President Yoweri Museveni has launched Makerere University’s pioneer electric car, Kiira EV.  The President, who arrived at the university at about 12:30, also took a ride in the two-seater car.

"This is very good,” the President kept on saying as was being driven by Paul Musasizi, a lecturer at the university’s college of engineering who led the team of students that designed and assembled the Kiira EV.The drive from the college premises to the department of food science and technology, a stretch of quarter a kilometer, lasted about 10 minutes.

The green car, which cost sh9.3m, weighs 1,000kg and powered by a lithium ion battery, can cruise at a speed of over 100km/h.

While ordinary cars have engines and use fuel, Kiira EV only depends on power supplied by the lithium ion battery. As a result, the car has zero emissions and is mute as it cruises. The battery can last for a distance of 80km before recharging for about four hours with electric power. “The car is good. What is happening at Makerere is a renaissance; you fellows are waking up from a long slumber,” President Museveni told the university dons after launching the Kiira EV.

A team of journalists from Japan, the lead manufacturer of vehicles, witnessed the launch as they kept on filming the car. Led by Jean Baptist, the director of the Japan Broadcasting Corporation, the group came into the country a fortnight ago upon reading the news of Makerere testing Kiira EV.

President Museveni commended the team that worked on the car and promised to inject more funding into scientific innovations so as to accelerate economic development in the country. He said preparations were in final stages to increase salaries for scientists up to near international standards. This, the President said, would motivate staff and curb brain drain.

He, however, revealed that he was facing “a lot of resistance” in the Government because officials still wanted salaries to be based on protocol and not one’s profession and contribution to the economy. “My view is that people’s pay should depend on the market price. If you are an administrator and we sack you, we can easily get a replacement. But if one scientist goes, it is not easy to replace him,” he noted.

The President also toured the food technology and business incubation centre, which, together with the car project, is among Makerere’s innovations the Government funded to the tune of sh25b. Having set up 11 agro processing enterprises, the centre has employed 116 graduates and created jobs for over 400 raw material suppliers besides market for farmers’ produce.

Prof. Tickodri Togboa, the overall head of the car project, said they needed over 50 acres of land to set up a center for research in transportation technology so as to operate at large scale. He said the team had already embarked on building a 30-seater SUV electric minibus that would be launched in 2013.

The vice-chancellor, Prof. Venansius Baryamureeba, said the university was also planning to set up a high-tech teaching hospital in Katalemwa, along Gayaza road, to enhance medical training in the country. “Out of the top 100 hospitals in the world, 61 are using university hospitals,” he noted, asking the President to support the university’s quest for a concessional loan to fund the project.

The college of agriculture would also be relocated to Kabanyoro in Wakiso district to boost agricultural training and research, which Baryamureeba described as key factors to development.