Monday, June 24, 2019 began on a happy note for Phoebe Oprah Kiddu but took on a bitter edge later. Little did she know that Monday would be the last thrill day she was spending with family and friends before she was plucked off the street by men in dark-tinted glasses and spent 25 days in captivity.

On the fateful day, Kiddu and her colleagues allied to NRM for Justice, a youthful political pressure group, converged at Mulago playground to participate in a marathon dubbed: “Run from captivity.”

Plan was, the run would be capped with a presentation of a document to the British High Commission in Kitante, petitioning it to intervene and help reverse the “mismanagement” of the country.

Kiddu’s group also firmly opposes the endorsement of President Museveni as the party’s sole candidate in the 2021 polls. As the chairperson of the pressure group and the ruling NRM publicity secretary for Kawempe South B, Kiddu was one of the early birds at the venue.

“When we reached Mulago, police had heavily deployed and ready to arrest us,” Kiddu, 33, says in a low tone. Kiddu was abducted in broad daylight on June 24 in Mengo and resurfaced on July 19, 2019.

She adds: “My friends later called informing me that they succeeded in submitting our document four days ago [Friday, June 21] and the marathon wasn’t necessary. We decided to continue hoodwinking police that we were set to run as some of us slowly left the venue.”

Kiddu, with about five other members, proceeded to Mengo for a brief meeting and lunch before they went separate ways.

KIDNAPPED ON THE STREET

She doesn’t recall seeing anyone follow them from Mulago to Mengo but her abductors seem to have been on her trail. To return home, she walked from their meeting point to Balintuma road where she hoped to get a boda boda ride through Nakulabye to Makerere. As soon as she approached Ndejje University, a saloon car pulled up beside her. She first ignored the car occupants’ call-outs twice until the driver called her by name.

“I got shocked! When I got close to the vehicle, the driver jokingly said we are cowards who failed to run due to police deployment. Later, a lady seated in the co-driver seat held my hand tight as another man opened the back door and led me inside,” she says.

“There was a boda boda man around [who could have helped] but he didn’t seem to care because I wasn’t fighting them. Inside, one of the men showed me a pistol and I believed these were mere security people.”

All the four car occupants were dressed in plain clothes with dark shades. They immediately interrogated her about her group’s motives. Later, one of the men in the back seat ordered the driver to make a U-turn and drive towards Nateete. Kiddu’s fears became heightened when the driver went past Nateete police station. As they approached Busega roundabout, she reached for her phone in the bag to make a phone call.

“I had not yet even dialed the number and one of the men grabbed my phone, removed the line and battery.

“He said; ‘It’s here [in Busega] that anyone will know where you last had a phone.’ Another man got something like a small bag and placed it over my head. I didn’t know our next route,” she says, adding that her abductors switched to Swahili to communicate the next destination. Finally, Kiddu was led into a dark room and the door was hurriedly slammed.

She says she eavesdropped on the last instructions given to her caretaker: “Don’t give her anything to eat or drink until we return in three days!”

A tearful Kiddu says her room remained closed until a bucket was pushed inside. The male voice on the other side of the door said: “Whatever you want to do, use that bucket!”

On the second day in darkness, her tied hands and feet tied onto a chair, “I was asked what we want. Who’s our funder? Where my friends stay? But, I remained silent. They told me if I don’t talk, I will die from this room. They also brought very cold water in a bucket and poured it on me,” Kiddu recalls.

She adds that after a while, the men returned asking similar questions but got no response. They kept her tied.

“One time, they [captors] were too angry and tied me facing upside down and poured cold water on me. In one instance, one of the men gave me a hot slap on my right cheek. It was so hot that I felt the hotness from the other cheek,” she says.

When the abductors noticed that she was weakening, they gave her bread and water – this was her first meal since the kidnap.

WORST EXPERIENCE

Things took a turn for the worse. The captors pressed her hard around the waist, triggering her monthly periods. “They [periods] came earlier than expected probably due to torture. I couldn’t tell the days of the week or time because I was kept in darkness throughout. I lost track of my days but I expected periods any time,” she says.

With her naturally big stomach, her captors thought she was pregnant and concluded that the bleeding was due to a miscarriage. This erroneous conclusion was a blessing in disguise. A person with a masked face sauntered into her room and switched on the light.

“This man gave me very little water to clean up and a tiny piece of soap to wash my knicker. He told me to sit on the bucket until I stop bleeding. He moved out and returned with toilet paper, which I would roll and pad myself without a knicker because the only one I had was not clean enough,” a teary Kiddu said.

She added that after some intervals, they would come and take her discharge and return a clean bucket. Having spent the previous nights on the bare floor, a small sleeping bag was also given to her. On this day, they ordered her to face the wall so she could talk to someone. The unknown person asked similar questions; what are the motives of NRM for Justice?

In a few minutes, they ordered her caretakers to untie her hands and feet. She could practically hear the blood rushing back into her swollen feet and ankles. She had bruises and deep rope marks. To quench her thirst, splash juice, a big mineral water bottle and Ribena were given to her. Kiddu doesn’t recall other incidents beyond this narrative but found herself in a medical facility with her father, brother and friends.

RESURFACES

Three days after she went missing, her father Steven Kiddu reported a case of missing person at Wandegeya police station; SDREF: 45/26/06/2019. Weeks later, the desperate search for her daughter didn’t yield any result until she was found dumped near the staff quarters of Makerere University primary school on July 19. She was dumped on an incline behind a unipot next to a public water pump. Her brother, Moses Banalekaki, told The Observer that he rushed to the scene about 20 meters from their home at around 6:40am.

“I found Phoebe with swollen arms and clots of blood around her wrist and feet. Her body was too cold and stiff. The arms and fingers really scared me; the handcuffs were either so tight or she was injected with something,” Banalekaki recalls.

He rushed her to Getwell general clinic in Masanafu to their family doctor where she is still receiving treatment as an outpatient. The family cannot figure out who kidnapped Kiddu for 25 days without asking for a ransom. Her handbag, phone and shoes were retained by her captors.

SUSPECTS

According to Kiddu, she cannot pinpoint any of her captors but she points an accusing finger at one Edris Sempa, a senior director with the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) in charge of Kampala metropolitan area.

“When we started opposing the president’s sole candidature, the only person who has ever threatened me is Hajji Sempa. He called me and said they are capable of kidnapping or doing anything to me. He also warned me against our activities,” Kiddu says.

“When I was abducted, my friends say he [Sempa] contacted them but they refused to meet him because I had gone missing.” She adds that on June 23, she also received a call from an unknown person with a hidden caller identity, who said: “We are watching your moves as you prepare for the marathon.”

Interviewed for a comment last Friday, Sempa said he has never interacted with Kiddu. “Now, who’s this?” he asked, bursting into laughter. “In my life, I have never heard of the name you’re talking about. Secondly, that’s not even my role. Why should I kidnap people? Those people are just looking for their own things and there’s nothing they know about me.”

Asked whether he has never contacted Kiddu, Sempa said: “I am being sincere with you from the bottom of my heart that I even don’t know that name in my interactions with the community. Some people might want to tarnish people’s names when they don’t know that we have worked for them [reputation] for years.”

He added: “I honestly don’t know anything. I am being open with you, that this name [Kiddu] has never come into my mind. I have never interacted with such a person you are telling me.”

Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesman, Luke Owoyesigire, says police detectives have already recorded Kiddu’s statement and given her medical examination forms.

“We have so far observed that she was tied with ropes and there are visible marks on her hands and feet. She alleges that she entered a saloon car but she doesn’t remember the make and number plate,” Owoyesigire says.

“We want her to take us to the point where she was picked to start investigations and failure to do that, the case will not go anywhere. You never know CCTV cameras around can help us, too.” For now, Kiddu says the pain in the chest, wrists and feet is clearing but continues to get headaches and dizziness.

nangonzi@observer.ug

Last week, Robert Kyagulanyi took a surprise political turn. He appointed national coordinators for People Power activities –recruiting heavily from entrenched opposition political parties.

The appointment and disappointment of some, has put the Kyaddondo East MP on conflicting paths with FDC and the Democratic Party, DP-Block, a loose coalition of four political groupings; People’s Development Party, led by three-time presidential candidate Abed Bwanika, Social Democratic Party, led by former Makindye MP, Michael Mabikke and Truth and Justice led by former presidential candidate Samuel Walter Lubega Mukaaku.

An angry Abed Bwanika has since loudly taken his grievance to the airwaves. In an appearance on the CBS Saturday Political talk show, Parliament Yaffe, Abed Bwanika never tried to hide his disdain for Kyagulanyi. Below we reproduce the slightly abridged interview.

You have been one of the praise singers for People Power and now you are at the forefront of criticizing it…we saw you in Luweero bashing the pressure group yet Kyagulanyi was in Magere announcing coordinators, What’s the problem?

The country knows that I was not in Magere (Bobi’s home) but part of our team was there. Two of them were appointed as coordinators but I’m not one of those appointed and many others on my team are not coordinators.

Lubega, Mabikke, and Mao are all not on the list. This is how I look at what happened at Magere. First, People Power, which I know, is the power of the people chosen to go back and bring about change in the country. What was at Magere where coordinators of different groups were announced is at variance with what we have been building as People Power. We may not have understood what we have been building or maybe we have been building something different from what our colleagues have been building.

We had had several meetings and one of which I attended we were with Bobi Wine, Mukaaku, and Mabikke. It went up to 8pm, the day before they announced the coordinators. So we were aware of what was going on.

For almost one year, People Power as a movement has been the leading challenger for the presidency. By the time they went to Magere, for us who do evaluation, People Power was number one, NRM number two, FDC/people’s government was number three.

However, by the time they left Magere, NRM had reclaimed the first spot with People Power in second position and FDC in third. I don’t think President Museveni has ever had a better week than this since he was elected in 2016. He has not done anything but he is back at the top.

Why is that?

Because what was at Magere is very different from the People Power we have been building. We thought that this movement was going to be the grand coalition for every party. What happened at Magere is no different from forming a political party. Parties that had joined are going to run away.

That’s why some people have started denouncing the appointments because they have understood the consequences. I thought the People Power I have spent time working for will allow people in our villages to elect their leaders –instead of someone appointing leaders for them. What we have is individual power not people power. By the time we left Magere, People Power had been diluted because of these appointments.

Not only did they try to start a political party, they also came up with a campaign team. We thought that in People Power all parties would join. There was no doubt that the DP-Block would come in, we had meetings with Jeema and convinced them to join People Power, we had meetings with the Alliance for National Transformation. We have also been having meetings with FDC; all of them asked for a memorandum, which we came up with that would help us.

But that has been broken. When you build a campaign team – one and half years to the general elections, by December this year, 70 percent of all appointees would have been bought off. When you show Museveni your campaign team, he will finish them because this is what he has been calling for. When you show him the target, you will have made his job very easy. Now they have collected all the people for him to destroy. If we don’t rectify this issue, NRM is going to massively win in 2021.

It is going to be easy for them?

Sure, because if we remain in this confusion, our people who had mobilized are not going to vote. The other thing is that these parties that had started working with People Power are going to break away.

I think the team that is working with Bobi Wine has been infiltrated by opportunists. When I saw the appointment of some people, who I know never participate in anything where there’s no benefit for them, I was taken aback.

Who are they?

I will tell you later but when I saw their names, I right away knew that we have to build our team afresh. These people don’t think about anything else but returning to parliament. I know one of them who paid Shs 10million for him to be put on the list.

Did he pay Kyagulanyi?

Kyagulanyi is in captivity…For us we believe we can give life to this project as DP-Block. Mao put out a document that captures our views. We need to sit and agree on what we should put in People Power. We are not opposed to coming together but we need to agree on what should be put into People Power.

You said it was you who made decisions in People Power….

I wonder now that Betty Nambooze is one of the people speaking for People Power. When a lion isolates an antelope from others just know it’s going to eat it. The war that Nambooze and her team have been on is to isolate Bobi Wine. Now they have put him in a box where they are going to cut him to pieces.

I told Bobi Wine when he was going to meet these people that they have outmaneuvered him and that he should be very careful with them. That Kasangati team is not easy. Now they have delinked him from the DP-Block because they know it’s practically impossible to outmaneuver him when we are around. Bobi Wine, this country believes in you as a presidential candidate; they can’t accept anything less.

But it’s you who has been saying people should unite to defeat Museveni…

That’s true but we must have mechanisms for us to come together. Our thinking is, we should come up with a special purpose vehicle or an umbrella in which we should all work. But as we were working on the umbrella, someone has divided us.

Bobi Wine has been attending our rallies without knowing where we get people from. When he first came to our meeting at Makerere University before anyone ever thought of him as a presidential candidate, he didn’t bring anybody. When he came to Jinja, he asked us where we get people;  that’s what they call DP-Block. Bobi Wine, we request you to go back and re-evaluate this People Power project.

We have not changed our views on working together. We are going to meet you and your team and we agree how we are going to move forward. All parties with presidential hopefuls should come and we go to the people to decide who is to be the presidential candidate for People Power.

They say Abed Bwanika is a double player working with Chameleon to undermine Bobi Wine

I was publicly chased from People Power after what happened at Magere. I know now where the problem comes from. But Chameleon is interested in being the Lord Mayor.

bakerbatte@observer.ug

Makerere University has now dropped to 16th position on the African continent and 1,225th globally according to the July 2019 Ranking Web-Webometrics, the largest academic ranking of higher education institutions in the world.    

The July edition is the second edition of the year in 2019 to show that Makerere University is dropping in the rankings. Makerere ranked 11 in Africa and 1,033 in the world in the first edition of the rankings issued in January although it had closed the previous year in 6th position.

The scientific exercise is performed by the Cyber Metrics Lab (Spanish National Research Council, CSIC) with the intention of producing updated and useful information about the performance of universities from all over the world based on their web presence and impact.    

Since 2004, the Webometrics Ranking is published twice a year (data is collected during the first weeks of January and July for being public at the end of both months), covering more than 28,000 higher education institutions worldwide.    

Top on the African ranking is the University of Cape Town followed by University of the Witwatersrand, Stellenbosch University, the University of Pretoria all from South Africa and Cairo University from Egypt in the fifth position.    

The University of Kwazulu Natal follows in 6th position, 7th is the University of Johannesburg and the University of South Africa in 8th position. The best in the East African region is the University of Nairobi at number 10.  

“We intend to motivate institutions and scholars to have a web presence that reflects their activities accurately. If the web performance of an institution is below the expected position according to their academic excellence, university authorities should reconsider their web policy, promoting substantial increases of the volume and quality of their electronic publications,” said authors of the latest raking.  

Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) is ranked 50th, while Kyambogo University stands at 176th position and Gulu University at 184th position.  

Kampala International University (KIU) ranks number 217th on the continent, Uganda Martyrs University at 271, Islamic University in Uganda (IUIU) at 275 and Uganda Christian University (UCU) at 287th.

Makerere was at one time in the top 3 ranked universities in Africa. 

The government has said it is not worried about the ongoing squabbles between Finasi and ROKO as long as the construction of the International Specialized Hospital of Uganda continues.

Parliament early this year, approved a loan guarantee of Shs 1.4 trillion to Finasi/ROKO, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the construction of the hospital located in Lubowa, Wakiso district.  

However, the project has faced setbacks with the SPV Finasi/ROKO falling apart following the introduction of another player, a Chinese firm, Power China Guizhou Engineering co.Ltd as the civil works contractor, but also allegations that up to $86 million meant for the project is already missing.  

ROKO has since run to court seeking to alter the move by Finasi International FZC chaired by Enrica Pinneti to eject it from the shareholding in the construction of the hospital. Power China is already at the sight constructing despite the squabbles.  

Appearing before the parliamentary National Economy Committee, the deputy attorney general Mwesigwa Rukutana told MPs that as far as government is concerned, that is a fight that will be resolved, and so far it has not affected the project works. He also says the court battles will not affect the implementation of the works, as the ministries of Finance and Health are keeping a keen eye on the project.    

According to Rukutana, because Finasi has 95 per cent shares in the special purpose vehicle (SPV), and Roko has only 5 per cent, it is acceptable in law for Finasi to contract another company. He says the SPV is an independent company different from the ROKO and Finasi international FZC and what government wants is for the construction to continue.   

"Implementation of the project agreement is going on so well. Actually, as I told the committee, the information I have is, implementation is ahead of schedule. Even if we know that there are disagreements, those agreements have not affected the execution of works as per the agreement. So it is not yet of concern to us..." said Rukutana.  

However, Edmond Ariko, the Soroti Municipality MP says the reason parliament approved the loan guarantee to the SPV was because of ROKO construction company, as Finasi International was an unknown company and did not have the capacity to construct the facility. He says Finasi was supposed to come in at a later stage to equip the facility and train specialists but not take over the construction of the facility. 

"We’ve never known Finasi to have done any construction anywhere. The strongest argument that we were given then by the minister of Finance, Hon [David] Bahati, was that Roko is known to everyone in terms of construction. Finasi was going to concentrate on the aspects of equipment and training. In the circumstances where our assurance of quality works in construction are no longer as agreed as parliament because the Chinese government was not part of SPV, wouldn’t it have been, Hon attorney general, something that would have triggered you how do we get the assurance of works?" said Ariko. 

Committee chairperson, Syda Bbumba questioned why the contractors are in conflict, but government claims that the project was going on smoothly and ahead of schedule. She also told Rukutana that they are concerned about a possible conflict of interest which might affect project works. She called on the government to sort out the issue of the owners' engineer, Francis Wakabi whose contract has expired but was still in office. She said the issues were serious and ought to be handled expeditiously. 

Last month, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, the minister of Health ran to the president seeking intervention in the Lubowa hospital saga, saying it had gone beyond them.

Airtel Uganda and the Buganda kingdom have handed over sickle cell testing kits worth Shs 200 million plus another Shs 200m cash to the ministry of Health. More than 60,000 people took part in this year’s event held in April.

This is in a bid to join the efforts to reduce the burden of the sickle cell disease in Uganda and also increase awareness of the ailment across the country. Buganda kingdom deputy Katikkiro Twaha Kawaase Kigongo handed over the proceeds from the recently-concluded Kabaka Birthday run.

The event was witnessed by representatives from both the Buganda government and the ministry of Health led by Jane Ruth Aceng, the minister. At the event, Kawaase reiterated the commitment of the Buganda kingdom to ensure that the health standards of every Ugandan, irrespective of tribe, are improved.

“Our three-year campaigns against fistula ended but we are still not leaving the health sector yet because we dedicated this year to sickle cell.”

Dr Aceng appreciated the Kabaka’s gesture to use his birthday to promote the plight of those suffering.

“When we went to the Kabaka, all we wanted was awareness but we got more than that. Days after the run, we received proceeds from the run something we did not expect. When you talk about sickle cell disease, from the north to the south, one shall rush to say the Kabaka run. And we thank the Kabaka for that.”   

Dr Susan Nalwadde, the commissioner for National Health Laboratory and Diagnosis Services, lauded the awareness created by the run.  “We are now going to go a step higher and encourage sickle cell screening before marriage,” said Nalwadde. “Awareness of the public about sickle cells has risen from 2 per cent to around 30 per cent in the last three years of the run.”

She noted that with the proceeds from the Kabaka Bbirthday run, the increased quantity of agents and sickle cell kits has improved the patient’s access to medication. 

Remmie Kisakye, the Airtel Uganda head of brand and communications, thanked the for its continued prioritization of matters concerning health.

“The increase in the number of the Airtel Kabaka run participants signifies that Ugandans appreciate the contribution that the kabaka’s run initiative is making to their communities.”

samiekingsaricy@gmail.com

Makerere University researcher Dr Stella Nyanzi has expressed disappointment with Buganda Road court Grade One magistrate, Gladys Kamasanyu for failing to find her guilty of annoying President Yoweri Museveni. Although Buganda Road Chief Magistrate's court today, Thursday found Nyanzi guilty of cyber harassment, she was acquitted of offensive communication on grounds that there was no overwhelming evidence against her. 

Court said prosecution failed to adduce evidence to show how President Museveni was annoyed. Cyber harassment attracts a maximum sentence of three years or a fine of Shs 1.4 million. She will be sentenced tomorrow. Nyanzi said her intention had been to annoy the president because he has annoyed Ugandans for the last 30 years.

Nyanzi has been in Luzira since November 2018 after she refused to apply for bail. She becomes the first person to be convicted under the Computer Misuse Act which came into law a few years ago.

"I planned to offend to Yoweri Museveni Kaguta because has offended is for 30 plus years. Find me guilty of cyber harassment. Find me guilty of anything else, but please, find me guilty of offensive communication against Yoweri Museveni Kaguta! Find me guilty of that one. The prosecution wasn’t good enough, Timothy you weren’t good enough. Find me guilty of offending Yoweri Museveni Kaguta because that is what every serious mother in Uganda should be doing. We’re tired of dictatorship." said Nyanzi to a cheering courtroom. 

Adding;

"Send me to Luzira if my crime is I told a dirty delinquent dictator that he is a delinquent dictator, that he is a dictator and that Ugandans are tired. And I wish his mother’s vagina had squeezed him out. I won’t repent for anything. I celebrate that one woman was bold enough to deploy a dead woman’s vagina. One dead woman’s vagina was deployed. My name is Stella, it comes from Esteri. I’m Esteri, my great grand mother was Esteri. I deployed Esteri’s vagina she is dead. It’s a metaphor."

Nyanzi's conviction stems from a case in which Nyanzi is accused of posting a loutish birthday poem on her Facebook page on September 16, 2018, attacking the late Esteri Kokundeka the late mother to President Museveni. The poem was written in a vulgar language.   

Although prosecution adduced evidence from three witnesses to pin Nyanzi, court mainly relied on the evidence of detective assistant superintendent of police Bill Ndyamuhaki from the cyber crimes department of police.

Kamasanyu said that Ndyamuhaki adduced overwhelming evidence to show how he was able to prove that Nyanzi owned the Facebook account where the indecent poem was posted. She noted that Ndyamuhaki tendered before court the evidence including exhibits such as activation codes used to create Nyanzi’s Facebook account, the documents showing the number that activated the Facebook account, a photocopy of the passport Nyanzi reportedly used to apply for the phone number from MTN Uganda which she used to create the Facebook page.

Ndyamuhaki also tendered two bio-data forms obtained from Makerere University vice-chancellor and the human resource manager. The witness also adduced two court orders that were secured in December 2018 and April 2019 before Buganda Road chief magistrate Miriam Akello and later served to MTN Uganda and Makerere University before he obtained the information about Nyanzi.

Kamasanyu ruled that Nyanzi has no explanation whatsoever because she was asked to defend herself of the said charges but chose to remain silent. On the second charge of offensive communication, Kamasanyu said that the evidence from prosecution was insufficient since it couldn't prove that the poem had been posted repeatedly.

MOTHERLESS CHILDREN

Nyanzi said although the judge had counselled her against poisoning the minds of her three children and other young people in the country through her vulgar language, she said her children were actually celebrating her protest and imprisonment because they have been well prepared for a motherless future, and that she takes pride in being an immoral person. 

"I would have raised the issue of my children, but I will not do that. Very many mothers would say, 'I have young children.' I will sacrifice motherhood to whatever alter I have to sacrifice motherhood to…mothers have to raise their voices against dictators such as Yoweri Kaguta Museveni…I was born for this moment…Let my children be motherless if it means I will speak truth to power." she said.

"My children celebrate my protest actions. My children are protestors who are free to express themselves. My children are taken care of by Ugandans who believe in the ideals I espouse. My children don’t deserve a mother who is silent. I refuse to be silenced in the face of oppression, in the face of dictatorship." she added. 

SILENCED MEDIA

Nyanzi took issues with the 'silenced public media', that she said are have been intimidated by the state. 

"Internet must be protected. The public media has been silenced, the public media are silent. How many of us can afford OTT [over the top taxes]. So I use a weapon that I pay for. It is free of charge and I will not allow the dictatorship to tell me what words to say to the dictatorship. If it is a dirty vagina that gets the attention of the dictatorship, then a smelly vagina it will be." she said.

Nyanzi who spent most of her time drawing opposition political party, Forum for Democratic Party (FDC) and People Power hand sketches, told the magistrate to do something about the toilets in Luzira because every three weeks, sewerage is always overflowing into the women's bathroom exposing the female prisoners to infections. She said she did not blame the magistrate for finding her guilty because she had no choice. 

"I really feel sorry for you. How do you dispense justice in an injustice system? I know this is important for your career."

Additional reporting by URN

 The office of Somalia's president says he is giving up his United States citizenship but it is not immediately clear why.

A statement posted on Twitter on Thursday says President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed made the decision voluntarily, with lawyers involved. It says Somalia's constitution allows for dual citizenship. Many in Somalia's diaspora have it after fleeing the country long gripped by conflict.

Mohamed lived for many years in the United States, working as a New York state transportation department official in Buffalo before being elected Somalia's president in February 2017.
 
During his time in office the U.S. has dramatically increased airstrikes against the Somali-based al-Shabaab extremist group, re-established its diplomatic presence in Somalia and even presented Mohamed with a trucker cap that said “Make Somalia Great Again.”

At least four protesters were killed and many injured by gunfire Thursday in the Sudanese city of Omdurman, opposition medics said, as hundreds of thousands took to the streets to pile pressure on the country's military rulers.

Organizers had called for a million-person march in cities across Sudan in response to the killing of young protesters in El-Obeid, southwest of the capital Khartoum, earlier this week.

Sudan has been gripped by months of political turmoil that climaxed in the army overthrowing long-time leader Omar al-Bashir in April. Protesters have kept up their rallies since then, pressing the army to hand over power to civilians, accusing the security services of violence, and decrying the shortages and economic hardships that triggered the unrest in the first place.

Thursday's killings, reported by the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors, one of the main protest groups, came as opposition leaders said there had been some progress in talks with the military on a deal to form a new government after Bashir's ousting.

Despite signing a deal in July which secured a three-year transition period and a joint sovereign council with a rotating leadership, talks over the wording of a constitutional declaration on the changes have stumbled.

"The agreement is really now just around the corner," Satea al-Hajj, a leader in the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) coalition of opposition groups, said in a press conference Thursday in Khartoum.

Negotiations were set to restart later Thursday, the spokesman for the military council said.

'It's too bad'

The opposition had demanded that members of the sovereign council, which is intended to lead the country until elections are held, should not be granted blanket immunity from prosecution for past crimes. But FFC leaders said Thursday they had agreed that they could be granted only "procedural immunity" — meaning top officials could be tried with the permission of two-thirds of the legislative council.

The opposition leaders said both sides also agreed on another key point, reaffirming that the parties included in the FFC would have 67% of the legislative council while the rest would be granted to other opposition and political groups.

Sudan's ruling military council did not immediately confirm the details of the agreements. In Omdurman, across the Nile from Khartoum, protesters chanted "it's too bad, it's too bad, we don't have an army," expressing anger at the army for not protecting protesters.

Footage posted on social media also showed protests breaking out in El-Obeid, the state capital of North Kordofan state, and Wad Medani, the state capital of Jazeera state, southeast of the capital on the Blue Nile.

Accusations against military

The FFC has accused military and paramilitary forces of firing on the high school pupils as they protested over bread and fuel shortages in El-Obeid on Monday.

The Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), the main protest group and a leading voice in the FFC, accused the military of failing to protect civilians and of attempting to prevent "the masses from achieving the goals of the revolution."

A senior army commander said a security force assigned to guard a bank was responsible for killing children protesting near there, the official SUNA news agency reported Thursday.

The bank guards were a government security force. Opposition groups have also accused the main paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, of killing scores of protesters since Bashir was ousted and the RSF's role remains a point of contention.

The FFC said Thursday that the RSF should be merged into the armed forces, a proposal opposed by Sudan's ruling generals, said al-Hajj.

The United Nations Cultural Organization (Unesco) has urged countries to stop preaching abstinence to teenagers because it is not practical.  

The agency’s HIV and health education advisor for Eastern and Southern African (ESA) Patricia Machawira, said a majority of the teenagers are sexually active, adding that it is high time African governments stopped wasting time preaching abstinence but focus on promoting safe sex.

Machawira was speaking at the ongoing capacity building training for media on early and unintended pregnancy in Sandton City, in South Africa.  Uganda ranks fourth among 10 Eastern and Southern African countries with the highest early and unintended pregnancy cases among girls aged 15-19 years, according to a study conducted recently. The findings show that four out of every 10 girls in Uganda, have had early and unintended pregnancies.  

In Namibia, seven out of every 10 girls were pregnant, have given birth or had an abortion within the same age bracket. Lesotho and Malawi came second and third respectively. Other countries where the study was conducted include Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. 

Machawira insisted that Eastern and Southern African countries should put the focus on real practices that can help girls not to conceive early and avoid being infected with HIV through promoting condom use and contraception.  

“The percentage of young women aged 15-19 years who had been pregnant was high in all countries, more than 25 per cent in Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. There is evidence that teenage pregnancy has not decreased over time,” Machawira said.  

David Wood, Unesco’s media consultant said more girls will continue to be victims of early and in intended pregnancies if countries do not accept that girls are sexually active and abstinence is outdated. Wood said leaders and policymakers should now focus on realistic ways of keeping girls in school but also have strategies of ensuring that victims of early pregnancies are taken back to school.  

Cultural practices, poverty and lack of comprehensive sexuality education policies have been cited as top contributing factors of early and unintended pregnancies in Eastern and Southern Africa.  

“In several countries in the region, particularly in rural areas, child marriage is a cultural norm that leads to and results from adolescent pregnancies. Some parents are said to force their girls into early marriages to relieve themselves of the burden of taking care of the girls and to benefit from receiving bride price,” Wood said. 

The two officials also cautioned countries drafting policies intended to end early and unintended pregnancies to ensure that they cater for boys and men who make girls pregnant but also ensure that parents, teachers and society members are involved.  

“Sensitize communities on learner pregnancy management policies and related policies or laws so that parents are aware that their daughters can re-enter school after delivering the baby and what support can be expected at the school level,” Wood said. 

Machawira said there is a need to address perception among school staff and learners that pregnant girls are a bad influence on other youth and the school environment.    

Six youths (mostly Forum for Democratic Change supporters) have been arrested as court turned chaotic during the sentencing of Makerere University researcher Dr Stella Nyanzi.

Nyanzi was today sentenced by Grade One magistrate Gladys Kamasanyu to 18 months in prison after being found guilty of cyber harassment when, in 2018, she posted on Facebook a vulgar birthday poem dedicated to President Yoweri Museveni and his late mother Esteri Kokundeka. However, Nyanzi will only serve 9 months after the magistrate considered the already nine months that she has spent on remand in Luzira following her arrest in November 2018. 

Nyanzi did not physically attend court but heard her sentencing via a video conferencing from Luzira prison. The volume and pictures of the live link at times had to be muted and blacked out after Nyanzi hurled obscenities, stripped and flapped her breasts before cameras in protest - sending her supporters attending the Buganda Road court into wild cheers.

The court session turned even more dramatic and chaotic with abuses and a water bottle hurled at the magistrate's head by Nyanzi's supporters - leading to the arrest of at least six youths. The arrested include Augustine Ojobile, Abudalla Waiswa, Joel Kabali, Simoni Wanyera, Fatuma Abenabyo and Moses Katumba. Police said the suspects are going to be charged with contempt of court, assault. 

Kamasanyu yesterday convicted Nyanzi of cyber harassment but acquitted her of offensive communication, saying there was not sufficient evidence to show that the president had been annoyed.

Today Kamasanyu said she opted to imprison Nyanzi over a cash fine (Shs 1.4 million) because Nyanzi has shown no remorse and is not resentful of her actions. She also said cases of cyber harassment are on the rise, and court was obliged to do something to curb the vice. For being a first-time offender and with no known criminal history, Kamasanyu said the sentence of 18 months was appropriate for Nyanzi and not the maximum 3 years that the law provides for. 

Kamasanyu said Nyanzi being a senior member of Makerere University, ought to have behaved more respectfully especially towards the person of the president. Kamasanyu further said freedom of speech was not absolute and online users ought to respect others while exercising their constitutional rights. 

Abuse, water bottle hurled at Buganda Road court magistrate, Gladys Kamasanyu during the sentencing of Dr Stella #Nyanzi to 9 months in prison for #cyberharassment. The entire session was chaotic with Nyanzi undressing on video conference #NyanziTrial #Uganda #socialmedia pic.twitter.com/Zdn6hhnJ2A

— The Observer (@observerug) August 2, 2019

Uganda Airlines has set August 28 as the official date for the company’s maiden commercial flight. The operators announced today Friday at a media engagement meeting in Kampala.   

The company purchased two aircraft, Bombardier CRJ 900 series on April 23, 2019, in a bid to revive the national carrier. But the two planes remained stationed at the VVIP parking apron of Entebbe international airport awaiting clearance from the aviation regulator to start commercial flights. The air operating certificate was obtained on July 27 after three months of tests by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).  

Now it has been confirmed that the aircraft will fly to Nairobi and Juba twice daily and Mogadishu, Somalia three times a day. The aircraft is also expected to fly to Dar es Salam and Kilimanjaro once a day, Bujumbura and Mombasa three times a week.  

A return journey to Nairobi has been set at $278 (about Shs 1.026 million), Juba at $225 (Shs 831,150), Mogadishu $590 (Shs 2.1 million), all-inclusive of the taxes. A return ticket to Dar es Salam will cost $286 (Shs 1.05 million), Bujumbura $292 (Shs 1.073 million) Mombasa $325 (Shs 1.195 million) and Kilimanjaro $311 (Shs 1.143 million).  

The promotional prices for two months of the flights on Uganda Airlines are slightly lower than for other airlines. For instance, a flight to Nairobi at $278, is lower than both RwandAir and Kenya Airways, which cost up to $330 (about Shs 1.2 million) and $350 (Shs 1.287 million) when flying with RwandAir and Kenya Airways respectively.   

Jennifer Bamuturaki Musiime, the marketing and public relations manager of Uganda Airlines says the airline has also set up booking offices at the airport and several other locations.  

“By the time we decided on when the maiden commercial flight will be, we had already put in place all necessary requirements including booking offices,” added Musiime.

She said the lower costs of travelling to different destinations will enable the company to get enough clients. The aircraft available carry up to 72 passengers each. Justus Mwombeki, a travel consultant in Kampala says the emergence of lower costs of travelling by Uganda Airlines will enable more travellers to use air transport than road transport while travelling within the East African region

MAKINDYE-LUKULI — The darkening clouds are ominous for many in this urban neighborhood, promising rushing rainwaters stinking of human waste from overflowing septic tanks. 
 
As Africa faces a population boom unmatched anywhere else in the world, millions of people are moving to fast-growing cities while decades-old public facilities crumble under the pressure. Sewage is a scourge for residents of this community on the outskirts of Uganda's capital, Kampala. There are no public toilets for 1,200 people. Mud tinged with faeces washes into homes during heavy rains. 
 
The sanitation crisis echoes that of cities across the developing world. Some 2.5 billion people, most of them in Africa or Asia, lack access to adequate toilets, U.N. figures show. Governments are increasingly depending on private businesses and philanthropic groups to help manage human waste in cities that were never planned to handle so many people.  
  

One of the fastest-growing cities in the world, Kampala is home to at least 1.5 million people, but authorities say over 3 million pass through daily, usually for work. Yet there are fewer than 800 pay toilets and only 14 free ones, many of them dilapidated with walls often smeared with feces.    

Many people rush to malls to relieve themselves. Even in the buildings of government agencies the toilets are often kept under lock and key, apparently to discourage intruders.  
  
Kampala's urban sewer system covers less than 10 percent of the population, authorities say. When pit latrines and septic tanks are not safely built, they pose a serious health risk. They leak fecal waste that contaminates swamps and Lake Victoria, the city's main water source, especially during the rainy season. 
 
"Less than 50 percent of the fecal sludge generated in Kampala safely reaches a waste treatment plant," said Angelo Kwitonda, a sewage engineer with the government. "The rest of the volume is kept in our homes." 
 
Outbreaks of cholera and other waterborne diseases are common. 

Huge costs
 
Poor sanitation costs Uganda $177 million annually in economic losses linked to disease treatment and lost productivity as people search for places to relieve themselves, according to a World Bank report in 2012. Some 650,000 toilets need to be built to avoid open defecation, it said. 
 
It could get worse. Africa's urban areas contain 472 million people, a number that is expected to double over the next 25 years, according to a 2017 World Bank report .  
  
"The problem of sanitation is very big, so we have had to prioritize," said Najib Bateganya, a Kampala sanitation official who said authorities have been focusing first on improving sanitation in public schools.  
  
"The next model is going to focus on entrepreneurship, toilets as business," he said. 
 
Authorities in Kampala have not constructed a single public toilet for years, though a plan exists to set up 200 toilets by 2025 with the support of donors such as the German development agency GIZ. Private companies have been trying out solutions in poor, crowded neighborhoods such as Makindye-Lukuli, where trash piles up around tin-roofed homes. 
 
A sanitation program backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation focuses on emptying septic tanks in households not easily reached by vacuum trucks, which are privately operated.  
  
Using a tool resembling a giant syringe, men in safety suits pump fecal waste into drums that are emptied into a movable tank, for a tiny fraction of the roughly $50 that would be paid to a vacuum truck operator.  

'We must be vigilant'
  
"Whenever it rains, always the unclean places suffer from cholera, so we must be vigilant," said village chairman Stephen Semanda, who encourages residents to report on each other under the new system. Residents receive a meter-long stick that they dip into their toilets.  
  
If "it comes out with anything on it, it means the toilet is now harmful to you," he said. That's when a so-called "gulper" should be called in to pump.  
  
Nearly two dozen groups operating in Kampala now provide the gulping services, said Winnie Kemirembe of the Gulpers Association of Uganda. 
 
"It is a good business," she said after supervising the pumping of raw sewage from one stinking latrine.  
  
Similar innovations are being tried out elsewhere in Africa. In the West African nation of Burkina Faso, where open defecation is said to be the norm in many villages, the group WaterAid promotes a fundraising initiative under which prominent residents commit their own money toward building public toilets.  
  
In Senegal, whose capital, Dakar, is vulnerable to flooding, aid groups have helped to construct toilets that break down waste onsite, turning it into compost and a source of renewable energy, said Yacine Djibo of SpeakUpAfrica, a Senegal-based group whose work includes advocacy for improved sanitation across the continent.  
  
Other sanitation entrepreneurs in Africa are developing toilet models that might charge as little as 5 cents for an entire day's use, an improvement on the traditional practice of charging users every time they walk in.  
  
Joel Ssimbwa, a Ugandan businessman who operates private toilets in Kampala, said he is working with community leaders in heavily populated areas to launch a franchise that would allow an entire family to "pay once for a day, and for multiple uses." 
 
Yet even that arrangement still may be unaffordable for the city's poorest residents, said Semanda, the village chief. On a recent afternoon, he pointed to a neighboring hill where he said a cheap public toilet remained too expensive for some who linger outside, hoping for free entry.   
"The cheaper, the better," he said. 

Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has offered an apology to Ugandans after a video emerged showing their staff celebrating a colleague’s birthday as several clients stood in queue waiting to be served.

The 46-second video posted on Facebook by a one Michael Ssuuna on Saturday at 8.51 am shows abandoned tills and several clients standing in the queue bewildered by what is happening. In the video, URA staff can be heard singing birthday songs and merrymaking with their colleague unperturbed by the long queues.

"Is it really OK for government workers celebrate birthday parties during working hours [when] taxpayers are in the line waiting to be served? Oh God have mercy upon Uganda. Wasting people's time and Money, URA mwebereremu (loosely translated self-reflect). It's too much of disrespect to Ugandans." Ssunna posted. 

The incident is a slap in the face for the organization that claims to value customers first and seeks to make it as easy as possible for Ugandans to pay their taxes. 

“We deeply apologize to our clients for this unfortunate experience. We are investigating this matter,” the tax body said in a statement posted on Twitter on Sunday. 

“URA is a client-focused and responsive organization and this is not the URA way. We assure our clients, great customer experience always. It is because of you that we exist.” the statement further said. 

The video portrays inefficiency for an organization that seeks to grow tax revenues to fund a budget that runs in deficits every year. When she took office in 2015, URA commissioner general Doris Akol promised to use a mixture of carrot and stick to get people to pay taxes. It appears like the stick is missing on the URA staff side.

"As a civil servant, am disappointed in my colleagues at URA. I expect world class customer service, better customer experience and above all, better standards from staff and workers at URA. How do you take such leisurely breaks while u have hundreds of customers waiting in line to be served. The commissioner general at URA and [Corporate] Affairs team shd hold some one accountable for this flagrant neglect and derelict of duty of service owed to the public." wrote Dalton Odomoch Raymond. 

Although some commentators defended the staff claiming it was during the lunch break, Ssunna posted the video metadata showing that the video was taken on August 2, 2019 at 11:11:27am.

"To imagine they have respect pinned up in their office on some wall!! [shock emojis] this is total disrespect and wastage of tax payers time!!! After all the taxes they charge us!! Imagine being there in line waiting to be worked on as if the idiots can’t wait for after work hours to cut cake!! Eeeeh ura mwedekko bambi tuswaala [URA please have some shame]." Jackie Angelyn Lupiyaziita wrote. 

People Power activist and local musician Michael Kalinda aka Ziggy Wine has passed on at Mulago hospital.

Kalinda died yesterday night of injuries sustained after being tortured a few weeks ago. Kalinda was kidnapped by unknown people on June 21 while on his way to a music studio in Kamwokya. 

He was last week reportedly dumped at Mulago hospital entrance with his two fingers cut off and left eye plucked out in an apparent torture ordeal. Kalinda’s body according to some family members bore hallmarks of torture burns seemingly from a hot flat iron box.

Family members and Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine point to security agencies saying Kalinda was murdered because of his People Power constancy.

Security agencies including police and the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) have declined to comment on the matter. But kidnap and torture of opposition activists has become more frequent several released victims pointing a finger at ISO. 

More details coming...

The former director of the much-feared State Research Bureau (SRB) Rtd Lt. Col. Francis Itabuka, says he opted not to claim his gratuity from the ministry of Defense due to negative media publicity.  

According to Itabuka, the media has labelled the Idi Amin government as 'a military regime' and attributed several atrocities to all officers who served under the regime. He says such sentiments have deprived capable veterans of enjoying their benefits like gratuity due to fear of public opinion.

Itabuka stresses that due to the inability of those who served under Amin to explain themselves at the local and international levels; it would generate mixed reactions once the media highlights the gratuity given to a former senior military officer like him. Although he admits that some atrocities were committed by the Amin regime, he says many have been overly exaggerated and some concocted so as to deliberately create a negative image around Amin and his government.  

Itabuka says the persistent negative coverage against Amin’s regime since the late 1980s to date indicates that the current government and the entire public doesn’t trust military officers who served under the regime. Itabuka reveals that some government officials tried to convince him to claim for his gratuity and tasked him to become a National Resistance Movement (NRM) mobilizer, a request he flatly rejected.

"When it comes to money they want me to go with identity and what note. Does it mean that they do not know me? These are conditions or preconditions - before you do this, you must do that. I don’t entertain such, I will survive. Me, I am a commando." said Itabuka.

Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) spokesperson for Jinja zone, George Musinguzi said that all retired military officers are entitled to their gratuity irrespective of the circumstances.  

“Just like other retired military officers from all other regimes after independence, Itabuka is entitled to gratuity, but we cannot force him to take if he doesn’t want to,” he said.   

About Itabuka

He served as the director of the State Research Bureau from August 1974 to February 1977. 

After the collapse of Idi Amin in April 1979, Itabuka appeared before the Uganda Human Rights Commission chaired by the current vice president, Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi on May 11, 1987. 

He was found innocent on all counts of human rights violations levelled against him and was left to live as a free man. Itabuka leads a quiet life on his 40-acre farmland in Itonko village in Namutumba town council.