The Minister of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development Matia Kasaija has revealed that he never applied for the iron sheets from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM).

Appearing before the Presidential Affairs Committee of Parliament, Kasaija said he received 300 pieces of iron sheets but he didn’t know that they were meant for the impoverished people in Karamoja.

“I have never applied for iron sheets. I got them. Some called me and said that the office of the prime minister is donating iron sheets and we have some which I will bring you to sign and the next thing is iron sheets were delivered,” he said.

“Even now, I have a bundle of 300 iron sheets and I don’t know why they were delivered to my home in Kampala? They are in my compound.  The other ones I took, I was told that were meant to support my constituency and I gave 450 iron sheets to a school and the balance is still in my store in Kibaale and I am looking for who else to give,” he said.

He said please crucify me knowing that I am innocent. The iron sheets found themselves in my compound. I follow the Constitution. These questions should be focused on the Office of the Prime Minister. We are victims. I never asked for these iron sheets.

Kasaija is among the top ministers who benefited from the iron sheets which were allegedly meant for people in Karamoja. The ministers involved in the scandal include; Rebecca Kadaga, Jacob Oboth Oboth, Hamson Obua, Amos Lugolobi and sundry.

 In a February 22, 2023, tweet, Rebecca Kadaga, the first deputy prime minister of Uganda, confirmed she requested and received 250 iron sheets from the OPM.

Last month, security operatives nabbed Cotilda Kitutu, Michael Nabwaya, and Julius Wabule. The accused are the mother, brother, and nephew of Minister Kitutu, the Karamoja Affairs Minister.

The three were allegedly selling OPM-branded iron sheets to residents of Namisindwa district, in eastern Uganda.

According to the Observer, Kitutu had requested 12,200 iron sheets to aid her in community mobilization and peace-building missions in Karamoja. Her January 12, 2023, internal memo to the stores’ department at the OPM read in part, “During community mobilization and peace-building missions, I usually meet vulnerable groups and karuchunas (reformed warriors) who are willing to dissociate themselves from rustling. As part of my intervention, I will be distributing iron sheets to such special vulnerable groups.”

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The Deputy Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament Thomas Tayebwa has asked developing countries to jointly reject unfair trade and deceitful practices orchestrated by the European Union against others countries.

Speaking at the Organization of African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) parliamentary conference happening in the Belgian capital, Brussels, which is the headquarters of the European Union and NATO, Tayebwa condemned the practice by EU Member States of exporting EU-banned pesticides and products to developing countries and asked OACP member states to strongly speak as a team against this double-standard arrangement citing the “vulnerability we all have”.

Tayebwa who led the Ugandan delegation to Brussels said that developing countries don’t have the capacity to take on the EU independently, noting that “speaking against this with one voice gives us an advantage”.

“We aren’t able to take on this giant (European Union) independently. Even the EU didn’t do it alone, they came as a group and we should also act as a group and reject this unfairness,” he said.

“We are telling the EU to be transparent, we are all human beings. We all have red blood. You don’t have blue blood and for us, we have red blood. The milk that kills a European, can kill an African. The pesticides that can cause cancer in European, can cause cancer in the Caribbean.  Why are you allowing dangerous products to be manufactured in your union and exported to other countries? Stop it,” Tayebwa said,

He added that some of these poisonous products such as milk are sent by the European Union to poor countries in form of donations to poor children and refugees.

“If you send them to a refugee, someone who has nothing to eat or drink, how will you tell them about sovereignty?” the Ugandan deputy speaker said, noting that some of these products come through the UN system and that they are cleared directly to beneficiaries.

Tayebwa said most countries where EU-made poisonous products and exported have no safety bodies to carry out their own tests. 

“Pesticides and products that are no longer allowed for use in countries where they are manufactured in the European Union due to their potentially harmful human health and environmental impacts are being pushed to our countries,” Tayebwa said. “It’s unfair for anyone to allow a cancer-causing product to be manufactured as long as it’s for export to other countries.”

He said the OACP would pass a regulation tasking the European Parliament to revise its own mechanisms on the matter.

The practice by manufacturers of continuing to export chemicals from the EU after they have been banned domestically is not new, but the key players have always been obscured by a veil of commercial confidentiality.

One of the few restrictions placed on these exporters is the Rotterdam Convention on international trade in hazardous pesticides and chemicals. This UN convention requires countries to share information about the dangers of their banned chemical exports with the importing countries.

The idea is to give poor countries that do not have the resources to do their own research the opportunity to make an informed decision on whether to accept the exports.

Under EU rules, any company that wants to export banned chemicals needs to produce an “export notification” detailing the reasons the product is banned, its intended uses, and the amount the company intends to ship. National and EU regulators check these documents and issue them to authorities in the destination countries.

Gladys Boss Shollei, the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Kenya said trade agreement is about good faith and ensuring that it’s fair to everyone.

“Our argument is that, if the European Union and the UK are allowing cancer-causing pesticides to be manufactured in their own countries, exclusively to be exported to African countries, that’s not an act of good faith,” Ms. Shollei.

We are asking that they should stop the manufacture of those harmful chemicals that are being sent to Kenya and other parts of Africa to kill our people,” she added. 

She said the EU has a trade agreement that protects its people from harmful pesticides but “has laws that allow the banned chemicals to come into Africa.”

Cecilia Barbara Atim Ogwal, the Woman MP for Dokolo District accused the EU of double standards.

“Their law says you can continue making dangerous chemicals as long as you don’t sell them in Europe. You can make the chemicals also purposely for export.  We feel this is bad and an indirect way of eliminating Africa,” she said.

She says the European Union should make a commitment they stop exporting hazardous substances to developing countries.

Escipion Joaquin Oliveira Gomez, the Assistant Secretary General of the OACP said the conference seeks to ensure that the new laws and regulations that are drafted by the European Union should conform to acceptable standards including protecting the environment in other parts of the world.

Mr. Soobeersingh Dhunoo, the Deputy Chief Whip in Mauritius said most countries in the Global South don’t have mechanisms to test products that are entering their markets.

“People are dying in Mauritius because of these products,” he said, adding that “we raised these issues to them in Maputo when we had our joint parliamentary assembly and we had the support of some European parliamentarians who equally agreed that something banned in Europe is also not good for Africa. We are all humans”.

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High Court has for the second time dismissed City businessman Francis Onebe’s bail application. Onebe is accused of killing his wife Immaculate Asio Onebe.

The 62-year-old proprietor of a security firm, whose body was retrieved from a septic tank at their residence in Munyonyo, went missing in January 2021.

Appearing before Justice Michael Elubu, his application was dismissed on grounds that although Onebe is of old age with t hypertension it is not enough for the court to release him on bail.

“Justice can only be served when the suspect is brought to trial expeditiously,” Elubu ruled.

Onebe was arrested after police established his intentions to flee the country. But upon arrest, Onebe said he was traveling for treatment, and his earlier reasons to travel to Nairobi also indicated appointments with doctors.

The arrest also followed the nabbing of a former security guard of Onebe who sneaked into the home. It is averred that the guard identified as Okariot disappeared moments after Onebe’s wife went missing.

On November 19, 2021, through his lawyers led by Moses Ingura, Onebe applied for bail on grounds that he is suffering from chronic prostate cancer, and high blood pressure saying they are ailments associated with advanced age. He is 63 years old.

Onebe said he is a man with a number of responsibilities including being an executive director of companies such as Pentagon Security Limited which employs more than 2,000 Ugandan citizens and being a managing partner of Price and King, an audit firm employing more than 30 people.

Onebe who also said he is the non-Executive Director Board Member of Post Bank Uganda added that his services are highly required for the survival of the said companies and he cannot render them while in prison.

He also presented his sister Dr. Jennifer Rose Aduwo, the Dean of the School of Distance Learning and Information Technology at Uganda Management Institute, his Price and King Audit Managing Partner Robert Mukasa, village mates Pascal Achelu and John Francis Olume Igwoko as his sureties such that he can be granted bail.

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Speaker of Parliament Anita Among has summoned MPS to discuss the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, tomorrow.

“I want to ask religious leaders to this time round be there to see who is who. We will not allow an aspect of saying there was an aspect of quorum; we are going to vote by show of hands. You are either for homosexuality or against it. We want to see the kind of leaders we have for this country,” she said during prayers at parliament.

The bill comes at a time when there are widespread cases of same-sex relationships in the community and major traditional schools.

The Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014 was passed by Parliament on December 20,2013 with life in prison substituted for the death penalty. Whereas it was signed into law by President Yoweri Museveni on February 24, 2014, the Constitutional Court on 1 August 2014 annulled the law citing that it was passed without the required quorum in the House.

In February Archbishop of the Church Of Uganda, The Most Rev. Dr. Stephen Samuel Kaziimba Mugalu warned students against the well-funded gay organizations offering to recruit them into homosexuality.

Dr. Kaziimba said while responding to the General Synod of the Church of England which on February 9, 2022, passed resolutions to allow clergy to preside at Blessings of Same-sex Unions and have approved supplemental prayers and liturgies for such occasions.

“Children are back in schools; beware of the well-funded Gay organizations that are recruiting our children into homosexuality. It is not only in Kampala but all over the country. They target our poverty and promise youth money,” he said.

“The youth, if someone invites you to a function and offers you a big transport refund, those are probably bad people. Say “No” to it. If you have already been exploited or abused by such groups, please go to your Bishop for prayer, support, and guidance. You will be received with love and compassion,” he said.

He urged Headteachers to be vigilant about and make a thorough research about the organizations which intend to fund school activities,

“If an organization is bringing money and resources to your school, or inviting your students to a function, do your research. Make sure you know who they really are. We cannot serve God and mammon. We cannot serve God and money. Do not lose your soul because you think you will gain the whole world through the money they offer you. Do not think you can take the money, but do not fall into their trap. It’s a lie; you are being exploited with that money,” he said.

He said the Church of England claims that it has not changed its doctrine of marriage, namely that marriage is a lifelong union between one man and one woman. On the other hand, they are giving clergy permission to preside at services of Blessing for same-sex unions, especially for gay couples who are already considered ‘married’ by the British government.

Dr Kaziimba said first, from the first page of the Bible in the book of Genesis to the last page of the Bible in the book of Revelation, it is clear that God’s design for human flourishing is that we are part of a family, a family that is defined as one man and one woman united in holy matrimony for life and, God willing, a union that produces children. God’s Word has said that the only context for sexual relationships is in the marriage of one man and one woman.

“We all know the story of the Uganda Martyrs, who refused to engage in homosexual sex with their leaders. They stood firm in their Christian faith and were martyred for it. We cannot betray them or our Lord Jesus Christ. We will not betray the Word of God or His ways,” he said.

The suicidal path for the Church of England began in the Anglican Communion in 2003 when The Episcopal Church in America consecrated a gay man as a Bishop.

The Church of England, together with the Episcopal Church in America, the Anglican Church of Canada, and the Church in Wales, the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil, and other Provinces are reported to have walked away to support homosexuality.

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