IGIHE

Category: Politics

  • Museveni makes U-turn on MPs tax exemption

    After condemning legislators’ contentious tax deal as “politically and morally incorrect”, President Museveni has softened his stance on the proposed amendment to income tax law.

    Daily Monitor understands that when the matter came up for discussion during the NRM Caucus meeting at State House last Sunday, President Museveni tasked the prospective Speaker of the 10th Parliament, Ms Rebecca Kadaga (Kamuli Woman) to explain why MPs don’t want their emoluments taxed.

    According to MPs who attended the weekend caucus meeting, Ms Kadaga, who chaired the session that amended the Income Tax Bill to exempt MPs allowances from taxation, made a presentation in which she “ably” defended the House decision, explaining how since the 6th Parliament, respective Attorney Generals save for one, have advised that under Section 19 of the Income Tax law, mileage is exempted from taxation. Ms Kadaga also explained that MPs already pay income tax of more than Shs3m per month.

    The President told members that he was not aware that what was being taxed was mileage allowances and in spite of refusing to sign the proposed amendments to Income Tax law and throwing it back to Ms Kadaga, he promised to talk to “[ministry of] finance people” about the issue because he too, thinks it’s wrong to tax mileage.

    The President’s “friendly” comments according to sources, triggered applause from the members, in an apparent appreciation of his support on a matter that had threatened to constrain the relationship between the Executive and Parliament. The MPs had vowed to pass the Bill, with or without the President’s signature.

    The Background
    Early this month, Mr Museveni wrote to Speaker Rebecca Kadaga warning that MPs lack the “moral right” to exempt any of their emoluments from taxes and that by doing so, they “would send a bad message” with other Ugandans joining the bandwagon to demand a freeze on their emoluments.

    Asked why the President is changing position, the Minister for Presidency, Mr Frank Tumwebaze, said it’s about the principle and not details. “The President was and is still opposed to a general blanket exemption on the remuneration of an MP as had been projected by the media and civil society organisations. But on getting additional information to the contrary, he appreciated the logic.”

    Some members of the Civil Society, who led a nation-wide campaign against the MPs tax exemption deal, yesterday criticised the President’s U-turn as unfortunate and accused the MPs of using mileage to hoodwink the President yet the crux of the matter is on blanket exemption of MPs allowances through “unexplained” consolidation of their pay.

    During the consideration of the tax Bills in the 9th Parliament, Rubanda East MP Henry Musasizi, moved the disputed amendment to Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2016, in which Parliament amended Section 21 (1) of the Income Tax Act, Cap 340, to exempt the employment income of members of Parliament, except salary. This move however, provoked public outrage and projected parliamentarians as “greedy and insensitive” to the plight of the poor.

    Mr Museveni had earlier written to Speaker Rebecca Kadaga warning that MPs lack the “moral right” to exempt any of their emoluments from taxes.

  • Ukraine’s Jamala wins Eurovision contest with 1944

    Song by Jamala about strangers coming to “kill you all” seen as allusion to Stalin’s deportation of Tatars from Crimea.

    A politically charged song has won the Eurovision Song Contest, with a victorious Ukrainian entry featuring lyrics about deportations by the Soviet Union.

    Jamala, 32, won the contest on Saturday with 1944, a song about strangers coming to “kill you all”, saying “we’re not guilty” – remembering a time when Joseph Stalin deported Tatars from Crimea.

    Jamala, herself a Tatar, stood alone on the Stockholm stage and sang “You think you are gods” against a blood-red backdrop.

    Those who saw Ukraine’s rehearsals and semi-final performance saw parallels between them and Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

    Among many commentators making a similar point, Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter said in a column: “You must close your eyes really hard not to see the parallels between this year’s contribution from Ukraine, which is about Stalin’s deportations from the Crimea in the 1940s, and contemporary events.”

    Crimea connection

    Tatars, a Muslim people indigenous to the Black Sea peninsula and numbering about 300,000 in a population of two million, opposed the annexation, which followed the overthrow of a Russian-backed president in Kiev.

    Incidentally, Russia came third with a Euro pop number “You are the Only One”, by Sergey Lazarev, handing the second position to Australia.

    Australia competed for the first time last year, taking part after accepting an invitation from organisers.

    While the public voting has long been tainted by political affiliations among competitor countries, songs are not allowed to be political.

    “The Eurovision song contest is a wonderful, live, family event,” said John Kennedy OConnor, author of The Eurovision Song Contest. “I really feel very unfcomfortable that any country is allowed to sing a song about genocide, in particular such a miserable genocde – also a song that is a political message to their neighbours [Russia] with whom we know they are currently in quite a conflict.

    “Never before has a song with such overtly political context ever even been allowed in the contest,” he added.

    But the European Broadcasting Union, which organised the contest long synonymous with kitsch and glitz, said Ukraine’s offering did not contain political speech.

    Eurovision, which was started in the 1950s with the aim of uniting Europe after World War II, has expanded ever further outside the continent in recent years due to its popularity.

    Millions of viewers tuned in from Australia and New Zealand to China and the US, where Saturday night’s final was broadcast live.

    The internationalisation of the contest was underlined by the performance of US singer Justin Timberlake.

    Eurovision's organisers said Ukraine's offering did not contain political speech

  • Syria’s civil war: Intense fighting in Deir Az Zor

    Syria’s civil war: Intense fighting in Deir Az ZorKerry holds talks with Saudi king and foreign minister against a backdrop of deadly clashes in Deir Az Zor and Aleppo.

    Hundreds of pro-government troops have been killed in Aleppo and Deir Az Zor provinces as opposition armed groups and government forces fight over control of several areas, according to sources.

    At least 170 pro-government troops have been killed in clashes that occurred in Khan Touman and Deir Az-Zor city, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Saturday.

    On the ground, there are conflicting reports about the fate of Al-Assad Hospital in Deir Az Zor city.

    Government forces claim to have scored a small victory by retaking the facility from fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group.

    However, ISIL is still in control of other parts of the city.

    The developments come as John Kerry, the US secretary of state, is in Saudi Arabia where he is meeting King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and the country’s foreign minister.

    Shifting fortunes

    The talks come at a critical time as Kerry embarks on an ambitious week of negotiations to push for international cooperation to end the fighting in Syria. He will head to Vienna, Austria, later to make his case with European leaders.

    Earlier, ISIL claimed to have killed at least 26 pro-government military personnel and taken medical staff hostage when it captured Al-Assad Hospital, the SOHR said.

    The group said on Saturday its fighters attacked the hospital as they pressed an advance to control the oil-rich Deir Az Zor city and its vital airbase.

    The attack prompted clashes with government forces providing security for the hospital in which six fighters were killed, the SOHR said.

    The fighters “seized the hospital and captured the medical staff, holding them hostage”, he said, adding that the battle was still raging.

    ISIL’s Amaq news agency said the group also took control of a checkpoint, a fire station and university accommodation in the city close to Syria’s eastern border with Iraq.

    Amaq also said the fighters had taken territory near to the state-held military airport.

    ISIL in control

    ISIL controls about 60 percent of Deir Az-Zor, including the centre and the north of the city.

    It has imposed a siege on government-held districts in the south and the east where about 200,000 civilians have been trapped since March 2014.

    The fighters, who also control nearly all the surrounding province, have repeatedly attacked the government enclave and seized several neighbourhoods since the start of this year.

    But their efforts to capture the airbase located in the south of the city have been crushed by government troops.

    Elsewhere in Syria, government air strikes have killed at least 12 people and left several injured in Idlib city, among them children, the SOHR said on Sunday.

  • Decision to fire president shouldn’t be in hands of few – former IEC head

    Cape Town – A decision to fire a president cannot be in the hands of five people in a democracy, former Independent Electoral Commission chairperson Brigalia Bam has said.

    Speaking on the sidelines of the Franschhoek Literary Festival, Bam said a new system was needed in the country for elections.

    She said the current system was right in the beginning of democracy, but it was time for it to evolve, and South Africa had to find a system that suited it.

    “You cannot run a democratic state where key decisions of firing a president are made by five people, because it is in the hands of the party. The people who went to fire Thabo [Mbeki] were five, for an example,” she said.

    Bam said the current system was right in 1994 and the following years, because people did not know the parties, or leaders.

    “I couldn’t have voted for you because there were no systems for us to communicate, so we had to rely on the parties to choose people for us,” she said.

    The country has ended up with a system that puts the power in the hands of a party, she said.

    “Judging by public opinion now, people want him [President Jacob Zuma] to go, but the party position is he must stay, so he stays,” she said.

    Bam was in the festival discussing her book Democracy: More than just elections.

    She said the country needed a system that allowed for broader participation.

    Where there was enough accountability to the voter, she said.

    As it stood, she said, the opposition could scream and say the right things, but that would be waste of time, as the control in all parties was with the top six.

    She called for a system where people in wards and municipalities decided who was going to be their representatives, instead of having someone chosen by the party and presented to the area.

    “Let them make a mistake, let this person be accountable to the ward, be scared of them and respect them,” she said.

    At present, these ward councillors were only afraid of the ANC, she said, and not the residents they were supposed to be working for.

    “It shouldn’t matter which party put you there, you should be accountable to us, in a ward,” she said.

    Bam, together with political economist Moeletsi Mbeki and City Press editor Ferial Haffajee were discussing the strategies needed to protect South African’s democracy.

    Bam was questioned on the idea of free and fair elections and the challenges faced to run such elections.

    She said political parties were essential in the running of free and fair elections, and how they campaigned played a part.

    “Right now it’s desperate, everyone wants to be on a list, everyone wants to have the job, and it can get violent,” she said.

    Brigalia Bam.

  • Kerry in Saudi Arabia for Talks on Syria, Libya, Yemen

    U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Sunday with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman for talks on the conflicts in Syria, Libya and Yemen ahead of larger meetings on those crises in Europe this week.

    Kerry was also scheduled to meet Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, deputy crown prince and foreign minister. His visit comes at a critical time in efforts to rein in fighting and encourage political dialogue in all three countries that have been wracked by violence for years.

    Kerry is trying to shore up the shaky truce in Syria, which has been fraught with violations on both sides. While the U.S. and its partners accuse the government of the vast majority of breaches, they have also acknowledged violations by the opposition.

    The situation has been further complicated by the intermingling of some western and Arab-backed rebels with groups such as the al-Qaida affiliate, known as the Nusra Front, which the U.N. has designated a terrorist organization and therefore not covered by the truce. Saudi Arabia and the U.S. have rejected attempts by Russia to get those rebels placed on the U.N. terrorist list.

    Kerry travels later Sunday to Vienna where he will co-host group talks on Libya with Italy’s foreign minister and then on Syria with his Russian counterpart. He will then visit Brussels for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers before flying on to Asia to meet President Barack Obama in Vietnam.

  • Uganda:Tension as court charges Dr Besigye with treason

    Shops in Moroto Town in Karamoja sub-region closed and business came to a standstill on Friday evening following news that the former presidential candidate, Dr Kizza Besigye, who was later charged with treason, was being moved away from the police cells to another place.

    The houses cleared and the streets filled. Traders locked up shops. Hundreds of locals abandoned their homes.
    They poured out to the streets and Moroto Police Station to bid farewell to Dr Besigye with gifts of tomatoes, chicken, turkeys and cash. Most of them had earlier been denied access to see Besigye at Moroto Police Station.

    Curious crowd
    Curiosity was raging high among the residents after seeing a helicopter land in the bushes at Nakapelimen ground. Whether the helicopter was a decoy to dupe the crowds into one direction as the State took Besigye to a different destination or it was a mere coincidence, is a matter of imagination.
    Crowds camped at the police station entrance waiting for Besigye to come out. Police attempts to chase them away were futile and a scuffle ensued. The residents had speculated that the chopper, which had landed in Moroto town, had come to fly Besigye back to Kampala.
    They were right on the departure but wrong on the destination.

    At exactly 6.15pm, Dr Besigye was indeed removed from the police cells aboard a black tinted pick-up but was not taken to Kampala as anticipated. He was taken to Moroto Chief Magistrate’s Court under tight security by counter terrorism and anti-riot police, and military personnel with a police escort fleet.

    The helicopter that had gone to pick Dr Besigye landed at Moroto town at 6.10pm but left without him at 6.50pm and returned to Kampala.
    Disappointed residents went back to their homes with their gifts.
    Dr Besigye was charged with treason in Moroto Chief Magistrate’s Court at 6pm, one hour past court’s official working time.
    The Moroto Chief Magistrate, Mr Charles Yeteise, read him treason charges for only three minutes. Dr Besigye was not allowed to say anything in court nor was he represented by a lawyer. Sunday Monitor learnt that Dr Besigye was charged without him making a statement with police after he refused to make one.
    He was then whisked away to Moroto prison until May 25 when he will reappear for mention of his case.
    Treason is a capital offence only tried by the High Court and attracts up to a death sentence on conviction.

    MP blocked
    Meanwhile, Mr Roland Mugume, the Rukungiri Municipality MP, who arrived in Moroto to see Besigye during the detention, spent three days at Moroto Police Station seeking to see the FDC leader without success.

    Dr Besigye, the runner-up in the February presidential elections, was on Wednesday arrested in Kampala after a shock appearance in the city centre having beaten the round-the-clock blockade and surveillance of his home.

    As the scuffle with the police was going on, a video showing Dr Besigye swearing in as new president of Uganda was running on You Tube and being shared on Facebook and other social media platforms.

    The video shows Besigye, flanked by other FDC party officials, at an undisclosed location taking both the presidential oath and oath of allegiance before “a lady judge/commissioner of oath” who is unidentifiable as her face is turned away from the camera.

    Social media shutdown
    Three hours later, the Uganda Communications Commission shut down all social media platforms citing “security reasons” without further elaborating.

    After the arrest on Wednesday, Besigye was bundled into a police van and taken away to an unknown place but a police helicopter later landed with him at Nadunget Airstrip in Moroto at 6pm. He was transported from there by road under tight security to Moroto Police Station.

    Police accused him of holding an unlawful swearing-in. At Moroto police cells, the public was barred from seeing him.

    In the morning of Saturday, the public was still in a restive mood. They were mobilising to go to Moroto Prison to see Dr Besigye.

    Journalists were barred from even taking photographs of Besigye. Counter-terrorism police threatened to shoot any journalist who would take photos of Dr Besigye. They claimed they were acting on orders from “above”.

    FDC leader Kizza Besigye at a rally in Kampala during the recent presidential race, he has been charged with treason again.

  • :KenyaBungoma man who hung on chopper injured after falling off

    According to clinical officer Leah Atsewa, who attended to him, Mr Wanjala was under the influence of alcohol.

    A man is fighting for his life at Bungoma Referral Hospital after jumping off a helicopter carrying the body of businessman Jacob Juma on Friday.

    Sale Wanjala, 41, had hung on the chopper from Bungoma Posta Grounds as it took off after a public viewing of the body.

    Mr Wanjala, a casual labourer, was seen hanging on the helicopter as it flew away from the grounds, prompting desperate mourners to shout and frantically wave at the pilot to land the aircraft and save him.

    However, the pilot could not hear the shouts and flew away with the man holding tight to the the chopper’s tabular landing skids.

    The helicopter had delivered Mr Juma’s body at the grounds instead of Kanduyi Stadium as had been scheduled for public viewing.

    “I was sitting at the landing skids while the crowd milled around the chopper. Suddenly I realised the chopper was taking off and my foot was stuck. By the time I was freeing myself the chopper had already gained momentum and decided to hang on to wherever it was going,” Mr Wanjala said at his hospital bed.

    The aircraft flew to Bungoma Airstrip and he decided to let go of the skids and jump off. He sustained injuries on his hip, legs and hand.

    An ambulance that was accompanying Mr Juma’s hearse rushed him to the hospital where he is currently receiving treatment.

    According to clinical officer Leah Atsewa, who attended to him, Mr Wanjala was under the influence of alcohol.

    “We have examined him and he has no serious injuries only that he has a dislocated hip and bruises though we realised that he was reeking alcohol,” she said.

    Mr Wanjala’s sister Leah Nelima told the Nation: “I received a call that my brother had jumped from a helicopter and had sustained head injuries that forced me to rush to the hospital to see for myself”.

    Mr Wanjala had two wives. His first wife died a few years ago and he later separated from his second wife.

    He had six children. Only one, aged 17, is alive.

  • DR Congo police disperse thousands at opposition rally

    Thousands of supporters protest at accusations that opposition candidate Moise Katumbi was plotting a coup.

    Congo police fired tear gas at thousands of supporters rallying outside the prosecutor’s office where a leading opposition presidential candidate was facing a hearing over accusations he was plotting a coup.

    Friday’s incident was the third time in five days that police fired tear gas at supporters of Moise Katumbi, the former governor of the country’s copper-mining region, who the government has accused of hiring mercenaries as part of the plot against the government, according to the Reuters news agency.

    Authorities have given scant details about the allegations made last week, which Katumbi denies.

    He says the accusations are aimed at derailing his campaign to succeed President Joseph Kabila, who has ruled since 2001, but is barred from standing for a third term in an election set for November.

    Police also threw rocks at the demonstrators, who flocked towards Katumbi when he arrived outside the prosecutor general’s office. One rock hit Katumbi’s older brother, Abraham, in the face.

    “It’s sad that there is not a state of law – police officers who throw stones and wound my older brother,” Katumbi said before entering the building.

    The hearing was suspended after Katumbi said he felt unwell due to the tear gas.

    Dozens were killed in January 2015 in protests over a proposed revision of the electoral law that critics said was a ploy to keep Kabila in power beyond the end of his mandate. Kabila has not said whether he will leave power this year.

    Friday's dispersal was the third time in five days that police fired tear gas at thousands of supporters of Moise Katumbi

  • Uganda:Besigye Charged With Treason, Jailed in Karamoja

    Former Presidential Candidate, Dr. Kizza Besigye was on Friday evening rushed to the Magistrate’s Court in Moroto district and summarily charged with Treason.

    According to the Forum for Democratic Change party officials no one including family, friends or party members where allowed within the precincts of the Court during the session that took about only 20 minutes.

    The FDC Secretary for Trade and Investments, Doreen Nyanjura who is also the Makerere Councilor elect told ChimpReports on phone that Besigye was subsequently remanded at Moroto Prisons up to 25th May when the hearing of his case starts.

    “Dr. KB (Besigye) was taken to court at 6:30 PM. None of us party members nor his family members were allowed near the court premises,” Ms. Nyanjura said.

    “The court process the shortest time I have ever witnessed. It was just like a scripted and well rehearsed drama.”

    Dr. Besigye was arrested on Wednesday when he escaped from the 24 hour tight security at his home in Kasangati and stormed the city centre.

    He was briefly detained at Nagalama police station in Kiira but at night he was transferred to the Eastern district of Moroto which is 420km from the capital Kampala.

    The treason charges are likely connected to a viral video posted online in which Besigye was seen being sworn in as President of Uganda as his party had earlier vowed.

    The Constitutional Court recently blocked the opposition defiance protests which started towards the end of presidential campaigns and intensified when Besigye lost the elections.

  • Suicide and gun attacks kill at least 16 in Iraq

    At least four security personnel killed hours after 12 people were gunned down at cafe in the town of Balad.

    A suicide bomber has blown himself up at a market in a town north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, killing at least four security personnel, hours after gunmen killed 12 people at a cafe in the same town.

    At least 25 people were also wounded in the attack on the restaurant in the mainly Shia town of Balad, hospital and police sources said on Friday.

    The attackers used machineguns to spray the cafe with bullets from cars parked outside for about 10 minutes before leaving the scene, the Reuters news agency reported.

    They passed three police checkpoints before reaching their target, police sources told Reuters.

    The town is about 40km from a frontline held by Shia militiamen, which was almost overrun by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in 2014.

    Iraqi authorities have faced criticism over security breaches after suicide attackers set off three bombs on Wednesday in Baghdad killing at least 80 people in the bloodiest day for the city so far this year.

    The country is in the grip of a political crisis over a cabinet overhaul that has crippled the government for weeks and threatens to undermine the United States-backed war against ISIL, which still controls swaths of territory in the north and west.