Deputy Speaker of Parliament Thomas Tayebwa is set to grace Makerere University Youth and Innovation Expo 2023.
Launched under the theme; “Fostering Innovation for Uganda’s Transformational Development”, the expo will be held on 25th and 26th August 2023.

Speaking at the launch, Lorna Magara, the chairperson of Makerere University council said the institution is uniquely positioned to be a hub of many youth innovations through end-of-year course research projects.
She said together with UNDP, Makerere will showcase a number of youth innovations and youth start-ups which have successfully made the transition from research to commercial enterprises. Through this exhibition, we also hope to create viable forward and backward linkages that will facilitate the creation of jobs and foster entrepreneurship by supporting access to an integrated mix of finance products, business management skills and market access to young women and men entrepreneurs and youth-owned MSMEs.

“The two-day event will consist of a very comprehensive, insightful, and engaging program with a conference, a student-inspired fashion show, a showcase of student innovations, exhibitions from all University colleges, exhibitions of Innovations turned enterprises from the Youth4Business program, food courts, blankets and wine activations, MTN Pulse activations, Government of Uganda, one-stop service center to mention but a few,” she said.

Elsie Attafuah the Resident Representative, UNDP Uganda said Universities are the breeding ground for the kind of innovation, forward-thinking policies, and solutions we need to tackle 21st century challenges.
“Fostering innovation especially by the youth is key to accelerating the solutions needed to tackle development challenges head on and shape a future that is sustainable, equitable and inclusive. This is all the more important in an era where development is being defunded especially through official development assistance,” she said.

She said the relevance of a robust innovation ecosystem to a country’s economy cannot be gainsaid. A vibrant and enabling innovation ecosystem facilitates the emergence and growth of businesses and calls for increased interconnectedness and collaboration of relevant stakeholders and innovation ecosystem players in driving innovation interventions to transform Uganda’s economy.

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Hilton Foundation has extended a refugee financing grant of $500,000, (Ugx 1,870,000,000) to Opportunity Bank Uganda and FINCA Uganda to address several challenges faced by refugees including, poverty, food insecurity, and a lack of access to health and education.

Uganda continues to host refugees at an unprecedented scale, keeping its borders open to about 1.5 million refugees, including more than 860,000 children.
Under the Early Childhood Development program, Opportunity Bank will focus on Nakivale and Kampala whereas FINCA will put emphasis on Kiryandongo and Kampala, both providing finance and financial literacy to these refugee settlements.

Speaking at the launch of the program, Mr. James Onyutta – Managing Director, FINCA noted that they have spent about three years working with refugees by providing financial education and that grant support will help them to target their interventions.

The banks, he said, will not only provide very affordable financial solutions but also put emphasis on centers training children below the age of eight (08) to empower them with the skills to be able to be productive in the future.

“We’ve reached over 10,000 people in financial education. We’ve seen millions of savings in those communities and we are now also providing credit into those areas with over shs 250 million in loans.”

“Now, the first part of the project is going to be child-centered development centers to really get to learn a bit more on up-skilling the center holders or being able to deliver the right learning skills of these children, but also we’re going to work with the communities to identify those with needs. Some of the needs in those areas are really financing….most of these parents cannot afford to send their children to learning centers,” he added.

The CEO – Opportunity Bank Uganda, Owen Amanya commended the Hilton Foundation for the grant and pledged to render the refugees with more finances and financial literacy.

“We thank the Hilton Foundation, the Office of the Prime Minister, which really gives us the push to venture into refugee space. We do appreciate the International Labor Organization that has also given us some support.”

He noted that the Early Childhood Development project will be an addition to what they’ve been doing in these communities.

“We’ve really achieved some great milestones with the refugee space in terms of financial literacy, loans given, the savings we’ve been able to pick from the refugee community and the host communities and also the business potential that lies there.”

Amanya noted that a number of the refugees are trying to do business but they don’t have access to markets but also can’t scale because they don’t have capital which calls for basic teaching to come together and organize them.

“It is so fulfilling when you help them complete their value chains,” he noted.

The Opportunity Bank Head of Business, Amos Bonna noted that they are the first commercial bank with a branch in a refugee settlement.

“For us, refugee lending is not a project. It is a lifestyle that we’re going to do and in the next three years, we have planned to open more branches in refugee settlements because we believe in that model, we believe in humanitarian financing.”

At Opportunity Bank, he said, they are focused on the sector of agriculture. But stretching to education with a focus on primary – private schools and the Early Childhood Development project will be much easier for them.

He also applauded Hilton Foundation, “because we believe we cannot serve over 1.5 million refugees as an institution [but] if we all partner together and hold our hands, then we bring social change.”

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 60 per cent of all refugees in Uganda are children. Behind these numbers, are the individual faces and stories of children, who, in many cases, have experienced terrible, life-altering events.

Uganda is home to over 900,000 child refugees and asylum seekers who have fled conflict or persecution from South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi. Of these, over 71 per cent are from South Sudan where years of fighting and economic collapse have relentlessly forced families to abandon their homes.

Most refugee children live with the trauma of having witnessed or suffered forced displacement, separation from loved ones, and physical and sexual violence. Even in refuge, many continue to be vulnerable to marginalization and violence, especially gender-based violence.

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Technical Officials from Troop Contributing Countries (TCCs) to the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) have today kick-started preparatory meetings for the Heads of State Summit of the Troop Contributing Countries (TCCs) to ATMIS due 27th April 2023 at Entebbe State House

The objective of the Summit is twofold:

To evaluate the achievements made in the implementation of the ATMIS mandate.

To review the ATMIS drawdown plan in compliance with the United Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs) 26/70 (2022) and 26/28.

The Heads of State Summit will be a follow-up event after the meeting between the President of the Republic of Somalia H.E Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and the President of the Republic of Uganda H.E Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, during the United States  Africa Leaders’ Summit held in Washington DC, from December 13-15, 2022; in which H.E Hassan Mohamud requested Museveni to host an Extra-Ordinary Summit of Heads of State of the Troop Contributing Countries to ATIMS which include; Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.

While opening the session of the Technical Officials of the TCCs to ATMIS today at Serena Conference Hotel in Kampala, the Head of Ugandan Delegation who is also the Head of the Regional Peace and Security Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Amb. Julius Kivuna welcomed delegates and thanked them for accepting to participate in this important meeting of the TCCs to ATMIS.

He called upon experts to discuss as candidly as possible so that the meeting can propose workable recommendations for strategic leaders of ATMIS to make decisions that will support the smooth and peaceful drawdown process of the ATMIS Troops.

He extended Uganda’s appreciation to the Troop Contributing Countries, the host Country Somalia and ATMIS Partners for the immense support, sacrifice and spirit of brotherhood in an effort to promote and sustain peace, security and stability in Somalia and our region.

“These efforts have led to a number of achievements, including saving lives, improved infrastructure, social services that have greatly improved the lives and livelihoods of our brothers and sisters in Somalia,” Amb. Kivuna noted.

He further underscored that the meeting provides a crucial platform for TCCs to deliberate on the pertinent issues under ATMIS but importantly to evaluate the achievements made in the implementation of the ATMIS mandate.

Proceeding the Extra Ordinary Summit will be the meeting of the Chief of Defence Forces, Permanent Secretaries and the Ministerial Session tomorrow of the ATMIS TCCs and Somalia due 25th and 26th April 2023 respectively.

ATMIS TCCs and Development Partners including the UN, AU, UK, US, EU, IGAD and the EAC Secretariat are all expected to attend both the Ministerial Session and the summit.
In attendance were delegates from Somalia, United Nations Support Office, African Union, East African Secretariat and representatives from Troop Contributing Countries: namely Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Ethiopia and Djibouti.

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Police in Kampala have cracked down a criminal gang armed with machetes that had been robbing people on major roads in the two divisions, majorly on Ring Road, Mackay Road, Nateete, and parts of Rubaga in Kampala, the country’s capital.

According to Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson Patrick Onyango, the panga-wielding gang was operating very early in the morning and late in the evening targeting people going to and returning from work.

Onyango said police detectives used Crime Intelligence Units to track down the gang and eight suspects were arrested from Kawempe Division, where they had been residing, and recovered several machetes and motorcycles they had been using for the violent robberies.

“They were arrested in Kawempe Division where they have been residing. We also recovered the machetes and motorcycles they have been using in the violent robberies,” Onyango said,

According to police, the criminals, who were travelling on motorcycles, would surround their victims, threaten to harm them if they did not hand over their valuables, and flee the scene on their motorcycles when they got what they wanted.

The climax of their attack according to police was when they attacked and robbed a Kyambogo University female student on February 18, and the officers in a patrol car nearby chased them.

“Luckily, there was a patrol car nearby. The officers reached the scene, but the criminals escaped. During the chase, the criminals abandoned their motorcycle, which was exhibited and used to get their background,” a source at Nateete police station where the criminals are currently held said.

The source added that crime intelligence officers used CCTV cameras to track down where the motorcycle had been before, and after several months of eluding the police, the assailants were traced to Nkere Zone, Kawempe Division, and eight of them were arrested.

“After several months of eluding us, we managed to trace these assailants to Nkere Zone, Kawempe Division. Eight of them were arrested. They admitted to the crimes that have been taking place in the areas of Namungoona, Lubiri and Mengo in Rubaga Division.”

SSP Onyango said they recovered some of the stolen items from the suspects’ homes.

“We thank our Crime Intelligence teams and Nateete Police Station leadership for cracking down on this group that had made the ring road and other roads in Rubaga Division unsafe,” he added.

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High Court Kampala is set to deliver its ruling on the double murder of the outspoken assistant superintendent of police (ASP) Muhammed Kirumira and his friend Mbabazi Nalinya.

Kirumira and Nalinya were gunned down on September 8, 2018 by unknown assailants travelling motorcycles. Kirumira was driving towards his home when gunmen waylaid him and opened fire at Bulenga trading centre.
Last year, the court started the trial of Hamza Mwebe and Abubakar Kalungi over their links to the killing of Kirumira and Nalinya. Justice Margrate Mutonyi acquitted Mwebe in December after the prosecution failed to avail evidence pinning him over the double murder. She ruled that Kalungi had a case to answer.

Last month court assessors advised the High Court to find the suspect Abubaker Kalungi innocent and acquit him of the crime.
The assessors told Justice Margaret Mutonyi that they are not convinced that Kalungi participated in the murder of Kirumira and another victim Resty Nalinnya Mbabazi in Bulenga Trading Center, Wakiso district.

They claimed that they are convinced that the prosecution proved that Kirumira’s death was unlawful and committed with malice aforethought and that none of the 15 Prosecution witnesses had placed Abubaker Kalungi at the scene of the crime.
Kalungi is said to have been hired by one Kateregga who is reportedly dead, to trail Kirumira’s movements. It shall also be remembered that on 23rd November last year, Justice Mutonyi dismissed a confession statement of one of the suspects Abubaker Kalungi saying that the State had failed to prove that it was voluntarily made as it was full of contradictions. Kalungi was acquitted but was rearrested soon after.

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