The Uganda Bureau of Standards (UNBS) has come to refute reports that fake eggs exist on the Ugandan market, especially Kampala.

The agency says that the article published in one of the leading weekly papers in the country was misleading. “The story contains inaccuracies and misrepresentation of facts particularly on comments attributed to our market surveillance officer,” the agency says.

“The products referred to in the article by our market surveillance team were actually sweets in packages that looked like egg shells but clearly labelled as Funny Toys. Apart from the appearance of the package, the product did not contain any features meant to mislead the public into believing that they are actual eggs,” it says.

The agency says its intervention meant to due to suspected tampering with expiry dates and labels in Chinese language in violation of the standard for labelling pre-packaged foods.

“We have not received complaints or come across cases of fake eggs on the market,” it says.

The agency says it is a mandated to enforce standards to protect the health and safety of consumers and the environment against dangerous substandard products. “We would like to urge any person with information that can help us in our investigations to report on our toll free line: 0800133133,” it says.

“Fighting substandard products needs a concerted effort involving UNBS working together with manufacturers, traders, consumers, and other government agencies. We would like to urge the public to always look out for UNBS Distinctive Mark as a quality assurance that a locally manufactured product meets the required standards,” it says.

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By Fred Mukhwana

The Mastercard Foundation and African Leadership Academy have selected 22-year-old healthcare entrepreneur Melissa Bime as winner of the US$25,000 Grand Prize at the 8th annual Anzisha Prize awards gala. She is the founder of INFIUSS, an online blood bank and digital supply chain platform that ensures patients in 23 hospitals in Cameroon have life-saving blood when and where they need it. She is only the second woman to win the grand prize since Best Ayiorworth took it home in 2013.

“Today, I stand here to represent every young girl out there that just has her dreams,” said Bime during her acceptance speech. Melissa was selected from among 20 finalists during a ceremony on 23 October that was live streamed to over 3,000 viewers and created a social media buzz across the continent.

The first runner up, 18-year-old Alhaji Siraj Bah will receive US$15,000 in prize money. He is the founder of Rugsal Trading in Sierra Leone, a company that produces handcrafted paper bags as well as briquettes for cooking fuel. Alhaji hopes that the funds will boost the impact his business is already having and will enable him to hire more youth from his community.

Joan Nalubega, 21, was the second-runner up. She is the co-founder of Uganics, which produces mosquito-repellent soap to combat malaria in Uganda. With the US$12,500, she will conduct a certification study for the company’s products and prepare Uganics for export to neighboring countries which will help to widen her impact in the fight against malaria.

The keynote speaker, renowned entrepreneur Sim Shagaya was confident that young entrepreneurs are best placed to solve challenges facing the African continent.

“We are proud of all 20 finalists and are excited to see two young and dynamic women taking home top prizes,” said Koffi Assouan, Program Manager, Mastercard Foundation. “Their contributions will continue to impact their countries and they are role models for other young women across the continent. They are demonstrating how to turn obstacles into opportunities that create value and jobs for others.”

The Anzisha Prize, the premier award for Africa’s youngest entrepreneurs, is a partnership between African Leadership Academy and the Mastercard Foundation. The 20 finalists spent 10 days in a business accelerator camp strengthening their business fundamentals before presenting their ventures to a panel of judges that included Ntuthuko Shezi, Bita Diamomande, Saran Kaba Jones, and Polo Leteka. They join a pool of more than 85 Anzisha Fellows and a network of support that includes access to mentors, experts, and networking. Each returns home with a US$2,500.

“This year was exciting in that we announced our new efforts to support the parents of very young entrepreneurs in Africa,” said Josh Adler, Vice President of Growth and Entrepreneurship at African Leadership Academy. “Our new book – Raising the Boss – uncovers the critical role they play and how we must invest in them if we are to see more young people confidently choosing an entrepreneurship career path post school.”

Applications for the next cycle of the Anzisha Prize will open on 15 February in 2019.

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The government of Uganda and others in Africa should recognise customary rights to water for millions of small farmers who have been sidelined or “criminalised” by permit systems created during the colonial era, according to a report published on Monday as the continent marks the Africa Water Week in Libreville, Gabon.

Restrictive permit systems in Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe have left more than 100 million people without access to enough water, says the report by the Sri Lanka-based International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

Those countries should “decolonise statutory water law through a hybrid approach”, according to the report.

A hybrid system that recognises both existing permits and includes customary laws would improve water access for small farmers, says Barbara Schreiner, a co-author of the report.

“This is critical for expanding smallholder irrigation,” says Schreiner, who is executive director of the South Africa-based advocacy group Pegasys Institute.

About half of sub-Saharan Africa governments recognise customary rights to water, according to the Washington-based think tank World Resources Institute, but most are restricted to home use and limited farm irrigation.

In the five countries surveyed, researchers found that laws restrict small farmers to irrigating less than one acre of land without a permit, says Barbara van Koppen, a co-author and principal researcher at IWMI.

Recognising customary rights would help small farmers expand their agricultural production through irrigation, she says.

She said state agencies mandated to license water use have concentrated on large commercial users and failed to reach small farmers.

While many countries promoted water permits as the best practice in the 1990s, poorly-funded state agencies mandated with this task could not reach millions of small farmers, leaving many at risk of prosecution, the report says.

Recognition of customary water rights would also help strengthen land rights for a majority of communities whose land is still untitled across Africa, said Timothy Williams, IWMI’s director for Africa.

About 90 percent of rural land in Africa is undocumented, according to the World Bank, with most of it held under customary law.

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Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has called for dismissal and trial of the five suspects who brutally tortured Yusuf Kawooya, a Democratic Party (DP) member.

Party Spokesperson who doubles as Kira Municipality MP, Ibrahim Semujju Nganda has said.
Semujju was responding to President Yoweri Museveni’s guidelines to security agencies.
In a footage that went viral, Kawooya was 10 days back arrested by plainclothes men in broad daylight on Colville Street near Christ the King Church in the city centre, boxed and beaten with rifle butts as he pleaded for mercy.

The Five military suspects were paraded before the UPDF Unit Disciplinary Court and pleaded guilty to unprofessional conduct while carrying out the arrest.
In the guidelines, Museveni said, concerned people told him the suspect had fought the arresting security officer. “That is very serious because some of the criminals have got infectious diseases. Our officer can be infected in that way and that should be an extra charge put on him. The appropriate response would have been to box him hard so that he stops biting our office,”

Semujju Contended that the perpetrators should be ashamed, tried in civilian courts under ant torture act and everyone know that these are the security officers who beat and assault people on streets.

“But by the moment you do a cover up like president Museveni is doing, under disciplinary and management action, you will be encouraging others to do the same thing. The video was all over social media and aired by all local televisions, he should learn to look for correct information even when people tell him lies,” he said

Museveni implored his officers to use fire arms only when it cannot be avoided, use them if other means are ineffective to achieve, in self-defense or in defence of others against imminent threat of death or serious injury and other guidelines.

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