Becky Ahabwe

The tide is changing

[Becky Ahabwe @becky_ahabwe]

@iamblueiphy Chimamanda Adichie, Khaled Hosseini

[G. F. Allen @AuthorGFAllen]

The struggle between reading my book, watching my show, and scrolling my phone is very real.

[Akiso Benjamin Oppressed🇺🇬 @AkisoBenjamin]

🚨🚨DEAN OF THIEVES 🚨🚨

We the traders, boda riders, youth and ordinary Ugandans have suffered enough. We are not refusing to pay tax. We are refusing to be over taxed and scammed by a system designed to make us poor.

This is how URA over taxes us;

1. Six Taxes on One Item. This is a Scam.
You import one phone or one bale of clothes. URA charges you;
- Import Duty 25%
- Excise Duty
- VAT 18%
- Withholding Tax 6%
- Infrastructure Levy 1.5%
- Environmental Levy 30%

One item, six taxes stacked on top of each other. By the time you reach Kikuubo, the price has tripled. Who can afford that? This is not taxation, this is extortion.

2. PAYE 40% - Highest in East Africa.
In Rwanda PAYE is 30%, Tanzania 30%, Kenya 30%. In Uganda it's 40%. A worker who earns 1M takes home only 600k. Government takes 400k before you even buy food which also has 18% VAT. Where is our take home? 🏠

3. Fuel Excise Raised Every Year.
Fuel excise from 1,350/= to 1,550/= to now 1,750/=per litre. Every time fuel goes up, everything goes up taxi fare, food, cement, soap. Yet URA says they are widening tax base.

4. Double Taxation on Small Businesses.
A small shop owner in Kampala pays: Trading license to KCCA, Income tax to URA, VAT 18% plus daily EFRIS fines of 2M, 6M for small mistakes. Many shops closed in 2024-2025 because of EFRIS enforcement without education.

5. EFRIS and Instant Fines are Digital Scam.
URA introduced EFRIS but did not train traders. Now a mistake of not issuing a receipt is 2M fine, then 6M. How can a woman selling tomatoes afford 6M? This is not tax collection rather this is punishment of the poor.

6. 11% Tax to GDP yet Harassing the Same 1 Million People.
URA collects only 11% of GDP, the lowest in EAC because they fear to tax the rich and the corrupt who steal billions. So they squeeze the same 1 million compliant Ugandans, boda riders, market women and small shops over and over.

What we ask not request because we are tax payers;

1. Reduce PAYE from 40% to 30% like our neighbors.
2. Reduce VAT from 18% to 10% like Kenya.
3. Stop stacking 6 taxes on one imported item and harmonize to one single tax.
4. Stop EFRIS fines until every trader is trained free of charge.
5. Publish online how every shilling is used.

URA @URAuganda , you are not collecting tax. You are killing businesses. You are making Uganda the most expensive country to live in East Africa.

If you tax us to death, who will pay tax tomorrow?

We Pay Tax, We Deserve Respect, Not Scam.

#TaxJusticeUg #EndOverTaxation

[Hanifa Nakiryowa @hanakiryowa]

🧡https://t.co/EIVJWAr0rr🧡
My comeback is for every woman and girl whose voice has been silenced by the likes of Dr. Buyinza Faisal at @MakCoBAMS @Makerere.
Will you please join the #womenvoicesrising this domestic violence awareness month by signing my petition demanding an end to the harrassment pandemic in Makerere Universty Uganda?
@ceresav
@laralogan @NickKristof @UNHumanRights @hrw @DailyMonitor @UgandaMediaCent @BBCWorld @CNN @JanetMuseveni

[your babyy ❤️🦋 @Veryweirdgirl_]

"He who is without ovaries, shall not make laws for those who do."

-Fallopians 24:7

[Uncle Ras D'artte @Dartte__45]

Again, as a rule of thumb, whatever you don't understand about women, buuza nyoko, then work your way from there, grandma, sister, auntie etc.

[Jim Spire Ssentongo @SpireJim]

One of the telling things about our society at our functions is how we behave around food:

1. People loading more food on their plates than they can finish, and without feeling ashamed of the heaps on their plates
2. The fact that people have to be served, because they don’t know how to share limited resources
3. When given a chance for self service, people serving themselves without any regard to those behind them that might not get. Five pieces of chicken are left in the dish, and someone serves himself three of them (with 20 people behind him)
4. People eating more than they need, just because there is free food
5. People acting impatient as if they would die if they took 10 more minutes before their turn to serve (okulookalooka/ okululunkana)
6. Serving the second time (double) before others get anything, and pretending not to have eaten at all
7. Packing food to take home when some people present haven’t got
8. Catering service providers hiding food.

While these habits might seem isolated and only related to food, they ALL vividly manifest themselves when we are in charge of any resources that have to be shared. Think about it. Our biggest problems as a country are around GREED, SELFISHNESS, DISHONESTY, and lack of a sense of SHAME

[Lissa♥️♥️ @lizzkelly7]

The fake urgency created in corporate life for absolutely no reason is one of the worst things humans have invented.

[milo edwards @Milo_Edwards]

always feel very cheated at the airport when you get to the gate and they load you onto a bus. this isn’t what we agreed. pull the plane around mate.

[JP Attueyi @jpattueyi]

A financial advisor who spent 30 years studying why families stay poor said there’s one question most parents never teach their children to ask.
He said:
“If a young adult cannot answer this confidently, they will struggle financially.”

[Pritika @pritika_9]

The biggest skill you can develop is the ability to reset fast. Bad conversation? Move on. Bad day? Start fresh tomorrow. Missed workout? Hit it the next day. Poor decision? Learn and adjust. You can’t control what happens to you, but you control how long you let it affect you.

[💗 @ma1ybe]

My sister runs the whole house…kids, meals, everything while her husband works and is very successful. He’s super disciplined too: gym, yoga, perfect routine. But when my sister got sick for a few days, he had to take time off work to manage the house and kids. He even missed an international conference and a few work opportunities because he had to stay home. By day two he looked exhausted and completely overwhelmed. It made me wonder how many successful men are successful because someone else is quietly managing their life doing unpaid labour. And what women could achieve too… if they also had a wife at home.

[Yves ౨ৎ @yvessirae]

Observation about wealthy people:
I once worked closely with someone very wealthy, and what stood out wasn’t their lifestyle it was their restraint.

If their coffee came wrong, they didn’t send it back three times. They just drank it.
If a flight was delayed, they didn’t rant at the gate agent. They opened a book.

There was this quiet understanding that not everything deserves a reaction.
While everyone else around them treated minor inconveniences like personal attacks, they treated them like background noise. Temporary. Not worth the spike in heart rate.

It didn’t feel like indifference. It felt like perspective.
They weren’t rushing to win every tiny battle. They weren’t trying to control what couldn’t be controlled.

And I realized it wasn’t really about the money fixing things.
It was about security.
When you’re not constantly in survival mode, you don’t need to fight every inconvenience like it’s a threat. You can afford emotionally to let things slide.
And that might be the real luxury.

[💗 @ma1ybe]

my classmate in med school studies for seven hours every evening and exercises daily. I used to ask him how did he manage it & he said, "I'm very disciplined". I met his wife yesterday, she told me how she cooked him three fresh meals daily, mowed their lawn, ran all errands, cleaned the house weekly, and handled all social plans. It made me wonder how many times "discipline" means a woman doing all of the other essential work that keeps a life going

[Spiritual GPS Service @AstroCounselVik]

"Earning" a Living!

We have accepted the premise that human beings must "pay" to exist on the planet they were born onto. We are the only species on Earth that pays to live. We trade the healthiest, most vital years of our lives (20s through 50s) performing repetitive tasks, often in artificial lighting, just to secure food and shelter.. things that nature provides us for free, but civilization has paywalled.

[Nalumu Irene @ireneNalumu1]

Dear @nwscug , we are fine with paying your crazy bills, but sending your staff to disconnect our taps over just 20,000/= is unfair. What's the minimum amount before someone can be disconnected?. Mukooya bannange🙌

[☆ @stelladoshi66]

Also businesses in Kampala, if you can’t get affordable Boda guys just tell people your business is for pick ups only because what do you mean the Boda guy wants 10k from town to Kamwokya?

[Black @LilithBlack25]

It was witchcraft when women healed with herbs but science when pharmaceutical companies put it in a pill

[Mr PitBull Stories @MrPitbull07]

"My kid came home from school talking about the weird lunch lady.
"Mom, she's so strange. She memorizes everyone's name by the third day. Like, all 600 kids."
I figured she was exaggerating. Teenagers do that.
Then parent-teacher night happened. I was running late, hadn't eaten, saw the cafeteria was open. Grabbed a sandwich. The lunch lady, older woman with gray hair in a hairnet, was cleaning tables.
"You're Zoe's mom," she said without looking up.
I stopped. "How'd you know?"
"Same eyes. She sits table seven, always picks the apples nobody wants because they're bruised. Drinks chocolate milk even though she's lactose intolerant. Hurts herself rather than waste food."
I stood there, stunned. "You know this about my daughter?"
"I know it about all of them."
She kept wiping tables. Started talking, not to me exactly, just... talking.
"Marcus, table three, his dad left last year. Always takes double servings on Fridays because there's less food at home on weekends. Jennifer counts calories out loud to punish herself. Brett throws away lunches his mom packs because kids make fun of the ethnic food, but he's starving by sixth period. Ashley's parents are divorcing, she stress-eats in the bathroom."
"Why are you telling me this?"
She finally looked at me. "Because you're all at parent-teacher conferences talking about grades. Nobody's talking about this. About who's eating, who's not, who's hurting."
"What do you do about it?"
"What can I do? I'm the lunch lady. I make sure Marcus gets those extra servings without asking. I tell Jennifer the calorie counts are wrong, lower than they are. I pack Brett containers of his mom's food labeled as 'cafeteria leftovers' so he can eat it without shame. I bought Zoe lactose-free chocolate milk with my own money, tell her we're trying a new brand."
I felt like I'd been punched.
"Does anyone know you do this?"
"The kids who need to know, know. That's enough."
I went home and couldn't stop thinking about it. Started asking Zoe questions. She confirmed everything.
"Yeah, Mrs. Chen just... sees people. She stopped my friend from... she helped when nobody else noticed."
Turns out, Mrs. Chen had worked at that school for 22 years. Made $14 an hour. Knew the story of every struggling kid who came through her lunch line. Never reported it, never made it official, just adjusted portions, swapped items, paid for things quietly.
Teachers didn't know the extent. Administrators had no idea. She just showed up, served food, and saved kids in ways nobody measured.
Last year, Mrs. Chen had a stroke. Had to retire.
The school hired someone new. Efficient. Fast. Didn't learn names.
Within three months, the guidance counselor's office was flooded. Kids breaking down. Nobody could figure out why.
Until one kid finally said it: "Mrs. Chen knew when we were drowning. She threw life preservers disguised as extra tater tots. Now nobody's watching."
The school brought Mrs. Chen back. Part-time. Not to serve food. Just to be there. They called her position "Student Wellness Observer."
She's 68 now, walks with a cane, can't lift heavy trays anymore.
But she still memorizes all 600 names by the third day.
Still knows who needs what.
Still saves kids during lunch periods when everyone else is just serving food.
My daughter graduated last month. In her speech, she thanked Mrs. Chen.
"Some people teach math. Some teach history. Mrs. Chen taught us that being seen is sometimes the only thing standing between surviving and giving up."
The whole cafeteria stood up.
Turns out, weird lunch ladies who memorize names?
They're the most important people in the building."
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Let this story reach more hearts....
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Ai image is for demonstration purpose only.
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By Grace Jenkins

[💗 @ma1ybe]

The same way your hairline is receding and I know you wanted to have hair. It's not in our personal control. Hope that helps.