President Yoweri Museveni meets Omar El Bashir of Sudan
President Yoweri Museveni, who was elected the First Vice-Chairperson of the African Union, has met a series of African leaders including Omar Al Bashir of Sudan, Edgar Lungu of Zambia, Faustin-Archange Touadéraat of the Central African Republic and Hage Geingob of Namibia.
In separate meetings held on the side-lines of the 28th Ordinary AU Summit of the Heads of State and Governments at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Museveni and the other leaders discussed issues aimed at boosting relations between their countries especially peace, security, trade and development.
The President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni interacting with the UN Secretary General HE Antonio Guterres at the African Union conference centre on Sunday 29th January 2017.
Earlier, the President had held meetings with the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres and later with the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn Boshe, President Uhuru Kenya of Kenya, President John Pombe Magufuli of Tanzania and Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo
The newly elected bureau of the African Union as announced by the Dean of the African Diplomatic Corps comprises of Chairperson Alpha Conde, President of Guinea, First Vice-Chairperson Yoweri Museveni of Uganda; Second Vice-Chairperson Abdelaziz Bouteflika, President of Algeria, Third Vice- Chairperson and Rapporteur King Mswati III of Swaziland and Idriss Deby Itno of Chad.
COMMITTED: Declaration of Outgoing African Union Commission Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
Heads of State from across Africa have endorsed the African Declaration on Immunisation, to ensure that everyone on the continent receives the full benefits of immunization. The endorsement was issued during the 28thAfrican Union (AU) Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, after the leaders adopted the ‘Declaration on Universal Access to Immunization in Africa’.
“We know that universal access to immunization is achievable,” noted outgoing African Union Commission Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, adding: “The Addis Declaration on Immunization is a historic pledge. With political support at the highest levels, we are closer than ever to ensuring that all children in Africa have an equal shot at a healthy and productive life.”
The Addis Declaration on Immunization calls for countries to increase political and financial investments in their immunization programmes. It includes 10 commitments, including increasing vaccine-related funding, strengthening supply chains and delivery systems, and making universal access to vaccines a cornerstone of health and development efforts. The full declaration can be found below.
Declaration of Dr Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa
“Vaccines are among the most effective public health tools available,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa. “When children are given a healthy start, communities thrive and economies grow stronger. This show of support from Heads of State is a significant step forward in our efforts to achieve universal access to immunization and, ultimately, improve child health and drive sustainable development across Africa.”
Fewer than 15 African countries fund more than 50% of their national immunization programmes. As Africa nears polio eradication, critical funding for immunization through the polio eradication programme is expected to ramp down. Additionally, countries approaching middle-income status will transition away from Gavi support for immunization in the coming years. Consequently, governments must redouble their efforts to make universal immunization coverage a national priority.
Declaration of Dr Ala Alwan, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean
“As long as even one child in Africa lacks access to immunization, our work remains unfinished,” said Dr Ala Alwan, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean. “With the right mix of political will, financial resources and technical acumen, Africa can – and will – stem the tide of vaccine-preventable diseases across the continent,” Dr Alwan added.
With strong leadership and investment, increased access to immunization is within reach. For example, in 2010, Ethiopia built 16,000 new health centres, purchased 2,000 battery-free solar refrigerators for vaccine storage, and built a network of millions of health extension workers and volunteers at community level to increase access to immunization throughout the country. Since these investments were made, Ethiopia has made remarkable gains, with immunization rates soaring from 61% in 2010 to 86% in 2015.
Declaration of H.E. Professor Yifru Berhan Mitke, Ethiopia’s Minister of Health
“Immunization is one of the smartest investments a country can make in its future,” said H.E. Professor Yifru Berhan Mitke, Ethiopia’s Minister of Health. “We must do more to protect all our children from preventable diseases – not only because it is the right thing to do, but also because it makes economic sense. When our children are healthy, our families, communities and countries thrive.”
The Addis Declaration on Immunization was signed by Ministers of Health and other line ministers at the Ministerial Conference on Immunization in Africa (MCIA) in February 2016 in Addis Ababa. MCIA was the first-ever ministerial-level gathering with a singular focus on ensuring that children across the continent can access life-saving vaccines. To guide the implementation of the ADI, a roadmap is being developed in close collaboration with the WHO offices in the African Region and Eastern Mediterranean Region, the African Union Commission and immunization partners.
Declaration of Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Chair of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance board
“African leaders are showing outstanding leadership by endorsing this landmark commitment which will allow more African children to be reached with life-saving vaccines no matter where they live,” said Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Chair of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance board. “We must now ensure that the commitments translate into sustainable financing for immunization. Gavi stands ready to support African countries in their efforts to implement equitable health approaches and maintain strong immunization coverage so we can create together a more prosperous future for communities across our continent.”
One in five children in Africa still does not receive basic life-saving vaccines
While Africa has made impressive gains over the last 15 years toward increasing access to immunization, progress has stagnated, and the continent is falling behind on meeting global immunization targets. One in five children in Africa still does not receive basic life-saving vaccines and, as a result, vaccine-preventable diseases continue to claim too many lives. Measles alone accounts for approximately 61,000 preventable deaths in the African region every year.
RECRUITING UGANDAN VOTERS? Teso South MP Mary Emaase of Kenya.
A Kenyan Member of Parliament from the ruling coalition, Jubilee Alliance, has evaded arrest after she reportedly came to Uganda to recruit voters for her party ahead of the her country’s General Elections scheduled for August this year.
Kenyan media, quoting Uganda Police Bukedi regional spokesman, Sowali Kamulya, said Mary Emaase, the Teso South MP (Kenya) was found registering voters and campaigning in Amagoro village, Buteba Sub-County, of Busia district in Uganda.
“Police got information that she was campaigning in that area but as soon as she sighted them, she managed to escape back to Kenya but police managed to arrest her bodyguard,” Kamulya is quoted by the Daily Nation, adding: “It is a crime to recruit voters and campaign in a foreign country.”
The MP’s bodyguard No. 86019 PC Geoffrey Atwaine was arrested and disarmed, pending his release, the media said.
However, Emaase said it was propaganda meant to discredit her after opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) top officials took to social media to raise the matter saying the MP was in a Ugandan police cell awaiting extradition by the Kenyan government.
It should be recalled that tribes at the border regions between Uganda and Kenya are closely inter-related, with the Itesot from both countries having the same cultural leader Emorimor Augustine Osuban.
READY TO DELIVER: Judges of the EACJ First Instance Division in Court. They are set to make a judgment in the case of former Speaker Margaret Zziwa against the EAC Secretary General.
The East Africa First Instance Division will on Friday February 3, deliver a judgement in the case filed by Hon. Margaret Nantongo Zziwa against the Secretary General of the East African Community.
Former EALA Speaker Margeret Nantongo Zziwa
In the case Hon. Zziwa alleges that the process of her removal from the Office of EALA Speaker was illegal and an infringement of Articles 53 and 56 of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community.
Hon. Zziwa was the then elected Speaker of the EALA, after her impeachment, the Assembly elected Hon. Daniel Kidega as the Speaker for EALA up to date.
The Court heard the court oral evidence from witnesses for both parties’ witnesses (the Applicant and Respondent) from July 26 to 29 2016. Also court heard oral highlights of written submissions by counsels for the parties on November 21, 2016 that concluded the hearing of the case.
The judgment will be delivered by Judges of the First Instance Division: Lady Justice Monica Mugenyi (Principal Judge), Justice Isaac Lenaola (Deputy Principal Judge), Dr. Justice Faustin Ntezilyayo, Justice Fakihi A. Jundu and Justice Audace Ngiye.
On February 15, the Appellate Division will also resume sessions which will go up to February 28, 2017. Only four appeals will come up before the Court for scheduling conferences and hearing. All appeals will be brought before Judges of the Appellate Division: Dr. Justice Emmanuel Ugirashebuja (President), Justice Liboire Nkurunziza (Vice President), Justice Edward Rutakangwa, Justice Aaron Ringera, and Geoffrey Kiryabwire.
On February 28, the First Instance Division, will again continue with the sessions up to March 30, 2017. A number of cases will come up for hearing, scheduling conferences and delivery of rulings and judgments. These include five hearings, four scheduling conferences, two rulings, one judgment and two other matters.
The Court seats for a month every quarter due to the ad-hoc nature service of the Judges. Currently the President and the Principal Judge of the court are the only resident Judges in Arusha, other Judges come only when there are sessions or other court business.
All matters will be in open Court 2nd Floor EACJ wing.
Troops loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar have engaged the SPLA in Pagak town.
Fresh clashes broke out around South Sudan’s second-largest city of Malakal on Tuesday, a rebel spokesman and a government official said, the latest turn in the struggle for the capital of the oil-producing Upper Nile region.
The United Nations said Malakal, on the banks of the White Nile near the country’s northern border with Sudan, was largely deserted after civilians fled the fighting.
“The rebels had been trying to provoke the SPLA all this time because the SPLA has been given instruction not to wage offensives against the rebel forces,” said military spokesman Colonel Santo Domic Chol, using the acronym for the military, known as the Sudan People’s Liberation Army.
“This is in line with the call by the president for the national dialogue,” he added, referring to a presidential directive on dealing with the rebels.
But rebel spokesman William Gatjiath Deng said government troops launched several attacks on rebel positions.
“In the fight this morning, [the] Juba regime suffered heavy losses in human and material, as bodies of the Juba regime soldiers lie everywhere,” he said in a press statement.
Neither Chol nor Deng had casualty figures.
Civil war broke out in 2013 in South Sudan after President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, fired his deputy president, Riek Machar, from the Nuer ethnic group.
An internationally brokered cease-fire returned Machar to his position but broke down in July after a gunfight between the two sides in the capital. Machar and some of his fighters fled the country on foot in August, pursued by helicopter gunships.
Sporadic fighting between the rebels and government forces broke out in Malakal a week ago, forcing officials to close the airport. On Friday, Chol said that 10 rebels had been killed in fighting in Ditang, near Malakal.
The area around the city is a stronghold of Johnson Olony, a militia leader from the Shilluk ethnic group who was appointed an army general when he agreed to join the government in 2013. In April 2015, he announced he was deserting the military to join the rebels.
The civil war has driven more than 3 million people from their homes.
All similes, Mr. Lawrence Mulindwa, St. Mary's Kitende proprietor.
St. Mary’s Kitende Secondary School has emerged as the top performer in the 2016, Uganda Certificate of Education results released on Tuesday January 31, 2017.
The school registered 430 Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) students in Division One, with over 15 students scoring eight aggregates in eight subjects.
The remaining two students passed with Division Two grades.
Kitende’s John Atem Aguer, scored 8 in 8 subjects.
St. Mary’s Kitende proprietor, Lawrence Mulindwa was in a jovial mood when EagleOnline asked him what makes him and his school standout of the rest when it comes to producing the top brains in the country.
“I am extremely happy that we have upheld our position and to my students;thank you for flying the Kitende flag high. We will always be known by our works and indeed here we are” Mr. Mulindwa told EagleOnline.
Kitende has now been at the helm of academic excellence in both ordinary and advanced levels for close to a decade and half.
Another Kitende star, Caleb Busingye who got 9 in 8 subjects.
The other school that closely followed is the little known The Academy of St. Lawrence located in the Budo suburb of Wakiso. The school surprised the ‘big and traditional giant’ schools when it emerged second to St. Mary’s Kitende to claim for the number two slot as per Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB) rankings.
Edmond Mugabe who got 8 in 8 from Kitend
Seeta High, Green Campus located on Kayunga road in Mukono Municipality came in a third place. Seeta High Green Campus is a sister school to the two Seetas, one in Seeta and another in Mbalala, all owned by High Education Minister John Chrysostom Muyingo.
Ntare and St. Mt. Mary’s Namagunga are among the few traditional schools did perform well in the 2016 UCE exams.
The Uganda National Examinations Board has released the 2016 Uganda Certificate of Education results, indicating a slight drop in performance compared to 2015.
Frankline Nyangara also got 8 aggregates in 8 subjects from Kitende.
In the results released by Education Minister, Janet Kataha Museveni, 23,489 students passed in Division I, 44,307 passed in Division II, 63,072 passed in Division III, 142,479 passed in Division IV while 41,632 were ungraded.
When singer Ibrahim Mayanja aka Bigeye broke up with his ex, Don Zella, word began making rounds that he had replaced her with a singer Sasha Brighton. However, Sasha Brighton yesterday put the two-year rumour to an end by denying the allegations.
“Am not Bigeye’s gal friend!! I live a single life……..” she clarified yesterday.
Celebrated radio presenter, Isaac Katende popularly known as Kasuku said her statement must have come out of fear for witchcraft though he didn’t categorically state the person she was afraid of.
But it ought to be remembered that Sasha has also been linked to singer Geoffrey Lutaya’s son, Jovan Luzinda.
Sasha and Jovan are both in the same music group, De Nu Eagles, which is owned by the older Lutaya.
Bigeye and Zella broke-up over a year ago after being together for a very long time. Zella is currently in the US and back to her ex whom she had left for Bigeye. Zella and Bigeye have a child together.
Barely a year into his three-year contract with Belgian giants Standard Liege, Uganda Cranes star Farouk Miya has been sold off to another Belgian club, Royal Excel Mouscron.
Miya completed his transfer to the club today and has been revealed to the fans at a press conference.
Royal Excel Mouscron is a Belgian football club located in the town of Mouscron, in the western province of Hainaut. The club was formed as Royal Mouscron-Péruwelz in the spring of 2010 as a result of the merging of bankrupt club R.E. Mouscron and R.R.C. Peruwelz and was renamed Royal Excel Mouscron in the summer of 2016. The team plays in the Belgian First Division A after it won the Belgian Second Division promotion play-offs in the 2013–14 season.
Miya joined Standard Liege from Uganda Premier League Club, Vipers FC last year on a three-year deal and was scheduled to stay until June 2019. He lifted his first trophy with Standard Liege in March last year after his team edged Club Brugge 2-1 in the Belgium Cup final.
He was the lone goal scorer for the Cranes at the AFCON, currently ongoing in Gabon.
At the tournament Uganda was knocked out in the group stages last week.
“As a shepherd I am looking for all the lost sheep and will bring them back home and our doors are open even to the prodigal sons,” DP President Norbert Mao has said.
A cross section of DP supporters who attended today’s function
Mr Mao’s remarks come in the wake of the resignation of the DP National Chairman Muhammad Baswale Kezaala, who was last week appointed Deputy Ambassador by President Yoweri Museveni. According to Mr Mao, the DP National Executive Committee (NEC) met Kezaala on January 28, and discussed the merits and demerits of his ambassadorial designate post, after which the latter told them that he would take up the appointment.
“We agreed that his move will most spark off dispute between Kezaala as an individual and the DP leadership; but we shall always remember him for his contributions to the party which promotes truth and justice,” Mr Mao said.
He added: “As NEC we agreed that he cannot be both a civil servant at the same time a chairperson of DP, but I am glad that he has already written his resignation letter.”
The DP boss, who was addressing a press conference today at the party headquarters, also noted that some supporters joined the DP based on opportunism.
“There could be a confidence crisis; some people joined DP with the intention of becoming MPs while others thought it would capture power but they have run short of patience as they have failed to realise all their initial aspirations,” he said, adding that: “To all those who left DP due to their defiant arrogance if the conditions in the world are hash, you are all welcome back home.”
Turning back to Kezaala, Mr Mao said the void left by his departure will be filled by the incoming acting National Chairman Dr Mayambala Kiwanuka.
“Museveni thinks that everybody has a price, but we want to prove him wrong because most people have a price but not everyone does,’’ Mao said chidingly of Kezaala.
Earlier, while appearing on a NBS TV talk show, DP acting Secretary General Dr Gerald Siranda echoed Mr Mao’s remarks and told his host that the party had over the years been hit by defections but that it had remained steadfast.
“This is not the first time such occurrence is recorded in the history of DP as we promote our truth and justice mandate, in the 80s most of our leaders left and joined UPC but DP persisted,” he said.
DP President Norbert Mao bows in prayer as the party remembered its fallen stalwarts.
Meanwhile, the DP has held a memorial service for its fallen supporters including among others the former Secretary General Mathias Nsubuga and its Vice President Mukasa Mbidde’s wife, Susan Namaganda, the immediate former Woman MP for Bukomansimbi.
'HONOURABLE' RESIGNATION: Former DP National Chairman Muhammad Baswale Kezaala
The Democratic Party (DP) has decried the resignation of their party chairman, Baswale Kezaala over what they have called betrayal. According to the DP spokesman Kenneth Kakande, Kezaala has betrayed DP.
“I feel he has betrayed the values of the Democratic Party. He has betrayed me as well and I’m scared. Kezaala believed in the struggle. He believed in compassion, justice and equal opportunities. But with such values, you can’t stand in the storm (NRM),” he said while appearing on NBS TV Tuesday morning.
Kakande adds that with Kezaala’s resignation, there is no doubt he has switched to NRM. “You can’t join a tiger’s cage unless you are a tiger in a sheep skin. (But) Baswale Kezaala is not the first one (to join NRM). Luzigge was compromised and crossed over but we replaced him.”
He commended him for openly resigning unlike others. “Among all those who have left, Kezaala has done the most honorable thing, to resign. I’m waiting for other resignations, including party vice president (Mbidde), after he appeared on the same podium with Museveni,” Kakande said.
However, veteran politician Israel Mayengo says Kezaala, a former Mayor of Jinja Town, did the right thing by accepting the appointment. “It’s not a betrayal, it is selfishness. It seems DP had no money to pay him,” he said while appearing on the same station. “Kezaala was absolutely right to resign. Museveni was also right to appoint him because he has all the power.”
Nevertheless, he adds that “DP is the only party that has the semblance to stay for long. Others are situational parties”.
Meanwhile, DP says it hasn’t received Kezaala’s resignation letter. “We haven’t received the hard copy of Kezaala’s resignation but we have seen it online. I talked to Kezaala after I heard about his appointment and told him to address a presser about not being consulted but…….”
Part of his resignation letter that is making rounds online reads in part; ‘I wish to communicate that as I have been proposed in the diplomatic service as a Deputy Ambassador, a position that requires one to serve outside the country, I will be unable to serve the party,” Kezaala told journalists on Monday afternoon. Accordingly allow me tender in my resignation as national chairman with immediate effect. It has raised a lot of anxiety from many party members and I have decided to tender in my resignation’.
Kezaala was appointed as Deputy Ambassador in a recent reshuffle of ambassadors that saw even the King of Busoga William Wilberforce Gabula as an ambassador Special Duties in the president’s office.
