Makerere Faculty of Computing Partners with UBA on Mobile Banking Project.

As the world continues to shape and shift to accommodate the capricious changes in the info-tech world, it seems so are our own local business, communities and now educational institutions.

Makerere University Faculty of Computing and IT [CIT] partnered with the new-to-Uganda Nigerian-owned United Bank of Africa [UBA] on a pilot project for a mobile banking model the bank is in the stages of rolling out. The bank willl give out 120 phone sim cards to the students participating in the pilot.

Joseph Arinaitwe, the head of E-Banking at UBA Uganda said "We think students are an integral part of the economy. Their creativity, time and the fact that they have money makes them an important part of it. We are stress testing this in order to advance the move towards a cashless economy."

The pilot is meant to stress-test (a phrase used to mean to test the strength, reliability and ability to withstand heavy traffic) the system. The pilot is a joint collaboration between UBA and Warid Telecom Uganda. Now in direct competition with MTN's Mobile Money, the project seems to be an effort to fast track the Ugandan market seemingly in preparation for the Seacom subterranean fibre optic cable's advent anticipated in June this year.All telecom service providers will be aiming to provide the latest, up-to-date services where all services for customers will be on their mobie phones.

The bank's plan is to have all the other phone networks eventually carry the service as part of their profiles, and as a service.

The project, which involves transfer of virtual funds from one phone to another, is hosted by a secure server process and is approved by the Central Bank of Uganda.

The faculty's Head of Corporate Relations Mr. Michael Niyitegeka was on hand to give introductory remarks and explain the need for students in their move towards advancement to embrace new technologies that would eventually ease daily life and their business transactions.

"Eventually we would like you to be able to do everything like pay for food, restaurants, groceries, clothes, school fees and dues with this virtual money", Mr. Arinaitwe added.

Now in all fairness, I don't mean to be bitter, or sadistic, but how do we expect this to work in a country where there is no guaranteed power supply, a corrupt central exchequer, and with a significant section living under poverty the line?

I can see the appeal that Orange Telecom saw in Uganda [a country with over half its population below the age of 15! are you kidding?! Just give it 5-10 years as these tots all grow into adults and teenagers and not all of them can live in towns or have formal jobs] but for the love of me I cant visualize why anyone would want Mobile banking available to the drunkest nation on earth!!

Innovation will be the key term of the day and who better to set the trend than the University students of today who are the future citizens and taxpayers of tomorrow. The same way they revolutiuonalized the consumption of mineral water in Uganda, but that's a story for another day.

Till then, Go Uganda!

E- Voting at Makerere University

The room is packed and the tension is high as girls line up to cast their votes for their different candidates. The candidates in turn throng the lines of voters reminding them constantly with little flyers and sweets and candies, more commonly known as “logistics”, to nudge voters to include their names on the list they, the voters, will be ticking. But this is no ordinary election. It is Makerere University’s very first election that is being conducted using the E-Voting System.

The online system that has the aspirants and their pictures entered into the system was built at the Makerere University faculty of Computing and IT (CIT) as part of the National Software Incubation Center’s first batch of projects to be incubated. After being turned out as project, the system has now turned into an application. It has seen its first daylight during the current SCR {senior Common Room} elections at the university and seems to be taking the pressure pretty well. The idea, according to Mr. Benon Jurua, the Chairman, Electoral Commission, was to make voting faster and easier while reducing the long queues that are so often a result of the slow ballot process.

Mr. Jurua Benon

“We see this system as an advantage because we are currently in the age of technology and no where is this technology more relevant as here. Even though it does not come with its challenges, this is a huge step in the nature of voting at the university. We hope that the other hall will cooperate to make the whole university process easier”, he said as he supervised elections at Mary Stuart Hall, at the University.

The system boasts of several advantages over the traditional ballot process. For one, it relies on the voter’s student number and because this is verified at the entrance by polling agents, it makes it nearly impossible for one person to vote twice unless they have two identity cards. The system then uses the student’s number on your identity card to generate n code, which then gives you access from any networked terminal in the voting area to the ballot paper. You tick the candidates of your choice and click VOTE and go. The whole process takes about 2-3 minutes.

With about 30 working terminals in the Mary Stuart Common Room, the place almost seems empty and yet the warden and the deputy Dean of Students for Makerere University both say the turn-up has been very high, unexpectedly so. Mrs. Buga Winifred, the Deputy Dean of Students said, “The voter turn out has been so low over the years because of the long lines, and the whole tallying process which sometimes goes on deep into the night. And there has been a constant worry and appeal about vote rigging and election malpractice. With this system we are hoping to attract people back to the polls to vote for the leaders they want.”

However because the system relies on electric power supply the constant load shedding has been a slight hindrance which Mr. Jurua Benon has been remedied by having a standby generator at all polling stations. The fact that the results are available within ten minutes of the conclusion of the voting process is perhaps the biggest relief this system will bring to the election landscape. But perhaps the biggest change is the sensitization process that must inevitably go into convincing the voters that the system is the way to go. Also perhaps more importantly but so often over looked, the fact that most students are not computer literate as the elections have shown.

There has been a lot of skepticism about the reliability of computer systems and while the system engineers at CIT led by Software Programmer and Developer Brian Kitaka have confidence in it, there seem to be mixed feelings about the infallibility of the system. So in the just conclude election the Voting processes, the system was used in the elections for the CIT student President; Mary Stuart, University Hall, Nkurumah, Nsibirwa, Africa, Livingstone, and Complex student halls of residence. It sis hoped that by the next election season, the system will be used in the Universiy Student Guild Elections.

Students using the E-Voting system in Mary Stuart.

Avenger Goats…

This is what Baz wrote.

Then I read this and I wondered why in life karma does not come to bite us in the arse. Literally.

Sudan man forced to 'marry' goat

A Sudanese man has been forced to take a goat as his "wife", after he was caught having sex with the animal.
The goat's owner, Mr. Alifi, said he surprised the man with his goat and took him to a council of elders.
They ordered the man, Mr. Tombe, to pay a dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars ($50) to Mr Alifi. "We have given him the goat, and as far as we know they are still together," he said.
Mr. Alifi, told the Juba Post newspaper that he heard a loud noise around midnight on 13 February and immediately rushed outside to find Mr Tombe with his goat.
"When I asked him: 'What are you doing there?', he fell off the back of the goat, so I captured and tied him up".
"They said I should not take him to the police, but rather let him pay a dowry for my goat because he used it as his wife," Mr Alifi told the newspaper.

*******

Moving swiftly on…

***********

In response there arose some strong sentiments about people marrying goats in Islamic societies, because if elders can allow such behaviors then it carries a pseudo-authority with it. In revenge for this behavior the goat kingdom sat down and had a meeting as to how to pursue reparations for arse damages {or if you want restitution} and to inflict a similar if not even greater amount of humiliation on the human race than the initial infraction.

So they laid a plan. It was perfect. It was flawless. It was impeccable.

They found the right man for the job. They would send in "Ze Russian"

He would know what to do. He would take care of business.

Targets were identified and locations and chronographs synchronized. Never again. Never again would they and their kind suffer such humiliation again.

And so at the appointed time and at the agreed hour the "Ze Russian", draped in white, strolled into the venue and walked over to his victim

…..

And…

…….

Now, now, don't get all finicky about this. It's all within reason. Right?

Our Women

I have had this long struggle between me and the women in my life. Mostly exes. And while I have ended up walking away from some, I have been wracked by the plight of a loving woman who has to let a man go in order to preserve her dignity, self respect and her female pride. The waning stature of men, the rise of a new generation of women, and hopefully the co-existence of both. I want to say here and now that this is perhaps my most inspired poem to date. Written and submitted to the Lantern Society of Poets. For people who inspire me like, Sexkitten; and Queen, who brings so much joy into my literary life. You are Strong Women. and You.

Our Women

Our women became the men they wished to marry.

Out in the land of desperation where the promise had been so bright,

Where the sun rose every day without ceasing, and our skin glistened a dark, luminous color in the sun,

There where Idi forced men to do things unspeakable, there where women saw untold horrors!

And there was great weeping in that land.

Twenty seven guns later

In that land, the men no longer are.

They left a long time ago…

Gone, like the cat to see the king.

They cower, talk in hushed tones in bars, and go home late.

So they never look into their sons’ eyes, and tell them of the value of an honest day’s work.

In that land they all worry about the gum -chewing Englishman, the Frenchman who loves young boys.

The men are all gone from this land.

Twenty seven guns and ten years later

The women looked at their land; saw no men and they were sad.

They searched and looked but the men were hard to find.

Embattled times. When terror brought a nation to its knees, a nation would send out a call for heroes.

But the men were hard to find. And it seemed like a nation might plunge into the abyss.

It seemed that all would be lost.

Twenty seven guns and twenty years later

And the darkness spread further in the land. But not for long because

When our motherland called for heroes, these women stood up to be counted .

Mothers, sisters, cousins, nieces, aunties. They all stood up.

When our motherland called for heroes, they were the fathers of the motherland.

When our motherland called for heroes, these women became the men they wished to marry.

To find the men, they would go. They would groom their sons. They would make them men.

And they raised a generation of Sons and Lovers. Of .... *sigh*

They raised daughters who worked and provided.

Daughters who counseled and handled business.

Who worked and earned and saved.

Women who went to university, and beat the men.

And who dated liberally and occasionally popped the question.

Who took the sick child to hospital, and paid the house bills.

And bought the meat in the house. They took on all these roles and more.

Our women became the men they wished they had married.