By Joshua Walakira
To their credit, the management of Uganda Management Institute (UMI) has carried on with their newly found tradition of organizing regular public policy dialogues-and the latest was today Thursday at their Jinja road headquarters where Disaster Preparedness Minister Musa Francis Ecweru vehemently defended Prince David Wassajja against public criticisms that followed last weekend Mutima beach tragedy on Lake Victoria. Kabaka Mutebi’s younger brother (Wassajja) was among the more than 120 show-goers who were on the ill-fated boat cruise that saw many lives lost and a few others rescued in what some have called narrowly cheating death. Some social media users have contemptuously dismissed the boat cruises, similar to the Mutima one, to be synonymous with immorality whereby Wassajja’s friends use their wealthy status in society to sexually exploit poor campus girls as part of the fan that characterizes boat cruises. A group led by Ddembe fm big name presenter Isaac Katende aka Kasuku have gone as far as calling on Wassajja to retire from public partying life on grounds its very disgraceful to Buganda kingdom and to a married man of his age and status. Wassajja is among the survivors along with singer Iryn Namubiru and city tycoon Kiyimba Freeman. Writing shortly after the incident for his social media followers, President Museveni in unusually short missive castigated people on the boat cruise including the owner whom he accused of criminal negligence. He generally had no kind words for guys who go for such things at the expense of engaging in more productive work.
ECWERU VIEWS;
Speaking as a guest participant at the UMI policy dialogue session, Ecweru appeared to contradict his boss the President when he said blaming people on that boat cruise would be escapist and unhelpful. “We all let down the people. Don’t blame the Police or even the survivors. Prince Wassajja has been attacked most yet it’s okay to enjoy life. Let him enjoy his money if he has it. A prince going out to enjoy life it’s okay. What happened only challenges us as government to make it safe. We can’t condemn people who go to the lake for recreation.” Speaking moments later to reporters in a breakaway session as he moved to his car, Ecweru stressed: “Friends I want to tell you it’s morally wrong to blame the dead. I don’t want to come here and say so and so made this mistake. Maybe the police job wasn’t adequately done. Citizens maybe didn’t take enough caution. What happened occurred already and as government we should see the silver lining in this and concentrate on picking lessons to ensure this doesn’t happen again. We must own up and plug the gaps as government,” said Ecweru who sounded remorseful that government policy interventions on especially Lake Victoria had concentrated on regulating economic activities like fishing and recreation had been overlooked. He gave the example of an a joint PPP-like intervention in Kalangala that is ongoing aimed at increasing safety of the fishermen by leveraging on technology to promote the effectiveness of early warning mechanism. He explained that the OPM (his department), metrology authority, the Norwegian partners and MTN are involved in using the smartphone technology to send out regular alerts to inform the fishing communities of days when the waters are expected to be turbulent and unsafe for fishing activities. The impending danger is always triggered on the smartphones assigned to fishermen leaders with the appearance of a red flash which is then used to alert other fishermen in the cell of that particular leader to avoid the lake that day. The information is generated by metrology and then sent to MTN for timely dissemination to mitigate would-be catastrophic consequences. Ecweru said it’s still a pilot and the plan was to extend the same to other islands on Lake Victoria “but this boat cruise disaster has awakened us to other areas that require urgent intervention.” At the same dialogue, where Ecweru commended the UMI for taking the initiative to revitalize the importance of academia in informing and influence public policy decision-making, scholars led by Makerere’s Mwambutsya Ndebesa, Dr. Sylvester Kugonza, Prof William Kaberuka and Tobias Onweng Aceng interrogated and indicated to Ecweru (with well researched statistics sources globally and locally) the inadequacy of the GoU disaster preparedness policies. Whereas some called for enactment of a law that would empower government to enforce mandatory evacuation of people insisting on habiting disaster-prone areas, some like Ndebesa insisted there was more than enough policies and regulatory controls in place and what is lacking is just the will by the government to do good. Among those who attacked Ecweru and pointed out the danger of government concentrating on disaster preparedness as opposed to disaster risk reduction approaches, was a police lady who dared him saying police had unfairly been blamed for being inept regarding the largely ineffectual interventions aimed at diminishing damage in the boat cruise disaster. The scholars at the policy dialogue urged government to concentrate on controlling two critical variables that determine the effectiveness of disaster preparedness responses. The two variables are hazards and the extent of vulnerability of the communities where disaster is prone to strike (hazard+vulnerability=disaster). Vulnerability was explained in terms of the community’s inability to fight off disaster or emergency without intervention of government which in the case of the Rakai school fire came as late as 4 hours late. Ndebesa, who chaired the day’s session, bashed government for this ineptness. On the vulnerability, the scholars focused Ecweru on what would happen if an explosion was to occur in heavily congested places like Banda or even Namuwongo where human settlement has respectively been permitted to be established so close to the fuel tanks and factories. Ecweru admitted this government ineptness saying “in this country we must admit we have allowed development to move faster than planning and it’s a danger to all of us.” He referred to a recent international for a where he found himself having to market Uganda but had to act honestly because proper planning isn’t something on which he could ably defend and market his country Uganda.
OTHER TALKING POINTS;
Ecweru, who referred to himself as a proud UMI alumni having done there some course years back when he still was an RDC, was also confronted by upcountry journalists (UMI always ensures maximum coverage of these dialogues to benefit upcountry audiences in partnership with upcountry media houses) who accused government of bias in its disaster management responses. Their evidence? One journalist wondered why a national day of mourning was being declared after the Mutima incident when many other fisheries die every day in lakes like Kyoga (a New Vision report says as many a 5,000 fishermen annually perish). Ecweru said nothing would be further from the truth. He gave examples of the massive floods that ravaged Eastern Uganda in 2007 and Parliament moved the President to declare a state of emergency which created awareness and mobilized urgent response by the international community and the situation was quickly pacified. “It’s wrong to say there is a day of mourning because of the high profile people involved in the latest incidence. It’s simply because of the magnitude of the problem; government can’t discriminate its own people in the way it responds to such situations,” Ecweru said. He also took this opportunity to illustrate how government hadn’t shunned Bududa and other disaster-prone places.
BUDUDA WORKS;
He said contrary to media reports, a lot of progress continues to be made for the relocation of Bududa people to Bulambuli land. In consultation with Commissioner Martin Owor, Ecweru explained that 110 houses had been completed and would be ready for habitation by February next year in Bulambuli. President Museveni will grace the handover ceremony. He explained that in total, 900 were being constructed to resettle 900 households or families each with an average of 5 people. He explain 2.5 acres had been earmarked for each family-one acre for settlement and the rest for farming “because the Bamasaba we are relocating like their farming and you can’t separate them from it.” He also disputed reports that the Bududa people were being resettled in a Bulambuli place that is waterlogged and therefore inhabitable. “That is actually untrue because there is an investor who badly wants to divert that water for his activities but as OPM we are saying no we need it too for our farming activities,” Ecweru said. Saying he himself is a regular water traveler using the Adjuman/Moyo-bound ferry, Ecweru said the Mutima incident had made him wiser. “I have always asked a few questions on seeing the ferry overloaded with buses and tobacco but they say ‘honorable minister all is well.’ They show me where to squeeze myself with my other people but I will now be harder on them,” Ecweru said. He also took the opportunity to respond to police director of operations Asuman Mugenyi who a few days ago told the public their rescue response as police had been slowed down by the lukewarm attitude and invisibility of technocrats and political leaders from Ecweru’s ministry. He said: “This was a high profile incident and the Prime Minister, being the chairman for National Platform for Disaster Preparedness, had to take charge as we operate behind the scenes. That’s why he is the one who has been visible updating the country. It’s sad some people expected to see Minister Ecweru dive into water to rescue the people for them to know that the ministry is working.” Without directly referring to Mugenyi, Ecweru said there are many other things his ministry does and that is why out of the 66 landslides that occurred in Bududa in 2018 alone, only one (the recent one) was major and cost life. “All the others were detected early by our mechanisms and leaders were alerted to evacuate the people in several parts of Mt. Elgon and all that is because of our work.” He also referred to Teso were, having anticipated severe starvation early next year, his ministry is out sensitizing the masses to undertake mitigation measures to ensure the anticipated famine disaster is averted. For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755.
