The East African Community (EAC) Secretariat will convene a cross border field simulation exercise (FSX) at the Namanga border between Kenya and Tanzania from June11-14, 2019 as directed by the EAC Sectoral Council of Ministers of Health in 2015, according to the latest press release from the secretariat.

According to the press release, FSX aims to enhance the status of preparedness for and response to infectious disease outbreaks in the EAC, thereby making the region safe for the people and businesses in the region. An estimated 250 participants from Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda and representatives from regional, supra-regional and international institutions and organisations will participate in the exercise.
Experts say seventy-five percent of infectious diseases are transmitted between animals and humans. Outbreaks affect agriculture, trade and tourism and the lives and livelihoods of the people. “Involving these sectors in prevention, response and mitigation reflects what is called the “One Health” disease management approach,” officials say.

The EAC region has experienced cases of Ebola, Rift Valley, Marburg and Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic fevers, Cholera, Polio and Plague among others. The current Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which has so far caused over 1,600 human cases and more than 1,000 deaths, remains a major threat to the health and socio-economic wellbeing of the people of East Africa, says the press release.

“Therefore, the region needs to be prepared and the ongoing efforts to operationalize national and regional contingency plans need to be strengthened. In this regard, the planned cross-border Field Simulation Exercise aims to strengthen the capacities of all people involved in preventing and responding to infectious disease outbreaks across different professions and sectors of society.”

An FSX is an interactive instrument to evaluate the status of preparedness for and response to disease outbreaks of organisations or other entities in the EAC region. It simulates a situation under real conditions which could occur at any time. The FSX allows participants to identify strengths and weaknesses and can facilitate practical corrective actions at all levels.

It will be used to assess coordination and collaboration mechanisms, emergency response deployment, logistics and administrative processes, risk and crisis communication as well as emergency management and leadership. Findings from the FSX will be used to further improve preparedness and response capacities in the EAC region and beyond.

The scenario of the exercise will mimic a cross border disease outbreak, aggravated by environmental factors and with impact on humans and animals, agriculture, trade and tourism, and the economy as a whole. Early warning, infections and deaths in animals and human beings will prompt the reporting and activation of national and regional preparedness and response mechanisms emphasising the importance of the One Health approach and of appropriate risk and crisis communication as well as cross border collaboration.

Based on the recent need to prepare EAC Partner States for Ebola due to the current outbreak in DRC, the fictitious component will feature a virus that will mutate into a pathogen that can be transmitted between humans causing severe fever and bleeding resulting in increased numbers of cases and deaths. This will help in assessing and building EAC Secretariat’s and Partner States’ capacities to prepare and respond to an Ebola-like situation.

The cross-border field simulation exercise is supported by the “Support to Pandemic Preparedness in the EAC Region” project, which the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH implements on behalf of the German Government and the EAC. The World Health Organization is providing technical support throughout the planning and implementation of FSX in line with its mandate of implementing the International Health Regulations globally.

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More than 1-billion people in over 180 countries use WhatsApp to stay in touch with friends and family, anytime and anywhere. It is this very reason that has driven Wari to integrate with the WhatsApp Business solution to enable customers – through strategic partnerships – to request its financial services around the world on WhatsApp.

On WhatsApp, Wari customers will be able to easily request access to frequently used services and request to initiate financial operations that include: Opening an Account, topping-up balances, sending and receiving Money and purchasing of airtime as well as Payment of Bills.

The introduction of MyWari on WhatsApp provides customers the convenience to transact and communicate directly as well as easily carry out all their operations. This Wari service on WhatsApp is currently available in the following languages: (French, English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese) with Russian and Arabic coming soon. This will allow Wari to cater to a broader customer base with the aim of enhancing the user experience across different continents and languages.

In addition, Wari’s financial services availability on WhatsApp will enable millions of consumers to request to initiate financial transactions, regardless of where they may be located in the world.

“We have been working for several months to globalise our platform through strategic acquisitions and partnerships on all continents. We are always aiming to create a standard to interconnect people in all countries and to make financial inclusion a reality, thus building tomorrow’s world,” says Kabirou Mbodje, Wari President and CEO.

The Wari WhatsApp business solution is appropriately aligned with Wari’s ambitions to offer its customers innovative experiences through intuitive interfaces. Furthermore, it places Wari in a great position in the digital, social integration space on the international stage.

Mbodje says that plans to expand the digital offering have always been on the cards. “We are steadily and decisively pursuing our development of wide-ranging services and distribution channels,” he adds.

This offering on WhatsApp is allowing Wari to position itself as a pioneer in the digital world while pursuing its global development. “This new partnership with WhatsApp further confirms our strategic goal of ensuring our key services are accessible to the masses through a digital evolution,” concludes Mbodje.
Launched in 2010, is a digital platform offering financial services with high social added value intended for the public, companies, institutions and merchants.

The Wari digital financial platform and its services, available to this day in more than 60 countries, via 500, 000 direct points of service and partners worldwide, including 45, 000 in Africa, offers a wide range of products and services: Wari accounts, payment of water and electricity bills, TV subscription, purchase of airtime, games and lotteries, sending and receiving money, Wari bank card, insurance to name a few and can handle all payment methods (cash, bank account, bank cards, wallets and vouchers among others.

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The Ugandan team by yesterday was hosting the Uganda Day at the Pavilion Afrique – Cannes Film Festival. Several engagements including Panel discussion are ongoing.

In its first year at Cannes, Pavillon Afriques is one of the busiest, unique, networking and business hub at the festival this year. Uganda joined a line-up of participating countries including Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Jamaica, USA, Brazil among others.

Godfrey Mutabaazi the Executive Director – UCC and Head of the Uganda Delegation notes this is a unique opportunity for Uganda to position local film trade and promotion that outlines the diversity and plurality of Uganda at an International level to drive television content. Uganda has the potential of becoming a centre for filming in Africa.

The Pavillion Afrique is an exclusive business platform where film industry stakeholders are meeting to discuss potential trade in Cinematography taking advantage of the unique atmosphere of the Festival de Cannes.

The festival is situated within the heart of the Marché du Film, which is the world’s biggest gathering of film industry professionals seeking to expand professional networks, develop partnerships and sell films.

Under the theme ‘Connecting the Past, Present and Future’; Pavillon packs a full schedule with a mix of private and public sector round-table discussions on film financing and content distribution, a series of country destination seminars, celebrity-hosted panels, leadership workshops, film screenings and more, the programme is the most fascinating hub out of Cannes in 2019.

In a continued efforts to promote Uganda as a premier tourist and film hub within the region, the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) and Uganda Communications Commission are participating at the Pavilion Afriques at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival that started on May 14 and will end on 25 May 2019 in France.

Pavillon Afrique is the first tent within the Film Market section of the Cannes Film Festival dedicated exclusively to the business of Film in the African continent and the diaspora.

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A pastor from New Jersey has been accused of giving up to 50,000 Ugandans a ‘miracle cure’ for malaria and HIV/Aids made from industrial strength bleach.

Pastor Robert Baldwin, 52, along with Sam Little – a former clairvoyant from England who is part-funding the project – are touting MMS (Miracle Mineral Solution) to poor Ugandans.

People and infants are being treated with chlorine dioxide – a noxious substance the FDA warns can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and symptoms of severe dehydration.

Baldwin is reportedly shipping MMS in bulk to the African country where he has trained some 1,200 clerics to treat the faithful after Sunday sermons.

Furthermore, he is offering smartphones to those who are ‘committed’ to the project, agencies reprot.

His ministry, Global Healing, described its belief in ‘using the power of Almighty God … to greatly reduce the loss of life,’ on its now deleted website.

According to Fiona O’Leary, a campaigner who spoke to The Guardian, she had a conversation with Baldwin in which he told her he distributed MMS through the church to ‘stay under the radar.’

The Guardian reported Baldwin told O’Leary: ‘When you draw attention to MMS you run the risk of getting in trouble with the government or drug companies. You have to do it low key. That’s why I set it up through the church.’

He reportedly told her he did not even refer to it as MMS because online algorithms could detect it and instead called it ‘healing water.’

He said that babies were given a half dose and that it caused no harm, just diarrhea.

The pastor – who trained as a nurse – is said to have little medical expertise.

But he strongly denied the claims made in The Guardian, telling NJ.com he had to shut down his social media accounts and website because ‘people are calling me Satan.’

‘All I wanted to do is help people using natural healing therapies,’ Baldwin said.

In addition he denied administering the phony medicine, telling the paper: ‘I just educate. I don’t treat anybody.’

His 25-year-old English backer, Little, told The Guardian he had donated $10,000 to Baldwin’s ministry and had also spent $30,000 building a home for Ugandan children.

‘Somebody in my family was cured of cancer with MMS,’ the paper quote Little as saying. ‘I started researching online and saw more and more videos of people being cured. That’s when I decided to test it myself on malaria and traveled to Africa.’

In a video posted on YouTube, which has been deleted, Little is said to have documented a trial of MMS at a small hospital in Kyenjojo district, western Uganda.

He is said to be seen in the film telling medical staff about MMS and watching them administer it to small children, including a baby of around 14 months.

Little, who has no medical background, cites a 2018 study by the University of Dusseldorf in Germany which tested chlorine dioxide on 500 malaria patients in Cameroon.

The Guardian contacted the university which stated the study had been reviewed and was found to be ‘scientifically worthless, contradictory and in part ethically problematic.’

The FDA have said: ‘The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to take Miracle Mineral Solution, an oral liquid also known as “Miracle Mineral Supplement” or “MMS.” The product, when used as directed, produces an industrial bleach that can cause serious harm to health.

‘The FDA has received several reports of health injuries from consumers using this product, including severe nausea, vomiting, and life-threatening low blood pressure from dehydration.

‘Consumers who have MMS should stop using it immediately and throw it away.

‘MMS is distributed on Internet sites and online auctions by multiple independent distributors. Although the products share the MMS name, the look of the labeling may vary.’

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The Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Matia Kasaija, has blamed district officials for the delayed payment of salaries of some civil servants in the local governments.

Kasaija was responding to concerns raised by Members of Parliament during plenary that the ministry had released money for the payment of salaries to the respective local governments during last quarter release in April 2019.

“I can assure this House that wages and salaries were disbursed to the districts and the problem is not here in the central but at the districts,” said Kasaija.

MP David Abala, (Ngora County), raised the alarm on the non-payment of salaries for the civil servants and local leaders in Ngora District who had not been paid for the last two months.

“The local leaders in the districts are complaining that they have not been paid for a long period yet they have done their work. The Minister should be in position to explain why the civil servants are languishing without pay,” he said.

He also noted that the pensioners in the district had also not been paid over a period of time.

Workers Member of Parliament, Agnes Kunihira, noted that there were various regions that had actually not received any money.

“There are 78 districts in which public servants and teachers have not received their salaries over time,” she said.

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Government has launched the operationalization of five cities that were recently elevated from municipality status. The cities to be include Arua, Mbarara, Gulu, Fort Portal and Jinja. They assume city status in the fiscal year 2020/2021.

On May 20, 2019, Cabinet approved the phased operationalization of nine cities which will be spread over three financial years, starting 2020/21.

According to minister of local government, Col. (rtd) Tom Butime, government in line with the National Urban Policy will continue to carry out planning and other preparatory activities for the Cities to start on the scheduled dates.

“The Cities will further be facilitated to attract both internal and external funding for garbage management, environment management, infrastructural improvement, ICT Improvement, Tourism and leisure facilities and security, “he said.

The second batch of two cities which include Mbale and Hoima, the Oil city will be operationalized in the financial year 2021/ 2022 and The Third batch of two Cities that include Lira and Entebbe will be operationalized in the F/ Y 2022/2023.

“The over concentration of development in Kampala has exerted pressure on the overall functioning of the City Infrastructure and services resulting into mushrooming of slums with their associated problems.” He said adding that the proposed Cities will reduce pressure on Kampala Capital City by absorbing the demands of the economic actors who would get their needs addressed by the new Cities.

He said the six cities where studies for elevation are underway and scheduled to be concluded by the end of financial year 2019/20 include Moroto Nakasongola, Soroti, Masaka, Kabale and Wakiso.

“They will commence operations in the F/Y 2023/24. Each of the cities will comprise of two city divisions that will be equivalent to municipalities for easy administration and coordination.”

He said Urbanization is the heart of successful economic growth of any country in the world, therefore investment in these regional and strategic Cities will play a distinctive role in Uganda’s drive for equitable socio-economic development, transformation and poverty reduction.

Butime, said Uganda’s urban areas have already become the engine of the Country’s development contributing 70 per cent of the National GDP. There is no doubt that the future of Uganda’s growth will continue to lie in new cities which will be strategic and Regional.

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The influx of girls migrating from Uganda to Nairobi looking for housemaid jobs is making life difficult for local house helps who now want government to do something about it.

The girls come in illegally, they are desperate and can take any amount of money, according to one Kenyan domestic worker who told the BBC. “Employers now prefer Ugandan workers for they accept low wages and don’t travel back to Uganda often,” she said.

She says employers now pay locals very low wages because the Ugandan ladies accept low pay.

In Uganda, women as young as 17 years are migrating to Kenya to find housemaid jobs. They mostly come from the eastern districts of Mbale, Bududa, Namisindwa, Manafwa, Busia, Tororo and others.

Esther 21, told the BBC that some house help jobs in Uganda only pay about Sh29,600 per month which is not enough to fend for needs maids which forces them to migrate to Kenya for the currency is stronger against the Ugandan currency. Most maids who migrate to Kenya to do domestic work are school drops but others migrate to earn money so that can help them go back to school.

Bad conditions of living

Edith Murogo who works for the centre of domestic training and development told the British broadcaster that the abundance of girls looking for jobs is making employers take advantage of their situation.

“Domestic workers are a special group of people for the conditions they work under. They are confined. They are not allowed to leave the employers house. They work in slavery condition,” Murogo says.

The organisation plans to sponsor 17-year-old Scovia who worked as a house help before the police found her without documentation and were deported.

“I am an orphan. I always desired to read so I left Uganda came to Kenya to find a job as a housekeeper. The employer mistreats you and sometimes beats you if you do not comply with her rules.”

They now ask the employers to treat them as normal people for they did not choose to be poor and needy.

“We are people like our employers. We have the same needs. They should treat us with dignity,” Esther says.

The BBC Africa Eye reveals how on arrival in Nairobi, the girls find accommodation in informal settlements, several of them decide to share a house to cost share on costs.

Esther now in Nairobi knocking door to door looking for a maid job says she leaves with her three Ugandan friends and each pays Khs500 per month for the house.

“We leave three girls each paying Ksh500 per month on this corrugated iron sheet house with no electricity. We share one mattress,” she says.

Esther works in a restaurant from 6 am to 6 pm for little pay.

“I walk for a long distance to work for they don’t pay me enough,” she says.

She says there is so much insecurity where she leaves. Their house was robbed off some days back.

“Where will we go? We just have to stay here, it’s cheaper ”she says.

Esther’s roommate Racheal who is a house-help says she does not get food from her employer.

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