WBS TV news manager and anchor John Baptist ImoKola has quit the Naguru based station.
ImoKola who has been working at WBS TV for the last five years has joined the likes of Sophia Matovu and others who have thrown in the towel at Wavamuno’s station.
There has been massive quitting at the station as many point out issues of low pay and interference in their duties.
Imokola is set to concentrate on the lecturing opportunity at the department of Journalism and Communication at Makerere University.
Abbey Bagalana is a freewill spirit. The Crane Bank sponsored and former national team player stepped on the first tee of his second round as rain was falling heavily on nine-hole par-72 Jinja Golf Club, he felt a little at home.
“Most of my winners come during such conditions,” Bagalana said after winning the eighth Eskom Open championship over the weekend. “I’m used to tough conditions, funny I was praying for it to keep raining.”
Having lost in last year’s edition on a sudden death play-off on hole 18, Bagalana started sluggishly returning scores of 79 but as heavens opened up, the Uganda golf club member up the ante.
Bagalana returned the lowest final round score of 67. He birdied seven of the first nine holes to make the turn in 7-under 29, added birdies on 13 and 14 before a long rain delay, and then returned to make it four in a row with birdies on 15 and 16.
Last year’s winner Ronald Otile finished tied for second with Deco Mutebi with similar scores of 148nett two shots behind Bagalana, while first round leader Adolf Muhumuza was further a shot on 149 nett.
Bagalana received a diadem, brand-new professional golf kit and one-year sponsorship worth Shs15.8m from Eskom for golf events.
Bagalana, a man who is famed for a clinical short game was also the brain behind Buganda Inter-Regional tournament as coach in Entebbe early this month.
Mutawe second round show
Uganda golf club Herman Mutawe toppled a strong field of professionals shooting a 142 nett to win his second Eskom Open pro title category on a ghastly course.
Having finished third last year, Mutawe closed with 3-under 68 score in the second round after a slow first round (74 scores) but birdies at Nos. 10, 11 and 15, and entered the par-4 18th to beat second placed Fred Wanzara by 3 shots, latter returned scores of 75 and 70.
“The course is tough at the moment because of the rains and my drive was spot on. One has to really carry the ball,’’ said Mutawe who took the whale share (sh5m) from the Shs10million jackpot staked by tournament sponsor Eskom.
Jinja-based professional golfer carded scores of 71 and 75 in the first and second round respectively to finish third.
First round leader Vicent Byamukama, Deo Akope and Grace Ocici finished tied for fourth with scores of 148 gross in a competition that attracted 28 professional golfers from different clubs around the country.
Erisa Ssekisambu (left) in action during the match
Erisa Ssekisambu (left) in action during the match
Saturday
CHAN 2016 QUALIFIER (Return Leg):
Uganda V Tanzania @Nakivubo Stadium
After taking a day off on Sunday, the Uganda Cranes players resume training on Monday at Vienna College, Namugongo.
The players had a day off on Sunday on request of the head coach, Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic after having resumed non-residential training on Friday and Saturday.
Farouk Miya, Denis Okoth, Milton Kalisa, Muzamiru Mutyaba and Said Kyeyune who missed the last two sessions joined the training session this (Monday) morning.
Micho has already expressed his attacking philosophy of football when Uganda hosts Tanzania in the return leg.
“We shall not sit back, I expected an attack minded game” Micho said last week
Uganda carries a 3 goal cushion that followed a convincing away victory at the Amman stadium in Zanzibar last week.Erisa Ssekisambu scored two goals before on form Farouk Miya scored a late penalty to seal the emphatic victory.
Djibouti Referees to handle game
Confederations of African Football (CAF) confirmed that the match officials to handle Uganda versus Tanzania return leg of the Championship of African Nations (CHAN) qualifier will be from the horn of Africa nation, Djibouti.
Aden Abdi Aden Djamal, will be center referee with countrymen, Abdillahi Mahamoud Il Tireh and Hamze Abdi Salime the first and second assistant referees respectively.
Souleiman Ahmed Djamal, also from Djibouti will be reserve referee. Sudanese official, Osama Ata Elmanan Hassan is the confirmed match commissioner.
Kampala-Former Forum for Democratic Change ex-party president Dr. Kizza Besigye and current party leader Gen. Mugishu Muntu have this afternoon picked nomination forms for party’s flag bearer in the forthcoming elections.
Maj.Gen. Muntu
FDC intends to hold elections for party flag bearer at the delegate’s conference mid next month. Gen. Muntu picked his nomination papers while Dr. Besigye’s were picked by Mr Wilberforce Kyambadde. Should Dr. Besigye be endorsed by his party, it will be his fourth attempt but having offered himself for the last three time, Besigye has grown his support base across the country and with the in fights within the ruling party, this could give him advantage over other new comers and therefore, he remains the darling of many opposition followers having identified himself as a pro people leader who came out earlier to oppose NRM in 1999.
PM Dr Rugunda cuts tape to officially open the new IDI McKinnell knowledge centre as MUK officials look on at Makerere University on Friday
PM Dr Rugunda cuts tape to officially open the new IDI McKinnell knowledge centre as MUK officials look on at Makerere University on Friday
Prime Minister Dr Ruhakana Rugunda has applauded Makerere University and the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) for investing in a knowledge centre which will enable them to focus on healthcare development and expansion of programmes that will support policies for improved health in the country.
The Premier made the remarks at the launch and opening of the multibillion McKinnell Knowledge Centre of the IDI at Makerere University on Friday.
The centre will operate as a hub for enhancing capacity in health innovation and impact for researchers, trainers and health practitioners in Uganda and Africa.
Dr Rugunda saluted IDI for working closely with the Ministry of Health and Uganda Aids Commission to ensure that its programmes are in line with the national priorities.
“The work IDI does in providing advanced and specialized courses in the management of HIV and related infectious diseases using a comprehensive blend of learning that includes classroom – based training, clinic and community immersion is timely and holistic,” said the Premier.
He thanked international partners such as Hank MacKinnel, the chair of the Board of Accordia Global Health Foundation, Sue and Nick Hellman Foundation and the University of Minnesota all from the United States of America, who contributed greatly to the construction of the centre.
Dr. Rugunda said innovation and research are critical areas in the health sector, adding that healthcare workers need to keep up- to-date with the new developments to gain cutting edge skills and competencies required to address the health needs of the people.
“Integrated disease surveillance and response is critical in Uganda and Africa today,” Rugunda said.
The Vice Chancellor Makerere University, Prof Dumba Ssentamu said IDI was involved in over 80 projects and had published almost 400 articles in peer reviewed journals which had improved the University’s rankings in East and Central Africa.
The Executive Director of IDI, Dr Richard Brough said IDI had trained over 17,000 health workers from Uganda and 27 other African countries since 2002.
Training covers HIV/AIDS and TB co-infection, malaria, laboratory services, pharmacy, health systems strengthening and research capacity building.
The function was also an opportunity to officially bid farewell to Dr Alex Coutinho, the former IDI Executive Director who contributed greatly to the success of the knowledge centre project.
Uganda has been receiving about 8,800 refugees a day
Uganda has been receiving about 8,800 refugees a day
The number of refugees fleeing the chaos in Burundi has hit 300,000, prompting the World Food Programme to spend US$5.5 million a month on their welfare.
According to a WFP release, between November and June this year Uganda has been receiving about 8,800 refugees a day, and in the past two weeks the UN food aid agency reported that there were 3000 new arrivals at Juru and Kabazana in Nakivale Refugee Settlement awaiting food aid and resettlement in other gazetted areas.
The release further states that the refugees, mostly children aged four years and below are benefiting from an organized treatment set-up.
‘WFP’s partner for nutrition support, Medical Teams International is screening children at the transit centres and referring cases of moderate acute malnutrition to health facilities where they are provided with WFP Super Cereal, a specialized product that helps in treating the condition,’ the release states in part.
The situation in Burundi became volatile beginning April this year, after President Pierre Nkurunziza announced his intention of standing for presidential elections that were slated for June 15.
However, his opponents didn’t take the announcement lightly, saying the president was violating the country’s Constitution by vying for a third term.
And, on May 13 soldiers led by former intelligence chief Maj Gen Godefroid Niyombare briefly captured power while the president was attending an East African summit on the conflict in his country.
But loyalist troops managed to reverse the coup, enabling the president to return to the country on May 14.
There are about 10 humanitarian organisations supporting the refugees, and the WFP has received about US$20.1 million for the Burundi operation, with the USA contributing the biggest chunk of US$15.4 million. Other contributors are Australia (US$2.3m), Canada (US$1.57) and France US$200.000.
Members of Parliament are set to amend the Parliamentary Pension Act in a bid to strengthen their financial muscle ahead of the 2016 election
Members of Parliament are set to amend the Parliamentary Pension Act in a bid to strengthen their financial muscle ahead of the 2016 election
Members of Parliament are set to amend the Parliamentary Pension Act in a bid to strengthen their financial muscle ahead of the 2016 election.
According to a source that spoke to Eagleonline, the MPs will tomorrow,Tuesday June 30 amend the Act, seeking to draw money ostensibly for the election campaigns that start in October.
The source said the Act was supposed to have been debated on Friday last week but the MPs were time-barred to discuss the issue placed at No. 7 on the Order Paper, prompting the Speaker Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga to postpone debate.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said that local banks have been borrowing Shs100 billion from the scheme at a rate of 3 per cent, money the very MPs would borrow from the banks at a commercial rate of about 21 per cent, the more reason the banks are now wary of what would befall them if the MPs amended the Act. The source intimated that each MP has about 300 million saved with the scheme and that already 27 MPs had been ‘approached with bribes’ by the commercial banks, to defer the matter, to pave the way for the banks to continue enjoying the hefty lending rate difference of about 18 per cent.
For some time now pension kitties in Uganda have been under threat, with billions reportedly siphoned by wayward civil servants in connivance with dubious private citizens. Just recently city lawyer Bob Kasango admitted before the Parliament Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that he irregularly obtained Shs7.8 billion pension money.
However, PAC looked on indifferently as the lawyer promised to ‘refund’ the money and now, according to the source, the MPs want to ‘sanitise their act’ by amending the Parliamentary Pensions Act 6 of 2007 to allow them draw money before the actual time stipulated by law. Protagonists for the Fund started their quest for a pension scheme in 2001 and the Bill was assented to in 2007.
According to records, the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on the Economy heads the Board of the Parliamentary Pension Fund, with the Clerk to Parliament as Secretary. Other members include the Minister of Finance, four elected ‘back-bench Commissioners’, two elected MPs and one member representing the workers of Parliament.
The current chairperson of the Fund is Rose Akol Okullu, the Woman MP for Bukedea, but according to the source long-serving Bunyole East MP Emmanuel Dombo Lumala is the lead mover of the amendment of the Act which he vehemently vouched for during his time as the chairperson of the parliamentary committee on the economy.
Efforts to contact Ms Akol and Dombo on their known official phone lines were futile.
An Accountant by profession, Dombo is one of the longest-serving MPs, having joined the House in 1996.
Once again the issue of boda bodas is in the news, with the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) and the police engaging in running battles with the riders.
The uprooting of posters bearing messages that sought to deny the riders entry into the Central Business District (CBD) and the subsequent tear gassing by police, all left a bitter taste in the mouth, as there was neither victor nor vanquished on that fateful Friday.
For the record, the city authorities want the riders to operate at a ‘safe’ distance of about three kilometres from the heart of the city, while the riders are hell bent on carrying on their business anywhere and anyhow.
For some time now we have been living with this ‘menace’ that are the boda bodas, and a visit to any hospital in Uganda is testimony of how these ‘moving coffins’ have wreaked havoc on both the passengers and riders. The numbers are simply overwhelming!
Indeed, several people have lost lives, while many are without limbs courtesy of the boda bodas, putting a huge strain on the medical facilities and a big financial stress on the victims and their relatives.
Also, the boda boda riders have proved insolent, neglecting all traffic rules and some of them even engaging in serious crime, something that is unacceptable.
But while we condemn the boda boda riders, there is need to maintain a level of sobriety since not all of these riders are bad men. In fact the KCCA must put on a human face and acknowledge that some of these men fend for so many people, meaning that just throwing them out of the CBD may impact negatively on their families’ livelihood.
So, the city authority should find a lasting solution to this problem through sensitization, dialogue and an orderly transition and in this respect KCCA could start by gazetting a few strategic areas in the city, where the riders complete with helmets, embossed and numbered reflector jackets should be allowed to operate from.
This will be a four-way win-win situation for the KCCA, police, the riders and passengers.
The former New Vision sub editor, Daily Monitor chief sub editor and managing editor is now the special media assistant in the office of the NRM chairman at the NRM Secretariat.
The former New Vision sub editor, Daily Monitor chief sub editor and managing editor is now the special media assistant in the office of the NRM chairman at the NRM Secretariat.ryin
Usually, our guests need no introductions, but for the sake of repeating ourselves, we shall introduce Don Innocent Wanyama. The former New Vision sub editor, Daily Monitor chief sub editor and managing editor is now the special media assistant in the office of the NRM chairman at the NRM Secretariat. But let’s not waste time and have the man himself tell us more about himself and his job. Below is the excerpt of our tête-à-tête.
Frying Pun: Congratulations on the new appointment, Don.
Wanyama: Thanks, mate.
Frying Pun: Now you rub shoulders with the people who matter, but for some reason, it’s as if the media is treating your appointment with contempt. We are not seeing any mega profile of the journalist turned media strategist for the only revolutionary with a vision, eh?
Wanyama: It’s not that they are treating me with contempt as you say; I am a very private person if you didn’t know. I prefer to remain in the shadows and do my job.
Frying Pun: I like the diction. Shadows. You must also know that people who work in the shadows do lots of dirty job, so did this shadowy job start with the poll thing…
Wanyama: Look here, I don’t know why you are dragging me back to that subject, but even the President himself knows Monitor erred in judgement in sacking me by giving in to political elements who hate the President and NRM.
Frying Pun: So you insist the poll was right, yet your appointment [to NRM] confirms you were working with the State, it justifies both Monitor and the other blogger, Piga Panga…
Wanyama: By the way, nowadays I am also a busy man. Get to real issues. I forgave those people. My current position is enough proof that ‘all is well that ends well.’
Frying Pun: Alright, Don. Fast-forward, you really started with so much gusto. Haven’t you expended all the energy you need for the forthcoming electioneering fever in attacking Amama Mbabazi alone?
Wanyama: I don’t know why people think that I attacked Mbabazi. Is telling the truth an attack? I merely reminded the man of things he was trying too hard to deceitfully forget.
Frying Pun: Okay, one index finger pointing at Mbabazi, the rest folded back to point at your chest. Wouldn’t the Don Wanyama who bled for Nandala Mafabi apply ISIS execution skills on the current one seated before me if the two met today?
Wanyama: I have never been in cohorts with Mafabi. Those are all baseless allegations.
Frying Pun: You were suspended by Monitor for openly supporting Mafabi against Mugisha Muntu in the FDC presidential polls….
Wanyama: No, no, no, my friend. I was reprimanded, yes, but not that I was guilty. I was doing my job as an editor and some people felt aggrieved since I did not give them the kind of publicity they thought they deserved.
Frying Pun: An editor with highly political comments on Facebook, were you editing Facebook?
Wanyama: I was apolitical on Facebook. I never supported Mafabi. I have never met Mafabi personally, although I can admit to seeing him…er… yes, twice, when he walked into the newsroom while going for talkshows on KFM. That was all.
Frying Pun: Eh, Don! Not even Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf would square up to the new you. Look, this interview is going public, so at least sieve some semblance of truth in your lies for the good of your public image.
Wanyama: I will be clear with you. There is no lie in what I am saying. You think I am worse than Comical Ali? Eh? There is another truth I want to tell the public. I should have said it in the opinion I wrote, but I saved it for later. Where was Mbabazi when our visionary leader was risking bullets in the bush, risking his life travelling in a leaking boat at night in dangerous weather on Lake Victoria, daring Obote’s henchmen by driving right from Entebbe through Kampala? Where was Mbabazi again? Where?
Frying Pun: I am all ears… go on.
Wanyama: Mbabazi was living in great comfort in Kampala eating sausages. People ate bullets in the bush, my friend.
Frying Pun: Don! You already got the job, you don’t need to go this far now. Sober up. Don’t make Squealer wail in his grave at a time when Ofwono Opondo has turned into a travesty of a mouthpiece…
Wanyama: So now you are going to reduce me to the level of a night dancer like Squealer? What did Squealer do besides falling off the ladder in the dead of the night in the name of tampering with the animal commandments?
Frying Pun: He fell for Napoleon and it worked. But it seems that rather than fall, you have spun 360 degrees so fast that the dizziness has left you literally impaired in the head.
Wanyama: [laughs hard] To you, I look like a mad man, to the President, I am serving the nation diligently. Only His Excellency can judge me.
Frying Pun: Indeed! I notice that you turned from Saul into Paul, like in one of your Letter From Kireka pieces where you berated an NRM fanatic of a politician.
Wanyama: I don’t know about that.
Frying Pun: At least you know about how chaotic NRM has turned since Mbabazi announced his decision to aspire for the presidency. For the record, who is the official spokesperson and who works where?
Wanyama: What do you mean? Don’t we have titles and responsibilities?
Frying Pun: Titles, you have, but responsibility is jumbled up. Evelyne Anite is at one corner talking on behalf of the party and the presidency, OO is busy reminding everyone of how he has never changed since the Uchumi pen and underwear scandal, then Frank Tumwebaze is writing on Facebook, and Karooro Okurut is talking in her sleep. At the end of it all, Tamale Mirundi goes on local radios to leak his tongue with the reckless abandon of Zaitun’s nudes. And we have not yet heard from John Nagenda…
Wanyama: We are all NRM, we can speak for the party and defend our visionary leader against attacks from the likes of Mbabazi and Besigye. Look, I am really going.
The US Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex marriage is a legal right across the United States.
In a landmark 5-4 decision, Justice Anthony Kennedy writing for the majority ruled that marriage is a constitutional right for all.
“No union is more profound than marriage,” he wrote, backed by the court’s four more liberal justices.
It is unclear how soon marriage licences will be issued in states where gay unions were previously prohibited.
Writing one of the dissenting opinions, Chief John Roberts said the constitution “had nothing to do with it”.
However, Christian conservatives decried the decision.
“We must resist and reject judicial tyranny, not retreat,” said Mike Huckabee, Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas governor.
Before the ruling on Thursday, gay couples could marry in 37 states in addition to Washington DC.
Now the remaining 14 states, in the South and Midwest, will have to stop enforcing their bans on same-sex marriage. Minutes after the ruling, couples in one of those states, Georgia, lined up to be wed.
Loud cheers erupted outside the court after the ruling was announced, said the BBC’s Paul Blake at the Supreme Court.
Hundreds of people had camped out for hours awaiting the news.
One of the demonstrators, Jordan Monaghan, called his mother from his mobile phone amid the celebrations.
“Hey mom, I’m at the Supreme Court. Your son can have a husband now,” Mr Monaghan said.
On social media, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton merely tweeted the word “proud” and the White House changed its Twitter avatar into the rainbow colours.
The case considered by the court concerned Jim Obergefell, an Ohio resident who was not recognised as the legal widower of his late husband, John Arthur.
“It’s my hope that gay marriage will soon be a thing of the past, and from this day forward it will simply be ‘marriage,'” an emotional Mr Obergefell said outside the court on Friday.
The first state to allow same-sex marriage was Massachusetts, which granted the right in 2004.
In recent years, a wave of legal rulings and a dramatic shift in public opinion have expanded gay marriage in the US. In 2012, the high court struck down a federal anti same-sex marriage law.
