Justice in Uganda: A Study in Contrast
+FRAME ONE: The Rights of a Killer
+The Incident: Christopher Okello Onyun (in photo) attacks a nursery school, stabbing four innocent children to death.
≠The Response: As an angry mob gathers to seek immediate retribution, the police intervene to save him from being lynched. Good.
-The Outcome: Despite the horrific nature of his crimes, Onyun is granted his constitutional right to a fair trial in a civilian court, as he should.
+FRAME TWO: The Fate of the Peaceful
+The Incident: Opposition supporters stage a pro-democracy protest. They carry nothing but placards; not a single stone is thrown, and no one is physically harmed.
≠The Response: These peaceful citizens are set upon by the very same police force that protected a child killer. They are subjected to brutal beatings at the scene.
-The Outcome: The "justice" system takes a darker turn for the protestors:
•The Disappeared: Some vanish entirely, never to be seen again.
•The Tortured: Others reappear weeks later, bearing the physical scars of severe torture.
•The Jurisdiction: Unlike the child killer, these peaceful civilians are denied a civilian trial. Instead, they are processed through a Military Court.
¡The Verdict
Demanding democracy is treated as a greater threat to the social order than the murder of children. Good luck making sense of it.
@AirtelBusinessU Why.....
On filling the forms for home Airtel Internet service provision, I discovered that the terms and conditions are for Airtel Nigeria. Please explain. This is a service provided in Uganda ..why ????
Concrete QC for Dummies (and Overconfident Site Foremen)
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You studied statistics in high school, right? Or at least you saw it in the syllabus before you dropped the subject for being “too theoretical”? Well, surprise: it’s back. On your construction site. In a vest and boots.
Here’s the story: You’re mixing concrete. It looks grey, it sets hard, it makes a satisfying thud when you hit it with a stick. Great. Except that concrete is not judged by colour or acoustics. It’s judged by strength. And not vibes-strength, but measured strength in Megapascal (MPa).
Now, your engineer scribbled C25 on the drawings. That’s not a random code. It means the concrete must reach 25 MPa in compressive strength. So naturally, you aim for 25 MPa on the dot, right?
Wrong.
Because concrete is not brewed like tea. Every batch comes out slightly different depending on the mood of the mixer, the weather, who fetched the water, and whether the wheelbarrow guy had breakfast. So even if your “average” strength is 25 MPa, half your batches could be below the minimum required. That’s like trying to jump a 2-meter fence by aiming for exactly 2 meters. You’ll only make it half the time, and the other half you’ll land in the hospital.
That’s why real engineers (not inginiyas of Kampala) use something called target strength. It’s higher than the design strength to cushion against the natural ups and downs of your mixing chaos. How much higher? That depends on your standard deviation, a measure of how wildly your batches swing. But since most sites in Uganda treat data collection like witchcraft, we use a default buffer. For C25, we aim for 30 MPa.
Why? Because if your concrete strength is a gamble, you don’t bet your whole building on luck. You bet on probability. You manage risk. You produce quality that’s consistently better than the bare minimum, not just occasionally lucky.
So, next time someone tells you “the concrete is okay,” ask them:
Compared to what? How do you know? What’s your target strength? What’s your data?
If they blink and say, “We always use three wheelbarrows of sand,” run.
They’re not doing quality control.
They’re performing a ritual.
*****
For more practical wisdom that demystifies concrete, competence, and credentials, grab a copy of The Wisdom Degree from Pakwa Bookstore, G19 at The Arena Mall, Mukwano Road, Kampala. Call 0760001238 or email [email protected] to reserve your copy.
Is Eddie Mutwe a political prisoner?
In this Xplained video by @AgoraCFR, yours truly breaks down who a political prisoner is and the long history of political prisoners in Uganda. Take a look.
#AgoraDiscourse#FreeAllPoliticalPrisonersInUganda
QUOTE: "True freedom is when you overcome the love of money and the fear of death. If you don't love money, no body can buy you off and if you don't fear death, no body can scare you off,"- jailed former @FDCOfficial1 president and four-time presidential contender, @kizzabesigye1
https://t.co/IbZqxixVpY
#MonitorUpdates
Attorney General v Kabaziguruka (SCCA 2 of 2021) [2025] UGSC 1 (31 January 2025)
Constitutional Law—military courts—jurisdiction over civilians—fair hearing—judicial independence—separation of powers—legislative competence—personal & subject-matter jurisdiction—constitutional interpretation—costs
👉:https://t.co/6Pi1Jw9eIy