IN FIGHT WITH EU OVER AMISOM WAGES: Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza.
Police in Burundi has said it closed 15 foreign-exchange offices and arrested 12 money-changers as the East African country, struck by more than a year of unrest, struggles with a dollar shortage.
The actions were taken against speculators who committed ‘economic crime’ by not complying with the official exchange rate, police spokesman Pierre Nkurikiye wrote on his Twitter account.
An inadequate supply of dollars from Burundi’s central bank has forced companies into the black market, where the cost of greenbacks has surged. The central bank this year ordered banks, non-government organizations and embassies to open accounts with it to regulate foreign-exchange supplies.
The landlocked, coffee-exporting nation has a gross domestic product of about $3.1 billion. It has been rocked by violence that’s killed more than 470 people since April 2015, when President Pierre Nkurunziza decided to stand for re-election; a move his opponents said was unconstitutional.
Meanwhile, traders and growers of fruit and vegetable crops in Cibitoke province, 70km northwest of the Burundian capital Bujumbura, are complaining about the ban on export of food items to Rwanda.
In Cibitoke, the measure taken by the Burundian government last week, affects sellers and growers of several fruit and vegetable crops, including tomatoes, onions and eggplants “I grow and sell tomatoes, onions and other vegetables in Rwanda. My tomatoes are getting rotten in fields because we are not allowed to sell any food items in Rwanda,” said Generose Nisabwe. “The government (of Burundi) should suspend this measure because most of people living near the border with Rwanda sell their food products in Rwanda,” added Nisabwe.
U.S. Ambassador Stephen Schwartz presents his credentials to Abdisalam Omer Hadliye, Somalia's minister of foreign affairs.
The first US ambassador to Somalia in 25 years has arrived in Mogadishu and presented his credentials to the Somali government.
Ambassador Stephen Schwartz, who met with Foreign Affairs Minister Abdusalam Omar Hadliye, is tasked with helping Somali officials stabilize the country after decades of civil war and the al-Shabab insurgency.
“The appointment of an ambassador to Somalia is a sign of the strong bonds between the two countries,” Schwartz said after the meeting.
“… I am pleased to have this opportunity to help the people of Somalia build a peaceful nation with a stable democratic government,” he added.
Somali foreign affairs minister Abdusalam Omar Hadliye holds talks with US Ambassador Stephen Schwartz
Schwartz praised Somalia’s progress over the last eight years and urged the leaders to deepen their commitment to improving the lives of Somali people, including women and youth, according to a statement from the Somali Foreign Ministry.
State collapse is the main reason for the long US diplomatic absence from Somalia. In 1991, the US embassy in Mogadishu closed after the regime of Mohamed Said Barre was overthrown and violence erupted between warring clan militias.
In late 1992, President George HW Bush deployed US troops to Somalia to support a UN aid mission aimed at relieving mass starvation. But 10 months later, 18 American soldiers were killed in Mogadishu by rebels who shot down two US helicopters, in the ‘Black Hawk Down’ incident. The United States withdrew its troops the next year.
After two decades of war and chaos, it was only in 2012 that Somalia achieved some measure of stability with the creation of an internationally-backed government.
But security remains a problem, as the militant group al-Shabaab continues to launch attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere, a situation noted by the new envoy.
On Tuesday, Somali leaders ended a meeting in Mogadishu aimed at making final preparations for the upcoming elections.
Leaders endorsed a new timetable announced by the Somali Federal Electoral Implementation Team (FEIT) that sets October 30 as the date for presidential election.
Lawmakers will elect the president, after officials agreed it was not possible to hold one-person one-vote elections across the still-volatile country. President Hassan Mohamud has said he will seek re-election.
IN SUPPORT OF IGP: Supporters of IGP Kale Kayihura hold placards with messages praising police. Photo credit Pius Enywaru/eagleonline.co.ug
The Makindye Magistrate’s court has allowed the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to formally file application for consideration in the case against the Inspector General of Police General Kale Kayihura, who is accused of allegedly failing to superintend his subordinates who were involved in beating the opposition Dr Besigye’s supporters and bystanders, on July 12 and 13.
This was after lawyers seeking the prosecution of Gen Kayihura faulted the Makindye Resident State Attorney for arrogating himself powers to take over IGP’s prosecution.
SUED GEN. KAYIHURA: City lawyer Abdullah Kiwanuka of Lukwago and Company Advocates. Photo credit/Pius Enywaru/eagleonline.co.ug
The IGP was dragged to court by a group of 20 lawyers, led by Abdullah Kiwanuka of Lukwago and Company Advocates, who today tasked court to explain why Gen Kayihura and his co-accused, all senior police officers above the rank of Superintendent, did not turn up in court.
But magistrate Richard Mafabi saved the day, asking the DPP to instead file the formal application, before he adjourned the hearing to August 29.
Meanwhile, scuffles ensued between rival supporters of Gen Kayihura and those of his pursuers including Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago and city lawyer and President of opoosition JEEMA party Asuman Basalirwa after the magistrate announcing the adjournment.
Placard holding supporters of police IGP General Kayihura. Photo credit/Pius Enywaru/eagleonline.co.ug
Intriguingly, some people carrying placards in support of the IGP were overheard asking why no Ugandan had sought the prosecution of KCCA Executive Director Jennifer Musisi, who they claimed, should also have been prosecuted, ostensibly for the death of two-year old Ryan Semaganda in November 2014 and the wanton beatings of street vendors in the city by KCCA law enforcement officers. They related Musisi’s ‘failure to supervise her subordinates’ including that of the driver of the KCCA vehicle and the enforcement officers, to charges Gen Kayihura is currently facing.
Baby Semaganda was crashed by a KCCA car in the precincts of the City Hall where his mother Mariam Namutebi, a street vendor, had earlier been arraigned before the city court for illegally hawking merchandise in the city.
ACCUSED OF SUPPORTING MILITANTS: Former president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has rejected reports that he is sponsoring a militant group destroying oil pipelines in the Niger Delta region.
Jonathan, who was defeated by incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari in elections in March 2015, had been named as a sponsor of the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) by a purported faction of the group.
The NDA has launched a campaign of attacks on the country’s oil infrastructure in 2016, dramatically cutting Nigeria’s oil production. The group is demanding a greater share of the country’s oil wealth for residents of the Delta, an impoverished but resource-rich part of southern Nigeria.
In a statement issued through his media assistant Ikechukwu Eze, Jonathan said that claims he was backing the group were ‘idiotic’ and that the former president was committed to ‘peace, non-violence and better human community’.
Jonathan’s statement added that another group of militants in the southern swamplands—known as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND)—had previously attempted to assassinate him and was still intent on this goal. MEND led an insurgency in the Niger Delta in the mid-2000s, kidnapping oil workers and blowing up pipelines before a presidential amnesty deal was struck in 2009.
The former Nigerian leader claimed that the group had made several attempts on his life before and during his presidential tenure, which ran from 2010 to 2015.
“We, therefore, have no doubt in our mind that MEND, as a group contracted to go after Jonathan with the mind of assassinating him, is yet to abandon this criminal and ignominious craving,” said the statement.
Jonathan has a strong support base in the Niger Delta and in the south of the country in general, with key oil-producing areas including Rivers state voting for the ex-president’s People’s Democratic Party in the 2015 general election.
The NDA itself has claimed that reports of separate factions within the group are unfounded. “The public and all sane minds should know that the entire household of the Niger Delta Avengers remain[s] intact,” said a statement posted on the group’s website Saturday.
Buhari’s administration has claimed on several occasions to be engaged in dialogue with militant groups in the Niger Delta, including the NDA, but the group itself has said such claims are untrue. The NDA has also disavowed links with MEND; the latter group has publicly stated that it is working with the government to bring the renewed attacks to an end and has branded the NDA as ‘criminals’.
SPLM-IO Chief of Staff Gen Gatwech on return to Juba. Photo credit/finance.yahoo.com
South Sudanese rival forces have clashed around a strategic town, Yei, which is about 160 km south of the national capital, Juba, and towards the Ugandan border.
This is after the opposition forces of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA-IO) in Opposition under the leadership of the former first vice president, Riek Machar, captured Lasu County, southwest of Yei.
Officials of the opposition faction confirmed that fighting erupted around Yei town, the capital of the newly formed Yei River State, when their forces came under attack from forces loyal to President Salva Kiir.
“Our forces of the SPLA (IO) came under attack today, when forces loyal to President Salva Kiir moved out of Yei town and attacked them. They were attacked in their defensive position some kilometers away north of Yei town,” James Gatdet Dak, spokesperson for Machar, leader of the country’s main opposition faction, said.
“However, our forces fought back in self-defence and chased the attacking forces back into the town. They did not follow them to capture the town,” he added.
Dak also revealed that their forces on Monday captured a strategic county of Lasu, which is south of Yei town, towards Kaya at the border with Uganda.
He also said another force from Juba was defeated on Tuesday between Juba and Lainya County when it attempted to attack the SPLA-IO forces on Juba-Yei road, which he claimed to have been closed by the opposition forces.
He further claimed that like Juba, Yei has also been besieged by the opposition forces.
The opposition leader’s spokesman also said fighting was going on around Renk, in the furthest north of the country, near Sudan’s border. Also there has been fighting in Nasir and Maban areas in Upper Nile state, he added.
There are also reports of fighting around Raga in Western Bahr el Ghazal state, west of the country.
Fighting erupted in Juba on July 8 between bodyguards of the two rival leaders, Kiir and Machar, and spread throughout the town, forcing Machar and his small number of troops to leave Juba and relocate into the bushes around the capital.
Opposition officials accused President Kiir’s forces of starting the fighting at the palace in an attempt to kill their leader, an accusation which President Kiir’s officials have denied.
President Kiir went ahead by replacing Machar, saying he had stopped communicating with him and called on him to return to the capital. Machar said he would only return to Juba once a third party force is deployed to separate the rival forces and guarantee his safety.
He also said his replacement was ‘illegal’ and a violation of the Article 6.5 of the Agreement on the Resolutions of the Conflict in South Sudan (ARCISS).
The East African regional bloc, IGAD, in their communiqué released on Friday called on Machar to return to Juba and assume his position as first vice president, calling on the newly appointed replacement, Taban Deng Gai, to step aside.
Meanwhile, as fighting continues around Juba, the two sides have called for reinforcements from different locations and fighting has been intensifying in the bushes around the capital and in other areas in the country.
United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is expected to discuss and pass a resolution on Friday for deployment of a third party force in Juba to take charge of its security, including protecting the leadership, civilians and key government installations.
A participant announcing the upcoming conference. Courtesy Photo.
Uganda will this year play host to the fourth edition of the East Africa International Arbitration Conference (EAIAC), an authoritative platform that is promoting the region’s legal capacity and highlighting arbitration as an alternative investment dispute mechanism.
THE EAIAC logo
According to a release by the Africa Press Organisation (APO) on behalf of GBS Africa, the EAIAC 2016 will highlight the importance of international arbitration as a tool for promoting foreign investment on the continent, look at arbitration case studies from Uganda and the region focusing on infrastructure, natural resources and Energy projects.
Uganda’s is increasingly gaining recognition as a leading Infrastructure and natural resource player in the Eastern African market, and the organizing committee considers Kampala as a natural choice for hosting EAIAC 2016.
EAIAC 2016 will take place on the September 8-9 at the Serena Kampala and will be addressed by Ministers from the region, international arbitration professionals and investment experts.
Organised by GBS Africa, the conference is supported by regional law societies, private sector bodies, development agencies, regional governments and investment community with an interest in East Africa.
The platform brings stakeholders together to share best practices, network and chart the way forward for East Africa’s Arbitration practice.
EAIAC Kampala 2016 will build on the success of the previous conferences held in Addis Ababa (2013), Nairobi (2014) and Dar –es Salaam (2015).
Former Inspector General of Police Gen. Kale Kayihura
Hundreds of people have turned up at the Makindye Magistrate’s court to express their solidarity with the Inspector General of Police General Kale Kayihura.
According to our reporter on the ground, some of the placards-holding supporters of the IGP have turned rowdy, chasing away perceived opponents of the police chief.
Already, Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago and city lawyer and president of opposition JEEMA party are at Makindye, where the security has been tightened ahead of the expected arrival of the IGP and his co-accused. General Kale Kayihura, was dragged to court by a group of 20 lawyers, for allegedly failing to superintend his subordinates who were involved in beating the opposition Dr Besigye’s supporters and bystanders, on July 12 and 13.
This was after Dr Besigye had been released on bail from Luzira prison, where he was held for two months on treason charges.
Two days ago, while addressing a presser at his Kasangati home Besigye said that time has caught-up with Gen Kayihura and others who have been traumatizing him, his supporters and innocent civilians, as witnessed by the indictment of the General.
“Things have changed; I am out of court and Kayihura is in,” the retired army colonel said.
Meanwhile, yesterday afternoon another group of placard-holding supporters of the IGP staged a demonstration around Parliament, temporarily paralyzing activities around the house.
Ugandan banker Sam Owori has been nominated as the Rotary International President for 2018/19 replacing John Germ.
According to reports Mr Owori will become the president-nominee on 1 October if no other candidates challenge him.
He joined Rotary in 1978 and was an RI director in 2010-12. He has also served as a regional Rotary Foundation Coordinator and RI training leader.
Owori, who was the managing director of Uganda Commercial Bank until the early 2000s, is now the Chief Executive Officer, Institute of Corporate Governance and also shareholder in Uganda’s first regulated, deposit-taking microfinance institution, FINCA Uganda.
Born in Tororo, Mr Owori is also a former representative United Nations Centre for Human Settlements Programme and a Secretary to the Bank of Uganda.
Some of the Muslims charged with murder of fellow Muslims at High Court Kampala. Photo credit/eastafricanvanguard.com
The trial of thirty one Muslim terror suspects including Sheikh Muhammad Yusuf Kamoga has today hit a temporary dead end after the prosecution and defence counsels failed to agree on how to proceed under the International Criminal Court (ICC) rules and procedures in regard to terrorism charges, which are considered international crimes.
UNDER TRIAL: Sheikh Yunus Kamoga
The 31 suspects are charged with the murder of several Muslim clerics across among them Sheikhs Hassan Kiirya, Abdulkadir Muwaya, Abdulkarim Sentamu and Mustapha Bahiga.
The standoff followed the issue of amended procedures, given that the suspects are being charged with an international crime and, Defence Counsels Mac Dosman Kabega and Ladislaus Rwakafuuzi asked the presiding judges to allow for some amendments since the rules and laws were not clear to them.
The trial judges were then left with no option other than to invite Justice Duncan Gaswaga to clear some queries since both the prosecution and defense were not conversant with the ICC rules.
Justice Gaswaga referred the defence lawyers to Article 139 of the Constitution and noted that ‘this is the High Court of Uganda and not The Hague, so the position I hold at this court differs from the one I would hold while sitting at the ICC,” Justice Gaswaga told his learned friends. He however, promised to conduct further consultations on the procedural matters.
Prosecutor, Senior State Attorney Lino Anguzu, concurred with his colleagues about the new rules which require even the prosecution to amend the charge.
He added that some of the also provisions allow him to promote confidentiality while presenting witnesses because some of them need security.
In response Justice Gaswaga advised Prosecutor Anguzu to follow the requisite procedures while applying for security for the witnesses, but rejected prosecution’s request to be accorded more time to sort out the seeming procedural anomalies ‘like printing and photocopying documents, amending the charge, disclosing of evidence and arranging everything in proper order’ before the next pre-trial hearing.
The judge reminded Anguzu that prosecution had over two years to prepare for the case, a development that was welcomed by the 30 suspects, who also complained of being tortured while in custody.
This prompted the Judge to ask them if they can identify the people who torture them so that they can be brought to book, to which all the suspects responded in the affirmative.
Meanwhile, counsel Rwakafuzi complained that some of the suspects, identified as A27, A28, A 29, A 30 and A31, are not Ugandan nationals yet they are being charged in the High Court of Uganda.
Everybody loves a surprise, and this award season, there wouldn’t be any surprises if there weren’t predictions. Since the Uganda Entertainment awards night are less than a fortnight away, it is just the right time to speculate and altercate about who will win what category.
Here is EagleOnline’s prediction on selected categories of interest;
Artist of the Year
The nominees are; Sheebah Karungi,Eddy Kenzo and Bebe Cool.
All three have been on the scene this past year. While Eddy Kenzo won Best New International artist in 2015 BET Awards, Bebe Cool’s Love you everyday was nominated in Mtv Africa Awards (MAMA). However, Sheeba has had hit after hit including Nkwatako, Ndiwanjawulo, Siri Zari and others, therefore this Zeros down to her, Sheeba Karungi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-NG4TQRP_w
Best Male Artist
The nominees are; Eddy Kenzo, Radio & Weasel, David Lutalo, A Pass
He might not be winning Artist of the year but Eddy Kenzo has people hyping over his songs. While the rest cannot be disregarded either, Kenzo is still the most probable winner in this category.
Best Female Artist
The nominees are; Rema Namakula, Sheebah Karungi, Stecia Mayanja, Mary Bata
For the most obvious reason that she has had the most hits in this category, Sheeba is taking this one too.
Best Breakthrough Artiste
The nominees are; Winnie Nwagi, Carol Nantongo, Nutty Neithan, Ryddim Galz
People are going crazy over her curvy body and Musawo is still hitting all over the country. Winnie Nwagi has got this covered.
Video of the Year
The nominees are; Nkwatako by Sheebah Karungi, Soraye by Eddy Kenzo, African Gal by Bebe Cool, Njogereza by Navio, Kyadaaki by Iryn Namubiru
Nkwatako is winning this. Let’s be honest, there is a difference between a good quality video and a video that appeals to a watcher and that is Sheeba Karungi.
Best Collaboration
The nominees are; Science by King Saha ft Winnie Nwagi, Same Way by Geosteady ft Lydia Jazmine, Royal Eddy Kenzo ft Patoranking, Friendly Match by Ziza Bafana ft Zanie Brown
Science takes this. This jam is loved from a boba-boda stage to a government official’s house.
Song of the Year
The nominees are; Musawo by Winnie Nwagi, Alintwala by Stecia Mayanja, Same way by Geosteady ft Jazmine, Mu Bbara by Daxx Kartel, My Lover by Mary Bata
This is a close one! Though Daxx Kartel might have taken this had it been 4 months earlier, with Winnie’s Musawo strategically hitting during the award season, Winnie Nwagi could take this award. I still wouldn’t be surprised though if Daxx Kartel claimed it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xv6Knyenwsc
Best Band
The nominees are; Quela Band, Golden Band, Cream Production
This group made up of former Eagle’s Production gurus has never lost it and with new fresh blood like Carol Nantongo taking over the music scene, surely it’s only fair to say Golden band is taking this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlidrWGQBHs
Best All Round Entertainment Personality
The nominees are; Bobi Wine, Salvado Idringi, Andrew Benon Kibuuka, Mariam Ndagire.
Taking into account a personality that appeals to all; young, old, poor and rich, Bobi Wine is definitely taking this one.
Best TV Station
The nominees are; NTV, Bukedde TV, Urban TV, Channel 44
Enjoyed by every age group and getting even those claiming too much swag watching Agataliiko Nfuufu, Bukedde TV is in the thing.
Best Radio Station
The nominees are; Galaxy FM, CBC FM, Power FM, Capital FM, Sanyu FM
This new comer is hitting the scene right and some of these old fellas, though competitive could be in for a surprise when Galaxy FM takes it.
