Arthur Abaliwano

Ugandan fans are in Harare to support the Cricket Cranes in their quest for a place in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup in India & Sri Lanka. 🇺🇬🔥🙌🏿 #GoLocal🏏 | 📸 Courtesy Images

We can do 100 retweets for Kidepo Valley National Park Most pple will think this is Masai Mara in Kenya ,Nooo this is Kidepo V N/P in karamoja You now have a chance to visit Kidepo freely on 25th -27th Sept #OpenParkDays2025

The Devil That Got Us This Far. ======= It’s already Friday evening and I probably am celebrating a good week. So what I share below should not be taken seriously. I don’t trust things said under the influence of alcohol. Anyway.... A story is told of a 95-year-old woman who had never stepped into a church. One day, a preacher visited her and preached salvation. She listened, smiled, and finally agreed to accept Christ, but not before saying, “Let’s see how many more years this Jesus of yours will give me. Because the devil you just described helped me through the first 95.” That’s how I feel about Uganda’s old education system. We now call it outdated. Theoretical. Colonial. But as my friend Eng. @JMUSIIME rightly put it, the very education we are now rushing to erase is the one that produced engineers who built bridges, doctors who opened chests, and scientists who sent humans to the moon. It worked. Just not here. This is the curriculum that trained our early professionals. People who built institutions even when the country was falling apart. It raised Ugandans who now manage infrastructure in Europe and perform surgeries in America. The problem was never the syllabus. The problem was the country. Now we’ve embraced the gospel of competence-based education. Learn by doing. Think critically. Be entrepreneurial. But here’s the contradiction. We’ve asked knowledge-trained teachers to deliver industrial skills they’ve never used. We’ve told schools with no power or tools to teach production. We’ve introduced innovation in the absence of industry. We want to teach farming, but fund boda bodas. We want to teach ethics, but reward corruption. We want to teach ICT, but outsource every national system to foreign contractors. We want to teach AI, but skipped the entire industrial age. And now we say education has failed? No. What failed is the country around it. The politics. The economy. The reward system. That old curriculum, for all its theory, carried us through our first 95. It deserves gratitude, not condemnation. Before we rewrite the syllabus, let’s rewrite the system. Because no curriculum will thrive in a country that kills what it teaches. And if that sounds like drunken logic, maybe it's because sober minds gave up speaking long ago.

The Mwiri League Season VI officially returns on October 25th, It's set to be bigger and more fun than ever before🔥 Cohort registration is now open💯 Make sure you register your team and secure your spot in the biggest alumni league💪 Register now and be part of this history🙌

The funds mobilised from the annual Cancer Run initiative have achieved a lot. @CentenaryBank and the Uganda Rotary Cancer Programme have built a Cancer treatment centre at Nsambya Hospital and a blood bank at Mengo Hospital, among other things.

UG CRANES JERSEYS RULE At every football tournament, there is always that one cultural spectacle that outlives the goals, the red cards, and even the refereeing scandals. Mexico 1986 had 'The Wave'. South Africa 2010 had the vuvuzela, loved locally but hated globally. And CHAN 2024? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Uganda’s invention: the back-of-the-jersey philosophy class. Forget Nike slogans - Ugandan fans have taken differentiation to another level. On the terraces, you’ll find jerseys not just numbered, but sermonized: “Nakato Sikusanga Ewange,” “Stingy Men. Enough is Enough,” and my personal favorite, “Ffe wetuli, tetugenda, tumanyi gyetuva ne gyetugenda. Tukubira ku frontline.” 🤣🤣🤣. CAF is frowning, but Twitter is laughing. Instagram is sharing. Uganda is trending. And isn’t that the essence of marketing? Differentiation. Standing out in a noisy, crowded space by being boldly, sometimes scandalously, unique. Apple did it with the iPod. Cameroon did it in 1982 when Pepe Kallé sang the entire Indomitable Lions squad into a Lingala hit. South Africa blew its lungs out on plastic horns until FIFA banned them. Uganda is now writing football literature on polyester, positioning itself in the conversation - not because of goals, but because of wit. The beautiful irony? My brother, a diehard Manchester United fan, didn’t know that the names in “Roger Milla” were an actual World Cup lineup. That’s how African football culture works - songs, symbols, spectacles. The shirt slogans are simply the next chapter. So let CAF threaten. The jerseys are doing what jerseys are meant to do - represent the people. Ugandans are no longer in “Kamooli Mode” (that invisible corner of global football). They are on the frontline - seen, read, heard, memed, and retweeted. And when all is said and done, CHAN 2024/5 will be remembered not for the scorelines, but for the shirts that spoke louder than the strikers. Uganda’s brand? Differentiation, stitched in bold letters across the back. I hope Nakato gets the message! #Nkugambye #SatireIsNotACrime #Ugandan

RIP Marinos

DAY 5: Anti-theft Airtel campaign —————— Today; 1. On whatever @Airtel_Ug and @airtelmoneyug tweet, comment under demanding for commitments to stop mobile money theft. Also post there screenshots of experiences of cheated Ugandans. 2. Call their toll-free line (100 on airtel, 0705100100 when using other lines) making demands to stop mobile money theft on their network. Overwhelm them with calls. Share call screenshots here. We shall have other days for @BOU_Official and other relevant organs. START… #StopAirtelTheft

This guy is so good at this. 🔥

A special flashback to an unforgettable moment at #MwiriLeague first season finale on July 27th, 2019. Captured in the first photo (frame 1) are two incredible personalities — Mwirians Owek. Robert Wagwa Nsibirwa (2nd Deputy Katikkiro of Buganda, and Minister of Finance (Buganda Kingdom), and Dr. Ibembe Patrick, the former Moba President — sharing the thrill and excitement during the big day. @mwirians @MwiriSACCO @Mwirian1911 @AAbaliwano @BobNsibirwa #MwiriLeague #ThrowbackThursday

*MZEE WILLIAM KYEYAMWA – 105* *YEARS YOUNG (* *WAKO HSE 1935-1942* ) *The Oldest MOBA Life Member Alive* William Kyeyamwa is a retired Senior Medical Assistant born on December 26,1920. Between 1928 – 1934, he attended Kiyunga Primary School. In 1935, him and Balodha Mufumba were the only two candidates from Luuka County who won the Busoga Kingdom bursary to study at Busoga College Mwiri. They stayed in the Junior Secondary section for 3 years. Later, William joined Wako House for his 4-year Senior Secondary education which he completed in 1942. He was a formidable striker in the school football team. Recalls that the current Wako house is a greater improvement from the original. Collecting stones for constructing the terrace, the boys captured a huge python and their teacher Rev F.G Coates ordered that it be skinned. The meat was chopped up, spiced and roasted. To entice the boys, Rev Coates first munched away a chunk of meat and explained to the boys that such amount of protein should never be allowed to go to waste. The boys ate the meat.  He recalls Balodha Mufumba  and Christopher Nambago as some of his contemporaries at Mwiri.  After 2 years of vocational employment as a nursing aid, in 1945 William joined Mulago Medical School where he graduated as a Medical Assistant in 1949. He initially worked at Mulago Hospital before being posted to Soroti hospital in 1952 and later Kaberamaido hospital in 1954. From Kaberamaido he was posted to jinja hospital in 1956 where he served and rose to the rank of Senior Medical Assistant. In between he worked at Namasagali Health facility for 1 year. In 1969 he joined Jinja Municipal Council in charge of Walukuba Health Centre from where he retired from Civil Service 1984. Upon retirement he went into private business managing Total petrol station on Main Street Jinja, a Dairy farm at Musita Iganga and Real Estate businesses. William also served as a certified Eastern Region Football Referee  between 1951 and 1972. At present, he has difficulty hearing and poor memory. He spends most of his time at his home in Bugembe sleeping or listening to the radio. However, his physical condition remains good, with no apparent signs of pressure, diabetes or prostate disease. Frequently displays a sense of humor.

When the Tarmac Is Foreign, Your Progress Needs a Visa Stamp. ======= Uganda doesn’t lack roads. It lacks ownership of how they are imagined, funded, contracted, and maintained. The real problem lies upstream, in the foreign-authored roadmaps that script our infrastructure dreams using someone else’s pen. These so-called development scripts come packaged with alien loans, “global best practices”, and standards that speak fluent exclusion. They tell us how to build, what to build with, who should build it, and who gets paid. The KCCA–COLAS agreement (kcca.go.ug/news/979) of July 2025 is a prime example, not a roadmap itself but a product of one. A 250-million-euro contract justified by such scripts and executed with the precision of a colonial sequel. COLAS, once a preferred road contractor of the British Empire in the 1940s, is back, cashing in again. And this time, we called them ourselves. At this rate, we might as well reinstate the British governor and hand him the keys to State House. The COLAS-KCCA agreement is not just a contract. It is a masterclass in structural exclusion. Everything from the pavement specifications to the bitumen grades to the drainage channels is crafted to favour supply chains based in Europe. The vehicles and plant will all be imported. Don’t expect Kiira Motors to supply a single utility pickup or road maintenance truck. Don’t expect any of Uganda’s fledgling machinery importers, auto assemblers, or steel fabricators to register even a whisper of value from the deal. The specs were written elsewhere, for machines produced elsewhere, to be shipped in at taxpayer cost. Ugandan engineers are retained not to question the system but to implement it. Local contractors, if lucky, are allowed to supply gravel. The rest of the value chain will be airlifted. Because each imported manual disables indigenous engineering capacity, sidelines local materials research, and guarantees that the next maintenance contract goes right back to Marseille. Even the skills transfer clause is a diplomatic sedative. Attend one training and clap. This is not development. It is economic theatre performed on borrowed stages with borrowed scripts. We keep saying yes to deals that engineer dependency while exporting capital and dignity. Our engineers become clerks. Our institutions wait for roadmaps the same way farmers pray for rain. And worse, we begin to think that this is normal. That if it doesn’t come from UK, it can’t be quality. Africa doesn’t need another British-funded roadmap. It needs a machete to slash through the overgrowth of foreign interests. We need to draw paths from our quarries, not from blueprints emailed by consultants who have never touched African soil. Because until we own the contracts, the standards, and the tools, and yes, even the pickups and graders, we will keep building nations we do not own. This is exactly why I wrote THE BIG WE: A BLUEPRINT FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH OF THE LOCAL CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY (in 2023), to help us reclaim the systems, standards, and supply chains that belong to us. You can find copies of the book at all major bookshops in Uganda.

It's time to laugh 🤣 We call all comedy lovers 🎤 to support our brother @okellokelo, the King of comedy , this Friday at the National Theatre.🔥 Get your early bird tickets for just 30K😉Don't miss out on the fun🤩 See you there🤝

Update! Four teams will compete in the second edition of the #POAT20 in Entebbe. #LycaConnectsCricket

HOW SAFE ARE UGANDA’S BUILDINGS? ======= Another building collapsed in Bunga last week. One dead. One injured. Another round of apologies and silence. But bricks have no diplomacy. And neither do statistics. In 2022, the National Building Review Board @NBRBug surveyed buildings in 11 Ugandan cities. Only 22.7% were compliant with the Building Control Act. The rest are just ticking time bombs with rent receipts. Cities like Lira and Arua scored below 15%. Even the “better ones” like Mbarara, Hoima, and Masaka hovered around 25%. Meaning, in most towns, every third building might stand because of grace, not good engineering. So, what’s going on? Unqualified people are building homes. Developers dodge occupation permits and quality control steps. Maintenance plans don’t exist. Fire safety is treated like an optional subject. And on many sites, cement is stolen before it's even poured. And it's not about smart economics. It’s about shortcuts. It’s about how we trust a foreman over an engineer (oyo wa bitabo), and how enforcement officials sometimes show up with tape measures and leave with envelopes. It’s about penny-wise, pound-foolish developers/property owners who avoid professional help and end up paying fifty times more in unnecessary construction costs, correcting avoidable mistakes, and sustaining illegitimate acts through bribery. And after all that, the building still fails to function properly or deliver a return on investment. But there is a pulse of progress. 1. The @NBRBug has introduced BIMS, a digital permitting system. 2. Building Control Officers are being trained. 3. Fire safety audits are happening. 4. Recognition is being given to those doing it right. Of course, a system that rewards quality, enforces integrity, and prioritizes safety will build not just stronger buildings, but stronger trust in our cities and institutions. Last evening, I joined Arch. Enock @kibbamu on #AfricanSpeak Spaces with @rkabushenga to unpack the mess behind Uganda’s collapsing buildings. We asked the hard questions and uncovered the foundations for real change. Because safe buildings don’t happen by luck. They are designed, built, and protected from blueprint to brick. If you missed it, find the playback, take notes, and join the movement. We cannot keep normalising collapse as coincidence.

Remember Edward Awebwa, the then 24-year-old arrested, and later convicted for “abusing” Museveni, his wife, & son? We’ve made contact with him at Olia Farm Prison in Adjumani where he is serving his six-year sentence. Sadly, almost a year in jail, this was the very first time he received any visitor and he couldn't believe it that some unknown strangers paid him a visit. As for his humble family, they were shut out since @UgandaPrisons decided to send Edward to a very distant facility given they can't afford the transport from Mukono to Adjumani and all the logistical needs such visit entails. While he looks healthy, and has since become acclimatised to the facility several districts away from his home, he is ready to appeal the conviction. In the coming days, the team @AgoraCFR will work with partners towards this. We believe in the freedom of expression, and it is a shame that youthful Ugandans are sent to such long-term jail sentences while the tweets of Museveni’s son; as inflammatory and illegal as most of them may be, are simply explained away as “jokes”. Yes, it is Stellah Maris Amabilis, the Entebbe Chief Magistrate who sentenced her for that long.

Patience Rwabwogo had option to organise a prayer & forgiveness session inside State House. Natasha would hv kept that video to herself. But they both made their efforts public. They have power to save family – and country – from 2026. I hope they saw my letter in @observerug .

Be Careful Who You Look Up To. ==== As Trump and Elon devour each other like rival beasts sensing weakness, I find no joy in the spectacle. It was always bound to collapse. Two narcissists intoxicated by power, addicted to domination, would never build a union that lasts. My real concern isn’t their downfall. It’s that many among us passionately identified with their delusions, mistaking bullying for leadership, selfishness for success, and spectacle for strategy. They didn’t just admire these men. They mirrored them. They adopted the same disdain for truth, for equality, for accountability. They carried these imported ideologies like fashion accessories, quoting them in boardrooms, pulpits, WhatsApp groups, and classrooms as if cruelty and ego were cornerstones of greatness. And what’s worse, some Ugandan women joined in too, cheering for men who see them as less than human, who reduce womanhood to egg donation and childbearing. To stand behind such men is not empowerment. It is erasure. It is volunteering for your own silencing. When the oppressed celebrate their oppressors, when we crown abusers as heroes, we set ourselves on fire while calling it light. This isn’t about Elon or Trump. It is about us. The values we copy. The figures we defend. The choices we make in their image. Because we are complex systems, and small, daily decisions made in poor judgment become national tragedies in slow motion. So yes, be careful who you look up to. You may inherit their sickness, not their strength.

Mwiri League is the ultimate embodiment of good vibes and an electrifying atmosphere🙌Jinja won't know what hit them😂💯 We’re rolling in with style for the grand finale on May 31st at PITSTOP (Dam Waters)🔥 make sure you don’t miss 🤝🫡 #Road2Jinja #MLS05Finale #MwiriLeague