Last year, Malawi banned child marriage, raising the legal age of marriage from 15 to 18 – something activists hoped would put an end to early sexual initiations.
Suspected murderer Mathew Kanyamunyu, his brother Joseph and lady friend Cynthia Munangwari, have been remanded to Luzira Prison.
The four are charged with the murder of social worker Kenneth Akena Watmon and appeared today in the Nakawa magistrate’s court before magistrate Noah Ssajjabi, who remanded them till December 6 when they return for probable committal to the High Court that has the powers to try murder cases.
It is said that last Saturday evening Kanyamunyu shot Akena, after the latter reportedly glitched his car.
DEFIANT? Dr Kizza Besigye addresses a press conference at an earlier function at his home in Kasangati. Photo credit/nbstv.
Opposition figure Warren Smith Kizza Besigye has given the government ten days effective today, to reopen Makerere University.
Addressing a press conference at his home in Kasangati early today, Dr. Besigye said his party, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) would call for a ‘national protest’ if the campus is not reopened.
“As FDC we shall keep on reminding the government the remaining days and when they are all done without reopening of the university then we shall call for a nationwide protest,” Dr Besigye, who was flanked by Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago and several other senior opposition figures, said.
Other notable opposition figures that attended the press conference included the FDC Minister for Presidency Wafula Oguttu, Minister for Gender Kevina Taka, MP Mubarak Munyagwa and councilors Doreen Nyanjura, Mohammed Ssegirinya and Michael Akampurira.
However, his threats come hardly two days when the Visitation committee put up by President Museveni briefed the media yesterday and revealed that they had appealed to Mr. Museveni to open the university as investigation continue.
Dr Besigye’s remarks follow the closure of Makerere University, ordered by President Yoweri Museveni two weeks ago. The three-month closure set to end in February has caused anxiety with several public officials including the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga, education minister Janet Kataha Museveni and the State Minister for Higher Education Chrysostom Muyingo all weighing in on the hitherto contentious matter.
“Uganda is mainly populated by youth and children who constitute more than half of the population therefore education assumes a much greater importance,” Mr Besigye said, adding: “education, which is the foundation of development due to the skills and innovation that come along with it, is facing crisis.”
According to Dr. Besigye, Uganda has been bedeviled by persistent educational crises in all public universities over the past 30 years.
Taking a swipe at the education minister, Dr Besigye said the country was at crossroads to find a lasting problem to the education dilemma in the country.
“Perhaps the Minister of Education who is also the First Lady has an issue of concern since she is the wife of the President and one wonders who advises the other in case of need,” Dr Besigye said.
According to Dr Besigye, 15 children die every day at Kawempe Hospital due to the absence of intern doctors of Makerere University, who were also affected by the closure.
And, weighing in on the recently-composed Visitation Committee led by Dr Abel Rwendeire, Dr Besigye said it was inconsequential as all the issues afflicting the operations Makerere University had been detailed in a 224-page report compiled by a team led by Prof Francis Omaswa in February 2014.
Dr. Besigye, also said Uganda been bedeviled by corruption under the National Resistance Movement (NRM) regime and its leader President Museveni.
“The country is being subjected to unnecessary suffering as a result of a corrupt regime led by President Museveni,” Dr Besigye said.
Kenyan socialite Hudah Monroe lives a life that many only dream of, and many Ugandan wannabes spend most of their lives trying to live like her.
The downside to Monroe’s fame however, is the majority of the Kenyans who use social media attribute her success to ‘vending’ her body.
Well, if she is not vending her body as claimed or doing charity work, the other thing she is known for then she is making money.
Now the mistress of all trades has landed a deal as the brand ambassador for Slim Tea; the 28-day detox tea allegedly burns fat amongst other benefits and has been on high demand after the socialite swore by it.
‘’If you know me personally, you know that my biggest fear in this life is GAINING WEIGHT! I take Slim Tea to maintain my body and stay detoxed. I am so honored to have finally signed my contract as one of the Brand Ambassadors of SLIM TEA GLOBAL. Slim Tea is an all-natural ingredients product helping to keep trim and fit. Helps speed up your metabolism and Detox,’’ Ms Monroe posted
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.
