Browsing by Author "Kabiito, Bendicto"

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Amnesty and Prosecution of International Humanitarian Law Violations in Uganda:
(Journal of Development Studies, 2015) Kabiito, Bendicto
In continued human search for peace and justice, which are pertinent to development, post-war societies are confronted with a dilemma of either letting go of the past through legalized amnesty or embarking on comprehensive prosecution of perpetuators of that violence, in response to the troubled past. What remains important is to know that the path taken in the post-war atmosphere leads to either possibility or impossibility of sustainable peace and development. This was a challenge northern Uganda is facing after two decades of unspeakable suffering. With the contextual, epistemological and experiential perspectives, this study delves into the nexus between granted amnesty in Uganda and the subsequent call for retributive justice. Though disputed, amnesty was opted for in a bid to deliberate on the necessity of compromise in the justice-peace search. Moreover, although it presented with some weaknesses, Uganda’s amnesty gesture was indeed a necessary path to peace. Its necessity and credibility are vividly stamped by various amnesty examples from elsewhere, and sealed by an eventual call for the harmonization instead of polarization of peace and justice efforts.
Culture, Resources and the Gun in the Violent-Conflict Expression:
(Universidad Para la Paz, 2018) Kabiito, Bendicto
Pastoral communities of Karamoja sub-region (in north eastern Uganda) have for long been projected as intrinsically and senselessly violent. Narratives about the nature, causes and motivation of violent conflicts in this region are varied, biased, and sometimes contradictory. In an attempt to generate their better understanding, this study was undertaken in the region, aimed at investigating the causative roles of pastoral culture, pastoral resources and guns to the violent conflict that raged in Karamoja. The study was guided by three objectives, and it was structured into ten chapters. In this study, an interpretivistic qualitative research approach, idiographic case study design and qualitative data collection methods, tools, and analysis techniques were applied to answering the three research questions of the study. Guided by three themes developed from the study objectives; Interviews, Focus Group Discussions, observation, and document review and analysis (research methods) were used to collect, present and discuss research findings. Also, a theoretical framework, consisting of the conflict theory, structural conflict theory, biological conflict theory, human needs theory, materialist and motivational explanations of conflict, Horowitz’s theory of ethnic conflict and an integrative model for explaining causes of violent conflicts, was used to discern the most applicable explanations of conflict and violence in Karamoja. Research findings show that the phenomenon of violent conflict or incidental clashes in Karamoja cannot be comprehensively explained by the usually cited internal factors, such as culture and scarcity of pastoral resources, without placing the influence of external factors in perspective, and the phenomenon of resource abundance as another important cause! It became clear that although clashes and cattle raiding were experienced traditionally, excessive violence, the kind of which dominated the sub-region in post-independence period, was both condemnable and culturally sanctioned. Also, the state of pastoral resources access and use, which would have an influence of scarcity, competition and conflict, was heavily curtailed and limited by colonial policies, making conflict over pastures, water and cattle acquisition (raiding) inevitable and intense. Evidently, resource scarcity narratives dominate literature on the sub-region’s conflict, these are fronted to account for competition, conflicts and violence in Karamoja. While there are historical accounts of fights triggered by scarcity; factors like abundance, pride and the warrior traits, were far more formidable causes of violence in many circumstances, as discussed in this work. Findings show that dispute-related violent incidences can be seen as processes of social interactions, with identifiable rules of engagement. Also, violence can be understood as a method of communicating social meanings in specific cultural, social of political contexts. However, it is noted too that not all conflict/violence incidences were dispute-related, some are predatory in nature. While some incidences in Karamoja were disputed-related, many were predatory in nature. It became clear too that presence of guns does not necessarily translate into their use (Wilkinson and Fagan, 1996). The study shows that use of violence and its promotion in Karamoja can better qualify as related to ‘traditional practices’ or ‘sub-cultural practices’, as opposed to blindly labelling them as ‘cultural practices’. Also, as an external force, guns overpowered and overthrew conflict resolution structures and social controls that would have neutralized their use, in the first place. It is derogatory therefore, to assert that gun violence is a cultural practice of the victims of the gun.
Documenting Baganda Ethno-medicine:
(Journal of Applied and Advanced Research, 2016) Ssozi, Leonard; Kabiito, Bendicto; Byaruhanga, Aloysius; Kanata, Willy
The continued use of ethno-medicines among some indigenous communities in the contemporary Uganda remains as one of the clearest evidence that indigenous people do not only have close relationship with nature, but also have always had the ability to use various environmental elements (flora and fauna) to their health advantage. Given their continued relevance and use, this study engaged in a task of documenting the commonly used ethno-medicines among the Baganda people, informed by a participatory study undertaken in Gombe Sub-county. Taking stock of the herbal resource in local environments is essential to making their conservation, preservation and use appreciated in potential user communities. Presented herewith are the herbal medicines identified by herbalists, traditional healers and local community members who use them. They are presented according to their local and botanical names, the disease they treat, plant parts used, and how they are prepared and administered.
Embracing values beyond the Financial Value:
(2015-10) Kabiito, Bendicto
The dominant discourse upholds an idea that accumulated financial capital (money) can reliably address climate change challenges. What is often neglected is the fact that since the current trends of climate change is blamable on money-making human enterprises; the ability of the product of such enterprises (liquid capital/money) to address the environmental and climate consequences they create is put in question. The big question to be addressed by this study is; can a bad master (towards climate) be a good servant (towards its re-address)? This study attempts to challenge a dominant modernistic-capitalistic tendency of thinking that money and technology can and will resolve all problems of the world! In this study, climate change is viewed as closely linked to environmental destruction by the modernistic practices of capitalism and consumerism, which seek to indiscriminately convert natural resources into consumable articles. Herewith, ‘capitalistic’ development (in its extremist tone) is viewed as predatory to natural environment, the inventor of consumerism and a master-minder of climate change. In many cultures of the world, environmental conservation is/was communal responsibility and a cultural/ religious requirement. In the current global order, though, money is the driving force, even of climate change redress work! Even tree planting work (a conservation dimension) is largely done as a business endeavour. Africa needs to look beyond the monetary gains for values of vitality; to stop replacing forests and swamps with factories. Industrialists need to learn that increasing the amount of money dedicated to climate change, without decreasing carbon emission and the sacking in raw materials from the environment is no solution. I herewith caution that finances should not be the driving force behind climate change redress, but a desirable companion to uphold higher environmental value.
Environmental economies, survival ecologies, and economic interests in pastoral Uganda: the justice question in the socio-environmental governance of pastoral resources of Karamoja
(African Journals Online (AJOL), 2021-08-04) Kabiito, Bendicto
This paper presents a departure from the historical cataloguing of scarcity and poverty, as definitive frames of Karamoja sub-region of Uganda; a narrative that purports to portray the duo as natural, permanent and insurmountable features of the sub-region. This study demonstrates that these were both created in and projected onto the sub-region. The study provides evidence to the fact that; 1. Externally-driven pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial undertakings (which are underrated in many analyses on Karamoja) are the building blocks of the protracted conflicts, insecurities and ecological damages that ravaged Karamoja; 2. The sub-region offers more potentials than limitations as studies on Karamoja tend to portray. This research report is an invitation to both inward and outward looking (of Karamoja) for diagnosis and solutions. Inspired by critical realism and environmental justice theories, the study interrogates policies, mentalities, actions and inactions that fostered economic and ecological exploitation of Karamoja; endangering environmental and social ecologies of the sub-region. Attention is paid to how these jeopardised the environment-based economy of the sub-region’s population, while highlighting the human, ecological and economic potentials that need and deserve collective action for social and environmental re-address.
Learner at the Centre: Humanising the Fundamental Purpose of Mass Education
(Uganda Martyrs University Press, 2018) Kabiito, Bendicto; Namugumya, Josephine
Survival Fate’ or ‘Livelihood Option’? :
(2016-03) Kabiito, Bendicto
Uganda boasts of her natural resource wealth by day, and groans over its mismanagement by nightfall! Expectation and suspicion paradoxically typify the state of affairs of Uganda’s natural resource stock; flora, fauna and minerals alike. The establishment of the National Mineral Policy in 2000 gave hope as national commitment to guide mineral exploitation for social and economic development. With it, overcoming mineral resource mismanagement and profitability for the national cause was anticipated. After fifteen years of its existence, this study delved into establishing whether and how the mineral policy has been able to transform the mining sector in Karamoja from a ‘survival ploy’ to a sustainable ‘livelihood option