Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has reportedly described the International Criminal Court (ICC) as ‘useless’, as he praised South Africa and Burundi’s move to leave the tribunal.

Zambian media reports indicate that Museveni made the anti-ICC comments when he was in the southern African country to grace the country’s 52nd Independence celebrations.

“It is a very good decision that South Africa has done that. In fact it is [the ICC] that is very useless,” Museveni, who early this year, during his swearing in as president of Uganda for a fifth term in May, was quoted as saying. Senior Presidential Press Secretary (SPPS) Innocent Don Wanyama confirmed the President made the remarks after a foreign journalist asked him about his position on the withdrawal of South Africa.

It is not clear if Uganda also wants to leave the ICC but last Friday South Africa joined Burundi in withdrawing from the institution that was set up in 2002 to prosecute the world’s worst crimes.

The South African decision followed a dispute with the court last year over Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir visit to the country for an African Union summit despite facing an ICC warrant over alleged war crimes.

Currently, three countries: Burundi, South Africa and The Gambia have left the Hague-based court, while Kenya, whose President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto were indicted by the ICC in 2011, is also set to quit.

Countries that leave the ICC have at least a year before their request can be validated.

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South Sudan’s armed opposition faction under the leadership of former First Vice President, Riek Machar, has refuted as ‘negative campaign’ accusations that their fighters abducted two Ugandan nationals on the Juba-Nimule road.

According to James Gatdet Dak, the accusations made by the South Sudan Police Inspector General, General Makur Maruol, were diversionary, probably aimed at enticing Uganda to redeploy in South Sudan as happened during the two-year civil war between 2013 and 2015.

Addressing the media in Kampala on Saturday had accused the opposition faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA-IO) of allegedly holding Ugandans hostage and demanding money as ransom to set them free.

“I have learnt that some of the [Ugandan] relatives are receiving calls from [the SPLA-IO abductors demanding for a ransom. We’ll make all the available means to secure the release of the two. It is a joint venture,” Maruol told reporters.

But responding to the accusation Machar’s spokesperson said: “This is a mere negative campaign against our Movement. Our forces have never abducted civilians, South Sudanese or foreigners, let alone demanding for ransom.”

Dak further claimed that if it was true, it could be soldiers and police loyal to the ‘rogue regime’ in Juba that kidnapped the Ugandan nationals to either get the ransom or use it to smear the image of the SPLA-IO forces.

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Lubaga South Member of Parliament Kato Lubwama is under fire over is academic qualifications. The National Examinations body, UNEB, says the legislator miserably failed his O’levels.

Bukedde was one of the media houses that broke the story and going by his reaction, this is the last thing the comedian-turned-politician would want the public to know.

The embattled legislator yesterday stormed Vision Group offices where Bukedde TV studios and paper are found, and guess what?  He was demanding for the author of the stories about his academic qualifications.

One such person he knew personally was Bukedde reporter Josephat Sseguya, and on seeing him the legislator reportedly went into overdrive, throwing all kinds of insults at Sseguya.

“Now, why would Hon Kato Lubwama come to office (Vision Group offices) to insult me that I am a fool? I am still puzzled because it is not me that took him to court. All that I included in my report was what is before court. Let me post ma academic qualifications here tomorrow to see if I got nothing from Nyenga seminary and MUK…..,” Sseguya responded.

Paulo Kato Lubwama, the Lubaga South MP, could lose his seat after a political activist Habib Buwembo took him to court claiming he lacks the minimum academic qualifications to be a legislator.

According to Buwembo, Lubwama failed his O-level exams and was not awarded a UNEB certificate. Further, he argues, the diploma in Music, Dance and Drama certificate that Lubwama obtained from Makerere University and which he used as a basis for nomination as a parliamentary candidate, is null and void.

The case kicks off on October 31 at the High court, Kampala. On October 7, Uneb in a letter to Buwembo confirming that the grades Lubwama obtained at O-level were not sufficient for him to be awarded a certificate.

Lubwama sat his O-levels at Old Kampala Secondary School in 1988. According to his O-level results, Lubwama, failed (got F9 in) English, Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. He got passes in History, Commerce and credits in Political Education, Geography, and Christian Religious Education.

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Zambia’s main Opposition President Hakainde Hichilema has demanded that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni apologises to Zambians for stating that the elections in their country were free and fair.

According to Mr Hichilema, the Zambian election results are being challenged in the courts and therefore, Mr Museveni’s comment are tantamount to contempt of court.

Upon his arrival in Zambia, Museveni told the opposition to stop fanning violence and accept the August 2016 elections, but the opposition leader contends that Zambia is a sovereign state which has its own laws adding that Mr Museveni was out of order to comment on the country’s political situation.

‘Mr Hichilema cautions that the Ugandan president will not be allowed to introduce his style of leadership in Zambia as it is detrimental to development,’ the media stated, quoting Mr Hichilema.

He also implored the Ugandan High Commission to render a public apology on behalf of Mr Museveni, that UNPD should stop fanning violence and accept the elections results.

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In any ‘war’ situation, antagonists devise means of outwitting each other. This is what is happening today between the city vendors, police and Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) law enforcement officers as the latter struggle to evict the vendors off the streets of Kampala.

The forceful eviction of vendors follows a directive by Kampala minister Beti Olive Kamya Turomwe last week, a development that has caused a crack in the relations between the KCCA councilors led by the Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago on one side, and the Minister.

Armed with sticks, the vendors have this morning unleashed unprecedented terror against their ‘tormentors’ causing a stampede and engaging in running battles in areas around the new and old taxi parks.

As that was happening, the female vendors around the Old Taxi Park had also devised a ‘new trick’; they put their babies in boxes they usually use to display their merchandise, and were inviting law enforcement officials to take the children and care them.

“Since you have deprived us of our daily, please take this child and care for it,” one lady vendor told a KCCA enforcement officer. The man just ‘fizzled’, leaving the vendors in celebratory laughter.

Another vendor spit venom at the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government, saying it was insensitive to their plight and had started harassing them following their support that helped ensure electoral victory in the February elections.

“These people (NRM government) were here convincing us to vote for them, which we did, now they are sending this ‘opposition woman’ (Kampala minister Kamya) to evict us; what type of leaders are these?” the man wondered.

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