RESEARCH REPORT

(February 2015)

Baseline Study of Press Coverage of Public Affairs in Uganda:

July 2013-June 2014

Commissioned by

Supported by

RESEARCH TEAM
George W. Lugalambi (PhD); Charlotte K. Ntulume; Edward Ssekika; Harriet Anena;
Joan Akello; Justin D. Emedot; Mark K. Muhumuza; Paul Mubiri; Raymond Baguma

Summary: Using the methods of content analysis and case study analysis, the study
generated baseline evidence on media practices and performance in terms of the quantity
and quality of public affairs coverage by Ugandas mainstream press between July 2013 and
June 2014. The publications of interest were: Daily Monitor; New Vision; The Independent;
and The Observer. The public affairs issues explored were: Local government; Parliament;
Extractive industry; Agriculture; Land and property; Water and environment; Energy;
Justice, law and order; Transport and public works; Health; Science and technology; and
Education.

0
 CONTENTS

1.0 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................ 2

2.0 PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH PROJECT.............................................................................................. 3
2.1 Objectives of the research project ................................................................................................ 3
2.2 Research Questions for the baseline study................................................................................ 3
3.0 METHODOLOGY............................................................................................................................................ 4
3.1 Research design ................................................................................................................................... 4
3.2 Content analysis ................................................................................................................................... 5
3.3 Case study analysis ............................................................................................................................. 7
3.4 Limitations of the study .................................................................................................................... 8
4.0 PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS ............................................................................ 9
4.1 The distribution of public affairs coverage ............................................................................... 9
4.2 Media priorities in the coverage of public affairs ................................................................ 10
4.3 Approaches to public affairs reporting .................................................................................... 12
4.4 The framing of public affairs issues........................................................................................... 15
4.5 Voices represented in public affairs discourse ..................................................................... 15
4.6 Quality of reporting and use of data .......................................................................................... 19
5.0 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................................. 32
ANNEX 1: CODING SCHEME ........................................................................................................................... 33
ANNEX 2: SUMMARY LIST OF CASE STUDIES ........................................................................................ 38
ANNEX 3: CASE STUDY ANALYSIS CRITERIA ......................................................................................... 40
ANNEX 4: TEXT OF STORIES USED AS CASE STUDIES ........................................................................ 43

1
1.0 INTRODUCTION

To function effectively as active participants in the polity, citizens need to be informed and
educated about public affairs. To cope with the challenges, exploit the opportunities, and
navigate the demands of daily life beyond their immediate observable environment, the
public needs comprehensive, timely, and accurate information to make both routine and
momentous decisions and judgements. These include decisions ranging from mundane
consumer choices about goods and services to relatively complex social and political
preferences and judgements about the success or failure of a policy.

The rapid expansion of information resources and rise of competing delivery outlets are
both a blessing and a burden for producers and consumers of news and knowledge about
public affairs. In Uganda as elsewhere, citizens rely on the media for the civic intelligence
they need to make sense of the world. Journalists therefore bear a unique responsibility,
some would say burden, of defining, processing, and presenting information about public
affairs to their readers, listeners, viewers, and followers.

For the purposes of this study, the term public affairs was used to refer to issues of public
interest that citizens have a right to know about and which affect their livelihoods and the
exercise of their rights and duties as citizens. As Hage and his colleagues (1983, p.2)
explained in their trailblazing journalism text of the time, the coverage of public affairs
includes anything that affects the public or is related to the public interest.1

Accordingly, this study focused on 12 priority public affairs issues that were prescribed by
ACME, namely:
1. Local government
2. Parliament
3. Extractive industry
4. Agriculture
5. Land and property
6. Water and environment
7. Energy
8. Justice, law and order
9. Transport and public works
10. Health
11. Science and technology
12. Education

The study tracked the coverage of these issues, measured it on a range of news and
editorial attributes, and assessed the extent to which the reporting met the standards of
best practice in public affairs journalism. Various aspects of the coverage were examined,
including its distribution, volume, scope, fabric, and trend over time.

1
George S. Hage, Everette E. Dennis, Arnold H. Ismach, & Stephen Hartgen (1983). New Strategies for Public
Affairs Reporting, 2nd ed., Englewood Cliff, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

2
2.0 PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH PROJECT

This study is the foundation of a three-year research project 2013 to 2016 that aims to
track long-term coverage of public affairs by the Ugandan media. Even as the first round
focuses on the press and selected themes, there are plans to expand future studies to
include the electronic and digital media (online and social platforms) and other public
affairs issues.

Approached in part as a pilot, the study is also intended to test the utility of the research
design employed. The idea is to promote and contribute to the standardisation of a
methodology that is robust and replicable in future research on public affairs in the media,
whether under or beyond this project or by other researchers.

The project in general will fill an apparent gap due to the absence of systematic evidence to
support informed analysis and public debate of media practices and performance. It is
anticipated that the data and information generated will be valuable to media practitioners,
editorial decision makers, analysts, policy makers, students, consumers, and advocates for
various public interest causes.

The objectives outlined below signal the overall direction of the project, while the research
questions that follow indicate the specific areas of examined by the current study.

2.1 Objectives of the research project

1) To develop and pilot a rigorous methodology that is scalable for use in future
monitoring of and research on public affairs coverage.
2) To gather empirical evidence of the quantity, quality, scope, and nature of public
affairs coverage by the Ugandan media.
3) To provide baseline data and information for use in measuring and assessing future
coverage of public affairs.
4) To appraise the factors that account for the patterns observed as well as the
conditions that foster and those that impede the coverage of public affairs.
5) To assess the extent to which the media set the agenda on the national conversation
about public affairs.

2.2 Research Questions for the baseline study

1) What is the distribution of public affairs coverage?

2) What public affairs do the media prioritise in their coverage?
3) How are public affairs stories presented to audiences?
4) How are public affairs issues framed?
5) Whose voices are represented in media discourse on public affairs?
6) What is the quality of reporting on public affairs including the use of data?

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3.0 METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research design

The study was designed as a census of the entire population of public affairs stories
published over a period of 12 months July 2013 to June 2014 by Ugandas mainstream
national news publications, namely:
1) Daily Monitor
2) New Vision
3) The Independent
4) The Observer

The sample consisted exclusively of stories that conformed to one of three archetypal
reporting formats associated with the coverage of public affairs, that is:
1) Conventional
2) Interpretive
3) Investigative

Under the conventional reporting format, fact-finding is the dominant posture with
common characteristics such as the following: spot or hard news that tends to focus on
events; generally one-dimensional; neutral and often uncritical transmission of facts;
tendency to assign equal weight to all positions; faithful recording of the observed event or
issue; suppression of the journalists prior knowledge of the subject; the journalists role is
passive and often reactive; depends largely or entirely on material provided by others; and
tends to be event-centred.

Under the interpretive reporting format, explanation is the dominant posture with
common characteristics such as the following: factual observation; balanced presentation
of pertinent background and contextual information; goes beyond the immediate event by
adding meaning to complex news situations; explains change and relates events to each
other; full- or multi-dimensional story in which the reader gets both an accurate account
of an event or situation and enough additional information to assure understanding (Hage
et al., p.18); the journalist is proactive often initiates coverage rather than wait for events;
and tends to be process-centred.

Under the investigative reporting format, exposition is the dominant posture with common
characteristics such as the following: the story is the journalists original initiative; depends
on material gathered or generated through the reporters own effort; reporting uncovers
information that an individual or entity may have tried to conceal from public scrutiny, or
information that an individual or entity may have had an interest in keeping out of the
public domain; resources and evidence used by the journalist are clearly discernible;
evidence of strong documentation (the paper trail) and sourcing; involves exposing to the
public matters that are concealed either deliberately by someone in a position of power,
or accidentally, behind a chaotic mass of facts and circumstances that obscure

4
understanding. It requires using both secret and open sources and documents (Hunter et
al., p.7).

3.2 Content analysis

Data on key editorial elements was gathered through content analysis of stories in which
public affairs issues appeared. A coding scheme operationalised through a codebook and
coding form was developed to guide the content analysis. It outlined the variables of
interest and how the data was to be captured.

Stories were coded on a number of variables ranging from the manifest characteristics of
stories (e.g. length, format, and prominence) to the latent features of the news narrative
(e.g. source, tone, and context). The unit of analysis was the story and each was treated as a
whole unit of meaning.

The data was captured using a standard coding form that was designed as a Microsoft
Access database. Individual databases, in which the coders entered the data electronically,
were created for each publication and were subsequently merged into a master database.
The statistical software Stata was used to analyse the data.

The content analysis allowed the researchers to provide a granular and multi-faceted
picture of the nature and extent of reporting on public affairs as measured on various
journalistic and structural dimensions of coverage. The variables of interest are listed in
Table 1 and the coding scheme is presented in Annex 1.

5
Table 1: List of content analysis variables
VARIABLE NAME
1 Title of publication
2 Type of publication
3 Date of story publication
4 Page number
5 Public affairs issue
6 Headline
7 Subject of the story
8 Reporting format
9 Article length
10 Position of headline on the page
11 Prominence of story on the page
12 Scope of the story
13 Focus of the story
14 Identity and occupation of the person who is or people who are the focus of the story
15 Function of the person who is or people who are the focus of the story
16 Gender of the person who is or people who are the focus of the story
17 Nationality of the person who is or people who are the focus of the story
18 Age of the person who is or people who are the focus of the story
19 Identity of the institution that is or institutions that are the focus of the story
20 Function of the institution that is or institutions that are the focus of the story
21 Origin of the story
22 Context of the story
23 Tone of the story with regard to the subject of coverage
24 Priority source 1
25 Priority source 2
26 Priority source 3
27 Priority source 4
28 Priority source 5

As indicated earlier, this round of the research project was conceived with the secondary
objective of testing the methodology in anticipation of its application to follow-up studies.
Consequently, data on a few select variables that have not been reported will undergo
separate analysis for possible deployment in a retooled coding scheme.

Five coders who were journalists were each assigned to collect data from the publication
whose structure they were most familiar with. This also afforded the added advantage of
easy access to both the physical and online archives of the respective media houses.

Consumption and interpretation of media texts can be prone to subjectivity. It was thus
imperative for this study to ensure that the coders interpreted the coding scheme
accurately, and that they individually and collectively applied the coding protocol
consistently as instructed. The content assigned to each of the five original coders was

6
therefore independently double-coded by another coder and statistically compared for
uniformity through intercorder reliability (ICR) tests.

The ICR tests, which employed the Kappa statistic, were carried out on 8.5% of the stories
in the sample. Designed to determine the degree of agreement between two independent
coders, the ICR for each target variable was computed as the overall percentage agreement.

For practical considerations, the ICR checks were restricted to six key variables out of the
28 on which data was collected. These were:
1) Public affairs issue
2) Reporting format
3) Scope of the story
4) Context of the story
5) Tone of the story
6) Priority source 1

As reported in Table 2, the level of intercoder reliability was generally satisfactory. The
rather low level for priority source 1 is of no particular concern considering that there
were five dimensions of this variable; in other words, each story was coded for up to five
sources to ensure the highest possible likelihood of capturing all major sources that
featured in any given story.

Table 2: Results of intercoder reliability tests

Variable Agreement Kappa Conclusion
Public affairs issue 90.38% 0.888 Almost perfect agreement
Reporting format 82.98% 0.625 Substantial agreement
Scope of the story 73.0% 0.427 Moderate agreement
Context of the story 83.61 0.604 Substantial agreement
Tone of the story 64.56 0.402 Moderate agreement
Priority source 1 57.20 0.516 Moderate agreement

3.3 Case study analysis

To round out the picture emerging from the content analysis, nine stories were selected as
case studies and treated to in-depth qualitative analysis. The nine stories three per
reporting format were chosen from three themes that were of particular interest to
ACME, that is: local government, parliament, and extractive industry. The aim of the case
studies was to illustrate the extent to which the targeted stories reflected best practices in
public affairs reporting. The nine stories analysed as case studies are listed in Table 3;
information about the stories is provided in Annex 2; and the case study evaluation criteria
are described in Annex 3.

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Table 3: List of case studies
REPORTING FORMAT &
PUBLIC AFFAIRS ISSUE
CONVENTIONAL
Local Government
Parliament
Extractive Industry
INTERPRETIVE
Local Government
Parliament
Extractive Industry
INVESTIGATIVE
Local Government
Parliament
Extractive Industry
CASE STUDY STORY HEADLINE
Leaders urge donors to reconsider aid cuts
Government tables Bill to outlaw mini skirts
Regulator on the spot over oil data
5 years on, local service tax remains a pipe dream
Divided Parliament - Museveni can remove Kadaga
Oil compensation money splits families
Shs 2.3 billion swindled per month, investigators show
MPs spend Shs 30bn on trips
Uganda losing billions to mineral smuggling

3.4 Limitations of the study

Some media content variables are, by their nature, notoriously difficult to pin down with
precision. This study, as the ICR tests show, encountered the same challenge. For example,
though satisfactory, the levels of agreement for scope, tone, and priority source were
statistically moderate (see Table 2).

The manual content analysis process of coding was cumbersome, which then made it very
time-consuming in order to minimise errors. The need for efficiency in data collection
necessitated balancing between speed and accuracy. It would therefore have been
impossible to achieve both without overstretching the length of data collection considering
that this was a census, as opposed to a sampling, of the stories. Inevitably some stories
could have been missed; otherwise the process would have taken an excessive amount of
time.

The definitions of the public affairs issues under study were in general reasonably robust,
but not entirely mutually exclusive. The nature of some stories and issues made overlaps
inevitable and practical decisions had to be made about their precise categorization. The
ICR tests show almost perfect agreement (see Table 2) but that 10% gap remains a basis
for some, though not grave, concern.

It would have been instructive to analyse key demographic variables like the gender and
age of the main actors and sources in the stories sampled. In many cases, the news reports
many no explicit references to the gender or age of the actors in a story. It was therefore
impossible to gather statistically meaningful numbers for analysis that would have
provided a picture of the gender and generational patterns in public affairs coverage.

8
4.0 PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
4.1 The distribution of public affairs coverage

The distribution of public affairs was assessed in terms of frequency of coverage as

determined by the overall quantity of stories; the amount of space dedicated to public
affairs as determined by article length; the degree of attention devoted to public affairs as
determined by the trend over time; and the comparative visibility of different public affairs
issues as determined by the volume of stories published about each issue.

As Table 4 illustrates, the study captured a total of 2,843 public affairs stories that were
reported between 1 July 2013 and 30 June 2014. This population of stories was the subject
of analysis. Daily Monitor and New Vision accounted for three-quarters of the coverage as
expected. Beyond the mere fact of being dailies, they also tend to position themselves as
newspapers of record. On the other hand, The Observer and The Independent carried
fewer but longer stories as anticipated. As tri-weekly and weekly publications, respectively,
time and the attendant pressure to add value to stories compels them to drill down deeper
and to explore issues more widely as a matter of routine, something that the dailies do not
have to do on a day-to-day basis. In general, the length of articles across the sample ranged
from a minimum of 80 by New Vision to a maximum of 3,488 words by The Observer.

Table 4: Distribution of coverage by article length

Publication Number % Average Minimum Maximum Standard
of article article article deviation
stories length length length
Daily Monitor 1095 38.5 398.1 85 2071 244.8
New Vision 1045 36.8 454.0 80 2475 250.4
Observer 547 19.2 784.4 135 3488 403.2
Independent 156 5.5 1452.7 206 2980 597.8
Overall 2843 100 533.4 80 3488 432.9
Article length was derived from online word counts.

The analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique was employed to establish if there were any
statistically significant differences between article lengths and reporting formats (see Table
5). Indeed, article lengths differed by reporting format (F = 772.37, p-value < 0.001),
implying that the lengths of articles were significantly different depending on the reporting
formats used for particular stories. The analysis revealed that the average number of words
observed for stories reported using the conventional reporting format, on the one hand,
was significantly different from the average number of words for stories reported using the
interpretive and investigative formats, on the other. However, there was no statistically
significant difference between investigative and interpretive reporting formats in terms of
article length (p = 0.093).

9
Table 5: Analysis of variance between article length and reporting format
Reporting Mean Standard Media IQR Minimum Maximum
format deviation
Conventional 411.5 201.9 363 228 80 1653
Interpretive 1026.3 506.5 971 614 194 3488
Investigative 1187.2 650.3 1142 1010 137 3158
Overall 563.8 422.0 418.5 377 80 3488

The trend in coverage over time, as indicated in Figure 1, showed a systematic decline from
July 2013 until it started to pick up again in June 2014. This pattern can be attributed to the
influence that the national budget process has on the annual news cycle. The period leading
up to the new financial year is typically one of intense jostling for the governments
attention by various actors representing different interests across all sectors. Agitation,
lobbying, and advocacy by a wide range of interest groups that usually converge around the
national budget characteristically attract a lot of media attention. The trend observed in
public affairs coverage by the media captures the crescendo of public interest in the
national budget. Editorial interest naturally recedes soon after the public presentation of
the budget as the media agenda refocuses on other routine issues.

Figure 1: Trend analysis of public affairs coverage 2013-2014

500
437 425
450
400
350
288 279 282
300
250
192 185
200 174 174
145 152
150 110
100
50
0
Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

4.2 Media priorities in the coverage of public affairs

The number of stories on the various public affairs themes varied widely, as Figure 2
shows. Overall, education (20.8%) was the most widely reported issue; justice, law and
order was a close second (19.1%) followed by health (16.9%). Energy (2.7%), local
government (2.4%), and science and technology (2.1%) were the least reported issues.

10
Figure 2: Prevalence of public affairs issues
25
20.8
19.1
20 16.9
Percent

15 11.9
10
6.2
5.0 4.8 4.0 3.9
5 2.7 2.4 2.1
0

The analysis presented in Table 6 provides a picture of the extent to which the 12 public
affairs issues of interest featured in the coverage of the four publications sampled.
Education accounted for more than 20% of the coverage by three of the four publications
although, in general, different issues dominated the coverage by different outlets. The
largest proportion of coverage by Daily Monitor focused on justice, law and order (23.2%)
followed by education (20.6%). New Vision paid most attention to education (21.0%)
followed by health (20.6%). The Observer focused primarily on education (25.4%)
followed by parliament (15.4%). The Independent paid most attention to justice, law and
order (21.1%) followed by health (14.7%).

Across the public affairs landscape, coverage varied widely. It ranged from as many as 592
stories on education and 543 on justice, law and order to as few as 67 stories on local
government and 61 on energy.

11
Table 6: Coverage by public affairs issue
Public affairs issue Publication (%)
Total Monitor Vision Observer Independent Overall
(n=2843) (n=1095) (n=1045) (n=547) (n=156) percentage
Education 592 20.6 21.0 25.4 4.5 20.8
Justice, law & order 543 23.2 17.1 14.1 21.1 19.1
Health 481 15.1 20.6 14.3 14.7 16.9
Parliament 339 14.8 7.7 15.5 7.7 11.9
Land & property 177 7.1 5.5 5.8 5.8 6.2
Agriculture 143 2.7 4.9 8.4 10.3 5.0
Transport & public works 137 4.1 7.3 0.9 7.0 4.8
Extractive industry 113 3.0 2.4 8.6 5.1 4.0
Water & environment 112 3.1 6.0 1.8 3.2 3.9
Energy 78 3.0 2.0 2.6 6.4 2.7
Local government 67 1.6 4.3 0.2 2.6 2.4
Science & technology 61 1.6 1.1 2.4 11.5 2.1

4.3 Approaches to public affairs reporting

Conventional reporting, as the findings presented in Table 7 indicate, was the most widely
applied format in the coverage of public affairs, making up 76.7% of all coverage. Moreover,
reporting by the daily newspapers (Daily Monitor and New Vision) and the tri-weekly
newspaper (The Observer) was largely conventional, but significantly less so for the
weekly magazine (The Independent). Coverage by The Independent was by far the most
interpretive, making up 78.2% of all its public affairs content. The Observer too did more
interpretive reporting than its daily counterparts. With the exception of The Independent,
investigative reporting was the least applied approach to coverage. Operating under less
deadline pressure than their daily counterparts, the tri-weekly and weekly outlets would
be expected to take a more analytical and reflective approach to their reporting on public
affairs. This would afford them the opportunity to bring relatively more depth to the issues
through investigative and interpretive reporting. This holds particularly true for the
interpretive format but less so for the investigative format.

Table 7: General coverage by reporting format

Public affairs issue Publication (%) Overall
Monitor Vision Observer Independent percentage
(n=1095) (n=1045) (n=547) (n=156)
Conventional 89.0 78.6 69.8 3.2 76.7
Interpretive 10.1 10.5 23.4 78.2 16.6
Investigative 0.9 10.9 6.8 18.6 6.7

The analysis presented in Table 8 compared the coverage of public affairs in terms of the
reporting formats. All issues were predominantly covered by conventional methods.
Science and technology, energy, extractive industry, agriculture, and water and
environment featured comparatively more interpretive reporting than did other themes.

12
Also, the investigative format appears relatively more frequently in stories about land and
property, local government, and extractive industry.

Table 8: Issue coverage by reporting format

Public affairs issue Reporting format (%) Number of stories
Conventional Interpretive Investigative
Local government 70.1 16.4 13.4 67
Parliament 79.3 17.4 3.2 339
Extractive industry 62.8 25.7 11.5 113
Agriculture 76.9 20.3 2.8 143
Land & property 70.1 16.4 13.6 177
Water & environment 74.1 18.7 7.1 112
Energy 70.5 24.4 5.1 78
Justice, law & order 79.2 12.7 8.1 543
Transport & public works 78.8 13.9 7.3 137
Health 77.5 16.2 6.2 481
Science & technology 55.7 41.0 3.3 61
Education 80.7 14.0 5.2 592
Total 2843

Two measures of perceived impact using visibility as an indicator were employed to

determine the value or weight that the respective publications attached to the public affairs
issues they covered.

The first measure was the positioning of the headline on the page where the story
appeared. Stories whose headlines were positioned above the fold were considered as
carrying more weight hence potential impact in the publications editorial judgement
than those with headlines that appeared in the middle of the page or below the fold. As
reported in Figure 3, it is evident that in all cases, public affairs stories occupied 80% of all
headline space above the fold. This implies that in the perception of editors, they were
potentially of greater impact than were the other non-public affairs articles that appeared
on the same page. It should be noted, however, that this measure is not particularly, or is
less, applicable to the magazine style of The Independent whose page layout is structurally
different from that of newspapers.

Figure 3: Headline position as an indicator of story significance

100
80
Percent

60
40
20 Below the fold
0
Middle of fold
Above the fold

13
The second measure of perceived potential impact was the prominence of public affairs
stories relative to the other articles that appeared on the same page. Impact in this case
was measured by ranking the top three public affairs articles in terms of how prominently
they were displayed on the page. As indicated in Table 9, the majority of public affairs
stories (65.5%) appeared as the most prominent in comparison to all other articles they
competed with for space. At 85%, extractive industry stories stood out more than the
others, while agriculture, water and environment, and science and technology articles were
the most prominent stories in more than 70% of all occurrences.

Table 9: Prominence of public affairs issues

Public affairs issue Prominence (%)
Not prominent Second most Most prominent
prominent
Local government 1.5 23.9 74.6
Parliament 8.5 25.4 66.1
Extractive industry 4.4 10.6 85.0
Agriculture 4.3 22.1 73.6
Land & property 8.0 29.0 63.1
Water & environment 5.4 21.8 72.7
Energy 9.0 19.2 71.8
Justice, law & order 11.6 28.9 59.5
Transport & public works 6.0 26.1 67.9
Health 10.1 30.4 59.5
Science & technology 1.6 21.3 77.0
Education 7.0 27.4 65.6
Total 8.1 26.4 65.5

To ascertain the reliability of the measures applied to some of the soft variables included
in the study, the analysis investigated whether, for example, there was a correlation
between the headline position and story prominence as measured by article display (see
Table 10). The two were found to be highly related at the 5% level of significance based on
the Pearson chi square test (2 = 1.102, p-value 0.001). This implies, for instance, that going
by headline position as a measure of perceived story impact, articles with headlines that
appeared above the fold were also the most prominently displayed stories.

14
Table 10: Relationship between headline position and story prominence
Headline position Article display
Not Second most Most Total
prominent prominent prominent
Below the fold 107 375 30 512
20.9 73.24 5.86 100
47.14 50.47 1.63 18.18
Middle of the fold 7 61 69 137
5.11 44.53 50.36 100
3.08 8.21 3.74 4.87
Above the fold 113 307 1,747 2,167
5.21 14.17 80.62 100
49.78 41.32 94.64 76.95
Total 227 743 1,846 2,816
8.06 26.38 65.55 100
100 100 100 100

4.4 The framing of public affairs issues

The study explored the degree to which the coverage of public affairs dealt with issues of
local or national significance or both. As the findings summarised in Figure 4 and Table 9
demonstrate, most public affairs were covered as national issues (72%). Only local
government had more public affairs stories covered as local issues. Table 11 presents the
absolute numbers behind the distribution of public affairs coverage in terms of scope and
the variations by media house. All the publications had a national orientation in most of
their public affairs coverage, with The Independent making a categorical distinction
between the local and the national.

15
Figure 4: Scope of public affairs stories
100
90
80
70
60
Percent

50
40 local
30 National
20 Both
10
0

16
 Table 11: Scope of public affairs coverage by media house
Public affairs issue Publication
Daily Monitor New Vision The Observer The Independent Total
(n=2843)
Local National Both Local National Both Local National Both Local National Local National Both
Local Government 11 3 3 17 18 10 - 1 - 1 3 29 25 13
Parliament 3 148 11 3 77 - 3 82 - - 12 9 319 11
Extractive Industry 5 20 8 - 21 4 8 37 2 - 8 13 86 14
Agriculture 2 20 8 8 30 13 13 31 2 3 13 26 94 23
Land & Property 35 18 25 14 33 11 12 17 3 - 9 61 77 39
Water & Environment 13 9 12 17 29 17 2 8 - 1 4 33 50 29
Energy 3 27 3 1 18 2 2 10 2 - 10 6 65 7
Justice, Law & Order 59 142 53 19 143 17 14 63 - 1 32 93 380 70
Transport & public works 7 15 23 17 40 19 2 2 1 1 10 27 67 43
Health 37 93 35 29 155 31 9 60 9 - 23 75 331 75
Science & technology 1 16 1 1 9 2 2 11 - - 18 4 54 3
Education 16 183 27 18 184 18 20 115 4 - 7 54 489 49
Total 192 694 209 144 757 144 87 437 23 7 149 430 2037 376

12
The study examined the power dynamics in the coverage of public affairs. The measure
employed distinguished between stories that focused on issues that affected either single
individuals or people collectively and stories which targeted issues that affected either
single organisations or institutions collectively. For purposes of this study as shown in
Figure 5, these categories were represented as single person or several persons and
single institution or several institutions.

According to the findings reported in Figure 5, most stories were primarily about human
issues (71.1%) while the remainder was about institutional issues. On the whole, more
reporting dealt with issues that concerned people collectively (52.2%) as opposed to
individual interests (18.9%). Conversely, more reporting focused on issues that affected
institutions individually (19.5%) as opposed to collective institutional interests (9.5%).

Figure 5: Focus of public affairs stories

60
52.2
50

40
Percent

30
18.9 19.5
20
9.5
10

0
single person several persons single institution several institutions

Although more than half of all stories focused on people collectively (see Table 12), with
the same pattern holding across all outlets in the study, there were notable variations
among the publications. The Observer, for instance, had all of three-quarters and more of
its coverage focused on people collectively, with a negligible fraction of its stories focused
on institutions.

Table 12: Focus of public affairs stories

Focus of the story Monitor Vision Independent Observer Overall
(%) (%) (%) (%) (n=2821)*
Single person 20.6 20.8 4.0 15.7 18.9% (532)
Several persons 49.1 41.6 50.7 79.1 52.2% (1473)
Single institution 21.2 27.3 10.0 3.3 19.5% (549)
Several institution 8.8 10.3 35.3 1.8 9.5% (267)
*22 missing

13
The study sought to understand the framing of public affairs by examining the contextual
frames used to report the issues. The frames could be either episodic or thematic. As the
findings presented in Figure 6 illustrate, 75.5% of the stories were framed episodically. In
contrast, only 24.5% of the reporting was framed thematically. However, there were
variations among the publications. The Independent carried a lot more thematically framed
stories (84%), while the framing of stories by the other outlets was largely episodic: Daily
Monitor 66.2%; New Vision 92%; The Observer 79.5%.

Figure 6: Issue context in public affairs reporting

90
80
70
60
Percent

50
40
30
20 Episodic
10
0 Thematic
T&P
LG PL EI AG L&P W&E EN JLO HL S&T ED
W
Episodic 83.6 71.7 69.9 80.4 71.8 71.4 75.6 70.9 79.6 83.2 62.3 76.9
Thematic 16.4 28.3 30.1 19.6 28.3 28.6 24.4 29.1 20.4 16.8 37.7 23.1

The coverage of public affairs is typically about the problems of a society and the attendant
policy discourse through which solutions are debated, contested, and negotiated. In this
deliberative process, the tone the media uses to frame its coverage of public affairs has
been shown to affect how citizens attribute responsibility for the problems and issues they
encounter. This study therefore used the tone of coverage to measure whether the
reporting was negative (disapproving), positive (approving) or neutral in regard to the
subject of the story.

The findings reported in Table 13 indicate that most stories had a neutral tone (42.9%).
But there were noteworthy variations among the publications, with Daily Monitor carrying
a far greater proportion of negatively framed stories, while The Independent published the
largest number of stories conveyed with a neutral tone (79.5%).

Table 13: Tone of public affairs stories

Tone Publication (%) Overall
Daily Monitor New Vision Independent Observer
Negative 52.8 17.4 9.6 25.1 32.1
Positive 17.1 31.5 10.9 32.7 25.0
Neutral 30.1 51.1 79.5 42.2 42.9

14
The study sought to establish whether certain issues were more prone to being framed in
particular ways (see Table 14). Negatively framed stories were mostly those about local
government (43.3%), health (38.9%), as well as justice, law and order (38.2%). Positively
framed stories were mostly those related to transport and public works (43.1%),
agriculture (42.7%), science and technology (41.0%), and extractive industry (39.8%).

Table 14: Tone of the story by issue

Public affairs issue Tone of the story (%)
Negative Positive Neutral
Local government 43.3 6.0 50.7
Parliament 30.7 15.6 53.7
Extractive industry 14.2 39.8 46.0
Agriculture 22.4 42.7 35.0
Land & property 33.9 11.9 54.2
Water & environment 32.1 29.5 38.4
Energy 25.6 30.8 43.6
Justice, law & order 38.3 14.2 47.5
Transport & public works 20.4 43.1 36.5
Health 38.9 31.0 30.1
Science & technology 6.6 41.0 52.5
Education 31.8 27.2 41.1
Total 32.1 25.0 42.9

4.5 Voices represented in public affairs discourse

As moderators of local and national discourse on public affairs, the media play a vital role
in helping citizens to deliberate upon and evaluate their political and policy preferences as
well as their consumer and livelihood choices. As gatekeepers, the media do also confer
legitimacy and power to certain people and institutions individually and collectively by
highlighting their positions, issues or causes to varying degrees of emphasis and frequency.
Who gets the chance to speak or to be heard and whose positions, issues or causes are
given priority in coverage are critical matters. The study employed two measures to
establish the range of human and institutional voices that were represented in mediated
public affairs discourse.

The first measure of voice was to determine the specific collective or occupational identity
as well as the function in the story of the people or institutions that were the focus of a
given story. As Table 15 indicates, 15 categories of people and institutions were identified
across all stories in the sample that had people and institutions as their primary focus.
Public officials and institutions (36.2%) were collectively dominated all other voices
followed by affected people (12.2%), and MPs and the legislature generally (11.5%).

15
Table 15: Human and institutional voices represented in public affairs discourse

Focus of the story Frequency Percentage

Public officials/institutions 1029 36.2
Affected people 348 12.2
MPs/legislature 327 11.5
Business people/companies 200 7.0
Private professionals/organisations 175 6.2
Perpetrators 152 5.4
Students 134 4.7
Workers 108 3.8
Politicians 87 3.1
Diplomats/international officials/organisations 60 2.1
Farmers 55 1.9
Non-governmental officials/organisations 54 1.9
Social group representatives/organisations 40 1.4
Civil society representatives/organisations 37 1.3
Children/youth 37 1.3
Total 2843 100

When the distribution of voices was disaggregated by media house, as reported in Table 16,
the general pattern remained the same. For all media houses except The Independent,
public officials and institutions got the most attention, with New Vision (46%) devoting
nearly half of its attention to this category of actors, the highest among all publications. The
Independent, on the other hand, not only focused mostly on business people and
companies (24.4%), but outstripped all other publications in its focus on this category too.
Affected people as well as MPs and the legislature generally alternated between second and
third in ranking.

When the distribution of voices was disaggregated by reporting format, as reported in

Table 17, there were a few patterns that stood out. Stories that focused on affected people
were mostly approached through investigative reporting (20.5%); business people and
companies were mainly interpretive (11.7%); public officials and institutions were
primarily conventional (38.3%); while the rest were on the whole evenly distributed
among the three reporting formats.

16
Table 16: Human and institutional voices by media house

Focus of the story Publication (%) Overall

Daily Monitor New Vision Independent Observer
Affected people 13.5 9.3 16.0 14.3 12.2
Business people/companies 6.5 5.1 24.4 7.0 7.0
Children/youth 1.5 0.9 0.0 2.2 1.3
Civil society representatives/orgs 1.2 1.0 3.9 1.5 1.3
Diplomats/international officials/orgs 1.1 2.1 5.8 3.1 2.1
Farmers 1.0 1.3 6.4 3.7 1.9
MPs/legislature 12.6 9.3 7.1 14.8 11.5
Non-governmental officials/orgs 1.2 2.1 0.0 3.5 1.9
Perpetrators 9.6 3.8 1.9 0.7 5.4
Politicians 2.3 4.1 3.9 2.4 3.1
Private professionals/orgs 4.2 7.3 3.9 8.6 6.2
Public officials/institutions 32.6 46.0 21.8 28.7 36.2
Social group representatives/orgs 1.0 2.0 0.6 1.3 1.4
Students 5.6 3.7 2.6 5.5 4.7
Workers 6.2 2.0 1.9 2.9 3.8
Total 100

Table 17: Human and institutional voices by reporting format

Focus of the story Reporting format (%) Overall
Conventional Interpretive Investigative
Affected people 10.6 16.4 20.5 12.2
Business people/companies 6.1 11.7 6.3 7.0
Children/youth 1.1 2.3 1.6 1.3
Civil society representatives/orgs 1.2 1.7 1.1 1.3
Diplomats/international 2.1 1.9 2.6 2.1
officials/orgs
Farmers 1.6 4.0 1.1 1.9
MPs/legislature 11.9 12.1 5.3 11.5
Non-governmental officials/orgs 2.2 0.9 1.1 1.9
Perpetrators 5.9 1.7 7.9 5.4
Politicians 3.1 2.1 4.7 3.1
Private professionals/orgs 5.6 8.7 6.3 6.2
Public officials/institutions 38.3 27.0 35.3 36.2
Social group 1.4 1.3 1.6 1.4
representatives/orgs
Students 4.5 6.6 2.6 4.7
Workers 4.4 1.7 2.1 3.8
Total 100

17
The second measure of voice teased out of each article the five main sources quoted or
cited and ranked them on a scale of 1 to 5 from the most important (priority source 1) to
the least important (priority source 5). These were treated generally as the medias leading
sources in the coverage of public affairs by the four publications in the sample. The ranking
therefore gave us a good idea of the degree of importance that journalists in their reporting
attached to a range of sources.

The various sources detected in the coverage were classified in terms of functional
categories according to their roles in public life and in the story (as in the particular case of
affected people). The president was singled out as a category in his own right because of
the unique role he plays as a newsmaker and the significance of the presidency as an
institution. The category designated as other consisted of numerous sources including
documents that featured in too few instances typically fewer than 10 times at the level of
priority source 1 to be rated as noteworthy.

As the results in Table 18 show, central government civil servants (24.28%) were
collectively the most frequently used source followed by affected people (12.87%),
ministers (11.59%), and MPs (10.60%). The president (4.07%) stood out as the only
individually significant source by virtue of his power as a newsmaker. This pattern
generally held across all source levels.

Table 18: Distribution of sources in public affairs coverage

Priority source 1 Frequency Percentage

Central government civil servants 687 24.28
Affected people 364 12.87
Ministers 328 11.59
Members of parliament 300 10.60
Police officers 165 5.83
Independent experts 147 5.20
President 115 4.07
Company officials 112 3.96
Civil society actors 96 3.39
Local government civil servants 88 3.11
Politicians 77 2.72
International officials 66 2.33
Army officers 39 1.38
Business people 27 0.95
Community leaders 19 0.67
Religious leaders 17 0.60
Cultural/traditional leaders 17 0.60
Others 165 5.83
Total 2829 100

18
4.6 Quality of reporting and use of data

The nine stories that were the subject of the case study analysis (see Annex 2) were
purposively selected for their illustrative potential. There was no interest in being
representative of all media houses in the sample. The aim of focusing on these stories was
to identify and share the positive and negative attributes of public affairs reporting in the
Ugandan press as observed in the sample of stories selected.

By going beyond the structural aspects of the coverage, which content analysis was better
equipped to handle, the case study analysis added another vital layer to our understanding
of how public affairs are covered. In fact, the limitations of content analysis made room for
the case study analysis to provide a deeper and more granular look into the fabric of public
affairs stories similar to those in the study population. The issues pointed out in the various
analyses are specific, though not necessarily unique, to each story.

The nine case study analyses are presented in the section that follows. The text of the
respective stories is available for reference in Annex 4.

CONVENTIONAL REPORTING EXTRACTIVES

Headline: Regulator on the spot over oil data
Author: Isaac Imaka (iimaka@ug.nationmedia.com)
Publication: Daily Monitor
Date: August 18, 2013
Website: http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Regulator-on-the-spot-over-oil-
data/-/688334/1958026/-/10pnjxyz/-/index.html

Case Analysis

The reporter writes with clarity and the language is simple, with a good definition of
seismic data an uncommon term or jargon from the extractives sector.

The author achieves balance by speaking to officials in the company that had complained
about faulty seismic information, as well as from the Petroleum Exploration and
Production Department (PEPD). The reporter assigned both parties/positions equal
weight, allowing each a complete explanation and opportunity to clarify on the issues. The
journalist simply reported the information as it was provided by the sources, keeping his
role passive and, on the face of it, neutral.

However, the story seems to have been based on inaccurate information in the first place.
By stating that PEPD was on the spot for supplying suspected faulty seismic data to oil
companies, it is assumed that the responsibility of compiling and sharing seismic data lies
with this department. But, when given an opportunity to comment, the head of the
departments regulatory unit clarified that the institution is not responsible for conducting
seismic studies, and neither is it governments policy to collect seismic data. He described
the kind of data that the department compiles and provides to companies, but the reporter

19
chose to stay with the wrong view, which he/she seems to have gathered from the
complaining company.

Conventional reporting requires the neutral transmission of facts. While the reporter seeks
comments from both sides of the story, there is evidently not as much effort to gather the
facts of the matter, besides relying on the complainants claims.

It appears that the story tip arose from an accuser making allegations against another party
and the reporter ought to take care not to be taken up by the former. He should not have
gone ahead to accuse the department in the story. The story could have taken another
approach.

The reporter also ought to have asked the unnamed officials at CNOOC why the company
has not launched an official complaint to the petroleum exploration department since the
latter says they have not received any official complaints from affected oil companies.

While the story is balanced and appears neutral at the face of it, the information it provides
is not complete. For instance, if it is not the duty of the petroleum exploration department
to provide seismic data, whose duty is it? Have any other companies besides CNOOC raised
similar complaints? The reporter ought to have sought out other oil companies to avoid
appearing to have been used by Cnooc in pursuit of its interests.

While the reporter should be commended for faithfully recording comments of the parties,
the story begs for more information and facts about the matter, and here, relevant
documents would have been useful in providing more complete information such as figures
(e.g. what would the seismic study cost CNOOC?) for accuracy and completeness.

INTERPRETIVE REPORTING EXTRACTIVES

Headline: Oil compensation money splits families
Author: Francis Mugerwa (fmugerwa@ug.nationmedia.com)
Publication: Daily Monitor
Date: July 15, 2013
Website: http://www.monitor.co.ug/SpecialReports/Oil-compensation-money-splits-
families/-/688342/1915056/-/x5g8o8/-/index.html

Case Analysis

The reporter identified a rarely covered public affairs issue in the extractives sector
particularly oil exploration and communicated it in a simple, clear and interesting way.
The report explains in detail, through various voices, the gender dynamics in the
management of compensation money from oil companies and how these dynamics
negatively impact on womens livelihoods and rights, as well as family harmony in the
communities around oil sites in the Bunyoro region.

The reporter goes beyond the immediate event (which is compensation) and adds meaning
to it by showing how women have to negotiate with their spouses for the right to manage
20
and use the money for the collective benefit of their families, even when it is their own
gardens that have been destroyed.

Perhaps the strongest facet of this report is its use of sources. The reporter made an
excellent choice of sources, asked the right questions and selected the most relevant quotes
for inclusion in the story that best explain the issue the district community development
officer and the Woman MP amply describe the magnitude of the problem of management of
compensation money.

Two women who share their personal experience bring the story home. One is reported as
having grudgingly accepted her husbands decision: My husband bought a goat,
household items and used the [rest of the] money to enroll for university education.
Allowing them to tell their story in their own words is effective in showing their plight.

Another source, the secretary of the district land board, provides insight into the gender
dynamics involved in ownership of land and other property in communities in the region,
with men controlling all the wealth and married women denied any right to own family
property.

Still on sources, the executive director of a non-governmental organization working on

human rights helps explain the interventions by civil society to address the disparities and
to help communities and families near oil sites live in harmony. This source also helps to
highlight the social, economic, environmental and other risks associated with gender
inequities in the extractives sector. Finally, the source from Tullow Oil and the minister
responsible for Bunyoro affairs round off the picture by explaining, respectively, the
organisation and governments plans and initiatives to address the gender issues
associated with compensation.

Besides sources, the inclusion of simple, relevant statistics further amplifies the issue and
helps readers understand the subject and its implications at various levels: family,
community and national. The statistics include: that the district community development
officehas mediated in more than 20 cases of disagreements among couples; that only two
or three of every 100 land applications received in the district are filed by women; and the
details on the volume and value of viable oil reserves in Uganda.

The reporter presented pertinent background and contextual information on oil

exploration in Uganda, from when oil deposits were discovered, where the deposits are
located, how many wells have been drilled, how much oil the country has, its value, and the
companies involved in exploring it, to locating Buliisa district on Ugandas oil
map.However, the background could have been taken higher up in the report.

Hage et al (1983) suggest that interpretive reporting should provide the reader with both
an accurate account of an event or situation and enough additional information to assure
understanding (p.18).

21
The reporter achieved this through his good selection of sources and statistics, and
presentation of a comprehensive background and context. There is sufficient evidence in
the report of the journalists initiative and enterprise in identifying and covering a subject
outside everyday news.

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING EXTRACTIVES

Headline: Uganda losing billions to mineral smuggling
Author: Francis Kagolo (fkagolo@newvision.co.ug)
Publication: New Vision
Date: January 25, 2014
Website: http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/651794-uganda-losing-billions-to-
mineral-smuggling.html

Case Analysis

The strength of this report is in its detailed expos of covert information about illegal
mining and export in the extractives sector in Uganda, from resources and evidence that
are clearly discernible. The minerals in question include wolfram, gold ore, iron ore, cobalt
metal and nickel hydroxide.

The journalist quotes government reports (including from previous investigations) on the
mineral sector and from these he gathers relevant context, facts and statistics for the
report. There is also good use of human sources most of who are named and all of whose
voices add credence and variety to the report.

With information from these various sources, the journalist elaborates the process through
which minerals are smuggled out of the country and the impact of this illicit activityon the
economy (the amount of money Uganda loses through smuggling in the extractives sector
e.g. while the Energy ministry recorded only 3.9kg of gold worth Shs 3.2m produced in
2013, a source told the journalist that one mineral explorer had smuggled 500kg of gold,
worth Shs 419.2m, disguised as samples, out of the country).

The report demonstrates a great deal of enterprise on the part of the journalist in gathering
evidence and sourcing facts through the paper trail and interviews with government
officials, agencies involved in mineral extraction and accused of smuggling, and a police
officer.He travels to mines in Kisoro and talks to an artisanal miner, one of the mine
managers and to the management of a mining company that hires the miners about
themineral quantities extracted, the money involved in legitimate and illegal markets, and
how much is declared and concealed.

The journalist goes an extra mile in the investigation, embarking on one of the smuggling
routes to trace the smugglers trail and to gain a vantage point from which to observe the
illicit trade. In the process, he discovers the involvement of some sections of law
enforcement agencies, including the police and border control officials, in the racket a
plus to the investigation.

22
The report is specific, rather than general, stating the volumes of mineral resources
smuggled, how entities with exploration licenses are involved in illegal mining instead and
smuggle out large quantities of minerals disguised as untaxed exploration samples
causing the country huge revenue loss in unpaid royalties. But, while the focus is on
Uganda, the report includes a wider perspective, casting a beam on other countries in the
region: Tanzania and Rwanda and placing the story in a wider context. Building the story
from a local level (Kisoro district) to the national level and including a regional perspective
is effective in showing the big picture. Similarly, the report focuses on the entire mining
industry and not just on one mineral, which provides a holistic picture.

Furthermore, inclusion in the story of a section on the law the Penal Code and its
provisions concerning smuggling in the extractives sector helps to show the legal
implications of the illicit activity.

Another tool the journalist uses is that of numbers/figures, including:quantities/volumes of

minerals; amounts of money involved; numbers of miners in mineral-rich districts such as
Karamoja; trends in mineral (gold) production over the years; the number of exploration
licenses issued by the mines department each year, compared to the total licenses issued;
etc. Statistics are also used to show why smuggling endures unabated (the mines inspection
department is grossly under-funded) and how much it would take to improve inspection
and curb the vice. Generally, the use of numbers adds clarity to the story, as it makes the
information specific as opposed to general.

This report would, however, have greatly benefitted from the use of infographics, an aspect
of data journalism, to clearly show the trends in production and the process and effects of
smuggling, which it seeks to explain. The journalist ought to have gone a step further to
illustrate the story, rather than simply report numbers (volumes and monies), which
appear littered all over the story even if they do make sense.

CONVENTIONAL REPORTING LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Headline: Leaders urge donors to reconsider aid cuts
Author: Nelson Wesonga (nwesonga@ug.nationmedia.com)
Publication: Daily Monitor
Date: July 10, 2013
Website: http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Regulator-on-the-spot-over-oil-
data/-/688334/1958026/-/10pnjxyz/-/index.html

Case Analysis

In very few words, this story provides a clear picture of the local government leaders
contribution at the event (public dialogue). The story is focused and all the information
provided is relevant to the subject matter. The simplicity and clarity with which the author
writes allows clear understanding of the issues being reported.

By limiting himself to statements made at the event and directly quoting selected parties
while making their presentations, the reporter takes a passive position and reports directly
23
from the observed event. The parties quoted are relevant to the subject, and the dialogue
presented makes the story come to life there is a variety of voices, including a regional
leader, district leader and an official from the civil society.

This story could, however, have been improved by, among other things, providing context
to the issues reported. The writer describes the PRDP concisely, but ought to have included
some brief background information about the funds that the Office of the Prime Minister
mismanaged, who was involved, what the impact was; and the status quo. Without this
context, the reporter assumes that all the storys readers are familiar with the matter.

Further, while there is no potential for damage, which would have demanded that all
positions be assigned equal weight, it should have been necessary for the reporter to seek
comments from representatives of donor countries and/or agencies either present at the
event or outside of it. This is because the civil society representative in the story is quoted
complaining about donors methods of work. Besides ensuring fairness, this would
illustrate the reporters quest for comprehensiveness and accuracy.

INTERPRETIVE REPORTING LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Headline: 5 years on, Local Service tax remains a pipe dream
Author: Edward Ssekika (ssekika@observer.ug)
Publication: The Observer
Date: March 31, 2013
Website: http://observer.ug/component/content/article?id=24513:5-years-on-local-
service-tax-remains-a-pipe-dream

Case Analysis

The story explains in great detail what local service tax is what it comprises, how it is
computed and who has an obligation to pay it and how much they are required to pay, and
who is exempted from it.

Taxation, along with its various forms and associated topics, is generally considered a
complex subject. However, the journalist successfully broke down the subject of local
service tax for the readers, using sufficient background and contextual information (to
explain how it came to replace graduated tax), expounding on the provisions of the Local
Government (Amendment) Act 2008 that relate to the specific tax, and by talking to
relevant officials to provide further clarity.

The sources used not only served to explain the tax, but also provided a local context to the
story, which is very important for reporting on local government. The sources include: the
Gulu district chairman, who was a district councilor when the tax was introduced; the
districts chief administrative officer and the shadow Local Government minister, who is
also a Member of Parliament.

The documentary sources used are the Act, the Local Government Finance Commission
2011 annual report and the tax collection guidelines issued by the Local Government

24
Financial Commission. The human sources interviewed, who are local government leaders
resident in the district and who, therefore directly experience the frustration, provide a
rich local perspective to the story, while the documents provide the factual basis for the
analysis.

To explain the change in the status quo, the story shows the dilemma that local
governments face in their inability to finance administrative and development activities
from the new tax, by, among others, describing the previous scenario (The abolition of
graduated tax in FY 2005/2006 heavily hurt revenue collection in local governments, since
the taxed used to contribute 80% of all district revenues. 2nd paragraph) and quoting the
district officials frustration (We welcomed the tax with a lot of expectations. I hoped it
would end the local government's financial stress," Ojara said in an interview, stressing that
he hoped the tax would greatly enhance local revenue generation in the district. 3rd
paragraph; "This money can't even help us to fund council sittings and meet our co-funding
obligations," he stressed. For instance, Kiganda says revenues from the local service tax can't
even fund 1% of the district budget.18th paragraph)

The reporter also uses statistics effectively to illustrate the change in revenue collection
after the old tax was abolished and a new one introduced. Consider the paragraph: At its
inception, local service tax was expected to generate between Shs 67bn and Shs 80bn annually
from across the country, compared to the Shs 70bn generated from graduated tax. However,
not even a quarter of the projected revenue has been realized. The Local Government Finance
Commission 2011 annual report released in February 2012, noted that the performance of
LST continues to be poor with little revenue realized.

Financial figures are used throughout the story with similarly good effect, especially to
show the various categories of income earners and the tax they are required to pay.
However, there are instances where the use of percentages would have enriched the
analysis and provided a clearer picture. Consider, for example, the sentence: The act had
stipulated that business persons with a turnover of over Shs 500,000 monthly would also be
eligible to pay Shs 5,000 in LST while those with a turnover of over Shs 10m would pay Shs
100,000 annually. The journalist ought to have indicated that this is a one percent (1%) tax.

Further, on financials, the use of infographics should have added visibility and clarity to the
story, while also reducing the numbers in the story (the article appears to be littered with
numbers, even though they are relevant). For example, charts could have been used to
illustrate the various categories of tax payers and how much they are expected to pay, and
to show the trends in local service tax collection in the district in the context of the
previously projected revenue and, perhaps, compared to previous revenue accruing from
the abolished graduated tax.

Another weakness in the story is the lack of balance in commentary from human sources.
Besides the district officials, the journalist only interviewed the shadow Local Government
minister. The story should have benefited from comments from the actual Local
Government minister or other senior official(s) from that ministry or from the ministry of
Finance to explain the governments position on the tax and (planned) interventions to
25
address the gap. Comments from a tax specialist (e.g. from an audit firm) would also have
provided more clarity and additional information to assure understanding and enrich the
analysis.

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Headline: Shs 2.3 billion swindled per month, investigators show
Author: Haggai Matsiko (hmatsiko@independent.co.ug)
Publication: The Independent
Date: July 18, 2014
Website: http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/9159-shs-23-billion-swindled-
per-month-investigators-show

Case Analysis

This report has immense potential for exposing gross corruption in the educations sector,
particularly primary schools in Ugandas district. It is a follow-up on an investigation by the
Ministry of Finance that found ghost schools in various districts.

While neither the journalist nor his news magazine broke the story, there is evidence of the
journalists own initiative and effort to expand the investigation by talking to more sources
and digging up the findings of previous similar probes. The journalist also sought to
advance the investigation by, initially, focusing on Butaleja district, even though the
government probe had covered several districts.

The report is rich in statistics with regard to school enrolment, numbers of teachers, school
and ministry budgets, swindled funds, etc. All these serve to indicate the magnitude of the
corruption in the sector and its impact on primary education in the affected districts and on
the economy generally.

The journalist also provides extensive background of the story, placing the report in the
context of several previous audits. There is an attempt to combine interpretive and
investigating reporting by breaking down the government loss into what the money could
have done for the education sector (The money being stolen each month is enough to pay
5,000 secondary school teachers and 8,000 in primary). All this serves to help the reader to
trace the genesis of the problem or issue and to understand its wider implications.

Furthermore, the report bears evidence of strong sourcing to expose the illicit activities of
government officials. There is a wide array of documentation sources (the paper trail),
including probe reports and government audits. The additional source the journalist
introduces in the investigation (the general secretary of the national teachers union) is
relevant to the storys quest to expose graft in the teachers payroll the fraudulent
transfers, deletions and reinstatement therein.
However, this case has some gaping weaknesses. First, there are too many ideas in the
story, making it complex and unnecessarily long. For instance, it was not necessary for the
journalist to delve into previous probes that are unrelated to the education sector. The
tendency to jump from one probe to another, from one idea to another, and from one
26
source to another without making the necessary linkages breaks the story into several
muddled parts and spoils the flow. The journalist ought to have followed one idea and let a
common thread run through the story. Such a thread is absent.

Secondly, given the vastness of the story (the different probes it dwells on), there is a
disturbing amount of numbers or statistics that are difficult to follow (enrolment trends,
ghost numbers, teachers statistics, amounts of money, budgets, etc.).

Because figures are scattered all over the story (even though they might have a rightful
place), they largely fail to achieve their purpose of showing and not merely telling. Consider
this sentence: Last year, Ministry of Education bosses complained that while enrolment to
primary increased from 8,337,069 in 2012 to 8,390,674 in 2013 and that of the secondary,
from 1,251,507 in 2012 to 1,257,378 in 2013, their budget had not changed much. They
wanted more money.

This problem (of number littering) could have been solved by better management of the
data through the use of infographics to illustrate the various trends and the disputed
figures (e.g. number of pupils enrolled in primary school in Uganda is 5,445,547 compared
to the official ministry figure: 402,957). Illustrating such statistics graphically or, at the
very least, using percentages, would help readers visualize the magnitude of the scandal
and, perhaps, increase the impact of the story.

Similarly, on sourcing, there are several sources, particularly documents and quotes from
audits, that were not relevant to the initial subject and that only serve to clutter the story.
On human sources, the story mentions that most of the fake pupils that are unaccounted
for by the education ministry are dropped before sitting their primary leaving
examinations because the registration process is so elaborate and would expose the
corruption. However, there is no evidence of any attempt to seek out and talk to any of the
affected children or their parents where do these children end up?

Thus, while this case is a good example of issues that can be investigated concerning local
government and that would have a huge impact on governance, there is overkill. The
information overload affects the storys quality and impact. The information therein could
have been used for two or more investigative stories.

27
CONVENTIONAL REPORTING PARLIAMENT
Headline: Government tables Bill to outlaw miniskirts
Author: Yasiin Mugerwa (ymugerwa@ug.nationmedia.com)
Publication: Daily Monitor
Date: April 5, 2013
Website: http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Government-tables-Bill-to-
outlaw-miniskirts/-/688334/1739768/-/p77d82/-/index.html

Case Analysis

The story is one-dimensional, focusing on a particular, single event debate on the

proposed The Anti-Pornography Bill, 2011 in parliament. All information provided and
quotes used relate to this single event. The reader is able to tell, from reading the story,
that the journalist was present during the session and observed the event first-hand.

Although this is a conventional news story, simply presenting facts and reporting from the
scene, it is written with great style, flair and creativity. The journalist uses rich language
and writes inventively by weaving quotes from the Bill into the narrative. Examples of
these are in the second, third and 16th paragraphs, respectively below:

The government is riding on its view that pornography has become such an insidious social
problem to get the Bill through Parliament.

It also argues that because there has been an increase in pornographic materials in the
Ugandan mass media and nude dancing in the entertainment world, there is need to
establish a legal framework to regulate such vices.

Responding to the members who expressed fears that the Bill might inhibit the sexual
behaviours of romantic spouses or couples, the minister said if the Bill is passed into law,
pornography will not include any act or behaviour between spouses or couples performed in
fulfillment of their conjugal rights and responsibilities, where such matters are strictly
private.

There is sufficient evidence that the journalist thoroughly read and is well acquainted with
the Bill. The story carries detailed quotes from the document, including the definition of
pornography, but because they are cleverly interspersed within the rest of the content, it
does not appear clattered and flows beautifully. The thorough reading of the Bill, which is
the subject of the story, ensures that the journalist reports the issue clearly and
authoritatively from the event, without having to include his prior knowledge of or opinion
on the subject, while also keeping his role passive.

By quoting the minister who presented the Bill, as well as MPs opposed to it or sections of
it, the journalist ensures that equal weight is assigned to all positions of the issue and that
no side outweighs the other. However, there is collective attribution when members views
and voices are presented; not a single member is quoted by name. Consider, for instance,
the following paragraphs:
28
While the Bill seeks to outlaw indecent dressing among other social behaviours deemed
pornographic under the legal parameters of the Bill, the lawmakers said the lack of definition
for what constitutes decent dressing makes the Bill awkward and asked the government to
stop curtailing freedoms in the country which could scare away tourists.

While some committee members urged that Section 166 of the Penal Code Act, Cap.120
already outlaws pornography, the minister said the Penal Code only caters for trafficking in
obscene publication yet the issue of pornography transcends publication.

The journalist ought to have attributed specific remarks to individuals who said them if
he was faithfully recording the observed event and not generalised the opposing voices.

That said, this case is a good example of a conventional parliamentary story written with
flair, yet without distorting its facts, context and spirit; one that readers would definitely
enjoy.

INTERPRETIVE REPORTING PARLIAMENT

Headline: Divided Parliament - Museveni can remove Kadaga
Author: Peter Nyanzi (pnyanzi@independent.co.ug)
Publication: The Independent
Date: October 18, 2013
Website: http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/8341-divided-parliament-
museveni-can-remove-kadaga

Case Analysis

The reporter offers a good explanation of the impasse between the constitutional offices of
the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of Parliament. He effectively shows the link between the
tensions in the two offices and the weakening of parliament and possible negative
implications on democracy in the country.

The sources (a lawyer and university professors of jurisprudence and political science) are
relevant, with competence on parliamentary operations and constitutional matters. Thus,
external voices were not added for the sake of it, but were selected for their specialty and
specific relevance to the issues being explained and for their contribution to the
advancement of the argument. This helps expound on the subject matter and make a clear
link between the office of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker and the Parliament, President,
as well as the country.

In his Handbook of Reporting and Communication Skills, V. S. Gupta states: The term
interpretive reporting means that the reporter seeks to find the implications of an event.
The reporter puts the event in perspective. He tries to bring the story in the stream of
events. He explains, interprets and analyses the event, which goes beyond the strict ambit
of his duty as a reporter.Analysis and interpretation, he says, seek to impart a deeper

29
understanding of the processes of which isolated manifestations alone get noticed as news
events (Gupta 2003).

Drawing from the Deputy Speakers appearances on radio and television political talk
shows to explain his recent actions (which were in the news), the reporter built an analysis,
exposing the individuals ambitions and showing their implications on the Parliament
future.

However, the analysis would have been stronger with the inclusion of anecdotal evidence
of the souring relationship between the Speaker and Deputy Speaker. It is not enough to
tell the readers that there is friction between the two principals in a divided parliament
or to read the denials from the parliament spokesperson. The reporter ought to have
included a few anecdotes of specific incidents when this rivalry came to light, and then built
these together to show the reader a trend. Such background and context would help
readers connect the events, trends and implications, thereby understanding and
appreciating the issues better.

On the technical side, the analysis would make for better reading with tighter editing. It is
unnecessarily long (over 2,000 words) and repetitive in some places.

Nevertheless, the reporter presented a well explained and balanced argument, referring to
previous parliaments and speakers, and selecting good sources to help the audience
understand the intricate politics around the position of Speaker of Parliament in Uganda
and its implications on the quality of legislative debate and on the broader affairs of the
country and its leadership.

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING PARLIAMENT

Headline: MPs spend Shs 30bn on trips
Author: Sulaiman Kakaire (skakaire@observer.ug)
Publication: The Observer
Date: October 25, 2013
Website:http://observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=28211:mps
-spend-shs-30bn-on-trips&catid=78:topstories&Itemid=116

Case Analysis

The journalismfund.eu website states: A European Parliament resolution adopted on 10

May 2012 describes investigative and independent journalism as an essential element in
fighting crime, fraud and corruption with European funds. Why? Because large-scale fraud
is complex and often invisible, until someone takes the time to research and expose it. And
thats exactly what journalists do: they search, dig and examine. They discover, reveal,
expose. They tell their stories to readers, aid organisations and policy makers, who can
then start doing what they each do best to fight those abuses.
(See http://www.journalismfund.eu/news/fundjournalismfund)

30
There is substantial evidence that this story is the product of the reporters own initiative
and effort. The journalist effectively unpacks the issue of foreign travel of members of
Parliament and the dubious motives involved, uncovering facts that the subjects would
undoubtedly have an interest in keeping out of the public domain for instance that the
main motive is to earn allowances, and that some do not even attend to the official business
for which they have travelled but use the trips for shopping and tourism.

The story has very good use of both documentary and human sources. For instance, the
reporter digs up reports tabled from previous travels and discovers that they are not
compliant with the rules. The reference to both reports and rules of procedure is powerful
in showing how parliamentarians abuse procedure at will and the clear lack of
accountability for the trips financed with public funds.

The presentation of the story is also powerful, with excellent comparisons of the
expenditure on travel and what this money could do for society and the economy (e.g.
paying teachers). The comparison of expenditure over different years and different
parliaments is incredible and shows (rather than tells) the unprecedented appetite for
travel among MPs of the 9th Parliament. The story is free of ambiguities, stating boldly
alarming figures and statistics, and saying it as it is.

The writing is of a high quality, presenting the facts and dialogue with simplicity, clarity but
also flair of language, which makes for easy but also interesting and entertaining reading.
The anecdote used in the intro, for instance, grabs the reader straight away and the clear
thread throughout the story ensures that the reader is fixed.

However, in spite of its many strengths, this story is not without weaknesses. One is that
the reporter ought to have sought comment from the leadership of a committee that is
responsible for, and/or one that could competently comment on the issue of, members
travel, for instance the Committee on Rules, Discipline and Privileges or the Public
Accounts Committee. It appears that the MPs that the reporter spoke to were those he
could conveniently reach, and there is no mention of what makes them competent to speak
on the matter.

Furthermore, this story called for comment from the Speaker (or office of the Speaker) or
Deputy Speaker of Parliament on the issue of MPs travel and the associated abuse of
resources procedure. Comment from an ombudsman institution of government, such as the
Inspector General of Government or the Directorate of Public Prosecution would have
made the investigation more complete, with the reporter asking them what they were
doing or planned to do about matter.

Lastly, use of graphical aids, such as charts to illustrate trends in expenditure over different
years and different parliaments, would have made the problem more visual or visible to
readers.

31
5.0 CONCLUSION

The aim of this study was to create a baseline of the state of public affairs coverage as
evident in the patterns and trends that emerged from the analysis of a years worth of
reporting. This study is the first phase of a longer research project that will involve a mid-
line study (July 2014 June 2015) and an end-line study (July 2015 June 2016).

The research design and methodology that have been piloted will be refined, improved, and
used to execute the follow-up studies. In addition, the subsequent studies will complement
the content analysis with interviews, focus group discussions, and surveys of content
producers and news consumers.

This project is the first that has attempted to examine this magnitude of media content
both quantitatively and qualitatively. The research approach and the data it has generated
have revealed the possibilities as well as the challenges involved in efforts to understand
the medias role in public discourse on local and national affairs.

The findings show that the coverage of public affairs is reflective of the diverse range of
issues that the typical news consumer is routinely exposed to. The issues covered by and
large touch on practically every aspect of public life and policy. The findings are instructive
as they reveal both the scope (measured quantitatively) and fabric (assessed qualitatively)
of the coverage of public affairs issues that concern the day-to-day lives of citizens and the
life of the nation as a whole.

It is crucial that future iterations of the research are expanded to include the electronic and
digital media. The research design will have to be adjusted accordingly. The fundamental
elements have been tested and proven applicable to media content broadly irrespective of
the platforms on which it is generated.

Whereas the core data has been generated through content analysis, the case studies have
provided a nuanced perspective on the quality of reporting. The case study analyses offer
invaluable lessons not only about the make-up of the coverage of public affairs, but also
about effective ways to interrogate it.

Beyond the findings, it is anticipated that this study will stimulate debate and interest in
the development of a common and shared framework for analyzing media content across
all platforms. Presently, the commercial sources of such data have limited application
because they are primarily designed to serve commercial goals. A standard approach to
assessing media practices and performance in the context of the medias public information
and civic education functions will make it possible to undertake meaningful comparative
studies across platforms, issues, sectors, and time.

32

VARIABLE NAME
1 Title of publication
2 Type of publication
3 Date of story publication
4 Page number
5 Public affairs issue
ANNEX 1: CODING SCHEME
VARIABLE DESCRIPTION CATEGORIES & CODES
& CODING INSTRUCTIONS
Formal name of the publication under review. Saturday 1. Daily Monitor
and Sunday editions, in the cases of Daily Monitor and New 2. New Vision
Vision, are subsumed under their mother titles. 3. The Independent
4. The Observer
The publications under review as distinguished by their 1. Daily newspaper
frequency and platform. 2. Tri-weekly newspaper
3. Weekly magazine
The date on which the article identified for review dd/mm/yy
appeared. Code using digits in the format of dd/mm/yy.
For example, 07/October/2014 is to be coded as
07/10/14. There are two exceptional cases:The
Observeruses a two-day timeframe for its dates e.g.
Monday, October 01 02, 2014. Code the first day
indicated as the date of publication i.e. 01/10/14. The
Independent uses a weekly timeframe of dates e.g.
November 07 12, 2014. Code the first day indicated as the
date of publication i.e. 07/11/14.
The page on which the main headline of the story identified
appears. E.g. if the story is flagged on the cover but the
substantive body of the story is inside, code the page on
which its main headline appears, which should also be the
page on which the substantive body of the story begins.
One of the 12 thematic areas on which the research 1. Local government
focuses. Scan the story to determine its main thrust and 2. Parliament
choose the theme that best captures the dominant issue 3. Extractive industry
covered. No single story shall be coded as carrying more 4. Agriculture
than one theme. Use the headline as a clue to determine the 5. Land and property
main theme. 6. Water and environment
7. Energy
33
 8. Justice, law and order
9. Transport and public works
10. Health
11. Science and technology
12. Education
6 Headline Transcribe the main headline exactly as it appears. Do not
include the sub-headline. Copy and paste the internet link
into the space provided.
7 Subject of the story Identify the main issue that the article is about. The
intro/lead or first few paragraphs normally capture the
core issue. Summarize and describe what the story is about
in about 20 words.
8 Reporting format Scan the story identified to determine which of the three 1. Conventional
formats best captures the journalistic approach/style 2. Interpretive
employed in its production and presentation. 3. Investigative
9 Article length Word count of the online text of the story where its Number of words
available or possible.
10 Position of headline on the Determine the location of the headline when the paper is 1. Below the fold
page folded horizontally down the middle. 2. Middle of the fold
3. Above the fold
11 Prominence of story on Compare the relative prominence of the three main stories 1. Not prominent
the page on the same page on which the story identified appears. If 2. Second most prominent
its neither in the first nor second position relative to other 3. Most prominent
stories on the same page, code it as not prominent. Code
as 3 if its the only story on the page.
12 Scope of the story Determine the widest possible geographical relevance of 1. Local
the subject that the story deals with. It could raise issues of 2. National
purely local interest or national significance or both.But 3. Local and national
before coding it as 3, examine the story carefully to avoid
opting for this category simply as a convenient choice.
13 Focus of the story The people or institutions that are the target of the story. It 1. Single person
includes personalities or organisations or companies that 2. Several unrelated persons
speak or perform actions important to the story or are the 3. Group of related persons
subject of a significant amount of the coverage. Is it a single 4. Single institution
individual or institution? Is it several unrelated individuals 5. Several unrelated institutions

34

14 Identity and occupation of
the person who is or
people who are the focus
of the story
15 Function of the person
who is or people who are
the focus of the story
16 Gender of the person who
is or people who are the
focus of the story
17 Nationality of the person
who is or people who are
the focus of the story
18 Age of the person who is
or people who are the
focus of the story
19 Identity of the institution
that is or institutions that
are the focus of the story
20 Function of the institution
or institutions affected by or concerned about a common 6. Group of related institutions
issue e.g. property owners affected by a public works
project or businesses concerned about a new tax? Is it a
group of related individuals or institutions who are
organised around a common issue e.g. doctors protesting
poor pay through their association or schools lobbying for
changes in education policies?
As applicable, state the name and occupation of the specific
individual who is or individuals who are the focus of the
story. E.g. Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda, Prime Minister; students
of Kyambogo University; residents of Jinja town.
The reason why the person or people identified in #14
is/are the focus of the story. For example: What is the Lord
Mayor doing or what is happening to the Lord Mayor that
makes him a person of interest in this story? What are
teachers doing or what is happening to teachers that makes
them people of interest in this story?
Code male or female if its possible to determine the 0. Cannot tell
gender from the story. Code male and female involved if 1. Male
the focus of the story includes both. Otherwise code 0 if 2. Female
its impossible to tell the gender. 3. Mixed (group of male and female
individuals)
Code Ugandan or foreigner if its possible to determine 0. Cannot tell
the nationality from the story. Code Ugandans and 1. Ugandan
foreigners involved if the focus of the story includes both. 2. Foreigner
Otherwise code 0 if its impossible to tell the nationality. 3. Mixed (group of Ugandan and foreign
individuals)
Enter the actual age if its mentioned in the story. 0. Cannot tell or not applicable
Otherwise code 0 if the age is not mentioned or if the
focus of the story is a group of people or individuals of
presumably different ages.
As applicable, state the name of the specific institution that
is or institutions that are the focus of the story. For
example: Uganda Revenue Authority; telecom companies.
The reason why the institution or institutions identified in
35
 that is or institutions that
are the focus of the story
21 Origin of the story
22 Context of the story
23 Tone of the story with
regard to the subject of
coverage
24 Priority source 1
25 Priority source 2
26 Priority source 3
27 Priority source 4
28 Priority source 5
#19 is/are the focus of the story. For example: What is the
Uganda Revenue Authority doing or what is happening to
the Uganda Revenue Authority that makes it an institution
of interest in this story? What are the telecom companies
doing or what is happening to the telecom companies that
makes them institutions of interest in this story?
In no more than 20 words, describe how the story
emerged. What was the trigger? Was it original reporting,
research, or investigation by the journalist(s)? A research
project or report? A company, organisation, or government
report or document? A public or private event or activity?
A press conference or news release? A spontaneous
occurrence?
A story can be approached either episodically or 1. Episodic
thematically. News presented episodically portrays events 2. Thematic
or cases as isolated, while news presented thematically
portrays issues and events within their broader context.
Examine the story identified and determine which of the
two approaches best suits the context in which the story is
covered.
The tone is negative when the article in general is critical 1. Negative
of or questions a particular development or issue or the 2. Positive
actors involved. The tone is positive when the article in 3. Balanced
general expresses promise about or celebrates a particular 4. Neutral
development or issue or the actors involved. The tone is
balanced when the article has more or else equal
measures of negative and positive tones. The tone is
neutral when the article is neither negative nor positive.
These are the individuals to whom any information and 1. Most affected person; man or woman
views in the article are directly or indirectly attributed. on the street; community member
Consider each person who is interviewed or from whom 2. President
information is sought and rank them according to the 3. Vice President
frequency of appearance and the extent to which they are 4. Minister (including Cabinet Minister
directly quoted. Priority source 1 is therefore the source and Minister of State)
that either appears the most number of times or has the 5. Central government civil servant
36
most direct quotes used or both. Examine the story (official of a central government
identified and rank the sources according to these criteria ministry, department or agency)
in descending order from 1 to 5 as applicable. Only up to 6. Local government civil servant (official
five sources are to be coded where a story has more than of LG department, agency or office)
five. Each source is to be coded independently from item 7. Independent technical expert (not a
24 to item 28. central or local government official)
8. Politician (elected or non-elected
national or local politician who does
not hold a central or local government
position)
9. Member of Parliament
10. Businessman/woman (an independent
entrepreneur)
11. Company official or representative
12. Local NGO official or representative
(includes indigenous and foreign
NGOs)
13. International organisation official or
representative (includes regional and
global institutions e.g. EAC, IGAD, UN,
World Bank and diplomatic missions)
14. Religious leader or representative
15. Cultural leader or representative
16. Community leader or representative
17. Civil society actor
18. Independent commentator (informed
or holding a popular opinion)
19. Military official, representative or
regular personnel
20. Police official, representative or
regular personnel
21. Prisons official, representative or
regular personnel
22. Security official, representative or
regular personnel
23. Other (specify)

37
 ANNEX 2: SUMMARY LIST OF CASE STUDIES

REPORTING STORIES ANALYSED

FORMAT
CONVENTIONAL LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Headline: Leaders urge donors to reconsider aid cuts
Author: Nelson Wesonga
Publication: Daily Monitor
Date: July 10, 2013
Page: 6
Word count: 253
Website link:
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Regulator-on-the-spot-over-oil-data/-
/688334/1958026/-/10pnjxyz/-/index.html
PARLIAMENT
Headline: Government tables Bill to outlaw mini skirts
Author: Yasiin Mugerwa
Publication: Daily Monitor
Date: April 5, 2013
Page: X
Word count: 711
Internet link:
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Government-tables-Bill-to-outlaw-
miniskirts/-/688334/1739768/-/p77d82/-/index.html
EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRY
Headline: Regulator on the spot over oil data
Author: Isaac Imaka
Publication: Daily Monitor
Date: August 18, 2013
Page: 6
Word count: 396 words
Website link:
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Regulator-on-the-spot-over-oil-data/-
/688334/1958026/-/10pnjxyz/-/index.html
INTERPRETIVE LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Headline: 5 years on, local service tax remains a pipe dream
Author: Edward Ssekika
Publication: The Observer
Date: March 31, 2013
Page: xx
Word count: 1,380
Internet link:
http://observer.ug/component/content/article?id=24513:5-years-on-local-service-
tax-remains-a-pipe-dream
PARLIAMENT
Headline: Divided Parliament - Museveni can remove Kadaga
Author: Peter Nyanzi

38
 Publication: The Independent
Date: October 18, 2013
Page: 10
Word count: 2,339
Internet link:
http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/8341-divided-parliament-museveni-can-
remove-kadaga
EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRY
Headline: Oil compensation money splits families
Author: Francis Mugerwa
Publication: Daily Monitor
Date: July 15, 2013
Page: 11
Word count: 1,023
Website link:
http://www.monitor.co.ug/SpecialReports/Oil-compensation-money-splits-
families/-/688342/1915056/-/x5g8o8/-/index.html
INVESTIGATIVE LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Headline: Shs 2.3 billion swindled per month, investigators show
Author: Haggai Matsiko
Publication: The Independent
Date: July 18, 2014
Page: X
Word count: 2,002
Internet link:
http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/9159-shs-23-billion-swindled-per-
month-investigators-show
PARLIAMENT
Headline: MPs spend Shs 30bn on trips
Author: Sulaiman Kakaire
Publication: The Observer
Date: October 25, 2013
Page: 1
Word count: 1,517
Website link:
http://observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=28211:mps-
spend-shs-30bn-on-trips&catid=78:topstories&Itemid=116
EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRY
Headline: Uganda losing billions to mineral smuggling
Author: Francis Kagolo
Publication: New Vision
Date: January 25, 2014
Page: 6
Word count: 1,914
Internet link:
http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/651794-uganda-losing-billions-to-mineral-
smuggling.html

39

LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Reporting should highlight
local government affairs with
significant impact on the
governance of the
community.
Its central purpose is to
inform communities about
topics or issues that they
value and that have an
impact on their lives and
livelihoods.
It should provide a clear
understanding of events,
issues and politics of
importance to leadership of
communities outside the
central government.
It focuses on the local angle
and perspective in covering
issues.
PARLIAMENT
Reporting should help
develop a unique
understanding of parliament,
key players and the
legislative process.
ANNEX 3: CASE STUDY ANALYSIS CRITERIA
CONVENTIONAL
The story:
Provides breaking news or
new information about
Ugandas extractive sector, i.e.
development and exploitation
of natural resources,
including oil, gas and mineral
resources.
Covers the important facts of
the event or issue by asking
and answering the questions:
Who? What? Where? When?
Why? How?
Provides new, accurate
information to readers, or
puts together previously
available information in a
new way to reveal its
significance.
Adheres to news values of:
impact, timeliness, proximity,
conflict, relativity, novelty
and, currency
Simple for readers to
understand and extract
40
INTERPRETIVE
The story:
Expounds on an issue or
event in the news
concerning the extractive
sector by giving meaning to
it i.e. explains what has
happened or is happening
and its significance to the
audience and the
community.
Covers background and
context well, explaining
early on (i.e. by paragraph
three or four) the
significance of what has
happened, and why the
audience should care
insight, analysis and
examination of the context
of the event or issue.
Looks at the bigger picture
of the extractives sector
from a local (e.g. family,
community, district, sub-
region), national, regional
and global perspective
and links the story to events
INVESTIGATIVE
The story:
Uncovers an issue, wrong-
doing, or system of
corruption in the extractives
sector that gravely affects
the common or public good.
Bears evidence of
resourcefulness and courage
in gathering information;
degree of difficulty or
logistical challenges
experienced.
Bears evidence of good
investigative skills, sources
and sourcing (use of both
multiple human and
documentary sources)
extent of digging deeply into
the issue or subject.
Produces new information or
puts together previously
available information in a
new way to reveal its
significance, relevance and
public impact and/or benefit.
Demonstrates journalists

Requires demonstration of
broad knowledge of local
laws, good understanding of
parliamentary procedures
and oversight activity, and
ability to explain them in
news stories.
Seeks to explain the work of
politicians and political
parties involved.
EXTRACTIVES
Reporting should enhance
understanding of Ugandas
extractive sector, i.e.
development and
exploitation of natural
resources, including oil, gas
and mineral resources.
practical information.
Is accurate, fair and balanced,
with evidence of effort to
present the factual
information and to assign
equal opportunity to all
positions.
Journalist utilizes data
effectively to tell the story;
the data should be relevant to
the issue and audience.
Journalist demonstrates a
high-quality writing style,
language and storytelling
technique.
41
in the past and future.
Explains the cause, impact,
or likely impact, of what has
happened and connects the
dots between what has
happened, and its relevance
to the target audience.
Bears evidence of the
journalists enterprise and
proactiveness in covering
the issue having initiated
coverage.
Includes use of data that are
relevant to the issue and
audience to explain and
maximise understanding of
abstract or complex facts.
Demonstrates high-quality
writing and style and
masterly of language in
handling the subject.
Demonstrates reporting
rigour, depth and breadth of
discussion and engagement.
originality, enterprise and
proactiveness in covering
the issue (in subject
selection or problem
identification); having
initiated coverage.
Shows the journalists
objectivity, critical analysis,
specificity, accountability
and presentation of facts
about the subject or
problem.
Demonstrates insight,
analysis and examination of
the context of the story.
Demonstrates creativity of
the work (ability to show
new perspectives) and its
impact on the audience,
community or nation.
Is accurate and
comprehensive; reporting
rigour, depth and breadth of
discussion and engagement.
Includes use of data that are
relevant to the issue and
audience to maximise
understanding of abstract or
complex facts.
 Demonstrates high-quality
writing, style, and mastery of
language in handling the
subject, storytelling
technique, and skill in
relating the story.

Has potential to promote

accountability in public
policy and decision-making
in the sector.
DATA JOURNALISM Visualisation is the dominant posture.
(cross-cutting) Focus is on effectiveness of data to tell a story.
Aims at gathering, filtering and visualizing what is happening beyond what the eye can see (Mirko
Lorenz, Deutsche Welle).
Seeks to transform abstract/complex facts into information that everyone can understand and
relate to.
Dynamic presentation of data to users (readers and viewers)/design, functionality.
Data should have relevance to the issue and audience/journalistic impact.

42
 ANNEX 4: TEXT OF STORIES USED AS CASE STUDIES

CONVENTIONAL REPORTING EXTRACTIVES

Headline: Regulator on the spot over oil data
Author: Isaac Imaka (iimaka@ug.nationmedia.com)
Publication: Daily Monitor
Date: August 18, 2013
Website: http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Regulator-on-the-spot-over-oil-
data/-/688334/1958026/-/10pnjxyz/-/index.html

The petroleum exploration department is on the spot over suspected delivery of faulty
seismic data to oil companies.

Although the oil sector regulator says they have not got official complaints from affected oil
companies, highly placed sources in CNOOC, a Chinese oil firm, say the company was given
misleading data, a thing that forced them to redo studies for its King Fisher Exploration
Area.

Seismic data give details of the oil and gas potential of an area. It is the data which, when
interpreted by qualified geophysicists with the right technology, informs them whether an
area has oil or not.

Although King fisher had been confirmed to have oil, sources in CNOOC say the data they
were fed on was misleading and did not match what they found on ground.

We had no option but to redo the entire exercise before we could even start doing seismic
for appraisals, the source said.

In an interview with this newspaper, Petroleum Exploration and Production Departments

head of the regulatory unit Fred Kabanda said it would not be possible for the Entebbe-
based petroleum department to pass on faulty data because it does not carry out seismic
studies.

He said it is not a policy of government to collect seismic data because the process is too
expensive.

In order to promote the countrys oil and gas potential, the department acquires
preliminary data through geological mapping, gravity and magnetic surveys and
geochemistry, Mr Kabanda said.

This is the preliminary cheap data that government can afford to send a few people in the
field to come with data and then we package it for companies to come, he added.
Seismic survey could cost between $4 million up to $20 million (about Shs10 billion to
Shs50 billion) depending on the coverage.

43
When contacted, CNOOC Uganda confirmed that the company is doing fresh seismic data
but remained silent on whether the fresh surveys were as a result of misleading ones.

Operation on the King fisher field allows us to have a better understanding of the field.
CNOOC Uganda Limited is going to conduct a new programme to collect new seismic data
for the field, Mr Dennis Namara, the CNOOC public relations supervisor, said in an email.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

INTERPRETIVE REPORTING EXTRACTIVES

Headline: Oil compensation money splits families
Author: Francis Mugerwa (fmugerwa@ug.nationmedia.com)
Publication: Daily Monitor
Date: July 15, 2013
Website: http://www.monitor.co.ug/SpecialReports/Oil-compensation-money-splits-
families/-/688342/1915056/-/x5g8o8/-/index.html

BULIISA - Compensations offered by oil companies to Buliisa District residents for property
destroyed during oil exploration operations have resulted into bitter misunderstandings in
recipient families.

The district community development officer, Mr Godfrey Barugahara, says his office has
mediated in more than 20 cases of married couples disagreeing on how compensation
money should be managed.

We have registered cases where husbands confiscate the compensation money from their
wives, whose gardens were destroyed during seismic operations,MrBarugahara says.
Some wives reportedly flee from their homes after receiving the money in fear of husbands
confiscating the compensation money.

The Buliisa Woman MP, Ms Beatrice Mpairwe, says her office has received similar
complaints.

Some husbands claim that their wives opt to divorce or separate after receiving
compensation, she says, adding that her office is partnering with civil societies and
religious leaders to resolve domestic wrangles that have increased as a result of
compensation funds.

Ms Margret Katusiime, 40, a resident of Kakindo Village in Buliisa town council, who
received Shs520, 000 from Tullow Oil for her crops, which were destroyed during seismic
operations, says: When I brought the money home, it is my husband who determined how
the money would be spent.

Whereas Ms Violet Kwesiga, 31, had hoped to determine how Shs1.6 million she received
as compensation for her cassava and maize garden, that did not happen.
She grudgingly accepted the decisions taken by her husband in regards to how the money
should be spent.
44
My husband bought a goat, household items and used the money to enroll for university
education, MsKwesiga says.

The Buliisa District Land Board Secretary, Mr Godfrey Businge, says traditionally,
communities in Buliisa give more powers to husbands, who are family heads, to dictate
affairs in a home.

It is unfortunate and unacceptable that communities do not allow married women to own
property in a home. This explains why compensation money is often confiscated from
wives by their respective husbands MrBusinge says.

He adds: Out of every 100 land applications received in this district, only two to three are
filed by women.

Oil companies operating in the district compensate owners of property destroyed during
oil operations basing on the local government compensation rates. Compensation rates are
proposed by the district and approved by the chief government valuer depending on
prevailing market rates.

However, some residents say the money they received as compensation for their damaged
property was too little while others complain about the reported delay in compensating
them.

Others also say their names were omitted from the list of those expecting compensation.
The Executive Director of Global Rights Alert, an NGO building advocacy capacities of
communities adjacent to oil sites, Ms Winnie Ngabiirwe, says: Families need to unite and
work together to tap the opportunities that have come with oil.

Ms Ngabirwes organisation is currently offering skills and training to families and

communal associations in conflict resolution, financial literacy and managing income
generating projects.

She says various studies in mineral-rich countries have revealed that oil revenues can
accelerate development and transform lives of the rural poor. MsNgabirwe, however, adds
that there are a number of risks associated with oil exploitation.

In instances where benefits have been realised, gender bias has prevailed with risks such
as environmental and social harm falling heavily on women. These varying experiences of
men and women in the extractive industry have hence significantly impacted their abilities
to participate in and contribute to development, MsNgabirwe says.

Tullow Oil, through collaboration with TRIAS, an NGO, has provided trainings to recipients
of compensations on how best to utilise the money obtained.

45
The objective was to encourage them to invest wisely and have savings for the future, the
Tullow Oil Communication Manager, Ms Cathy Adengo, says.

When asked to reveal the observations made by the company about the changes in
communities due to compensations received, Ms Adengo says Tullow Oil is undertaking
social economic studies which will enable the company to understand the current
environment better.

The women in Buliisa want the government and oil companies to give the special
consideration in allocation of jobs, business contracts and training.

The Minister of State for Bunyoro Affairs, Mr Ernest Kiiza, says the government is
committed to address the concerns of the people in the region to enable them enjoy the full
benefits that accrue from oil exploitation.

He says his ministry will liaise with the chief government valuer to address the
compensation needs of the residents.

However, they should also strategise and tap the benefits that have come with oil. The
people should educate their children to pursue sciences and other petroleum-related
courses, improve on their agricultural production to target supplying food and other
agricultural products to oil workers, he said.

Oil exploration in Uganda

Uganda discovered commercially viable oil deposits in the Albertine Graben in 2006 after
years of survey by Ugandan geologists. Since then oil exploration has been ongoing leading
to the drilling of 89 wells, out of which 77 had oil deposits.

So far the total reserves that have been discovered are 3.5 billion barrels of oil, out of which
1.2 billion barrels or 1.7 billion barrels can be recovered depending on what technology or
methods of extraction are used.

Statistics from the ministry of energy and mineral development indicated that the revenue
that can be reaped from the recoverable oil amounts to 150 billion US dollars.
Currently extended oil well testing is taking place to determine how the oil will be drilled
out. Some oil amounting to 36,000 barrels of crude oil has so far been got out of 16 wells
during the testing.

There are three multinational oil companies operating in western Uganda and these
include British oil company Tullow, Frances Total and Chinas CNOOC.

Buliisa District

Buliisa District, which was carved out of Masindi District in 2006, is within Exploration
Area-2 where Tullow oil, one of the firms exploring for oil is operating.
46
Oil exploration activities have been undertaken in gardens, communal settlements and
grazing areas. Several farms, grazing areas and property have been destroyed to create
routes to the oil exploration sites. Tullow oil provides compensation for destroyed
property.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING EXTRACTIVES

Headline: Uganda losing billions to mineral smuggling
Author: Francis Kagolo (fkagolo@newvision.co.ug)
Publication: New Vision
Date: January 25, 2014
Website: http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/651794-uganda-losing-billions-to-
mineral-smuggling.html

KISORO Undulating hills with sparse rainforests and streams give Kisoro a spectacular
beauty seen nowhere else in Uganda. But this beauty conceals a dark, thinly disguised
secret, mineral smuggling racket, which has kept the area impoverished and costs Uganda
billions of shillings in revenue.

Kisoro is one of Ugandas richest districts in mineral deposits like tin, gold and wolfram
(tungsten). However, while the smugglers are happy, district officials are cursing.
The district does not get any revenue from the minerals, says Milton Bazanye, the district
chairman.

The energy ministry says Kisoro only has exploration licenses. But unknown to the
officials in the ministry, most of these so called explorers are mining and selling minerals
without paying any royalties.

Illegal mining rampant

Bazanye singles out Kirwa, a prominent wolfram mine, which, according to officials at the
mines department in the energy ministry, was closed two years ago.

Despite the closure, mining goes on, but no revenue is remitted to the Government.
One Saturday morning, down the Kirwa hills in Kabaya village, Nyarubuye sub-county, I
found 16 young men scrounging in mounds of suspected wolfram deposits, as others
crushed rocks in search of the mineral, said Bazanye.

Milton Nsanze, one of the artisanal miners in Kirwa, said a person can collect between 2kg
and 4kg of wolfram a day. Their manager, Gerald Ndagyize, said they are hired by G.
Nzabonimpa of SEB and Company Ltd., a Kisoro-based mining company.

Nzabonimpa buys the wolfram at sh10,000 per kilo. But Nsanze said sometimes they hide
the wolfram and sell it to another businessman at sh17,000 per kilo.

47
According to Nsanze, the businessman sells the wolfram to someone in Kigali at sh37,000
per kilo. But Nzabonimpas son, Alex Nambajimana, who doubles as the company director,
said they do not engage in illicit dealings, even though their exploration license was still
valid at the time the mine was closed.

Nationwide problem

Vincent Kato, the principal geologist in the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development,
says smuggling of minerals is not limited to Kisoro.

While on an operation last year, Kato and other officials from the energy ministry arrested
a man trying to smuggle 45kg of wolfram, worth over sh1.2m, from Nyamuriro in Isingiro
district, into Tanzania. In Muko sub-county, Kabale district, heaps of iron ore are sold by
the roadside.

While Rwanda and Tanzania are the popular end points for mineral smugglers in the
western region, most minerals in Karamoja and eastern Uganda end up in Kenya.

Karamoja has more than 300 artisanal gold miners, each with a capacity to mine about 27
grams a day (10kgs a year), according to Kato. There are more gold miners in Busia,
Buhweju, Kigezi, Mubende, Namayingo and Mubende. Despite having hundreds of small-
scale miners, national gold production (exports) has averaged 3kg per year for the last five
years, according to records at the mines department.

Records show that no gold was produced in 2009, while in 2012, the department recorded
4.3kgs, worth sh5m.

Last year, it was 3.9kgs, worth sh3.2m. Most likely, much of the gold mined is not reported
to the mines department as miners would rather smuggle it out of the country to avoid
paying royalties. Besides the artisanal/ the illegal miners, could it also be possible that
licensed miners are evading paying royalties?

Unlike oil fields where the Government deploys geologists to monitor activities, it has no
resident officials in the mines. The Government has thus always depended on the mercy of
the mining companies to declare the quantities they have mined.

One is charged tax/royalties, depending on ones declarations. A 2012 inspection report on

limestone mining in Hima by Edmond Ssekimwanyi, a senior statistician in the geology
department, listed difficulty in monitoring royalties paid for mined limestone as one of the
key challenges.

In financial year 2010/2011, the Government recovered sh5.4b from Kasese Cobalt
Company for unpaid royalties between 2004 and 2009.

Investigations started when an employee informed the Police that they were underquoting
invoices for mineral exports, specifically cobalt metal, copper and nickel hydroxide, to pay
48
lower royalties.

Kato has singled out the cement sector as worthy of further investigation. A source, who
preferred anonymity, added that more minerals are smuggled through the airport, under
the guise of exploration licenses.

More than three quarters of the licenses issued by the mines department each year are for
exploration.

For instance, of the 839 licenses that were valid by June last year, about 500 were
exploration licenses, according to the energy and mineral annual sector performance
report for 2012/2013. The three-year exploration licenses, which are renewable twice,
allow holders to pick potential mineral samples from to test their commercial viability.

The exploration samples are tax-free. But it has emerged that a number of players are
hiding under exploration licenses to smuggle minerals out of Uganda.

Most of the exploration companies are not doing exploration, but speculation. Several
have failed to comply with the conditions of the exploration license, reads a 2012 report
on appraisal of exploration and mining licenses.

The report was compiled by a four-man committee, set up by the energy ministry
permanent secretary, Kabagambe Kaliisa, to investigate challenges in the mineral sector.
The committee disclosed that most holders of exploration licenses are engaged in mining
instead.

According to a source in the ministry, the problem is exacerbated by the lack of a mineral
testing laboratory, which means samples have to be taken abroad for testing.

In the process, the so-called mineral explorers smuggle out large quantities of minerals
disguised as samples, without paying royalties, the source explained.

For instance, while the ministry recorded only 3.9kg of gold worth sh3.2m produced last
year, the source revealed a mineral explorer who made off with 500kg of gold, worth
sh419.2m, disguised as samples, through Entebbe Airport in June last year.

Kato confirmed the incident and called for cooperation from the airport staff in fighting
mineral smuggling.

The airport staff should first crosscheck with us to confirm whether the quantities of
mineral samples being taken out are the ones we permitted, Kato explained.

But concerning this particular incident, they called me when the person had already flown
out.

The law
49
According to the Penal Code;

1. Any person who takes, conceals or otherwise disposes of any ore or any metal or
mineral in or about a mine, with intent to defraud any person, commits a felony and is
liable to imprisonment for five years.

2. Any person who exports or imports any goods from or into Uganda, packed in any
package, whether or not with other goods, in a manner calculated to deceive any
authorised officer, commits the offence of smuggling. On conviction, that person is liable
to imprisonment for not less than three years and not more than 14 years; and shall in
addition pay a fine of not more than sh5m. Should the offender default, he/she shall be
sentenced to a further term of imprisonment of not more than two years.

3. Where in the course of smuggling, an offender is armed, uses or threatens to use a

deadly weapon, the offender shall, on conviction, be sentenced to death.

How minerals are smuggled across Kisoro border

Time check is 7:20am on a windy Sunday. I set out to verify allegations that minerals are
smuggled through the Cyanika border in Kisoro. Boda boda riders at the border lead me to
Emma, who refers to himself as the chief smuggler.

According to Emma, if one wants to smuggle, they have to hide the minerals in his
makeshift office during the day for easy departure to Rwanda at night.

Most times, we use boda boda on the paths in the forest (near the border post), he said.
We have Indian buyers from Kigali whom we meet in Rwanda, not far from the border.
Emma says they sometimes smuggle more than 100kg of minerals, mainly wolfram, in one
day, selling it at sh25,000 per kilogramme.

Although most smugglers use hidden paths, a policeman on duty that Sunday, whom I
tricked into believing that I wanted to join the illicit trade, said it was possible to use the
official border post.

You place the wolfram in a box of mineral water or milk. Give the box to the boys who sell
snacks at the border. They will go through, the policeman said.
Ironically, the police are aware of the crime.

The Kisoro LC5 chairman, Milton Bazanye, says when the district complained about illegal
mining last year, the Police set up a post at Nuyu, about 70 metres from Kirwa mine. But its
presence has not stopped the illicit business.

District Police Commander Bosco Otim refused to comment on the illicit trade.
Officers at Cyanika border, one of the most notorious mineral smuggling routes, as well as
Uganda Revenue Authoritys western region spokesperson, Charles Lumanyika, also
declined to comment.
50
Quick money woos students

Mineral smuggling in Kisoro is so widespread and lucrative that students have been
compelled to join the bandwagon.

During my S4 vacation in 2012, I used to smuggle minerals from Kirwa to Rwanda,

through Cyanika border. I would earn about sh500,000 a week, said a teenager in Nuyu
trading centre.

I made a lot of money and decided that after S6, I would go straight into the business.

Where is the problem?

There are only three field inspectors of mines, stationed in Kabale, Mbarara and Tororo
regional offices. Each inspector has more than five districts to monitor on a fuel budget of
sh300,000 for every three months.

He is also given sh150,000 every three months to run the office. The entire department,
which generates over sh4b revenue a year, works on a sh250m annual budget.

This money cannot do much in monitoring mines. It is frustrating, a mines inspector said
on condition of anonymity.

No wonder, Milton Bazanye, the district chairman for Kisoro, said they did not see any
mines inspector in their area last year. The geological survey and mines department
estimates that the Government loses over sh4b to mineral smuggling every year.

Officials expect to recover this if the departments budget is increased to at least sh1b, to
intensify inspection.

We are losing a lot of revenue through smuggling. If we reduce smuggling, the revenue
from mineral royalties will shoot up to more than sh8b, Kato said.

Mineral smuggling has been reported across Africa, although it is more widespread in the
great lakes region. International agencies have attributed the endless conflicts in the region
to proceeds from illegal mining and smuggling, especially in the DR Congo.

After its inception in 2012, the Tanzania Minerals Audit Agency made 37 arrests of mineral
smugglers involving $10.3m (about sh26b) within two years, according to a report released
this month.

Tanzania wants the East African Community to harmonise mining policies and legal
framework to curb mineral smuggling in the region.

Way forward
51
Kato says there is a plan to restructure the ministry and divide the current geological
survey and mines department into three semi-independent departments, with separate
commissioners.

The proposed departments include mines, geothermal resources and geological survey.
The plan, which was passed by the Cabinet last year, is waiting for the Ministry of Finance
to study the financial implications before implementation. Kato expects the move to
increase the number of staff to monitor mines.

To strengthen the sector, the Government ought to implement the certification of minerals,
to indicate their origin and formalize artisanal mining, as required by the 2010 guidelines
set by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CONVENTIONAL REPORTING LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Headline: Leaders urge donors to reconsider aid cuts
Author: Nelson Wesonga (nwesonga@ug.nationmedia.com)
Publication: Daily Monitor
Date: July 10, 2013
Website: http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Regulator-on-the-spot-over-oil-
data/-/688334/1958026/-/10pnjxyz/-/index.html

KAMPALA - Local government leaders from the north and the northeast want Ugandas
development partners to unlock the financial assistance that they withheld due to
corruption in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM).

They said the freezing of US$372 million (Shs967 billion) in financial assistance to Uganda
has compromised the local governments ability to complete infrastructural projects.
However, the partners should channel the funds directly to the intended beneficiaries, the
leaders said during a public dialogue yesterday in Kampala.

Should the donors resume the funding, they should send the funds directly to the district
local governments, said Mr John Lorot, the regional chairperson of the Uganda Local
Governments Association.

He said they have lost faith in the OPM since it has mismanaged the $600 million (Shs1.5
trillion) purse Peace, Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP) meant to restore
infrastructure in 55 districts that were affected by the 20-year Lords Resistance Army
insurgency.

Mr Basil Cox Abaa Ezamah, the programme officer for Community Action for Rural
Development Strategy in Arua District, blamed the development partners for misdirecting
the financial assistance.

52
If the donors say they are not giving the money, it is fine, said MrEzamah. The donors are
the problem; when it is time for planning, they look at civil society as an enemy. But when it
comes to embezzlement, they ask civil society to help.

But Mr Patrick Okello Oryema, the Nwoya District chairperson, said districts under the
PRDP are now having problems completing some infrastructural projects because of a
shortage of funds.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

INTERPRETIVE REPORTING LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Headline: 5 years on, Local Service tax remains a pipe dream
Author: Edward Ssekika (ssekika@observer.ug)
Publication: The Observer
Date: March 31, 2013
Website: http://observer.ug/component/content/article?id=24513:5-years-on-local-
service-tax-remains-a-pipe-dream

Many local governments have tried, and miserably failed, to raise any meaningful revenue
from the Local Service tax (LST). So, does the tax serve any meaningful purpose five years
after it was introduced? EdwardSsekika has been talking to several leaders and finds that
this question draws a variety of passionate responses from local government authorities.

In July 2008, Parliament introduced the local service tax to replace the abolished graduated
tax. Many local governments applauded the initiative. Martin Mapenduzi Ojara, the Gulu
district chairman, who was a district councilor then, was one of the optimists. Ojara hoped
the new tax would plug the revenue hole in local governments and enable them [local
governments] finance their mandated operations.

The abolition of graduated tax in FY 2005/2006 heavily hurt revenue collection in local
governments, since the taxed used to contribute 80% of all district revenues.
"We welcomed the tax with a lot of expectations. I hoped it would end the local
government's financial stress," Ojara said in an interview, stressing that he hoped the tax
would greatly enhance local revenue generation in the district.

Local service tax and hotel taxes were introduced by the Local Governments (Amendment)
Act 2008 and were meant to plug the financial gap created by the graduated tax abolition.
The taxes that became operational on July 1, 2008 were meant to enhance local
governments' capacity to generate local revenues to be able to offer services to the people.
The Local Government (Amendment) Act 2008, provides that local service tax is levied on
salaries of employees after deducting Pay As You Earn (PAYE).

According to the Act, those eligible to pay the tax include; persons in gainful employment
(civil servants and those employed in the private sector), self-employed, practising
professionals, self-employed artisans, businesspeople and commercial farmers, among
others.

53
However, after five years, Ojara's expectations are fading. "I think local service tax has
failed to serve the purpose for which it was introduced," he says. Ojara says very little
revenue can be raised from the tax.
Abdulla Kiganda, the Gulu district Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), notes that in fact, in
many rural areas local revenue from local service tax is even negligible. Kiganda concurs
with Ojara on the effectiveness of the tax.

"I don't think it has taken off," Kiganda notes. He says weak implementation procedures,
too many exemptions and weak enforcement mechanisms are to blame for the lack of
effectiveness.

The amount of tax paid by a taxpayer depends on one's level of income. For instance, tax
collection guidelines issued by the Local Government Financial Commission in 2008
indicate that a person earning between Shs 100,000 and Shs 200,000 per month is
supposed to pay Shs 5,000 as local service tax annually, while one who earns between Shs
200,000 and Shs 300, 000 pays Shs 10,000.

However, persons earning a monthly salary of less than Shs 100,000 are exempt from
paying the tax together with members of the UPDF, police, prisons, unemployed persons,
petty traders and peasants. The tax is deducted directly from income just like PAYE and
NSSF deductions. Kiganda says although the act provided for a wide tax base, including
taxing farmers, traders, self-employed people and artisans, among others, these categories
were later exempted from paying the tax.

The act had stipulated that business persons with a turnover of over Shs 500,000 monthly
would also be eligible to pay Shs 5,000 in LST while those with a turnover of over Shs 10m
would pay Shs 100,000 annually.

Commercial farmers, who own more than five acres under crop, or own 20 exotic cows or
50 local cows, were initially eligible to pay the LST. Self-employed artisans were to pay
between Shs 10,000 and Shs 20,000.

"We received a circular that exempted commercial farmers and others from paying the
tax," Kiganda says. The bulk of the country's workforce is found in agriculture or in small
and informal enterprises which are difficult to tax. The rest, owners of shops, restaurants,
bars, furniture workshops, food vendors and garages are now exempted from the tax,
narrowing the revenue base.

This places primary school teachers and other persons who earn less than Shs 300,000
monthly as the bulk of taxpayers in rural areas at Shs 10,000 in LST tax annually.
"Currently, LST is paid mainly by teachers and other civil servants," Kiganda says.

Meager collections

Kiganda explains that all salaried people, even those employed in the private sector are
supposed to pay the tax, but compliance is low. He says it is mainly municipalities that have
54
many salaried people which are benefiting from LST. "Look at a rural sub county, how
many salaried people are there It is mainly primary school teachers. The money collected is
too little," he said.

"This money can't even help us to fund council sittings and meet our co-funding
obligations," he stressed. For instance, Kiganda says revenues from the local service tax
can't even fund 1% of the district budget.

At its inception, local service tax was expected to generate between Shs 67bn and Shs 80bn
annually from across the country, compared to the Shs 70bn generated from graduated tax.
However, not even a quarter of the projected revenue has been realized. The Local
Government Finance Commission 2011 annual report released in February 2012, noted
that the performance of LST continues to be poor with little revenue realized.

For instance, according to the report, in the 2008/2009 fiscal year, out of the projected Shs
80bn, local goverments were only able to collect Shs 3.8bn, while Shs 9bn was collected in
2009/2010 fiscal year.

"The introduction of the Local Service Tax and Local Government Hotel Tax, has not yet
made any recognizable impact," the report notes. "We are facing a big problem, local
governments are not able to perform," Kiganda said.

Though the Act makes it an offence for any person without lawful excuse, to neglect or fail
to pay the tax, Kiganda says there is a high level of non-compliance which is one of the
biggest hurdles affecting the efficacy of the tax.

Challenging tax

Betty Nambooze Bakireke, the shadow local government minister, notes that too many
exemptions have made LST a 'joke'. "It is confusing; almost everyone is exempted from this
tax. Apart from teachers and civil servants, I don't think there are people paying this tax,"
Nambooze said. The MP says she wants to do something about it.

"I'm going to move a motion in parliament either to have the local service tax abolished
completely because it has no impact or to put in place measures to improve it," Nambooze
stressed.

Nambooze says that in justifying the abolition of graduated tax, government campaigned
against all direct taxes as 'unjust and outdated'; so, imposing another direct tax is difficult.
"That is why government had to exempt many people because it would look like graduated
tax but in a different name," Namboze said.

The Local Government Finance Commission report 2011 also notes that the threshold (Shs
100,000) is still high, exempting a good number of prospective taxpayers from LST.
Kiganda also notes that the shortage of data on private sector employees makes
assessment very difficult.
55
Nambooze believes the LST is failing because it was born on a false foundation. How can
you tell how much a self-employed person earns? That [is] why they later had to exempt
many would-be taxpayers, she says, adding that some districts can't collect Shs 3m in LST.
Reforms

Ojara explains that abolishing graduated tax was cheap politics and a bad financial
judgment and, therefore, wants it re-introduced.

"We have already made a proposal to the central government through Uganda Local
Government Association to institute a viable tax where local governments can raise enough
revenue to extend services to the people," Ojara stressed.

According to Ojara, government should reintroduce graduated tax and come up with
creative and humane collection mechanisms. "The best thing to do is not to hide in
shortcuts but reintroduce graduated tax," he said.

Kiganda wants the act that introduced the tax amended to provide for an elaborate
mechanism of people employed in the private sector to pay the tax and also provide for
penalties for non-compliance. Nambooze notes that local governments play a fundamental
role in the implementation of national growth and poverty reduction strategies and,
therefore, needs sound financing.

This Observer feature is published in partnership with Panos Eastern Africa, with funding
from the European Union's Media for Democratic Governance and Accountability project.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Headline: Shs 2.3 billion swindled per month, investigators show
Author: Haggai Matsiko (hmatsiko@independent.co.ug)
Publication: The Independent
Date: July 18, 2014
Website: http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/9159-shs-23-billion-swindled-
per-month-investigators-show

Can the ministry of Finance stop the thieves?

Butaleja district in eastern Uganda always has some of the worst performing schools in
national primary and secondary level exams. In a recent report, the Butaleja District
Education Officer, Philips Kalyebi, blamed the poor results on the pupils. He said more than
40% of school-going age children miss school and go into rice farming, which is the
districts craze. New information, however, suggests that Kalyebi might have to find
another explanation.

An investigation by the ministry of Finance has found that, in fact, most schools in Butaleja
are non-existent. They are what are commonly called ghost schools.
56
These are fake schools; with fake pupils and teachers, that are deliberately created by a
racket of officials to swindle the government.

In the preliminary findings of the ministry of Finance Investigation, it was discovered that
about Shs30 billion is swindled each year.

Officials from the ministry of Education, Public Service, and local government are possibly
the main architects in a scam in which about Shs2.3 billion is stolen every month.
On average, a Primary school teacher earns Shs320, 000 a month, and a Secondary School
teacher, Shs500, 000. The money being stolen each month is enough to pay 5000 secondary
school teachers and 8000 in primary.

In all, the investigation has unearthed 221 ghost schools with registered pupils paid for by
the government, teachers earning salaries.

Butaleja district, with 78, has the highest number of ghost schools. It is closely followed by
Kayunga with 73 and Mubende with 37 among others. That is why the Butaleja DEO needs
to find another explanation for the districts poor performance together with the Minister
of Education, Jessica Alupo.

By the time of going into print, The Independent had failed to contact the DEO, Philips
Kalyebi. However, we succeeded in reaching the minister.

But Alupo declined to comment on the investigation findings and instead referred us to the
Permanent Secretary, whose known telephone numbers were not on.

When The Independent told Emmanuel Dombo, the MP for Bunyole County East in Butaleja
that his district had 78 ghost schools, he sounded shocked.

78 ghost schools, is that possible? Dombo said, I would like to first be sure of the figures
but if that is the case, it should be easy to trace and punish the culprits.
He is right.

Museveni warns

Ghosts have for long hogged into and crippled Ugandas budget.
On June 13 President YoweriMuseveni had a terse message for government officials: I will
not tolerate any further financial waste and the issue of ghosts must stop immediately.
Even before Musevenis public warning, ministry of Finance officials had already started
scouring the payrolls for ghosts.

With his bosses breathing down his neck, the Permanent Secretary/Secretary to the
Treasury, Keith Muhakanizi appears to have increased his pace.

57
Since the ministry of Education also carries out school, pupils and teachers census, officials
at the ministry of finance decided to compare the lists from the accounting officers and
those from the ministry of Education.

In most of the cases, the ministry of Education had more schools, pupils and teachers than
those submitted by the local governments, the findings show.

For instance, while the local governments submitted 10,037 schools, the ministry of
Educations school list exceeded this by 221 schools.

The findings also reveal a big variance between the number of pupils and students that
enrolled for Primary One and Senior One and those that sat Primary Seven and Senior Six.
In another case, the Accounting Officers submitted 5,442,547 as the number of enrolled
pupils, but the number of the ministry of Education is bigger than this by 402,957 pupils.
John Muwanga, the Auditor General after a review of UPE in 2013 indicated that the
government was losing billions of shillings to ghost pupils and teachers.

Poor districts like Butaleja have also been budgeting massively for the education sector.
According to Dombo, Shs8.4 billion of the Shs17 billion of 2013/2014 Butaleja district
budget was hogged by education.

Particularly, the Auditor General discovered, several registered pupils were missing
examinations yet government paid for their registration (PLE fees).
The findings by Finance reveal similar concerns.

For instance, while a total of 1,181,938 enrolled for Primary One, only 395,818 sat Primary
Leaving Examinations (PLE). This means that 66.5% of the students that enrolled for P.1
never made it to P.7 or that of every 100 students that enrolled for P.1, 67 never made it to
P.7. Where did they disappear?

While a case can be made for high school dropout rates in Uganda, officials say that this
discrepancy is best explained by ghosts.

Fake pupils

The officials say that while the racketeers could manage to create as many ghosts between
P.1 and P.6, they invariably had to drop them in P.7 because of the national exam; the
Primary Leaving Exam.

It is argued that while fake pupils could be created in distant districts like Butaleja between
P.1 and P.6, the documentation required for PLE candidates was too elaborate to be forged.
The impact of the ghosts, officials say, is that governments meagre resources have for
several years been splashed on the ghosts instead of real students, schools and teachers.
Last year, Ministry of Education bosses complained that while enrolment to primary
increased from 8,337,069 in 2012 to 8,390,674 in 2013 and that of the secondary, from

58
1,251,507 in 2012 to 1,257,378 in 2013, their budget had not changed much. They wanted
more money.

Instead, the Minister of Finance, Maria Kiwanuka, in the 2014/15 budget slashed the
Education ministry budget to Shs1.7 trillion from last years Shs1.8 trillion.
There has also been restlessness in the Education ministry with endless strikes by teachers
over pay and a host of other issues.

James Tweheyo, the General Secretary, Uganda National Teachers Union (UNATU), told The
Independent that it is clear now instead of allocating teachers to schools and paying them;
officials in the racket would create pseudo names, and pay them.

This would give an impression that the schools sealing for the teachers was full when in
actual sense, the teachers were non-existent, he says.

Tweheyo, a former Head Teacher of Nyakayojo Secondary School located in Mbarara,

western Uganda, says that the biggest problem was at the district level.

Personnel at the district level would hide the details such that the headmasters and
teachers would not see them and even the CAO (chief accounting officer of the district)
would not see them, he says.
These officials had become small gods, they would delete and reinstate. In some cases,
those who were very corrupt would demand a chunk of the arrears, if they were to
reinstate a teacher on the payroll.

In Kalangala district, for instance, the UNATU secretary general, Tweheyo says that while
1825 were on payroll as staff, after verification, it was discovered that Kalangala had less
than 600 workers. The same verification showed that story was the same as in Luuka and
Manafwa districts.

Some teachers also noted that politicians were conniving with the office of the DEO and
CAO to carry out incessant transfers. Transfers, UNATUs Tweheyo says, is one of the ways
through which officials create ghost teachers.

It is because of situations like these that you have some teachers spending years and years
without ever being part of the payroll, Tweheyo said.

As for ghost schools, Tweheyo believes that there is a possibility that the ministry of
education may have been spending this money on private schools.

Of course, this means that influential people able to finance their schools have using
money that should have been allocated to public schools, Tweheyo says, These issues are
at the heart of the poor performance and poor quality of public schools.

Muhakanizis reforms

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The findings are part of a process of reforms that Keith Muhakanizi, the Treasury Secretary
and his army of technocrats at the ministry of Finance embarked on last year to clean the
government payroll.

Maria Kiwanuka had told parliament in 2013 that the clean-up could save government up
to Shs70 billion that is lost in the irregularities on the payroll especially, the proliferation of
ghosts.

To reform the payroll, Muhakanizi and his technocrats chose to decentralise it and create a
new system all together called the Integrated Personnel Payroll System (IPPS).

The system was only rolled out this year. The switch from the old and flawed system to the
new one partly explains why thousands of civil servants have spent several months without
pay, the officials say.

Recently, Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga ordered a select committee of MPs to

investigate claims that an estimated 9,000 public sector employees had gone for months
without pay.

A 2012 special audit by the Auditor General on governments salaries and wages showed
that government had lost Shs34 billion due to irregularities in the payroll.
Another 2013 partial report by the Auditor General on the government payroll found and
recommended that over 8,000 ghost names be deleted from the government payroll. The
report was as a result of validation of only 34% of the payroll.

An August 2012 Commission of Inquiry Report into the mismanagement of funds under
UPE and USE report noted that ghost teachers and pupils were amongst the education
sector.

The commission found that some districts were deducting, inflating and sometimes
mismanaging money disbursed by the government and recommended that government
considers releasing UPE funds directly from Finance to the respective schools.

The failure to carry out regular inspection of all schools and compile quarterly reports
hampered ability to assess the compliance of schools with expenditure and other UPE
guidelines and financial accountability, a report by the Auditor General reported.

It is these findings that Treasury Secretary Keith Muhakanizi to attempt to clean up the
payroll by ensuring that responsibility for management and approval of the final payroll
and salary payments moves from the ministry of Public Service to accounting officers.
In his new reforms, Muhakanizi has also asked school head-teachers to file quarterly
reports.

Under the new system, the ministry of Public Service will still be responsible for
verification and generation of the preliminary payroll on the basis of pay change reports
submitted by local governments, Muhakanizi says.
60
But it is the accounting officers that will have the final authority to verify and effect
payment to individual bank accounts of the public servants.

In all this, the ministry of finance will only ensure adequate budgeting and issue payment
based on invoices generated and approved by accounting officers through the Integrated
Financial Management System (IFMS).

CAO on the spot

Apart from the new system, the ministry of finance has directed accounting officers to print
and display monthly payrolls on public notice boards for scrutiny. This is one of the
demands that teachers raised with governments.

In the new system, Muhakanizi ordered that each local governments accounting officer
compiles lists of pupils, teachers and schools in their area, and sends it to the ministry of
Public Service. The ministry of Public Service then forwards it back to the local government
accounting officers and the ministry of Finance at the same time.

Then the CAO also forwards them after verification to the ministry of Finance, which pay
through the Central Bank. Before money is wired to personal accounts, the accounting
officer must first certify and approve. In case of ghosts, they will be liable.

What the new system does in brief is that it rests final responsibility with the accounting
officers, which wasnt the case in the old system, an official at the ministry of finance said.
Apart from the new payroll system, teachers will also be receiving their pay slips and the
names of the workers will be published on the noticeboards of local governments.

However, even with this new system challenges remain. A June report by the Select
committee on Salary Anomalies in the Uganda Public Service found that the migration of
employee data on to the IPPS resulted into massive errors.

These errors, apart from explaining delayed payment, over and under payment of salaries
also led to the existence of ghosts on the payroll.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CONVENTIONAL REPORTING PARLIAMENT

Headline: Government tables Bill to outlaw miniskirts
Author: Yasiin Mugerwa (ymugerwa@ug.nationmedia.com)
Publication: Daily Monitor
Date: April 5, 2013
Website: http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Government-tables-Bill-to-
outlaw-miniskirts/-/688334/1739768/-/p77d82/-/index.html

61
The Bill defines pornography as any cultural practice, form of behaviour or form of
communication or speech or information or literature or publication in whole or publication
in part or news story.

Wearing of miniskirts could soon land one in jail or attract heavy fines if Parliament
approves a new piece of legislation that seeks to further clarify the offence of pornography
in Ugandas laws.

The government is riding on its view that pornography has become such an insidious
social problem to get the Bill through Parliament.

It also argues that because there has been an increase in pornographic materials in the
Ugandan mass media and nude dancing in the entertainment world, there is need to
establish a legal framework to regulate such vices.

In its current form, it is proposed that those found guilty of abetting pornography face a
fine of Shs10 million under the draft law titled: The Anti-Pornography Bill, 2011 or a jail
stint not exceeding 10 years, or both.

But the draft law ran into early turbulence in the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs
Committee yesterday after some members expressed concerns about its implications for
freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution.

MPs in the committee also criticised the governments attempts to legislate for sex, a course
of action which could see it labelling some age-old cultural practices as pornographic.

The Bill defines pornography as any cultural practice, form of behaviour or form of
communication or speech or information or literature or publication in whole or
publication in part or news story or entertainment or stage play or broadcast or music or
dance or art or graphic or picture or photography or video recording or leisure activity or
show or exhibition.

It also prohibits any combination of the preceding that depicts unclothed or under clothed
parts of the human body such as breasts, thighs, buttocks and genitalia, a person engaged in
explicit sexual activities or conduct; erotic behaviour intended to cause sexual excitement
and any indecent act or behaviour tending to corrupt morals.

Lawmakers said the Bills definition of pornography was too broad and that it went against
Ugandas tradition of being tolerant of cultural diversity.

Ethics Minister Simon Lokodo, who presented the proposed law backed by Deputy
Attorney General Fred Ruhindi, said the Bill was needed to protect women and children
against exploitation and curb the increasing immorality.

The need to put in place a law that prohibits pornography is necessitated by the dangers it
poses to moral fabric of the society, Rev Lokodo said, adding that the right to
62
entertainment and the right to broadcast or publish any material does not include the right
to engage in pornographic matters or obscene publication as they tend to corrupt public
morals.

The minister speaks about serious defects in existing laws which make it imperative for
new laws to stamp out pornography.

The right to entertainment and the right to broadcast or publish any material does not
include the right to engage or broadcast pornographic matters or obscene publication in so
far as they tend to offend or corrupt public morals, he states in the Bill.

The minister said one of the dangers of pornography is that it fuels sexual crimes against
women and children, including rape and child molestation.

While the Bill seeks to outlaw indecent dressing among other social behaviours deemed
pornographic under the legal parameters of the Bill, the lawmakers said the lack of
definition for what constitutes decent dressing makes the Bill awkward and asked the
government to stop curtailing freedoms in the country which could scare away tourists.

Responding to the members who expressed fears that the Bill might inhibit the sexual
behaviours of romantic spouses or couples, the minister said if the Bill is passed into law,
pornography will not include any act or behaviour between spouses or couples performed
in fulfillment of their conjugal rights and responsibilities, where such matters are strictly
private.

Also pardoned in the Bill are the teaching aides and other medical or scientific apparatus
approved by the minister responsible for education or health, for appropriate educational
purposes in schools, institutions, health centres or the public.

While some committee members urged that Section 166 of the Penal Code Act, Cap.120
already outlaws pornography, the minister said the Penal Code only caters for trafficking in
obscene publication yet the issue of pornography transcends publication.
Members, however, flatly rejected the ministers proposal to establish an Anti-Pornography
Committee, observing that the police would enforce the law.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

INTERPRETIVE REPORTING PARLIAMENT

Headline: Divided Parliament - Museveni can remove Kadaga
Author: Peter Nyanzi (pnyanzi@independent.co.ug)
Publication: The Independent
Date: October 18, 2013
Website: http://www.independent.co.ug/cover-story/8341-divided-parliament-
museveni-can-remove-kadaga

63
Since his election to the lofty position of Deputy Speaker of Parliament on May 19, 2011,
Jacob Oulanyah has rarely appeared on radio or TV talk shows. He has turned down almost
all invitations. But on Saturday Oct. 05, he made an unprecedented appearance on the no
holds-barred KFM radio talk show, Hard Talk. The following day, he was a panelist on the
late night show, Fourth Estate, on NTV.

As he answered some really hard questions on both shows, Oulanyahs presentation may
have given Ugandans their real first hand picture of the man, his office and indeed a
Parliament that has been under the spotlight.

Negative perception of Oulanyahs handling of parliamentary business has been growing

and appeared to have hit the ceiling when Opposition MP Ssemuju Nganda was on Oct.02
violently evicted from the House on his orders.

Oulanyah, while on the KFM radio, suggested that there could be foul play from Kadaga in
his being set up to appear as if he is the one being used to put Parliament under the
President Yoweri Musevenis armpits.

It is beginning to look like that and it is very unfortunate because for example among the
things that are cited is that I have mishandled the Mace, he said.

Oulanyah said claims that he is being used by Museveni are an insult.

To be used shows you dont have a brain of your own, you dont think, you are just a
machine that is programmed. I have a brain that works and works fairly well, he said.
There is no instance where anybody has ever called me that Oulanyah do this but that is
the perception everywhere.

Asked about his relationship with Kadaga, Oulanyah said he treats her like his mom.
But he insisted that Kadaga is not his supervisor, because the two offices are constitutional.
The Speaker apparently has no power to direct the decisions and actions of the Deputy
Speaker because, unlike a vice president, the office is constitutional and both have the same
job description.

Helen Kaweesa, the public relations director at Parliament, admitted there was a gap.
The Constitution and the Parliamentary Rules of Procedure, it appears, did not envisage a
sour working relationship between the Speaker and the Deputy.
Even the Parliamentary Commission; among whose functions is to exercise disciplinary
control over persons holding public office in Parliament, cannot be helpful as an arbiter
because it is chaired by the Speaker and deputised by the Deputy Speaker.

If the Deputy Speaker is not happy with his/her boss, he/she has no office to appeal to.
Asked about why he appears to handle the most controversial Bills, Oulanyah said Kadaga
always assigns him because he can handle.

It is a show of confidence in me, he said.

64
Since his public relations efforts on radio, TV, and the press, pundits say Oulanyah has re-
emerged more or less unscathed and evidently more energised.

Kadaga might have thought that Oulanyah would be disadvantaged by presiding over
controversial Bills but her habit of pushing the harder stuff into her Deputys in-tray
appears to be playing in his favour.

If the events of recent months are anything to go by, Oulanyah has emerged as a stronger
Speaker than Kadaga not necessarily in the eyes of the public but as far as the NRM is
concerned.

Added to his recent unprecedented decision to apologise on the floor of Parliament over
the Ssemuju incident, his maneuvers appear to have scored him more positive reviews.
Unfortunately, his improving image could complicate matters for Kadaga whose job,
observers say; Oulanyah is setting his eyes on.

By almost all accounts, the relationship between Kadaga and Oulanyah is less than collegial
and has been blamed for an alleged weakening of the institution they lead.

Bob Kasango, a top city lawyer and a director at The Independent Publications Ltd, told The
Independent that what is happening - especially the apparent NRMs preference for
Oulanyah - is bad for Parliament and the country.

He said the quality of legislation produced under Oulanyah would suffer and the public
would continue to lose confidence in the institution. He said already, Opposition and some
Independent MPs switch into offensive mode once they know that Oulanyah would be
chairing.

Oulanyah also switches into defensive mode, Kasango says. He said there is a danger that
the quality of debate would be compromised because moderate and reasonable voices
would either go silent or keep away from the House all together. That would be bad for the
country because laws passed in that form would not be easily enforceable, he says.

Musevenis choice

What is clear is that the gap between Kadaga and Oulanyah appears to symbolise the
struggle of Parliament for independence from Museveni.

Some observers have told The Independent that the apparent rift between Kadaga and
Oulanyah should be blamed on President YoweriMusevenis desire to totally control
Parliament. It is all part of his penchant for control, which Kadaga resents, and Oulanyah
appears ready to embrace.

Kadaga did not answer when The Independent sought her views about her style and
relationship with Oulanyah.
65
But those who have worked closely with Museveni say he detests what he calls paralysis
and more so when he cannot have his way, and saying no to him often invites reprisals.
Meanwhile, Ssemuju says Oulanyahs behavior can be explained by his desire to show
gratitude to Museveni for the favours bestowed upon him and an ambition to be given
Kadagas job one day.

Ssemuju at once describes Oulanyah as a tool of President Musevenis oppression and a

victim who needs our collective effort to liberate him.

Part of his problem is that he looks at the office of the Deputy Speaker as a reward from
[Museveni], Ssemuju says. He must forever be grateful as he aspires to dislodge Speaker
Rebecca Kadaga.

Analysts say Museveni has always shown that he does not need a strong Speaker or a
strong Parliament that will stand in his way.

At Oulanyahs wedding at Munyonyo on Jan 19, 2013, President Museveni, who also
donated a few cows to the couple, gave a stamp of approval of Oulanyah. He credited him
for his role in helping the NRM win back the Acholi sub-region from what he referred to as
a sectarian political class.

This is because in the 2011 general elections, Museveni won more votes in the region than
his opposition rivals for the first time since 1996.

Initially, we had a problem with a reactionary and sectarian political class in Acholi. But
with the help of people like Betty Bigombe, Oulanyah, and OkelloOryem, things have
changed, Museveni said.

Oulanyah, therefore, appears less dispensable to Museveni and the NRM than Kadaga.
Oulanyah would not mind running Musevenis errands because he does not have anything
to lose but everything to gain.

He is a Johnny-come-lately to the ruling party. When Museveni was fighting to capture

power in the 1980s in the jungles of Luwero, Oulanyahh was a white-shirted school boy at
St. Joseph College Layibi and Kololo Secondary School.
He entered politics barely 10 years ago in 2001 and moreover on an opposition UPC ticket
until 2006 when he crossed to NRM.

But even as a UPC MP, Oulanyah did good work for Museveni in the 7th Parliament when
he chaired the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee. The Committee, which largely
criticised for being a mere rubber stamp, was responsible for okaying the Bill that
amended the Constitution to scrap term limits, which gave President Museveni the leeway
to continue in power.

66
Oulanyah subsequently lost his Omoro County seat to his UPC rival but was never out of a
job. He eventually bounced back as an MP in 2011 thanks to the robust financial backing
by the NRM to help him beat his rival Simon ToolitAkecha with just over 1,900 votes.
He is also the only NRM MP among the four in Gulu District and was lucky to retain his seat
after a court petition almost overturned his victory.

To become a Deputy Speaker who is now exercising authority over diehard NRM
supporters including bush-war historicals is like a dream come true. Many pundits did not
expect him to wrestle the Deputy Speakership from NRM stalwarts such as Wilfred
Nuwagaba who had been widely tipped to take the job.

At just 48, Oulanyah is relatively a young man with a bigger portion of his political future
still ahead of him; so he knows that he has more to lose if he does not remain in the good
books of the NRM.

Oulanyah therefore knows that he owes his political career to President Museveni and
toeing the NRM line appears to be the most reasonable thing to do.

Even if he were to lose the Omoro County seat to the Opposition in the 2016 elections, he
knows he could be assured of a good job in the government.

Kadaga, on the other hand, is unlikely to lose her Kamuli District Women seat in
Parliament.

Her showing of more resolve in ensuring the independence of Parliament from Museveni
has been praised by some MPs and political observers. But it appears to be brewing trouble
for her.

Highly placed sources suggested that moves had been made to remove Kadaga from
Parliament and shunt her into the Judiciary as a Supreme Court Judge, but she did not
appear to show any interest.

The Speaker or Deputy Speaker can be removed with a petition of not less than one third of
signatures (120 members) and two thirds of votes in the plenary. Kadaga is aware that
Museveni can easily garner those votes. As a result, she possibly has to constantly look
over her shoulder because there is a precedent of a Speaker being removed from office
prematurely.
The late James Wapakhabulo, a man dubbed Ugandas best ever Speaker of Parliament, was
in 1998 dropped in the middle of his term.

Having steered the Constituent Assembly across the turbulent constitution-making waters,
Wapakhabulo was a natural choice for the role of Speaker when he was elected as MP in the
1996 general elections. Barely two years later in the job, he lost the Speakership and was
instead pushed to be National Political Commissar.

67
Pundits claim he was punished for being too principled, too balanced, and too fair in the
House, to the chagrin of the executive.

Only days before he died in early 2004, Wapakhabulo wrote to Museveni warning him
against his attempt to lift term limits from the Constitution so that he could remain in
power.

Wapakhabulo was replaced by Francis Ayume who did well for the NRM and was later
rewarded with an appointment as Attorney General.

Ayumes successor Edward Ssekandi also worked well for his party and was rewarded with
an appointment to the lofty office of Vice President which he occupies today.

Apart from the direct danger to Kadaga, Prof. Frederick Jjuuko, a professor of jurisprudence
at Makerere University, says her rift with Oulanyah and Museveni might hurt Parliament.
Jjuuko says Kadaga is selfishly more focused on keeping her personal record intact than
protecting the integrity of Parliament. He says Kadaga, as an individual, needs to be viewed
apart from her office.

The two are different, he said. The Office of the Speaker is a constitutional office and
must get more protection from the one who holds it. Unfortunately, it is Kadaga and not the
Office of the Speaker that is being protected.

He added, But the underlying problem is that the regime long ago switched into survival
mode and the reality is that President Musevenis government has no capacity to contribute
to democratic governance as its capacity to do so was exhausted many years ago.

Jjuuko said Parliament as an institution has been reduced to a group of personalities each
seeking his/her own interests and not the interests of Ugandans or the country at large.
Aaron Mukwaya, a Makerere University professor of political science, agrees and sees an
even bigger problem, which he calls de-instutionalisation of Parliament, the Office of the
Speaker and the office of the MP. He says this is a deliberate result of the ruling NRM
partys apparent objection to the existence of other strong and independent institutions.

What you have here is a Parliament that is supposed to be the voice of the people but has
become an omnibus of self-seekers to whom loyalty to Museveni is all that matters, he
said. Its beyond reclamation; what this country needs now is a re-awakening of national
consciousness to get new leadership.
However, despite all the goings on, Hellen Kaweesa, the Parliament spokesperson,
continues to dismiss claims that there is a rift between Kadaga and her Deputy.
She said they can and have always been able to resolve their issues amicably as mature
people.

Even Ofwono Opondo, the executive director of the Uganda Media Centre and a
government spokesman, continues to speak of a symbiotic relationship between
parliament and the executive.
68
But observers like Kasango say the various stakeholders Kadaga, Oulanyah, Chief Whips,
caucus chairpersons, the Leader of Government Business (Prime Minister) and Leader of
Opposition need to have more behind- the-scenes engagements to resolve the impasse.
Veteran legislator Cecilia Ogwal agrees and blames the situation on the character of leaders
this country has, adding that it is difficult to understand why for instance Prime Minister
Amama Mbabazi would find it easier to speak to the media about the Speaker than to have
a dialogue with her personally.

Ogwal says, however, the situation is not beyond redemption. But if Museveni continues to
make Parliament an extension of the Executive, Ugandans should only brace themselves
for the worst because even the government would not function properly as it should, and
the country would only sink deeper into despondency.

As Prof. Mukwaya told The Independent, in every democracy worth its name, the three arms
of the State must offer the checks and balances that enable the state to function properly.
The extent to which the Executive will allow that to happen is what remains to be seen.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING PARLIAMENT

Headline: MPs spend Shs 30bn on trips
Author: Sulaiman Kakaire (skakaire@observer.ug)
Publication: The Observer
Date: October 25, 2013
Website:http://observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=28211:mps
-spend-shs-30bn-on-trips&catid=78:topstories&Itemid=116

Sometime this year, a parliamentary committee received an invitation to attend a high-level

seminar in one of the European capitals. The event was to be over in a couple of hours.
But the idea of flying to Europe for a single-day event appeared difficult to sell to
parliamentary authorities. The MPs had to think hard.

By the time Parliament approved the trip, the MPs were to spend four days out there,
representing, among other things, a sharp rise in the allowances due to them. While we
cannot name the MPs involved for legal reasons, this case represents a simmering crisis of
integrity into which some MPs are plunging Parliament, with foreign trips being seen as a
chance for MPs to tour, shop, and make money.

And the figures show an unprecedented appetite for travel among MPs of the 9th
Parliament. In just three years, MPs will have travelled round the world at a cost of Shs
29.2bn, a sum arguably enough to give 7,400 lowest-paid Ugandan teachers a 20 per cent
pay rise raise for one year.

The Shs 29.2bn travel bill is Shs 7bn more than the Shs 22bn the eighth Parliament spent in
five years The Observer can reveal.

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According to ministry of Finance figures, the Shs 29.2bn includes Shs 9.8bn meant to be
spent this financial year on foreign travel and the Shs 9.9bn and 9.5bn spent in financial
years 2011/2012 and 2012/13, respectively.

Parliaments expenditure on travel abroad between 2006 and 2011 was always capped at
between Shs 4bn and Shs 5bn.

Whereas travel abroad is one way parliament executes its oversight and legislative roles,
there are concerns over whether the high expenditure is justified.

It is good for lawmakers to travel if they are benchmarking on a bill, investigating an issue
of public importance or going out to attend conferences for capacity building but we should
be cautious of how much we spend on it as an activity, says Mathias Mpuuga, the Masaka
municipality MP.

MPs get to travel abroad in two ways. One can be nominated by a committee to do work on
its behalf, or the speakers office can nominate MPs to attend foreign meetings to which
Ugandan MPs are invited.

MPs sanctioned to travel are facilitated by the Parliamentary Commission. Each financial
year, every committee of parliament is allocated at least Shs 400m for travel abroad while
the rest of the money is controlled by the speakers office.

Love for travel

The allure of foreign trips was brought into sharp focus last year, when the Kanungu
Woman MP Elizabeth Karungi complained to the speaker that she had not been selected for
any foreign trip yet some MPs were jet-setting all the time.

Committee chairpersons have since admitted that they come under a lot of pressure from
members begging for foreign trips.

For instance, some members on my committee were pushing the committee leadership to
sponsor their travel to the Ugandan North American Association convention yet it was
clear to them that this was not in line with our work, says Bunya West MP Vincent Bagiire,
vice chairperson of the committee on Information and Communications Technology.
He insists that his committee has continuously refused to bow to any pressure from
members.

If the chairperson is weak, they can succumb to the pressure; or at times if the chairperson
is one of the beneficiaries, then the travel component is abused, he said.

Speaker Rebecca Kadaga has in the past declined requests for travel from the Oil probe
committee due to insufficient funds. The committee wanted to travel to Angola and
Botswana to learn the best practices in the extractives sector. The call came just after
Parliament had passed two oil bills.
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There was no reason for the trip but you see people want to exploit the travel
opportunities as much as they can, said one member.

Money mint

So, what is it with travel? Some MPs admit that there is a lot more to this than the popular
appeal of airports and airplanes. For some, travelling abroad is a matter of survival, owing
to the allowances received.

I know of a colleague who gets less than Shs 3m a month, as most of the money is deducted
to clear [loans]. If he gets an opportunity to travel, it will be a boost, said Martin Wandera,
former Workers MP.

On each trip, an MP, who travels business class, gets a per diem of $520 (Shs 1.3m) per day
spent abroad, excluding other expenses. On average, a travel delegation spends at least
three days out of the country. A parliamentary staffer, who recently travelled with some
MPs to Asia, told us that some used the trip to do shopping.

In a four-day trip these two MPs only appeared for the official business on the last day,
said the official, who requested anonymity.

Wandera blames this on having a Parliament that is not fairly well exposed.
Some people have never travelled out of the country; so, they are excited and this puts the
speaker or committee chairpersons in some cases, under pressure because if one group
travels, those who dont will claim to be sidelined, he said.

Abuse of procedure

According to Rule 32 of the Parliament Rules of Procedure, a leader of a parliamentary

delegation or any member acting on his or her behalf, shall within 14 days after returning
to Uganda lay on table a report on the activities of the delegation.

Our investigation reveals that this rule is rarely complied with and where reports are made
they are not made within the prescribed time.

For instance, a report of the delegation to the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of
Nations and European Union Joint parliamentary assembly standing committee meetings
held in Brussels, Belgium in October 2011 was written and tabled in February, 2012.
Another, report on the gender responsive budgeting study tour to Rwanda on December 4,
2011, was written in 2012. No one was sanctioned for the delayed reports. Whereas Rule
32(2), provides that after the laying of a report under sub rule (1), the speaker may appoint
time for debate, the above two reports have never been debated as required by the rules.
Wandera argues that this abuse of procedure suggests that the travels are often
unimportant: If there was urgency, the reports would have been made in time but this
laxity explains it all.
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Cost of travels

And there is a cost to these travels mostly inefficiency in the House.

When these travels are not sanctioned based on their viability to Parliament we end up
denying useful business attention, says Mpuuga.

Mpuuga cites a case last year, when some MPs travelled to Nairobi for a football
tournament, when the House was considering the Petroleum Production Exploration and
Development Bill.
There was controversy on clause nine but the absence of some crucial members made the
executive carry the vote on the clause that gives ministers more powers in regard to issuing
and revoking of licences to oil companies, Mpuuga said.

Mpuuga believes attention in parliament should be focused on what happens in the

country, not abroad. Indications are that this is an unattractive option. The in-land travel
budget declined from Shs 3.1bn in 2009/10 to Shs 1.9bn in the financial year 2011/12.
This shows that Parliament travels less to find out what is happening in the country,
Mpuuga said.

Mpuuga argues that the current practice is going to complicate parliaments efforts at
criticising consumptive spending.

It is going to be hard for parliament to tell State House to cut its expenditure because of
the fact that you are doing the same, he said.

State House is going to spend Shs 15 billion on travel abroad this year.

The problem

According to an analyst attached to Parliaments Budget office, the root of the problem lies
in the Constitution which made Parliament self-accounting.

Unlike other government departments whose expenditure can be reviewed by Parliament,

the House is not reviewed by anyone, this officer said.

One senior clerk at Parliament concurs. This clerk says having politicians manage foreign
trips also leads to patronage, with MPs being careful not to disagree with those who
nominate them. This means, even within committees, an MPs intellectual autonomy can
get undermined.

The decentralization of travels has led to abuse because initially everything was managed
by the clerk who would only sanction a trip based on its value, the senior clerk says.
On the contrary, countries such as the UK have salary review bodies that check any
determination made by the legislature.

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Parliament speaks

Paul Wabwire, the deputy Clerk in charge of Parliament Affairs, admits that trips are
sometimes abused. This is why his office has directed all clerks to committees to ensure
that MPs follow the rules.

We have set up measures and in my communication to the clerks I did state that for any
travel, it has to be sanctioned by the speaker for members, and clerk to Parliament for staff
before any delegation leaves, Wabwire said, referring to an internal memo dated August
12, 2012.

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