Three law students at Kampala International University (KIU) are the lucky winners of the Pambazuka news essay writing competition.
The competition, borne out of a partnership with Fahamu Africa, a nonprofit organization based in Kenya, saw 17 students participating in the inaugural event. Of these, Morris Ladu, Nasser Kisubi and Jacob Jonga emerged joint overall victors, winning a trophy each as well as cash prize of $100 (about Shs 360,000) in cash from Fahamu Africa.
Sienna Nambuliey Barley, the programme officer of Fahamu Africa encouraged more students to participate in next year’s competition as it would help improve their writing skills and critical thinking.
“Fahamu stands for consciousness (to understand) and that is what we are trying to promote, I applaud the winners and we are looking forward to a stronger working relationship with KIU in the next year’s competition,” she said.
Fahamu is a non-profit organization started in 1997 in the UK to publish academic authors. However, the organization has transferred to Kenya, with an additional office in Dakar, Senegal.
In her remarks, KIU’s deputy vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, Dr Annette Kezaabu-Kasimbazi, explained that the competition was intended to build citizens who can think for themselves.
Dr Kezaabu-Kasimbazi, who also represented the vice chancellor, encouraged students to read as much as possible, as this would help them make informed decisions.
Complementing Dr Kezaabu-Kasimbazi, the deputy vice chancellor for Research and Innovations at KIU, Dr George Nasinyama, challenged the students not to be overcome by social media, but to think for themselves.
“You are used to social media where you tweet about this and that … you need to change your attitude and embrace knowledge wherever it is, learn thinking without influence from social media,” Nasinyama said.
Presently, Fahamu Africa is implementing a youth-focused project titled Your Voice Matters, in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, which proposes to contribute to solving some of Africa’s challenges by providing students with an opportunity to share their views and plans for Africa via Pambazuka News essays, dialogues and debates.
The themes of the competition include access to capital and starting small businesses; agriculture, food sovereignty and security, religious fundamentalism and culture, the role of peace and security in development, as well as the use of technology as a tool for innovation and employment creation.
Others are citizenship and right to nationality, education and professional training, environmental conservation and climate change, leadership and governance and migration and Africans in the diaspora.
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