IGIHE

Tag: GreatLakesNews

  • Uganda:40,000 teachers not paid for two months

    {According to the Uganda National Teachers Union general secretary, Mr James Tweheyo, majority of the affected teachers work in the newly created districts and municipalities.}

    The ministry of Finance last evening appeared shocked to learn that up to 40,000 primary and secondary school teachers in 38 districts have gone without pay for two months.

    Ministry spokesman Jim Mugunga, sounding startled, wondered how other public servants could have been paid to the exclusion of such a large number of teachers.
    He explained that the only delays he was aware of were in Nansana Municipality and Kabale University because they are new.

    “Teachers’ salaries are never separated from other civil servants. So, why would government pay others and not teachers? I am sure someone has not done their work. There is no way the Treasury can release partial salaries. The chief administrative officers of these districts should be [held] responsible,” Mr Mugunga told Daily Monitor yesterday.

    According to the Uganda National Teachers Union general secretary, Mr James Tweheyo, majority of the affected teachers work in the newly created districts and municipalities.

    Mr Tweheyo cited Mityana, Njeru, Lugazi and Mubende municipalities where teachers have only been paid half salaries since June, while Kabale, Kiruhura, Bushenyi and Kiruhura teachers “have not seen a coin.”

    “[at least] 38 districts have been affected and these are close to 40,000 primary and secondary teachers,” he said at the Education International Africa Regional Committee meeting in Kampala where teacher union leaders have converged to look at how to ensure quality education on the continent.

    Ministry of Education officials, including the spokesman, Mr Patrick Muinda, couldn’t be reached for a comment by press time as they were reported to be in a meeting with the President at State House.

    A teacher of Rainbow Primary School in Moroto District organises pupils in a queue at lunch.

  • Kenya:Court issues arrest warrant against OCS over rape case at police station

    {A warrant of arrest has been issued against a top police officer in a station where a woman is said to have been raped.}

    Tigania Resident Magistrate Paul Wechuli issued the warrant against Mulika Officer Commanding Station (OCS) Simon Raziki and Constable Hirbo Siko after they defied summons issued against them on Tuesday.

    Constable Siko is the investigating officer in a case where the woman is accused of malicious damage.

    The two officers were summoned over the rape claims and failure to present police cash bail in court.

    The court Tuesday directed Tigania East police boss Charles Koskey to make the arrests. The case is to be mentioned Wednesday to confirm the arrest.

    Detectives from Tigania East directorate of criminal investigations were also directed to visit the cells where the accused was locked up and present a report before the magistrate Wednesday.

    Raziki and Siko were scheduled to tell the court why they booked a suspect in custody while she had deposited Sh30,000 police cash bail and issued a receipt.

    The OCS was also to shed light over the rape claims and help to identify the officers accused of rape.

    On Thursday, Stella Kinya told Mr Wechuli that officers based at the Mulika Police Station in Tigania Central spiked the milk they served her before raping her.

    Kinya, who had been locked up at the station on Monday last week for malicious damage, said she was later released on police bail pending appearance in court.

    The suspect is accused of destroying a mattress, assorted clothes and three plastic containers worth Sh70,000 belonging to her husband Henry Kaberia Karumpa who reported the matter to police.

    However, the next day when she appeared at the court to plead to the charges, she was told police had not brought her file in court.

    When she went to the station to inquire about the file, she was re-arrested and locked alone in a separate cell.

    ‘DRUGGED AND RAPED’

    Defence lawyer Kennedy Nyamokeri accused police of drugging his client before raping her and failing to present the cash bail in court.

    Mr Nyamokeri said the accused woke up in a police cell and realised she had been sexually assaulted by the officers who gave her a packet of milk laced with sedatives.

    The lawyer had applied that the OCS be summoned in court to identify the rogue officers. He also wanted the officers to explain why they did not present the cash bail that his client deposited at the station.

    “l have information that the OCS is even aware of the heinous act by the officers in the station. This kind of things should not be happening in modern Kenya,” said Mr Nyamokeri.

    After taking plea, Mr Wechuli had to release Kinya on free bond so that she could undergo treatment at the Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital.

    Lawyer Kennedy Nyamokeri at Tigania Law Court on September 8, 2016, where he accused police of locking up his client in the cells and raping her despite paying a police cash bail of Sh30,000.

  • Tanzania:Dodoma on course to attaining city status

    {Plans are underway to upgrade the status of the designated capital of Dodoma from Municipality to City council in line with preparations by the government to shift the capital city from Dar es Salaam, the National Assembly was told yesterday.}

    The Minister of State in President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Governments), Mr George Simbachawene, made the revelation here when responding to a supplementary question by Mpwapwa MP, Mr George Lubeleje (CCM).

    “It is just a matter of procedures but the government is set to organize itself towards upgrading the status of Dodoma from municipality to city council,” Mr Simbachawene observed.

    The Minister explained further that Dodoma is among a few regions in the country with a proper master plan for its land in an area measuring 250,000 square metres. In his question, the Mpwapwa had wanted to know whether the government had plans in place to upgrade the designated capital, stating that the municipality has all it takes to become a city.

    Earlier, Deputy Minister in President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Governments) Suleiman Jaffo made similar remarks, stating that the government was making arrangement to promote the status of Dodoma.

    Meanwhile, the government explained yesterday that promotion of Moshi Municipality in Kilimanjaro Region to city council has been held up due to a number of shortcomings on application by authorities in the local government to the central government.

    “It is true that all legal meetings to advance the position of Moshi Municipality were held at both District Consultative Council (DDC) and Regional Consultative Council (RCC) in which the request was approved.

    “However, when the application was formally made, the central government sent back the proposal for improvement on identified shortcomings,” Mr Jaffo explained.

    He noted further that a team of officials from the President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Governments) was currently making assessment of applications for new administrative areas before they advice the responsible minister for further actions.

    The deputy minister was responding to a basic question by Moshi Urban MP, Mr Japhary Michael (Chadema). The MP had complained that the process to upgrade Moshi started in the year 2012 but the government was yet to make a decision.

  • Opposition Walks Out of Election Talks in DRC

    {Opposition parties walked out of talks on elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo Monday, saying their position on the order in which presidential and local elections should be held is non-negotiable. A spokesman for the ruling coalition said the walk-out is a negotiating tactic and the talks are not over.}

    The talks began September 1 and this is the first time the opposition party members, who make up about one-third of the 285 people taking part, have suspended their participation en masse.

    Only a few of the country’s dozens of opposition parties have been taking part in the dialogue anyway, so it is questionable whether any agreement reached here could overcome the obstacles to elections.

    But even this minority group now says it cannot agree with the proposal by the ruling coalition, that the country should vote in local elections before the presidential poll.

    The leading opposition spokesman at the dialogue, Vital Kamehre, told the media why his group is insisting that the presidential elections must be held first.

    He says the binding election for which the timetable is clear in the constitution is for president. All the elections (local, provincial and national) are constitutional, he says, but there’s a fixed timetable for the presidential election in order to avoid a national crisis.

    Kamehre also suggested local elections could take a long time to organize.

    The majority proposed holding local elections first, he says, but since the decentralization we now have some districts that overlap and others that have no population. How long will it take to sort that out?

    Last year, the government went ahead with a decentralization program, more than doubling the number of provinces from 11 to 26.

    A spokesman for the ruling coalition, Emanuel Shadari, played down the disagreement.

    He says the opposition has said it’s suspending its participation, but the dialogue is not over, and the opposition has not left the dialogue. It’s a negotiating tactic, he adds.

    There are other groups at the dialogue, drawn from civil society organizations such as churches, trade unions, non-governmental organizations and traditional chiefs. There also are senior politicians and others. According to Shadari, most of these groups support the proposal that local elections be held before presidential elections.

    The African Union appointed facilitator of the dialogue, Edem Kodjo, said Monday after the opposition walkout that talks already have started between the stakeholders to create conditions for a resumption of the work in committees.

    Observers said the dialogue is likely to continue Tuesday.

    Vital Kamerhe, President of the opposition Citizen Front (Front Citoyen, UNC) party (C) speaks to the media during the opening of a Congolese "National Dialogue" in the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital Kinshasa, Sept. 1, 2016.

  • Uganda:UBesigye, Byanyima to get jubilee medals

    {Opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye and his wife Winnie Byanyima are among the current and former legislators to be awarded the Golden Jubilee medal later this month.}

    Both former legislators feature on the awardees list published by parliament.

    “The Speaker of Parliament in conjunction with the Presidential Awards Committee have organised the Golden Jubilee Awards Ceremony for Members of Parliament who have served in the different legislatures from the time of Uganda’s independence,” a parliament statement reads. The awards will according to the House statement, be given in “recognition to their service to the nation”.

    Ms Byanyima, is the former Mbarara Municipality MP while Dr Besigye was both a member of the National Resistance Council (NRC) and the Constituent Assembly(CA) which preceded the current House.

    It is not clear whether the couple which is currently out of the country will attend the September 26 awards ceremony, at the Kampala Serena Hotel. President Museveni usually presides and decorates the recipients.

    Ms Byanyima was in 2010 among a group that was awarded the Nalubaale and Rwenzori medals. Nalubaale is awarded to civilians while Rwenzori is awarded to military personnel.

    Although he actively participated in the 1981-86 NRA/NRM liberation struggle, as among others President Museveni’s personal physician, Dr Besigye has never been awarded any medal while his contemporaries have picked many.

    In 2001, Mr Museveni said his now four time challenger would be awarded a medal for his participation in the liberation struggle. Mr Museveni was speaking after the 2001 presidential elections in which Dr Besigye had challenged him for the first time.

    In 2013, Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party president Mugisha Muntu was one of the 96 people who were awarded the 50th independence golden jubilee medals alongside President Museveni’s son and Special Forces Commander, Muhoozi Kainerugaba. Mr Muntu did not attend the awards ceremony. FDC has in the past objected to the rationale used to award the medals.

    Dr Besigye is received by Ugandans in the Diaspora upon arrival in London for the Forum for Democratic Change UK Chapter event at London’s Hilton Hotel.

  • Kenya:Station attack leader was expelled from school, bright in class

    {The ring leader of the terror attack at Central Police Station in Mombasa on Sunday morning was a troublesome student who was demoted from student leadership because of indiscipline before she was expelled from school.}

    Tasnim Yakub Abdullahi Farah sat for her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams last year at Qubaa Muslim School on the island.

    She scored a B- (Minus) aggregate grade. Her teachers believe she would have performed much better had she been a model student.

    Investigations by the Daily Nation show that she was the head girl at the school but was removed from the position over her delinquency.

    The details of Tasnim’s dark past emerged as forensic experts prepared today to collect finger prints from the three bodies lying at Coast General Hospital Mortuary to establish the suspects’ previous criminal records, if any.

    The second suspect in the attack, Fatuma Omar, went to Coast Girls High School, across the road from the scene of the attack, and sat for her KCSE exams in 2013.

    Police officers believe Fatuma hailed from the nearby Kibokoni neighbourhood, but information about her remains scanty.

    The third suspect, only identified as Mariam, had been arrested and interrogated by Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) previously but was set free for lack of evidence.

    On Monday, police sources said the ring leader, Tasnim, believed to have been in her early 20s when she stormed the police station in the company of Fatuma and Mariam on Sunday, was the one who stabbed a policeman twice after jumping over the report counter.

    A school official, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter, described the girl as “a very bright student” whose performance nosedived when she started showing signs of gross misconduct and disobedience while in Form Three.

    “She became so rude to her teachers that she was unbearable to manage, whether in class or outside,” said the official, pained by the dramatic turn for the worst his model student took.

    Mid last year, at the height of her rebellion, Tasnim arrived at Qubaa Muslim School dressed in civilian clothes, contrary to school regulations.

    She, alongside four other girls who seemed to subscribe to her notion of haughtiness, had also brought mobile phones to class, to the chagrin of teachers and the school administration.

    The five were reprimanded and summoned to the school principal’s offices where they were ordered to take off the home clothes and hand over their mobile phones.

    APPOINTED HEAD GIRL

    They complied and changed into school uniform, but a few days later, Tasnim mobilised a group of students to break into the principal’s offices and recover the clothes and mobile phones.

    “It was on a Saturday when they broke into the offices,” said the official on Monday.

    “They were seen by fellow students and our security guard. The following Monday they were summoned to the principal’s offices where they admitted committing the offence.”

    The girls’ transgressions were recorded in the school black book after which they were immediately expelled.

    “They sat the national exams from home,” said the school official.

    While Tasnim was intelligent, it was her charisma and charm that stood out the most.

    Her ability to mobilise students caught the attention of the school administration, which appointed her the school head girl in the hope that she would use her wit and charms to their advantage.

    “I was gutted when I read this morning that she was involved in a terror attack,” said one of her teachers.

    “I never expected her to go that far. We lost track of her after we expelled them.”

    Tasnim is believed to have been an orphan. Her elderly grandmother paid her school fees through the support of relatives residing overseas.

    Security agencies linked the young women to a terror cell based in Boni Forest, Lamu, called Jaysh Al Ayman — which has been associated with the Somalia-based Al-Shabaab.

    On Monday, in the wake of unconfirmed reports that a fourth male suspect had been arrested in connection with the attack, Mombasa County Commissioner Evans Achoki called for patience, saying a comprehensive statement would be issued today.

    Tasnim Yakub Abdullahi Farah, one of the women killed by police during an attack at Central Police Station in Mombasa on September 11, 2016. While Tasnim was intelligent, it was her charisma and charm that stood out the most.

  • Tanzania:Rift Valley geological fault triggers Bukoba tremor

    {The Geological Survey of Tanzania said today Bukoba, township in Kagera Region earthquake struck at a depth of 10kilometers.}

    The GST said in a statement that the tremor might be triggered by the geological fault line in the Great Rift Valley since Bukoba, the quake epicenter, is near.

    A magnitude 5.7 Richter scale quake, hit Bukoba on 10/09/2016 at 1527 hours, and killed at least 16 people and injured over 250, the authorities said.

    The reports from the region indicated that apart from the deaths, 170 people still remained at the hospital beds fighting for their lives while 83 others were treated and discharged.

    Though the actual cost of damages was yet to be established, initial official reports indicated that about 840 residential houses crumpled while 1,264 developed cracks.

    The country, despite running along a geological fault line of the Great Rift Valley, major earthquakes are rare.

    A magnitude 6 Richter scale quake struck the Tanzanian town of Arusha in July 2007.

  • DRC: UN mission extracts hundreds from national park on humanitarian grounds

    {New York, Sept 9 : Acting on humanitarian grounds and at the request of the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations mission in the country has extracted hundreds of individuals, including the former Vice-President of South Sudan, Riek Machar, members of his family and aides, as well as a number civilians from a national park in the DRC.}

    In a news release issued yesterday, UN Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) said that many of those extracted were wounded, acutely malnourished or in other life-threatening conditions.

    Detailing the extractions undertaken at the Garamba National Park, located in the Haut Ul province in north-eastern DRC, the Mission noted that Machar along with his wife, son and 10 aides were extracted on 17 August; 291 individuals extracted between 24 August and 1 September; 62 individuals in critical medical condition on 9 September; and an additional 116 in similar conditions on 10 September.
    In total, MONUSCO said that it has handed over 117 individuals, including Machar, his wife and son to the DRC authorities and that weapons were removed from all those who were transported by the mission.

    It added that as of 8 September, some 183 individuals are in MONUSCO-run facilities in two locations, where security arrangements are in place. It further added that those injured or in need of medial care are receiving treatment or are recovering at UN facilities.
    According the Mission, Machar had crossed into the DRC from South Sudan, accompanied by wife and son, and by several hundred others, including armed elements and civilians.

    In the news release, the Mission also said that it is keeping the DRC authorities fully informed and UN Headquarters is engaging with both the DRC and South Sudan authorities, as well as regional actors, to encourage them to find a solution to the presence of South Sudanese armed elements in the territory of the DRC.

  • East African Community only group left to act to restore Burundi dialogue

    {Journalist Jean Bigirimana has been missing since 22 July. Two weeks after his disappearance, his colleagues at Iwacu – Burundi’s only independent newspaper – received news that a body had been found in the Mubarazi River outside Bujumbura. Within 40 minutes, a team of Iwacu staff set out to investigate. Three days later they found a body, then a second. Neither turned out to be Jean. The authorities later buried the bodies, unable to identify them.}

    Jean is still missing. So are hundreds of other Burundians, mainly young men. Their families are unsure where to turn for information. Some are too scared to ask the authorities to investigate. Thousands more are detained, many of them illegally. Torture is common.

    Eighteen months after the start of protests against a third term for President Pierre Nkurunziza the public demonstrations have died down. Human rights violations, disappearances, killings by unidentified men, sporadic grenade attacks reportedly perpetrated by the government’s armed opposition, and harassment of government critics have become the norm. In rural areas, the presence of the Imbonerakure – the governing party’s youth militia, and a key agent of government repression – has spread a thick blanket of fear and intimidation.

    There is no rule of law. This is Burundi’s new normal. The acute spike in violence in South Sudan in July has grabbed the headlines, and preoccupied international bodies such as the United Nations (UN) and African Union (AU). The now-inevitable election delay in the Democratic Republic of Congo has diverted the focus of Great Lakes envoys attempting to stave off a wholesale crisis in Burundi’s much larger neighbour.

    Inertia has set in, and the Burundian government likely couldn’t be happier. Over the last 18 months, it has made no concessions, rejecting all attempts to restore rule of law in a meaningful manner. The AU’s efforts, bold at times, have come to nothing, and its engagement is on the backburner.

    Relations between the AU and Burundi are not great either. The Burundian government boycotted the July AU summit in Kigali, accusing the AU of failing to take seriously its allegations that Rwanda was backing anti-government armed groups.

    To date, the memorandum of understanding between the AU and the Burundian government establishing the basis for the presence of AU human rights and military observers in Burundi has yet to be signed. The human rights and military observer teams are still not deployed in their intended full complement. International human rights groups agree that a key element in restoring stability and rule of law is the deployment of independent human rights observers on the ground in Burundi.

    The UN, with whom the Burundian government played nice after rejecting the AU’s efforts, finally managed in July to approve resolution 2303, authorising the deployment of 228 UN police to Burundi. Their mandate would be to monitor the security situation and assist the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Burundian government has rejected the UN force. The missing element in getting the Burundian government to accept any of these proposed deployments is leverage. The rejection by African heads of state represented on the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the PSC’s proposed deployment of a 5 000-strong force is a strong signal to the Nkurunziza government that AU member states will not take punitive action against it anytime soon. Without the necessary muscle, the AU’s options are limited, and Nkurunziza knows this.

    Likewise, the Burundian government knows that the UN Security Council is divided over Burundi, and that resolution 2303 was a compromise solution. Angola, China and Egypt do not support stronger action against Burundi, and abstained from the vote on resolution 2303.

    This leaves the East African Community (EAC), which held the 17th Extraordinary Summit of EAC heads of state in Arusha, Tanzania on Thursday. One agenda item was former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa’s report on the Inter-Burundian dialogue.

    The EAC appointed Mkapa to assist Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni with the facilitation in March, and since then, he has managed to convene the Burundian parties twice – in May and in July. Both times, however, squabbles over who should have a seat around the table have scuppered the start of real talks.

    The main sticking point is the Burundian government’s refusal to negotiate with the armed opposition, a categorisation it has applied to almost all of Burundi’s opposition parties, including the umbrella group Cnared (Conseil National pour le Respect de l’Accord d’Arusha pour la Paix et la Réconciliation au Burundi et la Restauration de l’État de Droit).

    The facilitation has allowed itself to be drawn into this labelling, inviting not the Cnared as a body, but rather individual party leaders in the hopes that this might get the government to the table. This has exposed it to accusations of a pro-government bias.

    In July, the political opposition chose to overlook this and attended the talks. The government walked out, however, in protest against the presence of individuals it accuses of fomenting the May 2015 coup attempt against Nkurunziza. Mkapa, who was due to present a progress report and an agenda for the talks at the AU Summit in Kigali, was unable to do so.

    The clock is ticking, not just because the human rights situation is so dire, but also because the stage-managed internal Burundian dialogue, which the government is running parallel to the EAC talks, is taking significant steps towards recommending the scrapping of term limits and the Arusha Accords. If these measures are endorsed by Parliament, there is little recourse.

    The EAC Summit presents a new opportunity to revitalise the talks, but if they are to maintain any credibility and start to redress the situation in Burundi, the next round will have to make concrete progress. A key element has to be that the government allow the facilitation to determine the parties around the table, and not walk out again.

    This will only happen if the EAC makes it clear to Nkurunziza that his government faces tangible consequences should it refuse to engage constructively in the dialogue. Such consequences could include sanctions, or suspension from the EAC. The EAC should also ask Burundi to accept the full deployment of the 200 AU human rights and military observers, as well as the 228-strong UN police force.

    The EAC has made considerable progress on economic integration, and the economies of the region are increasingly inter-linked and inter-dependent. Burundi has one of the weaker economies in the region and needs the EAC. This provides the EAC with the leverage that other bodies don’t have or are unable to muster.

    So far the EAC has failed to take a strong lead on the Burundi crisis, but it still has the opportunity to make a significant difference. If it doesn’t, it will have squandered its leverage, and sullied its own treaty. – ISS Today.

    A Burundian soldier patrols in a cemetry.

  • Uganda:Kayihura thanks Museveni for support after brutality criticism

    {The Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, has thanked President Museveni for supporting the police when the Force came under public criticism for allegedly brutalising Opposition supporters.}

    The Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, has thanked President Museveni for supporting the police when the Force came under public criticism for allegedly brutalising Opposition supporters.

    “We thank you in a special way for standing up for us at a critical moment when we were under attack,” Gen Kayihura told the President at the weekend during the pass-out of cadet officers and police constables at the Police Training School, Kabalye, Masindi District.

    He added: “Understanding that building institutions and systems is a painstaking process, it isn’t drama. There are mistakes and setbacks because we are human beings. However, we thank you for the appreciation in spite of these setbacks and mistakes made.”

    The recent case
    Last month, Gen Kayihura and seven senior police officers were dragged to Makindye court in a private prosecution on charges of torturing Dr Kizza Besigye’s supporters.
    Activists alleged that he had failed to manage his officers and demanded for his sacking. On the contrary, President Museveni praised Gen Kayihura for steering the police in the right direction.

    Some of the police officers who were on duty on that fateful day are facing trial in the police disciplinary court. At the Kabalye function, President Museveni said the time for housing armed forces, teachers and health workers in ramshackle structures has ended.

    “I have told the army leadership that we have stayed in mama ingiya pole (ramshackle structures) for a very long time. Time has come to get our children from Mama ingiya pole to permanent structures,” he said.

    Gen Kayihura said the police have started building 1,000 apartments for police officers at Naguru, a Kampala suburb, and that they are planning another 9,000 units in the Kampala Metropolitan Police Area.

    “We shall use our land in the city through the Private Public Partnership to get solve the problem of housing in the police force,” Gen Kayihura said.

    {{Background}}

    Speaking at the Urban Authorities Association of Uganda extra-ordinary meeting at Ntare School in Mbarara District last month, President Museveni said: “People are attacking Kale (Kayihura), Kale has done a good job; he stopped fujo; because people wanted to bring fujo to disrupt business. If you have fujo, you will not have wealth.” Fujo is Kiswahili word for disorder or riot, or breach of the peace.

    Cadet officers and probation police constables dance in the rain ahead of their pass out at the Police Training School, Kabalye, Masindi District, at the weekend.