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CCBA toasts Africa Day and Fifth anniversary since merger

By
Our Reporter
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Melkamu Abebe, General Manager of Century and Rwenzori Bottling Companies in Uganda.

Africa Day coincides with a big milestone for Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) this year, as the company celebrates its Fifth birthday as the biggest Coca-Cola bottler on the continent, with a growing contribution to economic growth and shared prosperity.

“We draw inspiration from our vision to refresh Africa every day and make the Continent a better place for all. To make this vision come alive at Coca-Cola Beverages Africa every day looks for opportunities to contribute to making this continent better through our people and our operations,” said Melkamu Abebe, General Manager of Century and Rwenzori Bottling Companies in Uganda.

“On Africa Day we pay tribute to the continent by focusing on it in Uganda through, for instance, our increased local sourcing of ingredients and where the local sourcing options are not available, regional sourcing options. We build suppliers, especially on this Continent, who are committed to putting in place the high standards that are expected of a supplier of ingredients that we use in the beverages we produce everywhere in the world,” he added.

Melkamu committed that on Africa Day CCBA was re-pledging to walk the talk by buying more and more of our home-grown ingredients and raw materials locally from Ugandans to support both the local business communities as well as Ugandan farmers. By doing so, he said, the company would be building Uganda, and Africa, by continuing to invest sustainably in the economy.

“We believe that contributing to the growth and significance of who we are and what we have to offer as Ugandans and therefore Africans deepens our footprint as cultural, creative, and innovative people and that is another mark of what it means to celebrate Africa Day in 2021,” Abebe said.

Coca-Cola Beverages Africa Group Chief Executive Officer, Jacques Vermeulen, said CCBA across Africa continues to leverage its infrastructure and processes to unlock operational efficiencies and synergies. He said the strategy focuses on greatly improved customer service, an expanded beverage portfolio, and accelerated development of communities and employees.

“As a stronger, more successful beverage bottling business, we are able to create greater shared opportunity for the business as well as the communities we serve across the value chain through job creation, skills development and support for small-to-medium sized enterprises,” Vermeulen said.

Uganda GM Abebe called on all Ugandans, starting with his colleagues in the company, to focus all their efforts on delivering on their daily promise at work in order to contribute to building the Continent.

“We should celebrate Africa every single day. This vibrant colourful and powerful continent represents the origin and future of the world. On Africa Day today, we should stop and reflect on what we can all do to make Africa stronger and prouder through the work that we do,” said Abebe.

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Nubian Li, Eddie Mutwe further remanded as Court Martial releases 17 NUP supporters

By
Geoffery Serugo
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Nubian Li and Eddie Mutwe.

Makindye General Court Martial (GCM) has released 17 members of the National Unity Platform (NUP) after spending five months in prison. The released are part of the 36 NUP supporters who have been incarcerated at Makindye Military prison.

Appearing before the Chairman of GCM Lt. Gen. Andrew Gutti the 18 gained temporary freedom however court declined to release the head of Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu aka Bobi Wine’s private security team Edward Ssebuufu aka Eddie Mutwe, singer Ali Buken aka Nubian Li, Sir Dan Magi and other 15 suspects. Court has been adjourned to June 8, 2021.

The released include; Mudde Ntambi Robinson, Kafuko Stanley, Sekiranda Samson, Najja Sharifu, Katumba Robert, Mpanga Charles, Kyabagu Geserwa, Kigongo Fisal and Mulimira Musa.

Others are; Mutumba Sam, Mukasa Hussein, Sunday John Bosco , Tamale Fahad, Murusha Bashir, Nyanzi William, Matovu Adam and Nsubuga Muhamad.

Edie Mutwe and Nubian Li are part of the 124 people who were arrested in Kalangala District last year in December where Bobi Wine had gone to converse for support ahead of the concluded January presidential elections. The group had been released by the Masaka and Kalangala magistrate court but only 88 were set free.

Prosecution avers that all the accused and others still at large on January 3, at Makerere Kavule Kigundu zone, were found in possession of four rounds of ammunition which is a monopoly of the Defense Forces. However, at the time of the said offence, most of the suspects were in Kitalya Prison where they had been remanded by Masaka chief magistrates Court in December last year.

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KOICA, WHO partner to support Maternal Health and Child Health Delivery in Busoga Sub-region

By
Geoffery Serugo
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Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in partnership with the government of Uganda and the World Health Organization (WHO) is supporting the implementation of a 10 million US dollars project intended to increase delivery of reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child, and adolescent health services as well as improve health systems in five poorly performing districts of Busoga sub-region.

Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in partnership with the government of Uganda and the World Health Organization (WHO) is supporting the implementation of a 10 million US dollars project intended to increase delivery of reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child, and adolescent health services as well as improve health systems in five poorly performing districts of Busoga sub-region.

Dubbed ‘Health System Strengthening for Improving RMNCAH Service Delivery in five districts in Busoga sub-region, Uganda’, the project will be implemented in Bugiri, Buyende, Iganga, Kamuli and Mayuge Districts. In addition to one million USD to supplement the project, WHO is charged with technical support in the implementation of the project, support supervisor, procurement of supplies and logistics, and training of health and district staff.

It is anticipated that by December 2024, this project will have benefited 560,809 pregnant women, 499,852 newborn babies, 349,327 in school adolescent boys and girls aged 10 to 19 years, and 687 teachers from both primary and secondary schools in those districts.

In addition, 159 health workers and 1,480,200 people especially out of school adolescents aged 10 to 19 years, parents, religious and cultural leaders) in Busoga region will also benefit from the project.

To kick-start the implementation, WHO procured and presented seven state-of-the-art ambulances with funding from KOICA. These ambulances were presented to the Ministry of Health and to the beneficiary districts at a colorful ceremony held at the Ministry headquarters on the 19th of May 2021.

“The Government of the Republic of Korea is committed to supporting the strengthening of the health system in Uganda. We hope that the ambulances handed over to Busoga sub-region today will contribute towards improving the accessibility and utilization of maternal and child health services as well as realizing the vision of the Emergency Medical Services strategic plan,” said His Excellency Ha Byung-Kyoo, the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea in Uganda, while handing over the ambulances.

Indeed, such assistance comes in handy for a sub-region that is characterized by the poor performance of the health care system due to inadequate numbers of staff, poor skills mix of the staff, and poor infrastructure. It will go a long way in addressing challenges such as the estimated 25% of mothers who die in Busoga sub-region from bleeding complications occasioned by inadequate health worker skills and shortages in commodities to manage bleeding.

Fully aware of health challenges faced by communities in this sub-region, Dr. Yonas Woldemariam, the WHO Representative in Uganda appreciated the timely support from KOICA noting that, “bringing together the representatives of frontline health workers that are facing the challenges of ensuring access for their clients in terms of poor transportation, actual space, infrastructure, numbers of health workers, availability of relevant medicines, governance and leadership issues as well as professional ethical challenges is indeed a worthy cause”.

He said; “Through this program, we shall be able to support Bugiri, Buyende, Iganga, Kamuli, and Mayuge to build systems that will improve the quality of care resulting in better health outcomes of the targeted communities.”

The partnership intervention by the Ministry of Health, KOICA and WHO in Busoga sub-region should enable women and children in the five districts to enjoy the benefits of Universal Health Coverage in addition to presenting scalable best practices.

The Director of Clinical Services, Dr. Charles Olaro said; “it is a process that requires identifying persistent problems and offering the right interventions just as KOICA and WHO have done in Busoga.”

Dr. Olaro applauded the Government of South Korea for providing the funding that has made this project possible and WHO for providing administrative and technical support.

 “It is my sincere hope that by the end of the project implementation sustainable improvements in the health indicators of the targeted population in the Busoga region will be realized,” he said.

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DFCU rallies its employees to get #Covid-19 jab as 311 people get vaccinated

By
Geoffery Serugo
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dfcu employees during vaccination

In a bid to curb the spread of Covid-19 Pandemic, Dfcu Bank, in partnership with the Ministry of Health and KCCA organised a two-day vaccination camp for its staff in Kampala, under the company’s COVID-19 care initiative.

The exercise held at its head office saw a total of 311 people vaccinated. The bank has continued to rally its employees stationed upcountry to get vaccinated at the government gazetted centres. As part of its efforts to manage the Covid-19 situation, the company set-up a 24/7 helpline and group level task force for Covid-19 related support in 2020.

According to dfcu bank’s Head of Human capital, Harriet Musoke, this initiative is part of the company’s strategy to protect its people and customers given the recent spike in Covid-19 cases reported by the Ministry of Health.

“We want to ensure that ‘our people’, that is our employees, their families, our partners and by extension our customers are safer. By encouraging our staff to get vaccinated, we believe we are contributing to a safer work environment for all of us, our families, our customers and the larger community. We are also cognizant of the fact that they have busy schedules and may not be able to access these services easily, so we decided to bring the services closer to them,” she said.

“In light of the second wave of COVID-19 that the government has warned about, it may be prudent that people take this seriously considering the importance of a healthy workforce. Of Course there are concerns about the vaccine, many of them influenced by a lot of information on social media. So I appeal to the public to be conscious of the kind of information we share on our personal platforms. It’s important to verify its credibility before sharing lest we contribute to spreading misinformation, ” added Harriet Musoke.

Munir Safieldin, Country Representative, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) while speaking at the launch of two five-year parallel projects for Karamoja sub-region at Hotel African in Moroto town on Friday implored Ugandans to embrace the vaccine otherwise it will be taken to other countries. Safieldin noted that the vaccines were safe, and asked the public to disregard messages on social media as fake. He said the immediate concern was to ensure that all doses imported into the country serve the purpose.

“Ugandans should ensure the doses are completed before approval to receive the second batch of the COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccine. The vaccines are aimed at preventing death or avoiding disease from attacking us,” Safieldin said.

Research conducted by Public Health England posits that a double dose of the Covid-19 vaccine is almost as effective against the fast spreading variant of the coronavirus first identified in India as it is against the UK strain.  The study further confirms that two doses of AstraZeneca vaccine were 60% effective against symptomatic disease from the Indian variant.

According to the Ministry of Health, so far 497, 821 high-risk populations have been vaccinated using the AstraZeneca vaccine. The Ministry of Health received 864,000 doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, shipped via the COVAX facility, the world’s facility for universal access to Covid-19 vaccines. The COVAX facility allocated 3,552,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Uganda for the period of January to June 2021. The remaining 2,688,000 doses are expected by June 2021.

The first phase of the FREE vaccination targeted health workers in public and private health facilities who by the nature of their work are at higher risk of contracting the disease compared to other categories of people.  Other target groups in order of priority are security personnel; teachers; humanitarian front-line workers, bankers, people above 50 years with underlying conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, heart, kidney, or liver disease; people aged 18-50 with the same underlying conditions; and other emerging high risk and priority essential groups as more vaccine doses arrive in the country.

The main objective of the National Deployment Vaccination Plan (NDVP) is to vaccinate up to 49.6% per cent of the population in a phased manner. Each phase is intended to cover 20% of the population. The eligible population comprises individuals 18 years and above.

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Mujib Kasule, Ssewanyana pick FUFA presidency nomination forms

By
Our Reporter
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Kasule Mujib

Proline Football Club Director Mujib Kasule and Makindye West Member of Parliament Allan Ssewanyana have both picked nominations forms to run for FUFA president.

Mujib picked the nomination forms from FUFA House in Mengo and revealed that he has only 48 hours to collect signatures that will back his candidature.

Ssewanyana, who is a strong critic of Magogo’s administration also picked his nomination forms today to become the next association’s president.

Hon Allan Ssewanyana has picked nomination forms from the FUFA Electoral Committee for the position of FUFA President.

A candidature’s nomination must be supported by one Uganda Premier League or a Big League club, at least one of the special interest groups, and one of the eight Fufa regions.

The candidate must have had football administration experience for at least seven years within the last ten.

The nomination exercise is expected to be completed by May 31.

Incumbent Eng. Moses Magogo who is also the MP-elect for Budiope East constituency confirmed that he will be running for a third term in office.

Magogo has been at the association’s president since 2013 when he replaced Lawrence Mulindwa who decided not to stand for a third term. He has been voted as president on two occasions, both unopposed. His current tenure expires on August 31, 2021.

FUFA set Saturday August 21, 2021 for the upcoming general polls during this year’s Ordinary General Assembly to be hosted in Mbale where they will elect the new FUFA President and Executive into office for a four year term. A total of 88 delegates will take part in the elections.

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Police bust gang targeting Indians in Jinja for money

By
Our Reporter
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Handcuffs

The Directorate of Crime Intelligence in close coordination with the Territorial Police in Kiira Region and Bukedi South, have arrested two members of a gang, that was targeting the Indian Community in Jinja, and demanding money by menaces from them through written threats to murder; vandalizing and stealing number plates  in exchange for money under extortionist tendencies.

The two suspects include; Owor Vincent, a 25 year-old, dealer in Airtel Simcards and resident of Agumam villages in Tororo District; and Otim Boniface, a 26 year old male adult, a supermarket employee and resident of Tororo Railway quarters, Tororo District.

According to police spokesperson, Fred Enanga, the task team established that on the night of 22nd – 23rd/04/2021, the gang members, trespassed into the properties of Madvan Group of Companies, on plot 23, Bell Avenue road parking yard.

They vandalised 6 MVs and stole the number plates under registration number UAS 624G, UAX715E, UAW312V, UBG792P, UAF299S and UAL752L.  They left a written not behind demanding for Ugx 300K, per number plate.  The notice read “When you know you have lost your vehicle number plate, call 0703-932528.”

The number was established to be that of Kato Hussein a member of the gang. Again on the 19/05/2021, the gang members, attempted to prey on the Indian community in Jinja, when they issued written threats to murder a 57 year old Indian businessman, identified as HATHI DHARMENDRA, together with his family and fellow Indians, if they failed to remit money on telephone contact 0771-491993.

“We have since identified the prime suspect as Ochwo Ponsiano, of Tororo District, who was captured on CCTV camera, while pinning the written threats at the premises of the victims in Jinja City. The gang members are majorly residents of Tororo District, who are highly involved in extorting money from victimized persons, after stealing their registration car number plates, intimidating and harassing vulnerable business persons. They to a larger extent commit these crimes outside Tororo District to cover their tracks,” Enanga said.

On Saturday, the Director Operations, AIGP Edward Ochom, conducted on security assessment in Jinja City and met with several Elders, Religious leaders, Indian Association, Business Community Media and gave them assurances following an evaluation of our operational and tactical plans in Jinja City.

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Afcon Beach Soccer: Sand Cranes edge Tanzania to keep semifinal hopes alive

By
Our Reporter
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Sand-Cranes team

Uganda Sand Cranes beat neighbours Tanzania 4-3 during a group A duel at the on-going AFCON beach soccer 2021 finals in Senegal.

Isma Kawawulo, Emmanuel Alex Wasswa and Swalleh Ssimbwa found the goals for Uganda at Saly beach soccer stadium.

A brace from Juma Rajab Januph and Wallis Stephanie Napuunalo were Tanzania’s goals.

Uganda will now wait for the match between hosts and defending champions Senegal against Tanzania (on Wednesday, 26th May 2021) to know their feat about qualification to the semi finals.

There are therefore three day’s rest of recovery before Uganda will be back into action on Friday, 28th May 2021.

This was the right response for Uganda having lost the opener 5-1 to Senegal, a feat that assistant coach Bashir Mutyaba attributed to doing the basics right.

“After losing to Senegal a day before, we went back to the drawing board and planned afresh for the Tanzania game. We therefore lifted our bodies for the game,” Uganda Sand Cranes assistant coach Bashir Mutyaba said.

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Constitutional Court handles 50 cases in one week

By
Our Reporter
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Court Hammer

The Constitutional Court has concluded the hearing of 50 Constitutional Petitions in one week, where 41 petitions were dismissed. In nine of the petitions, the Court will deliver judgment on notice.

The weed-out session was presided over by Justices; Kenneth Kakuru, Hellen Abullu Obura, Barishaki Cheborion, Stephen Musota and Monica Mugenyi.

The Court’s Registrar, HW Susan Kanyange, explained that some of the matters were dismissed because the applicants were seeking for remedies that the court had already pronounced itself on. Adding that others were non-starter cases that had taken long in the system.

HW Kanyange said the Justices at the Court are committed to addressing backlog at the appellate court.

She also noted that starting today (May 24), Justice Musota, sitting as a single Judge will preside over a weed-out session for 50 civil applications. The hearings in the session will last a week.

There are a total of 175 Constitutional Petitions and 114 Constitutional Applications pending hearing.

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Oulanyah defeats Kadaga in the house Speakership race

By
Geoffery Serugo
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Jacob Oulanyah

Omoro County Legislator Jacob Oulanyah has been declared the winner of the Speakership election which took place at Kololo Independence grounds.

Oulanyah defeated two other candidates in the race who included; the former speaker of parliament Rebecca Kadaga and the Forum for Democratic Change’s (FDC) Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda.

Oulanyah polled 310 votes while Kadaga 197 as Ssemujju garnered 15 votes. 522 out of the 529 MPs cast their votes while 7 missed out.

He will now be sworn in as the Speaker of Parliament.

The election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of 11th Parliament was presided over by the Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo.

According to article 81(4) of this Constitution, no business shall be transacted in Parliament other than an election to the office of Speaker at any time that office is vacant. Article 82 (2), the Speaker and Deputy Speaker shall be elected by members of Parliament from among their number.  A person shall not be qualified to be elected a Speaker or Deputy Speaker if he or she is a Vice President or a Minister.

The Omoro County MP Jacob Oulanyah was nominated by Isingiro North MP Rtd Col. Bright Rwamirama and seconded by Oyam South MP, Betty Amongi.

Kira Municipality MP was nominated by Makindye West MP Allan Ssewanyana and seconded by Soroti Division East MP Attia Moses. Kamuli Woman MP who is also the incumbent was nominated by Luuka South MP, Stephen Kisa Bakubalwayo and seconded by Busia Municipality MP, Geofrey Macho.

The deputy and Speaker of Parliament is mandated to carry out a number of duties, and key among them include presiding at any sitting of the House, preserving order and decorum in the House and making pronouncements on questions of order and practice.

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Tororo Archdiocese joins the ROOTS Campaign to plant trees in Mbale district

By
Geoffery Serugo
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Tororo Archdiocese joins the ROOTS Campaign to plant trees in Mbale

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Water and Environment, Alfred Okidi led the Tororo Archdiocese on a tree planting exercise in Mbale as a way of boosting the ROOTs Campaign which was launched on March 21st, 2021.

The Running Out Of Trees campaign, also commonly known as the ROOTs campaign is an initiative that has brought together both the private/public sectors together to raise awareness about the adverse impact of tree cutting activities on our environment.

This initiative between the Ministry of Water and Environment in partnership with the private sector led by Uganda Breweries Limited with support of various corporate and private organizations was innovated to implement the National Greening Campaign that was officially launched in 2020.

Given the restrictions of the Global Covid-19 pandemic that broke out early last year, a ROOTs App was created to make it easy for the public to take part in the campaign by buying a tree seedling through the App at only Shs 1500 to ensure that a tree is planted on their behalf.

The Vicar General Tororo Archdiocese, Reverend Father Chrsitopher Emuseet said “As the catholic church we are happy to take part in such a great cause because as Christians, God expects us to take care of the environment and one way of doing it is by restoring what has been destroyed.’’

In the last decade, Uganda has carried out several Policies, Legal and Institutional Reforms aimed at promoting the conservation and sustainable use of the country’s forest resources. Among the key reforms include putting in place of the National Forestry Policy 2001 and enactment of the National Forestry and Tree Planting Act 2003. Despite these interventions, the country continues to lose forest cover at a very alarming rate due to deforestation

Speaking at the event Mr. Alfred Okidi, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Water and Environment said that the Ministry is ready to welcome more partners on board because the campaign is built around engaging local stakeholders in attaining national restoration goals, through increased public awareness and participation with the aim to rally Ugandans especially the private sector into action in the conservation and protection of indigenous tree species to address ongoing loss and conversion of primary and secondary natural forest.

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