Exercise your way to painless menses

Exercising during menstruation period reduces the pain of menstrual cramps.  

In Summary

Health benefits. Experts say exercises help the brain release endorphins hormones which act as natural pain killers.

It’s that time of the month again and the all too familiar pains are at it again. You have popped the painkillers and are gripping that hot water bottle for dear life, but all your efforts are in vain. Exercising could be the only and healthier choice left to alleviate the dysmenorrhea (painful menstruation). Menstruation pains are caused when the uterus is trying to expel blood, the sensation is like mini-labour contractions, explains Dr Peter Isagara, a gynecologist at Kiboga Hospital.

At times pain transpires when the muscular wall of the uterus contracts and presses against blood vessels, briefly cutting off oxygen supply hence triggering pain. The excruciating spasms that affect the lower abdomen and sometimes spreading to the lower back and the thighs is as familiar as walking to most women. However, the level of pain and symptoms varies from woman to woman. One in three women at some point face severe cramps during what you would call the monthly nightmare.

With the tender body and irritable mood, you may not feel as enthusiastic to get out of bed. But getting on your feet and breaking a sweat could be the end of your misery. According to Dr Isagara, exercises help the brain release endorphins hormones, what he refers to as natural pain killers. These happy hormones relieve the pain and burn the posta glands that are causing the contractions. The best exercises to get your heart rate up are aerobics. Aerobics excite the blood circulation, expelling all the blocks of blood that cause the pain to flow out of the body, as explained by Hanifah Moneero, an instructor at Indulge Maternity Spa and Gym.

Other recommended vigorous exercises to incorporate in your routine are squats, wide angle seated pose and skipping. These will keep rocking your pelvic encouraging the blood circulation. Moneero clarifies that after a workout, the flow of blood is very heavy. That is why she emphasises hydration during these routines, remarking that a hot cup of tea or plain room temperature water as the best beverages.

Going for a 15-minute jog could also help you break a sweat.
The problem with jogging is by the time you realise you are not cut out for it, it is too far back a distance to walk during this moody period. But walking isn’t such a bad idea either, it is better than curling up like a ball in bed. Walking briskly will also stimulate your circulation without making you too tired.

editorial@ug.nationmedia.com

Barbeque king earning big

Collin Muhumuza started roasting meat after his Senior Six. Photo by Rachael Ajwang 

In Summary

Inspiration. A final year student of Bachelor of Business Administration – Marketing at Uganda Christian University, Mukono, Collin Muhumuza was inspired by his grandfather’s roasting meat prowess and through barbecue he has started Eazy Lyne services, an events company.

Sweet and tender, or sometimes lean but well-seasoned, that is the kind of taste and textual quality Collin Muhumuza desires in any meat that meets his tongue.
But looking at the bespectacled 23-year-old behind the barbeque roaster—casually dressed, on his eyes, you cannot imagine that Muhumuza even knows the ABCs of meat. But when you observe him longer, noticing his admirable dexterity of hand and his undeterred attention to the meat before him, you can almost guess that he is no stranger to the art of barbeque. And indeed, as he would later let out, the barbeque roaster is his playing field.
A final year student of Bachelor of Business Admnistration – Marketing at Uganda Christian University, Mukono – Kampala campus, Muhumuza is the mastermind behind Eazy Lyne services, a diverse service company.
The pride he has in his still-growing company is very evident, as he reveals, building such a company had for a long time been his dream.
“I wanted to build an events one-stop centre, somewhere someone could come and walk away having received all the required services for their event on a single trip,” Muhumuza explains.

Making good with his savings
But part of his pride is also embedded in the fact that he has managed to scale the heights in such a short time, having been on the down low not too far back.
As a Senior Four student at Kiira College, Butiki, Muhumuza always knew that at the end of his high school journey, he would have to hit the ground running, so he always tried to think ahead of his peers. “My mother was a single mother and she had done a lot for me. But somehow I always felt there was a lot on her plate. I wanted to make my own money and take some weight off her shoulders.”
It is with this inspiration that Muhumuza started saving up most of the small moneys he received as upkeep at school, and also taking up a few projects to make and save more. The same saving culture continued in his A-Level at Namirembe Hillside and true to his wishes, the day he pulled down the curtain on his high school education, he had saved up to Shs1million, enough to venture into barbeque business.

Starting with barbeque
“The art of barbeque is surely one of the most important gifts I got from my maternal grandfather, Mesaaki Semajju Kafeero. He would always roast all kinds of meat, exceptionally well. His meat was always well-marinated. It had taste, texture and flavour,” Muhumuza says, adding that he always had the idea of getting his grandfather’s barbeque art and giving it a professional touch. “I had noticed it was a good business opportunity because most of the barbeque events I had attended, the meat was far off point.”

Having all this at the back of his mind, Muhumuza set out immediately to get barbeque roasters, asking his uncle Mike Turakira who is good at metal work to help him make the stoves. “He made me two roasters. I didn’t pay for labour. He only charged me Shs380,000 for each stove to buy the necessary metal.”
And with his two stoves, toward the end of 2012, Muhumuza set the ball in motion. “I remember those days as though it was yesterday. I would jump on a boda boda, strapped together with my two stoves, and sometimes my meat, moving to different events in all corners of this town to do barbeque.”
Business was even tougher for the then senior six leaver considering that most people were paying him little money which would sometimes delay or actually came in installments.

Growing and incorporating events
Muhumuza would charge about Shs50,000 a day to provide the service in cases where the client had procured their own meat. He would also rent out his barbeque roasters at Shs40,000 per day. When he joined university, having accumulated some retained earnings, Muhumuza decided he would give his business a giant leap.
“I decided to incorporate events management. But as you may realise, this is a crowded industry. So I wanted something that would propel me above the competition. That is when the idea of forming an events one-stop centre cropped up and I decided to run with it,” he highlights.

This kind of operation requires that Muhumuza gets a wide range of professionals from different fields on board, which he believes was the hardest task for him, one he has done a good job in accomplishing. “My basic role is to connect all these service providers. We have professional chefs, decorators, photographers, among others. When an event comes up, we bring them from their different fields and make them blend into one team working side by side.”

And with such expertise under one roof, his company, Eazy Lyne services which he officially registered in early 2014, has been growing fast ever since. Muhumuza now employs 20 people though on a temporary basis. In a good month, the company can work on five events and get paid Shs500,000 for each though it may vary depending on the number of activities they have been hired to man. Most of his growing clientele comes to him through referrals, but he also runs a Facebook page under the company’s name that also brings in clients.
Muhumuza draws inspiration from British business magnate and investor Richard Branson, his grandparents and his mother.

The numbers                                                                          
50,000

The amount he would charge a day.

The amount Muhumuza started with.

Amount muhumuza would hire out his roasters.

editorial@ug.nationmedia.com

Golfers descend on Tooro for inaugural Castle Lite Open

In Summary

Golf. Home boys Ronald Otile and Daniel Baguma, who were at the Nile Special Uspa Awards last night, will be among the action

Fort portal. Seven golf clubs had by press time confirmed participation at the inaugural Tooro Castle Lite Open that tees off at the par-70 Tooro course this morning.
Tooro Golf Club (TGC), Entebbe, Jinja, Mbarara, Kitante, Kabale and Kilembe are all set to fight for honours according to the hosts club chairperson Robert Asiimwe. “That is a good start for the start,” Asiimwe told Saturday Monitor on Thursday, “We also invited Garuga but they were yet to confirm by today.”
Castle Lite, sponsors of the Uganda Open last year and several other gold competitions in the country, have injected close to Shs15m, according to Asiimwe.

“If we get more funding, this will become the Castle Lite Western Open, which has not been played for eight years now.” The Western Open was formerly sponsored by Bro Group.
“There is no prize money for now because we are starting with amateurs,” added Asiimwe, “But Castle Lite has helped us secure trophies, organise dinner and entertainment among others.”

Both men and women will play gross, with the former grouped in A, B and C and the latter in A and B. Elders of 60-plus years will also compete.
Home boys Ronald Otile and Daniel Baguma, who were at the Nile Special Uspa Awards last night, will be among the action.
Organisers will also use this as a reciprocal event between Tooro and Entebbe, with totals of the top 10 players from each tallied and the winning club taking a special trophy. Entebbe won last year’s similar ‘Entoro’ event.

amwanguhya@ug.nationmedia.com

I fled with Idi Amin into exile

Abdul Hamid Kamulegeya Jumba-Masagazi a former permanent secretary in ministry of Education during the Idi Amin’s government. Photo by Faustin Mugabe 

In Summary

Confidant. In late 1970, Gen Idi Amin while at a mosque in Kayunga District said he feared nobody but God. This was at the peak of the tribal row in the army. The “I fear nobody but God” quote became so popular that some people believed Amin was too brave a soldier to run away from any battle. But he was exposed during the 1979 war, when he fled Uganda for fear of death and capture by the invading forces of the Ugandan exiles and the Tanzania army. Abdul Hamid Jumba-Masagazi, his confidant and former minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, escaped with him.

When the enemy forces during the 1979 war had reached Kampala City, Idi Amin fled Kampala to Arua through Jinja, Mbale, Lira and Gulu.
He then flew to Libya, a day after the fall on Kampala, April 11, 1979.
Among those he flew with from Arua airstrip in West Nile was his confidant and former minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Abdul Hamid Jumba-Masagazi.

The 77-year-old shared the events of the day they fled into exile.
“I was also trying to flee to Kenya but I was stopped at Malaba [Uganda-Kenya border] by the State Research Operatives. They told me they had an order from president Amin to bring me back and that I was to be killed if I refused. So they brought me to Jinja and the following day, took me to Arua and then together with Amin, we went to Libya,” Jumba-Masagazi said.

But while he said he could not remember others passengers on the plane to Libya apart from Amin and some of his family members, he recalls that the number of passengers was about 30 or so; which corresponds well with the figure given by other witnesses this reporter spoke to in West Nile who were present as Amin fled.
Asked what the mood was like during the flight, Jumba-Masagazi responded that there was hardly any conversation during the Arua-Tripoli non-stop journey in a C-130 military jet offered by the former Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi to evacuate Amin and his immediate family.
“When we reached Libya, we were given a house to stay. We breathed a sigh of relief. But we were heavily guarded. There was no going out. We were like prisoners,” he narrated. But later, Amin, perhaps out of anger or frustration told Jumba-Masagazi to return to Uganda. “Amin sarcastically told me, ‘go back to Uganda, the Baganda will give you a job. They are back in power’.”
It was at this time that Jumba-Masagazi decided to go to Saudi-Arabia where he had contacts. “I got a job with the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah, Saudi-Arabia. Its president Mohammed Ali was my friend.”
But because of the poor working relations with other senior employees partly because of his colour, after two years, Jumba-Masagazi went to West Germany where he stayed until 1985 when he returned to Uganda.
In 1986, the NRM established a Judicial Commission of Inquiry to investigate the violation of human rights in Uganda from October 9, 1962, to January 25, 1986.

During the hearing, Jumba-Masagazi was accused by the commissioners of concocting a letter allegedly written by former president Milton Obote while in exile in Tanzania to Archbishop of Uganda Janani Luwum asking him to join and propel a war against Amin’s regime.
It was this letter that in February 1977, led to the death of Luwum and two other ministers Erinayo Oryema and Oboth Ofumbi.
For that, Jumba-Masagazi was imprisoned but later released. When this reporter asked him about the said letter, he denied knowledge of it.
But when this reporter insisted that he admitted to the inquiry having written the fake letter but on Amin’s orders, Jumba-Masagazi said: “I don’t remember. But I could have said that.”

editorial@ug.nationmedia.com

Leicester: A romantic fairy tale

Manchester United will dominate possession but fail to secure the victory they need to pile more pressure on Champions League places

Cadre judges killing court image - Justice Tsekooko

Justice Wilson Tsekooko, a senior legal consultant. Photo by Michael Kakumirizi  

In Summary

Law. The judge says some members of the bench consult politicians before passing judgment.

Kampala. A retired Justice of the Supreme Court has pointed out that the number of cadre judges making it to the bench is rising, which is undermining the integrity and independence of Uganda’s judiciary.
The phrase “cadre judges” is a reference to judges whose case judgments suggest are determined more by their allegiance to the government than on the evidence produced before court during the trial.

In an interview with Saturday Monitor at his home in Naguru suburb on Thursday, Justice Wilson Tsekooko, a senior legal consultant with a Kampala law firm Waluku and Mooli Advocates, asserted that some of the judgments coming from the courts today leave a lot to be desired and cast doubt on the independence of the judges.
“Yes, that thing [cadre judges] is there. It seems to be increasing because occasionally you get some of the judgments and you can’t understand they are from judges who are supposed to be independent. There are rumours some judges consult some politicians when they have cases with political implications to get a shape of the ruling. This is terrible! It is not proper,” Justice Tsekooko said.
He said this situation is undermining the integrity of Uganda’s judiciary, once acclaimed as one of the most independent in Commonwealth Africa.

However, the judiciary’s Senior communications officer, Mr Solomon Muyita, denied the claims of cadre judges.
“Justice Tsekooko left the judiciary last year and during his tenure he didn’t go on the record in regard to cadre or non-cadre judges. Indeed we are not aware of cadre judges in the system because the JSC rigorously vets, recommends to the president who appoints and parliament approves the competent ones. We cannot have cadre judges in such a rigorous system of checks and balances,” he said.
In the last round of promotions to the Supreme Court, a member of the Judicial Service Commission told this reporter that Court of Appeal Justices Remmy Kasule and Egonda Ntende, who had passed interviews and are considered some of the best judges given their past record, were deleted from list after the Commission had recommended them to the President for appointment.

This claim could not be independently verified.
Justice Egonda once served as Chief Justice of Seychelles on contract.
There are concerns about inexperienced judges being parachuted to the last appellate court in the land riding on their political loyalty to the ruling party.
Four-time presidential candidate Dr Kizza Besigye has vowed not to return to the Supreme Court to challenge a presidential election citing cadre judgeship.

The Besigye petition
In 2001 and 2006, Justice Tsekooko was among the minority judges that allowed Besigye’s petition (annulled Museveni’s victory) and called for fresh elections.
Interestingly though, the retired judge who joined the bench in 1990 said he was pleasantly surprised by President Museveni’s appointment despite an incident in 1980 when he, as a lawyer, represented former president Milton Obote in a defamation case then candidate Museveni had filed against Obote.

At the peak of the election campaign in 1980, Obote had allegedly made remarks that suggested Museveni was not a Ugandan to qualify for election. Museveni sued Obote for defamation and counsel Tsekooko had been instructed to defend Obote against the case. The case never took off as Obote was elected president and Museveni went to the bush to wage a guerrilla war. Tsekooko was Obote’s lawyer and a strong Uganda Peoples Congress cadre who was elected MP in 1980.

“Then after that you can see in 1990, Museveni appointed me a judge after that experience. Other people wouldn’t have appointed me even though I didn’t apply for judgeship. Definitely most people wouldn’t. Then in 1994, there was a vacancy at the Supreme Court, the Judicial Service Commission recommended me and he appointed me, so it shows he has good qualities as well,” Justice Tsekooko said of Museveni.
Commenting on the just concluded presidential election petition, he disagreed with former Supreme Court justice Prof George Kanyeihamba who castigated the court for failing to inquire into the election. He said the court can only restrict itself to the evidence presented before it.

Advice to judges
In deciding presidential election petitions, Justice Tsekooko observed that the judges should invest thought by “tossing a mental coin” in their assessment of the evidence presented before them in order to establish the effect of the irregularities on the final election outcome rather than sticking to the strict legal meaning of the words in the law which require that to annul the poll, the errors complained thereof must have “affected the election outcome in a substantial manner.”
The retired judge also shared his sympathy for Dr Besigye’s on his house arrest by police and restriction of his movements and Mr Mbabazi’s petition, which he said theft of his affidavits of evidence and intimidation of witnesses affected his case fatally.

editorial@ug.nationmedia.com

Find the full interview in Sunday Monitor tomorrow

When the dead are feared

Children and their mother sit beside a grave as they mourn the death of their grandmother in Kaabong District last week. Photo by Steven Ariong 

In Summary

Culture. Death is a dreaded occurrence in all cultures but ages ago the Karimojong took their fear of death a notch further by abandoning bodies for fear that their spirit would claim another family member.

African societies have elaborate burial rituals and beliefs about death, although today many have faded away. Among the Karimojong for instance, touching the dead was regarded taboo. It was not uncommon for relatives to abandon dead bodies. Although this custom is slowly fading, recently, Moroto Regional Referral Hospital was in the media after relatives abandoned their dead in the mortuary.

“When a person died, especially a youth or a child, everybody would run away from the body especially if he died inside the house, the whole kraal or Manyatta (homestead) would be forced to migrate to another place because they believed that their spirit would call for another person to follow the dead,” says Zackary Lokol, one of the elders and resident of Nabilatuk Sub-county in Nakapiripirit District. The pastoralist nature of the Karimojong made it easy for the family to start a new life in a different location.

According to Joseph Lomokol, another elder, after three months, the clan that had lost the person would slaughter a sheep and the mutton would be shared by everyone in that village.
“The motive of slaughtering the sheep and serving everyone was to prove whether the deceased had died a natural death. If he had died as a result of witchcraft those involved in killing that person would die if they ate the mutton,” he says.

According to Lokol, the fear of dead bodies can be traced to colonial times when residents reported suspicious activity at graveyards. Today, although this custom is not largely practiced due to modernity, Lokol reveals there is still a certain degree of suspicion that surrounds dead bodies.
“While now dead bodies are buried by most families, it is done as soon as possible fear of being possessed by the spirit of the dead,” he says.
Betty Nachap, an elder, says it was believed that the spirits of children are more dangerous and as such nobody wanted to associate with the body, even the mother herself.
“Today more respect is accorded to the dead because the younger generations are more enlightened,” she says.
In regard to burial ceremonies, according an elder Samson Lokol, usually after the burial, especially for the elderly persons, community members from that village and clan would participate in what they called akibilar ekitoi, meaning to break away a tree. A big bull would be speared for the peaceful sendoff of the spirits of the deceased because he would have died at the old age.
Lokol also added that the heads of the family members who have lost a person would be shaved, leaving one straight line of hair in the middle.
At the burial, it depends who has died if the dead person is affluent, they always conduct prayers, cook food, but if it’s not a prominent person nobody bothers. In most cases they can even throw away the body in any bush or river.

sheep ritual
According to Joseph Lomokol, another elder, after three months, the clan that had lost the person would slaughter a sheep and the mutton would be shared by everyone in that village. “The motive of slaughtering the sheep and serving everyone was to prove whether the deceased had died a natural death. If he had died as a result of witchcraft those involved in killing that person would die if they ate the mutton,” he says.

editorial@ug.nationmedia.com