Mention ‘White Party’ and the first name to pop up in a person’s mind will go to Kampala socialite, Zari who is also the wife to Tanzania’s multi-award artist, Diamond Platnumz.
She is the person famed for the ‘Zari All White Party’, having hosted similar parties every December for the past four years.
However, this year’s party hangs in balance after someone registered it as his trademark.
At the moment, he is the only Ugandan with the right of hosting any party under the name of ‘White Party’ is a one Yoweri Munamasaka. Anyone who wishes to do so has to seek his permission or risks going to jail.
This year has seen him host a couple of ‘White Parties’ across the country. Among the places he has been to include Mbale, Lyantonde and Masaka. His next destination is Entebbe.
Muhamood Masaba seen here directing NRM supporters. Photo credit New Vision.
The showy National Resistance Movement (NRM) party chairman for Mbale district, Muhamood Masaba, has distanced himself from allegations that he has amassed a lot of wealth from unexplained sources.
Masaba told EagleOnline that he is not ‘a poor person’ but that allegations he recently dubiously got over Shs10 billion are mere assertions brought against him by his political detractors.
“I am yet to find out why this this smearing campaign that I am rich and that I got money from unexplained sources. I am seeing those that I defeated in our local politics here (Mbale) involved in it but I cannot rule out that certain individuals especially from opposition are unhappy with me because of what I did to them as far as our party is concerned,” he said.
Sections of the media last week ran stories that Masaba had recently accumulated a lot of money through land deals and also from an unknown Asian rich tycoon.
Masaba was among the key people Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi relied on to penetrate Eastern Uganda and more especially the Elgon zone. He indeed gave NRM and security apparatus hard time but was finally persuaded to rejoin the NRM party.
Mathias Walukaga is bitter again. Not with a fellow artiste or Salongo Michael Kasawuli aka Samona this time; the singer has been angered by an unnamed radio station that has ‘consistently’ refused to play his songs. Among the songs he claims have been binned by the station include Namboole, Tuleppuke, Bwiino w’omutembeeyi and Referee.
“Lwaki olowooza nti njakuggwa kuba oweze okuzanya enyimba zange ku radio? Loosely translated as ‘Why do you think I will fail simply because you don’t play my songs on your radio station?” he rants. Walukaga, a renowned Kadongo Kamu singer adds: “Omuyimbi aggwa butayiiya nakubulwa kyebetaaga, meaning ‘a musician only fails due to lack of creativity and failure to come up with what fans want’.
Though he is yet to mention the name of the station, his fans have been quick point accusing fingers at Central Broadcasting Services (CBS), the Buganda kingdom semi official station. Apparently it’s the station that doesn’t play his songs.
Will he win this battle like he has done in the previous ones?
Meanwhile, we will keep you posted on all the developments about the story.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has today called on authorities in South Sudan to reopen the Nation Mirror newspaper, ordered closed by security services.
The newspaper’s editor, Aurelions Simon Cholee, said that security officials summoned editors and accused them of ‘engaging in activities that are incompatible with [the newspaper’s registration] status’, but did not offer further explanation.
Cholee said that authorities ordered the Nation Mirror closed and did not specify when it would be able to resume publication. The paper’s website appeared to be last updated on September 13.
In its most recent edition, the Nation Mirror covered a report by The Sentry, a Washington advocacy group, which alleged that President Salva Kiir and his rival, the former vice president Riek Machar, had amassed enormous wealth and invested it in multi-million dollar properties abroad, while a conflict triggered by a dispute between the pair has left many citizens in South Sudan living in poverty.
“President Salva Kiir’s government should immediately allow the Nation Mirror to resume publication,” said Murithi Mutiga, CPJ’s East Africa representative. “South Sudan needs more, not fewer, independent and critical voices. Preventing professional journalists from doing their work will not advance efforts to build a democratic and stable South Sudan,” he added.
Paul Jacob Kumbo, South Sudan’s director general of information, told CPJ he did not know why the paper was closed or how long it would remain shuttered.”This was a decision by the security officials and I am still waiting for more information on it,” he said.
The Nation Mirror has been closed before; in February 2015, the CPJ documented how National Security Service agents seized a print run and issued a publishing ban after the paper was accused of printing anti-government reports.
The media environment in South Sudan has deteriorated in recent months.
CPJ reported in July that the major daily, Juba Monitor, was ordered closed and its editor, Alfred Taban, was arrested after he wrote a column critical of both Kiir and Machar.
Singer Ibrahim Mayanja aka Big Eye with former lover Don Zella, when the latter was pregnant with their child.
Singer Ibrahim Mayanja, popularly known as Big Eye, began his career with close buddy Eddy Kenzo, featuring performances as the ‘Big Talent’ duo. However, the two bitterly fell out and to date don’t see eye-to-eye.
It has since emerged that the person who was behind their bitter split is Don Zella, who later went on to become Big Eye’s wife. According to Zella, she got to know her husband through Eddy Kenzo.
She says Big Eye tried to snatch her from Kenzo for two months but all his efforts were fruitless.
However, Zella says she later fell for Big Eye’s sweet words and when Kenzo got to know about it, the two Big Talent members fell out.
AT EASE WITH SELF: Don Zella
The Birth of Big Music
On falling out with Kenzo, Zella, then based in Dubai literally took on the ‘motherly’ role paying all Big Eye’s bills; from paying for his studio bills to rent.
“By the time I met Big Eye, he was renting a sixty thousand shilling room behind the Makindye Court. We had been dating for over two months and I often used to visit him but we weren’t intimate at all,” Zella says in a video statement on Facebook.
With time, she says, she moved the ‘physically fit’ artiste from a rented room and took him to her home. As though this wasn’t enough, she says, she even bought him his first car. Later, she would organise him his first concert using the money that she had saved to buy a Hummer, so the story goes.
“The concert didn’t go well but at least the Big Eye name had got enough publicity and I was hopeful that it would pay off in future….”
The couple was later blessed with a baby.
Big Eye ‘takes family to Zella’s home’
Life was indeed good at Zella’s home and like any relative living a good life, Big Eye, too, tried to elevate the lives of his brothers by getting them from the life of hustle to the good life. He brought them to Zella’s home.
In addition, Big Eye brought two more of his hangers-on home, something that Zella says she later protested because the family had expanded to almost 20 people.
“It was too much for me to take in anymore. I requested him to get somewhere to put the people who were not his relatives because I had two young daughters, who I couldn’t just leave to grow up while watching people doing bad things at home,” Zella says.
Apparently his hangers-on would smoke ‘weed’, booze and usually return home late, actions she couldn’t bear anymore.
“Big Eye became incensed, accusing me of not being social and against his friends. He left home, telling me he was going to look for a house for his hangers-on. A few days back he returned and wanted to take away one of the beds but I advised him to go buy a new one for his boys. He left and spent a couple of days without returning back on. When I inquired why he wasn’t returning, he told me that, ‘since you don’t want my friends to stay home, I am also not returning,’” Zella wrote.
Big Eye with former close buddy Eddy Kenzo and the kids
Zella loses her twins
At the time she was carrying Big Eye’s pregnancy when he left, leaving behind his three brothers.
Zella took care of them for nine months before requesting Big Eye to come for his brothers. Unfortunately, Zella got a miscarriage and lost her twins. However, Big Eye never bothered to attend the burial and this greatly left her down hearted.
“He wasn’t there for me at the time that I badly needed him yet I had always been there for him in time of need. I have never forgiven him from that time,” she says.
She says she wouldn’t be talking all this had it not been for Big Eye, who she says often talks ill about her in the media. “I moved on a while back and I am not interested in Big Eye in anyway but all I want is some respect on my name. He should stop badmouthing after all that I have than for him. He can’t be the only righteous one since to him, we are all bad. He talks bad about Kenzo, his once close friend, Peter Ayo and now even me.”
At the moment, Big Eye, who is currently dating a one Sasha Brighton has reacted to Zella by saying, “I will stay focused, silent and strong no matter what is done & forged to spoil, to weaken and to tarnish my name. In the name of God.”
BACK TO MY MAN: Don Zella’s Mzungu lover with who they have reportedly reunited.
Zella says she is also back to her American man, the father of her first two children, who she dumped to date Big Eye.
Four men are being questioned in Italy in connection with the suicide of a woman who battled for months to have a viral video that showed her having sex removed from the internet.
The 31-year-old, identified as Tiziana, sent the video to her ex-boyfriend and three others, who put it online.
More than a million people watched it, and she became the subject of jokes and abuse.
Tiziana killed herself in her aunt’s home in Mugnano near Naples on Tuesday.
Local prosecutors have opened an investigation into her death, which came more than a year after the video was circulated on Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media.
The four men are being investigated for defamation.
After the video went viral, Tiziana left her job, moved to Tuscany and was in the process of changing her name, but the story kept following her.
The words “You’re filming? Bravo”, spoken by her in the video, have become an online joke and the phrase has been printed on T-shirts, smart phone cases and other items.
In a court case, Tiziana won a “right to be forgotten” ruling, ordering the video to be removed from various sites and search engines, including Facebook.
But she was also ordered to pay 20,000 euros (£17,000; $22,500) in legal costs, which local media have called a “final insult”.
Italy has reacted to Tiziana’s suicide with a mixture of shock and shame. Her death has provoked a debate about the corrosive effects of the public shaming of young women.
“As a government, there’s not a lot that we can do,” said Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. “It’s mainly a cultural battle – also a social and political battle. Our commitment is try to do everything we can… Violence against women is not an ineradicable phenomenon.”
The procession of the hearse carrying Tiziana’s body was broadcast live. A reporter offered commentary in a hushed voice as the vehicle drove by, followed by dozens of mourners.
The woman who wanted to be forgotten is now remembered across the country.
The woman’s family have called for justice and for an end to shaming.
“Now we call for the justice system to act so that her death was not in vain,” the family said, quoted by Italian media.
The SPLM-IO faction allied to former first vice president Riek Machar is planning to relocate its leader to either Kenya or Ethiopia, a spokesman for the armed opposition group said.
According to Peter Gatkuoth, spokesman of the SPLM-IO faction, senior members of the armed opposition faction will also meet in Khartoum to discuss the ongoing political developments in South Sudan.
Further, Gatkuoth pointed out that they want to meet the Troika countries in order to explain the armed opposition group’s position on the clashes that broke out in Juba last July, besides the appointment of Taban Deng Gai as the First Vice President replacing Machar.
The opposition official noted that they will also discuss the position of some foreign countries that seek to recognise Taban Deng Gai, saying the SPLM-IO leader Riek Machar will tour some countries to clarify the armed group’s position on the peace agreement after the Juba events.
Separately, Gatkuoth said that the SPLM-IO leadership agreed to hold another conference in Yuai town in Uror County of Jonglei State, saying the meeting will be attended by leaders of the White Army and military commanders. He explained that the conference aims to discuss the latest political developments after the July events in Juba.
President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could be put off till mid next year, following a compromise position arrived at between the government of President Joseph Kabila and some members of the ‘weak’ opposition political parties.
According to available information, on Wednesday the two sides agreed to hold the presidential, parliamentary and local government/provincial elections on the same day, failure of which the elections that were scheduled for November be put off till July next year after a comprehensive process that will also include updating the voter register.
The development follows clamours by the opposition delegation to the talks led by Vital Kamerhe, who had insisted that the country hold presidential elections first before the other two polls, a position that contrasts that of President Kabila’s delegation that is led by Justice Minister Alexis Thambwe, who also hinted at putting in place a ‘unity government’.
However, no dates have been set for any of the polls, while leading opposition figures like veteran politician Etienne Tshisekedi have refused to take part in the dialogue, saying that the position arrived at during the dialogue will pave the way for President Kabila to manipulate the constitutional process and cling to power beyond the mandatory tw0-term cap.
The parties have since formed a coalition, the ‘Rassemblement’ (Assembly) headed by Tshisekedi, and plan to hold a demonstration in Kinshasa on Monday next week, to protest the failure to hold elections.
President Joseph Kabila Kabenge, 45, became DRC leader in January 2001 following the assassination of his father Laurent Kabila.
He first organised and won elections in 2006, and according to the Constitution promulgated the same year, his two term mandate is supposed to expire this year, making him ineligible to contest.
However, since the development dawned on him, Mr Kabila has tried to change the rules of the game, several times attracting the wrath of citizens who have taken to the streets in violent protest.
OPERATIONS NORMAL: Crane Bank Board chairman Joseph Biribonwa
The operations of Crane Bank continue uninterrupted by the proposition of the acquisition of a strategic equity investor, the bank’s board has said.
Responding to reports that Crane Bank shareholders had disposed off their shares through a ‘sale’, Board chairman Joseph Biribonwa assured depositors that over the past seven years the 21-year old bank had mooted several strategies to strengthen its service delivery and financial base including the idea of issuing an Initial Public Offer (IPO).
‘Five years ago, the shareholders and the Board decided to diversify and at the time the proposal that became public prematurely was the Initial Public Offer (IPO) root. That was a thought process as the branches spread and the expansion took root’, a release signed by Biribonwa states in part.
According to Biribonwa, the second phase saw the shareholders pursue the strategic investor option.
Two years ago, still with the drive to strengthen the Bank, the shareholders and the Board decided to get a strategic equity investor preferably with a regional and even better continental network. This strategy is in sync with the inevitable trend of mergers and acquisitions, not just as an important forum of growth for purposes of the East African integration but as a strategic move at a global level too’, the release adds.
Over the years, Crane Bank has improved its investment portfolio, opening 46 branches and also installing over 100 ATM machines across the country.
Isaac Imaka,President Uganda Parliamentary Reporters Association.
Today from the press gallery, I watched with dismay as parliamentarians debated and hatched a plan to not only trample media freedoms in parliament but also attempt to set the agenda for journalists who cover plan.
The genesis of the over two hour debate were particularly stories that were published by Daily Monitor, about MPs getting Shs200 million for cars and the Shs68 million to be spent on the each MP’s funeral.
The Observer published a story that 78 MPs had travelled to attend the UNAA convention in the USA.
Parliament argued that the stories were false and depicted the institution in bad light and that parliament journalists are working with “enemies” of parliament to taint its image.
Therefore, they want to bring a stringent law to control the media, they want journalists to be taking oath (I don’t know whether of allegiance or secrecy) before being accredited to cover Parliament. Most critical, however, parliament resolved that the parliament rules committee investigates the journalists who authored the stories with the goal of charging them with contempt of Parliament.
I respond as follows
It is wrong for a parliament which is supposed to make laws that protect fundamental human rights to be the same people hatching plans to muzzle media freedom simply because a story has annoyed them.
As legislators, they should actually know that there is nothing like false news on our law books. Let them ask themselves a question, were the stories true or false? On our end, the stories were well sourced and represent the truth.
As journalists who cover parliament, we subscribe to the journalists creed and the journalists code of ethics. We are not paid to publish stories and we challenge any MP who has ever paid for a story to come forward.
We strongly oppose the plan to have journalists swears oaths and we actually describe it as laughable.
We will continue doing that which is right as we execute our mandate as journalists and protecting the public’s right to know.
We are representatives of the public in parliament. We are not in Parliament as a show of courtesy from Parliament. We are in Parliament as a right. We are legally protected.
It is not our role to ensure that parliament has a glittering public image; that is for those who are paid by the institution to do. We will not allow parliament to set the agenda for us. If parliament or any individual is aggrieved about a story, the best option is to go to court and challenge the story.
Anyone who is aggrieved by a media story about parliament should do the most honourable thing of going to court. Controlling the media, through stringent and draconian laws, as a show of power and might will only boomerang because the public and the media will always win.
About appearing before the Rules committee, we shall when invited and we shall argue the case for the media.
For God and Journalism
Isaac Imaka
President Uganda Parliamentary Reporters Association
