Statement by the IGAD Executive Secretary on the current drought in the Greater Horn of Africa (08.02.2017)

horn-of-africa

The Drought Situation

The Horn of Africa is in the midst of a major drought resulting from La Niña and reduced moisture influx due to the cooling of the ocean water in the east African coast. Whilst Member States of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) are adept at managing droughts, what makes the current drought alarming in the Equatorial Greater Horn of Africa (GHA) region is that it follows two consecutive poor rainfall seasons in 2016 and the likelihood of depressed rainfall persisting into the March – May 2017 rainfall season remains high. The most affected areas include, most of Somalia, South-eastern Ethiopia, Northern Eastern and coastal Kenya, and Northern Uganda.

The climate predictions and early warnings produced by IGAD through advanced scientific modeling and prediction tools, which were provided to Member States and the general public, have elicited early actions (preparedness and mitigation measures). Highly comparable to the 2010 GHA drought, the current depressed rainfall and resultant poor vegetation conditions since March 2016 eroded the coping and adaptive capacities of the affected people. It also depleted water points, reduced crops, forages and livestock production, increased food insecurity, and adversely affected the livelihoods of vulnerable communities in the region.

The number of food insecure human population in the region is currently estimated at 17 million. Certain areas in South Sudan and Djibouti are already under an emergency food insecurity phase, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) classification scale. In Somalia, the number of food insecure people doubled in the last year alone.

In the drought affected cropping lands (over Deyr area in Somalia and coastal Kenya), 70 to 100 percent crop failure has been registered. Livestock mortality has been particularly devastating amongst small ruminants with mortality rate ranging from 25 to 75 percent in the cross border areas of Somalia-Kenya-Ethiopia. In addition, livestock prices have dropped by as much as 700 percent.

Terms of trade have declined in the region, with Ethiopia registering a figure of almost 10 percent. This is exacerbated by a substantial negative impact on external balances, as well as a small impact on financial sector-soundness in the other countries. The overall impact on fiscal positions is a likely increase in current budget spending and deterioration in the fiscal balance and weak adaptation capacity.

Despite the downtrend in global agriculture commodity prices, the drought has resulted in an increase in domestic food prices in the region. Cereal prices (e.g. maize) have gone up by about 130 percent, while those of critical food items such as oils, beans and wheat flour increased by at least 50 percent in some pastoralist areas. The limited financial and institutional capacity for effective adaptation to reduce exposure and vulnerability will result in limited safety net to the most vulnerable households.

Drought Response in the Horn of Africa

With the early warning and technical assistance provided by IGAD, Member States have initiated early action to mitigate the adverse impact of the current drought.

Somalia and South Sudan have declared drought emergencies. Kenya announced a doubling of expenditure on food relief to ease the pressure in the drought-affected counties, while Uganda shifted some of its development resources to finance emergency response in order to address food insecurity and livelihood protection. In Somalia, the President of the Federal Republic, as well as state and regional administrations led the issuance of appeals for support and coordinated actors and efforts that scaled-up food security activities to respond to the humanitarian needs of the country.

The USD 730 million allocated by the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia boosted the response effort which, coupled by an above-average meher harvest, resulted to an almost 50 percent reduction in the number of food insecure people, for example, from 10.2 million to 5.6 million.

IGAD continues to reinforce the actions of its Member States using them as guide for complementary action on drought responses. Below are some of the major actions being undertaken by the IGAD Secretariat and its specialized institutions to manage the drought in the region:

  • Through its specialized institutions, IGAD continues to monitor and provide analysis of the evolving situation and advise Member States and the general public on measures to mitigate its impact. The 45th Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook Forum (GHACOF 45), which ends today in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, will present the consensus climate outlook for the next season (March – May 2017) and its likely impact on disaster risk management, livestock production, water, energy and health etc.
  • A multi- humanitarian coordination mechanism led by IGAD that includes UN agencies, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), and other Non-State Actors (NSAs) is effectively working to coordinate the response effort, as well as guide the recovery process once the situation stabilizes.
  • IGAD is also working with relevant national authorities, UN agencies and CSOs in each member state on the development of an Integrated Regional Appeal that will articulate the priority initiatives within the response plan for each Member State.
  • Furthermore, IGAD will support institutional arrangements and capacity building that needs to be in place to allow humanitarian response plans to be implemented in timely, effective manner.
  • A regional Ministerial Meeting will be convened by IGAD at the end of this month to launch the Integrated Regional Appeal and secure financial resources, which further complements the response undertaken by national authorities and humanitarian and development partners, while at the same time building resilience to climate-induced disasters.

Through the IGAD Drought Disaster Resilience and Sustainability Initiative (IDDRSI) Platform, the ultimate purpose and objective of IGAD and its Member States is to mitigate the adverse effects of disasters through building resilience of relevant national institutions, communities and people, to end drought emergencies and contribute to the achievement of sustainable development in the region.

In this regard, IGAD will remain vigilant in monitoring and advising the people of the region on the drought situation through its’ specialized institution, the IGAD Climate Prediction and Application Centre (ICPAC) domiciled in Nairobi, and shall continue to support and complement regional and national actions on drought response and recovery.

31st Celebration of NRM Regime with a Yellow Jerrycan’s into the future!

NRM in July 2016 in Kakinga in Western Uganda.
NRM in July 2016 in Kakinga in Western Uganda.

The National Resistance Movement had their Celebration Party and unleashed their new ruling-party national newspaper. I thought that was the New Vision? Apparently, I am other we’re wrong on the Bukedde and New Vision ass-kissing mission during the three decades of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. Well, there is so much to celebrate for the NRM!

They have yet another election that rigged and had a new number of sole candidates without any competitions. This is a real victory like stealing candy from a little kid. The NRM can be so celebratory as they are having a too small Parliament, having to few cars for their MPs, added more debt every year into the state coffers with added interest rates on these loans. Together with the waiting of petroleum monies that seems more and more likely to happen closer to 2020 than ever.

NRM can celebrate that they have had a bunch of Vice Presidents, but none has outlasted the long-serving rebel on the throne, that has installed the Jerrycan irrigations as the State cannot afford proper relief or modern irrigation to the their farmers. The cash crops are also struggling as well as staple-food, even the cattle is dying in the cattle-corridor. The NRM has certainly built a perfect nation.

The Uganda Airways, Uganda Telecom, Uganda Broadcasting Company and others  are either gone, near depleted or living on their last legs. UTL the phone company is dead-broke and on life-support. UBC is the only State financed Television Company that couldn’t afford to get licence to send the African Cup of Nations from Gabon this AFCOM2017. NRM has so much to celebrate.

Certainly the lucky guests who got a Presidential Handshake can be all smiles and grin, as the illegitimate government are postponing and struggling with infrastructure projects, as they are all embezzlement projects for the UNRA to trick monies out of the state. The expenses or building roads have sky-rocketed, the Mukono – Katosi Road Project and Kampala – Entebbe Expressway is examples of the open-air bazar of looting under the NRM.

We can question the ambition of the NRM, as they have included all sorts of missions and promises. Most of them shelved out every election cycle, but then forgotten when the NRM MPs and President has entered the Parliament Avenue. The certainty of Steady Progress isn’t there, except for puppy talk of the loyal Musevenists.

nrm-m7-july-2016

This can be said as National Medicak Stores (NMS) are often empty of needed medicines or issuing issues with the sale of copy medicines that we’re not supposed to be on the market. The Hospitals lacking medicines, enough trained personnel, lacking payment structures and salaries as the nurses and teachers even have cash-crops or other jobs to survive. The lacking structure and care for the Health Care is evident as the Nobel men and honourable are travelling abroad for their curing of sickness, as even some of the Generals are suddenly dying as they are travelling to their Asian allies.

We can question if the NRM should celebrate that Nakasero Hospital is now seen as the National Referral Hospital instead of the historic hospital, the Kings Hospital Mulago, the Mulago Referral Hospital Complex that is even missing a well-working cancer machine. The only one that was last bought in 1990s and early in the reign of the NRM! The NRM forgot their mission and let it dwindle like so many other institutions; there are many hospitals without working X-Ray machines and other needed equipment to help the sick patience. This is happening on the daily. The responsibility of this fate is their maladministration and it’s all in the hands of the NRM.

Certainly they can take their Jerry-Cans into the future, with the yellow t-shirts and yellow flags. Still forgetting their mission and their purpose, they have forgotten why they exists! Since they are now only bowing their knees for the Mzee instead of workingfor the citizens. Right now the liberation was only liberating Museveni, but letting everybody else being under his mercy. That isn’t freedom, liberty or justice. That is a dictatorship and Museveni is dictating everything and behind all acts. Just like the biggest scam of 2017, the Presidential Handshake. That proves how little NRM Regime has to really celebrate. Peace.

My letter to the 10th Parliament on their reckless behaviour!

10th-parliament-sep-2016-p2

Dear Members of Parliament!

I know by now that you doesn’t’ care much about the National Economy or about Transparency as you excluded yourself from the citizens you represented when you gave yourself a giant tax-break with no-income tax. That is the way you are I guess, reckless misbehaving children who are creating havoc in the candy store pointing at all the different kinds of treats and wants them all, even if it make them sick of sugar; they still want it all!

You guys, ladies and gentleman, the so called nobles, the so-called honourable citizens of the Republic have no totally forgotten your place and your reason for co-existing in the Republic. You might think that your above the people, the citizens, the one that you represent exist because of. Even if you think you exists and breathes eats and have pleasure because of President Yoweri Museveni, let’s be clear he is just using you!

I am not mad that you want to have air-conditioner in the North or the Eastern Building of the Parliament, it’s hot and you guys doesn’t want to turn into hot-air or Wokoloso. I know that, you want to peaceful creatures, which doesn’t kill Kasese or support arms for the rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo. You want to keep cool and be great support of the Republic.

I am furious over you wish to grand yourself 4 station wagons for whatever purpose of trading socks at Kololo Airstrip or having secretaries to drive some of you around on your shopping spree at Game or Garden City. That is all up to you and the use of the Station Wagons that you acquire to Parliament. You already have a massive fortune in Car money and doling it out when you started your terms as MPs because your official duty needs that the public offer you luxurious transport. Not take Taxis, Specials or boda-boda’s to Parliament Avenue, which is beneath you. You just like eating the monies of the public who would so!

I understand that the Parliament isn’t built for nor have the facilities for all the MPs now. Since you’re Executive, the chief of Rwakitura and the whole nation has let the nation sore with districts and parishes since his dire beginning of power in the 80s. It was nearly any districts when he entered the building as a Defence Minister under Dr. Milton Obote, now it is more than pages in the Kampala Eye and whatnot Tourist Information brochures that are delivered at Entebbe International Airport. Therefore the amount of MPs has soured with the amount of districts; a cow hasn’t been butchered as many ways the districts in Uganda has been during the last decades under Museveni.

So that the MPs needs office space and rebuild their accommodations is responsible acts of the Parliament, though costly because the share amount of MPs created under the President all of his terms. The MPs are in this one reacting with sense, but they should question the need for all of their services, even if it means giving up their wealthy new acquired lifestyle in the Capital.

What makes doesn’t make sense to me, in a nation where the state doesn’t have enough funds to allocate for the Presidential Jet or Helicopter of the farmer of Rwakitura. So when the current reflection of that in mind, the 10th Parliament are allocating funds and finding ways of giving Speaker Rebecca Kadaga and Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah. Because these noble creatures and honourable minds needs to take into air and land wherever. Since their roles in Parliament is damn important that they need to follow the Presidential Jet and Helicopter that the State House cannot allocate enough funds too. So they can all stand still at the Helicopter Landing-sites in Kampala. At the Merry for the Kadaga and Oulanyah who dearly need them for their service of the country. They need to be mosquitos who can travel in the air and suck funds out the taxpayers coffers like the mosquito suck blood of their pray. If the Speaker and Deputy Speaker are lucky they will give the nation malaria as of the purchase and maintenance so the inflation keeps rising and the dwindling economy needs more debt to feed the fiscal imbalance of the state budget. The same state budget the Parliament allocated funds to their helicopters. Their needed helicopter that they will silence the MPs and show their way in Parliament; the Parliament will controlled by the waving wings of silence and the blood sucking drones the Speakers have become.

If you don’t understand the spending is of the chain, when the Mulago Hospital still lacks needed equipment, when other state institutions is depleted and civil servants not getting salaries. At that moment of time… the Speakers doesn’t need more perks, they need to be fiscal responsible and show the Executive just ways, since he is not caring about the Bank of Uganda’s hard work to stagger Inflation and the running debt rate. So when they are using public funds as their playground, these runs rapid wild in spending to be sure they can play all the cool games and be spoiled kids. That is what the Parliament and MPs are right now. Time to stop, rehash ideas and think of accountability, transparency and being fiscal responsible! Peace.

ug-24-01-2017

Written

By the Writer of this Blog!

Opinion: Ugandan Government rising debt levels, brings fear of higher inflation, devalued currency and defaulting on the debt!

quote-when-uganda-got-debt-relief-in-1999-the-first-item-president-museveni-bought-was-a-presidential-george-ayittey-74-46-61

Well, an election year and campaigning as a tyrant and dictator cost, the fortunes splashed on fellow peers and citizens to buy goodwill costs. The price usually happens after the splash funds on villages and on buses. The estimated exhaust of funds and State House can strain the economy. Therefore after elections in the past there been rising food-prices, more expensive oil and gas and other needed imported goods for the average citizen.

This is happening as the donor-community doesn’t have the same faith in the Movement or the President that been there since 1986. His longevity is now hurting him, as his tricks of trade isn’t building steady progress, instead he is using up every single allocation to make sure the loyal servants and movement peers are paid-in-full, even as his own party haven’t paid salaries for months. There are rumours of how the Special Force Command with Maj. Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba has gotten their salaries received as much there are questions of the government bailouts of the friends and business-mates of Gen. Salim Selah.

Still, the economic problems continue to arise, the ill-minded would say there hope of wealth, but the lack of transparency, misused funds as the Uganda Revenue Authority – Oil Money scheme and other’s prove there are lacking accountability for how the government funds are spent. This with the knowledge of the lacking salaries to teachers and even Local Government funds that are spent without concern of showing where it got spent; all these activities doesn’t give confidence and trust between the stakeholders and citizens.

With all of this in mind the revelation that the growing debt are now eating too much of government spending, as the arising splashing of funds to civil servants are happening; the reports from Bank of Uganda (BoU) isn’t a beautiful fairy-tale, instead it is doom.

“In its state-of-the-economy report for December 2016, BOU said: “There are also perceptions in the market that Uganda may not be able to service its rising debt levels.” (…) “The central bank said external debt has grown rapidly and, on a commitment basis, is now estimated at $10.7bn as at end of October 2016. BOU said: “A lump up [in] infrastructure investment has contributed to a rise in our debt portfolio in recent years.” (…) “Uganda’s public debt burden has risen by 12.7 per cent to 38.6 per cent of GDP in 2016/17 from 25.9 per cent of GDP in 2012/13. BOU says it is projected to continue rising towards 45 per cent of GDP by 2020” (Mwesigwa, 2017).

Highlights on the 2015/16 budget (New Vision Graphic)
Highlights on the 2015/16 budget (New Vision Graphic)

That the Movement and the NRM are not able to service their debt, is an indication and will also create a problem with the banks and multi-national financial institutions that has offered these loans to help the government with the day-to-day operations of a sufficient government, as well as offering loans to promising infrastructure projects. These all are now in danger of defaulting loans. These levels are estimated to become 45% of the income of the Republic, which is not the sign of riches; more of poverty and mismanagement. The Executive that has been leading the nations for the decades have seen the signs of the wall, but instead of telling the truth; he has promised industrial revolution and amazing progress that would be bigger than when the United Kingdom found out how to earn money on the Steam-Engine. The same kind of promises to become a middle income nation, when your debt burden is arising as rapidly as it is doing now.

This should be worrying as the Movement has revealed and gotten released plans for own total production and releasing own notes, that could also increase possibilities of devaluing the currency, this with growing debt can create a hyper-inflation that only his fellow comrade has been able to create in Zimbabwe. That is the worst case scenario if the bank-notes production gets out of bond to sort of make quick fortunes for the Movement.

The Movement has all their days used any kind of acts to get monies for themselves and hide it away, only when gotten public they needed to have inquiries and detain the ones that not kingpins, but the low-level employees that doesn’t hurt the leadership. Therefore the concern of not a fiscal well-thought monetary policy, as the Movement are more settled on building projects without having to have giant loans from Multi-National Monetary lenders like IMF; AfDB and others. These loans has to be paid back and also with interest. As the Government bonds has also lost their track compared to the need of sufficient funding. These institutional defaults and as well with the lack of clear conscience of the use of funds, shows the Movement has to step up their game if they don’t want their currency and their budget to lack funds for the coming budget year.

The growing loans will also stop the amount of absorbed funds in the republic goes down as the government has to use bigger parts of the resources on loans, as the extended collected funds from URA might have grown, but they are not collecting enough to keep up with the debt. If so they wouldn’t have defaulted and probably would have paid their interest and debt rate as promised when they we’re accepting taking on the debt.

Time for the Movement and their regime to charge, change patterns, their eating as much as they can, but they will leave the next one with a huge bill of no-confidence, while their short-term riches will be spoiled and devalued as the coming depressing economic stability will not give the market and the currency the needed trust as it should has a tool for exchange values between two parties. Peace.

Reference:

Mwesigwa, Alon – ‘CENTRAL BANK WARNS ABOUT RISING DEBT’ (06.01.2017) link: http://www.observer.ug/business/50631-central-bank-warns-about-rising-debt

Opinion: MPs now become tax-exempt is just another way of being unaccountable!

10th-parliament-sep-2016-p2

It is just one of them days where the madness continues at amp speed, where the government officials continue to eat off and sponge of the plate of the citizens. Where the concern for their own behalf counter their constituency and even their own conscience. With that in mind here is ill-spirited news from the National Assembly, the 10th Parliament of Uganda:

“This is after President Yoweri Museveni assented to the Income Tax Amendment Bill 2016. The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga told a plenary sitting on December 21, 2016 that the President signed the law on November 19th, which in essence means that their allowances on mileage and constituency allowances, sitting allowances for committee sessions, town running allowances, basic pay and car purchase allowances, will be exempted from taxes” (Parliamentary Watch, 22.12.2016).

Already as it happens, it is no surprise, none should be thinking that this could appear before the moon and sun, even the doubting stars would not dance of joy. They are just all where they, where are before and will be so after. Still, the constituency of these Members of Parliament, the people of Uganda should not accept this robbery, this negligent concern for their hard-earned taxed monies that been accumulated with vigour from the Uganda Revenue Authority.

This vicious attempt of eating of the spoils, the grandeur of greed while the people both in parties, in businesses and even civil servants doesn’t get paid on time. Banks are collapsing and businesses bailed out, still in this economic climate the wealth and richness are now beholden the men and woman who represent the ones paying the tax. It is amazing that a person earning little or nearly nothing pays VAT on products or on Airtime that become levied to pay for the tax-exemption of the MPs. Together with the ordinary paid tax on working hours and such. Still, the people representing the tax-base and the ones taxed are tax-exempt. Is not extraordinary, that the ones that leaders and representative does not have to pay tax and does not need to behold accountable for the work they do as representatives while they are serving the public.

We can question their moral integrity, the moral fabric of this design and act as they scrupulous extend their wealth on the cost of the population. The reach of malice and bravado that can only been seen as vicious attempt to allow thieving and become unaccountable. They are not ordinary citizens and not even careful law-abiding when it does not matter if they pay tax on their earned salaries.

The outcome of this matter is clear, they do not need to be accountable or even caring about transparency about their wages, their allowance and extra funds are exempt, and they can go by the merry, be jolly with the colleagues, and be sure that people won’t find out their real allowance or credible income. Since they are not really in need of filling that into the tax office or correct their income statement, since for reason number one: they are not levied any tax against in the near future. The law permits them to keep this in dark, the new forms of shady agreement and paid suits will be high flying and this while the proclaimed the URA has tried to put the memo: “have collected more money than ever before”. Still they have not counted in the estimated income or the current inflation to why the amounts of shillings collected has increased!

With that in mind if the collection and disrespect for paying tax will rise in the near, it is understandable as the disgraced MPs are sponging with no concern for their constituents, not on paper and not with concern for their pockets. They are only caring about their own pockets, not the pockets are clearing their checks and balances by the end of the month. The allowances and salaries are now secured as much as their growing wealth as well.

This is disrespecting the law-abiding citizens who themselves pay their levied taxes and are responsible, everyone who contribute their hard earned currency to the plate for common good, that common good is not to be sponged on the individuals who represent the ones who pay. They are supposed to share it to generate a working government with institutions who servers the public and the people. As well securing salaries to teachers, doctors and civil servants, which is the MPs as well, but not for them to become wealthy.

These MPs, this President Museveni has forgotten the basics, he has forgotten policies and what makes a grand state, he has forgotten and it has dwindled in his power-grabbing ways. The thieving starts from him and ends with him, his sign and signature on a damaging bill that creates a vacuum between the citizens and the representatives in Parliament.

President Museveni has forgotten due-diligence and even self-respect as all he wants to do is eat and let his loyal elite eat; so they will vote for his bills instead of concerning them with the people, the citizens who they represent. They can pay for their cars, their houses and salaries, but the MPs do not need to be accountable or even pay tax for it. Because the honourable, the elite, these Members of Parliament think they deserve to be grander and wealthier than the ones they represent. In addition, how wrong they are, because they are supposed to understand and make the citizens life better and their needs for better future. Now they are only concern with their own. That is not a good look, it is a bad one and it is self-inflicted. Peace.

Uganda: CSBAG statement on the Income Tax (Amendment) Act 2016 (21.12.2016)

csbag-21-12-2016

With continued drought, Horn of Africa braces for another hunger season (20.12.2016)

kenya-drought

Agricultural support critical now to protect livestock, equip families to plant in rainy season.

ROME, Italy, December 20, 2016 – Countries in the Horn of Africa are likely to see a rise in hunger and further decline of local livelihoods in the coming months, as farming families struggle with the knock-on effects of multiple droughts that hit the region this year, FAO warned today. Growing numbers of refugees in East Africa, meanwhile, are expected to place even more burden on already strained food and nutrition security.

Currently, close to 12 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are in need of food assistance, as families in the region face limited access to food and income, together with rising debt, low cereal and seed stocks, and low milk and meat production. Terms of trade are particularly bad for livestock farmers, as food prices are increasing at the same time that market prices for livestock are low.

Farmers in the region need urgent support to recover from consecutive lost harvests and to keep their breeding livestock healthy and productive at a time that pastures are the driest in years. Production outputs in the three countries are grim.

Rapid intervention

“We’re dealing with a cyclical phenomenon in the Horn of Africa,” said Dominique Burgeon, Director of FAO’s Emergency and Rehabilitation Division. “But we also know from experience that timely support to farming families can significantly boost their ability to withstand the impacts of these droughts and soften the blow to their livelihoods,” he stressed.

For this reason, FAO has already begun disbursing emergency funds for rapid interventions in Kenya and Somalia.

The funds will support emergency feed and vaccinations for breeding and weak animals, repairs of water points, and seeds and tools to plant in the spring season. FAO is also working with local officials to bolster countries’ emergency preparedness across the region.

“Especially in those areas where we know natural hazards are recurring, working with the Government to further build-up their ability to mitigate future shocks is a smart intervention that can significantly reduce the need for humanitarian and food aid further down the line,” Burgeon said.

Kenya is highly likely to see another drought in early 2017, and with it a rise in food insecurity. Current estimates show some 1.3 million people are food insecure.

Based on the latest predictions, the impacts of the current drought in the southern part of the country will lessen by mid-2017, but counties in the North – in particular Turkana, Marsabit, Wajir and Mandera – will steadily get worse.

Families in these areas are heavily dependent on livestock. Now, with their livelihoods already stressed – the last reliable rain they received was in December 2015- they will get little relief from the October-December short rains, which typically mark a recovery period but once again fell short this season.

In the affected counties, the terms of trade have become increasingly unfavourable for livestock keepers, as prices of staple foods are rising, while a flood of weakened sheep, goats and cows onto local markets has brought down livestock prices.

To ensure livestock markets remain functional throughout the dry season in 2017, FAO, is training local officials in better managing livestock markets — in addition to providing feed, water and veterinary support.

After two poor rainy seasons this year, Somalia is in a countrywide state of drought emergency, ranging from moderate to extreme. As a result, the Gu cereal harvest – from April to June – was 50 percent below average, and prospects for the October-December Deyr season are very grim.

To make matters worse, the country’s driest season – the Jilaal that begins in January- is expected to be even harsher than usual, which means Somali famers are unlikely to get a break anytime soon.

All indications are that crop farmers are already facing a second consecutive season with poor harvest. Pastoralists, meanwhile, are struggling to provide food for both their families and livestock, as pasture and water for grazing their animals are becoming poorer and scarcer by the day – in the south, pasture availability is the lowest it has been in the past five years.

Some five million Somalis are food insecure through December 2016. This includes 1.1 million people in Crisis and Emergency conditions of food insecurity (Phases 3 and 4 on the five-tier IPC scale used by humanitarian agencies). This is a 20 percent increase in just six months.

The latest analysis forecasts that the number of people in Crisis and Emergency conditions of food insecurity may further rise by more than a quarter of a million people between February and May 2017. Similar conditions in 2011 have resulted in famine and loss of lives, and therefore early action is urgently needed to avoid a repeat.

FAO calls on resource partners to urgently scale up assistance in rural areas, in the form of cash relief, emergency livestock support and agricultural inputs to plant in the April Gu season.

If farmers cannot plant during Gu – which traditionally produces 60 percent of the country’s annual cereal output — they will be left without another major harvest until 2018.

Farming families in Ethiopia, meanwhile, are extremely vulnerable as they have not been able to recover from the 2015 El Nino-induced drought. Some 5.6 million people remain food insecure, while millions more depend on livestock herds that need to be protected and treated to improve milk and meat production. Here, too, better access to feed and water is critical.

The crop situation is relatively stable after the country completed the most widespread emergency seed distribution in Ethiopia’s history. FAO and more than 25 NGOs and agencies reached 1.5 million households with drought-resistant seeds.

As a result of enabling farming families to grow their own food, the government and humanitarian community saved close to $1 billion in emergency aid, underlining that investing in farmers is not only the right thing to do but also the most cost-efficient.

FAO’s Early Warning early action work

Somalia and Kenya are among the first countries benefiting from FAO’s new Early Warning Early Action Fund (EWEA). The fund ensures quick activation of emergency plans when there is a high likelihood of a disaster that would affect agriculture and people’s food and nutrition security.

The fund will be part of a larger Early Warning Early Action System that tracks climate data and earth imaging to determine what areas are at risk of an imminent shock and will benefit from early intervention.

Dr. Tanga Odoi lacking salary is the proof of maladministration from the NRM regime

tanga-odoi

National Resistance Movement hasn’t apparently paid Dr. Tanga Odoi his salaries for the six months. That is half years pay that the ruling party hasn’t paid their internal Electoral Commission that we’re in charge of NRM Primary Election that we’re before the General Election in 2016.

There isn’t something right when the ruling regime, the ruling party run by the President isn’t doing the right thing. The ruling regime is keener on keeping their loyal investors and cronies as in the recent months they outspent monies and emptied the treasury chest of the State House. Still, they couldn’t cough of funds for the NRM Organization. The NRM Central Executive Committee should focus their funds. They must have diversified the funds that we’re for the NRM House and the NRM fundraisers that we’re before the General Election this year.

The President knows that the party and organization needs him, therefore he can even let them starve, while the land-grabbing are happening in the districts far away like Amuru, while the Kampala based investors get to eat from the government plate.

We would think the Musevenist would be paid by the grand man himself. Instead the NRM-O and NRM-EC is left in the sticks without the needed funds to even pay salaries. This isn’t new as the civil servants can walk for months without pay. That is the way monies are allocated in Uganda, where people can walk and work for months without pay and still strive.

Dr. Tanga Odoi complained during the campaign on his salaries and had a brawl with Secretary General Justine Kasule Lumumba, which has gone into hiding after the President we’re sworn in. She has hid under a rock or fiercely becoming silent because of her brash attitude and irrational rhetoric that isn’t fitting in any society.

The NRM Party has lost their marbles, they have forgotten their own as they need a loyal party line to continue to work for the tyrant who detains and orders killings of his own, where he put the blame on the victims. That is Kasese for you, while that is happening Makerere, teachers and now Party Organizations are walking unpaid.

Tanga Odoi is just a crown example of the maladministration and mismanagement. National Resistance Movement who is the ruling regime and sponge of the state funds. The state funds must be misused or mismanaged as the allocations cannot make sense. We can understand with the recent history of mismanagement can be proven with the suspension of funds to Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA). That couldn’t be the only part of government that could have gotten the same treatment if the International Community had looked deeply into the procedure and waste of state funds.

The NRM Party own model of payment is out of control and the reason is that the President doesn’t even care for his own, other than the ones that are corrupting him and securing his existence. Who is really eating right now could be a mystery, as the closest elite an the NRM-O should be taken care of together with the army and police who are making sure the illegitimate regime alive. Peace.

Uganda: Where is the Income Tax Bill 2016? (14.12.2016)

ug-income-tax-14-12-2016-p1ug-income-tax-14-12-2016-p2

Uganda: Hon. Julius Ochen “Re: Notice of Intention to Cause you to vacate Office as a Member of the Parliament of Uganda” (23.11.2016)

upc-letter-23-11-2016-p1

upc-letter-23-11-2016-p2

upc-letter-23-11-2016-p3

upc-letter-23-11-2016-p4