IGIHE

Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

  • Kurdish forces ‘take 90 percent’ of Syria’s Tabqa

    {US-backed forces say they have advanced in Tabqa as they eye the ISIL stronghold of Raqqa, a spokesperson says.}

    Kurdish forces are reported to have taken 90 percent of Tabqa city in Syria’s Raqqa province from ISIL amid clashes that have left an estimated 19 people dead.

    The claim was made by the official spokesperson for Ghadab al-Furat, a Kurdish group fighting under the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which launched a campaign in October 2016 to retake Raqqa, the de facto capital of ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, in northern Syria.

    “After taking the old city, we now control around 90 percent of Tabqa … we advanced against the ISIL and pushed further to the other parts of the city,” Jihan Sheikh, of the Ghadab al-Furat (dubbed Wrath of the Euphrates), told Al Jazeera on Tuesday.

    Talal Silo, an SDF spokesman, told Al Jazeera that the Euphrates dam – also known as Tabqa dam – and some neighbourhoods are still controlled by ISIL but ongoing clashes are taking place to fully recapture the city.

    “The first, second and third neighbourhoods that make up al-Thawra city, in addition to the Euphrates dam are still under ISIL control, but the battle continues to liberate them,” Silo said.

    Tabqa city is made up of two parts, the old city and al-Thawra city, which is also known as the new city.

    According to Pentagon estimates from last year, the SDF has more than 40,000 fighters.

    “Clashes are still taking place, at least 19 ISIL fighters have been killed in the fighting. We managed to recover their weapons, cars and a tank,” Sheikh said.

    Ahmad, a Tabqa-based activist, told Al Jazeera that at least 131 civilians have been killed in Raqqa in the past 44 days.

    “Our city is destroyed. One of the main hospitals in Tabqa was destroyed in an air raid and many field hospitals too.

    “What people should know is that south of Tabqa there are oil fields producing millions of pounds a day. Why else would the US back these Kurdish fighters to this extent?”

    The Rojava Defence units, another Kurdish group taking part in the campaign, said at least 5,000 civilians fled the fighting and reached safe areas but are in the need of urgent humanitarian aid.

    In Rajm Salibi, in the northern Syrian province of Hasakah, at least 24 civilians and SDF fighters have been killed in fighting between the SDF and ISIL, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

    The SDF is trying to retake Raqqa province after capturing the south of Tabqa last week.

    ISIL captured Raqqa in January 2014, and took Tabqa’s airbase from the Syrian government in August the same year.

    It lost the strategic Tabqa airbase , about 45km west of Raqqa, to the SDF last month.

    The SDF was founded in Syria’s mainly Kurdish northeastern region in October 2015 and is made up of at least 15 armed factions, mostly fighters from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units and the Free Syrian Army.

    The United Nations recently said in a press release that at least 39,000 newly displaced people fled to the Jib Al-Shaair makeshift camp in Raqqa, where four out of five people are staying in the open air without appropriate shelter.

    As the Syrian conflict enters its seventh year, more than 400,000 people have been killed in the fighting and over 12 million Syrians – half the country’s prewar population – have been displaced from their homes.

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • ISIL attack kills 10 Iraqi soldiers in Anbar

    {Army loses 10 soldiers in raid in Anbar province, just hours after killing of Iraqi Kurdish oil executive in Kirkuk}

    Fighters from ISIL have killed at least 10 Iraqi soldiers in the country’s western province of Anbar, according to officials.

    No claim of responsibility for the killing has been made.

    “We had 10 soldiers killed and six wounded in an attack by Daesh early this morning,” an army lieutenant-colonel told AFP news agency on Tuesday, using the Arabic acronym for ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, also known as ISIS.

    Speaking to AFP, a police officer and a local official confirmed the attack and casualty toll.

    In a separate incident earlier on Tuesday, armed men fatally shot a senior executive of Iraq’s state-run North Gas Company (NGC) as he was heading to his office in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, police and company sources said.

    Mohammed Younis, Iraqi Kurdish deputy manager of NGC, and his driver were killed instantly when assailants in a speeding car fired on their vehicle, police sources said.

    Kirkuk has a mixed population of Kurds, Turkmens and Arabs.

    It has been under Kurdish control since June 2014, when ISIL overran the northwest of the country and Iraqi security forces collapsed.

    The largest city in northern Iraq, Mosul was captured by ISIL in mid-2014.

    On April 23, ISIL fighters attacked a police base in a town that is being used as a staging ground for the Mosul offensive, killing at least three policemen.

    Backed by the US-led coalition, Iraqi forces launched an operation, their largest in years, in mid-October last year to retake the city.

    They retook the side of the city that lies east of the River Tigris in January and launched a push on remaining ISIL fighters in western Mosul, which is more densely populated and has seen fierce fighting.

    On the west bank of the Tigris, Iraqi forces control southern neighbourhoods and are slowly surrounding Mosul’s Old City, whose narrow streets are expected to make federal operations very difficult.

    Residents who managed to escape from the Old City say that there is almost nothing to eat but flour mixed with water and boiled wheat grain.

    The loss of Mosul would be a huge blow to ISIL.

    According to an Iraqi military spokesman, ISIL only controls 7 percent of Iraq, down from the 40 percent of the national territory over which it ruled three years ago.

    The only two other significant towns ISIL still holds are Hawija and Tal Afar. The group also controls territory in remote areas of western Iraq, near the Syrian border.

    Iraqi forces on Thursday launched a fresh push against ISIL-held villages there, as part of a months-old operation to retake areas along the Euphrates in Anbar.

    Fighting has killed several thousand civilians and fighters on both sides, according to aid organisations.

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Egypt violence: Three police killed in Cairo attack

    {Suspected militants have killed three police officers and wounded five others in an attack in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, the interior ministry says.}

    The assailants, riding in two vehicles, opened fire on a security convoy on the main ring road in the Nasr City area.

    No group has yet said it was behind the attack, which occurred on Monday night.
    However, jihadist militants have killed hundreds of police and soldiers since the military overthrew Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013.

    Last month, President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi declared a state of emergency after at least 45 people were killed in suicide bomb attacks on two Coptic Christian churches in Tanta and Alexandria.

    So-called Islamic State said a local affiliate had carried out the bombings.

    Hours before Monday’s attack, the UN high commissioner for human rights questioned the measures being taken by Egypt’s government to combat jihadism.

    Zeid Raad Al Hussein condemned April’s church bombings, but told a news conference in Geneva that the “state of emergency, the massive number of detentions, reports of torture and continued arbitrary arrests – all of this we believe facilitates radicalisation in prisons”, according to Reuters news agency.

    “And abetted by the crackdown on civil society through travel bans, freezing orders, anti-protest laws, this is in our opinion is not the way to fight terror,” he added.
    “National security yes, must be a priority for every country, but again not at the expense of human rights.”

    Human rights activists say more than 1,000 people, most of them Morsi supporters, have been killed and tens of thousands arrested in the crackdown.

    Hundreds of police officers and soldiers have been killed by jihadist militants since 2013

    Source:BBC

  • Nigeria’s President Buhari urged to take medical leave

    {A group of prominent Nigerians has called on President Muhammadu Buhari, 74, to take medical leave, amid growing concern about his health.}

    There was an “apparent deterioration” in his health following his failure to attend the last two cabinet meetings, the group said.

    Mr Buhari took about seven weeks of medical leave in January, and flew to the UK for treatment.

    When he returned home in March, he said he had never been so ill in his life.
    Mr Buhari has not disclosed his illness, but hinted that he had had a blood transfusion.

    The president had not been seen in public for the last week, and his absence from the cabinet meetings, as well as the weekly Friday Muslim prayers, “has fuelled further speculation and rumours” about his medical condition, the group of 13 Nigerians said in a statement.

    The group included some of the Nigeria’s most influential civil society figures, including lawyer Femi Falana, political analyst Jibrin Ibrahim, and Transparency International Nigeria head Anwal Musa Rafsanjani.

    The 13 said they felt “compelled” to ask Mr Buhari “to heed the advice of his personal physicians by taking a rest to attend to his health without any further delay”.

    Mr Buhari’s aides have not yet commented on the statement.

    Last week presidential spokesman Garba Shehu said Mr Buhari was “taking things slowly, as he fully recovers from the long period of treatment” in the UK.

    {{Buhari’s unhealthy start to 2017}}

    19 January: Leaves for UK on “medical vacation”

    5 February: Asks parliament to extend medical leave

    10 March: Returns home but does not resume work immediately

    26 April: Misses second cabinet meeting and is “working from home”

    28 April: Misses Friday prayers

    President Muhammadu Buhari has been undergoing medical tests in the UK

    Source:BBC

  • Algeria election – what you need to know

    {Algerian voters go to the polls on 4 May to elect a new parliament amid uncertainty over the health of the country’s ailing president, dwindling oil revenues, and instability on the borders with neighbouring countries.}

    {{What is at stake?}}

    Ruling officials have been campaigning on one key slogan: Stability.

    But delivering on this promise will be a tall order for a number of reasons.

    In a political system which remains essentially presidential in nature, the poor health of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is a major concern.

    While his rule has been criticised for corruption and a lack of political freedom, he has overseen a period of relative stability and prosperity following a decade-long civil war in the 1990s.

    But economic difficulties caused by falling oil prices have seen austerity imposed on the country.

    Sectors such as construction have been hard-hit, with government infrastructure projects put on hold and imports of building materials restricted.

    The country has also been forced to cut military spending at a time of increased security threats posed by instability and jihadist militants in neighbouring Niger and Libya, and a tense stand-off with Morocco over the status of Western Sahara.

    {{How is parliament structured?}}

    Algerian MPs are elected by direct universal suffrage for a five-year term in the 462-seat lower house.

    Seats are allocated proportionally according to the number of votes obtained by party lists. Eight seats are reserved for Algerian expatriate communities in four overseas districts.

    “Make your voice heard,” says this Algiers election poster urging people to vote
    More than 23m people are eligible to vote for 11,334 candidates from 50 different political parties, as well as a handful of independents.

    The role of parliament has been gradually expanding since changes to constitutional law were introduced in 1989. Following a constitutional amendment introduced last year, parliament will for the first time be consulted before a new prime minister is named by the president.

    However, it cannot withdraw confidence from the nominee.

    {{Who are the dominant parties?}}

    The National Liberation Front (FLN) is Algeria’s long-time ruling party, and draws its legitimacy from its key role in the war of independence against the French.

    Leader Djamel Ould Abbes claims to be a war hero, but some war veterans have disputed his past as a revolutionary.

    In the last parliament, the FLN formed a ruling coalition with the National Democratic Rally (RND), and commanded a large majority. The two parties are almost assured of taking a large number of seats in the next parliament.

    {{What are the opposition’s chances?}}

    Indications in recent months suggest that the authorities are seeking to coax more parties into the coalition to shore up the ruling majority in troubled times.

    The current opposition, comprising a mixture of reformist insiders, Islamists, and left-wing parties, is set to change.

    A recent ruling which allows parties to form electoral alliances may provide a path for Islamists to re-establish themselves as a potent force in parliament.

    The authorities have ordered imams to call on worshippers to take part in the polls in order to boost turnout.

    The non-Islamist opposition has only a slim chance of success.

    Source:BBC

  • Child soldier in DRC, Obedi has come far

    {More than 20,000 child soldiers have been freed from the armed forces and groups in DRC in the past ten years, according to a recent report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Obedi, a former child soldier shares his story.}

    {{Being a child soldier in DRC}}

    « I let out a sigh of relief when I was finally able to leave the army. I no longer wanted to be forced to accompany soldiers or to freeze to death at night. At times, I narrowly escaped death because I was often on the front lines, transporting the dead or injured…,” he relates.

    Young Obedi was 11 years old when he started accompanying soldiers of the regular army, which was operating in his village, in Nyamilima, in the province of North Kivu.

    {{War after the street
    }}

    In a calm tone: “Now, I am 21 years old.” He goes back in time to tell his story. Very early, he was forced to leave school, following the deaths of his parents, swept away by the rebellion of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), which began around 2007 in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

    Because he was always aimlessly roaming the streets of Nyamilima, his native village, he was enlisted by the military to transport equipment (ammunition boxes, bags). Some not so easy days from then on: “I wake at dawn, frugal meal and cold nights spent outside.”

    {{A child and already Sergeant Major}}

    With a sharp eye, Obedi recounts how, during the first years of the conflict, he also entered the ranks of the Mai-Mai rebel group of the Shetani warrior, a young man from his village. “I fought in several places: first in my native village of Nyamililma, in Ishasha, on the Congolese-Ugandan border, and in Kisharo where we earned a lot of money erecting a barrier for vehicles,” he explains.

    Following a wake-up call, he decides to escape. “I absolutely needed to leave the rebellion, even though I ended my time there with the rank of Sergeant Major. I no longer wanted to continue to fight,” he recalls.

    {{After M23, demobilization}}

    It is only after the war against the M23 rebellion towards the end of 2013 that the national programme for demobilization, disarmament and reinsertion PNDDR-child’s section transported these child soldiers from North-Kivu to Kamina, in the ex-province of Katanga.

    « We were over 200 child soldiers, if I remember correctly! » he says. This programme is for all child soldiers who are part of an armed force or group, including children who are porters or messengers, explains a community outreach representative.

    Obedi was therefore one of the children whom this Congolese government programme wanted to rehabilitate into civilian life. He who fought in DRC and sometimes in Uganda, employed both by governmental forces as well as by those of the opposition.

    Child soldier, a descent into hell

    This young teenager lived through gruesome scenes of war, hence his psychological struggles. Obedi: “sometimes, during the rebel attacks in my village, I was forced to stay with the soldiers. I trembled in fear at the sound of the bullets whistling over our heads, not to mention the explosion of grenades or the cries of the rebels. It was terrorizing, so much so that I sometimes had nightmares at night.”

    With a tired look, Obedi declares that he wants to forget everything in order to return to civilian life. After the demobilization of child soldiers, they follow a social reintegration programme. According to Katembo Malekani, head of the project for the demobilization, reintegration and prevention of recruitment of child soldiers, “education is key for social reintegration.” He adds, “But there are other forms of training to allow those who do not want to pursue the traditional curriculum to benefit from a technical training.

    {{Obedi’s dream come true
    }}

    In front of a house of unburnt bricks under construction, the young demobilized soldier admits he does not want to go back to school for the traditional curriculum, considering his age.

    « All that I wanted was to have a hair salon or to get my driver’s license, » Obedi says with a broad smile.

    An optimist, the young man is now pulling through. Thanks to the project for demobilzation and social reintegration, Obedi was able to benefit from aid, which allowed him to build his house. “I also received in-kind help, lawnmowers and accessories for my hair salon!” he ponits out.

    During this time, he earns a bit of money every day in this business. He continues to build his parents’ house, after their deaths in the war: “This one is made of burnt bricks and is only missing roofing sheets,” indicates a neighbour who also appreciates the work of this young man honouring his parents.

    More than 20,000 child soldiers in DRC have been freed from the armed forces and groups in the past 10 years, according to a report of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

    {{Children, not soldiers}}

    More information on the protection of children leaving armed forces and groups in DRC:

    Thanks to Sweden (SIDA), the USA (USAID), Canada (CIDA), Japan (JICA), the Netherlands, Belgium as well as UNICEF France, Amade, UNICEF Germany and previously CERF for their support to programmes assisting children released from armed groups and forces.

    Translated by Lisa Berthelot

    Source:Relief Web

  • Uganda:Museveni reappoints Gen Kayihura as police chief

    {President Museveni has reappointed Gen Kale Kayihura as Inspector General of Police (IGP) for another three-year term, placing him at the helm of the country’s law and order agency until 2020, Daily Monitor can reveal. }

    Gen Kayihura’s good fortune also applies to his deputy Okoth Ochola, Commissioner General of Prisons Dr Johnson Byabashaija, and his deputy Mr James Mwanje whose contracts were expiring this month. They have been reappointed for three more years.
    In a March 14 letter to the Speaker of Parliament, Ms Rebecca Kadaga which Daily Monitor has seen, Mr Museveni wrote: “The Police Authority and Prison Authority have recommended the following officers for renewal of contract,” before listing names of the quartet that now await approval by the Parliament’s Appointments Committee.
    “In line with Article 213 of the Constitution, I hereby nominate the officers for renewal of contract for three years,” the letter states.

    Article 213 of the 1995 Constitution provides that the Inspector General of Police GP and his deputy shall be appointed by the President with the approval of Parliament.
    In the letter copied to Internal Affairs minister Gen Jeje Odongo, the President also indicated he was attaching the officers’ curriculum vitae for the requisite parliamentary approval.

    However, highly placed sources in the Speaker’s office intimated to Daily Monitor that Gen Kayihura, who has been on the receiving end of a barrage of criticisms over the country’s fluid security situation following widespread cases of violence, house break-ins, and robberies, was “buying more time before appearing for approval given the hostile disposition from MPs and the public.”

    Only last Thursday Gen Kayihura appeared before Parliament’s Budget Committee where MPs grilled him over the spate of killings in the country and police’s handling of the operations, days after a suspect paraded by the IGP told journalists that criminal gangs were working in connivance with some police officers.

    In an interview yesterday, the Parliament’s director of communications, Mr Chris Obore, said: “The Appointments Committee sits when Parliament is on. It is entirely the Speaker’s decision when to call the committee, however, she has had a busy schedule but I am sure she will call the committee to do the vetting at the earliest opportunity.” Gen Kayihura’s contract was set to run out in October. Ordinarily, the service chiefs inform the President that they are available for reappointment and service six months before expiry of their contract.

    On March 2, Daily Monitor quoting a police source, reported that Gen Kayihura and his deputy had applied for renewal of their three-year contracts on January 16.
    The source said the Police Authority, headed by Internal Affairs minister, Gen Odongo, received Gen Kayihura’s application on January 18, two days after Mr Ochola’s application.

    The source also told Daily Monitor that Gen Kayihura in his application for a new contract cited increased personnel, bridging the gap between citizens and police through community policing, improving relations between police and other security agencies, building accommodation, professionalising police and reduced crime rates as reasons he deserves a fifth stint as police chief.

    Gen Kayihura also chest-thumps about the Force’s increased workforce from 14,000 to 44,600 personnel since he took over the mantle from Gen Katumba Wamala in 2005. Section 8 of the Police Act establishes the Police Authority composed of the Internal Affairs minister as its chairperson, the Attorney General, the Inspector General of Police, the Deputy Inspector General of Police, a senior officer in charge of administration at the headquarters of the Force and three other persons appointed by the President. The Permanent Secretary of the ministry responsible for Internal Affairs is the secretary to the Police Authority, which has a quorum of five.

    Gen Kayihura’s re-appointment is likely to rattle human rights groups and Opposition politicians who have since demanded the commander- in- chief to bring the IGP to order owing to a host of “human rights violations, partisan policing and systemic breakdown in professional policing.”

    On March 19, President Museveni told mourners at deceased Assistant Inspector of Police Andrew Felix Kaweesi’s funeral that the Force had become a den of criminals on the watch of Kayihura’s leadership.

    Mr Museveni then said: “All these murders, I have followed myself. There are always clues leading to the criminals but the criminals have infiltrated the police,” adding, “You get a situation where they are intimidating the witnesses, killing the witnesses. That is why the public fears to give information (about criminals) to the police.”

    Kaweesi was gunned down on March 17, and Mr Museveni’s hair-raising remarks came three days after he had already written to the Speaker and Internal Affairs minister, handing his blue-eyed lieutenant, criticised for partisan policing, the mantle for another three years in what comes off as instructions subtly delivered to the IGP for his new term.

    Four-time presidential candidate Dr Kizza Besigye last week demanded that Gen Kayihura should be relieved of his duties for sleeping on the job while crime escalates.

    “I think if the regime wants to salvage whatever is left of any care about this country; Mr Kayihura should be thrown out of office. Of course, if it was a more decent political system in which people have authority, he would have resigned by himself. He cannot manage dealing with this; he is partly the problem and I think it will do this country good for him to get out,” Dr Besigye said during a media briefing at his Katonga Road offices in Kampala.

    Gen Kayihura’s reign was shaken in July 2016 when the IGP and seven of his officers were summoned by Makindye Magistrates’ court over torture charges relating to police brutality against Dr Besigye’s supporters.

    The IGP would later be saved by a last-minute injunction issued by Deputy Chief Justice Steven Kavuma after a lawyer challenged the trial in the Constitutional Court.
    Gen Kayihura, who was saved by court from trial, recently ran to the same court and successfully secured an injunction against select online publication, gagging both the publications and their editors from reporting on the on-going investigation into Kaweesi’s killing.

    Sources close to the IGP say he considers the online publications “as tools used by his foes within the security apparatus,” especially in the Security ministry, Internal Security Organisation and the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence.

    Gen Kayihura, according to the sources, claim his detractors are riled by the fat resource envelop apportioned to the Police to do intelligence at the expense of other sister security agencies while “others are genuinely uncomfortable with the IGP’s unorthodox work methods.”

    Gen Kayihura three years ago faced a rough time with the Parliament’s Appointments Committee and yet the environment is even harsher today for the IGP who now has to work out ways of softening ground before making an appearance in the Speaker Kadaga-led committee.

    Attempts to reach Gen Kayihura for a comment on the story were futile, but an aide who picked up his phone promised the police chief would get back to Daily Monitor for a comment on the story, but had not by press time.

    {{Rise of Gen Kayihura }}

    Born on December 26, 1955 in Kisoro, south-western Uganda, Kayihura attended Gasiza Primary School in Kisoro, before joining Mutolere Secondary School, in Kisoro District, up to Senior Four.

    He then joined St Mary’s College Kisubi for Advanced Level education.
    In 1978, Kayihura graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from Makerere University and later enrolled at the London School of Economics where he was awarded a Master of Laws (LLM) in 1982.
    According to his online profile, the police chief has attended a number of military courses including, the Army Command Course at the Army Commander College in Nanjing, China; the Combined Arms Course, The Brigade/Battalion Commander’s Course, the Conflict Resolution and Management Course at Nasser Military Academy, Cairo, in Egypt; Command and Staff Course at the Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Alabama, in United States, from 2000 to 2001.
    In 1982, Kayihura joined the National Resistance Army (NRA) and rose through the ranks, becoming Aide de Camp to the Commander of the Mobile Brigade, from 1982 to 1986.
    From 1986 to 1988, Kayihura was Staff Officer in the office of the assistant minister of Defence, then Chief Political Commissar and simultaneous Director of Political Education in NRA, Operational Commander of the UPDF in Ituri Province, DR Congo, and Military Assistant to the President and later head of Special Revenue Police Services.

    {{Tenure as IGP }}

    Gen Kayihura has had an eventful tenure as IGP, overseeing incidents that sometimes shook the regime. In all these instances, Gen Kayihura has stuck out his head and managed the crises with a zeal that has thrust him into the limelight and opened up his modus operandi as IGP to harsh criticisms from detractors, but winning a nod of approval from President Museveni, who has defended him and once called him “a loyal cadre of the NRM.”

    {{Kayunga riots }}

    In 2010, Human Rights Watch demanded that government order an independent investigation into the killing of unarmed persons during and after riots in Kampala on September 10 and 11, 2009. A Human Rights Watch investigation found that at least 13 people were shot by government forces in situations where lethal force was unnecessary.

    The minister of Internal Affairs reported to Parliament that 27 people had died during the riots and that seven of those victims were not involved in the riots.
    “Shooting in self-defence is one thing, but we found that some soldiers shot at bystanders and shot through locked doors,” said Georgette Gagnon, the Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

    {{Walk-to-work demos}}

    Hot on the heels of the 2011 presidential election, Opposition politicians took to peaceful demonstrations tagged ‘Walk-to-Work’ that would later be met with lethal response from the security forces.
    In 2011, Human Rights Watch carried out investigations “into fatal and non-fatal shootings by the security forces, as well as human rights abuses such as beatings, theft, and rape that occurred on three of the most violent days of the demonstrations on April 14, 21, and 29, 2011. Based on multiple eyewitness accounts, Human Rights Watch documented at least nine unarmed people killed by government forces – six in Kampala, two in Gulu, and one in Masaka – none of whom were actively involved in rioting.”

    “Uganda’s security forces met the recent protests with live fire that killed peaceful demonstrators and even bystanders,” said Maria Burnett, a senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch.

    {{Killings of Muslim clerics}}

    Gen Kayihura’s reign has also seen him make endless promises to crack down on and bring to book assassins who since 2012 have been gunning down Muslim clerics with at least 12 shot dead by gunmen using getaway motorcycles.

    Sheikh Yunus Kamoga and a host of other Muslims are facing trial on charges of murdering some of the clerics but questions still linger on who killed the others.
    A 2015 Aljazeera ‘Africa Investigates’ film quoted sources, including Gen David Sejusa, the former coordinator of intelligence services, who suggested the killings cannot be detached from the regime, which could be playing to the gallery in respect to the international war on terror by exaggerating Uganda’s threat and positioning herself as a key ally in the global fight.

    {{Killing of AIGP Kaweesi}}

    The lowest point of the city killings was possibly the assassination of Andrew Felix Kaweesi whom Kayihura credited for giving him a safe landing when he joined the Force in 2005. That came a few years after Joan Kagezi, an Assistant Director Public Prosecutions, was gunned down in a similar fashion with the IGP rushing to blame the killing on DR Congo-based Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels.

    Gen Kayihura has announced several arrests, but only 13 suspects have so far been charged with the killing.

    Human rights lawyers have criticised the IGP “for always pulling public relations stunts, which is not matched by successful prosecution of suspects he parades before the media.”

    {{Dr Johnson Byabashaija}}

    Born in 1957 in Rukungiri District, Dr Byabashaija studied Veterinary Medicine at Makerere University (1982) and a Master of Science at the University of Glasgow, UK (1986).

    He joined the Uganda Prisons Service upon returning to Uganda and rose through the ranks to become CGP in 2005.

    President Yoweri Museveni decorates the Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura during the 2016 Independence Day celebrations in Luuka District on Sunday.

    Source:Daily Monitor

  • Kenya:SportPesa Jackpot winner to set up academy in Kakamega

    {SportPesa mega jackpot winner Samuel Abisai, 28, will dedicate a section of the windfall to helping his brother set up a football academy in Kakamega.}

    Abisai won Sh221.3 million after predicting correctly the outcomes of 17 listed games to become the first Kenyan ever to win the jackpot that was started in September 2016.

    He was raised in Sichilai in Kakamega but his parents, who had 11 other children, entrusted him to an NGO called Compassion.

    “I will use this money to uplift my family and the community at large,” he said.

    Abisai, who has been working as a salesman for a Chinese company, says he will stop betting but advised people to bet more.

    SportPesa CEO Ronald Karauri unveiled Abisai at Carnivore restaurant, Nairobi, together with Bonus winner Ahmed Ali, who goes home with Sh41 million.

    Abisai was accompanied by his two sisters and three brothers who acknowledged having come from a poor background.

    Karauri said the winner goes home with the whole amount, as a proposal to tax 50 per cent of a better’s winnings has not taken effect.

    “I would also like to assure that we have in place a programme to ensure that the winners are taken through financial advise.

    “We want to ensure that come two or three years from now, he will still look like someone who won Sh221 million and even better,” Karauri said.

    SportPesa mega jackpot winner Samuel Abisai addresses journalists in Nairobi on May 2, 2017. He said he will dedicate part of the money to help his brother set up a football academy in Kakamega.

    Source:Daily Nation

  • S.Africa’s Zuma quits rally after being jeered

    {South African President Jacob Zuma abandoned a Mayday rally on Monday after he was booed and jeered by trade union members demanding he step down.}

    He was heckled by crowd members who sang anti-Zuma songs as he prepared to speak at the rally in the central city of Bloemfontein, organised by the country’s powerful Cosatu trade union federation.

    Organisers terminated the event at the Loch Logan Park and no other speakers were permitted to take to the stage to address the crowd of thousands.

    Zuma was shown on live TV hastily leaving the event in a heavily secured motorcade.

    Scuffles broke out between some members of the crowd calling for Zuma to step down and others who were chanting in support of the president, local media reported.

    Zuma had been due to share a stage with Cosatu president Sidumo Dlamini and South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande. Organisers’ attempts to calm the crowds were unsuccessful.

    “It is sad that after a successful march which was well attended by the workers… chaos from members prevented us from proceeding with the programme,” Dlamini told the News 24 website.

    Cosatu, a key coalition partner of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), last month called for embattled Zuma to resign following a deeply unpopular cabinet reshuffle.

    Cosatu’s largest affiliate, the National Health Education and Allied Workers Union, wrote to Cosatu ahead of the event demanding that Zuma be replaced as the keynote speaker by his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa.

    Cosatu, along with the SACP and the ANC, was at the forefront of the effort to dislodge white-minority rule in South Africa that led to non-racial elections in 1994.

    It has openly backed Ramaphosa, who led Cosatu during the anti-apartheid struggle, to succeed Zuma in 2019 when the president must stand down.

    Zuma’s cabinet overhaul exposed deep divisions within the ANC, and officials from the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party are hoping to recruit enough support from ruling-party MPs to unseat the president if there is a vote of no confidence.

    Source:AFP

  • Tanzania:Workers plead for relief on heavily taxed salaries

    {Tanzania’s workers yesterday asked the government to ease the tax burden on their salaries to enable them provide families with basic needs.}

    Presenting their case before President John Magufuli during the International Workers Day , the Trade Union Congress of Tanzania (TUCTA) Secretary General, Dr Yahya Msigwa decried what he termed excessive deductions from employees’ salaries, with some workers paying up to 30 per cent in graduate charges.

    He said despite the government’s good intention to reduce Pay As You Earn (PAYE) on salaries from 11 to nine per cent, it has come to Tucta’s attention that the reduction benefits only few, getting the minimum wage. “We thank the government for reducing PAYE from 11 to nine percent but we have learnt that there are few beneficiaries – those getting minimum wage only.

    The middle and high income earners are subjected to huge deductions of up to 30 per cent in graduate charges,” charged Dr Msigwa. He proposed the threshold of taxed salary to increase from the current 150,000/- to 750,000/-, arguing that a 2015 research concluded that 750,000 is the amount that can enable the worker, spouse and four children to get the basic needs.

    Dr Msigwa further pleaded with the president to limit the taxes on employees’ salaries to 18 per cent. The Tucta executive decried an emerging trend of abusing the employment laws and regulations in the country, citing discrimination against Tanzanians while favouring foreigners.

    He said there are instances where salaries differ at great margins, with foreigners earning 7m/- against 700,000/- paid to Tanzanians for similar qualifications and job responsibilities.

    He accused some employers of hiring their relatives as human resource officers without the required qualifications, and as a result, end up oppressing locals whom they deny permanent job contracts.

    Dr Msigwa asked the judiciary to speedily dispose labour cases, especially in upcountry regions where he said judges were not trying cases at the required pace. Responding, President Magufuli said the entire government was present at the celebrations and everybody had heard the pleas.

    In attendance was Vice President Samia Suluhu Hssan, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa, Speaker of the National Assembly Job Ndugai, his Deputy Dr Tulia Ackson, ministers and Members of Parliament. He said the government will address all workers’ concerns and to start with, it will effect annual increments and promotions in the next fiscal year.

    Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Parliament, Policy, Labour, Employment, Youth and Disabled, Jenista Mhagama said the tripartite talks between the government, Association of Tanzania Employers and TUCTA will be sustained to guarantee harmony in the labour market.

    Source:Daily News