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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.
Malawi's governing party has called for a third presidential election, citing irregularities and intimidation in this week's re-run vote as unofficial tallies show incumbent President Peter Mutharika losing to the opposition leader.
Voters in the southern African country went to the polls on Tuesday for the second time in 13 months after the Constitutional Court scrapped the initial May 2019 presidential election over mass fraud.
The governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) called on Friday on the electoral commission to annul the results collated so far of the second vote and declare a third poll.
DPP administrative secretary Francis Mphepo said in a statement: \"We wish to highlight several incidents that may potentially affect the integrity and credibility of the presidential election results.\"
In February, Malawi's top court found the election was marred by widespread irregularities, including the use of correction fluid to tamper with result sheets.
[Monitor] The images of Mityana Municipality MP Francis Zaake being carried to the Mityana Chief Magistrate's Court to take plea while prostrate after allegedly being tortured in police custody back in April were as distressing as they could be.
Electoral authorities in Guinea on Saturday declared President Alpha Conde winner of Sunday's election with 59.49% of the vote, defeating his main rival Cellou Diallo.
\t Some people went to the streets to protest immediately after the announcement. Such demonstrations have occurred for months after the government changed the constitution through a national referendum, allowing Conde to extend his decade in power.
\t Opposition candidate Cellou Diallo received 33.50% of the vote, the electoral commission said. Voter turnout was almost 80%.
\t Political tensions in the West African nation turned violent in recent days after Diallo claimed victory ahead of the official results. Celebrations by his supporters were suppressed when security forces fired tear gas to disperse them.
They accuse the electoral authorities of rigging the vote for incumbent president Alpha Conde.
\t At least nine people have been killed since the election, according to the government. The violence sparked international condemnation by the U.S. and others.
\t ``Today is a sad day for African democracy,'' said Sally Bilaly Sow, a Guinean blogger and activist living abroad. The government should take into account the will of the people who have a desire for change, he said.
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
\t On Friday, internet and international calls were cut off across the West African nation in anticipation of the election results, according to locals and international observers in the capital, Conakry.
\t This was the third time that Conde matched-up against Diallo. Before the election, observers raised concerns that an electoral dispute could reignite ethnic tensions between Guinea's largest ethnic groups.
[263Chat] The Public Service Commission (PSC) has moved in to rein in on striking teachers directing the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to submit names of teachers who have not been reporting for duty since the resumption of the phased schools reopening.
Malawians return to the polls on Tuesday for the second time in just over a year to vote for a new president after Peter Mutharika's re-election was annulled over rigging.
The election is much anticipated after the Constitutional Court early this year ruled that the May 2019 vote, won narrowly by Mutharika, was fraught with \"grave and widespread irregularities\" including the use of correction fluid on results sheets.
Tuesday's election is practically a two-horse race between the president and his main rival Lazarus Chakwera, who lost the May 2019 election by 159,000 votes.
Last week Kachale vowed \"the highest commitment of myself and the entire commission to deliver a credible election whose results will be acceptable by all stakeholders\".
Gift Trapence of the Human Rights Defenders Coalition, which led months-long countrywide street protests against last year's election results, has high hopes this time around.
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.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has questioned the modality Uganda is using to deduct numbers of Covid-19 positive foreign cases, especially of trans-border cargo truck drivers.
On May 20, President Museveni directed the Ministry of Health to deduct numbers of foreign truck drivers from the total sum of Ugandan coronavirus cases.
\"The President directed that in addition to testing all long-distance truck drivers before entry into the country, and only allowing in the negative ones, all the foreign drivers who had tested positive and had been added to the confirmed cases of Uganda should be deducted from Uganda's total confirmed Covid-19 cases.
WHO Uganda representative, Dr Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam, worries that the numbers could be lost in the counting if the country where the Covid-19 positive truck driver comes from does not include the cases in their total counts.
But there was no mention or discussion on whether or not each country should deduct numbers of foreign positive coronavirus cases from their total cases.
Ms Gadaheldam has been an almost permanent fixture on the sides of President Museveni in regional meetings to deal with relations with Sudan under former President Omar-al-Bashir and current military leader Gen Abdel Fatah al-Burhan.
Najwa Gadaheldam, a senior adviser to Sudan's leader, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, died Wednesday, about 24 hours after the plane that had intended to transport her back to Israel for treatment landed in the Arab country.
Times of Israeli in a lead article titled; 'Israeli MDs fly to enemy Sudan in failed bid to save diplomat behind secret ties', said despite the two countries still being technically at war, Israeli officials went to great length to send \"a plane with medical staff and equipment to Sudan in an attempt to save the life of a diplomat sick with Covid-19, who managed the clandestine ties between Jerusalem and Khartoum\".
The controversial Uganda link
Ms Gadaheldam was said to have first met President Museveni in Vienna, Austria at the UN conference on water in early 2000s when the relations between Uganda and Sudan were fragile.
Ms Gadaheldam's last 'official' function involving Uganda was said to have been on February 22 in Juba, where she attended a meeting between Lt Gen al-Burhan, the chairman of the Sovereign National Council of Sudan, and Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, who was representing President Museveni at the inauguration of the new government of national unity of South Sudan.
The governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) called Friday on the electoral commission to annul the results collated so far of the second vote and declare a third poll.
Uganda, twice the size of Pennsylvania, is in East Africa. It is bordered on the west by Congo, on the north by the Sudan, on the east by Kenya, and on the south by Tanzania and Rwanda. The country, which lies across the equator, is divided into three main areas—swampy lowlands, a fertile plateau with wooded hills, and a desert region. Lake Victoria forms part of the southern border.
Multiparty democractic republic.
About 500 B.C. Bantu-speaking peoples migrated to the area now called Uganda. By the 14th century, three kingdoms dominated, Buganda (meaning state of the Gandas), Bunyoro, and Ankole. Uganda was first explored by Europeans as well as Arab traders in 1844. An Anglo-German agreement of 1890 declared it to be in the British sphere of influence in Africa, and the Imperial British East Africa Company was chartered to develop the area. The company did not prosper financially, and in 1894 a British protectorate was proclaimed. Few Europeans permanently settled in Uganda, but it attracted many Indians, who became important players in Ugandan commerce.
Uganda became independent on Oct. 9, 1962. Sir Edward Mutesa, the king of Buganda (Mutesa II), was elected the first president, and Milton Obote the first prime minister, of the newly independent country. With the help of a young army officer, Col. Idi Amin, Prime Minister Obote seized control of the government from President Mutesa four years later.
On Jan. 25, 1971, Colonel Amin deposed President Obote. Obote went into exile in Tanzania. Amin expelled Asian residents and launched a reign of terror against Ugandan opponents, torturing and killing tens of thousands. In 1976, he had himself proclaimed President for Life. In 1977, Amnesty International estimated that 300,000 may have died under his rule, including church leaders and recalcitrant cabinet ministers.
After Amin held military exercises on the Tanzanian border in 1978, angering Tanzanias president, Julius Nyerere, a combined force of Tanzanian troops and Ugandan exiles loyal to former president
There were also tax measures such as increased import duty on agricultural imports to 60 per cent, up from 25 per cent.
In Kenya, the tax bracket for people earning rental income was moved up to Kshs15m (Shs525.9m) from Kshs10m.
Kenya, Mr Muhammed Ssempijja, partner tax, E&Y says, also reduced the corporation tax rates and PAYE to 25 per cent from 30 per cent.
Finance Minister Matia Kasaija, while appearing on NTV recently said the measures taken by government are expected to address concerns on purchasing power.
Uganda currently might not afford to amend tax rates since the finance ministry in the Shs45.5 trillion budget set a higher target for the taxman.
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.
[Nation] Hundreds of people appointed as chairpersons and members of boards of State corporations between March and July 2016 were in office illegally, the High Court said on Friday.
A new political entity — Jamaica Progressive Party (JPP) — has applied to the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) to be registered as Jamaica's fourth political party.
The party, said the ECJ, is now provisionally registered, having fulfilled the requirements of the Seventh Schedule of the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act 2014.
“The Electoral Commission is in the process of conducting investigations pertained the party's submissions and invites members of the public having probable cause, so to do, to register objections to the registration of the applicant party.
Registered political parties are eligible to contest future elections and will have their finances monitored by the ECJ.
Presently, the nation's three registered political parties are the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), the People's National Party (PNP), and the United Independents' Congress, which was registered in 2019.
Financial experts have warned those pushing for a 20 percent pay out of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) savings to its members to cushion them against the Covid-19 economic shocks.
Mr Martin Nsubuga, the chief executive officer, Uganda Retirements Benefits Regulatory Authority warned that globally, it's only Austria that has temporary lent out its equivalent of NSSF savings to its members in the Covid-19 lockdown with expectations paying back.
\"No country in the world has paid out its NSSF savings to its members to rescue them in this Covid-19 pandemic lockdown because it's unrealistic.
The warning by Mr Nsubuga was echoed by the NSSF managing director, Mr Richard Byarugaba who insisted that it's a bad idea to respond to the chorus calls by the public and politicians by paying out the 20 percent as this would cause inflation.
Mr Rwakakamba is, among other orders, seeking court to compel the Fund to pay its members at least 20 percent of their savings to cushion them from the economic shocks caused by Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown.
Sand mining has resumed on the shores of Lake Victoria despite the recent presidential directive to the Minister of Water and Environment to clear all wetlands, riverbanks and lakeshores of encroachers.
The mining site, at Buwaya-Nakiwogo in Wakiso District, is said to be owned by a businesswoman in Bugolobi, Kampala.
Mr Matia Lwanga Bwanika, the district chairperson, said his engagement with the executive director of the National Environmental Management Authority (Nema), Dr Tom Okurut, revealed that he was aware of the mining.
Mr Bwanika said they had sought the intervention of Mr Noah Njuki, the Resident District Commissioner of Entebbe.
Other mining activities around Lake Victoria in Wakiso have been halted following the intervention of Mr Matia Lwanga Bwanika, the district chairperson.
As Covid-19 hit South Africa and schools closed as a result of the lockdown, approximately 13 million pupils were affected.
[Monitor] Uganda will next month start tests for Covid-19 vaccine as the country steps up its efforts in search of medication for the virus that has so far killed 201 citizens and infected 20,145, President Museveni has said.
[African Arguments] I was arrested and beaten last week for daring to contest the presidential election. This is not a fair fight, but I have no option but to be strong.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has acted against Public Service Commission director-general Dovhani Mamphiswana.
Private cars will be allowed to move starting May 26 while restrictions on public transport will be relaxed on June 4 as government moves to ease the virus induced lockdown, President Museveni has said.
For border districts, we shall not allow public or private transport.
For public transport in the districts that are not near the border, this will be relaxed on June 4.
We said boda boda and tuk-tuks should not carry passengers but can keep carrying cargo,\" Mr Museveni said.
Those who can get masks on their own, we don't mind provided they are the right quality,\" Mr Museveni said.
President Museveni has sent a strong message to corrupt civil servants he called \"parasites\" and \"weevils\" and once more threatened to deal with a racket of government officials who instead of promoting locally made products opt to buy the same goods manufactured abroad.
In a State House televised address on Hero's Day yesterday, Mr Museveni said the economy was doing well except with sectors such as tourism which have been affected by the coronavirus disease outbreak.
For example, Mr Museveni said a section of people have objected to an idea to have government documents printed within the country.
Mr Museveni said once the bureaucracies are solved, Ugandan scientists will 'get this (coronavirus) medicine before Europeans get it if we get rid of the parasites within us'.
Now it is like it is the work of the police to save you from dying... From tomorrow (today), they will start distributing the government masks even if you have your own, they will give you,\" Mr Museveni said.
Despite seeming to have softened his stance on the Ush10 billion ($2.6 million) that Ugandan legislators allocated themselves as part of the Covid-19 supplementary budget, President Yoweri Museveni is said to have ordered an audit of the expenditure.
In a letter dated April 28 to the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga, President Museveni said he instructed the Auditor-General to go over how the funds were used.
In a recent televised address on coronavirus, President Museveni described the Covid-19 cash as a trap that the MPs had laid for themselves and \"morally reprehensible.\"
Despite Speaker Kadaga's efforts to explain that MPs were to use this money to sensitise their constituents about the pandemic and for maintenance of ambulances in their constituencies, President Museveni and the Cabinet insisted the allocation was illegal and inappropriate.
As at April 12, the number of MPs that had returned the money stood at 101 out of a total of 458 legislators.
[Monitor] President Museveni yesterday warned the youth to stay away from poor leaders and listed four priority areas in the fight against the rampant youth unemployment in the country.
[Monitor] On Monday, at a function organised for him to hand over office and say his goodbyes, retired Chief Justice Bart Katureebe was overcome by emotion. He revealed how on the evening of June 19, his last day in office, President Museveni called him, informing him of how he had signed the long-awaited Administration of the Judiciary Bill into law.
[Nation] The government has released Sh6.3 billion to the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) to provide a comprehensive medical scheme for all public servants, including healthcare workers.
President Museveni has appointed former deputy Chief Justice Steven Kavuma as the new board chairman of the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
\"It is true cabinet on Monday, approved Justice Kavuma as the board chair for Civil Aviation Authority for a three-year contract,\" Ms Nabakooba said by telephone on Wednesday morning.
Ms Kiryabwire and Mr Kubeketerya were retained from the old board.
The core mandate of the board members of CAA is to give an oversight role to the country's aviation activities.
When contacted over the phone, the former deputy Chief Justice welcomed the appointment, \"I am feeling great as this is another opportunity for me serve my country again and also internationally.\"
