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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.
[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.
[Monitor] I first saw President Museveni physically in 1988 when I was in secondary school. He was on a whistle-stop tour of Mpigi District and travelled by helicopter from Gombe (his first stop) to Kanoni, the headquarters of Gomba District, then a county, and the birthplace of presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi.
President Museveni has written to the Public Service Commission (PSU) nominating Dorothy Kisaka as the new Kampala Capital City Authority executive director.
If vetted and cleared by the PSU, Kisaka will replace Andrew Kitaka the current acting KCCA director whose contract extension expires next week on June 18.
Kitaka's contract was extended in December 2019 for a further six months and has been acting KCCA executive director since December 2018 after being appointed by then Kampala minister Beti Kamya following the resignation of Jennifer Musisi.
Museveni in his letter to the PSU also nominated Eng David Luyimbazi Ssali as deputy executive director, Dr Daniel Okello Ayen as director public health and environment, Sarah Kanyike as director gender, community services and production and Grace Akullo as human resource and administration.
Museveni said the five nominees were headhunted because of their integrity, he nevertheless he asked PSU to interview them and find out if they are suitable for the KCCA positions.
[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.
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.
[Monitor] The National Resistance Movement (NRM) is struggling to come up with a common mode of voting in their party primaries to identify their candidates for different elective positions in the 2021 General Election.
There are also unconfirmed reports that the MPs in the deal will sooner or later receive another Shs60m each as a token for last week's resolution in which Parliament appreciated Mr Museveni for fighting Covid-19.
Many of the MPs had not followed Mr Museveni's directive, which the High Court reinforced, to refund the Shs20m each got in that appropriation until the Clerk to Parliament, Ms Jane Kibirige, gave them a deadline of May 27 to file accountability for the cash.
Addressing a press conference at Parliament on Friday, Lwemiyaga County MP Theodore Ssekikubo and Kumi Municipality MP Monica Amoding, said they had been informed by their friends that money was being dished out but that they had failed to access the venues where the distribution was taking place.
Some of the NRM party MPs from Busoga Sub-region about two weeks ago accused the President of fighting Ms Kadaga when he castigated Parliament over the Shs20m.
During the press conference, Mr Ssewungu said the President aims to destroy the institution of Parliament by fighting the Speaker and the MPs.
In a bid to get the Ugandan economy moving again after nearly three months of lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus, the government on June 11 presented a budget offering a host of tax waivers and funding for the business community.
The plan to boost economic recovery seeks to support the agriculture sector for food security and export, make credit accessible to small businesses, give tax holidays to firms and put money directly into people's pockets.
According to Finance Minister Matia Kasaija, the county's Ush45 trillion ($12 billion) budget for the 2020/2021 financial year is aimed at \"stimulating the economy to safeguard livelihoods, jobs, businesses and industrial recovery in the wake of the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.\"
According to Mr Kasaija, the government will roll out interventions to increase agricultural production to ensure food security and expand regional food exports, a move it hopes will restore demand for agricultural produce which will in turn restore jobs and other non-farm incomes.
To further address the short-term liquidity requirements of businesses in the tourism, manufacturing, horticulture and floriculture sectors, the government will defer payment of Corporate Income Tax or presumptive tax for tax compliant corporations and SMEs with a turnover of less than Ush500 million ($133 million) per annum with no accumulation of interests and penalties.
[Monitor] As Ugandans struggle to adapt to the different healthcare guidelines set by the Ministry of Health in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr Monica Musenero, a senior epidemiologist and presidential adviser on Epidemics, has urged the general public to embrace preventive healthcare to reduce costs incurred in treatment.
Officials and experts are sounding the alarm as Malawi shifts to top campaign gear with giant rallies for an unprecedented presidential re-run despite the coronavirus pandemic.
He said Malawians “will only fully understand the impact once we start to see burial teams and mass graves” because the disease is “deceptively undramatic until it is too late”.
Malawians will only fully understand the impact once we start to see burial teams and mass graves\" because the disease is \"deceptively undramatic until it is too late
\tPolitical scientist Michael Jana said the bitter power struggle has seen the country throw caution to the wind.
The southern African country will hold polls in just under two months after the Constitutional Court overturned the results of last year’s controversial election, which handed President Peter Mutharika a second term.
Mutharika garnered just 38.5 percent of the May 21 vote but the Constitutional Court annulled the result, citing “grave” and “widespread” irregularities, including the use of correction fluid on ballot papers.
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
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.
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.
There will be no extension of the presidential mandate under the cover of coronavirus in the Central African Republic.
This was the final verdict issued by the constitutional court in Bangui, ending a wrangle between the ruling party and the opposition last week.
The government had intended to continue its mandate due to the prevailing coronavirus outbreak arguing that the country will not be ready to hold an election by the end of the year.
A Bangui resident said he was shocked by the decision: “This verdict surprised us because we thought that the constitutional court should give a favorable verdict to those who initiated this project in partial modification of the constitution going in the direction of the extension of the mandate of the president of the republic and that of the MPs.”
A number of African countries are expected to hold elections later this year.
As Covid-19 hit South Africa and schools closed as a result of the lockdown, approximately 13 million pupils were affected.
A High Court in the Ugandan capital Kampala earlier this week ruled that the president had the right to decide who follows him on social media platform Twitter.
The court presided over by Justice Andrew Bashaija held that even though personal Twitter handles could be used for official communication by a public official, it remained an individual and private property.
A Ugandan national living in the diaspora, Hillary Innocent Taylor Seguya, took the president and two other public officials to court for blocking him on Twitter.
“The President is a public officer and a holder of a Twitter social media platform handle @KagutaMuseveni and there is no other official handle for his office.
He opened the Twitter handle when he was holding the office of the President and he has since been using it in his official and not in private capacity,” the petitioner’s suit read in part.
With popular frustrations running high, and opposition leader Agathon Rwasa warning that he will not accept a \"stolen\" election, fears are mounting that a contested poll could lead to violence along the lines of what the country saw in 2015, when Nkurunziza's controversial bid for a third term prompted street protests, a failed coup, a crackdown and the exodus of over 400,000 people.
It now also appears that the EAC will be unable to send an observation team in time for the elections; Burundi's authorities have cited the COVID-19 outbreak as a reason to quarantine the observers for fourteen days upon arrival, though it is unclear whether the decision was genuinely made for legitimate public health reasons, given that the government has otherwise played down the outbreak.
Ruling-party nominee Ndayishimiye and long-time opposition leader Rwasa, who both fought as rebels in Burundi's 1993-2005 civil war, are the clear front runners, and emblematic of the former fighters' continued influence in national politics.
They say Nkurunziza, who pushed for the selection of his ally Pascal Nyabenda, the president of the National Assembly (the lower chamber of Burundi's parliament), only agreed to Ndayishimiye's candidacy after intense lobbying by generals.
While Rwasa has announced that he will not allow the election to be \"stolen\", CNDD-FDD officials believe that their party structures and ability to register and mobilise voters across the country cannot but deliver victory.
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.
Public Service Commission director-general Dovhani Mamphiswana is in hot water after he appointed the mother of his child to a director's post.
Kampala — The presentation of the stimulus package in which government seeks to tackle the economic impact of the Covid-19 has been pushed to the next session of Parliament after Speaker Rebecca Kadaga rejected it yesterday.
Mr Kasaija has for the last two months not been able to present the economic stimulus after a Parliament's taskforce on Covid-19 presented key issues that need urgent attention as a result of the pandemic's impact .
The measures include lowering or suspending some taxes such as mobile money levy, Over the Top Tax (OTT) and those on essential commodities, reduction of lending rates by Bank of Uganda, and government to provide funds for fuel reserves, among others.
Other recommendations adopted by the House included capitalising the Uganda Development Bank to offer loans at zero interest rates, making budget to reflect the realities of the current situation, providing funds to procure air ambulances and supporting medium and small scale industries from collapsing.
Daily Monitor reported last week that some of the measures being planned by government included cheaper loans to small and medium enterprises, tax cuts for sectors badly affected by the pandemic, and defending the shilling to prevent imported inflation.
Malawi’s electoral commission appealed for “peace and calm” on Wednesday as it counted ballots following a historic poll to re-elect a president after Peter Mutharika’s victory was overturned.
It took the top court six months to sift through the evidence before concluding that Mutharika was not duly elected and ordered fresh elections.
The chairman of the Malawi Electoral Commission, Chifundo Kachale, said tallying of the votes from 5,002 polling stations was underway.
Mutharika has accused the opposition of inciting violence following isolated incidents which the police and electoral commission said had not affected the election.
Mutharika, 79, did not take the decision of the constitutional court lightly when it overturned last year’s poll.
