The Rhino Fund Uganda has dismissed as untrue, recent media reports that indicated the organisation is involved in a wrangle with Capt. Joseph Charles Roy over the land housing the Zziwa Rhino Sanctuary in Nakasongola district.

Roy had reached out to different individuals accusing Rhino Fund Uganda of denying him and close associates access his farm and hospitality facilities on it. Roy alleged also that Rhine Fund Uganda had plans to grab his land.

According to a statement released by the Rhino Fund Uganda, the reports by Roy are twisted and misinterpreted to create a non-existent land wrangle in which he is said to have sought court order to evict Rhino Fund Uganda, despite an existing running contract which has not been abused by the latter.

“What has been reported, quoted and published in various/diverse media and forums have been grossly misrepresented with ulterior motives best known to the authors. And the same should be disregarded, condemned and ignored with contempt,” says Rhino Fund Uganda in a statement.

It adds: “The land wrangle being referred to in the media is twisted and misinterpreted. Rhino Fund Uganda, its Executive Director and D & D International Ltd (Amuka Lodge) have no desire or have never attempted to “steal” any Leasehold or Mailo land from Joe Roy. What is referred to as a “Land Wrangle” is merely the above contesting the early termination notices and protecting their interests and investments on the said land.”

In May, Roy through his lawyers petitioned the European Union ambassador, the World Bank and UNDP asking them to stop funding the Rhino Fund Uganda over what he termed as illegal activities and conflict of interest.

This prompted the organisation to seek redress in courts of law and on November 21, the High Court registrar, Flavia Nabakooza issued an injunction stopping Capt.Roy from carrying out any further activities until the main case is disposed of.

“An order is issued for a temporary injunction against the respondent , his agents, workmen, servants or any other persons acting on his behalf restraining from alternating, evicting, intimidating, threatening in any way interrupting or doing any act adverse to the applicant’s operations on the land particularly the safety and sustainability of the rhinos including but not limited to constructing buildings, airfields or any other structures on Ziwa rhino sanctuary until hearing and final disposal of the main suit,” said the High Court Registrar.

The Rhino Fund management, however, says the temporary injunction did not stop Capt.Roy or his clients from accessing his land as was reported.

 “Our lawyers secured a court injunction to foster the security and safety of the Rhinos, an extremely vulnerable and endangered species but the same did not by any glimpse of error or wildest interpretation bar Joe Roy from accessing his land, business or client guest house which he refers to as his home,” says Rhine Fund Uganda in the statement.

“Joe Roy, his colleagues and family have been and still have access to the sanctuary whenever and wherever he wishes. There are bundles and volumes of evidence both documentary and photographic showing Roy happily in the sanctuary.”

The organisation says that the element of war was played to the gallery to distort facts and clear sequence of events.

Management also refuted claims that the Rhino Fund Board was disbanded by President Museveni, saying their constitution was only adjusted to increase the board members to accommodate two or three members of Joe Roy on the board.

“The Rhino Fund Uganda will remain the organization responsible for the management of the rhino program on the sanctuary as per the cooperation agreement that Rhino Fund Uganda has with Uganda Wildlife Authority. Joe Roy will not be involved in the management of this project other than having seats on the Rhino Fund Uganda Board.”

 “It needs to be reiterated that the Rhino Fund Uganda Board has not been disbanded by His Excellency the President.  It was clearly stated by His Excellency the President that the Rhino Fund Uganda constitution will be adjusted to increase the Board Member numbers in order to accommodate 2 or 3 members of Joe Roy on the Board and that Rhino Fund Uganda will remain the organization responsible for the management of the rhino program on the sanctuary as per the cooperation agreement that Rhino Fund Uganda has with Uganda Wildlife Authority,” Rhino Fund Uganda Board,” it adds.

On or about the 16th October,2017 and with no basis at all, Rhino Fund Uganda was stunned to be served with what purported to be a termination  notice  from M/s Omongole & Co. Advocates ,Counsel for Joe Roy allegedly terminating the 30 years  License agreement between Rhino Fund and M/s Ziwa Ranchers Ltd.

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The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany announced additional funds of US$128 million (EUR 115.8 million) towards supporting health and education programmes in the East African Community (EAC).

The majority of the funds will be going towards the EAC’s immunization programme with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

The EAC Secretary General, Amb. Libérat Mfumukeko, and the Chargé d’Affaires of the Federal Republic of Germany, Jörg Herrera, jointly signed the Agreement in Arusha today.

With the additional grant, the programme will be financing the procurement of at least four different types of vaccines (Pentavalent, Rotavirus, Pneumococcal and Measles) for children in all six Partner States of the East African Community. The programme is financed through the German Development Bank, KfW, and implemented in collaboration with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

The cooperation aims at reducing child mortality in the region and mainly targets newborns. To date, German Development Cooperation with the EAC has financed nearly 80 million doses of life-saving vaccines for the region since the support started in 2013 and the average immunization coverage in the region was substantially increased, making the EAC’s immunization programmes the strongest in Sub-Sahara Africa.

Other funds including US15.5 million will be going towards the “EAC Regional Centre of Excellence for Health Supply Chain Management,” located at the University of Rwanda in Kigali, US$2.2 million to the support of Ebola preparedness within the ongoing EAC-German project “Regional Network of Reference Laboratories for Communicable Diseases” and US$5.3 million to the “Academic Centre for Digital Innovation in East Africa” at the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology located in Arusha.

Speaking at the event, Amb. Mfumukeko lauded Germany for its continued support to the EAC and the integration process in general. Mfumukeko said the immunization programme in particular would go a long way in saving the lives of millions of children in the six EAC Partner States.

“The implementation of 2018 (Phase VI) which had a commitment of EUR 30 million (US$34.1) million has been fully concluded. The amount was fully disbursed to GAVI in December 2018 and spent on Pentavalent, Rotavirus and Pneumococcal vaccines in all EAC Partner States. GAVI has provided full documentation on the use of the fund including the number of doses per vaccine and country,” said the Secretary General.

“The new commitment of US$105 million for Phase VII will be used for the procurement of four vaccines of Pentavalent, Rotavirus, Pneumococcal and Measles with possible extension to Yellow Fever and HPV vaccines in all EAC Partner States. Vaccine procurements may take place in 2019 and 2020,” added Mfumukeko.

In his remarks, Jörg Herrera, underscored Germany’s commitment to extend the ongoing health and education programmes with the EAC Secretariat saying the programmes would especially benefit the young generation of East African citizens.”

“Investing in the health sector is not only an investment for sustainable social development but also for a country’s and the region’s economic development. Vaccinations are a highly effective and cost efficient means to fight child mortality. The German Government highly commends the EAC’s efforts to immunize every child,” said Herrera.

EAC and Germany can look back on over 20 years of successful development cooperation which focusses on Health as well as Regional Economic and Social Integration. Germany’s development cooperation, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), has to date contributed to the regional integration in East Africa through a variety of programmes and projects. Including the commitments announced today, the German contributions to EAC-German Development Cooperation programmes will have added up to over USD 480 million (EUR 436.8 million).

The Signing of the Government Agreement was witnessed by the Deputy Executive Secretary of the Inter-University Council for East Africa, Prof. Mike Kuria, the Director of Infrastructure at the EAC Secretariat, Dr. Kamugisha Kazaura, Ms Norzin Grigoleit-Dagyab, the Head of Regional Cooperation from the German Embassy and Pascal Kanyinyi, KfW’s Senior Project Coordinator Health.

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Kyadondo East MP who doubles as patron of People Power, a political pressure in Uganda, Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine, is in South Africa ahead of Africa Freedom Award organised by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF).

The ceremony will take place tomorrow in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Bobi wine arrived last evening and shared his views on African perspective show at SABC TV moderated by South African journalist, Aldrin Sampear.

“We are happy to announce that Bobi Wine, representing the People Movement has accepted the 2019 Africa Freedom Prize nomination from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Africa.” The foundation announced.

Responding to the nomination, Bobi wine said “I would like to thank Freedom Foundation Africa for the nomination. It means a lot to the movement and we need as much support for our work as we can get.”

The political wave in Uganda is turning against the liberation President who has been in power since 1986. The political atmosphere in the country has turned hostile to opposition Political leaders. The president under the guise of Public order management act, has banned them from campaigning, rallying and organizing, a different approach to advance freedom became necessary.

People Power is a freedom movement in Uganda that is seeking democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Uganda in this lifetime. Several attempts to silence Bobi Wine and the People Power movement has been made since their inception.

Their leader Bobi Wine has been imprisoned for ‘annoying the President’, their members have been attacked in public and attempts on their lives have been made in the name of silencing the movement. These attempts however have done little to stop the movement. With a drive to make a change from freedom, they keep moving forward.

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Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has launched a three-year Global Action for Fall Armyworm Control to scale up efforts to curb the growing spread of the invasive pest which is causing serious damage to food production and affecting millions of farmers across the world.

Fall Armyworm (FAW), a crop pest native to the Americas, has rapidly spread through Africa, and to the Near East and Asia in the past four years.

“It {Fall Armyworm} threatens food security of hundreds of millions of people and the livelihoods of smallholder farmers,” said FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu. He made the remarks yesterday at the launch of the Global Action on the sidelines of the FAO’s Council, the Organization’s executive body.

”This is a global threat that requires a global perspective,” he stressed, urging the FAO member states “to greatly scale up the existing efforts” to prevent the further spread of this harmful pest to new regions.

The event also saw the participation of Cabo Verde’s Minister of Agriculture and Environment Gilberto Silva; Undersecretary of Ministry of Agriculture of the Philippines Rodolfo V. Vicerra; Chief Scientist of USAID Robert Bertram; Norway’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to FAO Aslak Brun; Secretary, Secretariat of the International Plant Protection Convention, Jingyuan Xia; as well as government officials and experts from around the world, UN agencies and academia.

In his address, Qu said that FAO is seeking to mobilise US$500 million over the next three years to control Fall Armyworm. To this end, he proposed the establishment of a Global Action Fund – the first ever multi-partner trust fund aimed at addressing the Fall Armyworm threats, – and encouraged countries to contribute to this funding mechanism.

The initiative also calls for increased partnerships to complement current FAO mechanisms such as Farmer Field Schools and South-South and Triangular Cooperation as well as to create new cooperation channels, Qu noted. In particular, he added, it will feed into FAO’s new data-driven Hand-in-Hand initiative to target interventions where most needed.

“We must all work together, FAO, international organizations, governments, the private sectors, research centres, academia, and civil society. With the proposed Global Action, FAO commits to putting the knowledge, experience and lessons learned from stakeholders and partners at the service of farmers throughout the world to stem the global threat of this pest,” the FAO Director-General concluded.

Global Action Programme

The Global Action will be implemented between 2020 and 2022. It is expected to mobilize global resources and expertise to enhance national capacities to tackle FAW, reinforce efforts to discourage widespread use of highly hazardous pesticides, and provide resources for scientific research and innovation to develop efficient solutions to tackle the pest, such as FAO’s Fall Armyworm Monitoring and Early Warning System mobile app.

Doing so will help to bring the pest under control in the affected areas and reduce the risk of its further introduction and spread to new regions, including Europe and South Pacific.

Deadly pest

The Fall Armyworm (FAW) is an insect pest, which causes considerable yield losses in cultivated maize, rice, sorghum, millet, and other crops as it is capable of attacking over 80 species of crops, if not under good management and control.

Based on 2018 estimates, every year up to 17.7 million tonnes of maize are lost to this pest in Africa alone. This amount of maize could feed tens of millions of people; and represents an economic loss of up to US$4.6 billion.

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Seventeen police officers from Uganda have completed their one-year tour of duty, where they served under the police component of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

AMISOM Police Commissioner Augustine Magnus Kailie days ago presided over the send-off medal parade in Mogadishu, and paid glowing tribute to the officers for their dedication, professionalism and contribution to achieving AMISOM’s mandate.

“I want to congratulate you for your good work during the last 12 months. We appreciate your contribution towards the implementation of AMISOM Police mandate,” Commissioner Magnus Kailie said.

“You have acquired knowledge and wealth. You must use them wisely. I would like to advise you all to employ your time in improving your life and the lives of others around you. I implore you that when you go back home, you should not be the same as you came. You should observe human rights. As a peacekeeper, you have been mentoring the Somali Police. So, when you go back home, tell them you are a different person, with international experience, and that you observe human rights,” he advised.

The UN Security Council in its resolution 2472 (2019) adopted on 31 May this year, authorised AMISOM to deploy 1,040 police personnel including five Formed Police Units and Individual Police Officers (IPOs). The Formed Police Units provide operational support such as public order management and VIP escort and protection, while the IPOs train, mentor, and advise the Somali Police officers. The individual police personnel have been playing a critical in the stabilisation process of Somalia, especially with the maintenance of law and order in liberated areas.

“As AMISOM Police, we are mandated to help build the capacity of the Somali Police Force. For instance, in HirShabelle State, we have overseen the recruitment, training and deployment of SPF officers. In that way, we have contributed in building the capacity of the Somalis such that they can take over security responsibilities when AMISOM exits Somalia in 2021,” said outgoing AMISOM Police Public Information Officer, Isah Semwogerere.

Commissioner Kailie also decorated the officers with medals of honour and gave them certificates, together with AMISOM Police Chief of Staff Rex Dundun, AMISOM Police Operations Coordinator Daniel Ali Gwambal, and AMISOM Police Reform, Restructuring and Development Coordinator Maxwell Chikunguru.

Outgoing Uganda contingent Police Commander Ibrahim Saiga expressed gratitude to the AMISOM Senior Leadership Team for the opportunity rendered to him and his fellow officers, stating that much as they have trained the Somali Police Force officers, they have also learnt a lot from the mission.

A poignant moment during this ceremony was observing a minute of silence in honour of former acting AMISOM Police Commissioner, the late Christine Alalo, who perished in a plane crash in Ethiopia in March this year.

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