The Katikiro of Buganda Charles Peter Mayiga, has strongly criticised the police over ‘weakness in fighting one of the biggest challenges currently facing the Kingdom’ – land.

Addressing the Lukiiko (Buganda Parliament) today, Mayiga, while commenting about the ongoing land wrangles in Buganda, said: “Why should one talk about Mailo land before talking about the police weaknesses? That is where everyone runs to when an issue on land arises and many land-related cases have been reported to police but they hardly yield any positive results.”

“Police has been so weak in investigating land-related cases that even the cases that reach court are dismissed because of lack of evidence. This in turn has worsened the situation,” Mayiga, a lawyer by profession, added.

Further, he said, corruption within government institutions has also contributed to the escalation of the land wrangles in the country.

Mayiga was apparently reacting to comments made last week by the Minister of Lands, Betty Amongi who, while speaking at the launch of the land probe commission, asked chairperson Justice Catherine Bamugemereire, to probe the controversial Buganda Kingdom’s mass land titling campaign dubbed: ‘Ekyapa Mu Ngalo’.

At the launch Minister Amongi emphasised that the campaign of leasing land to Ugandans by Buganda Kingdom needs to be revisited. “There is a total departure from the mailo to leasehold, which provides for conditions involving payments,” she said, adding: “We have private and official mailo land held in trust by the Kabaka and that owned privately. Interrogate the official mailo where bibanja owners settle as bonafide occupants are suffering yet the law protects them.”

The Buganda Land Board (BLB), a corporate body mandated by the Kabaka to manage land in the kingdom is carrying out a mass land titling campaign dubbed ‘Kyapa Mu Ngalo’ for six months aimed at ‘strengthening security of tenure for tenants on the Kingdom land’.

By press time it was not possible to get comment from the police or the lands ministry.

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Creditors of Uganda Telecom Limited (utl) will meet on May 10 to deliberate on the way forward for the heavily indebted company, with a warning that failure to vouch for its continuation might negatively affect the creditors.

According to a May 8 release by Uganda Registration Services Bureau boss Bemanya Twebaze titled: ‘Provisional Administration of Ugamda Telecom Limited’, the meeting will decide whether UTL should continue operating or wind up (liquidation), the latter with possible negative consequences.

So, before the meeting Mr Twebaze, who is the official ‘Receiver/ Provisional Administrator of UTL, has advised the creditors to maintain the company, outlining the benefits.

‘Winding up/liquidation is is a formal process by which the life of a company is brought to an end. This would involve cessation of operations, termination of employment for all staff and suspending contracts with all suppliers and service providers and all assets disposed of one by one…closing down the business would significantly affect the value of assets and their disposal can be a very slow and hectic exercise’, Mr Twebaze release states in part, adding: ‘It is because (of) this diminished value that the potential to pay out to creditors may be significantly reduced’.

Previously owned by the Uganda and Libyan governments as majority shareholders, a select committee instituted by Parliament to probe is woes said that UTL is reportedly indebted to the tune of over Shs700 billion.

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Over 11 million people who submitted details of their Sim Cards to the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) for authentication have been positively verified, security Minister Lt. Gen. Henry Tumukunde has said.

Addressing the media at Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) offices in Bugolobi, Gen. Tumukunde said NIRA was yet to return positive results for details submitted for two million mobile phone users, and insisted that the card registration deadline, announced by the UCC about three weeks ago, will not be extended.

“The deadline for deactivation of unregistered sim-cards is May 19, 2017. For that matter, I don’t think we will have any issues or complaints,’’ Gen. Tumukunde said.

According to Gen. Tumukunde, the UCC will allocate a short code to NIRA to  send bulk SMS to the public in a bid to know their registration status as well as increasing  awareness on the status of IDs.

And reacting to the issue of cyber threats, Gen. Tumukunde said the government had recruited competent people and mobilized sufficient equipment to counter any infiltrators in the exercise that is aimed at curbing insecurity including planned assassinations.

Speaking at the briefing, UCC Executive Director Godfrey Mutabazi warned those trying to carry out multiple registration for the same number of dire consequences.

Meanwhile, Gen. Tumukunde has insisted on the non-existence of constitutionally-backed Local Councils is one of the threats to security in Uganda, adding however, that funds for LC polls will be catered for in the next financial year.

Tumukunde’s disclosure comes in the wake of government diverting money allocated for LC elections to the Ministry of Disaster and Preparedness to cater food for the dying victims of famine.

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Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has returned to London for medical check-ups, his office announced.

Buhari, who has not been seen in public for about three months, left Nigeria after meeting with the 82 girls from Chibok High School, who were abducted by Boko Haram insurgents and spent 3 years in captivity. The girls were released over the weekend.

Over the past six months President Buhari’s health has caused anxiety in Nigeria, with three former Presidents: Obasanjo Olusegun, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and General Abdsalami Abubakar meeting last week to discuss the issue.

Early this year the President spent six weeks in London, where he received treatment. This time  President Buhari’s office says the duration of his stay in London will be determined by doctors.

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