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[Monitor] Finance minister Matia Kasaija was last night on the defensive following accusations that he irregularly dangled a top government job to secure the exit of his opponent in a parliamentary contest.
Many people have been killed since clashes began on Monday. Scores too had been killed in the run up to the vote as protestors marched against Conde's bid for a third term.
Some governments across the African continent are cautiously coming out of Covid-19 lockdown, such as Nigeria, which on Tuesday reopened churches and mosques, with social distancing restrictions in place.
In Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni announced that schools for final-year students would be postponed one more month as not enough test kits are available to test students every two weeks as proscribed.
Boda boda's employ over 1.2 million youths in Uganda, their source of income provides a livelihood to over 6 million Ugandans,how will they survive if they are to wait for the Covid pandemic to subside, President Museveni should rethink his decision #WhatIMissAboutMyBodaGuy pic.twitter.com/p8ZnXBISFu
- Nick Spartan (@nicksakwa) June 2, 2020
Part of the government concern is the slight spike in coronavirus cases over the weekend, with 84 new infections.
Nigeria returns to places of worshippers
While churches and mosques in Uganda remain shut, Nigeria has decided to open all places of worship on Tuesday as part of lifting its Covid-19 restrictions.
Surge in Covid-19 cases in Africa after lockdowns lifted in some countries
Nigeria needs to increase food production to feed itself, experts say
The coronavirus task force stipulated that only regular religious gatherings would be possible, and social distancing necessary in order to keep the churches and mosques open.
Violence rocked Guinea's capital Conakry on Friday as supporters of opposition leader Cellou Diallo clashed with security forces who tried to disperse them.
They threw stones and blocked roads. Police responded with teargas and bullets. The clashes erupted as soon as provisional results released by the electoral commission showed president Alpha Conde winning with a big margin.
Conde, 82, won twice as many votes as his nearest rival, opposition candidate Cellou Dalein Diallo, with 37 of 38 districts counted, according to preliminary results from the commission.
Opposition supporters accuse the electoral authorities of rigging the vote for incumbent president Alpha Conde.
Sekou Koundouno, head of mobilisation for the opposition coalition FNDC said Conde had committed 'high treason'.
\"He is an illegal and illegitimate candidate who is stubbornly pursuing his obsession to turn Guin ea into a monarchy in which, by the way, he will dictate orders to his subjects,\" said Kounduno.
Diallo maintains that he won with a landslide despite irregularities, according to his own tally. He remains barricaded in his home which security forces have besieged since Monday.
ICC warning
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor warned on Friday that warring factions in Guinea could be prosecuted after fighting erupted.
“I wish to repeat this important reminder: anyone who commits, orders, incites, encourages and contributes in any other way to crimes … is liable to prosecution either by the Guinean courts or the ICC,” she said.
#ICC Prosecutor #FatouBensouda: "I wish to repeat this important reminder: anyone who commits, orders, incites, encourages or contributes, in any other way, to the commission of #RomeStatute crimes, is liable to prosecution either by #Guinean courts or by the #ICC."
— Int'l Criminal Court (@IntlCrimCourt) October 23, 2020
As the country continues to fight tirelessly to control the spread of Covid-19, a total of 5 million children are set to benefit from the three phase program of World Vision aimed at mitigating the after-effects of the pandemic in the vulnerable community.
The Government together with World Vision on Wednesday launched the second phase response program where it dispersed USD 3.3 million (Shs 15 billion), that will be used to buy reading materials for children and facilitating radio programs in 38 districts.
According to World Vision national director Mr Jason Evans, the expanded response will focus on support for children impacted by Covid-19 through education, child protection, food and livelihoods.
With this phase two response program here in Uganda, world vision aims to support 5 million Ugandan children, their families and communities to adapt and thrive during and after the Covid-19 pandemic,\" Mr Evans said.
According to the Mr Evans, the program will include supporting learning continuity for school age children, ensuring effective reporting and referral mechanisms for child protection are maintained, increasing food and nutrition security of the most vulnerable households during and post Covid-19 as well as facilitating radio station teachings programs for children.
[Monitor] Members of Parliament (MPs) sitting on the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee yesterday rejected the Electoral Commission's (EC) decision banning open public rallies ahead of the 2021 General Elections.
President Museveni has rejected a proposal to split oversight over the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), saying it should be placed wholly under the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.
However, in a separate letter that Daily Monitor has seen and addressed to the Speaker of Parliament, Ms Rebecca Kadaga, President Museveni indicates that the full control of NSSF must be transferred to the Finance ministry.
Ms Margaret Rwabushaija, the Workers MP, said NSSF is a fund for workers and cannot be managed by the Ministry of Finance.
Mr Kenneth Lubogo, the Bulamogi County MP in Kaliro District, said the Ministry of Gender should not be completely locked out of NSSF because NSSF funds are private funds contributed by workers and not appropriated by Parliament.
Meanwhile, Mr Patrick Isiagi, the vice chairperson of the Finance Committee, said he okayed the proposal of President Museveni having the Ministry of Finance control the fund since it has more knowledge as far as financial modeling is concerned.
Two men have been arrested for allegedly creating a Facebook account in the names of the Commissioner General of Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) Mr John Musinguzi Rujoki.
URA said Wednesday that the fake account was being used in an attempt to defraud the public through false promises of jobs and business opportunities with URA.
\"Investigations have unearthed these two individuals and useful potential exhibits including seven used sim cards, four unused sim cards and six original National Identification cards have been recovered from them,\" Mr Ian Rumanyika URA's manager corporate affairs said.
\"A complainant who commenced interactions on April 27, 2020 with this \"fake\" Facebook account in an attempt to reach out to the Commissioner General was instead alarmed when the fraudsters running the fake account promised him a contract with URA for a kick-back of Shs 10, 000,000,\" he added.
So we have dispersed them, that URA crowd,\" Mr Museveni said.
IMF indicates that the immediate fiscal policy response to the Covid-19 pandemic should account for the particular nature of the health crisis that the global economy faces, one that affects supply, demand, and confidence while being timely, temporary, and targeted across all levels of governments.
The IMF advised that the immediate fiscal policy response to the Covid-19 pandemic should account for the particular nature of the health crisis that the global economy faces, one that affects supply, demand, and confidence while being timely, temporary, and targeted across all levels of governments.
Mr Ssali said there are varied packages that the government can deploy as it tries to boost the economy ranging from fiscal to monetary policies, adding that fiscal policy measures largely allude to creation favourable tax policies that can encourage production and increase aggregate demand, hence stimulating economic growth.
Ms Ssali said from the reading of this theme, one is drawn to the fact that the government will perhaps come up with additional fiscal measures that will gear up business sustainability and continuity just like other countries have implemented.
For example, similar to Kenya's intervention measures- adjustments in tax rates (example, adjustments to the VAT standard rate from 18 per cent to [say] 16 per cent and lowering corporate income tax rate to [say] 25 per cent)
The others are the introduction of additional tax incentives to boost local production by attracting Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) into manufacturing/ industrialisation and /or reinstating some of earlier repealed incentives at least for one year such as-initial allowance on eligible plant and machinery with respect to entities situated within a radius of less than 50 Kilometres from Kampala.
Malawi's parliament has endorsed June 23 as the date for the presidential election re-run after a court annulled last year's vote over irregularities, a lawmaker says.
Members of Parliament have questioned how textile firm Nytil was awarded a contract to produce and supply facial masks across the country.
\"Now that government is to provide masks to Ugandans, I seek to know how ordinary companies and young people making masks can benefit.
In his address on Monday, President Museveni said it will take Nytil two weeks to manufacture masks for all Ugandans above six years of age.
It was, however, sold in 1996 to Southern Range Nyanza Limited, a private company owned by Mr Kishor Jobanputra, who is also a member of the National Response Fund to Covid-19 formed by President Museveni on May 3.
Government had threatened to cancel the VAT concession in the 2014/15 budget before Nytil ran to Parliament and threatened to lay off more than 3,000 employees directed employed by the company.
Joseph P. Bradley , (born March 14, 1813, Berne, N.Y., U.S.—died Jan. 22, 1892, Washington, D.C.), associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1870. Bradley was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Electoral Commission of 1877, and his vote elected Rutherford B. Hayes president of the United States. As a justice he emphasized the power of the federal government to regulate commerce. His decisions reflecting this view, rendered during the period of rapid industrialization that followed the American Civil War, were significant in assuring a national market for manufactured goods. His refusal to allow constitutional protection for the civil rights of blacks assisted in the defeat of Reconstruction in the South.
A farm boy with a thirst for learning, Bradley managed to find a way to attend Rutgers College. He thereafter passed the New Jersey bar. He grew to be both a reflective master of the law and an active participant in large undertakings; the Camden & Amboy Railroad was his most important client. In 1870 Bradley was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Ulysses S. Grant and was assigned, as a traveling circuit justice, to the Fifth (Southern) Circuit. His first major civil-rights case was United States v. Cruikshank, which he heard initially in federal circuit court in 1874. It concerned an armed attack by whites who killed 60 blacks at a political rally in Louisiana. Bradley ruled that such rights as the citizen’s right to vote, to assemble peaceably, and to bear arms and the rights to due process and equal protection were not protected by the federal government but by the states. When the case reached the Supreme Court, the majority held the same view.
In 1883 Bradley and the court majority declared unconstitutional two sections of the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which had forbidden discrimination on the ground of colour in inns, public conveyances, and places of amusement. Bradley held that the act was beyond the power of Congress because the Fourteenth Amendment barred discriminatory actions only
Chief Justice Bart Katureebe will preside over two more appeals to the Supreme Court even though his retirement date is just a week from now, Saturday Monitor has learnt.
In a cause-list released this week at the Supreme Court, Justice Katureebe will lead four other judges to determine two civil appeals.
Justice Kisaakye Kitimbo, the current office-in-charge of the Supreme Court, when asked why she decided to include the retiring Chief Justice on the panel to start hearings next week, said: \"He is still the Chief Justice and a Justice of the Courts of Judicature until June 20.
At that point, it was Justice Katureebe whose rise to the office of Chief Justice was being delayed because he had been recommended to the President as the most qualified candidate by the Judicial Service Commission.
The Judicial Service Commission has already conducted interviews and shared names of their preferred candidates to the President, with the race thought to be between Deputy Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo and Supreme Court Judge Richard Buteera.
The IEC says that it stands ready to resume running by-elections under Level 1 lockdown, with strict Covid-19 protocols in place.
Among the new cases, 19 are truck drivers from Elegu, Malaba, Busia and Mutukula border points.
The other 13 are contacts from previously confirmed truck drivers and 'alerts', according to a statement released by the health ministry on Tuesday.
Despite knowing the risk, President Museveni has continously insisted on having truck drivers coming into the country, arguing that stopping cargo from coming in would be a very grave mistake.
In this case, foreign truck drivers who test positive for the virus are then handed over to their respective country authorities while the Ugandans are immediately taken for treatment.
While addressing the nation on Monday to guide on the way forward, President Museveni reiterated on the need for calm in regard to the truck drivers who are seemingly the new epicentre of the soaring Covid-19 cases in Uganda.
[Ghanaian Times] The Electoral Commission (EC), yesterday inaugurated a 16-member Adjudication Committee to clean the new voters register to ensure a credible 2020 polls come December 7.
[Monitor] Kampala -- The Electoral Commission (EC) has rolled out nominations for the local government councils.
I have been around in this business for 25 years and I have never seen a post-elections process like I have seen here in those 25 years, anywhere…[W]e saw things, with our own eyes, which were clearly not credible and clearly not right.
The article The beginning of a new chapter in the history of post-Independence Guyana appeared first on Stabroek News.
President Museveni has said Uganda's agriculture and ICT sector will not be affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic ravaging both people's lives and the real economy.
In his State of the Nation address this afternoon at State House Entebbe, Mr Museveni said: \" Apart from feeding us, these agricultural products end up by earning for us $2.005 billion (49 per cent of total merchandise exports) if we take the year 2019.\"
In this regard, Mr Museveni said: \"Our correct policy on the private sector, the corruption and obstruction of many of our public servants notwithstanding, has also attracted a total of 5,200 factories.
Turning to the ICT sector, Mr Museveni said the ICT sector is a growing one, employing 1,282,818 persons with 380,896 companies engaged in information technology, telecommunications, broadcasting, postal and courier and audio-visual.
Mr Museveni further stressed that in spite of the obstructions by the neo-colonial actors and foreign backers, Uganda is able to stand up today and weather this storm because of the correct actions we took.
Speaking on behalf of the forum for academic staff in public universities, the chairperson of Makerere University Academic Staff Association (MUASA), Mr Deus Kamunyu, told journalists in Kampala yesterday that they have resolved to call for a nationwide strike protesting the unfair distribution of Shs50b put in the 2020/2021 budget.
\"The forum for academic staff in public universities has written four letters objecting the unfair distribution of the Shs50b that negates the pro rata (equity) principle that the Ministry of Public Service is going ahead to undermine.
\"Effective June 4, all academic staff in public universities shall withdraw their labour until Shs50b for 2020/2021 is distributed pro rata based on the salary structure for academic staff developed by the Ministry of Public Service,\" Mr Kamunyu said, adding: \"We advise all students and stakeholders to remain calm until this matter is resolved.\"
According to the new salary structure for financial year 2020/2021 that was recently released by the Ministry of Public Service for public servants, lecturers in public universities inclusive, a professors will earn Shs15.6m from Shs8m, while an associate professor will earn Shs14.8m from Shs7.5m.
Mr Kamunyu also explained that with the new approved salary structure, a gap between the professors and a senior staff of Shs6.6m will be created as opposed to the pro rata agreed structure envisaging a gap between the professor and a senior lecturer at Shs1m.
The radical proposal comes at a time JSC is locked in a vicious tussle with the Executive, after President Uhuru Kenyatta declined to appoint 41 new judges proposed by the commission.
On advise of the National Intelligence Service, President Kenyatta says some of the judges are tainted but Chief Justice David Maraga holds that he has no choice, in law, but to make the appointments.
Maraga called a rare press conference last week, flanked by no other official from the Judiciary or the commission, to blast the Executive, and lamented that he was frustrated after failing to secure an appointment with the President to resolve the matter.
And on Tuesday, Kitonga, who played a key role in writting the current constitution, under which JSC was established, said the new face of the commission should the Treasury Cabinet Secretary in place of the AG \"because as part of government, he (Treasury CS) is able to advise the JSC on the budget available for recruitment of judges.\"
Chief Justice David Maraga is the current chairperson of JSC with membership drawn from the High Court, Court of Appeal and the Supreme court- with each contributing a member, the AG, 2 advocates, a presentative of the Public Service Commission and 2 appointees of the President.
Kirunda's far-reaching impact, which shows him as Uganda's most successful captain having led the Cranes to their best ever finish at Afcon finals, where they lost to champions Ghana in 1978, also had the game's most powerful man chip in.
\"
Kirunda's national team collection has him Cecafa titles in 1969, 1970, 1973, 1976 & 1977 (1969 as Gosage Cup and 1970 as Challenge Cup), three Afcon tournaments, four league titles and an impressive 32 goals as top scorer in 1978, when he was deployed as a striker.
Those who didn't watch Uganda's team of mid-late 70s,\" he tweeted, \"Can't know how great you were; with Omondi, Mike Kiganda, Nsereko, Dennis Obua, Polly Ouma, Paul Ssali...\"
Uganda coach Johnny McKinstry said \"the talent, dedication and discipline required to play at three Afcons, lead Uganda to the 1978 final and win five Cecafa Cups cannot be underestimated.\"
Cranes captain and 2016 Caf Champions League winner, Denis Onyango, was \"anguished by the demise of one of Uganda's greatest footballers.
Onyango's national teammate Murushid Juuko took a trip down to 2016 when Fufa ensured a cast of the 1978 Afcon finalists, including Kirunda, gave the Cranes pep talk before their final qualification game against Comoros at Namboole.
Our plan is to distribute between 2 million and 3 million kilograms of additional maize seed targeting districts in Eastern, Northern and parts of central regions whose rainy season goes up to July.
So with our efforts to provide additional seeds to farmers, we believe that the country will be food secure during and after Covid-19 pandemic.
Could this pandemic be a blessing in disguise in terms of emphasis on food production and household income or its disruption in normal flow of work?
We want to see farmers earning more income, households living quality lives and food security becoming part and parcel of the routine fixture.
We have also selected some 17 districts which are tea growing areas in regions across the country and working with Uganda Developed Corporation tea factories will be established there.
