Pages

Tuesday, 3 March 2015

[amakurunamateka.com] Re: Rwanda: Un criminel nomme commissaire aux droits de l'homme au Rwanda

 


On Feb 28, 2015, at 5:38 PM, The Rwandan therwandan@ymail.com [Democracy_Human_Rights] <Democracy_Human_Rights@yahoogroupes.fr> wrote:

 

information niyo ahubwo yibeshye amatariki ibi avuga byabaye muri Mai 1994


Den Lørdag, 28. februar 2015 18.32 skrev "Joseph Twagira kayirebe@hotmail.com [Democracy_Human_Rights]" <Democracy_Human_Rights@yahoogroupes.fr>:


 
Ibi byerekana neza ko aba bantu bashakisha ibibi gusa batitaye no kureba niba bifite sens. 
 

To: Democracy_Human_Rights@yahoogroupes.fr
From: Democracy_Human_Rights@yahoogroupes.fr
Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2015 07:57:48 -0500
Subject: Re: *DHR* Rwanda: Un criminel nomme commissaire aux droits de l'homme au Rwanda

 
"Il est [Sam Kaka] aussi accusé d'avoir décimé plus de 2.000 personnes à KIGALI-NYANZA-KICUKIRO entre les 21 et 22 février 1994" (Charles Ndereyehe). Cette information est fausse.
Ismail

Le 28 février 2015 03:51, Theophile Umujyambere Habiyamb theohumu@yahoo.fr [Democracy_Human_Rights] <Democracy_Human_Rights@yahoogroupes.fr> a écrit :
 

UN CRIMINEL DE GUERRE PRESUME, NOMME COMMISSAIRE AUX DROITS DE L'HOMME AU RWANDA

février 24, 2015  
LE REGIME DU GENERAL KAGAME NOMME UN CRIMINEL DE GUERRE COMMISSAIRE AUX DROITS DE L'HOMME AU RWANDA
Le général Sam Kaka Kanyemera est Recherché par la justice française et espagnole pour des crimes contre l'humanité et des crimes de guerre commis au Rwanda entre 1990 et 1997. Il est accusé des crimes de guerre pour avoir décimé plus de 12.000 personnes.
Ce général du FPR vient d'être nommé commissaire aux droits de l'homme(CNDP/NCHR) selon un communiqué de presse du gouvernement de Paul Kagame du 13 février 2015.
Le général Sam Kaka Kanyemera a été le chef d'État-major de l'armée (RDF) et député à l'Assemblée nationale. Il a commis plusieurs crimes en décimant des populations dans différentes régions du Rwanda, dont les plus connus sont :
- Quand il était major et membre du Haut commandement du FPR, à la tête de l'Unité Alpha Mobile (Alpha Mobile Unit), il s'est rendu tristement célèbre dans les massacres des populations dans les préfectures Byumba et Ruhengeri ;
- Après avoir obtenu le grade de colonel, il est parmi ceux qui ont décimé la population de BUYOGA, KISARO, KINIHIRA et RUKORE-TUMBA de la préfecture de Byumba en avril 1994.
- Dans le même mois d'avril 1994, il a fait massacrer plus de 400 personnes au marché de Base dans la préfecture de Ruhengeri ;
- Il est aussi accusé d'avoir décimé plus de 2.000 personnes à KIGALI-NYANZA-KICUKIRO entre les 21 et 22 février 1994 ;
- Depuis le 9 avril 1994, il a continué les actes de massacres des populations civiles non armées de BUYOGA ; MUGAMBAZI et RUTONGO ;
- Au mois de Juin 1997, il est accusé d'avoir éliminé plus de 500 personnes dans les communes KINIGI, GATONDE, NDUSU, VUNGA, NYAMUTERA et CYERU dans la préfecture de Ruhengeri.
Telle est l'identité d'une personnalité à qui l'on a confié la protection des droits de l'homme au Rwanda. Tout ceci montre la vraie nature du régime dominé par le FPR qui piétine sans ménagements les droits de la personne humaine.
Fait à Bruxelles le 19/2/2015
Ndereyehe Karoli
Commissaire chargé de l'information des FDU-Inkingi



"Concerning nonviolence, it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks." Malcom X

Ensemble nous vaincrons
Theo







Envoyé par : The Rwandan <therwandan@ymail.com>
Répondre en mode Web Répondre à expéditeur Répondre à groupe Nouvelle discussion Toute la discussion (4)
.

__._,_.___

Posted by: Nzinink <nzinink@yahoo.com>
Reply via web post Reply to sender Reply to group Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1)
_____________________________________________________________
&quot;Ce dont jai le plus peur, cest des gens qui croient que, du jour  au lendemain, on peut prendre une société, lui tordre le cou et en faire une autre.&quot;
The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
.To post a message: amakurunamateka@yahoogroups.com; .To join: amakurunamateka-subscribe@yahoogroups.com; .To unsubscribe from this group,send an email to:
amakurunamateka-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
_____________________________________________________

More news:  http://www.amakurunamateka.com

https://www.facebook.com/amakurunamateka
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-SVP, considérer  environnement   avant toute  impression de  cet e-mail ou les pièces jointes.
======
-Please consider the environment before printing this email or any attachments.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-New International Scholarships opportunities: http://www.scholarshipsgate.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

.

__,_._,___

[amakurunamateka.com] Les massacres du Rwanda 20 ans plus tard. À la recherche de la vérité

 



On Tuesday, 3 March 2015, 17:40, "Jean Bakidihe bakidihe@yahoo.fr [Democracy_Human_Rights]" <Democracy_Human_Rights@yahoogroupes.fr> wrote:


 

L'anniversaire des massacres du Rwanda devrait être enfin l'occasion de revoir la version des faits partisane et mensongère que, bien souvent pour des raisons inavouables, l'on tente de nous imposer depuis 20 ans. J'ai participé à la mise sur pied du Tribunal international pour le Rwanda de 1995 à 1997 et depuis, je suis étonné de voir la facilité avec laquelle est acceptée une version qui devrait être critiquée très sévèrement. Il est impossible d'entreprendre de corriger ou de questionner ici toute la masse d'informations fausses que l'on nous assène ainsi. Je voudrais cependant indiquer quelques questions de fond que l'on devrait se poser à la lecture d'un texte au sujet des massacres du Rwanda.

Combien y a-t-il eu véritablement de victimes? 800 000 ou un million? Si l'auteur utilise un de ces chiffres, il faut s'inquiéter tout de suite : cela veut dire qu'il n'a fait que reprendre n'importe quoi sans rien vérifier ni critiquer. On ne connaît pas le nombre de victimes; personne n'a jamais pu l'établir. Depuis 20 ans, à tous ceux qui me mentionnent un chiffre à ce sujet, je demande méthodiquement d'où ils le tiennent. Il est impossible d'avoir une réponse.

La seule explication qui semble assez près de la réalité, c'est que, pendant les massacres, un employé de la Croix-Rouge internationale a fait un calcul approximatif des personnes disparues de son agglomération, Hutus et Tutsis confondus, puis il a fait une extrapolation pour l'ensemble du pays qui l'a amené à dire qu'il pourrait y avoir eu à ce moment-là environ 200 000 morts au Rwanda.

Quelques jours plus tard, le ministre des Affaires étrangères d'Allemagne affirmait qu'il y en avait 500 000. Personne n'a jamais pu savoir d'où il tenait ce chiffre. Puis, des ONG américaines –pour amener le gouvernement américain à parler de génocide, ce qui, en droit américain, l'aurait obligé à intervenir– ont commencé à affirmer qu'il y avait un million, non pas de disparus de toutes origines, mais un million de victimes tutsies.

En arrivant à Kigali un peu plus tard, je me suis mis à demander d'où venait ce chiffre; personne n'a jamais pu me répondre et beaucoup voyaient dans ma question un manque de respect pour les victimes et une expression de sympathie envers les génocidaires.

Je considérais, et je considère encore, que dans cette affaire, la vérité est déjà assez monstrueuse et terrible –une seule innocente victime est une victime de trop– et je craignais qu'en répétant n'importe quoi le Tribunal mette en jeu sa crédibilité.
On a fini par démontrer qu'il était absolument impossible qu'il y ait eu un million de victimes tutsies et on s'est alors rabattu sur le chiffre tout aussi fictif de 800 000. Rappelons que les experts estiment que la population du Rwanda était de 6 à 7,5 millions de personnes; les Tutsis constituaient de 10 à 15% de ce nombre... LIRE LA SUITE
 

Envoyé par : Jean Bakidihe <bakidihe@yahoo.fr>

__._,_.___

Posted by: Afrika Watch <afrikawatch@yahoo.com>
Reply via web post Reply to sender Reply to group Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1)
_____________________________________________________________
&quot;Ce dont jai le plus peur, cest des gens qui croient que, du jour  au lendemain, on peut prendre une société, lui tordre le cou et en faire une autre.&quot;
The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
.To post a message: amakurunamateka@yahoogroups.com; .To join: amakurunamateka-subscribe@yahoogroups.com; .To unsubscribe from this group,send an email to:
amakurunamateka-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
_____________________________________________________

More news:  http://www.amakurunamateka.com

https://www.facebook.com/amakurunamateka
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-SVP, considérer  environnement   avant toute  impression de  cet e-mail ou les pièces jointes.
======
-Please consider the environment before printing this email or any attachments.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-New International Scholarships opportunities: http://www.scholarshipsgate.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

.

__,_._,___

DE NOUVELLES OFFRES D'EMPLOI DISPONIBLES

DE NOUVELLES OFFRES D'EMPLOI DISPONIBLES

Link to EMPLOI ONG

Assistant(e) technique – Programme d’appui aux TPE – Territoires Palestiniens

Posted: 03 Mar 2015 05:49 AM PST

CONTEXTE   L'IECD est un organisme de solidarité internationale créée en 1988 qui met en œuvre des projets de développement socioéconomique en partenariat avec des institutions locales. L'IECD...

ceci est un extrait, Cliquez sur le titre en bleu pour lire l'intégralité de l'offre ou visitez organismes.org pour voir toutes les offres d'emplois

CONSEILLER MICRO CREDIT ADIE (H/F) – REIMS (51)

Posted: 03 Mar 2015 05:49 AM PST

Reconnue dʼutilité publique, l'Adie (Association pour le Droit à l'Initiative Economique) est une Institution de Micro Finance. Elle aide des personnes exclues du marché du travail et qui n'ont pas...

ceci est un extrait, Cliquez sur le titre en bleu pour lire l'intégralité de l'offre ou visitez organismes.org pour voir toutes les offres d'emplois

ALIMA – NIGER – COORDINATEUR DE PROJET

Posted: 03 Mar 2015 05:49 AM PST

ALIMA recrute un Coordinateur de Projet H/F pour son programme à Zinder au Niger. Pour visualiser le profil de poste, cliquez sur le lien ci-dessous:...

ceci est un extrait, Cliquez sur le titre en bleu pour lire l'intégralité de l'offre ou visitez organismes.org pour voir toutes les offres d'emplois

Field Coordinator

Posted: 03 Mar 2015 05:48 AM PST

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the...

ceci est un extrait, Cliquez sur le titre en bleu pour lire l'intégralité de l'offre ou visitez organismes.org pour voir toutes les offres d'emplois

Grants Coordinator

Posted: 03 Mar 2015 05:48 AM PST

Founded in 1933, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a leading international organization working in relief, rehabilitation, protection, post-conflict development, resettlement services and...

ceci est un extrait, Cliquez sur le titre en bleu pour lire l'intégralité de l'offre ou visitez organismes.org pour voir toutes les offres d'emplois

Ebola Response Consortium Surveillance Coordinator

Posted: 03 Mar 2015 05:44 AM PST

BACKGROUND: The International Rescue Committee, one of the world's largest humanitarian agencies, provides relief, rehabilitation and post-conflict reconstruction support to victims of natural...

ceci est un extrait, Cliquez sur le titre en bleu pour lire l'intégralité de l'offre ou visitez organismes.org pour voir toutes les offres d'emplois

Livelihoods Research and Communications Manager

Posted: 03 Mar 2015 05:44 AM PST

Background: The International Rescue Committee responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert...

ceci est un extrait, Cliquez sur le titre en bleu pour lire l'intégralité de l'offre ou visitez organismes.org pour voir toutes les offres d'emplois

UN ANIMATEUR SENSIBILISATION COURSE CONTRE LA FAIM – Nord / Pas de Calais (H/F)

Posted: 03 Mar 2015 05:44 AM PST

Nous recherchons pour le département de la Communication et du Développement: UN ANIMATEUR SENSIBILISATION COURSE CONTRE LA FAIM – Nord / Pas de Calais (H/F) Basé à Lille et déplacements en Nord /...

ceci est un extrait, Cliquez sur le titre en bleu pour lire l'intégralité de l'offre ou visitez organismes.org pour voir toutes les offres d'emplois

MdM Seeks a ADVOCACY COORDINATOR (M/F) for Palestinian Territories

Posted: 03 Mar 2015 05:43 AM PST

For more than 30 years, Médecins du Monde, a campaigning medical organisation committed to international solidarity, has been caring for the most vulnerable populations at home and abroad. It has...

ceci est un extrait, Cliquez sur le titre en bleu pour lire l'intégralité de l'offre ou visitez organismes.org pour voir toutes les offres d'emplois

UN RESPONSABLE PROGRAMME EAU, ASSAINISSEMENT ET HYGIENE (H/F) – HAITI

Posted: 03 Mar 2015 05:43 AM PST

Nous recherchons : UN RESPONSABLE PROGRAMME EAU, ASSAINISSEMENT ET HYGIENE (H/F)   Pays d'affectation: HAITI – Bombardopolis   Durée du contrat: 6 mois (renouvelable) à pourvoir à partir du 15...

ceci est un extrait, Cliquez sur le titre en bleu pour lire l'intégralité de l'offre ou visitez organismes.org pour voir toutes les offres d'emplois

[amakurunamateka.com] Fw: [AfricaRealities.com] open letter to president Kagame

 



On Tuesday, 3 March 2015, 16:20, "Afrika Watch afrikawatch@yahoo.com [AfricaRealities]" <AfricaRealities@yahoogroups.com> wrote:


 
Open letter to president Kagame

Dear Mr. president, 

I was listening to your encounter with the leaders of Rwanda in the 12th edition of The leadership retreat and I could not hold my urge to express my feelings to you, feelings I believe I share with many who listened to your remarks. It is worth it.

First of all, let me say that for many, the speech was a little unpredicted. We did not expect you to come on the leaders that harshly. It seems something or someone upset you severely in Paris. But that can happen. I too get cranky after long flights and you can imagine how crankier I might be when I ride commercial with numerous connections. If you might have been cranky in your private jet, I might be getting insane too! Anyways, back to my original thought. 

According to what I read on many article stories in papers you approve and disprove, RWANDANS liked what you said. They feel you were talking the truth in getting the leaders attention back and get them back to producing results. RWANDANS know many of them are useless and waste time and resources. 

However, I disagree. I did not like your approach because you blamed everybody else but yourself and I honestly believe that the number 1 blame should be on you. Yes your excellency, the blame is on you and let me elaborate that to you.

Primo, you pick them. You singlehandedly approve each and everyone of the most significant leaders. We all know nobody will nominate a minister and get them into the cabinet without your approval. If they fail, you ultimately fail too. When I suck at my job, the person who hired me gets the blame of making the wrong choice. It is how it goes in the real world, unless if you have your own world functioning differently. You see, some of the leaders you pick are mainly picked not because of their credentials but rather connections they have with you, your wife and family or other criteria like where they grew up, what language they speak and many many. It is known that people like Musoni James are as useless as they come but yet, you seem to switch him from office to office. Is he really that qualified? I doubt it. Any leader who may be qualified and yet criticizes you a bit get thrown out immediately. Last night you mentioned criticism and hopefully you may be about to change. We have been telling you that criticism is good but you seem to be allergic to it. Hopefully you will embrace that. You pick them, you get the blame.

Segundo. Mr. President, you have instilled a culture on praising and worshipping you that you tend to keep those who are good at that. Example, one of the longest serving Musa Fazil. He may be qualified but I bet if he was to screw up you would keep him won't you? He campaigns the first and is always singing your praises. 

You have this thing of showcasing fake results or results built on lies that eventually, you realize you have fake results and fake leaders. Why? Because reality and accountability seems to be hard to come by in Rwanda. All is good, Rwanda is clean, Internet this internet that but yet we lack electricity, the rural areas are in the dark ages and the only place that seem to step on modernity ladder is Kigali. Other cities are far behind and that difference also shows in the wealth distribution o the people. I think less than 1% owns and run 99% of the biggest resources of the country starting from you and crystal Ventures. You may think Rwanda is advancing but it runs on a few people's resources and when this happens, the risk is that if something was to happen to that wealth, the whole economy scrambles. 

You like to parade your achievements a lot and you forget the real issues. In Rwanda days for example. All that is discussed is positive this and amazing that and then everyone praises you but the question of students bursaries, teachers salaries and other big issues are looked at like trash. 

With this attitude, the leadership gets into the culture you built around them. No one sees reality. They all live in Utopia Rwanda so much they feel they can produce electricity with no water! That is a good one! I hear you want to get a rail way to Kigali. May I remind you that this may need enough electricity and electricity is produced with the use of water if you plan a hydro plant! Do not forget that.

Recently, I saw a statistic report that said that 9 out of 10 people are employed in Rwanda? Who comes up with this? Well,someone there who will like to please you. Wake up! 

I was glad yesterday you realize how bigot and idiot is to have Andrew Mwenda as your approved praising master. He comes up with all this statistics and then parades them all over. Really? How much does he get paid and expense paid for him? 

Thirdly, Mr president, you cannot be mad at the leaders you chose because they are all puppets. They are all leaders with no authority and autonomy to do a thing. You have spent the last decades building yourself and considering the power in your hands,Rwanda has no institutions to speak of and the leaders in those none existent institutions are as useless as the four walls they seat in all day. How do you expect People like Mayor Ndamage to do their job when you override the laws while fixing an issue while in fact they had tried to fix it legally? You are the everything in this country and this is as bad in short term for Rwanda as worse it will get in the long term. 

You see Mr. president, a well run country is like an aircraft. Aircrafts are design to have a high capacity of autonomy to run itself. The captain and first office are their to monitor the systems in place and to make sure all is running smoothly. When an aircraft is in high altitude cruising, it is set on auto pilot because the designer wanted to make sure the plane runs itself and on well designed and built system. Captain job is to steer it in difficult situations like landing, take off and turbulences. You should have done this with Rwanda. You should have built stronger, independent institutions able to run smoothly regardless of who is managing them. Now, if the institutions turns worse, you hold the new captain in charge because he must have done something wrong with the aircraft design and put people's lives at risk. 

But what you did is that you designed an aircraft that runs on you and you alone and confided the captains and their first officer in the back seat. How do you expect them to fly a such poorly designed systems.

Mr. President, you have to realize you will die at one point and that aircraft will drop from the sky as soon as you drop dead. Your legacy will then be erased. You better get to work now. Start from scratch to be honest. Built institutions based on the rule of law and get competent people to run them.

Otherwise, when you blame them, the finger is actually pointing towards you first. You are the biggest loser in the room. You are the supreme leader of losers and that makes you the supreme loser.

My regards to you and all Rwanda

Peace.

A concerned Rwandan

Envoyé par : gallican gasana <gallicangasana@yahoo.fr>


__._,_.___

Posted by: Afrika Watch <afrikawatch@yahoo.com>
Reply via web post Reply to sender Reply to group Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1)
_____________________________________________________________
&quot;Ce dont jai le plus peur, cest des gens qui croient que, du jour  au lendemain, on peut prendre une société, lui tordre le cou et en faire une autre.&quot;
The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
.To post a message: amakurunamateka@yahoogroups.com; .To join: amakurunamateka-subscribe@yahoogroups.com; .To unsubscribe from this group,send an email to:
amakurunamateka-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
_____________________________________________________

More news:  http://www.amakurunamateka.com

https://www.facebook.com/amakurunamateka
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-SVP, considérer  environnement   avant toute  impression de  cet e-mail ou les pièces jointes.
======
-Please consider the environment before printing this email or any attachments.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-New International Scholarships opportunities: http://www.scholarshipsgate.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

.

__,_._,___

[amakurunamateka.com] PhD crisis in Uganda’s private universities

 

·         PhD crisis in Uganda's private universities

Image credit: Jon Spaull

Speed read

·         As private universities expand in East Africa education standards may be falling
·         Regulatory failures and a scarcity of PhD-qualified staff are major problems
·         But private universities will likely play a big role in Africa's education revolution 
In 2013 all 66 doctorates awarded by Kampala International University in the previous two years were declared invalid by the Uganda National Council for Higher Education. The council said they did not meet required academic standards, forcing the university to stop awarding PhDs and investigate the problem. 

Private universities like Kampala International University (KIU) are mushrooming across East Africa. So was the slamming of these PhDs symptomatic of a large-scale dilution in academic quality as private sectoreducation expands? Or was it part of the inevitable learning process, as a new institution looks to compete with the more well-established public universities? 

The truth is probably a mixture of the two. Now a SciDev.Netinvestigation reveals questions not just over KIU's conduct but also the body purporting to regulate it. 
Private boom

The demand for higher education far outstrips supply in Africa's long-neglected public universities. For decades governments have focused on primary and secondary education, so there are more students than ever clamouring to enter higher education. With the public universities run-down, private ones have emerged to fill the void. Soon profit-focussed private universities will outnumber government-funded institutions in Africa. [1] 

In the East African Community there are 361 universities offering 4,700 higher education programmes. In the case of Uganda there was only the one university, Makerere, up until 1988. By 1998 this had risen to seven and by the end of 2014 there were 36 universities — all but eight of which were private. Uganda has long been seen as a centre of academic learning in East Africa, partly because of the good reputation of Makerere University and partly because its universities charge lower fees compared with neighbouring countries. Yet this rapid expansion of the private sector presents a region-wide challenge to governments: how to maintain quality in the higher education sector. 

That task falls to the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA), established in 1980 by the East African Community to coordinate the development of higher education and research in its member states of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda (since expanded to include Burundi and Rwanda).  

According to the council's executive secretary, Mayunga Nkunya, IUCEA was established "to guard against the devaluation of quality in higher education with this rapid expansion". 

It has tried to harmonise quality assurance across its member countries since 2006, yet currently only 105 of the region's 361 universities are signed to IUCEA. The council has proposed that membership be mandatory and is hoping this will be agreed later this year by the East African Community. It then plans to publish a register of all accredited programmes to act as a seal of approval for them. 
Uganda's academic scene

In Uganda private universities have also started to move into the postgraduate market, offering masters course and in a few cases PhDs. 

The country's National Council Higher Education was established by the government's universities and other tertiary institutions act of 2001 to ensure "excellence, access and relevance of Uganda's universities to national development". As one of the member countries' regulatory bodies it works in partnership with the IUCEA to assure quality in Uganda for all East African students. 

KIU is one of the largest private universities in Uganda, with around 10,000 students. Established in 2001, it quickly expanded and now has a second campus in Tanzania. Its expansion was so rapid it began offering unaccredited PhDs in humanities in 2007 — two years before the Uganda National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) gave it the right to do so in 2009.
 
Dissenting voices

Sarah Kyolaba is the graduate research and teaching coordinator for the College of Higher Degrees and Research at KIU. She is a product of the university, having obtained her first degree, masters and a PhD there. So perhaps it is unsurprisingly she is a proponent of private universities. 

Sarah Kyolaba. Credit: Jon Spaull
She says that for too long in Africa there has been a deliberate ploy amongst the older generation of academics to stymie the careers of younger ones, for fear of the competition they pose. She believes universities like KIU are gradually "washing away" this culture, challenging the notion that PhD holders should be in their fifties (the average age of PhD graduates in Uganda is 48) but rather, as in Europe, be predominantly young academics who still have the "guts to be productive". 

One of the criticisms often levelled at KIU and other private universities like it is that their PhDs are taught, with only a small research component. Kyolaba rejects this criticism. All KIU's doctoral students have to publish at least two articles in peer reviewed journals, she says. 

Nevertheless, eyebrows have been raised in Uganda's academic community at the sheer volume of PhDs that KIU is churning out. In 2011 — only its second year of awarding PhDs — KIU graduated 24 of them. In 2012 this increased to 42. How could a university this young produce a similar number of PhDs to Makerere, the country's oldest and most prestigious university? 

Like other African countries, Uganda has few PhD holders: only about 1,000. Fewer than 12 per cent of academic staff hold a doctorate. 

Given the scarcity of PhDs in Uganda, some academics question whether KIU has the requisite qualified staff to supervise that many PhD students. But Kyolaba says supervisors are drawn from other universities in Uganda and elsewhere, as well as retired academics who taught at Makerere. 

"When someone says that KIU produces low quality then I say that all universities in Uganda produce low quality — because these are the same people," she says. 
PhD post-mortem

In response to academic disquiet, NCHE set up a taskforce in 2013 to examine the 66 PhDs KIU awarded in 2011 and 2012. It ruled that all were substandard: eight needed minor corrections, 36 needed major revisions, and 22 were beyond revision. 

The taskforce was highly critical of the KIU processes and systems for regulating PhD quality. They discovered that seven of the PhD supervisors did not have PhDs themselves, while others held PhDs from universities not recognised by NCHE. It also criticised the high ratio of supervisors to students — in one case a supervisor tended 14 students — and found plagiarism and ill-conceived theses. 

Kyoloba does not accept all these findings, and she is angry about how NCHE has dealt with KIU in general. 

She says the council should have monitored the university and stepped in to rectify any perceived problems as they arose. 

You might also like

"When you give [a university] a charter you are supposed to monitor what they do," she says. "You should not just do a post mortem on someone who is already dead." 

She also accuses the NHCE of relying on academics from rival institutions to assess the papers. "There is an issue of rivalry between the universities … what do you expect?" she says. 

Her allegations aren't unfounded. The Council's executive director, John Opuda-Asibo, took up his position in 2013 after chairing the taskforce into KIU while he was acting vice-chancellor of Kyambogo University, the second largest public university after Makerere. 
Duplicate coursesHe sympathises with the view that NCHE failed in its duty to monitor and advise KIU whilst the students were studying, but argues that ultimately, as an autonomous institution, KIU must bring "itself out of that quagmire".  He says that it was not a lack of capacity but rather a failure to follow procedures that KIU itself had established that led to the substandard PhDs. 

Opuda-Asibo is keen to take a corrective, rather than punitive stance, and is pleased that KIU have not challenged NCHE's ruling, working with the Council to correct its mistakes.  The NCHE has since approved 22 of the 66 PhDs.  

Aside from dodgy PhDs, the IUCEA has another concern relating to East Africa's burgeoning private universities: the proliferation of unregulated courses on offer. 

Nkunya, IUCEA's executive secretary, cites the example of one university in the region that advertises 610 programmes, which he sees as far too many for a small university. He thinks many of these are 'duplicates' — similar courses designed to encourage students to study both of them — and wants countries to do more to regulate this. 

Ugandan law states that the NCHE must accredit higher education courses before they can be taught. But this hasn't deterred several universities from offering unaccredited courses. 

Two private universities have had their license to operate revoked by the NCHE for this: Fairland University in 2013 and Kayiwa International University in 2014. In October 2014 five universities, including Makerere, were reprimanded for teaching courses without applying for full accreditation from the NCHE. Students at Kyambogo University subsequently went on strike, fearful that their qualifications would not be recognised.  
Threat or "hiccup"?

Nkunya is not concerned by the expansion of private universities in itself, if they are properly regulated. 

His biggest concern is the scarcity of PhD-qualified academics in East Africa. In the short term the situation will worsen, he thinks, as the current generation of academics retires and the higher education sector continues to expand.  

This pressure is forcing universities to hire staff who are not properly qualified, and the demand for academics with PhDs results in moonlighting, as underpaid lecturers "roam from one university to another". As a result teaching and research are compromised as academics have no time for quality research, preparation, grading or interaction with students. 

Opuda-Asibo sees these problems as merely an inevitable "hiccup" in a sector still in its infancy. For him, it's no different from other countries who have experienced this same rapid expansion. 

He appreciates though, that before the NCHE can be truly effective in guiding the sector through its growing pains, it needs more resources. 

"We as a council are doing the right thing — but we could do better," he says, citing problems such as the NCHE's inadequate facilities and finances as obstacles. Currently the NHCE is working out of a premises owned by Kyambogo University. It has a workforce of just 40 and so has to hire consultants to help monitor universities across Uganda. 

Opuda-Asibo has no doubt that private universities are making an important contribution to expanding the quantity and quality of higher education in Uganda. 

If anything they are "rescuing the situation", he says. "Some of the private universities at undergraduate level are already doing better than public universities."  

He believes the NCHE just needs "to supervise them", and persuade them to adhere to the agreed quality assurance measures and separate academic management from the interests of private owners. 
To this end NHCE is reviewing and developing a minimum standard and framework for masters and PhD degrees for the Uganda's entire university system. 

Back at KIU, Kyolaba says once the remaining issues of the 66 PhDs have been resolved, the university will resume awarding doctorates, aiming to graduate between 20 and 30 a year. She has no doubt that KIU will one day overtake Makerere as the most prestigious university in Uganda.  

Whether this bold claim will be realised only time will tell. But if Africa is to deliver on ambitious PhD training targets — the World Bank has called for the continent to train 10,000 PhDs in the next ten years — then private universities may have to be part of the mix. They will need effective monitoring and regulation to ensure that dream is not jeopardised.
 
Additional reporting by Esther Nakkazi. 

This is part of the Africa's PhD Renaissance series funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. 

References

[1] The careers and producitivity of doctorate holders: Uganda report 2012(Uganda National Council for Science and technology, 2012)
[2] Wachira Kigotho New partnerships to support 10,000 new PhDs in Africa (University World News, 11 July 2014)  
 

__._,_.___

Posted by: Afrika Watch <afrikawatch@yahoo.com>
Reply via web post Reply to sender Reply to group Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1)
_____________________________________________________________
&quot;Ce dont jai le plus peur, cest des gens qui croient que, du jour  au lendemain, on peut prendre une société, lui tordre le cou et en faire une autre.&quot;
The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
.To post a message: amakurunamateka@yahoogroups.com; .To join: amakurunamateka-subscribe@yahoogroups.com; .To unsubscribe from this group,send an email to:
amakurunamateka-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
_____________________________________________________

More news:  http://www.amakurunamateka.com

https://www.facebook.com/amakurunamateka
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-SVP, considérer  environnement   avant toute  impression de  cet e-mail ou les pièces jointes.
======
-Please consider the environment before printing this email or any attachments.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-New International Scholarships opportunities: http://www.scholarshipsgate.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

.

__,_._,___

“Uwigize agatebo ayora ivi”. Ubutegetsi bukugira agatebo ukariyora uko bukeye n’uko bwije.

"Ce dont j’ai le plus peur, c’est des gens qui croient que, du jour au lendemain, on peut prendre une société, lui tordre le cou et en faire une autre."

“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”

“The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.”

“I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile."

KOMEZA USOME AMAKURU N'IBITEKEREZO BYA VUBA BYAGUCITSE:

RECOMMENCE

RECOMMENCE

1.Kumenya Amakuru n’amateka atabogamye ndetse n’Ibishobora Kukugiraho Ingaruka ni Uburenganzira Bwawe.

2.Kwisanzura mu Gutanga Ibitekerezo, Kurwanya Ubusumbane, Akarengane n’Ibindi Byose Bikubangamiye ni Uburenganzira Bwawe.