The House of Bishops of Church of Uganda sitting at Lweza Training and Conference Centre, has elected Rev Ven. Michael Chorey as the 5th Bishop of the Diocese of Karamoja.
He will be consecrated and enthroned as the 5th Bishop on August 25, 2024 at St Phillip’s Cathedral, Moroto, replacing Rev. Joseph Abura who has been the Bishop since May 27, 2007 and the Dean of the Province of Church of Uganda.
Rev. Ven. Chorey was born on April 10,1970 in Dingdinga village, the present day Katabok Sub county in Amudat District.
He accepted Jesus Christ as his Saviour on May 12, 1986 at a fellowship organized by the School Chaplain who was also a Church teacher. The message was, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, Romans 6:23.”
He was ordained as Deacon on July 13, 2003 and priested on December 18, 2005. He began his Church Ministry as a Lay Reader from 1995 to 2000 and is currently the Archdeacon of Pokot Archdeaconry, a position he has held since April 1, 2012 to date. He also serves as the Parish Priest for Christ Church Amudat Parish.
He is married to Rev Canon Jane Chorey with whom they have planted 24 Churches which are now under Pokot Archdeaconry.
Rev. Ven Michael Chorey holds a Master of Arts in Theology and Development and a Bachelor of Divinity from Uganda Christian University. He is currently in the completion stages of his Doctor of Philosophy in Theology and Development at Uganda Christian University.
He has undergone a number of trainings including monitoring and evaluation for HIV/AIDS, basic training of Trainer of trainers (TOT) for advocacy, peace and small arms monitoring and attended a leadership training at the Anglican Leadership Institute in South Carolina, USA.
He has translated manuals for Alternative Basic Education for Karamoja (ABEC), translated the Parliamentary ACT of 2010 of prohibition of female genital mutilation, and many other documents aimed at creating awareness on HIV/AIDS, Drugs and neglected diseases.
President Yoweri Museveni has created a State House Revenue Intelligence and Strategic Operations Unit to oversee Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) operations and fight corruption within the tax administration system.
“His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has created the State House Revenue Intelligence and Strategic Operations Unit to do an oversight on Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) operations and fight corruption within the tax administration system,” read the letter from the Presidential Press Unit.
The President also appointed Mr. David Kalemera as a Senior Presidential Advisor and Head of the Unit.
“The creation of this Unit will help the government to close revenue leakages and boost tax collection,” the letter confirmed.
On June 28, Eagle Online revealed through a story on how conmen, ex-high profiled convicts are running URA whistleblower’s rackets to make a kill.
Uganda Revenue Authority is a subject of discussion as details emerge that its Whistleblower’s portal is being abused by its staff and top city tricksters to lure top companies in unsuspecting tax rackets.
Information available indicate several companies have fallen victim to this racket and are seeking the country’s investigative agencies to come to their rescue
“Agencies like the Anti-Corruption Unit should look into URA rackets and act harshly the same way they have worked on Parliament”.
According to one of such companies, this involves rackets in URA which aids damping goods in the country that include fuel that creates losses to the Republic of Uganda.
One of the rackets that Crime Intelligence should investigate is the whistleblower racket which they say works in connivance with some people to lure some companies that they owe URA money and therefore, moves ahead to demand for 30%. Sources told this website that a top multinational company that has been a victim of this racket recently obtained recordings, legal documents on how the commission on the 30 % is shared allegedly amongst these rackets and URA staff.
Part of this racket is to force estimates on companies and upon rejection, they are forced to pay 30% deposit and of this 30% deposit, the whistleblower claims 10% straightaway which is paid to a group in URA since it is an internal racket.
However, as this goes on, the affected companies move to seek legal redress and once the said company wins the case against URA, the whistleblower commission is kept on the books of account and is never refunded. According to sources, this has amounted to billions of shillings for the last few years and there is a hashtag code named internal connivance. The affected companies claim this is direct theft from the treasury because the companies are never refunded by the whistleblower.
The second racket is the VAT racket and as we speak, there is a case in court as an employee of the taxman was dragged to court as evidently accepted by URA with admission. The pleas are that there should be an audit as to how much has been lost through this scheme and money refunded and culprits dealt with the same way Members of Parliament are handled.
The concerned companies say a similar occurrence took place when the same group tried billions of shillings from Bujagali power.
“This racket has reduced investor confidence in Uganda and one wonder why entities like Game and among others are leaving the country.
This racket involves people from the taxman, some conmen in town and ex-high profiled convicts.
The Chief Magistrates Standards, Utilities, and Wildlife Court has remanded two suspects, Kerim Ray and Eric Avunalo, to Luzira Prison for degrading Lwajjali wetland.
Kerim is the director for a Turkish company, Yaman Construction Ltd., while Avunalo is manager of Rockbuild Ltd., a contractor for site clearing.
The two are accused of violating the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) conditions given by the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) and a depositing marram into Lwajjali Wetland.
Prosecution avers that the two were, on June 30, 2024, found backfilling Lwajjali Wetland in Gongobe Village, Goma Division, Sseeta Parish, Mukono Municipality in Mukono District.
The two pleaded guilty to the offenses. Yaman Construction Ltd is a concrete products manufacturing factory that was issued an ESIA certificate on June 14, 2024, in accordance with the National Environment Act 2019.
The approval was meant for concrete manufacturing.
According to the Act, backfilling a wetland is a crime and a person who contravenes the law commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding thirty thousand currency points or imprisonment not exceeding twelve years or both.
An Immigration official displaying some of the unclaimed passports.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs is set to destroy over 60,000 uncollected passports worth Shs12.5 billion, citing storage space constraints. The unclaimed passports, mostly belonging to individuals seeking employment in the Middle East, have been stored at the Kyambogo collection center for years.
“We have been keeping these passports for a long time, but the owners have not come to collect them. We are running out of storage space, and we have decided to destroy them,” said Simon Mundeyi, the Ministry’s spokesperson.
Mundeyi explained that the passports have remained unclaimed for longer than six years, and the labor export activities have drastically reduced. “We have tried to contact the owners, but most of the phone numbers are no longer in use. We have also advertised in newspapers, but no one has come forward to claim them,” he added.
The Ministry has been struggling to manage the backlog of uncollected passports, which have accumulated since 2018. “These passports keep accumulating, and we are running out of storage at our collection center in Kyambogo. We currently have over 60,000 uncollected passports, which have not been claimed by their owners,” Mundeyi said.
The congestion has been worsened by an additional 10,400 passports abandoned by labor export companies and embassies. “When the passport is ready, messages are sent to the applicants to collect them. However, their phones are often off, and the messages bounce. We have tried contacting them using our toll-free lines, but nothing has yielded results,” Mundeyi explained.
The Ministry is urging people who applied for passports to promptly pick them up or check the ministry’s website to find out the status of their documents. “We don’t want to destroy anyone’s passport, but we are running out of space. We are appealing to those who applied for passports to come and collect them,” Mundeyi said.
The destruction of the passports is expected to take place next month, and the Ministry is urging the public to take action to avoid losing their travel documents. “Passports allow for exit from and re-entry into a country and also enable citizens to travel in a foreign country in line with visa requirements and request protection for the citizen while abroad,” Mundeyi emphasized.
The Ministry has also reminded citizens that passports are essential travel documents that enable exit and re-entry into a country and provide protection abroad. In Uganda, three types of passports are issued: ordinary, official, and diplomatic. The uncollected passports fall under the ordinary category, which costs Shs250,000 for a booklet.
The public has been advised to take urgent action to claim their passports before the deadline to avoid destruction.
Today is a great day in Britain – I voted via post long time ago for Labour Party in my constituency in Surrey. By the end of the day the Labour Party that I have been a member for over 37 years will win with a landslide. I happy that Sunak will fall today because he is a businessman but not political scientist.
The new Labour government will come with new policies that will affect Africa. But my happiness is that Sunak will go. Mr.Rishi Sunak will go back to back benches and discuss the Rwanda Refugee saga without any support. These changes will be very strategic for Africa because Labour Party listens to Africa.
As things look splendid in United Kingdom, across the English Channel in France where Sunak’s boat refugee nightmare came from, a new wind of danger of Right wing extremism is growing in France. In few years to come it might be only Britain that will not have a right wing political leadership.
As literature scholar It would been easier to begin today’s article with a quote from W. B. Yeats’ The Second Coming. Many of you are like reading. You should read that book. Then see the type of mafia teams sweeping over Europe. In France things have been worse and they will be worse for Africans there.
As an African I am used to the book of Chinua Achebe called “things fall apart” and the words that are in like “the centre cannot hold”. This is what I can predict for Europe. But again, I want rise high and see the other reflection, I am not going to allow Africa to go that way Europe is going. I have read the books of Dr. Seuss and he feels more apposite. I will not.
I want to allow those who can read children books on line to try reading Dr Seuss books. For those who might not have children or without small children or long memories, the books are about a young boy who lays in bed, declaring to his mother and the world that he simply will not get up today. It is me.
I am one of those few Africans who says I can’t give up on Africa and I have said that France is the enemy of Africa. I have said that France should have left Africa long time ago. Almost every former colony of France has war or conflict.
France killed Libya and the leader. The French would not listen to some of us when we were warning the world about Libya: “I guess now President Emmanuel Macron must start listening because things are serious in his country with a right-wing leader coming power soon”.
What I ask my readers today is to bear with me, as I turn a bit to the Sunday’s French parliamentary elections. These elections brought in the deadliest woman on earth Marine Le Pen who might become the President of France. Her policies on Africans and migrants are horrible.
Following a disastrous performance in May 2024 European elections, President Emmanuel Macron called a snap election, seeking a “clarification” from voters. Essentially, he sought to call their bluff. But things turned ugly on him and he will go down in history
I always tell Africans to pray that such crude guys who have brought misery to Africa like Sarkozy end up in Jail. Macron’s calculation was that voters may not be content to support the far-right in elections that they consider distant and unimportant, but when it matters, they would return to the mainstream fold. He miscalculated and worst nightmare of woman who hates Africans and migrants in Europe is sweeping him out of power.
Like the British PM who will trounced today’s elections after failing to send refugees to Rwanda Macron faces the same chopping knife. The ploy of a snap election failed spectacularly. The French have chosen to back Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) a second time, the French demonstrated to their Macron that they were indeed fed up and serious.
Like the Tory Party in UK that will be washed out today July 4, 2024 the President’s centrist coalition, Ensemble, has been sent to a distant third. The truth is that it is only in Britain where moderate parties will take power but it seems the whole Europe is moving towards ultranationalist parties as stated at the beginning.
Like the outgoing French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has said there is a “moral duty” to prevent Le Pen’s party from gaining a majority in the National Assembly the former British Prime Minister Boris lamented that if Labour Party takes power Britain will be in hell. But let me remind Boris Johnson that for that not happen today and to avoid such an outcome today would require a huge miracle from God.
How does Africa shape its policies towards the two scenarios in Europe and UK? What does this mean for Africa? Shall we have opposition parties in Africa running to Europe or Britain for help like what Ugandan opposition and Zimbabwe opposition do? I tell you that strategist of both governments must begin to figure out what next out the new Labour Government coming on Friday.
Whichever case it emerges Africa is at risk. It is now clear that there is a spectre of the first far-right government in France since the Second World War and both Britain and Africa must be worried. It does raise uncomfortable questions for the UK government. and for the rest of Africa.
Join me to celebrate an early Labour Party victory.
The writer is a Pan Africanist based in London, Political scientist & International Relations expert, studied conflict Resolution, a member of Royal African Society (RAS) Founder /Chairman Pan African Forum (UK)Ltd @MatsangaDr
2191 women started their journey to financial independence and growth through the Enterprise Development and Financial Inclusion last year, bringing to over 100,000 women and youth who have gone through the program since inception two years ago.
Many have expanded their business and diversified and improved their personal and family welfare because of being intentional in their wealth creation. Many of the financial literacy graduates continue to hold other women’s hands, empowering and uplifting them in their various groups and communities.
Sylvia Akankwasa from Arua, Rebecca Katisi and Yahala Khasifa from Mbale are some of the graduates of Enterprise Development program and beneficiaries of Equi-mama credit facility. The three are bound by a common thread. When their businesses were on the brink, Equity Bank came to the rescue.
Operating His Grace International, a small stationery shop with an Internet café that had been around for 15 years in Arua; Sylvia Akankwasa became a victim of circumstances. When #Covid-19 struck, she fell back on her loan commitments from micro lenders.
“We were on the verge of total collapse. I could not borrow for another 5 years because my Financial Card was too dirty with unsettled obligations. I was considering going to money lenders when Equity Bank came around. They gave me the benefit of the doubt and lent me money under the Equity Mama facility,” Akankwasa recalls.
She has not looked back since. Her stationery shop has grown into a fully-fledged multimedia printing operation, employing seven workers. The bank has given her another line of credit to plant an orchard that will supply raw materials for her fledgling fruit juice and wine factory, also in Arua.
“The loan helped us to recover and stabilise our financials; it rescued us from imminent collapse. One of the reasons we are still around is because they gave us the benefit of the doubt. If they had not given us the money at that time; we would have gone to money lenders and I don’t know how this would have ended,” She adds.
Yahala Khasifa’s experience is similar. “No words can fully express my gratitude to Equity Bank. I have been able to grow. I am also dealing in timber and have the capacity double my business. I have also invested in land and plan to develop it.”
Rebecca’s story is slightly different. The proprietor of Bulambuli RV Millers is constructing a building that she plans to name to Equity bank. One day, on a pure hunch, she walked into an Equity Bank branch in Mbale and inquired about opening a savings account. On being assured there was no limit, she opened a savings account. A year later, her savings had accumulated to Shs12 million.
She bought a piece of land and set about construction. With back-to-back loans under the Equity Mama facility, she has acquired parcels of land and built rentals. Rebecca advises fellow women to partner with Equity Bank to support their growth.
Equity Banks’s Enterprise Development and Financial Inclusion program seeks to stimulate job creation by helping Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMes) access the financial and technical resources that enable them to grow into impactful operations.
The selected MSMEs are given advice mentorship and entrepreneurship training. The program has a gender bias that favours youth and women.
So far, 115,956 youth, 58 percent of them women, have been trained in Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship Education.
Uganda has been pitted against South Africa, Congo Brazaville and neighbouring South Sudan in Group K of the draws for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations Qualifiers conducted on Thursday in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The draw event was conducted by Ivory Coast Head Coach Emerse Faé and former Morocco international Marouane Chamakh.
Prior to the draws, Uganda was placed in Pot 2 and thus had to face a team from the rest of Pots 1, 2, and 4.
South Africa was seeded in Pot A, while Congo and South Sudan were in Pots 3 and 4, respectively.
Uganda has not been to the Africa Cup of Nations for the last two editions, and the ultimate target will be to return to the coveted championship next year before co-hosting the 2027 AFCON edition with Tanzania and Kenya.
The qualification games will be played in September, October, and November this year. Only the top two teams, besides the group that hosts Morocco, qualify for the final tournament.
The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has earned a total of Shs80.6 billion from its investment in MTN Uganda over the last three years.
This followed payment of Shs39.8 billion dividends for the year ended December 31, 2023.
The payment is the largest the fund has earned from a listed company in the region this year, NSSF Managing Director Patrick Ayota said during a media conference at Workers House on Thursday.
“Not only is MTN Uganda the highest dividend payer across our equity portfolio this year, but the company has also been consistent in delivering positive growth over the last 3 years since the IPO. We commend the management of MTN Uganda for its commitment to creating shareholder value while also focusing on the long-term growth of the company,” Ayota said.
The Fund earned Shs9.3 billion and Shs31.5 billion dividends for the years 2021 and 2022 respectively.
Speaking at a ceremony to hand over a dummy cheque to NSSF at Workers House in Kampala, MTN Chief Executive Officer Sylvia Mulinge said: “NSSF Uganda is to date our largest institutional shareholder and MTN Uganda is privileged to serve the many Ugandans who have a stake in the Fund. We remain cognizant of the Fund’s important mandate of ensuring the social security of their stakeholders and we reiterate our commitment of ensuring strategic investment and sustainable financial performance to fulfill the objectives and goals of the Fund,” she said.
MTN Uganda continues to perform positively and consistently return an attractive dividend to its shareholders. In June, the 7th dividend payment of Shs6.4 totaling Shs143 billion was credited to all registered shareholders on their mobile money wallets and nominated bank accounts. This is in addition to the two interim dividends paid out the previous year in September of Shs6.0 per share and Shs5.6 per share in December totaling Shs259.8 billion. The total dividend paid out for the Financial Year 2023 signals a 13.2% increase in payment to our shareholders from the previous year.
Mulinge further noted that since the IPO in December 2021, the total dividend paid to shareholders totaled Shs864.4 billion and that these dividend payments have grown in tandem with the company’s performance.
At the same media briefing, NSSF confirmed that it has invested an additional Shs90.95 billion to acquire 649,607,910 additional shares in MTN Uganda. This followed an offer for the secondary market purchase of ordinary shares announced on May 27, 2024.
The Fund in December 2021 had already invested Shs360 billion to acquire 1.98 billion shares in MTN Uganda following its Initial Public Offer (IPO) in December 2021.
The latest investment brings the Fund’s total investment to Shs450.95 billion for 2,629,607,910 shares, further solidifying NSSF’s position as the largest indigenous shareholder in MTN Uganda with 11.7% shareholding.
Ayota said the additional investment is a vote of confidence in MTN Uganda and is a belief that the company will continue to offer long-term benefits for NSSF members and the country.
“The effective price of Shs140 per share presented an opportunity to invest in a cash-generative business with high growth potential. Also, MTN Uganda plays an integral role in the Fund’s growth and the Country’s development. Equally important, MTN Uganda presents a long-term growth opportunity for us, given its consistently impressive business and financial performance over the years,” Ayota said.
Regarding the secondary offer for the sale of ordinary shares in MTN Uganda, Ms. Mulinge commented that she was pleased with the outcome that registered a 230% subscription. The oversubscription signaled an appreciation of the Company’s strategy and continued positive performance evolution.
“The increased Fund investment in MTN Uganda, aligns broadly with MTN Group’s objective to broaden local shareholding in the countries it invested in. The offer provided an opportunity to all Ugandan retail and professional investors, including MTN Uganda’s loyal customers, to own a stake in the Company and participate in its future growth”, she said.
MTN Uganda currently has 20,636 shareholders with over 200 smaller pension funds and SACCOs representing millions of Ugandans.
The Minister of Education and Sports, Janet Kataha Museveni, has been named patron of the ILead program in schools. She was named by the Maxwell Leaders following the launch of the ILead program in Uganda.
The iLead Program aims at equipping learners with skills and competencies in selfless leadership, enabling them to become effective leaders wherever they work. ILead is John Maxwell’s values-based leadership development designed specifically for students.
According to John Griffin, Vice President, Global Programs, Equip at the Maxwell Foundation, the program combines John’s proven content with a peer-to-peer process that allows students to practice leadership as they are learning it.
He noted that iLead is done in small groups of 4-6 students, preferably once a week, during a course. It is designed to be done peer-to-peer. Learners are taken through various topics, which include making choices, growth, attitude, commitment, and others.
“I will, and it is an honor and privilege. It’s no problem for me. I value the fact that you have considered us worthy to bring this program to our country, and you have come in person to introduce it to us,” the First Lady said at the State House in Nakasero.
St. Maria Goretti SSS is one of the 13 schools piloting the iLead program run by the Franklyn Institute under the US-based Maxwell Leadership Foundation. The Franklyn Institute is engaging over 2,000 schools in Uganda.
Shallon Mugabe, a certified Maxwell coach and trainer and founding member of the Franklin Institute, interacted with students of St. Maria Goretti Senior Secondary School in Katende. Ugandan schools must introduce leadership programs to catch up with other African countries, like Rwanda.
She shared the story of the values she learned while growing up in her home village in Mitooma. Mrs. Mugabe noted that some of the values include: leadership begins with self, integrity, timeliness and orderliness, relationships, family, resolving to lead, and godliness.
“Are you able to account for your pocket money, and are you able to explain how you spent your time? How often do you see your facility?” she said.
The headteacher of Kololo SS, Edward Kanoonya, said, “When you look at the content and the values, I propose to the national curriculum development center that they let the iLead Program be part and parcel of the curriculum. When you critically look at the contents, the program empowers the facilitators (alumni of the Maxwell Institute of Leadership) and sponsors (teachers in schools), which is absolutely beneficial.”
He noted that the iLead Program touches on some components that have been left out of the students’ curriculum. It is something worth experimenting with or embracing.
“At Kololo SS, we are very deliberate in ensuring that we use every opportunity to expose our learners beyond what the curriculum dictates. The world where we prepare them to go is broader than what the curriculum dictates”.
He applauded the institute for taking the first step towards empowering learners. The approach being employed in disseminating these values is related to the way the new curriculum is implemented because it encourages groups and discussions, and in the process, they improve their communication skills. Once you master communication skills, the sky is normally the limit.
“Some of the topics being covered, like making choices, correspond with their daily lives. On a daily basis and every hour or every minute, they make good choices, but they do it unintentionally. They may not be aware that they are making choices. Being in class and opting to listen to teachers is a choice. Making contributions in the class is a choice, and refusing to contribute is also a choice,” he stated.
Margret Kyambadde, the headteacher of St. Maria Goretti Senior Secondary School in Katende, applauded the Franklin Institute for the decision to introduce the iLead program in Uganda.
She noted that the program encourages learners to embrace positivity because it stops them from getting stressed, regardless of the situation. It also encourages them to commit themselves to everything they do.
The Ugandan government has announced plans to connect 54,000 new customers in rural areas to the national grid before the end of 2024. This initiative is part of the Uganda Rural Electricity Access Project (UREAP), supported by the African Development Bank and European Union.
“We are in the process of connecting close to 54,000 onto the grid on a single phase, and we shall also consider three phases for those who deal in milling and other businesses, including health centers, schools, and churches, among others,” said Samuel Bishop, UREAP Project Coordinator.
Since its inception in 2015, the project has already connected 87,540 households across 981 villages to the grid.
“The project has been able to extend the grid by about 1,790 kilometers and over 2,600 kilometers of low voltage, which connects from the line to individual customers,” Bishop explained. He added, “We have installed 981 transformers at different load centers, including town centers and villages that have been connected to the grid,” Bishop said.
The government is currently negotiating with the African Development Bank for an additional loan to further expand electricity access. “So far, we have spent over $85 million of the loan, and the remaining 15% of the loan is still outstanding to be paid out as the contractors close out their activities,” Bishop said.
The Uganda Rural Electricity Access Project has made significant progress in bridging the energy gap in rural areas.
