The impression is, once again, being created in the countryside that those questioning the imposition of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) in Uganda are ‘sabotaging government programmes’.

I personally fell victim of this dishonesty in 2013 when I was harassed and insulted by MPs in the parliamentary committee on science and technology. Together with a team of National Agricultural Research Organisation  ‘scientists’, they sent a letter to my employer, Makerere University, accusing me of “sabotaging government programmes” and asked the university to “discipline” me!

It should be noted that I accepted the risks to my job, life, family and dependants because they were and are still worth the effort. The scientists being used to impose GMOs in Uganda have interests to protect the scholarships where their minds got indoctrinated and intoxicated.

The jobs, research grants, salaries and allowances that now mean everything to this new breed of scientists mean that theirs is a battle for their personal survival.

However, who should pay the price for the risks GMOs pose to human, plant, animal and environmental health?

A 2014 joint study by the US Department for Agriculture (USDA), Centres for Disease Control  and Prevention(CDC) and health institutions in USA revealed that cancers, kidney diseases, infertility, etc, started escalating in the mid-1990s (when GMOs were commercialised), approaching explosive levels in late 2000. When all potential causal factors were considered, only one variable stood out: exposure to agro-toxins.

Almost 97 per cent of GMOs are plants that have been engineered to either manufacture their own pesticides or bio-accumulate the pesticides they are sprayed with to control weeds. Either way, the result is elevated levels of pesticides in food so that the food is no longer food but pesticides!

The wealth of independent scientific enquiry into the risks of GMOs has piled up and the scientists who have published them have been isolated, persecuted and penalised, like through loss of their jobs.

When science degenerates to a level where it is departmentalised and forced on its intended beneficiaries and there is no one to stand in its way and pay the price, it is society that is doomed!

Government cannot afford to watch when its name is used to force dangerous technologies on our farmers for the ultimate survival of the promoters.

Giregon Olupot,
Makerere University.

Sort out licensing issues before term begins

It is just few days to the opening of schools. Unfortunately, many private schools are not authorized to open for the new term.

The ministry recently cautioned some unlicensed private schools. Some schools were found with unqualified teachers, poor sanitation, poor buildings and poor feeding of children. This means that thousands of learners may not be able to study due to lack of schools which are near their homes.

But why do schools operate without a license? We have heard about unplanned school buildings falling and killing/injuring children.

Private school owners should not wait for their schools to be closed to put their houses to order. Employing unqualified teachers is like moving in the night without light.

I cannot expect to get doctors, journalists, lawyers, social workers and others professionals yet the one who trains them is unqualified.

Many private school owners have put more focus on getting more children, but not on what children get. It is not good to close a school but it is the best way to prevent our children from dying, getting injured or getting poor services.

David Serumaga,
Kampala.

Justify the high school fees

On January 29, 2017, I watched NBS TV news anchor Shawn Kimuli interview a school administrator who tried to justify the escalating school fees, among other new practices that have cropped up in Uganda’s education system.

For example, a new trend has emerged where many Ugandan schools make parents pay school supplies on top of the already-hiked school fees!

Students are now required to report to school with exercise books, brooms, bags of cement, paint, wire mesh, etc, even when ordinarily such items should be provided by the school administration!

Defending this practice, the school administrator gave the weak excuse that students at this age are “destructive”, hence it is necessary for parents to supply the schools with these extra items.

Isn’t it the school’s responsibility to enforce discipline?

This practice should be outlawed by the ministry of education, to end the exploitation of parents. The ministry should, for example, establish a standard school fees structure, thereby making education affordable for all.

Otherwise, only the children of the rich will end up being educated and the less-fortunate will end up becoming school dropouts!

Josepha Jabo,
Uganda Media Centre.

Museveni should step down

After taunting Ugandans that he is neither their servant nor employee, constitutionally, Mr Yoweri Museveni has publicly abdicated his political responsibility and/or accountability to Ugandans.

He should, therefore, do Ugandans a favour and honourably vacate State House, and his name be deleted from the payroll, so that Ugandans look for someone who will serve and work in their interest.

Unless Museveni is an untouchable gangster, he occupies State House as an employee and servant of Ugandans.

Raymond Otika,
otikaraymond@gmail.com.

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