Mathew Kanyamunyu, who allegedly shot Mr Akena for knocking his vehicle.
Suspected murderer Mathew Kanyamunyu, his brothers Joseph and Moses and lady friend Cynthia Munangwira are expected to appear before the Nakawa magistrate’s court this afternoon.
Sources had indicated that Mr Kanyamunyu was due to appear in court yesterday, however that did not happen leading to speculation as to what may have happened to the suspects.
The quartet is being held on charges of killing social worker Kenneth Akena Watmon last Saturday evening, reportedly after the latter reversed his car and scratched that of Kanyamunyu, allegedly resulting in a fatal shooting.
Apparently, police has up to now failed to recover the killer gun.
In a related development, the Director of Public Prosecution Mike Chibita has called for calm and patience as his office and the police prepare to arraign in court.
According to the DPP, the public will be kept abreast with the developments regarding the case.
The death of Akena has since elicited public anxiety and also sparked off outrage that has since engulfed Kampala and caused divided opinion almost tending to a sectarian tinge.
Golden Production singer Catherine Kusasira is wanted over Shs440million, an amount she is yet to pay for land that she reportedly bought from a one Matia Mukwanga.
According to Mukwanga he sold 16 acres of land in Ngongoro, Wakiso District to Kusasira early this year for a sum of Shs640 million, with the singer reportedly paying a down payment of Shs200 million in two installments.
Mukwanga said each acre cost Shs40 million and that Kusasira was supposed to pay in three installments with the first batch of Shs100million being paid in February. He however, said she later paid another Shs100 million but has since failed to pay the balance of Shs440million.
According to the agreement, Kusasira was supposed to have completed payment three months ago, but she has gone silent, prompting Mukwanga to say he will not allow any more developments on the land until she gets all his money. He has event threatened to return her money, but Kusasira is recalcitrant and has vowed not to give up the land.
Speaking to Bukedde, she urged Mukwanga to be patient, saying that she got information he wants to sell the land to another person but she just won’t let go and promised to pay Mukwanga’s balance.
Apparently, Kusasira, who wants to construct a hotel on the land, had started developing it.
It ought to be remembered that at the time of the signing of the agreement, Kusasira was part of the musicians who performed at President Yoweri Museveni’s campaigns.
No wonder she was confident she would pay all of the Shs640 million in just six months.
BURUNDI CRISIS: Mediator President Yoweri Museveni shakes hands with Facilitator Benjamin Mkapa, after the latter briefed him on the progress of the Inter-Burundi Dialogue. FILE PHOTO.
Burundi opposition politician Charles Nditije has accused the Mediator and Facilitator of the Burundi process, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa respectively, of failing his country’s democratic process.
According to Mr Nditije, Museveni and Mkapa are responsible for President Pierre Nkurunziza’s recalcitrance by neglecting the latter’s imminent revocation of the Arusha Accords and change of the Constitution.
ACCUSED MUSEVENI, MKAPA: UPRONA’s Charles Nditije
“They have done nothing to promote inclusive inter-Burundian dialogue under the auspices of the international community,” Mr Nditije of UPRONA, said.
However, contacted President Museveni’s Senior Press Secretary Innocent Don Wanyama, said Mr Nditije’s remarks were ‘unfair’.
“That is an unfair accusation; the President has been getting reports from President Mkapa (Facilitator), the latest being just last week,” Mr Wanyama said.
He added: “However, the Burundians should know that the solution for peace will come from them and not President Museveni. What he (Museveni) is doing is to quicken the process for the long-lasting solution and he should not be blamed for their failures.”
It is pertinent to note that Mr Nditije’s remarks come in the wake of an August 24 report by the National Commission of Inter-Burundian Dialogue [CNDI], which proposed the amendment of the Constitution and the cancellation of Arusha agreement.
RULE FOR LIFE? Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza. AFP PHOTO / CARL DE SOUZA
According to the CNDI report, Burundian people wanted that President Pierre Nkurunziza to rule until he dies.
Local media reports in Burundi intimate that Pierre Nkurunziza is currently in his ‘third term’, which is illegal according to both the current Constitution and the Ausha Agreement, which stipulates that no President can rule for more than two terms.
Many Burundians believe that Nkurunziza wants to amend the Constitution in order to stay in power for life. The Council of Ministers met on November 16 to analyze how to set up a commission that could change the Constitution.
Philipe Nzobonariba, the Secretary General, said that the Minister of Home Affairs proposed the amendment of the Constitution. He said that the commission would refer to the outcome of the ongoing inter-Burundian dialogue.
Meanwhile, Leonce Ngendakumana, the Deputy Chairman of the opposition Frodebu party says that the Government’s intention to amend the Constitution shows that the current regime has decided to drive Burundi deeper into isolation.
“Even some neighboring countries that supported the Government of Burundi thinking that it would change, in the face of this radicalization, will abandon it,” Ngendakumana says.
He regrets that the ongoing peace process through inclusive dialogue is indefinitely suspended. Consequently, it will plunge Burundi into another civil war, he believes.
“Revision of the Constitution should take place in a less tense political atmosphere. The Constitution is a very important legal tool for the future of a nation,” he says.
In 2014, President Pierre Nkurunziza attempted to revise the Constitution to run for third term but the bill was rejected by the National Assembly.
The Constitution in force in Burundi was promulgated on 18 March, 2005. It resulted from the Arusha Peace Agreement signed in 2000 after a civil war that lasted a decade.
TO SUE KENYA: SPLM -IO chief Riek Machar. His group says it wil sue the Kenya government.Photo Credit/Reuters
The leader of South Sudan’s armed opposition faction (SPLM-IO), Riek Machar has been from entering Ethiopia and Sudan and was forced to return to South Africa, SPLM-IO officials said.
Senior rebel officials said Machar was stopped by the Ethiopian authorities upon his arrival from South Africa at Bole International Airport in Ethiopia, detained at the airport in Addis Ababa for four and half hours and later advised either to board back to South Africa or risk being deported to Juba. The rebel official, who preferred anonymity, said at the time the rebel leader was heading to the SPLM-IO headquarters in Pagak near the Ethiopian border.
However, the rebel leader later left for Sudan on Sunday afternoon, where, according to the military spokesman of the SPLA-IO, he was also refused entry at the Khartoum International Airport.
“Dr. Riek left South African for Sudan through Ethiopia, so we went and met him at the Ethiopian Airport, and then he proceeded to Sudan, he arrived in Sudan around 12:00 pm, but he was asked to return to where he came from,” Colonel William Gatjiath Deng, said.
According to Col Gatjiath Deng, no reason was given by the Sudanese authorities for denying Machar entry, but analsts say the move represents a major shift in policy on relations between Sudan and the rebel leader who left Khartoum last month to seek further treatment in South Africa.
Describing the move as ‘politically motivated’ Col Gatjiath Deng said that Machar stayed at the Khartoum airport for over two hours negotiating with the Sudanese officials to allow him into the country, adding that the rebel leader later decided to return to Addis Ababa on the same day.
“Dr. Machar stayed at the airport for more than two hours, he was following the procedures, but he later returned to Addis Ababa boarding an Ethiopian Airlines plane, so he arrived in Addis Ababa around 6:30 pm,” he said.
Col Gatjiath Deng that Machar left Addis Ababa today morning for South Africa, a development that was confirmed by Thomas Magok Chuol, the SPLM-IO representative to Uganda.
“Yes, it is true Dr. Riek Machar has been told upon his arrival in Ethiopia to return to South Africa. It is not yet known the reason behind the decision,” Magok Choul said.
Last October, the deposed first vice president left Khartoum to South Africa to for medical treatment. He had arrived to Khartoum from the Democratic Republic of Congo after clashes in Juba between his troops.
The Security Council members are considering a draft resolution to impose an arms embargo and additional targeted sanctions that could be brought to a vote as early as this week. The Associate Press disclosed that the U.S. proposed to impose travel bans on Machar and freeze his assets.
Washington blamed him for issuing a statement on September 25, 2016 declaring war on President Salva Kiir’s government following a meeting held in the Sudanese capital.
Renegade Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) General David Sejusa aka Tinyefuza has reportedly left the country after beating a round-the-clock security detail assigned to trail him.
According to sources, Gen Sejusa reportedly left the country through the Malaba, when he forced his way into the ‘No Man’s Land’ area after defying instructions of the immigration officials at the border post.
The sources further intimated to EagleOnline that in the recent past Gen. Sejusa has been at his country home in Sembabule, from where he duped security and headed to Malaba enroute Nairobi where he has reportedly been since Sunday.
This is the second time in five years that Gen. Sejusa, a serving army officer, is leaving the country without official clearance from the UPDF, the first time being in 2013 when he fled after penning a controversial dossier to the Director General of the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) Brig. Ronnie Barya, indicating that there were plans by the government to assassinate top political and military figures including among others himself, then Prime Minister John Patrick Amama Mbabazi and the Internal Affairs Minister Gen. Robert Aronda Nyakairima (RIP).
In the same dossier Gen. Sejusa, the Coordinator of Intelligence Services, also said there was a ‘succession plan’ in Uganda through which President Yoweri Museveni was to be replaced by his son, then Brig. Muhoozi Kainerugaba. Kainerugaba, the Commander of the Special Forces Command (SFC) has since been promoted to Major General.
Meanwhile, the report of Gen. Sejusa’s unofficial departure comes at a time when his Naguru residence is a highly cordoned-off area, surrounded by military police.
Embattled Ugandan farmers fighting threats and land grabbing by Bidco have praised a draft report by UN investigators that calls into question the company’s business practices.
The report is the result of a complaint by the Bugala Farmers Association to the UN’s Social and Environmental Compliance Unit (SECU), and the farmer have called on the United Nations to terminate its partnership with Bidco.
In the complaint, the farmers stated that the United Nations had not performed sufficient due diligence on Bidco before inviting it to join Business Call to Action, which is part of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The farmersprovided evidence that Bidco has engaged in human rights, labour and environmental violations in the Kalangala District of Bugala Island, Lake Victoria, Uganda, where Bidco has grabbed land from smallholder farmers and cut down over 18,000 acres of rainforest to make way for a large-scale palm oil business.
The UN investigators found fault with the decision to invite Bidco into partnership with UNDP: “After the fieldwork and additional research, SECU concluded that the processes employed by UNDP for admission of Bidco were not consistent with UNDP policies.”
The report acknowledges that a partnership with Bidco ‘could adversely damage UNDP’s reputation and the communities it seeks to help’, and Bidco’s activities ‘may be considered risky’.
Kenya-based Bidco has tried to distance itself from the allegations of land grabbing and environmental destruction in Uganda, but the UNDP investigators found there is a clear link between the company’s corporate structure, overseen by CEO Vimal Shah, and operations in Uganda.
The investigators also determined that Bidco’s claim of not being involved in land acquisition in Uganda is not accurate. Bidco ‘knew of, relied on, and encouraged the purchase (of land) by the government’. Bidco Uganda also was ‘engaged in decisions and discussions related to the purchase,’ the report says.
John Muyisa, a representative of the Bugala Farmers Association, commended the work of the UN investigators, who visited remote Kalangala District as part of their research.
“We are very pleased that the United Nations has performed an objective evaluation of its internal processes and determined that it is risky to partner with Bidco. The United Nations is a globally admired organisation, and it is absolutely correct that, as the report says, ‘Communities should be empowered’ and not be trodden upon by predator corporations like Bidco,” Mr Muyisa was quoted as saying.
Japanese peacekeepers arriving at the Juba International Airport early last month.
A contingent of Japanese troops has landed in South Sudan – a peacekeeping mission that critics say could see them embroiled in their country’s first overseas fighting since World War II.
The 350 Self-Defence Forces will replace a previous contingent of Japanese peacekeepers who served in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, but did not have mandate to use force.
The new troops will be responsible for engineering and construction in the capital, Juba.
Japanese peacekeeping troops on arrival in Juba, South Sudan. Photos/Samir Bol/AFP
For the first time since enacting a law enshrining pacifism in its military 70 years ago, they will be allowed to respond to urgent calls for help from UN staff and aid workers. There are also plans to let them guard UN bases, which have been attacked during the fighting. The new troops will be responsible for engineering and construction in the capital, Juba.
But Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe argued that the broader military powers give Japan the ability to respond to mounting threats that include China’s growing military assertiveness and North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.Approved in 2015, the expanded capacity to use force was opposed by some in Japan, who feared it could entangle the country’s military in an overseas conflict and that it violates Japan’s anti-war constitution.
There are more than 12,000 UN peacekeepers already in the country, who have faced criticism for failing to protect civilians.
In July, two Chinese peacekeepers died and five others were wounded after their vehicle was struck with a rocket-propelled grenade as fighting swept Juba.
South Sudan seceded from Sudan in 2011 – a development greeted at the time with mass celebrations in the oil-producing state. Aid agencies and world powers promised support.
But fighting, largely along ethnic lines, erupted in 2013 after President Salva Kiir sacked his long-time political rival Riek Machar from the post of vice president.
A peace deal, agreed under intense international pressure and the threat of sanctions, brought Machar back to Juba in April, but he fled after more clashes erupted and the violence has continued.
CITED IN HIT-AND-RUN ACCIDENT: The official car of the Minister that was reportedly involved in an accident early today.
The official car used by the Minister of State for Labour and Industrial Relations, Herbert Kabafunzaki, has been involved in a hit-and-run accident along Entebbe Road, knocking a young child unconscious and speeding off.
Musician Lillian Mbabazi, whose friend witnessed the accident and requested her to report the car since she has a bigger following on social media, said the accident happened at about 1:45pm.
“(He) knocked a kid around Kitala, Entebbe Road and sped off… My friend was driving right behind them… Is this where humanity has reached? How do you knock a child and just drive off?” the ‘simple girl’ hit maker wonders. “I don’t know what condition the kid is in, let’s pray for the best…,” Ms Mbabazi posted on her Facebook Page.
Our sources confirmed the said car used the road at the time the accident is reported to have happened.
“Yes, it is true. The Minister was heading to State House to meet the President…”, the source said.
By press time it was not possible to establish whether the accident had been reported to police, and the fate of the child.
This is not the first time official vehicles are involved in hit and run accidents; two months back a car convoy allegedly belonging to the First Lady’s convoy knocked three people dead in Kawempe, and sped off.
Intrigue at the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) involving two top officials has reached boiling point, with the latest information indicating that the Entebbe International Airport General Manager John Okalany has been fired.
Okalany, who has reportedly not been on talking terms with the Director Human Resource and Administration (DHRA) Fred Bamwesigye, was handed the sacking letter on Friday November 18, two days after his official sacking on November 16.
The sacking letter which was written by CAA Managing Director Rama Makuza, effectively brought to an end Okalany’s lengthy career as the Entebbe Airport General Manager.
According to a source, the differences between Okalany and Bamwesigye started after the latter allegedly placed an advert in The New Vision and Daily Monitor newspapers in June 2015, announcing the post of CAA General Manager, referenced CAA/ADV/EXT/06/2015.
At the time, the source said, Mr Okalany was away in India where he had gone for treatment, only to learn about his predicament at the CAA.
Further, according to the source, when Okalany returned after treatment he resumed office but without pay, which prompted him to seek legal redress, resulting into court ordering that he be paid all his outstanding dues, all amounting to about UgShs2 billion.
According to the source, after the CAA failing to settle Okalany’s outstanding issues, his lawyers swung into action and obtained a court order, blocking both the CAA dollar and shilling accounts.
The case is due for hearing this after afternoon at the Industrial Court, a development that will determine Okalany’s fate.
Meanwhile, the CAA was also recently in the news for the wrong reasons following complaints that it was illegally recruiting children of top politicians.
IN BITTER SEPARATION: Kadongokamu singer Haruna Mubiru
Kadongokamu singer Haruna Mubiru is one of the richest musicians in Uganda at the moment. This is a status many believe he attained in 2009 when he got married to the niece of renowned city businessman, Guster Lule, popularly known as Ntake.
In fact, following his marriage to Raudha Ssonko, he quit Eagles Production, a band that had ‘introduced him to the world’, and formed his own ensemble – Kream Production.
However, this status could be lost following the separation of the two; Raudha has parted ways with the husband of four women following a disagreement and left for ‘kyeyo’ in the USA, vowing not return.
Perhaps only Trump will be the sole reason for her return that is if he carries out his threat of throwing all illegal immigrants out of the USA.
Raudha, who has been married to Mubiru for seven years, left behind her baby of eight months as she travelled to the USA.
