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Lawyer Male Mabirizi appeals against age limit ruling

By
Geoffery Serugo
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Male Mabirizi at court

Kampala: Controversial laywer Male Mabirizi has appealed against the decision of Mbale Constitutional Court’s ruling that recently upheld age limit act of 2017.

On July 26, four of the five judges of Constitutional court led by Deputy Chief Justice Alphonse Owiny-Dollo, Chebrion Barishaki, Elizabeth Musoke and Remy Kasule endorsed the expunging of both lower and upper presidential age limit that was capped at 75 years according to the 1995 and discarded the elevation of five to seven legislator’s tenure in office.
Mabirizi, who filed a notice of appeal just a day after the judgment, has today morning filed a memorandum of appeal at the Supreme Court in which he challenges parts of the constitutional court judgement.

Appearing before Supreme Court Deputy Registrar Godfrey Angualia Opefeni, Among the 84 reasons challenging the Age Limit Constitutional amendment, Mabirizi contends that Constitution Court Judges erred in law when they declined to consider the fact that Electoral Commission held no referendum for citizens to participate in the process of lifting age limit.

In a record of appeal totals 30692 pages contained in 154 bound books said the process of enacting Age Limit Parliamentary Act 2017 was marred with violence, assault of legislators, storming of Special Forces Command (SFC) in parliamentary chambers and violations of human rights which among others contradicts with parliamentary rules and procedures.

Mabirizi further said he was not awarded professional court fees since he had no lawyer during the proceedings at the Constitutional court noting that he suffered various inconveniences in age limit a case.

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Oil in Uganda: US Court denies bail for Sam Kutesa-linked Chinese investor

By
Isaiah Mwebaze
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BRIBERY CASE: Uganda's foreign minister Sam Kutesa

A US federal judge days ago denied Patrick Ho Chi-ping’s push to drop most of bribery charges against him, another setback for the former Hong Kong minister’s legal battle.

The decision, handed down by New York Southern District judge Loretta Preska on Friday, means that Ho, detained in the US for eight months so far, will face all eight counts of bribery and money laundering at trial in November.

Ho was arrested in New York last November and later charged with offering US$2.9 million (HK$22.8 million) worth of bribes to government officials in Africa to advance oil and development rights in Uganda and Chad for Shanghai-based CEFC China Energy.

The accounts to which the money was sent were respectively designated to Ugandan foreign minister Sam Kutesa and former Senegalese foreign minister Cheikh Gadio.

He allegedly gave Kutesa US$500,000 (about Shs 1.9 trillion) to secure him oil contract for a Shanghai-based multibillion-dollar conglomerate that operates internationally in the energy and financial sectors.

Ho allegedly paid Sam Kutesa, the money via wires transmitted through New York to an account designated by Kutesa in Uganda. The bribe was paid on or about May 6, 2016, after Kutesa finished his term as president of the U.N. General Assembly, the complaint said.

Ho is alleged to have provided the Ugandan official with gifts and promises of future benefits, including offering to share the profits, the compliant further states. Prosecutors said the bribe was meant to secure business advantages for the energy company, which was not identified in court papers, and potential acquisition of a Ugandan bank.

He reportedly wanted Kutesa to connect the said energy company to the president of Uganda Yoweri Museveni and thereby assist the company to obtain lucrative opportunities in Uganda’s energy sector.

The complaint states that before ending his term at the UN, Kutesa traveled to China and appointed the Chairman of the said company as a special advisor to the President of the General Assembly.

He then obtained a promise that the energy company would provide a donation to support the re-election campaign of President Yoweri Museveni.

The Department of Justice said the NGO is based in Hong Kong and Virginia and holds “Special Consultative Status” with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The Court was told that Ho headed an NGO funded by the energy company.

Angel M. Melendez, the head of New York’s Department of Homeland Security office, said Ho used his position as a consult to the U.N. Economic and Social Council to further the bribery schemes and offered millions of dollars in bribes disguised as charitable donations to gain business advantages.

Acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim for the Southern District of New York said Ho’s alleged Ugandan scheme was hatched in the halls of the United Nations in New York, when the country’s current foreign minister served as the President of the U.N. General Assembly, and then continued unabated upon his return to Uganda.

Kutesa was elected President of the United Nations General Assembly’s 69th session in June 2014. Ho first met Kutesa on October 19 at the United Nations, months after he began his tenure at the UN General Assembly.

Ho’s legal challenge fails

After several unsuccessful attempts to get bail since his arrest, Ho stepped up his legal challenge against US prosecutors by applying to have six of the eight charges against him dropped, and almost all evidence against him discounted.

Preska also denied Rosenberg’s contention that remittances from an HSBC account in Hong Kong to a Mashreq Bank account in Dubai controlled by Gadio – via an HSBC account in the US and then a Mashreq account in the US – did not violate FCPA. In order to do so, the lawyer argued, the funds would have had to originate from a US-based account or have landed in a US-based account as the transactions’ final stage.

The judge ruled FCPA was violated when funds landed in the US HSBC account and when they were remitted from the US Mashreq account.

On the matter of the movement of money, the prosecution said: “All that matters for purposes of this statute is that the funds go from outside the United States to inside the United States, or vice versa, even if transported by hand-delivery.

“The manner of that movement of funds is irrelevant.”

Preska also batted down a motion by Edward Kim of Krieger Kim & Lewin LLP, another member of Ho’s team, to suppress evidence in the form of emails and text messages from the defendant’s electronic devices. Kim argued that such “non-testimonial evidence” is not admissible because law enforcement officials obtained them before reading Ho his Miranda rights.

In her ruling, Preska said the electronic communications were only reviewed after a search warrant was issued, adding that “there was probable cause to issue a search warrant”.

The officers who detained Ho requested the password for the iPad and cell phone he was carrying at the time only to put the devices in aeroplane mode “so they could not be wiped remotely”.

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Museveni urges youth to contribute to Uganda’s dev’t

By
Geoffery Serugo
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President Museveni

President Yoweri Museveni on Saturday urged the youth in the country to wake up and contribute to the development, adding that that would help the young people fight poverty and joblessness.

“I want the youth to wake up so that we develop our country in order to come out of poverty and joblessness,” he said.

Museveni was addressing the National Youth Council meeting that is currently taking place at the Uganda Manufacturers Association (UMA) Conference Hall at Lugogo in Kampala Kampala.

He advised them to follow the ideology and strategy of the National Resistance Movement (NRM), saying this would make it easy for them and him to work together.

The president assured the youth in particular and all Ugandans in general that nobody would disturb the prevailing peace and the security in the country.

He said that the NRM government`s fore sighted planning had prescribed solutions to the challenges facing the youth such as lack of property, jobs and skills and called upon the youth to support the government in its efforts to increase the Youth Fund meant to empower them to undertake different production activities, including adding value to products made locally.

He said government would provide maize processing machines in different areas of Masindi District, among others, where a lot of maize is produced, calling on the youth undertake and interest their parents in commercial agriculture.

Museveni advised the Youth Secretariat to engage scientists from Makerere University so as to get scientific explanations on what to do to improve production ventures. He proposed to the youth in the country to have action plans geared towards stopping the haemorrhage of their country’s annual expenditure on imports worth about US$7 billion (Shs 25.9 trillion).

“You are very lucky in a very rich country and your parents are rich because they spend money to enrich others by importing these things. I want an action plan by the youth so that we stop this haemorrhage of spending US$7 billion on imports every year,” he said.

Museveni further asked the youth to know how to defend their interests and what is good for them so that government can support them better. He also warned them against land fragmentation practices and only work to consolidate families’ pieces of land keeping in mind that they should embrace of shares and parcel out the monetary proceeds from the activities carried on other then parcelling out land into uneconomic units.

He challenged the youth to help their parents to embrace commercial farming by encouraging them to abandon subsistence farming that is still a big problem. He said that 32 percent of Ugandans are currently in money economy while the remaining 68 percent are mere spectators.

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Ten tips to strategic decisions made without a Crisis

By
Guest Writer
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Martin Zwilling

By Martin Zwilling

Strategic decisions set the overall direction for your business, whereas operational decisions set day-to-day operations. Unfortunately, most of the entrepreneurs who contact me for guidance only seem to work on strategic issues when they are in a crisis, such as losing a major distributor or being swamped with customer complaints. It’s a bit late when strategy becomes operational.

I recommend that every entrepreneur and business owner carve out some time every week for proactively work on strategy. I call it working on the business versus working in the business. Working on the business should not be done in the same ad-hoc crisis style as operational decisions. I suggest a more formal analysis and decision process along the following lines:

Identify potential next business steps based on trends. Force yourself to step outside the box and come up with a half dozen innovative changes which might improve the business. Ask your team to prioritize these alternatives, based on costs and other impacts. Part of the intent here is to get buy-in from the team that change is not all bad.

Challenge your team with strategic questions and issues. The process of asking and answering strategic questions is key to getting everyone to think beyond today. Every entrepreneur benefits from out of the box thinking. The “5 Whys” is another iterative technique used to determine the root cause of issues and stimulate in-depth thinking.

Ask for analysis and feedback based on long-term impact. Often, beneficial changes will have a short-term cost to achieve market growth or competitive advantage. Investors, for example, usually want short-term profit distribution versus re-investing for the future. Thus every analysis needs to chart impact over the strategic timeframe, with risks.

Look for objective and current data to support your analysis. Many crisis operational decisions are made from gut instincts and emotional reactions. Strategic decisions need to be based on statistically valid samples of complete and consistent data, relative to the decision at hand. The best analysis done on bad data will still yield a bad decision.

Factor in previous results, best of breed, and known failures. Unlike operational decisions, strategic decisions require going beyond your own experiences to look at competitors, industry experts, and failures in the marketplace. Make sure you don’t repeat your own mistakes, or the mistakes of others before you. Quantify risk levels.

Don’t allow analysis paralysis to hamper strategic decisions. Always identify your top objective for any specific decision, and use that to drive everyone to closure. Many business owners over-think key directional decisions, to the point where a change never gets made, or conditions have changed by implementation. Time is money in business.

Make strategic decisions based on your values and goals. After listening to the opinions, suggestions, and ideas of others, strategic decisions have to be made by you, tempered by your vision. Don’t try to please everyone with every decision. You need to be comfortable with your business and your legacy. Only you will be held accountable.

Every strategic decision needs a “Plan B” for backup. Contingency plans make sense in every case these days, since technology and market factors are moving fast. In all cases, there are factors involved that you can’t control, such as regulatory, economic, or environmental. Having a Plan B must never be shortcut for not doing proper analysis.

Define metrics to assess roll-out progress and value. Tie your implementation to metrics that will allow you to determine whether or not your decision truly achieves your goal. Establish milestones that you can tie to your annual and quarterly objectives. If you track your progress against measurable targets, you can adjust tactics as necessary.

Communicate strategic decisions to all, with implementation plans. Strategies loudly proclaimed, but without a specific roll-out plan, will be ineffective or will fail. Everyone has to understand what has to be done, how to do it, and who is responsible for each element. Your task is to manage the rollout, and make necessary adjustments.

In today’s business world, making sound strategic decisions is increasingly critical and difficult, primarily due to the current high levels of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity in the marketplace. Thus it behooves every business owner to spend more of his or her time on strategic planning, and delegate more of the operational elements. Where are you on this split?

The Write is a veteran startup mentor, executive, blogger, author, tech professional, and Angel investor. Published on Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc.

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Free and secure access needed in DR Congo conflict zone to tackle Ebola – WHO

By
Agencies
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WHO Director General, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus.

After seeing first-hand the complexities of the Ebola response in the conflict-affected region of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Head of the World Health Organization (WHO) called for “free and secure” access to the disease-affected people.

“All of those participating in the response must be able to move freely and safely in conflict areas to do the work that is needed to bring the outbreak under control,” said Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO’s Director-General.

He said the population must also have access to treatment centers that save lives and stop the spread of disease.

While this is the country’s 10th Ebola outbreak, it is the first time that the disease has struck a densely populated active conflict zone. As was done in the recent outbreak in the west of the country, WHO is supporting the Ministry of Health in key aspects of the response.

A little more than a week since the government declared the new Ebola outbreak, Dr. Tedros, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa and Dr. Peter Salama, WHO Deputy Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and Response, went on a two-day mission to the city of Beni as well as to Mangina, the epicentre of the epidemic where most of the confirmed cases have been reported so far.

A range of armed groups are active in the area and, according to WHO, this insecurity is creating a challenge for health teams attempting to reach communities for active case finding and monitoring, often requiring armed escorts. The violence can also discourage members of the community from coming forward for treatment.

“WHO has vast experience with delivering health services in conflict zones in Africa,” said Dr. Moeti. “We will build on this experience to ensure that our staff and partners can do their work and save the lives of the people we are here to help.”

On Wednesday, health respondents in DRC launched a vaccination campaign to mitigate the risk of spread of the disease.

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Makerere law students impress at continental Human Rights Moot Competition

By
George Mangula
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A combined team of law students of Makerere University, the Université des Lagunes (Côte d’Ivoire) and the University of Pretoria (South Africa) won the round of the 27th African Human Rights Moot Court Competition, which took place on August 11, 2018 at the Law Court complex in Accra, Ghana.

The runner up team consisted of Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (Mozambique), University of Ghana (Ghana) and University of Nairobi (Kenya).

The final round was presided over by the Chief Justice of Ghana, Justice Sophia Akuffo, who is also a previous President of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

A total of 48 teams participated in this annual event, which in 2018 was organised by the Centre for Human Rights and hosted by the School of Law, University of Ghana. This was the second time that the African Moot Competition was held in Ghana.

Meanwhile Makerere University came second behind the University of Ghana in the ranking of the top 15 English-speaking teams. University of Pretoria, University of Nairobi, University of Zimbabwe, Great Zimbabwe University, Uganda Christian University, Mukono, Midlands State University, University of the Gambia and Moi University in that order also came in the first ten of the English-speaking teams.

The University of Johannesburg, University of Cape Coast, University of Lagos, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration and University of the Western Cape in that order made the last five positions.

Université des Lagunes (Côte d’Ivoire), Université Félix Houphouet Boigny de Cocody (Côte d’Ivoire), Université Gaston Berger de Saint Louis (Senegal), Université Virtuelle du Sénégal (Senegal) and Universite Alassane Ouattara de Bouaké (Côte d’Ivoire) in that order were the top French- speaking teams.

The University Eduardo Mondlane (Mozambique)-, Universidade Jean Piaget Angola (Figueiredo) and Agostinho Neto (Angola) were the best Portuguese-speaking universities in that order.

Makerere University’s Hussein Dawood and Muhabwe Ruth Ahaba came behind University of Ghana’s Allotey Aniela Elma Adorkor as second and third respectively as the best English Oralists.

“Our students have been crowned champions of the All Africa Moot competition in Ghana. I congratulate Mak Law School and our students upon this great achievement. You have made Makerere proud,” said Vice Chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe

UCU’s Katushabe Donah Loyce was the 15th in that category.

In the Memorial rankings category Makerere University came fifth behind University of Cape Coast, Nkwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, University of Ghana, Ghana Institure of Management and Public Administration and Makerere University.

The African Human Rights Moot Court Competition is the largest gathering of students, academics and judges around the theme of human rights in Africa. The annual event brings together all law faculties in Africa, whose top students argue a hypothetical human rights case as if they were before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The Competition continuously prepares new generations of lawyers to argue cases of alleged human rights violations before the African Court.

Since its creation in 1992, 150 universities from 50 African countries have taken part in this permanent fixture on the Africa legal education calendar. The Moot has been a catalyst for the establishment of the leading programmes in the field of human rights teaching and research in Africa. In 2017, the 26th edition of the Moot Court Competition was hosted at the University of Mauritius. The event brought together 54 teams from 20 African countries.

The 2018 Moot Competition had participants tackle issues relating to the human rights of women and the right to self-determination.

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SG Lumumba dares Winnie Kiiza to join NRM

By
Trevor S Baleke
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NRM Secretary General Justin Kasule Lumumba

NRM Secretary General, Justine Kasule Lumumba has called upon the Party leadership in Kasese to lure former Leader of Opposition and area District Woman MP, Hon Winnie Kiiza into the steadily progressing National Resistamce Movement and quit the troubled Forum Democratic Change.

Prior to her public appeal, the Secretary General of the ruling Party expressed dismay over the way Hon. Kiiza was exited from the top Parliamentary opposition seat despite her relatively good & exemplary performance.

“As a Leader of Opposition in Parliament, she performed her duties with some dignity and self respect as a woman”, Lumumba observed.

She was addressing close to 700 party leaders at Kasese District Multipurpose Hall on Saturday evening. She commended the residents here for choosing to liberate themselves from political ‘slavery’ when they widely voted NRM in both LC and Women Council elections conducted recently.

Kasese widely voted FDC in the 2016 polls which was perhaps partly the reason for Kiiza’s elevation to LOP.

“I commend you for voting NRM in the recent polls and please tell your daughter (Hon Winnie Kiiza) to come and join the winning Party” she said to a loud applause from her audience.

LEADERS RETREAT

The youth leadership demanded to have a retreat organised for them at Kyankwanzi Leadership Institute which the SG okayed. She however added that an arrangement will be made to accommodate the entire district leadership.

There was a proposal presented to the SG to have Kasese split into two new districts. She however advised that constitutional procedures be followed with proper justifications.

Earlier in the day, the SG presided over the celebrations to mark the NRM massive victory in the LC and Women council elections at Kinyamaseke in Bukonzo East Constituency.

Both events were attended by the State Minister for Agriculture Hon Christopher Kibazanga among other dignitaries.

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NRM Women paint Arua town yellow

By
Trevor S Baleke
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NRM Candidate for Arua Municipality, Nusra Tiperu(Third Right n yellow) with some of the women in Arua town

ARUA is yellow as thousands of women dressed in yellow are marching on the streets in support of their NRM party flag bearer, Nusura Tiperu.

The yellow women say the march is in solitary of their colleague, Tiperu – the only female cansidate in the race.

The camps got hotter and energised when the party Secretary General camped there and tipped fellow women on the advantages of having a fellow woman in such a position. Lumumba joined several other national party officials who have been in Arua since the commencement of campaigns.

NRM women canvasing votes for Nusra Tiperu in Arua

The march comes ahead of the planned arrival of the party chairman and president, Yoweri Museveni who is expected in Arua tomorrow morning to further campaign for Tiperu.

The forthcoming Arua Municipality by-election is scheduled August 15.

The seat fell vacant after the incumbent, Col Ibrahim Abiriga, was gunned down alongside his brother, Saidi Kongo, in Kawanda, Wakiso District, on June 8.

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MP Balyeku gives 15m, 500 iron sheets to burnt Madhvan market

By
Trevor S Baleke
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Gave Help: Jinja West MP Moses Grace Balyeku

Jinja West MP, Moses Grace Balyeku on Saturday August 11, 2018 gave hope to the vendors at Madhvan market whose properties were burnt in an inferno earlier in the week.

In an impromptu visit, Balyeku surprised the vendors when he pulled out shillings 15 million on top of 500 iron sheets and gave it to the vendors.

“These are the fruits of voting NRM. Your colleagues in Jinja East constituency cannot get such support from their leader because he is not NRM,” he said.

In fact the flamboyant Balyeku mentioned that, by leaving NRM’s Nathan Igeme Nabeeta and voting for FDC’s Paul Mwiru, Jinja East will benefit nothing this political term.

He urged the leadership of the vendors to put to proper use the money and the iron sheets.

Fire left more than 250 vendors counting loses Tuesday morning when it sparked off from a short circuit at around 2:00am.

It destroyed property including fridges, food stuffs, merchandise and stalls. Eye witnesses say market vendors tried to put out the fire in vain as it spread fast to most parts of the market.

It took the intervention of the police fire brigade to stop the fire from consuming the entire market.

Rescue efforts suffered a setback after the fire brigade vehicle that first arrived at the market lacked enough water.

With the aid from their legislator, the victims of the fire said they now have hope.

“Majority of us have bank loans. We have been in tears but Balyeku has consoled us. We now know, we shall soon resume work to sustain our families,” one vendor said.

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Kenya’s 67 year old Atwooli marries former UBC news anchor half his age as third wife

By
George Mangula
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Kenya's trade unionist Atwooli

Mary Kilobi, a former Makerere University student and Kiswahili news anchor was recently married off by her family to Kenya’s rich trade unionist Francis Atwoli, to become the third wife and says she is happy to join her co-wives in sharing the mzee’s love.

According to sources in Kenya, Ms Kilobi’s first encounter with Atwoli was way back in 2005, when she was a student at Makerere University pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in literature and Kiswahili and an intern at Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) in Kampala at the time, where the union boss had come for an interview.

“Someone in the newsroom alerted me that there was a Kenyan working there. Naturally, I got interested in meeting that person,” says Atwoli who is quoted he exchanged pleasantries and contacts with Kilobi.

Six years later, when she returned to Kenya, Kilobi and Atwoli opened lines of communication and the the mzee who immediately expressed his undying love for her.

Mary’s father Samson Weyusia, says the daughter has officially been handed over to Atwoli, a man he once met in Kajiado following an invitation. Weyusia says he knew Wanami as a friend to Kilobi, but not husband.

Social media in Kenya last week was awash with the news of the seemingly jilted Bungoma politician Jack Wanami Wamboka,35, who said that Atwoli, eloped with Kilobi who was his “wife,” even though the KTN anchor’s father says they were just friends and that he was not serious.

But Kilobi has dismissed Wanami as a joker out to ruin her blossoming marriage to the 69-year-old veteran trade unionist.

“I love Atwoli, he is a caring man who is always there for me. Given another chance, I will still fall in love with him,” May is quoted as saying.

She describes her husband as a responsible man who comes home straight from work. The couple lives at their IIbisil home in Kajiado after Atwoli finally won her heart in 2016.

She says Atwoli told her he was lonely and needed a wife and challenged him to visit her parents and make his intentions known if he was serious. “He readily responded by sending a delegation to the village about two months ago,” she is quoted saying

The two started living as man and wife after Atwoli fulfilled the Luhya traditional formalities.

Kilobi is happy that Atwoli is now there for her since “he showers me with love and always shows genuine concern. He calls several times during the day to check on me. I am with him because of love, not money.”

“I have many wives, but I snatched none of them from any marriage. Before I get hold of a woman, I do enough background check with the family to ascertain that she is not married to another man,” Atwoli is quoted as saying.

“If we don’t marry many wives, who will marry our daughters? I am encouraging my sons to marry more than three wives so that we can reduce the population of unmarried women. It’s a taboo in our community to bury our daughters where they were born. They must be married somewhere,” said the unionist is quoted as saying.

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