Governments agree to amend Kyoto Protocol in Doha

The first big meeting on climate change since last year's COP17 meeting held in Durban, South Africa, has ended in Bonn with governments agreeing to amend the Kyoto Protocol (KP) in the Doha, Qatar COP18 later this year. The Durban meeting had extended the life of the KP.

The Doha climate talks will try to push for the second commitment period of either 5 or 8 years. The talks will also decide on precise emission reduction commitments of industrialised countries that have obligations under the KP.

By Mubatsi Asinja Habati

See press release below.

PRESS RELEASE:  Bonn UN Climate Change meeting delivers progress on key
issues

(Bonn, 25 May 2012) – Meeting in Bonn for the first time after the historic
UN Climate Change Conference in Durban, governments made progress in
ensuring that this year's conference in Doha, at the end of 2012, can take
the next essential steps towards meeting the long-term challenge of climate
change.

Progress was made notably in the areas of preparing for the amendment of
the Kyoto Protocol; on building the institutions and infrastructure that
can benefit the poor and most vulnerable in developing countries; and on
paving the way for a new global climate agreement.

"Work at this session has been productive. Countries can now press on to
ensure elements are in place to adopt the Doha amendment to the Kyoto
Protocol. I am pleased to say that the Bonn meeting produced more clarity
on the Protocols's technical and legal details and options to enable a
smooth transition between the two commitment periods of the protocol,"
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive
Secretary Christiana Figueres said.

Climate change worries Uganda farmers

I spent 14 days of my annual leave in my late mother’s village, Kitumba B, in Kibaale district, some 230 km west of Kampala. Subsistence farming is the dominant economic activity in this part of Uganda. Perhaps the discovery of oil in the districts that neighbour Kibaale will change the economics of the land.  During my stay, I listened to and heard many farmers’ cries about the delayed rains and complaints that when the rains did come, they were too destructive.

According to these smallholder farmers, the traditional farming calendar they have followed for decades has been changing. Previously, they’d excitedly prepare the land between January and February to get ready for the mid March planting season  every year. March marked the first planting season and the second season would start in September. However, this year, as it has been a repeated case in the last 5years, there were no rains in March. In this community rains signal the commencement of the planting season.

 “We waited for the rains but they didn’t come throughout April,” says Deborah Katusiime, one of the farmers in this village. Famrers who closed their eyes and planted crops during that time in anticipation of rains, lost those seeds. Too bad! The rains started in May. This means a complete change in season and delayed harvest.

But as the crops had begun germinating and needed no more sunshine, the rains have not ceased and are pouring heavily. “We are worried the heavy rains will rot away the beans we have just weeded,” says Deborah. 

Just like any other rural community in Uganda, most of the people in this village did not access weather and climate-related information that would help them plan their agricultural activities and adapt to the changing climate. Without such information at the disposal of farmers, they are unable to know when to plant which crops that would adapt to the changing climate. But even then their adaptation is limited by low levels of technology.

The situation gets worrisome where available studies show that climate change threatens livelihoods and food security. “Higher temperatures, reduced rainfall and increased rainfall variability reduce crop yield and threaten food security in low income and agriculture-based economies. Thus, the impact of climate change is detrimental to countries that depend on agriculture as the main livelihood, many located in Tropical Africa,” reads part of a 2010 report by the Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy in Africa at the University of Pretoria.    

One of the explanations in the shift in the farmers’ previously known agricultural seasons in Kibaale lies in the indiscriminate cutting of trees. There are startling statistics from Uganda’s National Forestry Authority (NFA) that show the country continues to lose a big chunk of its forest cover due to deforestation. An audit by the Auditor General’s office shows that Uganda’s forest cover has reduced from the 2005 reduction figure of 24% to now 18%. Uganda loses 90,000 hectares of its 3.7 million hectares of forest cover annually. Kibaale district leads the pack. In 1990, Kibaale had about 114,000 hectares of forest cover with a population of about 220,300 people. But by 2005, its forest cover had fallen to about 58,300 hectares (48.8%) with a population of about 413, 000 people due to migration.

Every Ugandan need to play their part to restore and conserve the forestry sector since NFA says the biggest loss of forest cover is on private land.

By Mubatsi Asinja Habati

Attacks on Uganda journalists on rise?

The working environment for journalists based in Uganda is increasingly becoming riskier day by day. Hardly do we complete fortnight without receiving a registering an attack on journalists especially those practicing upcountry. If it is not some officers in the Uganda Police Force beating up journalists going about their business it is the rogue elements in society attacking journalists. Most of the harassment to Uganda’s journalists comes from security circles that work for government who have sometimes of accused journalists of being too critical of government activities.

Surprisingly those in positions of authority seem to be doing very little or nothing to protect the rights of journalists to execute their duties. In the latest case, on 20 May,  four journalists based in Mukono town, which is just 21km from Kampala City, were attacked by a group of “worshippers” from a church of a self-proclaimed born-again Pastor Samuel Landasa of Mount Lebanon Church.

 The journalists, who included Kalumba Ronald of WBS television, Paddy Nsobya of Bukedde Newspaper (Vision Group of Companies), Makumbi Joseph of the Red Pepper and Bbuule Moses Kizito of Bukedde radio, were attacked when they approached Pastor Landasa’s church to verify allegations that he had banished some critical members from the church when they accused him of illegally conducting church marriages and changing the church land title into his name.

Instead of responding to the journalists’ queries the Pastor allegedly mobilized a group of at least 10 youths from his church and set them against the journalists. Police arrested most of the youths who assaulted the journalists and has questioned Pastor Landasa over the incident. 

Human Rights Network for Journalists - Uganda (HRNJ-U), one of the organizations that defends the journalists rights condemned the attack and has dispersed its lawyers to help the assaulted journalists take up the matter in courts of law. “We want the perpetrators to face the law and also compensate the journalists if it is established that their gadgets were damaged” said HRNJ-Uganda lawyer Catherine Anite.

When Uganda women protested in bras: How did Uganda stoop so low?

The events leading up to demeaning arrest of opposition women’s league leader Ingrid Turinawe portend a worrying future for demonstrations in Uganda. On April 20, the members of the recently banned Activists for Change (A4C) formed a new pressure group called for God and my country (4GC) and Ingrid was one of the people at the launch. A4C is a political pressure group that has been at the centre of street protests in Kampala and other Uganda urban centres.

Ingrid was later arrested by police. During the arrest a man in police uniform was captured by cameras groping her breast in the name of arrest. This irked many women and human rights activists who condemned the act. They demanded an apology from the police.

Instead of apologizing the police kept a muted mood about the incident but only sent its junior spokesman to respond as public anger increased. The junior police officer made illogical statements claiming it was a female police officer who fondled Ingrid’s breast during the arrest. Was he suggesting it was okay for a policewoman to arrest a female suspect in such an embarrassing manner? Besides the camera footage shows it was a policeman who did the groping.

The public and women activists were not satisfied with the police statement and demanded to hear from the head of the police who happens to be an army general. Women threatened to demonstrate if they got no answers. 

After waiting for long, a group of about 10 women assembled at the Kampla central police station putting on skirts and with part of their breasts exposed but held together by bras. It was quite a scene. As expected the police arrested the half naked women. 

But the women had made their point that they are indeed disgusted with police brutality. Breasts are a private affair and when a woman chooses to expose them in public it is a pointer of disillusionment. In God Bits of Wood, a novel by Sembene Ousmane, women put up a spirited fight against the colonialists and their agents after their husbands had been rounded up by the colonial police. Could this be a parallel? 

The shameful arrest of Ingrid is not the first. In 2008, the same police nearly undressed Nabila Sempala, a female opposition legislator as they arrested her. The culprits have never been brought to book.

Some of the women protesting police brutal arrest of their colleague (Daily Monitor photo)

Since the A4C led Walk to Work protests the Uganda police has continued to be brutal in breaking up demonstrations. The police have even made it a point to attack journalists covering demonstrations. The common joke in my newsroom is that the police head Lt. Gen. Kale Kayihura is seemingly a chaotic man and that if he was brought to manage our newsroom fights would break out where they never existed.

While serving in the special revenue protection unit, a military outfit that fought smuggling in the country, Kayihura was the main man at the chaotic unit. Some commentators say the same character is now being exhibited the police force he heads. The Uganda police has to work fast to redeem its image and its relations with the citizens before the situation gets out of hand.

In all these circumstances, President Museveni, who has ruled Uganda for the last 25 years, praises his police chief as the best and doing a good job. At one point last year Museveni said Kayihura was a good cadre. Kayihura was with Museveni in the bush war that brought the President to power.Yet this is a leader of police force that is supposed to serve all Ugandans irrespective of political affiliations.

 By Mubatsi Asinja Habati