Tag: GreatLakesNews

{15 July 2016 – Security Council expresses “deep concern” at political restrictions in the DR Congo}

In the lead up to the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) scheduled presidential election in November, the Security Council today expressed concern at the recent arrests and detention of members of political opposition and of the civil society.

In a press statement issued on Friday evening, the Council stressed the importance of a “peaceful and credible electoral cycle, in accordance with the Constitution, for stability, development and consolidation of constitutional democracy.”

Council Members called for ensuring the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms “paving the way for and ensuring an environment conducive to free, fair, peaceful, credible, inclusive, transparent and timely elections in the DRC, in accordance with the Constitution, while respecting the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance.

In the statement, the Council also “expressed their deep concern at increased restrictions of the political space” in the country, particularly in relation to arrests and detention of members of the political opposition and of civil society.

“They urged the Government of the DRC as well as all relevant parties to respect human rights and to refrain from violence and provocation,” according to the statement.

They expressed support for the decision of the African Union to undertake consultations on this dialogue and the recent appointment of Edem Kodjo, former Prime Minister of Togo, as Facilitator for the dialogue.

The Members also welcomed the efforts of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the DRC, Maman Sambo Sidikou, and the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Great Lakes region, Said Djinnit, to facilitate this dialogue among political stakeholders.

Members also urged all national stakeholders to extend full cooperation to the international facilitation appointed by the African Union, and encouraged all stakeholders to participate in the dialogue.

The members of the Council acknowledged the ongoing efforts by the Congolese authorities and especially by the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI), with the support of various partners to revise the voters’ register, and emphasized the need for the Congolese authorities to take all necessary steps to proceed without delay, and called on international partners to provide the necessary support.

{Ugandans were on Wednesday treated to shocking scenes of police officers caning hapless supporters of Opposition leader, Dr Kizza Besigye, in separate incidents in Kampala}

Ugandans were on Wednesday treated to shocking scenes of police officers caning hapless supporters of Opposition leader, Dr Kizza Besigye, in separate incidents in Kampala.

Police chief Kale Kayihura called a press conference at the police headquarters in Naguru on Thursday afternoon and indicated that the beating of civilians, which has been widely condemned by the public and human rights activists, had been sanctioned by the Force’s top command.

Gen Kayihura could not explain how operatives in plain clothes appeared to take the lead in beating unarmed members of the public, saying he had instructed Mr Fortunate Habyara, the commander Professional Standards Unit, to investigate the entire incident where plain clothed men have beaten up citizens during operations.

{{Tandeka Rwabwere}}

While the latest police brutality was coordinated and overseen by senior police officers, in command of the plain clothed goons was a man who has since been identified as Dan Tandeka Rwabwere, an ex-guard in Iraq. He is said to have worked as a guard in the green zone installation of Al Anbar province of Iraq, and also at High Occupancy Facilities (DFAQ) and in the escorts department. According to police sources, Mr Tandeka is now a “crime preventer” attached to Entebbe police. He is said to originate from Butembererwa Kenshunga in Kiruhura District.

{{James Ruhweza}}

In the overall command of those seen on the streets ordering or participating in the beating of Dr Besigye’s supporters on Wednesday was Mr James Ruhweza, who hours to the announcement of the February 18 poll results, was appointed by Gen Kayihura as the Kampala Metropolitan Area Operations commander.

Mr Ruhweza became prominent for his active role in suppressing the walk-to-work protests in 2011. He is never shy of making loud orders to his officers and men to reign in the public, for example, on Tuesday, he nearly slapped the Divisional Field Operations commander for Kasangati, Mr Fred Ahimbisibwe, for what he called allowing musician Robert Kyagulanyi, aka, Bobi Wine to make a procession from Dr Besigye’s home on Tuesday.

Some of the stick and gun wielding police officers deployed at at FDC head office at Najjanankumbi

{{Geoffrey Kaheebwa}}

Deputy RPC Kampala South Geoffrey Kaheebwa had his hands full. Outside State House Nakasero, Mr Kaheebwa personally ordered his officers to beat anybody, including journalists trying to follow Dr Besigye. At Mulago roundabout, Mr Kaheebwa commandeered his police patrol pick-up truck to block the road.
Here, he jumped out, and together with his officers, swung into action – beating anybody they could land their hands on. Journalists seated on boda boda motorcycles too were not spared. Mr Kaheebwa’s patrol truck would go on up to Dr Besigye’s home in Kasangati caning people who waved to the former presidential candidate along the way.

{{Samuel Bamuzibire}}

Another officer in command during the Entebbe Road beatings was Senior Superintendent of Police Samuel Bamuzibire, the Field Force Unit commander Kampala Metropolitan Area. Unlike his colleagues, Mr Bamuzibire, was holding a hand gun in one hand and a phone in the other as he issued orders.

During Dr Besigye’s recent trial at Kasangati Magistrates Court, Mr Bamuzibire claimed he, like Dr Besigye, was a Colonel but failed to explain when he was tasked to by Dr Besigye’s lawyers. He also acknowledged in court that flashing the “V” FDC sign and making processions were not illegal, despite earlier claims.

{{Jonathan Baroza}}

Sighted on the scene on Wednesday was Jonathan Baroza, a personal assistant to IGP Kayihura. He has been linked to a group of stick-wielding masked goons dubbed “Team No Sleep”, who have on several occasions terrorised people in Kampala, especially Opposition supporters. He coordinates logistics for the group. He was on Tuesday, according to a source, giving orders to the police officers on what to do. Mr Baroza is among some of the police officers who are currently a subject of an investigation by the Inspector General of Government (IGG) following the controversial February promotion of 496 police officers in which he was made to skip two ranks and promoted to Assistant Commissioner of Police.

{Nine others dead after a Nairobi-bound Transline matatu bursts into flames at Maai Mahiu.}

Sixteen people died in two separate road accidents in Maai Mahiu and Salgaa on Friday night.

The dead include seven members of the same family, who died in the road crash at Salgaa trading centre on the busy Nakuru-Eldoret highway.

The accident occurred at around 2:30 am and involved a personal vehicle that was heading to Kitale, a Greenline matatu and a truck-trailer from Eldoret.

Rongai police boss (OCPD) Joseph Mwamburi told the Nation that the personal vehicle was trying to overtake the bus when the accident occurred.

The personal vehicle was ferrying members of the same family. It attempted to overtake the bus when it collided head-on with an oncoming trailer,” he said.

Those who died were a father, his son and daughter, his daughter in law (sons’ wife), and three grandchildren. They were all coming from a relative’s burial in Nyeri.

The bodies were taken to Nakuru County mortuary as the extensively damaged Toyota 110, the truck and the bus were towed to Salgaa police base.

{{Burst into flames }}

In the Maai Mahiu incident, nine passengers died after a Nairobi-bound Transline matatu burst into flames after colliding head-on with a lorry transporting sand.

A majority of those who died had been trapped inside the vehicle, making rescue efforts difficult.

Five passengers who survived were taken to Kijabe Mission Hospital.The driver, who was also rescued, has since gone missing.

{Tanzania has officially handed over to the governments of Malaysia and Australia an aircraft wing suspected to be part of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which disappeared on March 8, 2014 with 239 people onboard when travelling from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to Beijing in China.}

The Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communications, Dr Leonard Chamuriho, flanked by the Director General of Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA), Mr Hamza Johari, handed over the wreckage to officials from Malaysia and Australia in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

“This is the largest piece out of the ten parts which have been recovered during the search operation so far. This part will enable the investigations to go forward,” a senior Air Accident Investigator in Malaysia’s Ministry of Transport, Mr Aslam Khan, noted.

He added; “We appreciate the tremendous efforts by the government and people of Tanzania in recovering the fragment. I call upon other Tanzanians to inform authorities when they spot any debris suspected to be from the missing plane along the Indian Ocean Coast.”

The wreckage will be airlifted to a laboratory in Australia where experts will try to solve the jigsaw puzzle by fitting together the pieces from the missing aircraft. The Australian High Commissioner in East Africa, Mr John Feakes, noted though that it was too early to assess the implication of the piece in the ongoing investigations.

“It is, however, worth to note that the recovery of the wreckage will provide comfort to families of passengers of the missing plane,” the envoy, whose country is leading the search operations, remarked.

Dr Chamuriho explained that the remains were discovered by fishermen in Kojani, Pemba Island, who later informed authorities and the part was transported to Dar es Salaam.

“We have thus handed over the wing as part of our international obligation to enable investigations on the missing plane to continue,” he explained. So far, suspected parts of the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft have been discovered in Madagascar, Reunion Island and Mozambique in the Indian Ocean.

When it disappeared, the plane had 227 passengers from 13 countries and 12 crew

members, all of whom were Malaysians. The DG of TCAA, Mr Hamza Johari, said preliminary examination has indicated that the wreckage is a right wing of a large aircraft, particularly Boeing 777. “Since we have not had a recent accident involving such a big plane and we presumed it was from the missing Malaysia Airlines, we thus contacted our counterparts in Malaysia for further investigations,” he explained.

{Italian sports agent Federico Rosa, who managed disgraced former Kenyan Olympic athlete Rita Jeptoo, has been charged in Kenya with doping offences.}

Mr Rosa denied six counts of doping athletes in court in Nairobi.

They include Jeptoo, who was banned for two years in 2014 after testing positive for blood-boosting drug EPO.

Kenya passed emergency new anti-doping measures in May to avoid a ban on its athletes attending the Olympic Games in Rio.

Mr Rosa, who is a director of Italy-based sports management company Rosa and Associati, was remanded in police custody until Monday, when the court will rule on his bail application.

It will also decide whether he should be given back his passport so that he can travel with his athletes to Europe and Latin America.

However the Italian has been defended by one of his athletes, Asbel Kiprop, who is the reigning 1,500m world champion.

Kiprop – who has a vehement anti-doping stance – said he had worked with Mr Rosa since 2008 and never seen any evidence of doping.

“What I can tell, with my own judgement, is that Federico is innocent. With due process, I think justice is going to prevail,” he told the BBC in Monaco, where he is due to race on Friday.

“If there was doping, they would have given me first because many times I have attempted to run the world record and I’m not getting it. They’d have given it to break the world record,” he added.

More than 40 Kenyan athletes have failed drugs tests since 2011.

As of January 2016, 18 Kenyan athletes were suspended for doping.The best known is Rita Jeptoo, who won the Boston and Chicago marathons.

Last November, former World Anti-Doping Agency president Dick Pound said it was “pretty clear that there are a lot of performance-enhancing drugs being used” in Kenya.

Meanwhile, British Athletics has said it is reviewing its policy of holding winter training camps in Kenya due to allegations of widespread doping in the country.

{Accodring to Oryem, some Ugandans were killed after being run over by a military tank belonging to SPLA-IO}

Kampala-Foreign Affairs minister Oryem Okello told Parliament yesterday that out of the 11 Ugandans who have so far been killed in South Sudan, six were killed after being run over at Jebel Kujur, by a military tank belonging to the SPLA-IO, a force belonging to Vice President Riek Machar.

While briefing the House on the situation in South Sudan, Mr Oryem, who described the situation in South Sudan as ‘remaining tense’, said the six bodies are yet to be retrieved because they are still in a territory being manned by Mr Machar’s forces.

“As soon as the situation relaxes, government will identify and return the Ugandans home,” he said. He, however, said government is taking all measures to ensure the safety of Ugandans and their evacuation.

“As of this morning (yesterday), 3,000 Ugandans assembled at Gumeo Market in Juba waiting to be evacuated,” Mr Oryem said. “For Ugandans in other parts of South Sudan, particularly in Wau and Torit, government has advised to limit their movements and where the situation warrants, move to the UN compounds.” Fighting broke out in Juba on Sunday between forces loyal to the President Salva Kiir and his first Vice President, Riek Marchar.

Mr Oryem said government has received reports that Mr Marchar’s forces are having an upper hand in terms of control and that Yei, a medium-sized city in southwest south Sudan, is expected to fall “into the hands of the rebels soon”.
That statement, however made MPs question why Uganda was referring to Mr Marchar as a rebel yet he is part of a coalition government.

Compensation queries
The MPs also asked government to explain whether Ugandans would be compensated for the loss in Juba.
“For these losses, how does the government of South Sudan compensate our people? It’s not the first time our people have been killed yet we contributed so much in the attainment of their independence,” Mr Mohammad Nsereko, the Kampala Central, MP said.

Bulamogi MP Kenneth Lubogo said it was wrong for East Africa to admit South Sudan into the community.
“How can a country that has not proved to have a track record of human rights, failed to work with its neighbours to bring peace come into the East African Community,” he asked. “South Sudan doesn’t want to show that they appreciate the effort Uganda has put to bring peace in that country.”

Security Minister Henry Tumukunde, however, said government’s concern for now was to rescue Ugandans. He also said the country’s borders to the north are secure.

“National Security Council assessed the situation and made sure the situation in South Sudan doesn’t spill into Uganda, especially regarding the flow of weapons.

Masaka Municipality MP Mathias Mpuuga wondered when normalcy would return.

{Authorities in Tanzania and the United Kingdom have seized the biggest ever consignment of cocaine estimated at a street value of £512 million (about1.5bn/-).}

Following the seizure on Monday this week, a Scottish High Court convicted the captain and first officer of an ocean-going tug boat of drug trafficking. Following a 12-week trial at the High Court in Glasgow, Ship Captain Mumin Sahin and First Mate Emin Ozmen were found guilty of two counts of drug trafficking.

They will be sentenced on August 12. The cocaine, with an estimated potential street value of 1.5bn/- and a weight of 3.2 tonnes, was found hidden on board the Tanzanian-flagged MV Hamal in April 2015 off the coast of Scotland. UK authorities were only able to stop the vessel in international waters due to the cooperation of Tanzania.

The MV Hamal is owned by the Kiev Shipping and Trading Corporation and had an all Turkish crew. Before being apprehended in Scotland, ship logs showed the MV Hamal had sailed from Turkey to West Africa, Tenerife and Guyana.

Contacted yesterday, Police Spokesperson Advera Bulimba said she was outside her office and thus could not be able to make follow-up on the matter. “I am not in the office now; and I can only comment if I have enough information,’’ she said in a telephone interview.

Efforts to contact the Head of Interpol, Mr Gustavus Babile, and the Director of Criminal Investigation (DCI), Diwani Athumani, yesterday proved futile. Under international maritime law, Tanzania had to give permission to allow the UK authorities to board the vessel in international waters.

This was because the vessel was registered under the Tanzanian flag. British High Commissioner Dianna Melrose said yesterday that the case indicated the truly global reach of drug trafficking and other serious organised crime.

She remarked that it was only by working together that the vice could be stopped. According to her, the operation to stop the boat in question led to the largest ever seizure of cocaine in the UK. “I would like to thank the Tanzanian authorities for their vital support. The Attorney General and Director of Public Prosecutions acted decisively to grant the permission for UK law enforcement to stop and board this vessel.

The swiftness of their response enabled them to act before the vessel could escape,” the envoy observed. The permission was given by the Attorney General and Director of Public Prosecutions within twenty four hours of the request being made by the UK Criminal Justice Advisor based at the British High Commission in Tanzania. The quick response enabled UK law enforcement to act swiftly to intercept the vessel before it could evade capture.

The vessel was intercepted by a Royal Navy destroyer and UK Border Force cutter in the North Sea approximately 100 miles off the coast of Aberdeenshire. It was boarded on April 23 and escorted into the Port of Aberdeen.

On arrival, a three-day search of the boat was conducted by specialist UK Border Force teams, alongside National Crime Agency (NCA) and Scottish Police Authority forensic teams. About 128 bales of cocaine were found in the ballast tanks on the Hamal, each weighing approximately 25 kilos.

The total weight of the cocaine taken off the vessel was in excess of 3.2 tonnes. Forensic tests revealed the cocaine had a purity of between 58 and 74 per cent. It would likely have been cut three times over before being sold, meaning it had the potential to create almost ten tonnes of adulterated street level purity cocaine, valued at around £512 million.

The UK has already spent £1.08 million through its Conflict Security and Stability Fund in Tanzania, helping different agencies work together and creating a team of specialist prosecutors and law enforcement to tackle drug trafficking, corruption and other serious organised crime.

They work closely with police, prosecutors and the courts.

{13 July 2016 – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the assassination earlier today of Hafsa Mossi, former Burundian Minister for East African Community Affairs and Member of the East African Legislative Assembly, in the capital, Bujumbura.}

“This despicable act of violence only serves to promote divisions, entrench mistrust, and destabilize the country,” said a statement issued this evening by Mr. Ban’s spokesperson, in which the UN chief extended his deepest condolences to Ms. Mossi’s family.

The Secretary-General in his statement reiterated the need to intensify efforts to find a negotiated settlement to the crisis in Burundi and called on all parties concerned to engage fully and in good faith in the peace process led by the East African Community (EAC).

“The United Nations will continue to provide assistance to the EAC-led dialogue process and its Facilitator, former President of […] Tanzania, Benjamin Mkapa,: the statement concluded.

Media reports suggest that Ms. Mossi was shot by unknown assailants near her home in Bujumbura.

Burundi’s political crisis began last year when President Pierre Nkurunziza decided to run for a third term, sparking protests. To date, it has been reported that hundreds of people have been killed, more than 240,000 have fled the nation, and thousands more have been arrested.