Saturday, August 12, 2017

WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF ELECTRIC CARS IN UGANDA AND AFRICA


electric cars , green mobilty, kiira ev, kayola solar bus What is the future of Electric Cars in Uganda and Africa? When Engineers at Kiira Motors Corporation, (KMC) unveiled electric concept vehicles the Kiira EV and the Kayoola Solar Bus the first of the kind on the African continent not many predicated that electric cars are taking center stage in the automotive industry across the globe. Renowned carmaker Volvo has since announced that all its new models will have an electric motor from 2019. The Chinese-owned firm, best known for its emphasis on driver safety, has become the first traditional carmaker to signal the end of the internal combustion engine as we have come to know it. It plans to launch five fully electric models between 2019 and 2021 and a range of hybrid models. It is also not a secret that Kiira Motors Corporation also have a hybrid model, the Kiira Smack on their concept innovations display. Geely, Volvo's Chinese owner, has been quietly pushing ahead with electric car development for more than a decade.It now aims to sell one million electric cars by 2025. International Automotive Industry commentators state that Volvo's announcement is a direct reflection of where the auto industry is headed. Early this month, US-based electric car firm Tesla announced that it will start deliveries of its first mass-market car, the Model 3, at the end of the month. Elon Musk, Tesla's founder, said the company was on track to make 20,000 Model 3 cars a month by December.His company's rise has upset the traditional power balance of the US car industry. Tesla, which makes no profits, now has a stock market value of $58bn, nearly one-quarter higher than that of Ford, one of the Detroit giants that has dominated the automotive scene for more than a century. And when the boss of Europe’s biggest listed oil company says his next car will be electric, it says a lot about the future of fossil fuels. So the question then is what is the future of electric cars in Uganda and the African continent in general. Future of electric cars in Uganda and Africa The Chief Executive Officer, of Kiira Motors Corporation (KMC), the winners of the prestigious , 2016 Frost & Sullivan Award for Visionary Innovation Leadership, Mr. Paul Isaac Musasizi , has offered some interesting insights about the future of electric cars in Uganda and the African Continent. Mr. Musasizi says that the solution to rising trends in urban pollution due to mobility technology is to go for electric public mobility technology, “Electric Buses for Urban Public Transport”. Musasizi refers to key statistics from several analysts which highlight that with the used vehicle imports representing over 85% the annual stock of vehicles registered annually in Uganda at an average age of 16 years at registration, it is not surprising that these end-of-life vehicles contribute to the declining national fuel efficiency and transport-based carbon emission which rose to 13.7L/100km and 0.5kg/km in 2014 respectively. Musasizi further observes that with the import value of vehicles and vehicle parts rising from USD 89.7 Million in 2000 to USD 550 Million in 2015, the industry requires key reforms aimed at cultivating domestic value addition and strategic focus on green mobility especially for urban mass transportation. Musasizi’s views are echoed by Royal Dutch Shell Plc , Chief Executive Officer Ben Van Beurden who recently noted that the whole move to electrify mobility in Europe, china and the United States was good to protect the environment and ensure sustainable development for the present and future generations . Because of the importance Shell attaches to environment conservation , Van Beurden will switch from a diesel car to a plug-in Mercedes-Benz S500e in September 2017. The United Kingdom said it will ban sales of diesel- and gasoline-fueled cars by 2040, two weeks after France announced a similar plan to reduce air pollution and meet targets to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Kiira Motors Corporation the pioneers of the green (clean energy) mobility technologies in Uganda , East Africa region and the African continent last year won the prestigious Frost & Sullivan Award for Visionary Innovation Leadership. Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to a company that has demonstrated the ability to understand and leverage global Mega Trends, integrating this vision into processes to achieve strategic excellence. According to Frost and Sullivan, Kiira Motor’s vision extends far beyond that of standard vehicle manufacturing processes. ‘ ‘Its sustainable mobility solutions provide massive opportunity for vehicle development and commercialisation in a country that is lagging behind in African and global automotive indices.’’ The focus on developing sustainable electric, hybrid, and solar vehicles will allow KMC to capture the leadership position in an uncontested market space,” said Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst ZiyaadHanware.

WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF ELECTRIC CARS IN UGANDA AND AFRICA

Friday, August 4, 2017

THE NEW LAND LAW IS RECIPE FOR ECONOMIC TRAGEDY

THE NEW LAND LAW IS RECIPE FOR ECONOMIC TRAGEDY

When Parliament recommended radical changes to our land law in 2007,exactly 10 years ago,  I wrote this article in my Column The other Side of The Law, which was published by the Daily Monitor for five  years . I'm glad to reproduce it given the on going  debate about the government Land amendment Bill  2017 and the the Land Inquiry Commission headed by Lady Justice Catherine Bamugemereire.

This and many other articles on topical legal issues can also be found on my blog: msserwanga.blogspot.com.

The parliamentary joint committee appointed to handle the Land (Amendment) Bill 2007 has once again succumbed to pressure from the executive arm of government and recommended that the controversial changes to the land law be enacted in total disregard of public opinion.

Whatever the mischief the new amendments are intended to cure, the entire process of protecting the rights of ‘squatters’ has been flawed in a sense that no national consultations were carried out to rally Ugandans to support the new legislation. It’s ironical and illogical that the legislators could have the audacity to recommend that the amendments be passed into law and then national consultations be held later. Of what purpose will these ‘consultations’ serve when Parliament has already pronounced itself on the matter?

The machinations by the state to do as it pleases, without taking into consideration the opinions/views of the stakeholders, are a clear manifestation of leaders who are out of touch with the people they lead. In a recent survey commissioned by Monitor Publications Ltd (MPL) and carried out by a reputable research organisation, the Steadman Group, it transpired that six out of every 10 Ugandans are not satisfied with the government’s approach to solve the land problems in the country.

The polls showed that 66 per cent of Ugandans are disenchanted with President Museveni’s management of land issues. And this is besides the fact that knowledgeable and independent interest groups like the Uganda Land Alliance , Uganda Human Rights Commission and the Uganda Bankers Association are all opposed to the amendments and have since called for nation-wide consultations to be conducted before the law is amended.

It’s clear that the amendments will face serious legal challenges because they are basically creating competing rights of ownership of land– which is an important factor of production. With the peasants pitted against the landlords, land will unfortunately be rendered a non-saleable commodity.

The bankers have already, and rightly so, warned that the controversial land amendments being forced onto the people will close the market for mortgages and loans from which banks depend for most of their business. With a struggling economy and land prices going through the roof, people can only own a piece of land by acquiring mortgages through their bankers. But this cannot be possible when in the market, you don’t have a clear legally recognised owner of the land!

And this is not to argue that citizens should be evicted from their land illegally. The existing law has sufficient safeguards against illegal land evictions. The peasants, the majority of whom are squatters or settlers on vast chunks of land, already have their rights protected by the constitution.

The constitution provides for the protection of the land rights of the registered land owners (landlords) and those with equitable or secondary interests in land like the tenants by occupancy or bibanja holders , the bona fide occupants (people who have lived on any given piece of land unchallenged for more than 12 years before the coming into effect of the 1995 constitution) and lawful occupants (those who settled on land with the consent of the registered owner by virtue of the Busuulu and Nvujjo law of 1928). The provisions of the constitution are reinforced by the enabling law, the Land Act.

This column has stated in the past and repeats now that there is no serious lacuna (gap) in our land legal regime. The major problem is the poor implementation of the law and politicisation of the land conflicts across the country.

Securing lasting legal rights for the peasants/squatters can only be realised through purchase and subsequent transfer of title from the registered land owners to the buyers who in this case can be the peasants. The government should put in place a land fund to enable the peasants buy land and thus secure their land rights. Artificial legislation shall be successfully challenged in court and we shall be back to square one!

The writer is  Media and Communications Consultant/Trainer
and Adocate of The High Court of Uganda .
msserwanga@gmail.co.ug