The Ugandan Convention in the UK is the only platform that has recognised the diversity of Uganda’s Kingdoms and the roles they play in the development of Uganda.
Every year, the Convention’s organising team reaches out to the various Kingdoms and offer them a free platform and exhibition facilities to reach out to investors and to the subjects of their Kingdoms in the Diaspora.
This year’s delegations attending the Convention will be from the Kingdoms of Busonga, Buganda and Bunyoro. They will be represented either by their partners in the Diaspora or from Uganda and they will use the platform to market and entice investors in their regions.
This year, Bunyoro-Kitara, under the theme “The New Bunyoro Kitara” will be introducing a broad investment thesis and why is it now time for Diasporas and investors to be exploring opportunities in the Bunyoro region.
Bunyoro Kitara is an ancient Kingdom in the Great Lakes region of Africa which, until 1985, was a state that only ceded its sovereignty with assistance to colonial occupation by Great Britain. Repressive colonial policies resulted in lost time for developing the area, despite vast resources. To date, the Kingdom has embarked on transformational activities targeted at the development of the people and areas in Bunyoro Kitara with the theme titled ‘The New Bunyoro-Kitara’.
The team will be exhibiting opportunities in some of the focused sectors like education which has the following gaps:
- The development of a University in Bunyoro Kitara
- Capital for setting up skills laboratories and workshops for vocational and technical training
- Training students in employment focused skills to increase their opportunities for employment
- Strengthening the capacity of the Kabalega Fund to increase the support to needy children. The current school dropout rates stand at an unacceptable 56%.
Other opportunities abound exist agri-business including:
- Continued education of the communities about the impact of having a safe environment.
- Development of a seedlings programme aimed to be affordable to the communities.
- Sensitise communities on having manageable families, due to population growth that has put pressure on the land
- Preserve and protect existing natural forests. The costs for protection at the moment are prohibitive.
Other investment opportunities are also available to improve tourist infrastructures in its current tourist’s sites, which includes Mparo the Kings’ rest place; Budongo forest, a gorilla site; The lake Albert rift valley; Murchison Park Falls; oil drilling sites; fishing village life; the Batembuzi and Bachwezi exit site ; Bigo bya Nyina mwiru caves; Kibiro salt site ; Bugambe tea estates ; Cultural dances and of course the lovely, friendly people of the Kingdom who are its best assets and Ambassadors.
In February, prominent American Civil Rights Organizations, including the Rainbow PUSH Coalition of which I am the founder and president, formed a coalition for the sole purpose of putting an end to the systemic racial injustice. The Coalition submitted four specific proposals to the World Bank president. Unfortunately, the president showed no interest in curing the systemic ills, promising instead to deal with the most visible symptoms such as the absence of Black managers. He would not even allow Blacks access to justice outside of the Bank’s handmaiden Tribunal that the Bank’s own confidential reports have found time and again unfit to adjudicate racial discrimination claims. During the month of July representatives of over 500 faith-based organizations signed a petition supporting the Coalition’s four proposals and demanding that the US government bring to bear its financial leverage to catalyze fundamental reforms.
As Justice for Blacks (a group consisting of current and former Black staff) noted, apart from infringing on the human rights of Africans, institutionalized racism in the World Bank denies African countries the contributions of their citizens in the Bank’s policy decisions that determine the destiny of their people. It would be unthinkable for the African presidents to ignore this issue. The Washington Summit is the right platform, as the convener himself is an American descendent of Africa.
