In yet another surprising move, Tanzanian President John Magufuli has banned mini skirts, media reports, indicate.

Following his sweeping victory last October, Magufuli has become an international hero due to cost-cutting measures introduced across the country.

Now, Magufuli has surprised the public once again, by banning mini skirts across Tanzania.

The move comes just a few months after the country banned ‘twerking’.

The provocative dance was banned following an announcement by Cultural Development Director Herman Mwansoko, who disclosed that twerking supposedly threatened original dances and impacted negatively on the new generation.

Magufuli seems to have followed in much the same vein, announcing that mini skirts and short dresses encourage the spread of HIV/Aids.

Tanzanian women have since been given three weeks to rid their wardrobes of the “offending” garments.

In an almost similar move, in the 1970s Ugandan dictator Idi Amin banned miniskirts and other offensive wear.

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Police in Koboko are holding an unidentified South Sudan national on charges of gun trafficking.

Earlier in the week, a group of three South Sudan nationals  were intercepted by authorities in the West Nile district of Koboko along the Uganda-DRC border, while in possession of guns believed to have been smuggled into the country, with intent to sell them on ‘black market’.

Addressing the press earlier today, police spokesperson Mr Fred Enanga said that the three accessed Uganda through unguarded border points, and that one had been shot, while his two colleagues escaped.

“We are watching his health condition in hospital and when he is fine, he will help us establish whether their business of gun trafficking has just started or they have been doing it for some time,” Mr Enanga said adding, “we also want to know to whom  these men were selling the guns.”

According to Mr Enanga, two SMG rifles and a pistol were recovered from the suspects.

Last year, police embarked on the task of recovering guns possessed by civilians illegally, an undertaking they have taken into the New Year.

“The police flying squad last week managed to recover guns in the districts of Rakai, Rukunjiri and in the West Nile,” Mr Enanga said adding that a four guns and 612 rounds of ammunition have been recovered in police operations in the last one week. Five suspects have also been arrested.

Many of the guns have been stolen from policemen and private guards who are either killed first of beaten by thugs who later make off with their guns.

Last week a total of four policemen were attacked and their guns stolen, and one officer, Muzamir Masaba lost his life.

And, in a related development police today announced measures on how to protect the lives of their officers.

“All area commanders are to see to it that the lives of these officers are protected by ensuring that they are dropped to their respective work stations daily and picked up after duty, routine patrols to check on the officers have also been put in place,” Mr Enanga said.

Police also called upon its officers to attach strict importance to the issue of self defence which includes using weapons and weaponless skills in order to save their lives.

In another development, police has started recruitment of 36000 special police constables to help in next month’s polls.

According to Mr Enanga, these will be deployed for a maximum of two months after which they will return to their civilian duties.

Interestingly, this comes during the time when sections of the public are piling pressure on police to disband the newly recruited crime preventers, on accusations of ‘being unprofessional’.

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Kenya’s military carried out air raids on al-Qaeda-linked militants in southwestern Somalia after an attack on an African Union military base January 15 in which the Islamists said at least 100 Kenyan soldiers died.

The Kenya Defence Forces used both land and air forces in response to the attack on the El Adde base in Somalia’s Gedo region near the Kenyan border, Samson Mwathathe, the head of Kenya’s military, said in a statement published on the Ministry of Interior’s website. The operation is ‘delicate’ because some Kenyan soldiers have been captured and are being used as human shields, he said.

“As we speak right now our troops are engaging the terrorists,” Mwathathe said. “We have information to the effect that some soldiers are being used as human shield and we will not allow any further casualties.”

Al-Shabaab, an Islamist militant group that has been fighting Somalia’s government for a decade, said it killed more than 100 Kenyan soldiers and captured 12 others in the Jan. 15 attack. If the death toll is confirmed, it would be the highest number of casualties Kenya’s military has suffered in a single incident since its troops invaded southern Somalia in October 2011.

The African Union is still verifying the number of casualties and Kenyan authorities haven’t specified how many of its soldiers died.

The El Adde attack was carried out by suicide bombers using improvised explosive devices on vehicles and “the soldiers affected by the attack are a company size force,” Defence Secretary Raychelle Omamo said in a separate statement on the Ministry of Interior’s website.

In the U.S. military, a company has 100 to 200 soldiers, according to the U.S. Army’s website.

In a related development, the air raid that started on yesterday is not an isolated case; in April last year, the Kenyan military carried out airstrikes against the Al Shabaab militants following the attack on Garissa University College in which 147 students were killed.

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Somalia’s al Shabaab Islamist group said on Sunday it had captured some Kenyan soldiers during an attack last week on military bases in western Somalia near the Kenyan border.

The group, which did not say how many soldiers were held after Friday’s assault in Ceel Cadde, also said in a statement that more than 100 Kenyan soldiers were killed, revising up the number from the more than the 63 dead it had previously claimed.

Kenya has not given casualty figures beyond saying both sides sustained casualties. But a top Kenyan commander said on Sunday the army was conducting “search and rescue” operations without specifically saying if those it was looking for were captured.

“Mujahideen fighters … stormed the Kenyan base in the early hours of Friday morning, killing more than 100 Kenyan invaders, seizing their weapons and military vehicles and even capturing Kenyan soldiers alive,” al Shabaab said in a statement.

The African Union’s AMISOM force, which includes Kenyans, along with Somali troops have driven al Shabaab from major strongholds in Somalia in a wave of offensives.

But the group still controls some rural areas and frequently launches attacks saying it wants to drive out the “invaders”.

Kenyan Defence Minister Raychelle Omamo said Kenya was striking back and would pursue the attackers. She spoke to reporters at a Nairobi airport where four wounded soldiers arrived back for treatment.

“This attack will not rest unanswered,” she said. “We have engaged the perpetrators decisively and remain in full pursuit of them.”

General Samson Mwathethe, chief of the defence forces, said Friday’s attack struck the Somali National Army base and an AMISOM base that was located in the same place. The attackers used vehicles packed with explosives and suicide bombers.

The minister said the attack was launched against a company-size force of soldiers, without making clear if this was the size of the Kenyan contingent in the area or the mixed force. A military company can range between 80 to 250 soldiers.

“Our priority now is to make sure that we conduct the search, rescue and recovery for the ones who are not in the camp but are elsewhere. We are trying to search for them, rescue them and recover them,” Mwathethe said without saying if they were captured.

The general said he would not release details for security reasons. “We have engaged the enemy and severely degraded him,” he added.

Al Shabaab often cites higher figures for death tolls than those given by officials, who usually play down the numbers. There was no independent death toll.

Al Shabaab said the attack was in retaliation for the Kenyan “invasion of Muslim lands”.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has repeatedly said he would not be coerced into withdrawing Kenyan forces from Somalia, saying the troops are protecting Kenya.

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