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.

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President Yoweri Museveni, who is also the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidate in the forthcoming February 18 elections took to Facebook earlier today, to inform Ugandans of what transpired during a press conference he held at Kabale State Lodge.

In his address, the President put emphasis on unity saying it was the gospel that he has been preaching ever since coming to power in 1986. He noted that through unity he had managed to create a party, the NRM which later took power and preached peace.

“Unity produced strength, which provided peace. But now some people are saying they are tired of peace. These are jokers. Development is a result of peace, and now we are tackling wealth creation,” part of the post states.

However, the FB post elicited mixed reactions from a few respondents, and Eagle Online managed to extract a few them, verbatim.

Make sure u doesn’t steal the votes; we want free and fair elections.” Anthony Machoka said,”while Ashirafu Owakabii said: “Thank you so much our beloved president, we love you so much, may the almighty God bless you in everything you put your hands on.”

Another commentator Ben Mugisha said: “You are right His Excellency, there is no country/community that can thrive without unity,” while John Twesigye said, “Songa mbere mzei, great work done.”

For Richard Muweleza Bazanyanengo it was: “Who do you think you are?”, while ‘Shuley Sharp’ says, ‘Which unity are you preaching? No sensible Ugandan will take you serious, your words are opposite of your actions.”

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A splinter group of the Uganda People Congress led by embattled Jimmy Akena has attacked the party’s ‘former president’ Olara Otunnu and the Milton Obote Foundation (MOF) for allegedly refusing to engage in mediation, as directed by court.

Currently, both the Akena and Otunnu camps are embroiled in a leadership and asset dispute related to the UPC and MOF, respectively.

In December last year court ruled that Akena is not the rightful UPC party president because he was not elected in accordance with the party constitution but then went ahead and advised both parties to resolve their differences amicably.

And speaking about the dispute early today, the acting party Secretary General Edward Segganyi said that court directed all parties involved in the UPC dispute involving the Milton Obote Foundation (MOF), to resolve their differences by way of mediation.

“The Otunnu group were caught trying to smuggle a purported mediation report onto the file, one that had never taken place,” Mr Segganyi said at party headquarters, Uganda House.

The UPC Secretary General warned former party vice president Joseph Bossa for trying to deregister UPC duly nominated candidates, and also charged that Mr Otunnu and MOF had formed an alliance to destroy the party and steal its assets.

He also scoffed at Mr Otunnu’s participation in the Go Forward campaign, saying the act is in contravention of the UPC constitution. “They will be confronted by the full weight and fury of the members,” he charged before urging members not to participate in a Delegates Conference slated for later this month.

“These are the same people who failed to hold a single Delegates Conference during their tenure, the timing and intention begs the question as to the purpose of the announcement,” he said and added that the conference was aimed at disrupting efforts of the UPC candidates.

However, contacted for comment, Dalton Opwonya, Mr Otunnu’s lawyer rubbished Segganyi’s allegetions on mediation.

He said the Akena camp was served with summons but refused saying they had appealed in the Court of Appeal and wanted nothing to do with the High Court ruling.

“The Registrar wrote the mediation report and he is not a mad man,” said lawyer Opwonya, adding: “When outside court they want mediation but when in court they don’t want it.”

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