Father. Husband. God 24/7. Humanitarian. Public Health advocate. World affairs and Foreign Policy. Liverpool FC. Smackist.
Kampala, Uganda
Joined June 2009
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SamO 🇺🇬 🇬🇧 retweeted
According to media reports, BOU has raised the CBR from 9.75% to 12%. This means that the commercial banks or SACCOs lending rates will be raised higher may be to more than 30% interest rate on loans. Bashamwe, tighten your pockets. Spend on very important things like electricity, water, transport, food, and avoid wasteful expenditure like alcohol, clubbing, etc. Eat home cooked food please.
SamO 🇺🇬 🇬🇧 retweeted
The most unserious organisation I have seen today, I went to @NIRA_Ug in kololo today morning, to check where my ID was sent. It took like 3hrs for me to be worked on. The lady putting on glasses small in size at the desk checking for us would always be on phone, for like 20minutes, not minding the people seated.
When they worked on me, they told me that my ID is in nansana. Reaching nansana naluvule, I was told the office shifted to wakiso. Surprised how kololo head office doesn't know that there's no functional office in nansana.
I went to wakiso and I reached when they said they were closing, it was 3:30pm, they worked on me and told me that my ID is in mpala near abaita babili.
My day ended Like that without an ID, wasted money, wasted time, just because system is volongoto. No one knows what's working and the citizens are paying for the negligence of the organisation to update their system. I won't be surprised if they tell me it's not in mpala when I go there.
@Parliament_Ug
@NIRA_Ug
@BalaamBarugahar
SamO 🇺🇬 🇬🇧 retweeted
Uganda’s current account Trade and Services deficit has worsened. The country’s trade deficit grew sharply, rising by US$1.4 billion to reach US$4.6 billion. This was mainly because of weaker prices for key exports like coffee and cocoa, lower tourism earnings, and higher oil costs. The goods deficit went up from US$2.4 billion in August 2025 to US$2.8 billion in August 2026, while the services deficit expanded from US$2.2 billion to US$3.3 billion, driven by more expensive freight charges. The primary income deficit also increased, moving from US$1.4 billion to US$1.7 billion. On the positive side, secondary income improved from US$2.7 billion to US$3.1 billion, supported by stronger remittance inflows.
#UgandaEconomy #TimeToWork
@BukediTimes @Parliament_Ug @mofpedU @BOU_Official
SamO 🇺🇬 🇬🇧 retweeted
Speaker @ObothOboth has suspended the ban on charcoal use until government brings a comprehensive report next Wednesday.
“I do that not because I support charcoal [use], but because I am aware of how difficult it is going to be for enforcers.” #PlenaryUg
SamO 🇺🇬 🇬🇧 retweeted
RENEWAL OF MY DRIVING PERMIT
Last week, I received an SMS message from UDLS reminding me about the expiry of my driving permit. On Monday, I visited their offices at Uganda Railways—and within five minutes, I was walking out with my renewed permit!
This must be one of the most efficient government services I have experienced.
My flowers go to the management and staff of UDLS for their professionalism, efficiency and excellent customer service. Keep up the good work! 💐👏
SamO 🇺🇬 🇬🇧 retweeted
The Uganda Shilling has lost more than 300shillings in 7months,a depreciation of about 12% due to these 5forces at the same time
●Seasonal dollar rush-Q4 imports
●Fuel double squeeze
●Offshore investors exiting
●Bank of Uganda not defending
●Confidence shock-Sovereignty Bill
SamO 🇺🇬 🇬🇧 retweeted
The physical infrastructure committee carried and concealed several number plates in a bag when they visited police headquarters and asked the police to illustrate how the digital system works by tracking the plates. The tracking located the vehicles at Parliament, clearly showing that the number plates can't be tracked. If the tracker is what is needed, then why the need for new number plates? The @hon_mpaka led committee continues with the probe this morning!
SamO 🇺🇬 🇬🇧 retweeted
Russian authorities are responding to an incident in which a suspected dangerous infection was released as a result of a laboratory accident in Siberia and a researcher died. cnn.it/4yy0wJR
SamO 🇺🇬 🇬🇧 retweeted
MINISTER’S POWERS OVER NSSF SHOULD BE EXERCISED WITH NECESSARY INSTITUTIONAL RESTRAINT TO AVOID POLITICAL OVERREACH:
Dear Hon. Minister,
Congratulations upon the impressive interest declared by NSSF for 2025/2026 HOWEVER the tone of your voice while delivering your key note sounded rather concerning than guiding even when well intentioned.
Legally speaking, it is true that The Minister responsible for NSSF has a legitimate oversight role. The biggest question HOWEVER is how that oversight is exercised without risking political overreach which can put workers savings at risk.
When a Minister has the statutory power to appoint and remove the NSSF Board members [as you intimated], public statements suggesting that the Board will not be renewed unless it acts or performs in a manner desired by the political leadership can create a perception of pressure and undue influence on the NSSF Board. That is where institutional restraint becomes important.
The NSSF Board is not a political committee. It is the governing organ of a Fund holding workers’ savings. Under the NSSF Act, Board members have defined responsibilities, while the Minister has defined statutory powers. Those powers should be exercised according to the law—not as a means of arm-twisting the Board into decisions that satisfy the wishes of political leadership.
International pension-governance practice offers an important principle:- "Accountability to Government does not necessarily mean taking instructions from Government".
The OECD describes an arm’s-length relationship in which Government may have a role in appointing the Board, but once appointed, the Board should have independence to determine strategy within the law. Government should not influence Board members to invest in a particular project because the government considers the project important for the economy even when not profitable.
The OECD further states that pension governing bodies should protect the best interests of members and beneficiaries and should not bend to government or public pressure to make an investment that is not in members’ interests.
So how should a Minister exercise oversight?
1. Set the policy and legal framework. 2. Demand accountability
3. Insist on competence
4. Require transparency
5. Ask the Board to explain its decisions
6. Use the statutory mechanisms available to address misconduct, incompetence or breach of duty.
However the Minister should let the NSSF Board make its decisions independently, professionally and in accordance with its fiduciary responsibilities. If the Minister wants NSSF to invest in a particular sector, project or national priority, the proper question should not be, “Will the Board do what I want?”. It should be:
“Can this proposal withstand the NSSF investment policy, actuarial analysis, risk assessment, commercial scrutiny and the best-interests-of-members test?” That is how workers’ savings will be protected.
NSSF belongs to the workers whose contributions built it. Government should supervise it. The Board should govern it. Professionals should manage it. And workers’ savings should never become an instrument of political preference.
This is therefore to humbly request the Honourable Minister to exercise restraint while playing his oversight function in supervising the NSSF
This morning, I addressed the 14th NSSF Annual Members’ Meeting in Kampala.
While the Fund’s strong financial performance in the 2025/26 financial year is commendable, I urged NSSF to prioritise competence and efficiency in its management as it expands its role in Uganda’s economy.
With more than $8 billion under management, NSSF has the potential to become a major catalyst for Uganda’s economic transformation.
During my tenure as Minister @Mglsd_UG, we will continue to uphold the highest standards of transparency, competence and accountability to members and the Government, while sustaining public confidence through competent governance and responsible institutional conduct.
SamO 🇺🇬 🇬🇧 retweeted
NEWS: Modified HIV drug reverses vision loss and paralysis in multiple sclerosis model.
Read the full story ➡️ bit.ly/4rwr37x
ALT Press release title on a blue background reads: "Modified HIV drug reverses vision loss and paralysis in multiple sclerosis model." NIH logo at the bottom.
SamO 🇺🇬 🇬🇧 retweeted
To address these gaps, Gov’t allocated Ushs 180bn for construction of a global standard PET/Nuclear Medicine facility.
This will be equipped with 3 PET machines and a cyclotron which produces radioisotopes/tracers. The first PET machine is expected this month and will be fully functional by end of year. The project also includes nuclear medicine treatment facilities, a SPECT scan (already installed) as well as cold kit production units. In addition, we are building several interventional radiology suites, endoscopy and colonoscopy suites at UCI.
The project also includes expansion of inpatient and out patient facilities, radiotherapy facilities and construction of regional cancer centres in Arua, Mbale (upcoming), Mbarara and Gulu (already operational), bringing these services closer to people upcountry.
The now-deceased Tooro kingdom leader visited some high-end hospitals in Kampala after feeling persistent backpain. X-rays, MRI scans later, they told him they saw nothing.
Being a person of means, he flew to a hospital in Nairobi where he was diagnosed with cancer. A year later he was dead. What did the doctors in Nairobi see that the Kampala ones couldn’t?
Well, Nairobi has a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan or a few. Kampala and the whole of Uganda don’t. A PET scan costs about $3m (Shs 11.7bn) or approximately 17 Land Cruisers.
If there was a meeting of government officials, you would run out of space to park them. That is how many we have in Uganda but a PET Scan is not something we have been able to buy and install yet.
observer.ug/business/medical…
SamO 🇺🇬 🇬🇧 retweeted
More than 100,000 people in Japan are now aged 100 or older bbc.in/4cMmccg
SamO 🇺🇬 🇬🇧 retweeted
Breaking: Kenya has been awarded the right to host the 2029 World Athletics Championships.
Nairobi will become the first African city to stage the senior World Athletics Championships, bringing one of the world’s biggest athletics events to the continent for the first time.
SamO 🇺🇬 🇬🇧 retweeted
UPDATE FROM BAMUTAKUDDE.
The Chairman's Children's Party was a success! 🎉
Over 200 children from Bamutakudde & neighbouring villages came together as they prepare to go back to school tomorrow.
We cooked together, ate together, danced, played football, swam & enjoyed theatrical plays by the children.
I organize this every holiday so every child feels they belong to this village. Their smiles say it all.
Wishing all our children a great 3rd term!
#Bamutakudde #BackToSchool #CommunityFirst #AkaaloAmatendo
SamO 🇺🇬 🇬🇧 retweeted
.@AndrewMwenda fascinating, and I love it that you have gone truly Bad Native: You write, "A king cannot sleep with a prostitute on the street or a house maid, produce a son and it is hoisted onto the throne. This is not to suggest that Oyo did any of this". I ask, might it not be time for Tooro and other kingdoms to amend their succession rules so that princesses can inherit the throne? Surely, expanding the pool of candidates, and making it possible for a kingdom to have a good queen, rather than a mediocre king, is a smarter thing, no? I am also curious whether if an unhappy queen slept with a commoner or street hustler, and had a brilliant son, would he be denied the throne upon the king's death? A final curious fact. In the good old days, in one of the great Ugandans kingdoms, when the king visited an area, all the men would sleep on the floor, and leave the beds to their wives, girlfriends, mistresses, and presumably prostitutes, because "all women belonged to the king". You have to hand it to the ancients.
I have been compelled by the statement of the Queen Mother (QM), Best Kemigisa, to clarify on succession in Toro. The QM says that I announced a decision of a “self appointed group of clan members”. This is a gross insult to our kingdom and its cultural institutions.
King Oyo died on August 26th, 2026. As per our customs, a general meeting of the babiito clan (the royal clan of Toro Kingdom) was held at the palace (Karuziika) in Fort Portal City on August 28, 2026 to decide the future of the kingdom. More than 100 babiito (princes and princesses) attended. These selected a team of 21 members to form the Royal Succession Committee headed by musuuga (Prince Regent or caretaker).
The committee began its work on August 31st, 2026. Its aim was to find a new king. Please note, that up to the time of Oyo’s death, there had never been any official or even informal communication to the babiito that King Oyo had sired a child, leave alone a son. In the meeting, four candidates were presented:
1- George Desmond Kamurasi, son of Prince Jimmy Mugenyi
2- A purported son Oyo, initially called Jacob Oyo and later changed to Jackson Oyo
3- George David Kamurasi, son of Prince Kato Rukidi
4- Edward Rukiidi Kijanangoma, son of Prince Kijanangoma
Oyo’s purported son was presented to the committee by Patrick Kawamara, brother of the QM. Kawamara had been put on the committee to represent the interests of the QM (otherwise called Nyina omukama owempeeka).
Kawamara was asked to produce a photo of the purported son of Oyo and he could not. The committee asked for the clan of the mother and Kawamara said she is a muhinda. The committee asked for her family in Toro and he declined to disclose it. Non of the relatives on Oyo’s paternal side (ababiito) had ever heard of the existence of this purported son.
Now the committee had gotten two different names for the purported son, there was no photo of him yet all other candidates had to be represented with photos of them. The committee found this dubious and decided to remove Oyo’s purported son from the list of considerations.
After four days of deliberations, a vote was taken by secret ballot. George Kamurasi got 15 votes. The other candidates got one vote each. I personally informed Kamurasi of this selection. He did not decline the throne as alleged on social media. He asked for time to consult his wife and business partners in London. But the kingdom was time barred and decided on the next suitable candidate who was announced last evening.
On Tuesday September 8th, 2026, a meeting was held at the palace that brought together the QM and the Babiito. In attendance were Msgr Mayombo, Fr Oyo, Charles Kamurasi (musuuga), her brothers, Patrick Kawamara, Misaki Kawamara, Mujaguzi, then another brother, plus her young sister.
In that meeting, the QM said she was not going to disclose anything about Oyo’s purported son until the reading of his will. Yesterday the lawyer read the will to the same group. This time Ruth Komuntale, Oyo’s sister and Batebe to the kingdom, and princess Margaret Komubaizi (mukajoyi) attended.
In the will, written on September 14, 2022, there is only a hypothetical heir. But most importantly, in Toro, it is not automatic that a king’s son becomes heir to the throne. He would have to have been born to a Mutoro queen officially married to the king (omugowekitebe). A king cannot sleep with a prostitute on the street or a house maid, produce a son and it is hoisted onto the throne. This is not to suggest that Oyo did any of this. It is simply to say that he was not officially married, and if he left a son, Toro needs to know the mother and her background.