Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland and United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed have formally committed their organisations to work more closely together.

The two leaders signed a Memorandum of Understanding today at the Commonwealth’s headquarters in Marlborough House, London. The document outlines how the two organisations will work together on pressing global issues such as governance and peace, sustainable development, inclusive growth, climate change, ending violence against women and girls and sports for development and peace.

In a joint statement, the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth and the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations said:

“The United Nations and Commonwealth have long shared a genuine relationship based on shared goals and values.

“We are today proud to enhance this friendship and take it to a new level which the delivery of the 2030 Agenda demands.

“As we turn to a new decade of action, the challenges we face in order to deliver on the world that we want by 2030 demand we address sustainable development, climate change, improving governance and promoting peace.”

The Commonwealth is committed to the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals and has made particular progress on the goals of gender equality and tackling climate change.

Across the Commonwealth, gender parity is close to being achieved in primary schools. According to research undertaken by the Commonwealth Secretariat in 2018/2019, a girl is as likely to attend primary school as a boy, and in some Commonwealth countries, more likely to.

Working on tackling climate change and ocean conservation is also an area where the Commonwealth has had a significant influence. Last year, all 53 nations in the Commonwealth, covering one third of the world’s oceans, signed the Blue Charter a landmark agreement to actively co-operate on ocean governance. So far 12 nations have stepped up to lead action groups on areas such as marine pollution, ocean acidification and coral reef protection.

The agreement stresses that ‘prevention’ will underpin each of the collaborative areas and leaves the door open for additional areas of co-operation at a later date.

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A 25-year-old security guard was on Friday charged with defiling his 17-year-old sister-in-law at his rented house in Kiambiu village in Eastleigh, Nairobi.

The guard, an employee of Hatari Security company, is accused of sexually assaulting the minor on December 8 after his wife left him with her siblings.

He is also facing charges of indecent act with a child.

The suspect is said to have taken advantage of his wife’s absence to commit the alleged offence.

The victim and her younger brother had been left in the house under the care of the suspect.

On the fateful day, the accused is said to have sent the minor to a nearby butchery and sent away her brother before she returned.

The victim returned only to find the brother-in-law home alone and he sent her to warm tea for him before he accosted her and dragged her to his bedroom where he reportedly committed the act in his matrimonial bed.

However, the victim’s younger brother returned and knocked on the door prompting the suspect to let go of the minor to let him in.

She later reported the suspect to his wife, her elder sister, who found her sitting outside the house dejected.

The matter was then reported to the police who launched an investigation before arresting the suspect.

He however denied the charges before Makadara senior principal magistrate Angelo Kithinji and was released on a bond of Sh500, 000.

Hearing of the case starts on April 15, 2020.

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President Yoweri Museveni hours ago received his counter-part President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea who arrived in the country this afternoon on a three day official visit.

President Mbasogo’s visit comes shortly after United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) welcomed Equatorial Guinea’s accession to the Kampala Convention on internally displaced people (IDPs), becoming the 29th African Union (AU) member state to do so according to the UNHCR.

The Kampala Convention is the world’s first and only regional legally binding instrument for the protection and assistance of IDPs, who often face heightened risks, violations and sexual violence because of their displacement, while they struggle to access their rights and basic protection.

Equatorial Guinea deposited its instrument of ratification of the Kampala Convention at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in October this year. With this development, 29 of the AU’s 55 member states have now acceded to the Kampala Convention.

The move by Equatorial Guinea is particularly opportune as the Kampala Convention is marking its 10th anniversary this year with activities organized by the AU with support from UNHCR and other partners.

President Mbasogo who is the official AU champion of 2019 on finding solutions to forced displacement in Africa and will represent the AU at the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva had a tete-a-tete meeting with President Yoweri Museveni.

Tomorrow he will tour Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement center, Panyandoli Health Centre 111 and Panyandoli vocation school to have a first hand experience on how Uganda has successfully handled the refugee situation.

Over one million refugees have fled to Uganda in the last two and a half years, making Uganda the third largest refugee-hosting country in the world after Turkey and Pakistan1 , with 1.36 million refugees by June 2018.

Wars, violence and persecution in the Horn of Africa and Great Lakes Region were the main drivers of forced displacement into Uganda, led by South Sudan’s conflict, insecurity and ethnic violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and political instability and human rights violations in Burundi.

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