The Rukungiri chief magistrate’s court has today deferred the case in which Dr. Kiiza Besigye, the FDC Secretary for Mobilisation Ingrid Turinawe and four other party officials are accused of murder, inciting violence and occasioning malicious damage.

Appearing before chief magistrate Julius Borore, the six that also included FDC presidential candidates Patrick Amuriat Oboi and Moses Byamukama; Rukungiri councilor Innocent Tashobya and Fred Asiimwe, were told to report back on February 20, 2018.

Details indicate the group allegedly damaged a police vehicle in Rukungiri during the scuffle between the FDC supporters and police on February 20, 2018, in which one FDC supporter called Edison Nasasira died. A postmortem report conducted at Karoli Lwanga Hospital – Nyakibale and Nurses Training Centre, indicated Nasasira was killed by a bullet.  

The group was arrested in Rukungiri where they had gone they had gone to canvass votes for Amuriat, with police claiming it was not notified. The FDC officials were later to be detained at Nagalama Police Station for over a week before being produced in court.

Meanwhile, after court adjourning the session in Rukungiri, Dr. Besigye was whisked off to Mbarara where he was arrested on Tuesday, to face other charges.

Background

Dr. Kizza Besigye and his driver Fred Kato, Ronald Mugume and FDC mobiliser Ms.Turinawe among other FDC supporters were arrested and detained at Mbarara central police station on Tuesday this week while on their way to address a rally at Kakyeka stadium in Mbarara, to canvass votes for FDC presidential candidate Amuriat Oboi.

According to Byamugisha, another FDC presidential candidate, his fellow contestant Amuriat Oboi and Kawempe South MP Mubarak Munyagwa were also arrested as they paid a visit to imprisoned Dr Besigye and Ms. Turinawe.

However, by press time today Amuriat, a former MP for Kumi, and Munyagwa had been granted Shs 5million non-cash bail by Mbarara Grade One Magistrate Sanyu Mukasa.

It should be recalled that on Tuesday, November 14 the FDC petitioned High Court, seeking it to restrain the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kale Kayihura from disrupting the party’s presidential campaigns.

Through Sewankambo and Company Advocates, Buhweju MP Francis Mwijukye who  filed the petition said in August the FDC Secretary General Nandala Mafabi wrote a letter to the IGP notifying him about party campaigns and that Gen Kayihura responded,  imploring the FDC ‘to cooperate with police for smooth running of their activities.

“The police, under the guise of the Public Order and Management Act (POMA), is disrupting our campaigns with arguments that police was not informed about FDC rallies,”Mwijukye said on Tuesday.

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The Principal Research Fellow at the Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC), Ibrahim Kasirye has said that food production is bound to rise while hunger is expected to continue biting in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA).

Kasirye’s assertions are contained in a paper titled ‘Policies and Programmes to End Hunger’ in which he discusses ways how leaders can end hunger in Africa. He delivered a speech at the African Union organized workshop on “Ending Hunger in the Horn of Africa: Moving from Rhetoric to Action”, held in Addis Ethiopia.

According to Kasirye, global food production- will grow by about 60 percent over 2010 levels by 2050, will grow more rapidly in developing countries, especially in SSA and within the horn of Africa (Djibouti and Somalia) largest increase in food production is likely.

“Even with population growth and climate change, per capita consumption is projected to increase by 15 percent in SSA to more than 2,700 kilo­calories per day,” Kasirye noted.

Further, he said that an additional 38 million people in SSA are projected to be at risk of hunger in 2050 as a result of climate change.

He urges governments to fund more research and development to raise pests and disease resistant crop varieties, bio fortification of staple crops, land reform and increase in land under irrigation to counter climate change.

Other solutions include; drafting and implementing policies on school feeding to spur demand for local food products as it is with Brazil where 30 percent of schools’ feeding requirements are procured from local small-scale farmers.

Setting up food reserves as mechanism for rapid responses in line with Pillar 3 of the CAADP framework.

Guaranteeing food subsidies to mitigate the expected impacts of high food prices during economic crises and ensure affordability of a basic diet for all, as it is with Egypt.

And effecting crops and livestock insurance and agricultural input subsidies

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Staff of Stanbic Bank Uganda Operations Division have visited the government-aided Bbira Primary School in Wakiso District and made a Ushs10 million donation towards the construction of a tank to improve water sanitation.

Part of the money will also be used for necessities such as clothes and shoes to improve the welfare of the children, and Patricia Nshemereirwe Musiime, Stanbic Banks Head of Operations, saying education is a pillar in the bank’s Corporate Social Initiative programme.

“A good education can only be achieved through a better and friendly learning environment, sanitation being one of the core elements,” she said, adding: “We believe a fully supported education ecosystem in our communities is enabled not only through the class room but also elements such as safe water and health sanitation which contribute to empowerment and prosperity.”

According to Ms. Musiime, supporting education enables achievement of a universal primary education and in the long run leads to development of the community.

Commenting on the contribution, the schools headmaster, George William Mubiru Salongo said as a government-funded school that receives approximately Shs10 million annually, additional financial support is always welcome.

“We appreciate Stanbic Bank for taking the initiative to support education in all possible aspects, more importantly as we seek to ensure a wholesome education for children,” Mr. Mubiru Salongo said.

He added: We are confident that this contribution will make an extremely huge impact on the schools sanitation by providing easy access to clean water which has been one of our challenges for some time now, he said.

Established in 1930, Bbira Primary School is a government-funded school with a population of 1,054 pupils and a teaching and non-teaching staff of 20.

In 2012, the Water and Sanitation Programme reported that the impact resulting from poor sanitation and hygiene cost the economy of Uganda Shs380 billion (US$ 177 million) per year, or the equivalent of 1.1% of annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

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Uganda has been elected to serve on the World Heritage Committee at the 21st General Assembly of the State Parties to the World Heritage Convention at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.

It is the first time Uganda will be serving as a member of the World Heritage Committee after the assembly of the 193 States Parties to the World Heritage Convention cast their votes in a hotly contested election that saw 12 new members elected on November 14.

The World Heritage Committee is responsible for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention, defines the use of the World Heritage Fund and allocates financial assistance upon requests from States Parties. It has the final say on whether a property is inscribed on the World Heritage List. It examines reports on the state of conservation of inscribed properties and asks States Parties to take action when properties are not being properly managed. It also decides on the inscription or deletion of properties on the List of World Heritage in danger.

There are three UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Uganda, two of them are National Parks, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park and Rwenzori Mountains National Park, the other is a cultural site, Kasubi Tombs (Amasiro), which is presently under reconstruction following a 2013 fire.

The election of the members of the World Heritage Committee are conducted on the basis of the composition of the electoral groups of UNESCO, as determined by the UNESCO General Conference. The groups are composed as follows; Group I is made up of Western European and North American States, Group II comprises of Eastern European States, Group III has the Latin-American and Caribbean States, Group IV comprises of Asian and Pacific States, Group V(a) gathers the African States and Group V(b) for the Arab States.

During this assembly’s session, twelve (12) vacant seats were open for election with two (2) seats for Group I, one (1) seat for Group II, two (2) seats for Group III, two (2) seats for Group IV, zero (0) seats for Group V(a), and zero (0) seats for Group V(b). In addition to those allocated seats, 5 remaining seats were also to be filled through a ballot open to any candidate of any electoral group. Unsuccessful candidates in the ballots for the allocated seats are automatically eligible to stand for election in the ballot for the 5 remaining seats, unless they declare otherwise.

However critical to note, is that there were no vacant seats for group V(a) where Uganda belongs. Uganda therefore was competing for the 5 open seats for any candidate world over, which is more difficult than the electoral group seats.

Uganda went ahead to succeed in the elections in which the following were candidates for the electoral groups; Australia, Bahrain, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Brazil, China, Guatemala, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, Norway, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Spain.

The Uganda delegation led by John Chrysostom Miyingo, the Minister of State for Higher Education included the Ambassador of Uganda to France Dr. Richard Nduuhura and officials of the Uganda Embassy in Paris.

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