As the year comes to an end, many an employee especially those working for big corporate companies are always looking forward to an ‘end of year party’.
And so were NTV employees. Unfortunately, their bosses hadn’t planned one for them this year, the first time such is happening at the Serena based TV station.
We are reliably informed that in protest, the employees mobilized funds amongst themselves and it was not until yesterday that a reasonable sum of money had been raised. A source told The EagleOnline that the only person from management to have contributed towards the party was Maurice Mugisha.
And finally the ‘protest party’ was held on Wednesday at Serena Hotel amidst murmurs from the disappointed staff.
The source also said that contrary to the norm when workers used to get bonuses at the end of year, no one has ever received such since NTV Uganda’s MD Aggie Konde assumed office four years ago.
Nevertheless, this disappointment didn’t dampen their party spirit and many who attended have described the party as ‘fun’.
SECURITY GURUGURU: Events Promoter Balaam Barugahare with Dixon Okello 'Bond' and senior police officers.
We are only a few days away from 2017 and as is the norm various artistes will throng Sheraton Hotel for the UG Mix party that ushers revellers into a new year.
The security team after finalising plans at the Sheraton Hotel earlier today.
But with less than two days left, security hasn’t been taken for granted; events promoter, Balaam Barugahara has convened a meeting with security to plan for the fete where thousands of revellers are expected to turn up.
Among those in attendance was corporate events security guru, Dixon Okello popularly known as ‘Kampala’s James Bond’ and several senior police officers.
“Following a high profile security meeting held today, at Sheraton Hotel between the Event promoter Balaam Barugahara and security agencies, Sheraton hotel is now under tight security 24/7,” Okello intimated to us.
Okello added: “All revellers should respect and cooperate with security for the success of the concert, he added.
All top Ugandan artistes will perform in this annual concert that attracts over 15,000 revellers. Expect the best fireworks in Kampala. As usual, I will coordinate and manage event security.”
The event is scheduled for December 31 at the Sheraton Hotel gardens
Two Swiss nationals, charity workers Daniel Plattner and Claudia Derungs, the founders of Njuba Children’s Centre in Buwama, Mpigi district have been ordered to leave Uganda, following accusations that activities at a school they run are ‘incompatible with the education standards in the country’.
Under the Njuba Kinderhilfe Uganda, a charity organization founded in Switzerland in 2008, Plattner and Derungs together with Robert Kityo Sengooba, a Ugandan national based in Switzerland, run the centre that is located in Kasubi-Kami village.
According to sources, authorities in Buwama led by the District Police Commander (DPC) recently broke the ‘sad news of orders from above’ to the centre’s managers. The source, hastened to add that the order to leave might be linked to the centre’s affiliation to the proscribed Bridge International Academy (BIAs) schools, which were ordered closed by the High Court in November this year.
Through court sixty three the BIA schools were closed after the organization contested an earlier closure ordered by government in July, following a petition from the Ministry of Education over concerns of poor sanitation, ill-trained teachers and the curriculum followed.
“The government insists we didn’t follow the Ugandan syllabus, that the project taught children only pornographic and sexually-explicit syllabi,” the source said, adding however that: “We have been operating in the country for several years before Bridge (BIAs) came here.”
“We were just affiliated to them and they (BIAs) started their school-related operations in Uganda in 2015, six years after we came here; nothing more,” the source further said, adding they intend to appeal the decision ordering them to leave.
By press time it was not possible to get comment from the authorities over the matter but according to their website, Njuba Kinderhilfe Uganda carries out projects related to ‘school support, external family support; nursery school learning; activities for children and village support’.
However, this year some Ugandan ministers including ethics minister Father Simon Lokodo and a host of MPs accused the BIA schools and some NGOs of promoting homosexuality.
“It is these international schools and some NGO’s operating in Uganda, which are funded by Europeans and the USA that end up teaching bad habits to our children like homosexuality,” one MP said.
The burnt out Casablance Bar in Kansanga, a plush city suburb.
“Now they burn my venue down. So heart broken. Sorry my brother Tezz and Family,” musician Pius Mayanja aka Pallaso broke the sad news.
MEGA LOSS? Pius Mayanja aka Pallaso
By his ‘venue’, Pallaso meant Casablanca Bar in Kabalagala which was gutted by a fire that destroyed properties worth millions Wednesday morning.
This came at a time when the hangout joint was only two days away from officially opening shop to the public and Pallaso was scheduled to be the main performer on the day, Saturday, to usher revelers into a new year.
According to the police, the main building was not affected but the wooden extension of the bar is what burnt down and, of the things destroyed there were: three flat screens, four loud speakers, one base speaker, seven sofa sets, seven fridges, and an uncounted number of expensive liquors among other drinks.
Pallaso’s manager says they had booked the venue for Saturday and now that the show is in balance, they are having talks with the bar’s management to see chart a way forward.
TRAGEDY: Hollywood actresses, mother Debbie Carrie Fisher died one day apiece on December 28 and December 27, respectively.
Debbie Reynolds had just one day to mourn the death of her daughter before she, too, died.
Two days. Two deaths of iconic Hollywood actresses.
But unlike daughter Carrie Fisher’s death, details of what caused Reynolds’ death remain a mystery.
Reynolds, 84, died Wednesday, her son Todd Fisher said.
“She spoke to me this morning and said she missed Carrie,” Todd Fisher said, adding: “She’s with Carrie now.”
He did not give a cause of death. Reynolds had complained of breathing problems, an unidentified source told the Los Angeles Times.
Reynolds was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars in the 1950s and 1960s. Born Mary Frances Reynolds, she was a bubbly singer, dancer and actress who starred in “Singin’ in the Rain” and “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.”
But despite her star power, she treated everyone with respect, her publicist Ed Lozzi said.
“The people that worked for her … she was just so respectful and caring and thoughtful to her publicists and her agents,” Lozzi said. “A lot of stars we worked for were not. She was special that way.”
Her film career began after being spotted in a beauty pageant at age 16. She became famous when she was picked to co-star with Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor in “Singin’ in the Rain,” one of Hollywood’s best-known musicals.
She married then famously divorced singing sensation Eddie Fisher, who left Reynolds for Elizabeth Taylor in 1959.
“I have no regrets about my career. I’m just thrilled I’ve had it,” she told CNN’s Larry King in 1990. “You know, it stood by me. Marriages failed; my career always stayed. It gave me the fun of life, you know. It allowed me to travel and meet wonderful, funny people.”
On Wednesday, King tweeted: “Debbie Reynolds was pure class. She was loving, talented, beautiful, and unsinkable. I feel sorry for anyone who never got a chance to meet her.”
Though she stepped away from film for much of her career, Reynolds continued to entertain on Broadway stages and in Las Vegas nightclubs. She also appeared on many television shows, including one of her own — “The Debbie Reynolds Show” — that lasted just one season.
Actress Ruta Lee, a longtime friend of Reynolds, told CNN affiliate KABC that Reynolds used her celebrity to help others.
“I was blessed by the almighty in having this wonderful sister who taught me so much in life,” she said. “Debbie was without a doubt one of the most generous, wonderful, loving human beings that God put on this Earth.”
Carrie Fisher, whose grit and wit made ‘Star Wars’ Princess Leia an iconic and beloved figure to millions of moviegoers, was 60 when she died Tuesday, four days after a cardiac event on a flight from London to Los Angeles.
FIREWORKS! A display of fireworks by the Kampala Sheraton Hotel.
The Uganda Police has cleared 200 institutions and individuals to display fireworks on New Year’s Day, police spokesperson Andrew Felix Kaweesi has said.
BURNING TYRES PROHIBITED: Police Spokesperson Andrew Felix Kaweesi.
According to Kaweesi, all those cleared sought approval from the Inspector General of Police and have a registered supplier. Further, he said the burning of tyres, either in public or private (at home) is prohibited.
“No burning tyres to celebrate the New Year even in private homes. Burning of tyres is analog,” Kaweesi said, adding that the police will be on standby to offer assistance to those in need of help.
“All those that don’t have extinguishers, we provide stand-by fire extinguishing machines,” Kaweesi said while appearing on NBS TV talkshow, ‘Morning Breeze’.
The top display venues for fireworks in Kampala include the Hilton Hotel Kampala, the Serena Hotel and the Sheraton Hotel, among others and, sources close to police indicate that members of the force are on high alert at most of the authorised venues, ready to thwart any crimes, mostly those related to terrorism.
Captured ADF leader Jamil Mukulu being led from the special police detention facility at Nalufenya in Jinja to court .
The former commander of Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebel group, Jamilu Mukulu, is expected to appear before Jinja High Court today.
Mukulu is facing treason and terrorism charges following accusations of his commanding a spate of brutal attacks against civilians in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The rebel leader was arrested in April 2015 in Tanzania, and later extradited to Uganda, where he was detained at the special police detention facility at Nalufenya in Jinja.
In 2011 the UN issued sanctions against Mukulu for ‘destabilising’ the DRC, while a court in the same country sentenced him to death in absentia in 2014 for terrorism and murder.
Leaders of the West African regional grouping have officially authorized the Ecowas Standby Force (ESF) to intervene militarily in The Gambia and enforce the outcome of a presidential election earlier this month if defeated President Yahya Jammeh refuses to give up power when his mandate expires on January 18.
Gambia’s President, Yahaya Jammeh, inspects a Guard of Hounour by the military. ECOWAS has put him on notice to quit or get ouste.
A leaked December 17 resolution mandates the ESF to deploy a Senegal-led military force to oust Jammeh who is challenging the election result after initially conceding defeat to Barrow and promising a smooth handover of power.
According to the resolution signed by Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in her capacity as the current Ecowas chair, the ESF has been mandated to ensure the safety of President-elect Barrow, his inauguration in accordance with the country’s constitution and provide security to other political leaders and the Gambian population.
The mandate of the EFS whose composition has not yet been revealed enters into force after President Johnson-Sirleaf’s signature but will be subjected to a review depending on political events in The Gambia over the next few weeks as diplomacy is used to end the electoral deadlock.
The resolution made after the fiftieth Ecowas Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government in Abuja, held on December 17 said the duration of ESF’s mandate will last from Barrow’s inauguration to realizing the necessary conditions for the effective exercise of his executive powers as the country’s new president.
The operations of the intervention force will be funded through the Ecowas community levy and financial support from the United Nations, the European Union and other donor partners.
The resolution followed an unsuccessful attempt by the leaders of Nigeria, Liberia, Ghana and Sierra Leone to talk Jammeh out of preventing a smooth handover of power to Barrow who had topped the polls with 43 percent ahead of the incumbent who polled 39 percent according to the revised figures of the results after the Independent Electoral Commission had corrected a collation error which did not alter the standings of the candidates.
Outgoing President Jammeh whose party’s petition challenging the results will be heard in The Gambian Supreme Court on January 10 has vowed to prevent Barrow’s inauguration on January 19, a day after his own mandate as the country’s elected leader will expire.
The head of the Independent Electoral Commission Alieu Momar Njai has rebuffed Jammeh’s claims of “vote-rigging and widespread irregularities” as nonsense.
President Jammeh who came to power in a bloodless coup in 1994 and won four elections before losing the December 1 poll has warned that any move to oust him would be regarded by his government as a naked external aggression.
DENIED DEFYING COURT ORDERS: Defence and Army spokesman Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda.
The Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) and lawyers representing a soldier, who says he was tortured by the army, have inadvertently played it out in the public gallery.
The development follows the leaking of court documents indicating that the High Court had ordered the UPDF to halt the trial of Corporal Majibu Ssebyara, who was facing charges of ‘failing to protect war materials’, an offence punishable by death under the UPDF Act.
In her ruling on November 22, 2016 High Court Judge Justice Patricia Basaza Wasswa declared the trial of Cpl Ssebyara by the military court as ‘illegal, null and void’.
She subsequently issued a permanent order staying the proceedings in criminal case number UPDF/GCM/15/2015, in which Ssebyara was accused of failing to protect war weapons while on duty in Somalia while serving under Amisom.
Justice Basaza also ordered that the military court discharge the soldier and never to use evidence obtained through torture against him. This was after the judge admitted Cpl Ssebyara’s account of torture.
It is still not clear whether the ailing soldier still remains under detention, but following media reports highlighting his plight, coupled with the viral online photo of a tortured man in a way similar to that which Cpl Ssebyara said he went through, the army has finally spoken out on his fate.
Lt.Col. Ankunda’s response.
Through a statement issued today by UPDF spokesman Paddy Ankunda, the army denies defying the orders of the High Court, which ordered that Cpl Ssebyara be discharged.
“The GCM (General Court Martial) respected the ruling of the High Court and stopped the trial of the accused on the said offence. The UPDF through the Attorney General has however appealed the High Court ruling on torture and so we are not obliged to comment on the ingredients of the matter, because the matter is subjudice,” reads part of the statement.
Lieutenant Colonel Ankunda adds that by the time of the High Court ruling, ‘the accused had other cases under investigations to answer, notably the offences relating to security contrary to section 130 of the UPDF Act, to which he is being tried. The current charges he is facing, therefore, are independent of the High Court ruling and we are equally not obliged to make any comment about its ingredients, since it’s before court’.
Lt. Col. Ankunda urged the media and public to remain ‘patient on this matter and desist from making comments or jumping to conclusions, so as to allow the legal process to smoothly take its course as required by the laws of Uganda’.
In a sworn affidavit presented to the High Court drawn by Bamwite and Kakuba Advocates and the Centre for Legal Aid, counsel for Cpl Ssebyara, the soldier narrated how he was tortured following his arrest in Somalia.
He told court that he was undressed, insulted and tied by the hands on a steel bar, a bag of about 15 kilogrammes tied and hanged on the penis and testicles. He was then moved to a metallic container, handcuffed for 24 hours and left for days without medical care.
This claim was supported by Medical records dated October 6 and November 2, 2015 from Nakasero Hospital and Bombo Military Hospital, respectively, which indicated that his right testicle had become smaller than the contralateral (opposite) testis [and] was non-tender and he has a chronic right testicular infarction and internal echogenicity with no flow.
In the affidavit, Ssebyara further narrates that: “I was tied with sisal ropes and told to stand on top of a sack of sand and ordered to put my hands above the head.” The hands were tied up on an overhead metal barrier and the sand was removed, leaving the feet hanging, he adds.
According to Ssebyara, he was told to plead guilty if he wanted the torture to come to an end.
A Photo allegedly that of Ssebyara being tortured went viral on social media on Tuesday attracting public outcry.
However, the army has pronounced itself on the ailing officer.
Fufa head Moses Magogo and federation spokesman Ahmed Hussein
The Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) has received US237.000 to assist the Uganda Cranes in preparations for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Gabon.
Each of the teams that emerged fourth in the group and qualified for Afcon is entitled to US$475.000 from the Confederation of African Football (CAF), meaning that the disbursement to FUFA represents 50 per cent of the CAF grant.
The Cranes qualified for the 2017 prestigious tournament after a 38-year lull, after their last qualification for the continental tourney held in Ghana in 1978, where they emerged runners-up. Efforts to get comment from FUFA about the developments were futile by press time.
The updated CAF Revenue Grid on disbursements.
Meanwhile, in a related development CAF has also released the ‘updated revenue grid for national teams and clubs within the CAF competitions cycle between 2017 and 2020’, a four-year cycle.
According to the updated structure, CAF will now part with US$16.4 million, up from US10 million, to cater for the disbursements to both national teams and clubs participating in its competitions.
