The Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Rebecca Kadaga, has urged women Parliamentarians to end violence targeted at women during elections.

She said there are many incidents of women being  victims of election related violence compared to men, which indicates that women are often targeted not necessarily because of their political actions or affiliations, but simply because they are women.

Kadaga, who is also the Chairperson of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians, was addressing close to 150 women across the Commonwealth countries during a two-day Triennial Conference in London, United Kingdom on Friday, 16^th December 2016 under the theme ‘Political Violence Against Women’.

The Triennial Commonwealth Women Conference is part of the 62^nd Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference taking place from 11th to 18th December 2016.

Kadaga informed the meeting that for every public violent incident known and recorded, there are more incidents happening behind closed doors and in private, with scanty documentation and, worse, without adequate services to respond to survivors’ needs and due process for perpetrators.

“These private and public incidents, no doubt discourage and prevent women from participating in the electoral process,” she said.

Kadaga appealed to electoral commissions, as national institutions, to ensure that electoral procedures safeguard women’s rights to inclusive electoral processes. She urged lawmakers to consider making laws to address harassment of women politicians and establish mechanisms to end impunity of such crimes.

Hon. Shirley Osborne from the Caribbean region observed that civil society organisations were doing commendable work to address the problem but that there was need for advocacy and a platform to address the issue.

While women parliamentarians from the Pacific region were in agreement that participation in elections was an important political process, they noted that the direct physical violence meted on women at home and in public greatly affected women’s ability to participate in the electoral processes.

The Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, Mr Akbar Khan, informed women Commonwealth Parliamentarians that he was committed to seeing that the CPA embodies diversity but also shares values of democracy, rule of law and human rights.

The 62nd Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference brought  together Speakers and Members of Parliament representing the nine regions of the CPA, namely, Africa, Asia, Australia, British Islands and Mediterranean, Canada, Caribbean, Americas and Atlantic; India, Pacific and South East Asia.

The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association provides a unique platform for inter-parliamentary dialogue to take place and given its diverse nature of membership, the Association is in a unique position to offer a comprehensive perspective on how to strengthen parliamentary democracy among member states.

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Although learning outcomes are generally poor across the country, there are stark inequalities between groups of pupils and locations, a new report by Uwezo, a non-government organisation that focuses on education, indicates.

According to the report titled: ‘Are Our Children Learning (2016)’ and released today by Uwezo at Nakasero Primary School, household, schools and locational factors impact either positively or negatively on learning.

The report established that P3 to P7 pupils who come from households with higher incomes have an advantage over their peers from poor families. It was also found that attending private schools boosts pupils’ competence over their government school peers.

Locational factors also appear to influence learning outcomes as children in urban areas out-perform their rural peers. Similarly, there was a big contrast in the availability of teachers between different locations, the report indicated.

For instance, it was established that the pupil-teacher ratio is; 36:1 in central Uganda, 41:1 in Western Uganda, 56:1 in Eastern Uganda and 58:1 in Northern Uganda.

In terms of learning materials, the availability of writing materials was sufficient but there are extreme shortages of textbooks. In half of the local languages, a third of the mathematics, and a quarter of the English classrooms, there were either no textbooks or only one for the teacher. Textbook availability is linked to learning outcomes.

It was further found that it is only in P5 and above that a majority of pupils are fully successful at the P2 level reading and arithmetic tasks that Uwezo assesses.

‘Even at P7, the final year of the primary education cycle, at least 2 out of 10 children are unable to complete reading and arithmetic tasks at P2 level. This implies that a substantial number of children continue to complete primary education without ever having acquired the basic numeracy and literacy competencies critical to further learning and independent and social living. This is a social and economic loss to the individual learners, their families and the nation at large. It must be a policy priority to ensure children are in school and learning,’ the report states in part.

The findings are from the sixth national learning assessment conducted in September to October 2015. Uwezo partners assessed over 94,000 children, aged 6 to 16, from all 112 districts in the country. Data were collected from more than 3,000 schools and 65,000 households.

Dr Mary Goretti, manager of Uwezo Uganda at Twaweza, said the data provides startling insight into the state of the education system in Uganda.

“As a new administration settles in, these data highlight a number of areas to focus on. First, learning outcomes must become the policy priority and the most important yardstick by which we measure success in education. Second, inequalities by socioeconomic status and location must be addressed. Education is supposed to eliminate these circumstantial inequalities not entrench them. In particular extra attention and resources must be dedicated to marginalised groups and areas. The shortage of teachers and classrooms in Northern and eastern regions must be tackled,” Dr Goretti said at the launch.

She added that a positive example of targeted government intervention is in the area of local language literacy.

“A number of programs have been initiated to provide learning materials and train teachers in this area. We look forward to the results of these interventions and encourage policy actors in education to provide similar support to tackle other systemic inequalities.”

John Mugo, Director of Data and Voice at Twaweza, added that the results present some sobering insights as “we begin our journey towards the Sustainable Development Goals. We need to go the last mile and focus on equity and inclusion.

“If we are to transform Uganda’s education system, we will need to examine the evidence for what works, ensure that we constantly track progress in learning outcomes and pay sufficient attention to people’s incentives,” Mr. Mugo said.

They recommended that successful learning should not be constrained by the circumstances in which children are born.

According to Mr mugo, children in poorer families, in rural settings and those in the Northern and Eastern regions continue to underperform relative to their peers in wealthier, urban households or in the southern and western regions of Uganda.

“When all children are able to learn, the whole nation succeeds. Government should ensure that its priorities and resource allocation in the education sector serve to mitigate inequalities of basic education outcomes rather than reinforcing them. This is why the National Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy initiative that aims to make preschool education more accessible and affordable for poorer families is an important step forward,” he added.

Among those in attendance at the launch of the report was Workers MP Margaret Rwabushaija, former UNEB chairman Professor Lutalo Bbosa and, Dr. Y K Nsubuga, the Director Basic and Secondary Education in the Ministry of Education.

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The ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) will determine its candidates for the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) by next February.

According to the NRM Electoral Commission chairman Dr Tanga Odoi, NRM EALA candidates who engage in early campaigning and energy-sapping speculation will be punished.

“We advise all stakeholders to remain calm and avoid speculations because we shall punish whoever gets involved in any form of campaigns before the designed time,” Dr Tanga Odoi said while addressing a press conference at the party EC headquarters on Kyadondo Road.

Dr Tanga Odoi also revealed that party primaries for all elective posts will cost the NRM Shs2 billion, before calling on members to get involved in the mobilization of the lower level elections of LC I, LC II and women councils.

“The party plans to sweep all the forthcoming elections including the residual party primaries and general elections for LC1 and LC 2s and women councils, Dr Tanga Odoi said, adding:

“There will be no academic qualifications for LC 1 elections but one needs to be a Ugandan, resident of that given area and an adult above 18 most preferably 35 years of age.

He however, cautioned party members against being ‘duped’ by the opposition over the system of lining up behind the preferred candidates. “Despite the initial communication from the FDC leaders condemning lining up to vote, they are busy in the villages mobilising people,” he said, adding that the system is backed by the law and would promote transparency.

Dr Tanga Odoi also said that the NRM would hold primaries for parliamentary candidates in the newly-created municipalities of Ibanda, Njeru, Apac, Nebbi, Bugiri, Sheema, and Kotido.

Primaries will also be held for candidates in the newly-created districts of Rubanda, Kagadi, Kakumiro, Kibaale, Omoro and Amudat which, he said, encountered a lot of challenges during the previous elections structure.

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Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is to visit Uganda for  bilateral talks with his counterpart President Yoweri Museveni.

EagleOnline has exclusive learnt that the one day state visit will discuss among others the issue of the Nile waters. Egypt, controls over 50 per cent of the Nile waters.

Senior Presidential Press Secretary, Don Innocent Wanyama confirmed the visit.

Egypt and Ethiopia are at loggerheads over Addis Ababa’s plan to build a US $4.2 billion, 6,000-megawatt dam on a major tributary of the Nile River that Egypt says will greatly reduce the flow of water that is Egypt’s lifeline.

Tension between the two nations rose sharply two years ago after Ethiopia rejected Egypt’s demand it suspend construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile, the main tributary of the 4,130-Nile river, the world’s longest.

Egypt has vowed to protect its “historical rights” to the Nile “at any cost” and says it could lose 20 per cent of its water if the giant dam in northwestern Ethiopia, one of several hydroelectric projects planned by Addis Ababa, is completed.

Egypt, contribution towards Uganda include, technical assistance to the agriculture sector, removing of water hyacinth and recently opened an abattoir worth US $24 million (Shs80 billion) at Bombo.

This will be the second time in four that an Egyptian President  visits Uganda, the last time being 2012 when jailed former president, Mohamed Morsi came for celebrations for Uganda at 50 years.

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The chairperson of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) Electoral Commission Dr Tanga Odoi and other commissioners have not been paid their salaries for the last six months.

According to Dr Tanga Odoi, he plans to meet NRM Chairman Yoweri Museveni over the salary issue of their salary arrears.

Dr Tanga Odoi made the startling revelation while addressing a press conference at the NRM EC headquarters on Kyadondo Road, while responding to a question or the about the source of Shs2 billion the NRM Electoral Commission intends to use to organize the party primaries.

“It is the responsibility of the party chairperson to look for resources,” he said.

He added: “We do not depend on national resources from the Bank of Uganda, but the role of the Secretary General is to help in mobilisation of resources that run party activities.”

Flippantly, Dr Tanga Odoi said he is not ‘poor’.

“If I was at Makerere I would have led the industrial action due to non-payments but I never came to the electoral commission to earn from NRM,” he said adding: “I have my personal wealth that is why I still look nice despite nonpayment for six months.”

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