Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has warned Ugandans against getting excited over yesterday’s sacking of the Inspector General of Police General Kale Kayihura and the Minister for Security Lt. Gen. Henry Tumukunde.

Yesterday, President Yoweri Museveni made changes in the security docket, appointing  General Elly Tumwiine as the Minister for Security, Mr. Okoth Ochola as the Inspector-General of Police and Brigadier Sabiiti Muzei as the Deputy Inspector General of Police.

But at a press briefing held at FDC headquarters, FDC President Patrick Amuriat Obol said ‘nothing has changed’. “Police is rotten, we can only unpack, break and reorganize security system to overcome mysterious killing of Ugandans,” Amuriat said.

He also urged the newly appointed IGP and the Minister for Security to work for a common good for Ugandans, “unlike the former IGP who has been working in favor of president Museveni who has discarded him after realizing that he has been a liability.”

Amuriat added: “I hope this time multiparty politics will be given a chance to thrive, Kayihura has always worked hard to suppress president Museveni’s opponents; he introduced colored teargas and water to suppress opposition parties.”

Meanwhile, the FDC Vice President for Eastern Uganda Salaam Musumba has said that Gen Kayihura “is smeared with blood of people who died during his tenure, he therefore has a debt to pay.”

She added: “We heard of intent, where the former IGP might be sued in the International Criminal Court (ICC) over crimes committed against humanity during his term in office.”

Further, according to Musumba, new Security Minister Gen Elly Tumwine has ‘nothing to offer’.

“He only stopped at the first bullet he fired in early eighties,” she said.

According to Ms. Musumba, new IGP Okoth Ochola “is a desk man” and “Sabiti is the real IGP.”

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The Electoral Commission has refuted allegations made by Paul Mwiru, one of the candidates for Jinja Municipality East by election, that the National Voters’ Register for constituency has been inflated by over two thousand ‘ghost voters’.

The Commission, in a statement signed by Chairperson Justice Simon Byabakama Mugenyi, also denied that there were 2097 ghost voters on the National Voters’ Register and that 305 others had been wrongly deleted from the Register.

‘The Electoral Commission categorically denies the allegations as false and unfounded’ the release indicates, giving the figure of voters as 29, 973 as at February 21, 2018, as opposed to the 26, 421 for the 2016 elections.

‘The total number of Voters on the Register before update was 28,493. The 2,072 voters Mr. Mwiru alleges are ghosts, were a result of continuous registration by NIRA which was done before the update exercise, and is the difference between the total number of voters at update and the total number of voters for 2016 General Elections,’ the release further states.

The EC also details several other issues it claims were falsely made by Mr. Mwiru, a Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) candidate.

So far eight people including Mr. Mwiru have expressed interest in the Jinja Municipality East by elections ordered by the Court of Appeal, after it threw out Nathan Igeme Nabeta over a ‘falsified victory’.

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President Yoweri Museveni has promoted controversial Brigadier Kasirye Gwanga, the Special Presidential Advisor on Buganda, to Major General.

According to a release, the now Maj. Gen. Gwanga who joined the army in the 1960s, will retire from the army this year.

Others promoted include Brig Stephen Rwabantu to Maj Gen (Deputy General officer Commanding Reserves); Col Charles Wacha to Brigadier and Director Human Rights and Col Charles Byanyima to Brigadier and Commander Motorised Infantry Brigade.

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President Yoweri Museveni has sacked Inspector General of Police Gen. Kale Kayihura and Security Minister, Gen Henry Tumukunde.
Museveni appointed Gen. Elly Tumwine as new Minister of Security.
Museveni also appointed Deputy IGP, Mr. Okoth Ochola as Inspector General of Police. WHILE Brig. Sabiiti Muzeei is Deputy Inspector General of Police.
A statement signed by the President and dated 4th March, 2018, reads as follows:
In the Exercise of the powers vested in the President by Articles 113 (1) and 213 (2) of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, I hereby appoint General Elly Tumwiine as Minister for Security, Mr. Okoth Ochola as the Inspector-General of Police and Brigadier Sabiiti Muzeei as the Deputy Inspector General of Police.

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Former Bubulo West Member of Parliament Tony Kipoi was on Saturday handed over to the Ugandan authorities at Entebbe airport upon his extradition from Botswana, southern Africa.

He was arrested in the first week of February on charges of obtaining over Shs113 million from four Tswana by false pretense. While in southern Africa, Kipoi passed off as a ‘witchdoctor’ capable of treating and healing all manner of illness and problems.

But back home he was wanted by the Ugandan authorities on treason charges related to his activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Our reporter met up with a source who has known Mr Kipoi from way back in 1995 at Bubulo SSS, where they were Senior Three lads. At the time he was commuting from his home village of Bugeboro to school before he rented in Bubulo near the school where the source became closer to him.

Anyhow, in order to understand Kipoi better, then one needs to trace his ways from way back in school.

Below is his story as told by the source

At school Kipoi was shrewd guy who apart from academics, participated in sports, music and drama.

“In drama, he always took up lucrative roles which depicted him as a character with power: family head, business tycoon, policeman, army officer/man, minister, ambassador and President, among others, the things he usually fantasized about,” the source said.

Indeed, in one of the drama pieces, there was a character of a thief which all other students refused to take up and Kipoi offered to take up the task which he successfully acted when the act was finally played at the end of term. However, he never got a chance to lead anyone in real life at school, the source said.

Months later, the source said, the shrewd Kipoi was expelled from Bubulo SS in his Senior 4, upon having been arrested with a forged meal card. He was also not paying school fees.

Upon his expulsion from Bubulo SS, Kipoi joined Mulatsi SS, where he completed his UCE. His transcript indicates so.

Later, he was arrested in 1997 with others when they hired a taxi driver and robbed him of the car, leaving him tied to a tree.

They were intercepted at Malaba border arrested and brought to Mbale where they charged and remanded to Malukhu prison.

Having spent some time at Malukhu, they one night put blankets in the cells on fire, made an alarm and when the wardens came to their rescue, Kipoi and a few other prisoners escaped.

After the prison break, Kipoi went to Nairobi, before finding his way to South Africa.

In South Africa, the source said, Kipoi worked in cahoots with other Ugandans to ‘bewitch’ and then pretend to heal people; amassing a lot of money through trickery.

In 2010 he came back to Uganda and contested in the NRM primaries for parliament to represent Bubulo West and defeated the incumbent, Independent candidate Fred Bukeni.

At nomination, Kipoi, then also named Nsubuga, presented a Makerere University certificate of admission that showed he had successfully sat and passed mature entry examinations.

One of the competitors in the race, Ronnie Walukhu, contested Kipoi’s victory in the High Court and won. However, when Kipoi appealed against the ruling, the appellant court ruled in his favor, maintaining him as an MP.

In 2013, he was allegedly arrested in Congo and accused of treason, but he refuted the claims, saying he had fled the country because of bad governance and would only return when President Yoweri Museveni leaves power.

In the same year, he lost his Parliamentary seat upon missing sixteen consecutive Parliamentary sittings, a ground that provides for someone to be expelled from Parliament.

Kipoi has since reportedly been oscillating between the DRC and South Africa, but was wanted by the Ugandan authorities to answer the charges of treason.

Unfortunate for Kipoi, the journey he made to Botswana was to turn sketchy, as he was arrested and plans made for his extradition to Uganda.

And, today morning, Kipoi, in the company of alleged accomplice Robert Kitale, was brought to Uganda under tight security aboard a private plane and handed over to Military Police at Entebbe Airport, bringing the search for the hitherto elusive Kipoi to an end.

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Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta’s family is set to buy Nation Media Group, people familiar with the matter have intimated to Eagle Online.

Nation Media Group (NMG), the biggest and one of the most influential media houses in East and Central Africa, which NMG also owns Monitor Publications Limited in Uganda, the publishers of Daily Monitor, and NTV Uganda, has been bold in speaking truth Mr Kenyatta’s presidency.

Credible sources have told Eagle Online from Nairobi that the deal could have been already concluded but what is holding the rope is the issue of Monitor Publications.

“What is holding the deal is that President Uhuru isn’t interested in the Daily Monitor and therefore, wants Daily Monitor left out,” the sources said.

In corroborating the source’s information, Eagle Online has learnt that indeed two top bosses from NMG are currently in Kampala talking the Daily Monitor shareholders to see how they can carry on the Nairobi deal without necessarily affecting the operations of The Monitor.

President Kenyatta is also reported to have come to Uganda on a private visit last evening, a visit, our source says, was about discussing the NMG deal with local stakeholders.

A commentator who refused to be named for fear of wrongly reading the tea leaves because the deal is yet to be signed, however, interpreted the move as a checkmate in clamping down on critical press.

“The man has the money. It is a classic card of simply buying out the media and silencing it. It is even clear and works for the Kampala government which has been rattled by Daily Monitor’s journalism for a while.

“You buy your control into NGM Nairobi and help your comrade in Uganda by breaking Daily Monitor’s financial spine,” the source said.

Daily Monitor is NMG’s flagship product in Uganda alongside NTV-Uganda.

That Aga Khan, the biggest shareholder in NMG with a 44.7 percentage, is considering selling is not news.

Just last week, February 23, Business Today, a Kenyan news outlet reported that the NMG principal shareholder Aga Kan could be considering divesting from media business in Kenya. According to Business Today, the move that could see him sell off his vast interests in print and broadcasting industries in Kenya.

If the Aga Khan-Uhuru Family deal materializes, it will realign media business in Kenya to give the Uhuru family the biggest control over media in the country, something good for political business.

Already, the family has significant interest in Mediamax Networks.

It is reported, however, that Mr Uhuru is selling of his stakes in Mediamax’s K24 TV and People Daily newspaper to his deputy William Ruto, which means that the President will only be left with Kameme TV and the radio stations, which could merge with the NMG products.

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