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Kikiga dance excels at Victoria University Cultural Day

By
Bosco Agaba
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Victoria University held its cultural day last weekend with students showcasing their cultures. The university which has students from across East Africa region and beyond, performed excellently with the Bakiga from Uganda emerging the best.

As one of the top Universities in Uganda, Victoria University stands out as a pivot of academic excellence, offering a fresh and intellectually thriving environment that nurtures critical and progressive thinkers and pushes pedagogical boundaries.

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The University is committed to the advancement of higher education in the country and the East African region by establishing exemplary, specialized and employment-oriented education.

Funded by Mr Sudhir Ruparelia, whose backbone is solid, Victoria Univesity is backed by the Ruparelia Group which is notable in the education sector in Uganda and has under its portfolio the renowned Kampala International School Uganda and Kampala Parents’ School.

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In defence of journalists: there is more than just informing the public!

By
Guest Writer
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AWARD-WINNING JOURNALIST: Herbert Benon Oluka

By Herbert Benon Oluka

Criticism of the respective decisions by Chris Obore and Don Wanyama – among others – to swap journalism for government of Uganda service continues to dominate social media and beyond.
After observing this for a while, I want to offer an unsolicited view from the vantage point of someone who practices journalism. Initially, I didn’t study journalism. I studied human resource management (so don’t get surprised to see me swap media for HR one day). But I was drawn into print journalism by my passion for the written word.
However, after 12 years of practising journalism, and putting yourself in the firing line yo break some big stories, the reaction of your readership sometimes makes you wonder if its worth.
Its a question that I believe Chris and Don, both of who were in the media trenches before me, must have grappled with at some point.
As the investigations editor at Daily Monitor, Chris broke some of the biggest stories in the land on corruption, abuse of office, name it. But beyond the tweets and facebook shares, those stories were almost always forgotten by the next week – or even the next day.
So before you criticise Obore or Wanyama (today’s poster children of the many journalists who have moved on from the vocation), you have to ask yourself this very important question, “what civic action did I take on any of the many issues that these journalists investigated and exposed during their time?”
If you did not take any civic action to make government accountable for the many wrongs that these journalists exposed, then don’t you think these journalists would at some point get fatigued of doing the same things without getting any reaction from the public that they wrote for?
So the next time you read a story that I have investigated, please think of a way of following up the matter and bringing those accused of wrongdoing to account. Otherwise, we are all going around in circles and at some point either journalist or the passive reader gets fatigued of the same things.
The other criticism is that these journalists have betrayed their readers and followers of their work to go after money. Of course we conveniently forget that media practitioners are professionals who studied their vocations so that they could earn a living.
So if you want these professionals to continue earning a living by informing you through the media, then you had better support them by buying their products.
Dear reader of this opinion, if you were to be honest to yourself, how regularly do you buy a newspaper? When was the last time you bought a newspaper from Monday to Sunday? If you are not supporting the media by buying its products, then you might understand why some of the industry’s best eventually move on to do other things, including taking up jobs in government.
Although journalists often join the profession fuelled by passion, the reality is that they eventually grow up to have children, families and the demands of being providers. And if the media does not support them to do this, they may move on to other jobs that offer them the capacity to fulfill their obligations to their dependants.
Those are the realities we often don’t talk about.
So if you want your country’s best journalists to remain motivated to do their best, at least do these two things, if nothing else:-
(1) When you read a story they publish or broadcast, organise groups to demand action from those responsible – until action is taken. Don’t just put a link of the story to your fb page and write, “LOL.”
(2) Buy those newspapers off the stands so that we can pay our bills and so that we can finance good journalism. Good journalism costs money. It doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

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Top South Sudan journalist found dead

By
Our Reporter
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Veteran South Sudanese journalist Isaac Vuni has been found dead alongside a road, some three months after he was abducted from his home by unknown gunmen, the privately owned Radio Tamazuj reports on its news site.

It quotes his wife, Lucy Jua, as saying: “On Thursday we were informed that he was killed, but there is no information. Two youth or three found him dead, so they buried him.

“We don’t even know where he was buried. No information up to now.”

Lucy Jua said that her husband Isaac Vuni was kidnapped in June but she did not learn about the death of her husband until last week. She believes he was killed shortly after his abduction last June.

One of the sons of the late Vuni informed his wife of his death last Thursday. “We don’t know whether it was the government or who because everybody is quiet, there is no information, his son came and informed us that he was killed shortly after being kidnapped in June,” she said.

“We did not know, but we received information that a group of six men in uniform came, they had guns, so they took him together with his cousin brother, so this is the information we got, it is unclear whether they are government or SPLA-IO, he was taken from home at Kerepi area, he was found dumped in somebody’s farm there,” she explained.

“On Thursday we were informed that he was killed, but there is no information, two youth or three found him dead, so they buried him; we don’t even know where he was buried, no information up to now,” she added.

Isaac Vuni had been a contributor to Sudan Tribune online daily but he had stopped several years ago, according to his wife. Lucy Jua said that he had had some kind of land dispute but she did not know whether this was connected to his death in any way.

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South Sudan rallies neighbours against Machar rebellion

By
Agencies
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FAMILY NOT HAPPY: South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar

South Sudan government has started soliciting for support from countries in the region not to host and provide military support to rebel groups with ambitions to oust the Juba regime through unconstitutional means.

The presidential advisor on security affairs Tut Kew Gatluak disclosed that officials from the world’s youngest nation have approached regional leaders, particularly countries with interest in the country, over the matter.

“These countries [in the region] now need to continue to support the implementation of peace and isolate those who are against it. They should (not) host and provide any kind of support, whether be it political and military support to those against the implementation of peace agreement,” he added.

According to the official, South Sudan is now appealing to countries within the region immediately expel rebel groups within their territories.

Gatluak is the first senior government official to react to a report in which the leadership of armed opposition under the ousted first vice president and leader, Riek Machar, announced resumption of armed struggle after holding a consultative meeting in Khartoum.

Machar, who is currently in Khartoum after fleeing Juba on July 11, has been denied asylum in Ethiopia where he had hoped to take refuge after completing treatment from a Khartoum-based hospital.

Last week, the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, told reporters on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, that Addis Ababa ‘does not need someone who is leading an armed struggle on its soil’.

Ethiopia, after the civil war broke out in Juba in December 2013, played an important role in mediating peace to end conflict in South Sudan and also hosted Machar for most of the two-and-a-half years of the peace negotiations led by the regional bloc (IGAD). However, Addis Ababa is now bowing to pressure from Juba and the dynamics of the deployment of the UN-backed regional protection force.

Ethiopia was supposed to provide the bulk of the 4,000 troops and this was going to complicate their participation, if the country gives asylum to Machar, who is still determined to wage armed struggle.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir removed Machar from his position and replaced him with his former lead negotiator, Taban Deng Gai, as the country’s first vice president, citing his prolonged absence.

Machar is also experiencing difficulties with his political activities in Sudan after authorities stopped him from holding a press conference in Khartoum following a week-long leadership meeting that explored the ongoing political crisis in South Sudan.

Sudan’s information minister, Ahmed Bilal Osman said Machar was in Khartoum for treatment and would not be permitted to conduct political activities.

He, however, said Khartoum was waiting for the implementation of the security arrangements so that Machar returns to South Sudan.

Machar vowed he would only to return to the South Sudanese capital, after the deployment of the regional protection force, which Juba appears to be reluctant to accept as a boost to the 12,000-strong UN peacekeeping force in the young nation.

According to a UN Security Council resolution, the protection force is supposed to act as a buffer between President Kiir’s soldiers and those of Machar as well as secure humanitarian supply lines and key installations.

 

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Somali elections postponed

By
Agencies
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Somalia President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud is one of those vying for the country's presidency.

The electoral commission in Somalia has announced that the presidential election that was supposed to take place at the end of October has been delayed for a month.

The process, which is to last a few weeks, was expected to begin this past weekend with the election of upper and lower house members.

The latter are to be elected by some 14,000 delegates while the upper house is to be designated by regional states. Both houses will elect the new president.

But voting did not take place due to various disputes regarding the process.

Meanwhile, former Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed announced his candidacy in the presidential election.

“I will run for the presidency, I want to make Somalia great and make sure the security of our people those who live in the country or out of the country,” said the former president in a press conference in Mogadishu.

Sheikh Sharif returned in Somalia last Thursday for the first time in four years. He was president between 2009 and 2012.

Currently, there are 10 presidential candidates.

 

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Machar forces reject SPLA cantonment

By
Agencies
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Troops loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar have engaged the SPLA in Pagak town.

Opposition forces in Western Equatoria region have rejected calls by the newly appointed controversial First Vice President, Taban Deng Gai, to assemble in cantonment areas the forces of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO), saying they are loyal to their leader, Riek Machar.

In a statement the commander of the SPLA-IO forces in the area said they did not rebel in order to be simply cantoned but to resolve the underlying problems prevailing under the leadership of the South Sudanese President Salva Kiir.

“The approval of the cantonment areas for Greater Equatorial region will never bring peace because Cantonment is not the real grievance that made us to go to the bush, and fight against the regime of SPLM under the leadership of Salva Kirr,” party reads the statement signed by Brigadier General John Sunday Martin, SPLA (IO) 3rd Brigade Commander, Division 9 based in Western Equatoria.

He said Machar remains the recognized First Vice President and the leader of the armed opposition, warning that any security arrangements implementation or the transitional government of national unity without his participation will not be accepted.

“We will neither accept any transitional Government without Dr. Riek Macher being part of it, nor accept cantonment areas in Greater Equatoria without Dr. Riek Macher being part to the Transition Government,” the statement declared.

“The Government of Salva Kirr and Taban Deng with their International partners must know that, the SPLM-IO forces in Greater Equatoria Region remained royal to the leadership of Dr. Riek Macher and therefore, we are not going to these Cantonment areas, but will continue to fight with objectivity of ousting the regime of SPLM-IG that is manifested by corruption, tribalism, dictatorship, injustices and lack of political will to bring an end to the sufferings of the innocent souls in South Sudan.”

The senior military officer of the opposition faction was responding to the calls by government leadership to assemble in cantonment areas members of the SPLA-IO in greater Equatoria region.

The government last week announced it had identified up to four cantonment sites in Equatoria region.

 

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UG, Monot ‘Wild Style Karaoke’ makes statement

By
Our Reporter
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Uganda Waragi Brand Manager, Rhona Namanya poses with some of the night's revellers

Kampalans love to party and Uganda Waragi just delivered the highly billed ‘Wild Style Karaoke’ night at the bar, leaving revellers with nostalgic recollections.

The evening was a fully energized one that spewed out the best musical performances as revellers sipped away at their signature Uganda Waragi cocktails.

The performances on the night ranged from hip-hop to reggae, RnB, slows, among others. The crowd’s favourite act, Benjie, who performed Usher’s Good Kisser, received the loudest applause from the audience. His performance kept the audience on its feet as the musical aura swept through the hall.

The mixologist doing what he does best
The mixologist doing what he does best

Benjie mimicked Usher’s dance moves, giving the audience a glimpse of what a live ‘Usher’ performance would feel like. As he bowed out, the audience was more than convinced that he had done enough to earn the bragging rights of the night.

Speaking prior to the event, Rhona Namanya, the Uganda Waragi Brand Manager said; “As part of our 70 year anniversary celebrations, we are embracing Ugandan activities that celebrate our great heritage. What better way to do that than through music which is a strong touch point for many Ugandans.”

In order to enable Ugandans enjoy their Uganda Waragi, the brand has not only innovated new flavors of Coconut and Coffee; but has also created signature cocktails to elevate the drinking experience.

“Our ambition is to deliver an experience that our consumers will live to remember. Under our Diageo Master Bar Academy Program, several bartenders and bar owners have been trained to deliver cocktail recipes that will satisfy our consumers,” Ms. Namanya added.

The Wild Style Karaoke Night is the first of a number of activities that Uganda Waragi, which has been here for the last 50 years, will be running in the spirit of embracing all things Ugandan.

Karitas Karisimbi and renowned musician, Lillian Mbabazi were present to enjoy the night as well
Karitas Karisimbi and renowned musician, Lillian Mbabazi were present to enjoy the night as well

As a Ugandan heritage brand, Uganda Waragi just sponsored Blankets and Wine on September 25; up next is the Afrigo Concert happening on September 1,  and Kampala Cocktail Week that will be running from December 1 to December 10. “We are proud to promote all things Ugandan,” remarked Rhona Namanya.

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Eddy Kenzo’s song makes it to US music chart

By
Badru Kasadah
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ON CLOUD NINE: Eddy Kenzo's music going places.

This is Eddy Kenzo’s best period in life! From receiving a nod at the prestigious MTV Africa Music Awards (MAMAs) to one of his songs almost topping the charts in the US, he is doing it all.

Kenzo’s song, ‘Disco Disco’, is currently doing big on Voice of America’s music chart.

According to the latest chart released at the weekend, the song ranks at number 4 out of 5 at VoA’s 30 minute program, 54.

Kenzo is the first Ugandan musician to make it to the chart.

 

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Ebonies boss orders actors to surrender passports

By
Badru Kasadah
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PASSPORTS? The Ebonies pose for a group photo. Their boss has reportedly withdrawn passports from them.

One of the oldest and most successful acting groups in the country, The Ebonies, returned to the country last week, after a two week stint in the United States of America.
However, the number that returned was less than the number that had left the country for the Uganda North America Association (UNAA) convention in Boston, US; six members of the group fizzled from their camp and have never been seen since then.

We have learnt that city lawyer, John Katende, who is the boss of the group, is not ready to make any more ‘losses’ and, according to the reliable source, he has told all members of the group to deposit their passports with him.

Apparently, since they have valid visas, he is afraid that some of the actors and actresses are planning to fly back to the US, where they are believed to have made several connections during their short stay in the land of endless opportunities.

However, the source says most new members have yielded to the directive but that some of the top guns in the group have refused to comply with the directive.
The Ebonies have been having shows from Friday to Sunday at their home; Theater La Bonita.

 

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FDC, Police draw swords over Besigye return

By
Hussein Musisi
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A convoy of FDC supporters follow Dr Besigye along Entebbe Road. Photo credit/minbane.files.wordpress.com

The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) and the police are engaged in a supremacy battle of words, as the two groups vow to outdo each other following the announcement of the return of the party flag bearer Dr Kizza Besigye from a ‘working visit’ to Europe and the United States.

According to FDC stalwart Wafula Oguttu, the party is to hold two functions this fortnight, beginning with the welcome of Dr Besigye on Thursday, September 29 and then the holding of ‘Independence Day’ celebrations, beginning Friday, October 7.

ANNOUNCED DR BESIGYE'S RETURN: FDC stalwart Mr Wafula Oguttu
ANNOUNCED DR BESIGYE’S RETURN: FDC stalwart Mr Wafula Oguttu

But reacting to the announcements, police spokesperson Andrew Felix Kaweesi said the force will not allow anyone to act contrary to the law.

“We can’t allow anybody assemble along Entebbe highway to disrupt peace. Whoever continues with the alleged procession will not be allowed to see the light of the day,” Kaweesi warned early Monday.

Police Spokesperson AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi.
NO TO PROCESSION: Police Spokesperson AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi.

“They should have requested for permission from police. But even then, we will not allow them hold a procession along the way considering what transpired some time back. Anybody who organises it should follow the law or else it is illegal and we shall stop it before it matures and prosecute whoever is involved,” Mr Kaweesi added.

Dr Besigye, who the FDC says won the February 2016 presidential elections, has been on a month-long ‘working visit’ to Europe and the United States.

And, addressing the media today, Mr Oguttu, said on Thursday morning the party members will receive Dr Besigye at Entebbe International Airport, and then lead him in a procession to his home in Kasangati.

He said that the procession, which was meant to converge at the FDC headquarters in Najjanankumbi had been switched to Dr Besigye’s Kasangati home to pave the way for the party members to pay last respects to the father of MP Odonga Otto, whose burial will also take place on Thursday.

“It is not illegal to welcome back our president from the airport; this is a normal gesture different people conduct; the Muslim pilgrims are usually welcomed back by relatives and friends from the same venue so what we are intending to conduct is a common practice,” Wafula Oguttu said, emphasising that the FDC Deputy Secretary General Harold Kaija had already written to police about the impending party activities.

“As far as we are concerned our role is to inform the police so that they can assist in traffic control but we are not requesting for their permission,” he added.

Mr Oguttu also said the party would hold parallel Independence Day celebrations, beginning with Jumah prayers at Bweyogerere Mosque on Friday, followed by a public rally on the ‘state of Uganda’ today. Other scheduled activities include holding another public rally in Kawempe on Saturday, followed by the FDC Independence Day celebrations on Sunday, October 9 at Katwe grounds.

Meanwhile, the FDC leadership has scoffed at the move by the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga to honour Dr Besigye and his wife Winnie Byanyima as heroes.

According to the party, the award of medals to the two is a diversionary stunt aimed at shrouding their party’s victory in the presidential elections.

“Instead of the NRM honouring the FDC presidential elections victory they want to hoodwink us with a heroic stunt which we cannot accept,” Mr Oguttu said.

He added: “We would therefore appreciate it if they honoured people like Namaganda, the pupil who passed on while saving her fellow pupils when a fire gutted their dormitory.”

 

 

 

 

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