At least 100 journalists have fled Burundi following the violence that gripped the tiny central African country when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced he was running for presidency in April this year.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the Burundi Union of Journalists, the media personalities who fled said they had been threatened, feared persecution and lack of employment after the media houses they worked for were shut down by authorities or set on fire during protests.

Nkurunziza was recently sworn in to serve his third term, but his inauguration was a lowly-covered event because, according to CPJ, most media houses in Burundi have been forced to close.

‘Since April 26, when Burundians took to the streets to protest President Pierre Nkurunziza’s unconstitutional bid for a third term, CPJ has documented a series of attacks on journalists. The crackdown intensified after an attempted military coup on May 13. Media outlets and radio stations were attacked and in some cases burned to the ground, and many of the journalists employed at them have been harassed and threatened’, the CPJ release states.

The media lobby group cites the case of Voice of America Correspondent Diane Nininahazwe, whose home was involved in a grenade attack on June 24, just a day after she received threatening text messages.

The attack at Nininahazwe’s house happened when she had just returned from Gihanga, north of Bujumbura, where she had been reporting on abductions and according to CPJ, she was too frightened to report the incident to police and has been in hiding ever since.

‘… grenade was thrown through the window of Voice of America correspondent Diane Nininahazwe’s home. It was one of three cases CPJ has documented in recent months where grenades were thrown into the homes of journalists in Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura. Fortunately, there have been no fatalities, but there have also been no arrests,’ the release adds.

Meanwhile, the CPJ says Burundi authorities recently closed down four leading privately-owned radio stations, rendering many journalists jobless.

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South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has signed a peace deal with rebels after a threat of sanctions from the UN.

He told those gathered for the signing ceremony in the capital, Juba, that he had “reservations” about how the mediation was conducted and some of the clauses in the compromise deal.

Rebel leader Riek Machar signed the deal last week but Mr Kiir refused.

It is meant to end months of brutal civil war and would see Mr Machar return as vice-president.

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When an organization carries your father’s names, it at times becomes unthinkable to delink its activities from your own aspirations.

It is in such a situation that Uganda Peoples Congress President Jimmy Akena, Milton Obote’s son has found himself entangled: a battle with the Milton Obote Foundation (MOF), the financial arm of the UPC, a party founded by his late father Apollo Milton Obote.

And today while addressing a press conference Akena blasted the Directors of MOF for trying to throw his party out of Uganda House, the most momentous of the several properties controlled by MOF.

According to Mr Akena, MOF has no legal grounds to evict the party from a building that was erected to act as the national headquarters of the UPC.

The tough-talking Akena also said the MOF, founded in 1964, has failed to execute the objectives for which it was established, namely the advancement of knowledge and education for the relief of poverty and ignorance, and instead turned to ‘non-core issues’.

The Foundation has not awarded a single scholarship in the past 10 years; it has not helped the UPC party in any way and it cannot eject the party out of Uganda House since it’s not a beneficiary of its projects. There hasn’t been support given to any party sector,” Mr Akena charged.

The vitriolic diatribe by Akena comes in the wake of an August 19 MOF statement in The Daily Monitor newspaper, imploring the Uganda Police Force to evict ‘illegal occupants’ from the building.

Interestingly, the MOF statement followed calls by Akena for the disbandment of the UPC financial arm, claiming it was infested with corruption. Mr Akena alleged that the former UPC President Dr Olara Otunnu, his cabinet and MOF officials had mishandled the Foundation’s funds.

In the seemingly unrelenting exchange, the MOF countered by saying that Akena’s ascent to power was constitutionally challengeable and that he had no right to call for the disbandment the Foundation.  “These are legally registered companies in the Republic of Uganda; it (Akena’s Camp) has no oversight mandate, “read a statement signed by Nelson F.O Ofwono, the MOF Chairperson.

In 2005, when Mr Akena’s mother Miria Obote was UPC president, a dispute arose after the party lodged caveats on all MOF properties. The party also filed a suit seeking to determine the ownership of MOF properties. Finally, the two warring parties reached a consensus that both MOF and UPC run as separate legal entities. MOF also undertook to provide one floor to the UPC, rent free.

In another development, the Uganda Peoples Congress is set to hold internal party branch elections and primaries, following the National Council’s establishment of the party’s Electoral Commission and carrying out a review of the election guidelines for establishing party structures.

According to the UPC Administrative Secretary Higenyi Hamba the internal party elections will extend to areas where there were no branches.

“We are going to establish branches in areas where they don’t exist,” he said and added that this time round, party members will actively contest for Local Council One (LCI) posts, which ‘the government has turned into NRM functionaries’.

“We won’t allow EC to postpone LCI elections, whether EC has money or not,” Higenyi charged and disclosed that contestants for the UPC parliamentary seats would start picking forms from August 31 to September 18, supervised by the Office of the Secretary General.

Local Council Chairpersons and Councilors will pick forms starting September 1 to September 18 Higenyi said and added that internal party elections for flag bearers will be held on October 6.

Of recent the UPC has been embroiled in supremacy battles between Dr Otunnu and Mr Akena, a development that has sent mixed signals to both supporters and political observers, some of who have predicted harder times for the party in future.

“The (UPC) are not even clear as to whether they will join The Democratic Alliance,” a party supporter and political observer who sought to remain anonymous told The Eagleonline.

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The First Lady and Minister for Karamoja Affairs Mrs. Janet Kataaha Museveni has  urged young educated people to get into agriculture which she said is the bedrock of African economies and is what will bring real transformation to Africa.

She said it is shameful that Africa which is a blessed green country with a good climate and could be the food basket for the world, stands today as the poorest continent on earth with some African countries importing food and fruits from Israel which is a desert, and also from as far as China.

The First Lady was addressing the youth from the 8 Districts of Teso region who converged at Soroti Boma Grounds on Sunday to witness the launch of Gurudumu Ya Madiliko Youth Group. The group members drawn from the Districts of Katakwi, Amuria, Kaberamaido, Soroti, Kumi, Serere, Ngora and Bukedea plus Soroti Municipality are committed to championing agriculture as the real source of their transformation. They have been mentored to become productive and role models for President Museveni’s 4-Acre strategy of wealth creation for small land holdings.

Mrs. Janet Museveni also flagged off the distribution of Heifers by NAADS to the youth group members.

She urged the youth to focus their energy on real work in agriculture and become the engine that drives the country’s development instead of being used to destroy the things already built.

She said if they utilize some of their parents’ land for agriculture, get inputs from NAADS and work hard using the skills they have attained through education to manage these enterprises, they will take off without a problem and become an example to other youth in the country.

“Your taking off will be the pride of President Museveni who is forever looking for youth groups which arewilling to work and succeed”, she said adding that they are lucky to have elders who give them guidance so that they become useful people in the future as God destined them to be.

Janet Museveni lauded the group’s Patron Dr. Kenneth Omona, who is the MP Kaberamaido and Deputy NRM Treasurer, for mobilizing the youth and giving them the wisdom to look at agriculture as a source of income.

Hon. Dr Kenneth Omona reported that the Gurudumu Ya Mabadiliko Youth Group founded in 2012 under the theme ‘Youth productivity”, has a total of 144 members and four investment projects which include citrus fruits, cassava, diary through improved milk animals and poultry through the rearing turkeys have been approved.

He said with the prevailing peace and stability in the country and the sprawling infrastructure developments like roads and electricity, it would be an insult for the youth to keep on lamenting and making poverty their identity and signature song.

The State Minister for Teso Affairs and Woman MP Soroti Christine Aporu Amongin thanked the youth of Teso region for accepting to fight poverty and urged them to work very hard and look after the heifers so that they produce enough milk and to make the milk coolers donated by President Museveni functional.

The State Minister for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees also MP Amuria  Musa Ecweru said that it is gratifying to see youth decide to work to eradicate poverty instead of just lamenting because no individual or community has ever overcome poverty through tears.

In his remarks NAADS Executive Director Dr. Sam Mugasi said they have so far distributed heifers to Youth projects in the Buganda region which received a total of 384, Busoga 160 and Teso whose 128 heifers were handed over at the function. He said this will be rolled out to cover all Districts in the country.

The group’s chairperson said Gurudumu Ya Mabadiliko literary means ‘wheel of transformation’ and they are the first to implement the four acre model in the country through the help of NAADS.  They have each planted an acre of cassava, an acre of citrus fruits and an acre of grass. They have also received 12 iron sheets for constructing the cow pen for the heifer they will each receive. He said the Group has started a SACCO that will enable them access small finances to support their projects.

During the function, Janet Museveni was introduced to Ocen Patrick aka Olanya, a youth from Arapai Sub county in Soroti District who fabricated a 2.5ml NRM car built with ordinary mabati material used to make metal doors which he mounted on an engine.

Ocen was later introduced to President Museveni who had dropped in at the East African Civil Aviation Academy in Soroti.

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