To keep abreast with developments at home, at the close of each day, I usually browse through online newspapers from Uganda.

They give me the feel of what is taking place in my fatherland. Some of the coverage has become mundane and predictable, but it serves my purpose all the same.

But last week something different caught my eye. Flipping through the pages of one daily, a very unlikely headline pops up, "Makerere students build car." Wow, what great news! Finally Uganda is getting on the world map as a vehicle- manufacturing country.

This is wonderful given that Uganda is already gearing to join OPEC members (organization of petroleum exporting countries) having discovered huge deposits of oil in her territory that are now being drill- tested.

The car story is that electrical engineering students of Makerere University have designed a four- passenger vehicle with a frugal fuel consumption of 50 km for every liter (124 mpg). This fuel- efficient vehicle could cause a big stir in the auto market in America and Europe and will give the Japanese carmakers a real run for their money.

Soon, its prototype will be featured in Torino Museum, Italy, as part of this year's dream exposition designs. And, if all goes according to schedule, commercial production will commence in 2010.

During the vehicle design summit Vision 200, it is scheduled to be showcased alongside the Italian legendary models like Ferrari and Fiat.

This great news about Makerere students' performance is long overdue. Founded in 1922 as the University of East Africa, it was a world class institution, appropriately christened the "Harvard of Africa" in the 60s and 70s before an illiterate soldier by the name of Idi Amin wreaked havoc on the country resulting in total destruction of the country's British- founded social infrastructure.

It was a university for academicians, scholars, and a powerhouse for leadership training. Tanzania's late charismatic leader, president Julius Nyerere studied in Makerere. And so did other East African leaders like Apollo Milton Obote of Uganda, Mwai Kibaki and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga of Kenya; and Benjamin Mkapa, who became Tanzania's president after Nyerere.

Car manufacturing is only a tip of the iceberg of what Makerere University students, or Ugandans as a whole, are capable of excelling in. Given a conducive climate, Ugandans have the capacity and creativity to move mountains.

Just watch.

Zadok zomwere@ho Etmkiamil.wcoemre