A senior officer at the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) in Entebbe has died.

Available information indicates that Assistant Commissioner for Agro Chemicals Michael Odong, 53, was found dead at Schiphol Airport, in the Netherlands.

According to sources, Mr Odong, who was travelling on Passport Number B1140204, left Entebbe International Airport on Friday, October 22 aboard a KLM flight and was headed to Geneva for official duty.

The deceased was born in Gulu on September 30 1963. The cause of his death is yet to be known.

In the last one year the country has lost top public servants travelling on duty abroad, and Mr Odong’s death comes just over a year after former Internal Affairs Minister General Aronda Nyakairima died on a plane enroute to Dubai, while he was returning from official duty in South Korea.

Also, just last month the Ambassador for Special Duties in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Gilbert Najuna-Njuneki, 56, died on a plane in South Africa while returning from an official assignment in Finland, where he was as part of the Ugandan delegation led by Vice President Edward Kiwanuka Sekandi.

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Early this month Kampala Affairs minister, Beti Olive Kamya announced she wanted vendors off the city streets, a decree that was opposed by Kampala City Council Authority (KCCA) councillors led by Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago.

And, in a resolution passed yesterday, the councillors unanimously passed a resolution to grant limited access to vendors to operate on some roads in the city centre.

They agreed that there was need for trade order in the city but added that vendors had a right to trade albeit as licenced traders.

But just less than 24 hours after the resolution was passed, police and KCCA officials are involved in running battles with the street vendors as the security personnel try to enforce minister Kamya’s directive.

Police has fired bullets in the air to disperse the rowdy traders. There is heavy deployment of police on all streets and business is still paralyzed. Over 30 vendors have been arrested while some enforcement officers were also beaten up, with stones hurled at them as they ran for safety.

It will be recalled that at a press conference at the government’s Media Centre early this month, Kamya said the leadership of the city was concerned about the mess in Kampala.

“We are concerned about the mess in the city, especially the street vendors…..We understand these vendors need to be helped out but politicians have always betrayed us by ordering vendors back to the streets. However, after the report is completed, we shall map out a plan to accommodate the vendors elsewhere but not on the streets,” Ms Kamya said.

She added that she would unveil a committee to investigate the wrangles in the city markets because most of street vendors say that they can’t work from there.

“In two months’ time, we shall have got a report, which will definitely guide us on how to evict these vendors and how we could restore sanity on Kampala streets. In two months’ time, we shall not allow any street vendor on the streets anymore,” Kamya, a former opposition activist-turned-minister, said.

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The High court last week released Nakawa Division Member of Parliament Michael Kabaziguruka on bail after the legislator spending over four months in Kigo prison, on treason charges.

However, despite all the challenges he faced while in jail, Kabaziguruka is recalcitrant and wants the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) government out of power.

“We need to remove this regime as a matter of urgency through peaceful means. We are sitting on a time bomb. Civilians being tried in the court martial is gross abuse of the law. We must work harder so that what happened to me doesn’t happen to anyone else. We need to cause peaceful change. This government keeps saying we [FDC] want an armed struggle. No. We’ll ask the people to make the choice,” Kabaziguruka said while appearing on NBS TV this morning.

Kabaziguruka was arrested in June this year, and is jointly charged with 20 UPDF officers before the General Court Martial for allegedly plotting to infiltrate the defense forces and prejudice its security to overthrow the government of Uganda by use of firearms.

The treachery offenses that he faces were allegedly committed between February and June this year in districts of Kampala, Wakiso and Luweero.

Meanwhile, speaking about his time in jail, Kabaziguruka said he was prepared for it but hastened to add that the conditions there are not fit for humans.

“Everyone deserves to be free. Prisoners are not treated as human beings. The food is terrible and treatment is inconsistent with laws. Like Nelson Mandela said, you can never judge how bad a country is until you visit its prisons. In prison, I met people who have gone over eight years without getting justice,” he said.

As an MP, he said, he plans to talk about his experience in prison before Parliament “because the situation in our prisons is bad.”

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The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) has denied issuing an Ordinary Level (O Level) certificate to Lubaga South Member of Parliament, Kato Lubwama.

However, in his reaction to the revelation, Lubwama, speaking to NBS TV, said he has no time for all those challenging his education.

“Me I am enjoying my life…it is very interesting that it has taken them six months to find out that I didn’t go to school,” he says.

However, he admits he would appear before court once summoned.

“I am still waiting for the court summons(es); I have not yet got them. This is a free world – court will sort out if Kato Lubwama went to school. However, can someone who didn’t go to school speak this kind of English?”

Kato Lubwama is living a good life like he says, though, his woes began with recent statements which many find inconsiderate, in relation to the people that voted him into Parliament.

Among some of the controversial statements was his reaction to the demand for Shs200 million by each MP to buy cars.

Reacting to the demands Lubwama supported the demands saying, MPs are meant to travel in such luxurious SUVs.

“I did not come to Parliament to suffer but to be better and live better,” the MP, a former comedian said, adding that citizens are paupers who do not understand that MPs are supposed to be accorded the highest esteem.

“This means we have to travel in vehicles befitting that status,” he was quoted as saying.

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