By Trevor S Baleke

The family of Damiano Akuze, a traditional healer, who claims to have administered his spiritual powers and charm 29 years ago to propel Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga to political prominence, is now homeless as the residents in his area have this Friday resolved to isolate his wife, children and relatives and never to allow them back forever.

The charged residents made the resolution at a village meeting that climaxed a peaceful demonstration at Buwala primary school in Wankole Sub County just about 700 meters from his home.

Armed with placards, the locals said Akuze’s allegations had given their village a bad name and hence unforgivable.

Akuze ran to court last month demanding payment of Shs 200m for alleged breach of contract by the speaker.

In a suit filed before Jinja High Court on January 28, the witch doctor contends that on September 1, 1990, Kadaga approached him at his shrine in Buwala, Buganda Zone, Lulyambuzi Parish in Kamuli District, seeking his traditional medicine to help her attain a successful political career.

But the locals who know Akuze’s background and who have for long been Kadaga supporters described him as an imposter and a conman.

“He is just a thief. So if he had the powers to make Maama (Kadaga) successful, why are all his children unsuccessful?” asked Bugobi LCI chairman, James Gwire who was even carrying a placard describing Akuze as a thug.

Steven Luvaluka an elder in the community told this website that since Kadaga came into politics, Akuze has never supported her.

“In the 1980s when she (Kadaga) had just come into politics, it was me and Masooma (Wilson) – another elder who used to carry her on our bicycles to look for votes. Akuze was an ardent supporter and campaigner it our rival. Why didn’t he use the charms for his candidate to win against Kadaga?,” he wondered.

David Basoga, the NRM chairman of Bugobi B village said Akuze could only be pardoned by the village members if he discloses the persons using him to frame the speaker.

“I know the poor man, Akuze must be being used by some persons who are haters of Busoga. But should he continue concealing them, then we shall never allow him back in our village,” said Basoga.

Grace Namusoke, the chairperson of the women council for Wankole Sub county said Akuze’s allegations were an insult to all women politicians not only in Kamuli but Uganda at large.

“Does Akuze want to mean that a woman cannot become powerful if it is not by the powers of the witch doctors? He has insulted us so much and we demand that he comes out and answer our questions,” she demanded.

This website reached Akuze’s home in Buganda village but we were welcomed by padlocks. Area LC I chairman, Samuel Isabirye told us that since the day he went to court, Akuze has never come back to the village.

“His wife and children also disappeared some three days after. They disappeared because the public was demanding to have them paraded in a village court to explain to them how Akuze gave charms to the speaker,” he said.

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The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), already deployed a pre-election observation mission to the Union of Comoros ahead of the presidential elections set for March 24, 2019 where 13 candidates have been cleared by the country’s Supreme Court to run against the incumbent Azali Assoumani who is expected to win.

The COMESA pre-election observers are in Moroni led by President Museveni’s former spokesperson, Hope Kivengere, who is also a member of the COMESA Committee of elders from Uganda. Ms Kivengere led similar mission to Egypt during presidential elections.

The deployment of the pre-election assessment mission is in line with the Decision of the 16th Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs that was held in July 2018 in Lusaka that called on the Secretariat to support Member States planning to hold elections.

COMESA through the Governance Peace and Security Unit (GPS) has prioritized pre-elections observation mission as a means of promoting and enhancing the consolidation of democracy in the region. In 2018 for instance, a pre-election assessment mission was deployed to support the Zimbabwean elections.

As part of its mission to Comoros, the delegation are holding consultation meetings with various stakeholders involved in the electoral process including: Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Interior and Defense, the Chief Justice, the Chief of Police, the Electoral Commission (CENI), various leaders of political parties, civil society organization, media, former government officials; business leaders among others.

The meetings are to enable the COMESA mission to have a proper perspective on the level of preparedness among stakeholders as regards the forthcoming elections.

The key findings from this pre-election observer mission that relate to the forthcoming elections will be shared with stakeholders to ensure that Comoros holds a successful election.

The Supreme Court days ago barred the main challengers of Azali who was voted into office in 2016. Those barred are; former Vice-president Mohamed Ali Soilih and Ibrahim Mohamed Soule. The Supreme Court is said to be composed exclusively of president Azali’s cronies.

A political decision to rotate power among the three islands in the archipelago nation helped end discontent and coups in country the late 1990s.

This year’s election will take place under the provisions of the constitution amended at Azali’s initiative in a contested referendum held last July. The amendment allows the president to hold two five-year terms instead of one. If Azali wins, he will be considered as starting a first term, which would allow him to vie for a second in 2024.

The COMESA team come from the member states of: Burundi, the Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Sudan, Swaziland, Seychelles, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

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More than one billion 12 to 35-year-olds, risk irreversible hearing loss from exposure to loud sounds such as music played on their smartphone, UN health experts said on Tuesday, unveiling new guidelines to help address the problem.

The recommendations to prevent noise-induced hearing loss and related conditions such as tinnitus – commonly experienced as a ringing sound inside the ear – include better functions on personal audio devices that monitor how loud, and for how long, people listen to music.

“Over a billion young people are at risk of hearing loss simply by doing what they really enjoy doing a lot, which is listening regularly to music through their headphones over their devices,” said Dr Shelly Chadha, a Technical Officer, working on preventing deafness and hearing loss, at WHO.

“At the moment, we don’t really have anything solid other than our instinct to tell us: are we doing this right, or is this something that is going to lead to tinnitus and hearing loss a few years down the line?”

The joint World Health Organization (WHO) and International Telecommunications Union (ITU) initiative, is an attempt to tackle the lack of awareness about what constitutes too much noise, amid data showing that around 50 per cent of young people listen to unsafe levels of sound through personal audio devices including smartphones, whose use continues to grow globally.

Today, hearing loss which is not addressed is estimated to cost the global economy $750 million, WHO says.

“Think of it like driving on a highway but without a speedometer in your car or a speed limit,” Dr Chadha explained. “And what we have proposed is that your smartphone comes fitted with a speedometer, with a measurement system that tells you how much sound you’re getting and tells you if you’re going over the limit.”

A parental volume control option is also included in the UN recommendations to industry, which participated in two-years of discussions, along with experts from government, consumer bodies and civil society.

The guidelines also propose using technology to generate individualized listener profiles by monitoring how much people use their audio devices, then letting them know how safely – or not – they have been listening.

“What we propose are certain features like automatic limiting of, or automatic volume reduction and parental control of the volume,” explained Dr Chadha, “So that when somebody goes over their sound limit they have the option that the device will automatically reduce the volume to a level which is not going to harm their ears.”

According to the WHO, more than one in 20 people – 432 million adults and 34 million children – has disabling hearing loss, which impacts on their quality of life.

Most sufferers live in poor and middle-income countries, the UN agency notes, adding that by 2050, more than 900 million people will have significantly impaired hearing.

Around half of all cases of hearing loss could be prevented through public health measures, WHO insists, its recommendations coming ahead of World Hearing Day on March 3, 2019.

“Given that we have the technological know-how to prevent hearing loss, it should not be the case that so many young people continue to damage their hearing while listening to music,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “They must understand that once they lose their hearing, it won’t come back.”

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Lawyers in Uganda under the umbrella of Uganda Law Society (ULS) on Thursday condemned Makerere University Vice Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe over his decision that the university council shuts down Law School, claiming the latter was inciting the academic staff to strike.

“The Uganda Law Society has learned with great concern of the recommendation that the Vice Chancellor Makerere University has forwarded to the University Council to shut down the School of Law indefinitely, require all members of staff to hand over university property and to send the students home,” said Simon Peter M. Kinobe, ULS’s president.

Kinobe said in a statement that his organisation stands ready to help lecturers if they are treated unfairly. “We will not hesitate to stand behind any stakeholder who is treated unfairly or illegally should the situation escalate,” he said.

Weeks ago, following the Vice Chancellor’s suspension of three leaders that form part of the leadership of the Staff Associations at Makerere University, a team of academic staff at the School of Law wrote a Legal Opinion to the Vice Chancellor in which they counseled that his actions were outside the powers conferred to him by statute.

The university management would then send to the School, saying the advice rendered by members of staff was at variance with the interpretation accorded to the law by the Legal Department of the University. The leadership at the School of Law about two days ago received a directive from the University’s Director Human Resource requiring that members of staff be required to return to work immediately and headcount be conducted. That any person who did not heed this position was to be treated as having absconded from duty.

Following the receipt of this circular, the leadership of the School of Law convened an emergency School Board Meeting to deliberate a way forward. It was unanimously resolved at this meeting that members of staff are bound by the decisions of their respective Associations. Further, it was resolved that both academic and support staff of the School would remain on strike until the impasse between the University administration and the Staff Associations was resolved. Nawangwe took that as indiscipline.

Kinobe said the Constitution of Uganda enjoins each member of staff, as a citizen of Uganda, to both promote democracy and the rule of law; and to engage in gainful employment for the good of that citizen, the family and the common good. “To be a Proficient Bar Association in Fostering Access to Justice, the Rule of Law and Good Governance in Uganda.

He says as the impasse at Makerere subsists the future of 40,000 students stands in the balance which he said is very unfortunate. “Uganda Law Society commends the members of the academic staff of the School of Law for stepping up to offer guidance to the University Administration on the legal issues surrounding the present impasse,” he said.

“Uganda Law Society further notes that in addition to training the largest number of lawyers in Uganda, the School of Law has trained and influenced the legal profession in Africa. Some of the scholars at this great institution have world-wide recognition in their chosen fields of specialty. The School of Law has made an immeasurable contribution to fostering the rule of in Uganda. It would be both illegal and high-handed to shut down the School of Law because members exercised their rights in law and offered guidance in a time of crisis,” he said.

He said that the impasse be resolved immediately to avoid continuous loss to the affected students and the financially strained parents that pay tuition. “These are students/parents that have done nothing wrong and should not become victims to such circumstances. We also urge, that a confrontation between the School of Law and the University be avoided. President – Uganda Law Society,” he said.

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The ruling National Resistance Movement – NRM Secretariat has disclosed plans to start visiting its members in the diaspora as part of the strategy to mobilise more support for the party.

The secretariat has also pledged to improve the existing relationship between the party headquarters in Kampala and those operating outside the country.

The commitment has been made by the party Secretary General, Justine Kasule Lumumba at the Party Headquarters in Kampala.

She was meeting a delegation of 56 party members working, married or staying in the United Kingdom, Thailand, Turkey, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, U.A.E, Oman, Qatar and Denmark.

The three hour meeting was also attended by the Deputy Secretary General Richard Todwong and the Deputy National Treasurer Dr. Kenneth Omona. SG Lumumba said her office would arrange these visits starting May and called for proper records of all the diaspora members.

INVESTORS ISSUES
Different members raised concerns over frustrated attempts to lure foreign investors into Uganda and called for an immediate interventions by the party leadership. SG Lumumba apologised for any shortcomings along this line and urged members to contact her office directly as she also proceeds to inform the relevant authorities over the same.

NEED FOR EMBASSIES
There was a general concern for lack of embassies or consulates in most countries rendering the lives of Ugandans difficult in times of need for help. The Secretary General promised to further discuss the matter with the relevant authorities.

UGANDA FIRST
Lumumba reminded her diaspora guests to exercise patriotism wherever they go and always put Uganda in the first position.

She further mentioned that in the process of applying for citizenship, many Ugandans were writing negatively about their country and the NRM government in particular in order to win sympathy from the foreign authorities. She warned that this should stop.

PRAISES FOR WALUSIMBI
Speaker after speaker praised the Diaspora Chairman Hajji Abby Walusimbi (Calfornia, USA) for his tireless efforts in coordinating them.

Lumumba said that party has not been facilitating the Walusimbi committee to fully execute their operations due to limited funds.

She however added that things would soon normalize to make diaspora committees more functional. Walusimbi did not attend the meeting due to other pressing commitments in USA but he was well represented, according the NRM Communications Manager, Rogers Mulindwa.

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