Ugandans have been called upon to support the integration of East African Community so as to benefit from its diversified services.

While addressing the press at Serena Hotel, the Permanent Secretary Ministry of East African Community Affairs (MEACA) Ms Edith Mwanje noted that embracing the EAC would ensure more opportunities for Ugandans.

“EAC is about one cultural state, we agreed on issues like trade, one currency and oneness, people need to embrace it,” Ms Mwanje said on the sidelines of the EAC exhibition and conference at Serena Hotel where top government and private entities are showcasing their products and services.

The PS further noted that several achievements had been registered among them free movement of persons and promotion of trade.

“There is a caravan that will move across all the districts of Uganda to showcase what has been achieved by EAC.  The caravan will move around Kampala today and then go on a nationwide drive,” she added.

The one-day event is aimed at sensitizing Ugandans about the EAC and  participating institutions include the Bank of Uganda, Ministry of Finance, Private Sector Foundation, The East African, Uganda National Bureau of Standards and the Uganda Revenue Authority.

“We as Uganda have achieved so much under EAC and what to inform people about them,” James Ssaka, a URA official manning the institution’s stall at the exhibition, said.

Stories Continues after ad

The Democratic Party has invited embattled Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago to pick forms to contest as the party’s flag bearer for mayorship in the 2016 elections.

Addressing journalists at the party headquarters in Kampala today, the party spokesperson Kenneth Kakande said that Lukwago was free to pick the forms and contest as a DP member for the Lord Mayor’s seat.

”We call upon Erias Lukwago to come and pick forms if he wants to stand for Lord Mayor,” Kakande said adding: “we as DP are ready to support him.”

Kakande stressed that it was time to put their differences aside so as to confront ‘the enemy’.

“We have to focus on issues that cause transformation, not disagreements,” Kakande said before criticizing the National Resistance Movement government for ‘choosing the Lord Mayor’.

He noted that the ruling party and government were planning to grant councilors the mandate to choose a Lord Mayor which, he said, is unconstitutional.

“Kampala residents have a right to choose their leader; we (DP) think the Lord Mayor must undergo the electoral process,” he said.

But when contacted for comment, the embattled Lord Mayor declined to comment on the issue of him standing as a DP flag bearer candidate for the city’s top political seat. “I have no comment,” Lukwago said.

The Lord Mayor and Mr Mao are involved in a standoff, with the former forming a splinter group within the DP, after claiming that Mao’s rise to party presidency was unconstitutional and accusations that the party president’s approach to issues had antagonized many members.

A controversial and daredevil politician, Lukwago has been denied access to his office at City Hall for close to two years now.

And, despite maintaining the Lord Mayor’s official car, Lukwago has also not been paid for the time out of office but Parliament last year appropriated Shs500 million to cater for his salary arrears.

Stories Continues after ad

After attracting a huge gathering in Mbale on his first day of consultations, former Prime Minister John Patrick Amama Mbabazi is today in Kapchorwa for further consultations regarding his candidature in the 2016 elections.

Mbabazi, who is to address a rally at the Booma grounds, announced his candidature on June 16, after falling out with his erstwhile all and confidante President Yoweri Museveni. At the time Mbabazi released message on ‘yuotube’ indicating he would contest for both National Resistance Movement (NRM) chairmanship and the party flag bearer post for the forthcoming elections.

However, the tide in the party did not favour Mbabazi’s ship, prompting him to change course and declare he would run as an Independent candidate. Since then he also released an 8-point programme, detailing too voters what he intends to do if elected President.

Tomorrow Mbabazi goes to the former industrial town of Jinja, where he will address a rally at Kakindu stadium.

In July Mbabazi was blocked by police from going to Mbale for consultations, with the cops intimating that he had not been cleared by the NRM to contest for the party’s flag bearer position.

However, this time round the police has allowed Mbabazi to consult.

Meanwhile, it is not clear if Mbabazi will join The Democratic Alliance (TDA), a loose alliance of political parties and individuals who want to see an end to Mr Museveni’s three-decade rule. So far former vice president Professor Gilbert Bukenya has already picked forms for the joint candidature, while Democratic Party’s Norbert Mao has also indicated he will run under the banner of TDA.

Another opposition figure whose intentions are not yet clear is Forum for Democratic Change flag bearer Col (rtd) Dr Kizza Besigye, who has threatened to boycott the 2016 elections if electoral reforms are not carried.

Besigye recently defeated FDC president Major General (rtd) to clinch the party’s flag bearer position and in a speech before his election, declared he would follow the recommendations dubbed the Citizens’ Compact, a set of demands made after nation-wide consultations by the opposition and some civil society organisations.

In a related development, over 40 people have picked the presidential nomination forms but analysts say many of these might fail to get the requisite 100 signatures from two-thirds of the districts in Uganda, as enshrined in the Elections Act.

Stories Continues after ad