Moses Kipsiro won Gold in the All Africa Games in Maputo.
Moses Kipsiro won Gold in the All Africa Games in Maputo.
Kampala-Fly High! That is the catchword for Uganda’s team heading to the 2015 All Africa Games in Congo Brazaville just two months from now.
But financially speaking, there is still a long way between where Team Uganda stands and where they want to be for the Games.
“The overall budget for the team is sh2.3b,” revealed the General Secretary National Council of Sports (NCS) Jasper Aligawesa at the media awareness launch of the Uganda’s All Africa Games campaign at Lugogo on Monday.
“But government will give us only sh500m. So that’s why we are launching this awareness campaign. We need the support of all the stakeholders.
“The media, corporate companies and other well-wishers should all come on board and support the team.” The chief guest and minister of state for sports Charles Bakkabulindi said:
“This is to invite all stakeholders to contribute to this national cause. It’s important that the general public is reminded that we have a team going out to represent the country at the All Africa Games.” he added.
The event was also attended by NCS chairman John Bosco Onyik, several officials from local sports federations and members of the media.
Uganda is taking 86 athletes for the quadrennial competition that doubles as a qualifier for next year’s Olympic Games.
Uganda will be represented in basketball (18 players), athletics (17), paralympics (11) boxing (8), table tennis (8), cycling (6), weightlifting (5), badminton (5), swimming (5) and lawn tennis (3).
Meet upcoming dance hall queen Aidan Quin as profiled by Eagle Online’s Catherine Namanya.
What is your name?
I am Aida Mbabazi but Aidan Quinis is my stage name.
Which schools did you attend?
I went to MK learning Centre Bweyogerere for primary, Progressive secondary school for Ordinary level and Vision High Mukono for Advanced level, YMCA for a journalism course and am currently perusing a business course at Zenith international.
What kind of music do you do?
Ragga and dancehall
Why did you join music?
Music is my passion
What challenges have you encountered in music industry?
If you don’t have money, your music can’t be pushed in this corrupt industry of ours. The main challenge I have is I do not have a manager otherwise I would be doing better. People do love my music and my stage performances.
How many songs do you have?
I have five songs that include Charger, Daily meal, Biology, Ghetto boy among others.
Do you have any collabos?
No, I want to go solo.
Whom do you look up to on Ugandan level and internationally?
Internationally Beyounce works for me but in Uganda may be sheebaholics (Karungi Sheeba). Most people compare me with Bella but I don’t compare myself with anyone reason, I do my own style because I like being unique.
What are your future plans?
Haaaa my future plans are being on top of the game before this year ends but with the help of my current manager and promoter deejay Kris of galaxy FM, I want to take Ugandan music to the next level.
How old are you?
I am making 23 in October
Which male celebrity do you have a crush on?
Honestly Brad pit looks yummy to me so I think I would say yes, if he asked me would you be mine, hahahaha :I know it’s funny but that’s the truth.
People say that you are zaris sister because you resemble her, what do you say?
Oh no, please no way, I am nothing like her and we aren’t sisters atall.Zari is a Musoga and I am a Mutooro.Yes she’s hot and every thing any woman would want to be but no I like being honest and I can’t tie on her
Are you still single?
Ha, do I look to be? But anyway I am single but not searching so guys out there temunesibako (I am not available).
Who is your producer?
I don’t have aspecific producer but Zuli Tums did the biology track, Barby Jay did daily meal, Hunz did ghetto boy and Denis rackla did charger.
How can people access your music?
So far the easiest way of accessing my songs YouTube .just type in Aidan queen.
How long have you been in this industry?
I joined music industry in 2012 so it’s about four years in the game.
Rwanda's Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo
Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said the arrest is demeaning Africans and is unacceptable
The Rwandan government has branded the arrest of its intelligence chief Karenzi Karake as “an outrage”.
Gen Karake, 54, was arrested at Heathrow Airport on Saturday, accused of ordering massacres in the wake of the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
He was arrested by Met police officers under the European Arrest Warrant on behalf of the Spanish authorities.
Williams Nkurunziza, Rwanda’s High Commissioner to the UK, said it was “an insult to our collective conscience”.
Prime Minister David Cameron’s official spokeswoman said it was an “operational matter” for the police who were legally obliged to act on valid European Arrest Warrants.
Louise Mushikiwabo, Rwanda’s foreign minister, outrage “adding: “Western solidarity in demeaning Africans is unacceptable”.
Andrew Mitchell, former international development secretary, said he believed the arrest was a “reprehensible abuse” of the l
In 2008, Spanish investigative judge Andreu Merelles indicted Gen Karake for alleged war crimes along with 39 other current or former high-ranking Rwandan military officials.
He is also accused of ordering the killing in 1997 of three Spanish nationals working for Medicos del Mundo.
But the Rwandan government is said to be puzzled by the timing of Gen Karake’s arrest, as he has travelled to the UK several times since the indictment was issued.
Mr Nkurunziza told the BBC World Service: “We take strong exception to the suggestion that he’s being arrested on war crimes.
“Any suggestion that any of our 40 leaders are guilty of crimes against humanity is an insult to our collective conscience.”
Gen Karake was remanded in custody after appearing at Westminster magistrate’s court and he will reappear on Thursday.
UK Prime Minster David Cameron said the matter was operational.
A spokesman for Spain’s National Court said it was now up to the British authorities to decide whether or not to extradite him.
Rwanda’s furious reaction to the arrest is typical.
Whenever it is criticised, especially in relation to reprisal killings of Hutus, it lashes out, accusing its critics of “genocide denial”.
In some ways, it seeks to exploit the collective international guilt arising from the world’s failure to stop the genocide of 1994.
Britain finds itself in a difficult position. It has been a close friend of Rwanda, praising the government of Paul Kagame for turning the country around and becoming one of Africa’s economic “success stories”.
However, the Kagame government comes down hard on dissent, stifles media freedom, and has been accused of meddling in conflicts across its borders.
“It’s being used by supporters of the genocidal regime against those who stopped the genocide.
“I think it is reprehensible that the European Arrest Warrant is being abused in this way by a junior Spanish judge,” he said. “It’s being used for political reasons and not judicial ones.”
He added that he agreed with American officials who have described the indictments as “un-researched, politically motivated and lacking in facts”.
Phil Clark, lecturer on Africa’s Great Lakes Region at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, said there were concerns about the evidence in the Spanish indictment.
“There’s a sloppiness I think in much of the investigation that underpins this and even very critical human rights groups, that have tended not to be very friendly to Rwanda in the past, have raised questions about the quality of the Spanish arrest warrants.”
Gen Karake is director general of Rwanda’s National Intelligence and Security Services and a member of Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).
Nick named KK, the Rwandan government hail him as one of the people who stopped the genocide. He went on to be deputy commander of the country’s first UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur before returning to his role as spy chief.
During the genocide an estimated 800,000 people were killed between April and June 1994 by ethnic Hutu extremists.
Most of the dead were members of the minority Tutsi community and politically moderate Hutus.
The killings ended when the RPF, a Tutsi-led rebel movement that entered Rwanda from Uganda, seized control of the country.
But Human Rights Watch reported that in their drive for military victory and to control the population, the RPF killed thousands, including government troops, members of the militia and some civilians in numerous executions and massacres.
Ignacio Jovtis, of Amnesty International in Madrid, said he hoped Gen Karake would be sent to face trial in Spain: “We think that Spain has started the investigation in 2008 and nothing happened until today. It is good news”.
Gen Karake is the first major RPF figure to be arrested under charges brought abroad.
Phillip Gourevitch, a leading writer on Rwanda, told News night that Gen Karake’s arrest was the equivalent of the head of the UK’s MI6 or the US’s CIA being arrested.
In a statement the British High Commission in Rwanda said the arrest was a “legal obligation” carried out on behalf of the Spanish authorities but stressed the UK had a “close relationship” with the Rwandan government.
“We co-operate closely on a growing range of regional and international issues,” the statement said.
It is understood that on Thursday Westminster magistrates will fix a date for an extradition hearing within three weeks. There, a district judge will decide whether to proceed with the extradition. The whole process should take no more than 90 days.
The indictment of forty Rwanda Patriotic Army officers by a Spanish Judge in 2008 was described as ‘outrageous and inaccurate’ by a former US Ambassador to Rwanda, Michael R. Arietti.
In a ‘not redacted’ US embassy cable code-named 08KIGALI292 originated on April 24, 2008 and posted by Ms Susan Thomson on September 7, 2011, Amb. Arietti pokes several holes in Judge Fernando Andreu Merelles’ indictment issued in February 2008, for the officers to face war crimes charges allegedly committed after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
The 1338-word classified cable, ‘Spanish Indictments: Outrageous and Inaccurate’ and tagged ‘confidential’ was issued in relation to the indictments and is copied to the Secretary of State, US State Department in Washington DC, the US United Nations Mission in New York and several US embassies in Africa including the one in South Africa, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Also copied in are the US Embassies in the United Kingdom, The Hague and Spain, the country that sought the indictments through Judge Merelles, which indictments oblige most western countries to arrest any of the indicted officers.
Last Saturday, the UK arrested Rwanda’s Director General of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) Emmanuel Karenzi Karake, one of the indictees, but the communication by Arietti in 2008 is likely to feature prominently in any criminal proceedings against the General since the former envoy casts doubt over the Spanish judge’s indictments.
“The Spanish indictment of 40 Rwanda army officers an unrecognizable version of the most painful and violent episodes in Rwanda’s history, distorting the established record, inventing mass killings, placing the blame for any misfortune Rwandans have suffered (including the 1994 genocide) on the Kagame government, “ Amb Arietti summarised, in the cable that ‘was not redacted by Wikileaks’.
He added: “It is a bloated political tract, sloppily organized and endlessly repetitive, and, ultimately a disservice to those Rwandans who suffered real losses from revenge killings by the Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA), the armed forces of the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF). End summary.”
According to Amb Arietti, the US Kigali mission reviewed ‘unofficial English version’ produced by the Rwanda government, and another version in French ‘of unknown provenance’. The envoy also indicates that many of the 40 have since died, but eagleonline has established that among those living are Defence Minister General James Kabarebe, renegade Lt Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, Lt Gen Ceaser Kayizari, Brig Gen Sam Kaka Kanyemera and Lt Col Rubagumya Gacinya.
Meanwhile, in the cable the former envoy takes issue with the choice of wording used by the Spanish Judge, who described the RPA as a ‘criminal organization’.
“The Rwanda Patriotic Front was founded, according to the judge, not as is conventionally understood as a political organization of refugees, unable to return home… to regain a homeland… but as a criminal organization consecrated to the elimination of Hutu civilians, raping of women and girls, abduction, and terrorist acts,” Amb. Arietti quotes the judge as writing in the 182-page indictment in French, which was later translated into English.
According to judge Merelles, Amb Arietti writes, some western powers, notably the US, played a big role in the ‘atrocities’ committed by the Rwanda Defence Forces, (RDF).
“In fact, the RDF took instructions from American officials in pursuing its criminal and genocidal assault on the Great Lakes region, and fought side by side with American Green Berets in Rwanda, the DRC and elsewhere in the region,” Amb Arietti wrote in his eight-section cable.
“To this entirely fanciful account of the origins and directing agencies of the RPF, we now turn to the Judge’s wildly inaccurate, not to say repugnant, description of the origins of the genocide and the carrying mass slaughter of civilians in 1994,” he writes, adding: At no point in the judge’s narrative is the Habyarimana regime or extremist elements within that government at fault … there is no planning for genocide, no carrying out of prepared massacres, nary mention of the insidious and all-encompassing psychological preparation of mass killing by media outlets controlled by extremist elements. No, in fact, according to the judge, everything is the fault of the RPA.”
The RPF/A fought a fierce 4-year war with the government of Juvenal Habyarimana from October 1990 to July 1994. Earlier, on April 6 a plane carrying President Habyarimana and his Burundi counterpart was brought down, killing the two presidents and several aides. In the ensuing chaos, close to one million Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed in the genocide that was brought to an end in July 1994, by the RPF/A.
Since then Spain, which claims to have lost eight Spaniards working in Rwanda, issued indictments against the 40 RPA officers, claiming they had also killed hundreds of Hutus in revenge and Gen Karenzi Karake, who was at the time chief of intelligence between 1994 and 1997, was one of the indictees.
A decorated soldier, Gen Karenzi Karake one time served as the Deputy Commander of the Africa Union (AU) peacekeeping force in the troubled Darfur region of western Sudan.
Meanwhile, by filing time information indicated that Gen. Karenzi Karake will be arraigned in court onThursday, June 25, but authorities in Rwanda have lashed out against the general’s arrest, with foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo intimating on Twitter that the arrest is a politically motivated western conspiracy to demean Africans.
Justice Minister and Attorney General Johnston Busingye has also weighed in, saying high-level talks between his government and the UK are going on, while dismissing the Spanish indictments as ‘illegitimate and politically motivated.’
Yesterday, the world commemorated the United Nations International Day in support of the Victims of Torture and in Uganda it was revealed that torture cases are on the increase, carried out mostly by security agents, with the actual number reaching 348 victims in 2014.
In this era where democracy and the rule of law rank high on the national political agenda, such revelations are disturbing and do not augur well for a society that has had a tumultuous past, the more reason the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government set up the Uganda National Human Rights Commission (UNHRC).
Incidentally, in Uganda there are many documented and reported cases of torture and other forms of cruel and degrading actions made to the UNHRC but then again others go unreported, making the perpetrators think they can circumvent the law to achieve their dubious intentions.
Uganda is signatory to several international treaties, binding the country to observe the rights of every citizen. In the quest for that development, even here at home the Parliament has enacted the Anti-torture law, aimed at deterring those with lopsided and criminal intentions of harming others.
Indeed, this year’s theme dubbed ‘implement the anti-torture law’ captures the mood and minds of all those that seek to see an end to the perpetration of such vicious crimes; crimes that have the dubious distinction of incapacitating or permanently injuring the victim in a negative way.
Torture can be manifested in several ways including deprivation of personal liberty and or property, carrying out inhuman or degrading treatment against individuals and denial of child maintenance and custody among others.
But all is not lost for the victims because the proponents of the Anti-torture law, including the UNHRC seem determined to curb the vice and in line with that mission, have decided to organize trainings for different security agents across the country.
Similarly, the UNHRC is championing the cause for redress, rehabilitation, and compensation of the victims, something that can act as a deterrent against torture.
Torture is usually carried out by people at the lower rungs of the security apparatus, making it easy to identify and punish the culprit appropriately.
In fact, with increased vigilance by both citizens and administrators, torture can become a thing of the past.
Kirunda Kivejinja last Friday made President Yoweri Museveni to postpone Central Executive Committee
Kirunda Kivejinja last Friday made President Yoweri Museveni to postpone Central Executive Committee
Kampala-Former third Deputy Prime Minister and head of elder’s league in the National Resistance Movement party, Kirunda Kivejinja last Friday made President Yoweri Museveni to postpone Central Executive Committee of his party over the candidature of Amama Mbabazi.
According to sources that attended CEC, which is the highest decision making body of the NRM party, Kivejinja is reported to have become rudely after an input of the Minister of Information and National Guidance who also doubles as the chairman of the Veteran’s league Maj. Gen. Jim Muhwezi and NRM Secretary General Kasule Lumumba had just given their contribution.
It is from here that Kivejinja took on the floor accusing Gen. Muhwezi, Lumumba and party Treasurer Rose Namayanja of scheming among themselves and coming in meetings with agreeable position which he allegedly said they want to impose on the rest of CEC members.
As Kivejinja was submitting and trying to confront Muhwezi, President Museveni entered the hall but first sat and listened to Kivejinja, however, as he continued, Mr Museveni noticed that Kivejinja wasn’t himself and decided to postpone the meeting to July 1.
Mzee Kivejinja is a historical member of NRM having started as member of the defunct Uganda Patriotic Movement together with Mr Museveni and Jaberi Bidandi Ssali who has since joined the opposition. Kivejinja is among a few members of CEC who have openly come out to support Former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi in his bid to challenge Mr Museveni in the race for party chairmanship. Kivejinja first opposed the Kyakwanzi resolution and then the change of party constitution to appoint party Secretary General as opposed to the elected one.
CEC MEMBERS
Yoweri Kaguta Museveni,NRM national chairperson Moses Kigongo, National Vice Chairperson Rebecca Kadaga First Female Vice Chairperson Mike Mukula, Eastern Region
Abdul Nadduli, Vice Chairperson, Central Region
Sam Engola, Vice Chairperson, Northern Region
Matayo Kyaligonza; Vice Chairperson, Western Region Francis Babu, Vice Cairperson, Kampala Region
Janet Grace Akech Akorimoe; Vice Chairperson, Karamoja Region
Justine Kasule Lumumba, 42; Secretary General
Jim Muhwezi, 64; chairperson, Veterans League
Kirunda Kivejinja, chairperson, Historical League
Hassan Basajjabalaba; chairperson, Entrepreneurs’ League
Dennis Namara, chairperson, Youth League Jacqueline Mbabazi, chairperson, Women’s League
Charles Bakkabulindi, chairperson, Workers League
Kabakumba Labwoni Matsiko, chairperson, Institutions League
Former Intelligence Chief Lt. Gen. Karake Karenzi.
Arrested Intelligence Chief Karake Karenzi.
Rwanda has confirmed that its intelligence chief, General Karenzi Karake, who is wanted in Spain for alleged war crimes, has been arrested in London.
Karake is accused of ordering a number of massacres while head of military intelligence during the 1994 genocide. The BBC reports that Karake was arrested Saturday at London’s Heathrow Airport.
Rwandan Justice Minister Johnston Busingye said the government is seeking clarification from British authorities on the reasons for Karake’s arrest.
“Our intelligence chief was in London for seven days, from the previous Saturday to this gone Saturday. And, on his way back, he was prevented from boarding his flight and was not allowed to proceed home. He was detained at the airport and then transferred to another place,” he said.
Busingye said Karake is due in court Thursday and Kigali wants more information on the case.
“We are expecting more information and clarification from the United Kingdom government. We are working with the relevant institutions to find out exactly what is going on. Until now, I think, we are treating it as a case which is going to court on Thursday,” Busingye said.
Busingye declined any comment on whether Karake was arrested because of his alleged involvement in massacres while head of military intelligence.
“I expect that anybody who is arrested must have done something one minute ago or two minutes ago. So, I wouldn’t want to speculate at this point. I want to wait and see what happens either from the United Kingdom government between now and Thursday or from the courtroom on Thursday,” Busingye said.
He said Rwanda enjoys good relations with the United Kingdom and the Rwandan Foreign Affairs office has had some discussions with the British Foreign Office about the arrest. Busingye declined to say what was discussed.
Karake, a member of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), is one of 40 current or former high-ranking Rwandan military officials named in a 2008 Spanish indictment for alleged war crimes.
The Director General of Rwanda’s National Intelligence and Security Services NISS has been arrested in London this morning.
Emmanuel Karenzi Karake who is believed to have entered London over a week ago was arrested on the orders of a Spanish Court that implicated him in the killings. The charges against Karenzi stem from his tenure as head of military intelligece and his alleged hand in the killings after the 1994 genocide.
Mbabazi seem to be pondering on how to get to State House.
Recent political events in Uganda are quite interesting, more so in the ruling National Resistance Movement. In February 2014, during a retreat at the National Leadership Institute in Kyankwanzi, Northern Youth Member of Parliament Evelyn Anite, on her knees, dropped the bombshell: Yoweri Museveni should be the NRM presidential flag bearer in the forthcoming elections in 2016.
There was thunderous applause by a large section of the attendees but one man was not very amused. And, as many fell over themselves to support the ‘sole candidate’ petition, Amama Mbabazi, a longtime ally and confidant of Museveni seemed like he was not in support of the move. In fact, reports indicate he ‘reluctantly signed the petition’, coming in at over number 200 of the party members in attendance, a seemingly late endorsement from a party Secretary General, some observed. It is not clear when the ‘cracks’ in the ruling party began but what is now known is that the Kyankwanzi retreat brought to the fore a rift between the two men, Museveni and Mbabazi.
KYANKWANZI
Kyankwanzi is a historical place for the NRM and in future some people party loyalists and other citizens might remember it as the place that destroyed the party that started it as a training centre for its Cadres.
For those with good memory, during the 2003 retreat in Kyankwanzi, someone suggested that two-five-year presidential term limits be dropped and in effect that Museveni go for the third term, contesting for the presidency. Still there was thunderous applause but some party members did not support the idea. Ministers Eriya Kategaya, Miria Matembe, Jaberi Bidandi Ssali and Sarah Kiyingi were later to fall out of grace with Museveni and in the ensuing period lost their ministerial appointments.
Then fast forward to February 2014; lone star Amama Mbabazi dilly-dallies to append his signature on the Anite Petition, and the music kicks off in earnest.
And, as the jostling for presidential candidate intensifies, first, the country is informed of a ‘pro-Mbabazi youth group’ led by Adam Luzindana, and this sets off a continuous hide-and-seek game with the police.
Then in tow another group springs up, the ‘pro-Museveni youth’ and this one demands that party Secretary General Amama Mbabazi be disciplined for flouting party decisions. It is also at this time of the melee that Mbabazi’s wife Jacqueline and her sister Hope Mwesigye Ruhindi join the fray, charging that Mbabazi has a right to contest for any office in the country.
All this time a meek Mbabazi keeps all 52 cards close to his chest, not giving any hint as to his next political move. But Museveni picks his pack of cards and in earnest puts an Ace on the table, calling for a series of meetings including two of NRM National Executive Council (NEC) and one of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) at State House in Entebbe. During the first NEC meeting pro-Museveni loyalists including Anite bay for Mbabazi’s head even as the party chairman tries to call for restraint. Mbabazi protests the behaviour and leaves the meeting impromptu, seemingly being haunted by the ghosts of ‘queue-jumping’.
At the second NEC meeting Mbabazi does not show up but at a later date comes in to attend CEC, the highest party organ where he belonged by virtue of being the NRM Secretary General.
JUMPING THE ‘NOTORIUS NRM QUEUE’
Mbabazi will be remembered for many things, both good and bad in the NRM. But perhaps the most outstanding thing is his criticism of Dr Warren Kizza Besigye’s dossier of 1999, which had sought to rattle the obtaining status quo in the NRM and country at large and, later the doctor’s declaration that he would contest for the presidency in 2001.
Then, Mbabazi told the country that in so doing Dr Besigye had ‘jumped the queue’, in apparent reference to an ambiguous setting where succession of NRM party leadership had purportedly been determined, probably on account of one’s seniority or contribution.
And, recently, after announcing his intentions to stand for NRM chairmanship and the presidency, Mbabazi is being treated to the same medicine by party spokesperson Mary Karooro Okurut, who told him that he too was ‘jumping the queue’.
“Amama Mbabazi is, therefore, jumping the queue on procedure for accessing leadership within the NRM,” Ms Karooro Okurut was quoted as saying.
PARLIAMENT
A Mukiga from Kanungu district in the greater Kigezi region, Amama Mbabazi is one of the longest-serving legislators in post-1986 Uganda, having served in the National Resistance Council (NRC), the pseudo legislative arm of the NRM/A government, and later in the Parliament of Uganda as the Kinkizi West Member of Parliament.
SUPER MINISTER
Born in 1949, Mr Mbabazi has held several high profile offices in post-1986 Uganda, rising to the position of Prime Minister, a post he held for three years, from 2011 to September 2014, when he was fired in a ‘one-man’ cabinet reshuffle.
Earlier, Mbabazi had served as the first Director General of the External Security Organisation (ESO), before having stints at several ministries including Foreign Affairs (State for Regional Cooperation); Justice as Attorney General; Presidency; Defence (first full Minister) and then at the Security Ministry. It was at the time he was at Defence that he was code-named ‘Super Minister’ in apparent reference of his closeness to president Museveni.
NAMBOOLE CONFERENCE
In 2010, during the National Delegates Conference in Namboole Stadium, Mbabazi contested with former Vice President Prof Gilbert Bukenya Balibaseeka and then Minister of Trade Severino Kahinda Otafiire for the post of NRM Secretary General. Mbabazi emerged victor, but this was not before Otafiire accusing him before Museveni, the NRM chairman, of rigging. At the conference it was also resolved that the SG becomes a full employee of the Secretariat, and that the holder of such office holds no other job or if any then the docket of Minister Without Portfolio. Mbabazi ignored this resolution and continued as SG till his ouster in the December 2014 National Delegates Conference, a development some have described as the ‘final nail’ in Mbabazi’s clout as a top NRM honcho.
POLITICAL ACTIVISM
Apparently, Museveni, 71, and Mbabazi, 66, became political activists while Mbabazi was at Makerere pursuing his degree in law while Museveni was actively recruiting for Front for National Salvation (FRONASA. Given the difference in age, it is not clear how the two forged an alliance that would, 13 years later see them capture State power in January, 1986. But according to information available, the two first met in or about 1973, after the formation of FRONASA a politico-military organization that engaged the regimes of Field Marshal Iddi Amin Dada (1971-1978) and Apollo Milton Obote (1980-1985).
Mr Museveni has, at one point or the other been fighting while his close ally Mbabazi, under the ‘NRM External Wing’ was conducting missions to recruit fighters and mobilise resources for FRONASA and its successor, the National Resistance Movement/Army (NRM/A).
MBABAZI THE HUSBAND, FATHER
Amama Mbabazis’ political journey cannot be told without mention of Jacqueline, his wife of close to 40 years and one who has stood by him during his current political tribulations.
As her husband enjoyed the limelight in politics, Ms Mbabazi was also enjoying perks in the corporate world, first as the Commissioner for Customs in the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) and then later as the Director General of the Nakasongola-based Luwero Industries, a financial arm started by the NRM government, that has interests in farming and deals in military hardware.
The couple is blessed with six children among them Rachel Mbabazi, fiery political activist Lenina Mbabazi, Mao Mbabazi and Marx Mbabazi. And, as if to prove his political credentials, he named his three last children in recognition of former Soviet leader Lenin; former Chinese leader Mao Tse Tung and Karl Marx, the Leninist ideologue.
THE PRESIDENTIAL BID
On June 14 Mr Mbabazi surprised many people when he announced his intention to contest for both the NRM chairmanship and the Ugandan presidency.
In typical Mbabazi flamboyance, the announcement was made via You Tube, with his supporters now dubbing him the ‘digital president’. Apparently, media reports indicate that the Man from Kanungu has gotten a nod from the Electoral Commission (EC), to peddle his presidential ambitions across the country.
Should Mbabazi win the 2016 elections, he will become independent Uganda’s 9th President, holding the reins of a country that has not seen a non-violent transfer of power since 1962.
Such is the political life of John Patrick Amama Mbabazi, a man born 66 years ago in one of the remote villages of then Kigezi region.
Scandals
His name has heavily featured in many scandals right from the Teamangalo land scandal where it is rumoured he muzzled the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) to buy his land at an exorbitant price, there was an inquiry by Parliament but nothing much came out of it as Mr Museveni came to defend his blue eyed boy.
Other scandals include the Chogm procurement of security equipments where it is alleged he had a hand and the Oil scandal and the Arab investor’s money in National Bank of Commerce.
Uchumi,retail chain plans to shut down under-performing branches in Uganda, as the retailer announced a 7.6 percent growth in its 2014 after-tax earnings helped by a tax credit.
Uchumi recently said that the Uganda closure was due to its poor location and disagreement with landlord over certain improvements on the premises.
Last year Uchumi had to close its branch at Freedom City over rent arrear.
Uchumi’s after-tax profit for the full-year ended June 30 rose to Sh384 million from Sh357 million last year. Total net sales increased one per cent to Sh14.45 billion from Sh14.36 billion in 2013, with gross profit falling 6.8 per cent to Sh453 million from Sh486 million.
Uchumi has been operating six outlets in Uganda and the 110 employees are set to be laid off their jobs.
Other established retailers in Uganda include South Africa’s Shoprite, Nakumatt, Embassy Supermarket, Garden City Shopping and Leisure Centre. Regional Retailer Nakumatt is said to be in talks with Shoprite to acquire its three outlets.
Uchumi is cross-listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) and on the Rwanda House including Nairobi Securities Exchange.
