won for God and proved that even scientists can be God’s agents the same way Saul turned Paul did. His books “Evolution? The Fossils Say NO!”, Evolution? The Fossils Still Say NO!”,A Creation Scientist Answers His Critics,Evidence Against Evolution,Dinosaurs: Those Terrible Lizards, and “Dinosaurs by Design”, to mention but a few, greatly weakened evolutionary reasoning against divine creation.

Duane Gish (1981 https://www.icr.org/article/summary-scientific-evidence-for-creation) gives a summary of the evidence for divine creation. He said that the Creation model is at least as scientific as the evolution model and is at least as nonreligious as the evolution model. In any case religion is of human, not divine, origin.

He writes that scientific evidence both for creation and evolution can and must be taught to students without any religious doctrine, whether the Bible or the Humanist Manifesto. “Creation science proponents want schools [and universities] to teach all the scientific data, censoring none, but do not want any religious doctrine to be brought into science classrooms”, he said.

Duane Gish (1981) states that “the scientific model of creation, in summary, includes the scientific evidence for a sudden creation of complex and diversified kinds of life, with systematic gaps persisting between different kinds and with genetic variation occurring within each kind since that time. The scientific model of evolution, in summary, includes the scientific evidence for a gradual emergence of present life kinds over aeons of time, with emergence of complex and diversified kinds of life from simpler kinds and ultimately from nonliving matter.

The creation model questions vertical evolution, which is the emergence of complex from simple and change between kinds, but it does not challenge what is often called horizontal evolution or microevolution, which creationists call genetic variation or species or subspecies formation within created kinds”.

According to Duane Gish (1981), the creation model includes the scientific evidence and the related inferences suggesting that:

  • The universe and the Solar system were suddenly created
  • Life was suddenly created
  • All present living kinds of animals and plants have remained fixed since creation, other than extinctions, and genetic variation in originally created kinds has only occurred within narrow limits.
  • Mutation and natural selection are insufficient to have brought about any emergence of present living kinds from a simple primordial organism
  • Man and apes have a separate ancestry.
  • The earth’s geologic features appear to have been fashioned largely by rapid, catastrophic processes that affected the earth on a global and regional scale (catastrophism).
  • The inception of the earth and of living kinds may have been relatively recent.

On the other hand, Duane Gish (1981) submits that the evolution model includes the scientific evidence and the related inferences suggesting that:

  • The universe and the solar system emerged by naturalistic processes
  • Life emerged from nonlife by naturalistic processes
  • All present kinds emerged from simpler earlier kinds, so that single-celled organisms evolved into invertebrates, then vertebrates, then amphibians, then reptiles, then mammals, then primates, including man
  • Mutation and natural selection have brought about the emergence of present complex kinds from a simple primordial organism.
  • Man and apes emerged from a common ancestor
  • The earth’s geologic features were fashioned largely by slow, gradual processes, with infrequent catastrophic events restricted to a local scale (uniformitarianism).
  • The inception of the earth and then of life must have occurred several billion years ago.

Below I evoke my own experiences, the thoughts of David Kovalevich (2022) in his “Is God Real? How do we know he is real?” and the thoughts of Marilyn Adamson’s in her “Is there God?” to entrench further the evidence for God’s existence.

Human experiences of God have occurred over time. Studies show that many people have spiritual, religious or mystical experiences, and that they almost always have positive effects in their lives. These experiences, strange as they may seem to the rest of us, do not seem to have been the result of mental illness, drugs, epilepsy or any other “abnormality” ( https://www.is-there-a-god.info/clues/human-experience/).

My own experiences of God occurred in form of visions when I was in Nairobi, Kenya, in the very early 1980s studying for a Masters degree in Zoology (The Biology of Conservation). I had no prior knowledge that they would occur to me in sleep. They were eight in total but I will only detail three of them. They occurred in succession one day after the other. I have written about these visions elsewhere. I am mentioning them again for the purposes of this particular article on “Does God Really exist? I characterize the visions as:

  • The Vision of Fire Falling from Outer Space
  • The Vision of a White Lion Falling Gently in a Net from Outer Space
  • The Vision of Disappearing Mountain and Emerging Straight Path

The Vision of Fire Falling from Outer Space

When I went to bed I slept soundly. But then the phenomenon of fire falling down from outer space manifested itself in my mind. I was with my longtime friends, Charles Kawagga, who lives in London. A hole appeared and then fire started to descend from it in one interconnected flame. It was coming towards us. At first, I thought it was going to burn us to ashes. But NO. Whoever sent it wanted to lead us to safety.

We were in a forest. We did not know how we happened to be there. When the fire, stretching from outer space, reached us we noticed it was not hot at all but a friendly fire. Even if friendly, we started to run away from it as fast as we could. It came after us but never tried to overtake us. Instead, it was scotching the earth leaving behind it a black trail as it burnt the vegetation in its way. It seemed to me that the interest of whoever sent the fire was not to harm us but to drive us from the forest to somewhere else.

After running for a long time, we saw a huge house with steps leading to a big door, which was locked. We run faster, but never getting tired, until we reached the house and climbed the steps. Then we saw the door opening. We entered and stood in the corrido. When we looked back, we saw that the fire had stopped right at the first step of the house. Then we saw it going back and every space it left turned green.

It raced fast until it started to go up. It disappeared into the hole it had emerged from. Meanwhile we remained in the corridor. Although we saw very many rooms, none was opened for us. Suddenly I came back to my senses and realized I was in bed. I switched the light on, awakened Jane my wife and told her what I had experienced. She was amazed and remains amazed to this day just as I remain amazed. How could this happen without some unseen being involved.

The Vision of a White Lion Falling Gently in a Net

The next day I went to bed and expected to enjoy my sleep. It was not to be. Along the way, I found myself alone in a desert, which was unusually not hot although it was daytime. Then I saw a hole forming in outer space. I wondered what was going to happen this time round. I saw a white net emerging out of the hole. It started to descend down towards where I was standing.

There was no other person or any other living thing in the desert. Then as far as I could sense with my eyes, I noticed that there was a living white animal lying on its right-hand side in the net. Initially I could not make out what species of animal it was. However, as the net stretching all the way from the hole in outer space approached, I saw clearly that it was a white lion. Its eyes were wide open, unblinking and unlike those of lions I had seen in Ruaha National Park in Tanzania because they were full of sympathy and compassion.

The Net landed very close to my feet with the lion fixing its eyes on me. Even if we were now two in the desert, and I was not scared at all after realizing it was a friendly lion, I decided to walk away from it. I must have walked some five kilometers to nowhere, when I noticed that the lion was as if it was still near me and looking at me with unblinking gracious eye.

The next time I looked back I saw the net withdrawing with lion still looking at me back to outer space. It disappeared into the hole from which it had emerged. Then I realized I was all alone in an expansive desert. I came back to my senses, switched on the light and awoke Jane to narrate the experience to her. She was amazed the more. She still is.

The Vision of Disappearing Mountain and Emerging Straight Path

The next day I went to bed praying nothing disturbed my sleep again. I was wrong. After sleeping for some I had a vision in which I found myself at the tip of a mountain. Suddenly a transparent being that resembled my brother Zerubeabel Mwavu, who was slain in by thugs in Jinja in 1976, and who died believing God exists, appeared behind me and said, “My brother you are in trouble. I have been sent to help you escape danger. If you follow what I tell you will be perfectly safe. First, don’t look back”. However, even if I did not look back, I could still see he was the one. Then he said, “You will walk away from here”.

I asked, “How can I walk away from the summit of the mountain. I will just tumble over and die!” He said, “You will not die. Just take your first step and you will see what happens”. When I took the first step, the mountain started to disappear and its place a plain appeared. A path, with two dark trenches formed. Then Zerubbabel said, you will walk that path. Don’t look sideways, otherwise you will fall into either of those dark trenches.

And don’t look back either”. Then he bid me farewell. I started to walk. At first, I feared a lot. But I had to walk to safety. It was a very long lonely walk before in the horizon I saw a very beautiful place full of all types of plants. I walked faster but just as I took one step into the beautiful place, I came back to my senses, switched the light on and narrated everything I saw to Jane my wife. She was amazed even more. But this time round she said, “It must be God in al these visons of yours. He wants you to serve him”.

David Kovalevich says experiences such as those I went through often leave people with a strong sense of awe and wonder, and they often feel that they have been in touch with something divine. This is precisely what my wife, Jane, convinced me was the case. Even today Jane awes about those visions.

David Kovalevich evokes the following arguments to argue for God’s existence:

  1. The Argument from design, which states that the world is so complex and orderly that it must have been created by an intelligent being, to argue for the existence of God. He says, “The universe is like a watch, and it is impossible to believe that such an intricate piece of machinery could have come into existence by chance. This points to the fact that God created the universe”.
  2. The Argument from Miracles, which states that miracles are evidence of God’s power and presence in the world. “Miracles are events that do not have a natural explanation, and they point to the fact that there is something beyond our understanding at work in the universe.
  3. The Argument from Prophecy, which, states that many people throughout history have accurately predicted future events. These predictions could not have been made without the help of divine intervention, which proves that God exists and is a personal God who is involved in human affairs.

Marilyn Adamson, in her article “Is there God?”, gives six ix straightforward reasons to believe that God is really there. Let me list them so that you can think seriously about them:

  1. The complexity of our planet points to a deliberate Designer who not only created our universe, but sustains it today.
  • The Earth’s size is perfect
  • Earth is the only known planet equipped with an atmosphere of the right mixture of gases to sustain plant, animal and human life.
  • The Earth remains this perfect distance from the sun while it rotates around the sun at a speed of nearly 67,000 mph
  • The Earth rotates on its axis, allowing the entire surface of the Earth to be properly warmed and cooled every day.
  • Water colourless, odorless and without taste, and yet no living thing can survive without it.
  • Water is a universal solvent allowing various chemicals, minerals and nutrients to easily dissolve and be carried throughout our bodies and into the smallest blood vessels.
  • Water freezes from the top down and floats, so fish can live in the winter.
  • The human brain ssimultaneously processes an amazing amount of information.
  • The human brain takes in all the colors and objects we see, the temperature around us, the pressure of our feet against the floor, the sounds around us
  • The human brain keeps track of the ongoing functions of your body like your breathing pattern, eyelid movement, hunger and movement of the muscles in our hands
  • The human brain functions differently than other organs. There is an intelligence to it, the ability to reason, to produce feelings, to dream and plan, to take action, and relate to other people
  • The human eye can distinguish among seven million colors. It has automatic focusing and handles an astounding 1.5 million messages simultaneously

One thing is true, as Marily Adamson emphasizes: The universe has not always existed. It had a start. Scientists have no explanation for the sudden explosion of light and matter. All of the sciences – molecular biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, etc – hinge on the consistent laws of nature. “How is it that we can identify laws of nature that never change? Why is the universe so orderly, so reliable?”, asks Adamson “The greatest scientists have been struck by how strange this is. There is no logical necessity for a universe that obeys rules, let alone one that abides by the rules of mathematics”.

Indeed, Adamson cites Physicist Paul C. Davies, to drive her point home “…to be a scientist, you had to have faith that the universe is governed by dependable, immutable, absolute, universal, mathematical law”. It is difficult to ignore the existence of a superior intelligent power behind such order. “All of our ability to discover, solve problems, create is made possible by the orderly laws of the universe that never change and can be measured with precision”, adds Marilyn Adamson and then cites Richard Feynman, a Nobel Prize winner for quantum electrodynamics, thus: “Why nature is mathematical is a mystery…The fact that there are rules at all is a kind of miracle”.

Yu will have noticed that most of the people supporting to the existence and realism of God are not from the Arts or Social Sciences but the Natural sciences fields. It marvels that scientists who would otherwise deny the existence of God are the ones convinced that God exists without experiments!

There is further evidence of the existence of God from the genetics of our bodies. In every cell of our bodies there exists a very detailed instruction code, much like a miniature computer program. There is no program without a programmer. A computer program is made up of ones and zeros, like this: 110010101011000. The way they are arranged tell the computer program what to do.

The DNA code in each of our cells is very similar. It’s made up of four chemical units, called nucleotide bases, that scientists abbreviate as A, T, G, and C. These are arranged in the human cell like this: CGTGTGACTCGCTCCTGAT and so on. There are three billion pairs of these letters in every human cell. DNA instructs the cell. DNA is a complex, arranged program telling the cell to act in a certain way.

It is a full instruction manual. How did this information program wind up in each human cell? These are not just chemicals. These are chemicals that instruct, that code in a very detailed way exactly how the person’s body should function. Natural, biological causes are completely lacking as an explanation when programmed information is involved. You cannot find instruction, precise information like this, without someone intentionally constructing it.

Scientist prove things by doing experiments. They have never tried to prove that God exists because they have no way to determine it by doing experiments. And it does not make sense what scientific findings about our material world or Universe reveal about God. As David Kovalevich (2022) puts it, any cosmic system is consistent with God. Indeed, Biochemist Duane Gish did everything in his life to use his brain to demonstrate that Creation Theory is not just a theory but the truth that God exists and is real. I, a Conservation Biologist, have assembled all the evidence for you in this article. It shows that acknowledging God is nondisciplinary.

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 reflect, portray or represent those of Ultimate News, 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 ultimatenews19@gmail.com or WhatsApp +255769138299

PAUL MUGOYA: Corruption On Industrial Scale

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With corruption reaching an industrial scale with impunity, service delivery in Uganda is likely to collapse. Laws in Uganda are very weak to fight corruption.The Courts of Judicature too bureaucratic. Too much paper work to get evidence. There is need for a Judicial review to enable the establishment of an Express Anti corruption Court to clear away the backlog in the same Courts and to act as a deterrence in the fight against thieving of money paid by a poor tax payer.

Tax collected by government is being wasted by the same government. There is a tendency of creating unnecessary job duplications for purposes of political patronage to appease and reward political supporters. This is another form of corruption on a grand scale. The creation of unproductive jobs is another way siphoning out money from Treasury Basket. This explains how corruption has become sophisticated.

There is no political will from the government to touch the bigwigs, political supporters or smart thieves. All this blame goes to President Museveni for handling his friends who have become a liability to this nation with kid gloves. These people who are very close to him are the very ones involved in grabbing land as he himself has attested that people in State House are involved in land grabbing. The enemy is usually not from far but enemy is always from within.

The President has to retrace his revolutionary roots if he has to stamp out corruption. In the earlier times as Cadres, there was ‘Akuna Mucheso’ on corruption tendencies. We viewed such people as enemies of the people and the revolution. If the President has the will to fight corruption, let him establish Peoples Anti Corruption Committees under his protection at all government structures.This is a mass crusade which needs people’s involvement. These people will act as appointed whistleblowers.

My appeal to Ugandans to condemn individuals and wake up to learn to blacklist the names of people who are stealing taxpayers money that has crippled economic growth and retarded development in our country. The issue of presenting unending supplementary is another form of mega corruption.

Poor Ugandan taxpayers and good investors are exploited to sustain an opulent lifestyle of a few people at the expense of the country. It is very unfortunate, the grand corruption is happening under the watch of President Museveni. Very sad indeed and embarrassing.

NRM has to sit and sought out this mess. This is steadily killing the meaning of the Revolution. There are many embarrassing incidences happening.
1. The Lubowa Specialized Hopital.
2. The huge delegation to the UN General Assembly. 3. The gigantic delegation to the COP conference of 600 people.
4.The unending request of Supplementary budgets.

Paul Polly Mugoya,

The Writer Is a FRONASA Veteran and Concerned Citizen.

DISCLAINER: The views expressed in this article are solely for and belong to the author/ writer. They don’t reflect, portray or represent Ultimate News, it’s owners or employees. If you have a story in your community or an opinion article, let’s publish it. Send us an email via ultimatenews19@gmail.com or WhatsApp +255769138299

 

OWEYEGHA-AFUNADUULA: The Curse Of Palm Tree Plantation In Uganda

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By Oweyegha Afunaduula
I wrote the article below way back in 2019. I am sure many of you never read it. It is still relevant culturally, socio-politically, socio-ecologically, socio-economically and environmentally.

In 2012, while officer in charge of Research at National Association of Professional Environment (NAPE), I was directed by the Executive Director of the environmental organisation, Mr. Frank Muramuzi, to lead a team to carry out research on the proposed oil palm growing project throughout Uganda.

I embarked on the exercise. I started by reading about the enterprise. What struck me was that the NRM government, the International Foundation for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Bank were working together by 2002 to see that the whole of Northern Uganda and three quarters of Eastern Uganda are turned into extensive plantations of the false tree, oil palm. Indeed, that year IFAD produced a report in which there was a map of Uganda showing that all the islands of Lake Victoria, the whole of Northern Uganda three quarters of Eastern Uganda would be converted into Oil Palm territory.

Clearly Western Uganda would be spared from the enterprise. I thought that the reason was that the cattle grazing corridor lies in that region. However, by 2012, the region was already known to be oil rich and government was already talking of beginning to exploit it. Cattle grazing and oil mining are diametrically toppled to oil palm growing. They all require very extensive expanses of land.

Besides they are all allergic to other land resource uses, including human settlements. For example, where you have oil mining you have forego human settlements, food growing, forestry and fisheries in lakes and rivers due to land uptake and pollution.

Meanwhile the life-threatening activities of oil mining and oil palm growing are being pursued, our politicians that should be asking questions are either immersed in personal pursuits of power, wealth and glory or are totally ignorant of what is going on. Even our intellectuals at our numerous university campuses who would be articulating and clarifying issues for society in the wake of these activities have coiled themselves in a conspiracy of silence.

I would not be writing this article if I did not see a picture of the Ambassador of Sweden to Uganda, a representative of IFAD in Uganda and the Executive Director of NAPE visiting Kalangala in connection with oil palm growing. The article accompanying the picture emphasized that the enterprise will be spread to other districts of Uganda. By other districts we should understand it to mean districts of the whole of Northern Uganda and three quarters of Eastern Uganda.

Because I relocated to Busoga I did not know or was not aware that 17 years later government, IFAD and World Bank were determined to turn Northern Uganda and Eastern Uganda into oil palm territory. But as soon as I saw NAPE Executive Director, IFAD and the Swedish envoy together, I started to research and get to understand what was going on.

I read New Vision of July 24th 2017 and found NAPE was expressing concern that extending oil palm growing to the other islands of Kalangala would destroy the fragile ecosystems and biodiversity of the district. NAPE could have added that it would also destroy the integrity and productivity of Lake Victoria, and undermine environmental, climate and food sustainability in the district and beyond. Besides people would be force to move and become internal refugees, with serious sociopolitical consequences.

Then I read The Observer of March 24, 2018. Although not surprising, I read that government was in advanced discussions with IFAD to extend oil palm project to other districts. Of course, I understood this to mean Northern Uganda and Eastern Uganda.

What perturbs my mind is that despite the potential of the project to disrupt our environmental, Climate and food sustainability over a large part of Uganda, and produce millions of internal refugees, let alone generate long-term human exploitation, poverty, suffering of people with no more foothold on land, silence reigns as more and more politicking goes on about who should or should not rule Uganda. Who will rule a country full of internal refugees and social chaos and succeed?

Busoga seems to have been prepared well for embracing oil palm growing. Most of the sub-region’s land has been converted to sugarcane growing. People have cut most of their trees to establish sugarcane plantations. They no longer want to grow coffee. There is every likelihood that prices of sugarcane will fall meteorically, leading to further poverty. The subregion is now the second poorest in Uganda, although in the 1960s it was rich enough to compete with Buganda.

When the sugarcane growing collapses and leaves only the historical sugarcane farmer, Madhivan, in business government is likely to swing in and convince former sugarcane farmers to turn to oil palm farming. BiIDCO, the oil firm with nearly 10,000 hectares of oil palm plantations in Kalangala, already has its headquarters in Busoga.

Like it has done in Kalangala, impoverishing many who were lured to establish oil palm plantations on their land, it will extend loans to them. But like those in Kalangala who fell on the bait, many of them will fail to pay the loans back and will lose their land to BIDCO. Another problem they are likely to face is lack of human labour.

Oil palm growing is heavily labour intensive. Many elderly men in Kalangala, who thought when they established oil palm plantations, their grown-up children would provide the necessary labour, were shocked when their children decided to leave the island of Bugala for other activities. Some decided to stay on the island but engage in fishing, among other things. Failure to harvest and pay loans back has meant they are vulnerable to BIDCO. They are or are likely to lose their land to BIDCO.

In summary the government of Uganda and IFAD, most likely with the backing of World Bank, want to establish oil palm growing over the whole of Northern Uganda and most of Eastern Uganda. Virtually all Ugandans are unaware of this creeping thief that will take all the land, destroy all the trees, interfere with the water cycle, displace them from their land and turn them into internal refugees and a cheap labour force that can be easily hired and fired. The leaders in the two regions must wake up. They too will be victims of the gigantic land grab.

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 reflect, portray or represent Ultimate News, 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 ultmatenews19@gmail.com or WhatsApp +255769138299

ONE MAN SHOW: Museveni Ringfences And Directs Monopoly Of Mass Bus Transport By This One Company In Kampala

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KAMPALA: The president of Uganda Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni has given exclusive authority and permission to Metu Katabaazi a Ugandan investor to be the only one to run mass bus transport services with in Kampala and it’s environs.

In a letter seen by this publication, the president whose orders and directives are final directed the prime Minister Robinah Nabanja to execute his directives and give exclusive permission to Metu Katabazi  to run the mass transit services for buses in Kampala and the nearby areas.

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This means with the word exclusive in the president’s letter, Only Metu will handle such services without any other competitor doing the same in the city and it’s surroundings like Mukono,Wakiso and Entebbe. This now kicks out others in the industry such as Tondeka which hit Kampala roads early last year and pioneer all out of business with hope of solving the mass bus transport system in the Kampala metropolitan.

“This is to direct you to give exclusive permission to Mr. Metu Katabazi to run Mass Transit Service for buses in the Kampala and surrounding towns using the buses he hs fabricated in Uganda. There are other players that wanted to run that City Bus Service even using locally fabricated buses.”-Museveni letter partly reads.

The president says by giving Mr. Katabazi this lucrative and juicy deal for fabricating the buses and running the City bus service is empowering the local investor whom he says even if the market grows and he’s not able to fabricate more buses, he can still buy from local companies like Kiira motors.

“To further empower our manufacturing sector, it is better Mr. Motu doe3 both – the fabrication and the transport operation. Why? Two reasons. First of all, it gives him more cash for expanding our manufacturing. Secondly, do not forget that Foreign Service providers, transporters in this case, externalize some of money they earn in Uganda_ When, therefore, you have an actor that both produces the goods (vehicles in this case) and provides the service (transport), you should not miss such optimal combination. Therefore, Mr. Metu is to both fabricate the buses and run the transport service”-President’s letter further reads.

Some presidential directives have found stiff resistance from the private investors who some times feel left out from good business whenever the president makes such orders. Museveni this very had to rescind his directive of having all government adverts run through UBC and New Vision when private broadcasters threatened to stop covering government and his presidential addresses over the same.

He has recently taken the direction of monopoly where he picks one company or individual and gives it business while locking other players out. He had also previously ordered Enrica Pinette to be the only one to buy, process and export coffee from Uganda. This particular directive also faced backlash. But the president would later say it’s true he’s the one behind Pinette.

Parliament last month amended the Petroleum Supply (Amendment) Bill 2023 without any opposition. The bill which president has quickly signed into law now gives exclusive rights to only the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) to be the only one to import all fuel products into the country. UNOC has since signed supply deals with UAE based oil company Vitol to be the only one to supply fuel to the Ugandan market.

President Museveni also made directives to local governments and ministries to gives tenders to UPDF’s National Enterprise Corporation (NEC) to be the only one to undertake construction projects for schools and hospitals. The president’s orders end up locking out local companies from bidding for such tenders since his directives are final.

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