Uganda’s pro-business policies Favouring development over workers’ rights By Patience Akumu Once upon a time, Uganda Cement Industry (UCI) in eastern Uganda was a dream employer. The factory, like the country, had just been wrestled from the hands of colonialists. Working at this factory was a privilege. Every morning in the 1960s, at the dawn of independence, contented plant workers chattered as they waited for the gates to open. In the evenings at the bars, it was easy to tell who worked at UCI. “They only drank whisky or expensive beer,” Mzee Kiliano Obonyo, a former employee, remembers. “The pay…
