US President Barack Obama has warned that Africa will not advance if its leaders refuse to step down when their terms end.

He also called for an end to the “cancer of corruption”, saying it took money away from development.

Mr Obama made the comments in the first ever address by a US leader to the 54-member AU at its headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

The address marked the climax of Mr Obama’s five-day trip to Africa.

He visited Kenya and Ethiopia, the headquarters of the AU.

African leaders should respect their constitutions, and step down when their term ends.

Violence in Burundi following President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term showed how stability could be threatened if constitutional rules were ignored, he said.

“Nobody should be president for life,” Mr Obama said.

“I don’t understand why people want to stay so long, especially when they have got a lot of money,” he added.

Democracy existed in name but not in substance when journalists were jailed and activists were threatened, he said.

Corruption was “draining billions of dollars” from Africa, he added.

The money could be used to build schools and hospitals, Mr Obama said.

The rapid economic growth in Africa was changing “old stereotypes” of a continent hit by war and poverty, he said.

But unemployment needed to be urgently tackled on a continent whose one-billion people will double in a few decades, Mr Obama said.

“We need only look to the Middle East and North Africa to see that large numbers of young people with no jobs and stifled voices can fuel instability and disorder,” he added.

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The only surviving son of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi has been sentenced to death by a Libyan court.

Saif al Islam Gaddafi was sentenced in absentia in Tripoli over killings during the country’s 2011 uprising.

He is being held in the southwestern town of Zintan by rebel militias who have refused to hand him over to the central government.

Eight others – including former Libyan spy chief Abdullah al Senussi – were also sentenced to death by the court.

Saif Gaddafi was once tipped by Western governments to lead Libya towards democracy.

Educated at the London School of Economics and considered by many to be the country’s de-facto prime minister, he refused to abandon his father when protests sprung in several Libyan cities in early 2011.

He was found by fighters from the Zintan brigade trying to cross into Niger a month after his father Colonel Gaddafi was captured and killed four years ago.

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Kampala-President Yoweri Museveni will preside over the 11th Africa Union of Architects (AUA) Congress from August 3-7, 2015, at the Speke Resort Hotel, Munyonyo.

The AUA is a body that unites Architects from all over Africa under their national membership associations, and was founded in 1981 in Lagos Nigeria, with Architect William Henry Ssentoogo from Uganda, as its first president. A Non Governmental Organisation, the AUA spearheads the recognition of the architecture profession on the continent as well as African interests at the International Union of Architects.

According to a release, this year’s congress will be held under the theme: ‘Our Architecture, Our Communities, Our Heritage’ and it will seek to explore and emphasize the importance of African heritage in Architectural design and how Architects play a pivotal role in ensuring this linkage.

“Speakers will present papers that investigate the ideologies Africans have lived by for centuries and how they can be applied in Architecture to ensure continuation of the spirit of the African community,” the release indicates and adds: “In addition the Congress will seek to find African solutions to urbanisation and how problems related with urbanisation can be tackled.” In the Urban Thinkers Campus workshops organised in partnership with the World Urban Campaign (WUC), stakeholders will debate and come up with ideas that are expected to influence the next United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, Habitat III, to take place in Ecuador in 2016.

Held once every three years, the Congress was last held in Luanda, Angola where Chief Omissore Tokunbo was elected president. He will be handing over to a new president to be elected at the General Assembly that will be held on August 7, 2015.

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Kampala-The former Minister of Works, Transport and Engineer Abraham Byandala has been arrested in connection with the construction and procurement irregularities of Katosi Road.

Eng. Byandala who currently holds the post of Minister Without Portfolio was remanded this afternoon by Anti Corruption Court to Luzira prison until August 11, when returns to same Court. Byandala was invited by Inspectorate of Government for a meeting and upon arrival, he was arrested and driven to Anti Corruption Court in Kololo.

The 74km multi-billion Mukono-Kyetume-Katosi-Nyenga road has since August 2014 been a source of controversy after reports that its construction was awarded to a non-existent company, Eutaw Construction Company of the United States.

Byandala, who was relieved of his works portfolio in a cabinet shake-up in March this year, also allegedly directed the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA), to award the Shs165 billion contract to Eutaw without the completion of a due diligence. At the time of the intensification of the  saga, Eng Byandala blamed his predecessor Eng. John Nasasira, and Presidency Minister Frank Tumwebaze, for his woes.

Last year Eutaw’s local representative Apollo Senkeeto was arrested and given bond, and the case had since gone silent till today when Byandala.

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The Inspector General of Police, Gen. Kale Kayihura  has dropped the Director Operations Andrew Felix Kaweesi in the latest changes announced Monday evening.

Kaweesi has been moved as the boss of Human Resource development.

He has been replaced by Hurana Isabirye, the commander Kampala Metropolitan.

Benjamin Namanya, the Human Resource Development boss, takes over from Isabirye as new commander Kampala Metropolitan.

Police Spokesperson, Fred Enanga confirmed changes. “It is true, the changes have been made but this is a mini reshuffle” he said.

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KAMPALA-President Yoweri Museveni is in Addis Ababa for African Union Summit where African leaders and American President Barack Obama discussed the South Sudan conflict.

The newly appointed press secretary, Ms Linda Nabusayi told Eagle Online on Monday President Museveni held a multilateral meeting with Mr Obama, Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and the Chairperson of the African Union commission, Ms Dlamini Zuma.

“He has so far held multilateral closed meeting with President Baraka Obama, Uhuru Kenyatta, Susan Rice, Ethiopian Prime minister and AU Commissioner Zuma,” Ms Nabusayi said.

Uganda deployed forces to prop up the beleaguered government of Salvar Kiir but the opposition has called for withdraw of Ugandans, saying Uganda is “illegally interfering” with the internal affairs of South Sudan.

But Ugandan government has insisted its troops would withdraw if the recently deployed regional force under Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is fully equipped.

Uganda’s Defence Minister Cripus Kiyonga said last week Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda had deployed troops but the force lacks logistics.

The Addis Ababa meeting comes at a time when top South Sudan officials and senior rebel commanders are facing sanctions if the warring parties fail to end the war that has displaced millions of people in the youngest country in Africa.

A U.S. official was quoted agencies saying sanctions or other penalties could be considered if the two sides failed to reach a peace deal by an August 17 deadline. Previous deadlines have been ignored, deepening the crisis in the world’s newest nation.

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General Electric has stepped up its investment portfolio in Africa after negotiating US$2.5 billion deals across the continent, with focus on transport, aviation, healthcare and the energy sectors.

According to GE, in Kenya it will partner with Kipeto Energy Limited to build a 100MW ‘wind farm’ in Kajaido County, with the company as the sole equipment supplier for the project.

The US$155m Kipeto project was announced during President Barack Obama’s July 24-26 visit to Kenya, and GE is expected to provide 60 high capacity wind turbines, with a 15-year service agreement.

According to a release, the deal made during the US-AfricaLeaders’ Summit in Washington DC comes in the wake of GE’s commitment made in 2014 to invest US$2 billion in Africa by 2018 to spruce up facility development, skills training and sustainability initiatives.

“GE has made significant progress against the investment commitments made last August,” said Jay Ireland, president and CEO of GE Africa. “Skills training and capacity building are critical, not only for developing African economies, but also for growing GE’s footprint in the region. We consider this a major priority.”

TheKipetoproject will be financed by Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) as sole lender to the project. OPIC is the US government’s development finance institute and is part of the Power Africa Initiative, the brainchild of President Obama.         

Kipeto Energy Limited shareholders include Africa Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), Craftskills Wind Energy International Limited, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Maasai community of Kipeto, 50 kilometres from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

Meanwhile, in February this year GE was contracted by the Kenyan Ministry of Health as a key technology partner for a US$ 420m infrastructure modernization programme to transform 98 hospitals across the 47 counties in the country.

“The radiology modernisation contract awarded to GE Healthcare is the largest of seven tranches of Kenya’s ~$420 million health development plan, aimed at delivering sustainable healthcare development, in line Kenya’s Vision 2030 Plan,” the release states.

Elsewhere on the continent GE will by the end of this year begin supplying US$850 million oil and gas equipment to Eni in Ghana, and the company will also supply 100 locomotives to the Angolan National Railways (INCFA). Other GE in Africa projects include a manufacturing and assembly plant and, the biomedical equipment training (Nigeria); Graduate Engineering Training Programme (Mozambique); Garages skills building programme and a Healthcare Training Centere (Kenya) and Round 3 of the Power Africa Off-Grid Energy Challenge.

‘This third round of the challenge is open to entrepreneurs and energy companies in Uganda, Rwanda and Zambia with a sum total of up to $1.1 million in grants to be awarded. The three-year initiative has extended $5 million and 50 awards to energy entrepreneurs in eleven African countries across the Continent,’ the release indicates.

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