The Kind of Progress Bashers Hate

While the Bashers continued their cry-babying over the poor results of their sinister regime-change tool, the so-called walk-to-work campaign, particularly Dr Kiiza Besigye's hospitalisation in Nairobi, a momentous milestone was being achieved by the common Ugandans of the rural Kamwenge District. Sevo opened a mini-hydro power plant at Mpanga. This will help in increasing the energy production in the country and advance rural electrification. For the self-absorbed urbanite, middle-class elite and the 'Diasporado', this is a plus for their victim (Sevo) that they want to hush up quickly. One Basher on a social network played the classic shifting of goal-posts, which has been typical of these coup-plotters, by commenting: "... do not tell us what you're going to do, tell us what you've done ...".  Of course the achievements of the Movement are known, but the Bashers believe that if they just keep denying them, they will go away and leave them with the victory most important to them: PR.

THE Government will subsidise the connection to the national electricity grid to give more people in rural and semi-urban areas electricity.

This was disclosed by President Yoweri Museveni on Friday while commissioning the 18MW Mpanga hydro-power project in Kamwenge district.

In 2005 when the country experienced acute power shortages, Museveni said short, medium and long-term measures were involved which included thermal power and small dams like Mpanga.

He added that the Government would soon commission more projects like the 6.5 MW Ishasha in Kanungu, the 9MW Buseruka in Hoima, the 3.5MW Nyagak in Nebbi, and the 6.8MW Kinyara-Bagasse project.

“This means by the end of this year, our renewable energy generation from non-Nile sources will be 80MW as compared to less than 20MW four years ago,” he said.

He listed the construction of the 14MW Kikagate in Isingiro, the 25MW Sipi in Kapchorwa and the 14MW Nyamwamba in Kasese due to start early next year, all by private companies, as the projects now in the pipeline.

“The advantage these projects have is that due to their minimal environmental impact, they do not attract much attention from our development partners and from environmental groups who normally create delays by demanding rigorous and unrealistic mitigation measures,” he said.

The Government’s major plan for sustainable supply, however, remains building big projects on the Nile like the soon to be commissioned 50MW of the 250MW Bujagali project, giving a total of 878MW. This, Museveni added, is 14 times the capacity of the then Owen falls dam in place since 1986.

Other dams to be built are Karuma, solely on government funds, which will provide above demand and help export power to Southern Sudan and Eastern Congo.

The Love-to-hate Press Freedom Day Report

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, an internation media activist organisation, has released its annual report on the state of media tolerance around the world. In what will disappoint the Bashers in Uganda, President Museveni and the NRM are not named among the 'media predators' of Africa. Instead, it is Rwanda's Paul Kagame, who is used every time the Bashers want to stick one at Sevo, who is named among the eight predators in Africa. This ironic blue-eyed boy of the local Ugandan media shares his spot with the likes of Al Shabab.

Political tension is rising in Rwanda ahead of elections due in August and investigative journalist Robert Mukomboz was thrown out of the country for criticising President Paul Kagame.

"The president's office would try to dictate what I'm supposed to write, would even want to dictate the headlines, and would go to the extent of trying to draft the story for me and include my by-line," he told the BBC's World Today programme.

Our Bashers, who are all over Sevo on social network media, would have loved to have him on that list because it would have been more arsenal in their armoury for the public relations war. One Basher, His Highness the Agha Khan's newspaper, The Daily Monitor must have printed the story below with heavy hearts because they have continually launched a vicious assault on the man who helped get the owner's properties in Uganda back. (But true to their form, they couldn't resist taking a kick at Uganda while the report dragged them out of the ring).

The report comes after human rights observers and analysts expressed fear that Uganda is increasingly degenerating to the class of Rwanda even after making some gains in legislating media friendly laws such as the Access to Information Act and the Whistle Blowers Act.

These gains, the group says, are, however, being eroded by other proposed media unfriendly laws like the ones on the Press and Journalists Act (1995) into what the civil society, international body of journalists, human right activists and industry experts describe as draconian law. The report indicates that in Rwanda, Mr Kagame does not tolerate embarrassing questions at news conferences, often denigrates journalists and brands outspoken media as "Radio Mille Collines."

"Every year several Rwandan journalists decide to go into exile because they find the atmosphere unbearable in their home country. This does not worry President Kagame, who refers to journalists as "mercenaries" and "bums"," reads part of the report. However, the Rwanda government says the media needs to be controlled to ensure it does not incite or promote genocide as it did in 1994.