Stanbic Bank
Stanbic Bank
17.6 C
Kampala
Stanbic Bank
Stanbic Bank
Home Blog Page 2233

HAPPENING NOW: FDC launces Manifesto in Mbale

By
Steven F Mandu
-

FDC flag bearer Rtd. Col Kizza  Besigye has lauched  the party’s manifesto in Mbale Cricket ground where he  is finalizing his  campaigns in Mbale having tranversed the District earlier on canversing  for votes.

FDC supporters in Mbale have stormed the Cricket grounds to witness the launch of the party manifesto
FDC supporters in Mbale have stormed the Cricket grounds to witness the launch of the party manifesto

12376184_1231043460243036_6516129426341191717_n

Accompanied by  Mbale Municipality MP Jack Wamayi Wamnga, Budadiri West MP Nandala Mafabi, Mbale Mayor Zyandya, Mbale District Woman Member of Parliament contestant Margaret Wokuri, and others the FDC strong man has promised the people of Mbale and Ugandans at large to give them back their power which has been usurped by the current regime.

This is a developing story. We shall update you as details stream in.

Stories Continues after ad

Mbabazi protests against Museveni presence in Mbale

By
Richard Wanambwa
-

 

Go Forward presidential candidate John Patrick Amama Mbabazi has protested against the presence of President Yoweri Museveni in Mbale between January 9 and 10, days which were allotted by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to Mr Mbabazi for campaigns in the area.

Through his lawyers Muwema and Company Advocates and Solicitors, Mbabazi alerted the IEC of the hitherto seeming interference with his campaign programme in the eastern town of Mbale by the president.

‘Our client as per his campaign programme which you are duly aware of, shall be holding his presidential campaigns in Mbale on the 9th and 10th of January 2016. A copy of the campaign programme is attached for your ease of reference,’ the lawyers wrote in their communication of January 5 to the EC Chairman Eng Badru Kiggundu titled: Protest against intended presidential candidate Yoweri Museveni’s appearance in Mbale on the 9thand 10th of January, 2016.

But contacted for comment Mr Paul Bukenya, the IEC Deputy Spokesperson, said he was yet to see the letter.

But an analyst conversant with the law said the president enjoys immunity and that Mr Museveni’s presence in Mbale would not contravene the electoral rules.

Media reports indicate that President Yoweri Museveni, who is also the flag bearer of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) in the forthcoming elections, will be in Mbale between January 9 and 10 to commission a number of roads in the Elgon area.

On July 9 last year, after announcing he would contest for presidency, Mr Mbabazi selected Mbale as his first destination, where he was to carry out consultations regarding his candidature.

However, the move did not materialize as he was stopped at Njeru by a team of police officers led by then Director of Operations AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi and later taken to Kira Road Police Station where he stayed up to around 8pm before being released.

Stories Continues after ad

Mbabazi speaks out on Aine, campaign violence

By
Richard Wanambwa
-
The Go Forward presidential candidate John Patrick Amama Mbabazi has broken his silence regarding the disappearance of the head of his private security detail, Christopher Aine.
Aine, who is wanted by police for ‘grievous assault’ went missing about two weeks ago and frantic efforts by the authorities and relatives to trace his whereabouts have not yielded fruit.
But this afternoon Mr Mbabazi has said Aine, who has a Shs20 million bounty issued by police chief Gen Kale Kayihura would be found, and that Mr Mbabazi’s lawyers had already written to court for a writ of habeas corpus, a judicial instrument that requires the authorities to produce a missing person.
‘Yesterday, our lawyers successfully lodged a habeas corpus order with the High Court of Uganda for Aine. We will find him’, Mr Mbabazi wrote in a statement titled: ‘Statement Regarding the Continual Brutalisation of Go Forward Supporters and Campaign Agents’.
Giving names and their places of abode, Mr Mbabazi, details the woes that his supporters have reportedly endured, adding that in the last one month alone dozens of his supporters have been ‘assaulted, arrested, ‘disappeared’ and even killed’.
Further, Mr Mbabazi spoke about campaign violence meted out against his supporters and also called for calm and restraint by the authorities, saying it would create harmonious continuity.
‘As we approach the last 40 days of this campaign, the tempo is growing and the people are becoming more decisive. The tensions may rise, but I appeal to those in authority to exercise fairness, restraint and better judgment for the sake of our children, our neighbours and our country, Uganda. This is what we deserve as a nation peaceful transition of power. It starts now’, Mr Mbabazi wrote.
Full statement: 
Stories Continues after ad

Emirates delivers Nile bridge heavy equipment

By
Our Reporter
-
The machinery and steel parts for the bridge being loaded onto an Emirates SkyCargo Boeing 777 Freighter at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport

Emirates SkyCargo, the freight division of Emirates, recently delivered heavy machinery and steel parts for the new bridge currently being constructed across the Nile River in Uganda.

Emirates SkyCargo was recently awarded the charter by a Japanese construction company to carry the heavy equipment from Tokyo’s Narita Airport to Entebbe on December 26, via the cargo carrier’s hub in Dubai. The cargo, weighing about 84 tonnes, consisted of machinery, including a winch, down-the-hole hammer, and steel parts for the bridge.

The cable-stayed bridge, currently one of the biggest bridge developments in east and central Africa, is a project by the Government of Uganda with support from the Government of Japan, and is located at Jinja near the source of the Nile. Once completed the bridge is expected to improve transport flows on the Northern Corridor route which links Uganda and neighbors Burundi, Rwanda and eastern DRC to Kenya.

“This was a very high profile charter for what clearly is a very important project in Uganda. We were delighted to be entrusted by the construction company to move this load, and prove that Emirates SkyCargo has the capability and capacity to move large and outsized cargo, requiring careful planning. Our field teams in Japan and Uganda along with our Dubai based Freighter and Charters and hub operations teams worked very hard to ensure the success of this charter,” said Ravishankar Mirle, Emirates Vice President, Cargo Commercial, Far East and Australasia.

“Emirates SkyCargo has carried many outsized items of cargo over the years, from helicopters, to ship rudders, aircraft engines and even a yacht’s mast, among others, so we have a lot of experience in managing this type of cargo,” he added.

To carry the cargo, Emirates SkyCargo used one of its Boeing 777 Freighter aircraft, which is capable of carrying over 100 tonnes of cargo per flight. The aircraft is one of the most modern and technologically advanced freighters available, with its wide main deck enabling access for outsized cargo and larger consignments.

Emirates SkyCargo operates a fleet of 15 freighters, including two Boeing 747-400Fs and 13 Boeing 777Fs, that operate from their base at Emirates SkyCentral, located in the logistics district of Dubai South, from where they service over 50 scheduled freighter destinations around the world.

Stories Continues after ad

That is my brother’s body – Aine sister

By
Richard Wanambwa
-

Ritah Babirye Aine, a sister to Christopher Aine, the missing head of Go Forward candidate Amama Mbabazi’s private security detail, has said that the photo of a dead body appearing on social media and carried by one of the local dailies is that of her brother.

Beginning yesterday social media carried a photo of a lifeless man with apparent marks in the chest and broken teeth, and the poster purported the photo was that of Aine, a wanted man who went missing about two weeks ago, prompting police boss Gen Kale Kayihura to put a bounty of Shs20 million on his head.

The media quoted Babirye as saying the marks on the neck and broken teeth appearing in the photo are from an accident he got years ago.

According to news reports, Aine’s sister has asked the police to task the local newspaper to produce the source of the photograph, saying that could provide a lead in the investigations related to her missing brother.

Aine went missing from his home in Kyanja about two weeks ago and, earlier today his relatives in the company of police went to the city mortuary to search for his body but failed to trace it.

However, according to the media, the police spokesperson Fred Enanga has refuted the claims, saying that the photo carried by the newspaper must have been photo-shopped or of another body.

Aine first made headlines mid this year, when he engaged in a vigorous scuffle with police officers who tried to block his boss Mbabazi from addressing supporters in Jinja. At the time Aine was arrested and detained at Nalufenya Police Station in Jinja, a place reserved for hardcore suspects.

Then on December 13 Aine’s name cropped up again, this time linked to a deadly encounter in Ntungamo between supporters of the National Resistance Movement candidate Yoweri Museveni and those of Mr Mbabazi.

In subsequent actions, President Museveni addressed a press conference in Mbale, and said government would deal with those responsible for assaulting his supporters in Ntungamo, while Gen Kayihura followed by putting the 20m bounty on Aine’s head.

Stories Continues after ad

Presidential campaigns in pictures

By
Our Reporter
-

Amama Mbabazi in Abim, Karamoja Sub-region

Amama2

Amama Crowds

 

 

Amama Mbabazi in Abim, Karamoja sub-region
Amama Mbabazi in Abim, Karamoja sub-region

Museveni in Kanungu, Kigezi

Museveni campaigns in Kanungu, Kigezi.
Museveni campaigns in Kanungu, Kigezi.

Ndugum7 crowdKizza Besigye in Bukow District, Eastern Uganda

Besigye campaigns in Bukwo district, Eastern Uganda | Courtesy Photos
Besigye campaigns in Bukwo district, Eastern Uganda | Courtesy Photos

Besigye-bukwoBes22

Stories Continues after ad

ISIS kills 30 journalists in 2015

By
Our Reporter and Agencies
-

Thirty of the seventy one journalists that died in 2015 were killed by extremist groups like the ISIS, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has announced.

According to the CPJ, all the seventy one journalists were killed in direct relation to their work, making it the fourth deadliest year since the organisation began keeping records in 1992.

CPJ maintains a database of all journalists killed since 1992 and, according to the organization, the 30 journalists killed by extremist groups represents 42 per cent of the total number killed in 2015.

Those killings came as more than half of the 199 journalists imprisoned in 2015 were jailed on anti-state charges, showing how the press is caught between perpetrators of terrorism and governments purporting to fight terrorists.
CPJ  reported in December that 69 journalists were killed around the world from January 1 through December 23, 2015. On December 27 Naji Jerf, editor-in-chief of the independent monthly Hentah and the maker of documentary films on Islamic State, was murdered in Turkey. In addition, new information led CPJ to confirm that Ahmed Mohamed al-Mousa was killed in relation to his work as a journalist. Al-Mousa, a 23-year-old editor for ‘Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently’, was shot dead in Idlib province on December 16. The group of Syrian citizen journalists was honored with CPJ’s 2015 International Press Freedom Award in November.

In 2015, the fight against impunity in the murders of journalists achieved some success, with at least six convictions worldwide. CPJ advocacy also contributed to the release of at least 50 journalists from prison, while the total number in jail at the time of CPJ’s annual census declined slightly compared with the past three years. Of the journalists released this year, six were featured in the ‘Press Uncuffed’ campaign, which, in partnership with students at the University of Maryland, seeks to raise awareness of journalists imprisoned worldwide.
CPJ’s advocacy director Courtney Radsch said the organization will keep the pressure on governments worldwide to allow journalists to work freely and safely.

Stories Continues after ad

South Sudan ‘rebels’ name MPs

By
Our Reporter and Agencies
-

The SPLM/A-In Opposition has selected 50 Members of Parliament who will represent it in the upcoming transitional government of national unity in South Sudan.

The SPLM-IO head of the advance team in Juba, Taban Deng Gai, submitted their nominees to deputy chairman of the Constitutional Review Committee Dr Sidig Ali.

Taban said in a press statement the selection was based on 10 states as agreed in the peace deal.

Taban, who was the SPLM-IO’s chief negotiator during the Addis Ababa peace process, said the nominations show their commitment to the signed peace agreement.

For his part, Sidig Ali described the move as an important step in the implementation of peace agreement.

He pointed out that they are now working with political parties in order to activate the committee’s role and the implementation of peace agreement as scheduled.

Meanwhile, Agok Makur, an SPLM-IO nominee to the parliament, told Radio Tamazuj that the peace agreement provides for the expansion of parliament to 400 MPs.

He explained that the agreement gives the armed opposition 50 seats and one seat for the SPLM-G10 “Former Detainees” group.

Agok added that the agreement also gives 17 seats to the other political parties.

Stories Continues after ad

Somalia loses US450m to illegal fishing

By
Jonathan Kamoga
-
A Somalia young man carries a fish on his head near the shores of Indian ocean in Mogadishu, November 3, 2007. About 88,000 Somalis have fled the coastal city during heavy fighting in Mogadishu since last weekend, adding to hundreds of thousands who ran away earlier this year, according to the United Nations' refugee agency. REUTERS/Ismael Abdi(SOMALIA)

 

Somalia loses anywhere between US$100 million and US$450 million a year to illegal fishing carried out by foreign vessels, a report indicates.

According to African Development Solutions (Adeso) a charity and development agency with its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, the illegal fishing activities have cost the Somali government revenue including landing fees, licenses, taxes and other fees paid by legal fishing companies. Adeso also says the activities have denied Somalis jobs in fishing and post-harvest fishing process.

‘Unregulated illegal fishing also causes overfishing, harming the marine environment and destroying local fishing communities,’ a statement from Adeso indicates.

As a result the agency will, in conjunction with the Rift Valley Forum, hold a panel discussion in Nairobi on January 20 to deliberate on ‘the effects of illegal and unregulated fishing in Somalia and the ways in which they can be addressed’.

At the meeting to be moderated by Rashid Abdi of the International Crisis Group (ICG), Adeso will also launch its report dubbed ‘Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing in the Territorial Waters of Somalia’ and also screen a short film, the ‘Illegal and Unregulated Fishing of the Coast of Somalia’.

Other panelists include Adeso’s Abdi Mohamed Dahir, Kifle Hagos of the University of Rhode Island, researcher Bashir Hussein and Pauline Gibourdel of the Delegation of the European Union to Somalia.

Stories Continues after ad

South Sudan gets US$5 per barrel – experts

By
Jonathan Kamoga
-
South Sudan Minister of Foreign Affairs Barnaba Marial Benjamin

South Sudan could be getting only about US$5 per barrel of crude oil after its northern neighbor deducting transit charges, experts say.

In April last year South Sudan earned as low as US$10 per barrel but the recent development comes in the wake of the South Sudan Minister of Foreign Affairs Barnaba Marial Benjamin saying the South Sudanese oil minister and the Sudan counterparts will meet over the oil transit fees which remain at $24 per barrel despite reduced global oil prices.

“There is economic reality in which both countries of course through ministries of petroleum are going to discuss that issue,” local media quoted the Minister as saying.

According to the minister, even the production of oil in his country has gone down.

“The reality of the fact is that the production of the oil is down. We are producing about 165,000 barrels a day and on top of that there is drop in the oil prices,” he said.

Meanwhile, the foreign minister, who represented President Salva Kiir Mayardit at Sudan’s 60th Independence Day celebrations on Jan 1 in Khartoum, has said relations with Khartoum are historical and should be strengthened.

“The leadership of President Salva Kiir Mayardit and the people of South Sudan have shown our brothers and sisters in the Sudan that we want good relations,” he said.

“We are to strengthen our relations as I told them. We are going to be neighbours until resurrection, until the end of the world. So it is better now we improve our relations so that the future generation will live side-by-side in peace and harmony,” he added.

Marial also revealed that the Sudanese education ministry had accepted to charge South Sudanese students tuition fees at local rate.

“We were promised by the government of the Republic of Sudan that the students from primary education, going to secondary education will not again pay $150 for registration fees for exams. It will not be there anymore. They will pay like any other Sudanese students,” he said of one vital item discussed during his five day visit to Khartoum.

The top South Sudanese diplomat also reiterated the South Sudan government offer to mediate peace talks between SPLM-north rebels and Khartoum.

Sudan and South Sudan agreed last October to reactivate the buffer zone agreed in the Cooperation Agreement of September 27, 2012, and to redeploy joint monitoring teams along the border.

A Sudanese state minister for foreign affairs said the two countries are considering the resumption of border trade and ensuring free movement of goods and citizens across borders, as provided in the Cooperation Agreement.

In the past Khartoum has rejected the opening of border before the implementation of security agreements and insisted that Juba should first stop its support to the rebel groups and interfering in its internal affairs.

Stories Continues after ad
1...2,2322,2332,234...2,377Page 2,233 of 2,377

© Eagle Online. All rights reserved.

About Us

Popular Category

Editor Picks