jake lyell photography (blog)

Election day in Uganda passed peacefully for the most part, with only a few scattered incidents of reported violence. This does not come as a surprise, however. The announcement of the presidential winner, due no later than Sunday evening, is what will draw the most reaction from the streets.

Peaceful does not mean that the vote was without irregularities, however. As opposition leader Dr. Kizza Besigye stated in a press conference today, “it is already very clear that there have been widespread malpractices in the electoral process.” I witnessed not only voters providing names that clearly did not match the picture provided on the voting register, but also the coaching of voters in the polling queue by party officials or their hired hands. Below, poll workers and local officials in the town of Mbale argue over apparent typographical errors on the register.

One colleague of mine reported and photographed the blatant handing out of cash in exchange for votes. Below, police arrest Jackie Nabulu, the campaign manager of MP candidate Dr. James Mtende, in the town of Mbale. Ms. Nabulu was accused of improper interference at the polls.

Of greater issue was that many voters’ names were absent from the register despite having confirmed their status as a registered voters and having received voters’ cards. After Patrick Achou went to the polling station where he voted in the town of Soroti during the 2006 election, he was shocked to find his name missing from the register. He was then directed to several other different polling stations in town but was never able to vote. “Last election I voted very well. I feel very bad, I wanted to vote for my candidate,” says Mr Achou, shown below. I witnessed at least a dozen other such incidents where voters, even with valid voter’s cards, were turned away at the polls because their names were missing.

The local media has reported this as a widespread problem, especially in the eastern part of the country, where these images come from. The east, especially the town of Mbale, happens to be an opposition stronghold. Below, Mr. Elamu Michael (26) casts his vote for Dr. Besigye in rural Soroti district. He wore a Barack Obama shirt to the polls in the spirit of ushering in fresh leadership: “I want change. We have seen big problems here,” he says.

Many voters in the east echoed Dr. Besigye’s call for change. After casting her ballot for one of the seven presidential candidates running against incumbent Yoweri Museveni, the voter shown below, who wished to remain anonymous, remarked, “We’d like to see what the difference looks like.”

Even if protests do erupt on the streets following the announcement of results, it’s difficult to envision the weeks of Middle-East style resistance occurring in Uganda that Dr. Besigye is calling for. Ugandans are generally more complacent when it comes to government. Whatever the official tally of the vote, I genuinely feel that Mr. Museveni, whose massive campaign fund faced a divided opposition, has the support of the majority of the population. Below, poll workers count votes the old-fashioned way at the close of the polls in Mbale.

At a massive campaign rally that seemed at times more like a victory celebration, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni touted the achievements made under his National Resistance Movement’s leadership during the last decade. After detailing agricultural, educational, economic, and infrastructure improvements, he painted his various rivals as untested and risky choices.

Throughout a slew of performances by Ugandan pop stars, “No change” became the slogan of the day. Mr. Museveni has been in power for over 25 years. However, if this crowd has anything to say about it, the recent trend of deposing long-term heads of state won’t carry over to the streets of Kampala. Ugandans go to the polls to elect their President for the next five years on Friday.







Behold at last, the True Chapeau…

Uganda’s opposition parties are rallying the faithful ahead of Friday’s presidential and parliamentary voting. Today, presidential candidate Dr. Kizza Besigye campaigned in downtown Kampala to enthusiastic support.

Dr. Besigye is the front runner of all the Presidential challengers to Uganda’s incumbent President Yoweri Museveni. Along with supporters of his IPC party (Interparty Cooperation), he took to the streets of Kampala today for a last-minute push of campaigning ahead of Friday’s presidential vote. The crowd was raucous, taking on almost a militant tone. One vehicle in his caravan was decorated to resemble an army tank.

Many voters are frustrated that President Museveni has yet to stand down from office after more than 25 years. Dr. Besigye, speaking from the roof of an SUV, had a message for those politicians clinging to power: look to the streets of Egypt and Tunisia.

There was indeed a lot of energy on the streets today. It made me fearful of what is to come after the election results are announced, which is due to happen on Sunday.

I’m currently on assignment with ChildFund in Kenya working on a television spot that will air in the US. The video concerns solar panels that the NGO has placed in schools and dormitories in two separate areas of the country. These photos come from remote Maasai land, north of the Tanzania border – far from any tarmacked road or mobile phone tower.

The solar panels, which were of great help to me when charging camera batteries, are even more useful to the girls at Nanin’goi Girls’ Primary and Boarding School in Mosiro, Kenya. Here students can study in class and find their way around the dorms without relying on kerosene lanterns after the sun sets just after 6pm each day.

ChildFund continually works with the elders of the community to ensure that the girls of the school are not subjected to early childhood marriage and female circumcision, practices still very common in this and other Maasai communities. On my first night at Nanin’goi two girls from a far away village came seeking refuge at the school. Though many Maasai have ceased to live as they traditionally have for centuries, most in Mosiro have not.

Though their separate way of life is admirable and beautiful, many traditions of the Maasai hinder their development. However, the fact that Mosiro is home to an all-girls’ school is something that would have been unheard of in a Maasai community even ten or twenty years ago. Change may come slowly, but it’s not impossible.

ChildFund also installed a water system at the school which currently has around 500 girls enrolled. Where’s the footage of these solar panels, you ask? You’ll have to wait to catch the spot on TV.


all photos Copyright 2011 Jake Lyell Photography, LLC

My photographs appear for the third time in this month’s Marie Claire. The magazine does a good job keeping its readers informed about what goes on in the lives of women throughout the world. For this article MC took a look at five different women in different countries on four continents, comparing their salaries and lifestyles. The subject of my photos, Rachel Jama, whom I shadowed for a day in Soroti, Uganda, was the most unique of all the women. Read the article and see if you don’t agree. The January 2011 issue is on stands now.

With assignments in six different countries throughout the world, PSI has filled up at least a terabyte’s worth of hard drive space in RAW and video files for me this year and has kept me busy enough to fall behind on my blogging. While Population Services International has programs in a number of areas in global health, I’ve primarily been documenting their reproductive health and HIV/AIDS prevention programs along with the lives of the women who have been helped. All of the following were taken in Mali, Cameroon, Vietnam, and Cambodia.


Above, Kono Cecile receives a hormonal implant in her arm at a clinic in Yaounde, Cameroon. The implant will prevent her from having children in the next five years and allow her to concentrate on better raising the children she already has.

Banconi is a crowded suburb in Mali’s capital, Bamako. Mariam Sangare, shown above at her children’s bath time, had 13 pregnancies before deciding to start using family planning. Sadly, only nine of her children have survived. Mariam and her husband live with seven of their children and her sister-in-law in a one room apartment not far from the clinic where she received her hormonal implant.



Above, Mrs. Djomo Odette is a PSI trained midwife who counsels women in Yaounde, Cameroon about family planning options ranging from the intrauterine device, to condoms, to hormonal injections and implants. Many PSI-sponsored clinics like that of Mrs. Djomo’s in Yaounde offer one open day each month, where women can attend and receive contraception courtesy of the NGO.

Above, Safo is a village 15km outside Bamako, Mali. While family planning services are difficult to come by in the capital, they’re almost unheard of in rural areas, where, on the average, fertility rates are much higher than in cities.

Most women in Mali must seek family planning services in secret or risk retribution from their husbands, often in the form of beatings or even divorce. Children are prized in Mali’s conservative Muslim culture, where men often have more than one wife. However, as women begin to have a greater presence among the country’s workforce, it becomes difficult to earn a living while looking after multiple children. In addition to the economic deterrents, women are also aware of health risks associated with bearing children.

“I’ve never talked about family planning with my husband. If he knew I came to the clinic today to get an implant he’d be very, very angry. He’ll either divorce me, chase me out of our house, or make me come back to the clinic to have it removed,” says an anonymous woman I interviewed. “I need to be able to space my children so I can continue doing my hairdressing without having to look after babies all the time. That way I can continue to make enough money to continue supporting my mother because that’s what I have to do.”

Open days similar to those held in Africa are held in reproductive health clinics across Cambodia as well. Below and above, providers in the city of Kampong Cham prepare for an IUD insertion. In Cambodia PSI has established the Sun Quality franchise of health care providers in order that consumers can differentiate between well run and poorer quality clinics. The 83 Sun Quality providers across Cambodia receive consistent training, monitoring and support in order to maintain higher standards.


In Vietnam and Cambodia the HIV/AIDS infection rate is disproportionately high in the sex industry. While prostitution is illegal in both countries, it is widely accepted and tolerated. Above, a man ascends the staircase of a brothel in Hanoi, Vietnam. As shown below, PSI works in such brothels by forming relationships with their owners and educating them about condom use for the their workers.


PSI also targets clients by sending IPCs (Interpersonal Communicators) to bars and restaurants frequented by sex workers. In these personal encounters the dangers of HIV and prevention methods are openly discussed between the would-be client and the IPC. Below, IPCs talk with young men at a bar in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.


Above, sex workers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Below, Huong Tay is a brothel owner in Hanoi.

Cityscapes from…. Yaounde, Cameroon:

Bamako, Mali:

Monument de la Paix – Bamako:

Red River – Hanoi, Vietnam:

Hanoi:

Phnom Penh, Cambodia:

Phnom Penh:

It’s my first assignment outside Africa this year, and my first time ever to travel to Vietnam. I had some free time to explore the streets of Hanoi this afternoon, which were supposedly sleepy compared to a weekday. I’ll have the next few days to draw comparisons. While the word chaotic comes to mind, the roadways and motorbike taxis are actually a bit more civil than what I’m used to in Uganda. After several hours of meandering I gave up trying to find the Hanoi Hilton and Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, instead making it my goal to reach it to the city’s waterfront.

Take five minutes to explore Obalanga’s weekly market, the largest in NE Uganda’s Amuria District. Here people come from surrounding towns and districts to buy and trade, make repairs, catch up with friends, and hear from politicians and itinerant preachers. The predominant language heard here is Ateso.