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Tag: GreatLakesNews

  • ICC awards ‘symbolic’ $250 each to Congo war crimes victims

    {In its first such decision, the International Criminal Court on Friday awarded $250 dollars as “symbolic” damages to each victim of a former Congolese warlord, a sum swiftly dismissed as meaningless by those who lost homes and loved ones in a militia attack on their village 14 years ago.}

    The order was a landmark step for the tribunal, set up in 2002 to prosecute the world’s worst atrocities, marking the first time it has awarded individual reparations and placed monetary values on the harm caused by such crimes.

    Presiding judge Marc Perrin de Brichambaut acknowledged the amount of $250 to each of the 297 victims of Germain Katanga “does not make up for the totality of the crimes”, estimating the total damage caused in the 2003 attack at $3.7 million.

    But in announcing both collective and individual reparations, he said he hoped it would bring some “measure of relief” and help victims in the Democratic Republic of Congo rebuild their lives.

    The ICC sentenced Katanga to 12 years in jail in 2014 after convicting him of five charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for the February 2003 ethnic attack on Bogoro, a village in troubled Ituri Province.

    He was accused of supplying weapons to his militia which went on a rampage, shooting and hacking to death with machetes some 200 people.

    Katanga, who watched the proceedings by video-link from a jail in Kinshasa where he is on trial on separate charges, was also found liable for $1 million of the total compensation, though the court recognised that he was penniless, or “indigent”, and had no home or possessions.

    It asked that he consider making a public apology or writing a letter to the victims, or even attending a public reconciliation ceremony.

    {{Two days of beer }}

    “These individual reparations don’t have any symbolic value. Today $250 doesn’t mean anything in the DRC,” Salomon Kisembo Byaruhanga, a local tribal chief, told AFP.

    “Those who will get it will most likely waste it all away on beer in two days,” he added, saying it would be far better to rebuild a village or construct a memorial.

    In its 1,000-page reparations order, the court said it had assessed the total damage at $3,752,620. For instance it had valued each destroyed Bogoro home at $600, while the cost of each harvest lost that year was $150.

    It also estimated that the psychological harm suffered by a person for the death of a close family member was $8,000, or $4,000 for a more distant relative. Most of the order is confidential to protect the identity of victims.

    While no total sum was given for the collective reparations, the court said it should go towards projects to help the victims with housing, education and “income-generating activities” as well as counselling.

    The Trust Fund for Victims, an independent body set up under the tribunal’s founding guidelines, has now been asked to consider using its resources to pay the reparations and to come up with a plan by late June.

    Court officials said the fund could release up to $1 million in the Katanga case.

    Legal representatives for the victims had assessed the damage at $16.4 million in a filing to the court last year. They calculated that 228 homes were destroyed, that the school was lost and that hundreds of cattle and other livestock had fled or been killed.

    {{We’ve buried our dead }}

    “What will $250 change in our lives?” asked Jean Bosco Lalo, a coordinator for the Ituri Civil Society group of local associations.

    “Our communities have already turned the page. Everyone has rebuilt their homes. We’ve buried our dead.”

    Rights groups however welcomed the award as an “important decision.”

    “Progressively, the ICC is developing the ways and means to respond to victims needs through its jurisprudence,” said Carla Ferstman, director of the victims advocacy group REDRESS.

    The Trust Fund for Victims has $5 million available, of which $1 million has been set aside for the case of Thomas Lubanga, sentenced in 2012 to 14 years for conscripting child soldiers in the DRC.

    In October, judges approved “symbolic reparations” to create a “living memorial”. But a final decision on collective reparations for Lubanga’s victims is still awaited.

    Former Congolese warlord militiaman Germain Katanga at ICC in The Hague. He is liable to pay any compensation.

    Source:AFP

  • Kenya:Prepare to go home in August, Raila tells Jubilee

    {ODM leader Raila Odinga has told the Jubilee administration to prepare to go home in August 8 for failing Kenyans.}

    During a tour of the Uwanja wa Mbuzi Stadium, a state-of-the-art multi-purpose facility in Kongowea, Nyali, the Opposition chief accused President Uhuru Kenyatta of taking the country back to the repressive days where all orders came from the head of State.

    Mr Odinga was reacting to comments by President Kenyatta in the recent past where he vowed to teach Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho a lesson, accusing the county boss of pestering him and interfering with his work.

    “I was surprised recently when President Uhuru claimed he can stop people from attending a public rally. This cannot happen as provided by the constitution that Kenyans voted for in 2013,” he said.

    Mr Odinga said the new constitution created two levels of government which have distinctive powers.

    “Jubilee must know that we have the national and county governments which should work complementing each other. They are not in competition. If the Jubilee government can’t accept this, then there will be problems,” he said.

    He supported Governor Hassan Joho’s track record saying the governor had initiated development projects in the county, as opposed to claims that he had done nothing.

    “This modern stadium here is a true testimony of Joho’s achievements. This ground will help people to relax, exercise and play games. It’s a modern facility found in a few places in the world,” he said.

    He referred an incident where Governor Joho was stopped by police from attending President Kenyatta’s function at Mtongwe as “an insult”.

    “You cannot stop a Governor from attending a public function, more so in his county. This is in the old constitution, not the one we are using. Every Kenyan has the freedom to attend any such function,” he said.

    Mr Odinga landed in Mombasa Saturday morning and is expected to address a public rally at Tononoka grounds on Sunday.

    ODM leader Raila Odinga and Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho address Kongowea residents at Uwanja wa Mbuzi, Mombasa on March 25, 2017.

    Source:Daily Nation

  • Tanzania:‘Queen of Ivory’ decries delay in court case

    {The alleged ‘Queen of Ivory,’ Chinese national Yang Feng Clan yesterday broke her silence over the prosecution’s failure to call witnesses in the trial under which she is accused with two other businessmen of illegally dealing in elephant tusks worth 5.4bn/-.}

    She told Principal Resident Magistrate Huruma Shaidi at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam when the trial came for hearing that for four consecutive sessions the prosecution has failed to summon any witness, thus causing unnecessary delays of disposal of the matter.

    “This is not fair, your honour. President Magufuli says Hapa Kazi Tu, but we do not see any implementation of this slogan before this court. I am in remand and I have been denied bail. Where is justice now?” she queried.

    The trial magistrate assured the accused persons that the case will be disposed of soon as it has been causelisted in a special session. He disclosed that the hearing session will resume on March 29. Other accused persons in the matter are Manase Philemon (39) and Salivius Matembo (39).

    In the trial, the prosecution alleges that between January 1, 2000 and May 22, 2014 in the city, all the three accused persons carried on business of the said government trophies. They allegedly bought and sold 706 pieces of elephant tusks weighing 1889kg valued at 5,435,865,000/-.

    The prosecution alleged that within the same period and place, intentionally, Clan organised, managed and financed a criminal racket by collecting, transporting or exporting and selling the elephant tusks without having permit of the director of wildlife or CITES permit.

    Source:Daily News

  • Thousands flee DRC violence

    {Inter-communal violence in south-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, a top United Nations aid official in the country has said, warning the response was being outstripped by needs.}

    “Unless peaceful coexistence is fully restored between the two communities, humanitarian needs will continue to spiral out of control,” said the Humanitarian Coordinator in the DRC, Mamadou Diallo, wrapping up a three-day visit to the region.

    Some 370,000 people have fled the cascading violence across all six territories that make up the province in the last nine months, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated.

    The insecurity has disrupted aid operations resulting in what Diallo called “among the most urgent humanitarian hot spots in a country experiencing a worsening humanitarian situation.”

    The UN Humanitarian Coordinator led a group that included representatives from UN agencies, donors and non-governmental organisations to Tanganyika’s Kalemie and Manono territories.

    In Kalemie, the delegation visited the Kalunga site, home to some 17,000 people, where UN partners are providing emergency water and health care services amidst ongoing shelter concerns.

    “Speaking to the delegation, a displaced woman pleaded for education projects for the thousands of children living in the site, to avoid their further marginalisation,” OCHA said.

    As of mid-January 2017, 50,000 people who had fled the inter-community conflict in Tanganyika had arrived in Moba and in the outskirt of Kalemie where they are now living in extremely precarious conditions.

    On behalf of the international humanitarian community, the UN asked for $40-million to cover all the humanitarian needs, including $20-million for the most urgent, life-threatening needs for the displaced families.

    The DR Congo Common Humanitarian Fund and the UN Central Emergency Response Fund have recently allocated $5-million each for the response, with the Humanitarian Fund planning an additional allocation of $2-million.

    The humanitarian concerns came as the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for DRC, Maman Sidikou, briefed the Security Council about the deteriorating security situation and the need to implement the December 31 agreement on the electoral process.

    Under the agreement, President Joseph Kabila would stay in office until elections are held by the end of 2017.

    During this period, a “National Council for Overseeing the Electoral Agreement and Process” (CNSAP) would be set up, and a new prime minister named from opposition ranks.

    Source:Enca

  • ISS Today: Burundi keeps knocking at SADC’s door

    {The Southern African Development Community (SADC) may not seem such an exclusive club to many of its own citizens. After all, a few of its members – Swaziland and Zimbabwe spring to mind – systematically violate the club’s ostensible rules, regarding respect for democracy, the rule of law and governance especially, without evident fear of expulsion.}

    But the SADC club is nonetheless turning up its nose at two other countries that are trying to join.

    Burundi and Comoros have both been banging on the door of the club for many months. But SADC, at least for now, is not opening it.

    Last August, a SADC ministerial committee decided at a meeting in Maputo to send a SADC secretariat delegation to Burundi to assess its eligibility to join. The secretariat had already done a similar due diligence investigation of Comoros’s application.

    In February this year, the ministerial committee met again to discuss the secretariat’s reports on both countries. It referred their applications for memberships to a special sub-committee of SADC foreign ministers, according to officials.

    They made secret recommendations. South African President Jacob Zuma announced last week that the applications for membership from Burundi and Comoros would be discussed at the SADC summit in Swaziland last weekend.

    But this didn’t happen. The applications were referred to a broader meeting of SADC ministers, probably to take place in June.

    Official sources said the recommendation of the foreign ministers’ sub-committee was that neither country should be admitted as a member of SADC, at least not yet.

    “You wouldn’t expect SADC to accept a candidate with issues like that,” one official said, about Burundi.

    Another said the SADC consensus was that Burundi needed “to put its house in order” before being admitted. In effect, this demands that Burundi show good faith by engaging in political negotiations, led by the East African Community (EAC), with all genuine interlocutors – including the broad coalition of opposition parties, CNARED (The National Council for the Respect of the Arusha Agreement and Rules of Law), to resolve the country’s political and security crisis, which it has so far refused to do.

    The application of Comoros appeared to have better prospects and some media reports last year suggested it would succeed.

    But officials said this week that although Comoros “technically meets the criteria,” there was still no consensus among SADC members on its applications. Several countries were concerned at the country’s proclivity for political violence and coups (about 20 to date, successful and unsuccessful).

    Those criteria for membership are mainly adherence to democracy, economic development, inclusivity, good governance and the rule of law, SADC’s 15 current member states are telling the two aspirant members (some with their fingers crossed behind their backs, presumably).

    Why either Burundi or Comoros want to join SADC is not entirely clear, though it would not be entirely illogical for either to do so, at least geographically speaking.

    Burundi’s neighbour, Tanzania, is a member of SADC and co-member of Burundi’s proximate international organisation, the EAC. Comoros lies in the Indian Ocean, between Seychelles, Madagascar and Mozambique – all SADC members – and already shares with the other three island states membership of the Indian Ocean Commission, their proximate international organisation.

    Apart from the automatic increment of respectability that joining wider international organisations would normally bring to both countries, there is also a hint of “forum-shopping” in Burundi’s quest to joint SADC, regional commentary has suggested.

    The political negotiations supervised by the EAC to end the Burundi political and security crisis have stalled, amid growing regional disenchantment with Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza’s intransigence. The crisis has widened the rift between him and Rwandan President Paul Kagame, whom he has accused of stoking the armed rebellion against him.

    Does Nkurunziza perhaps hope, therefore, to tap into the anti-Rwanda sentiment that runs in SADC, and which has been engendered by the rivalry between Kigali and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a SADC member state?

    Stephanie Wolters, Head of the Peace and Security Research Programme at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, points out that Angola, another SADC member, is one of Burundi’s closest behind-the-scenes allies.

    She notes that Angola has already helped Burundi through the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) of which both are members. “Before Angola took over the ICGLR two years ago, it was seen as a vehicle for Rwandan and Uganda interests. But Angola’s leadership and its pairing of ICGLR-SADC summits has changed that for now.”

    If Burundi is hoping to use SADC in the same way, that strategy does not seem to be succeeding, at least for now.

    SADC itself appears to be following a different strategy for encouraging regional change, than its approach in the past. In 1997, it controversially admitted the DRC, just months after the fall of Mobutu Sese Seko and while the country was still embroiled in the conflict that was to suck in several nearby states.

    SADC’s strategy then was ostensibly to bring a troubled neighbour into the fold and to collectively try to help it resolve its problems from within. Although, Wolters points out, the massive potential market offered by DRC, and its significant natural resources – including the Inga hydro-electric projects, “were not negligible elements in SADC’s consideration.

    Is SADC’s apparently approach to Burundi different only because of its lack of resources?

    A senior South African official denies any contradiction, noting that it was Pretoria that drove SADC’s acceptance of DRC – and that was because of South Africa’s special interest in stabilising the country.

    Twenty years later, SADC has adopted instead – and apparently for the first time – what looks like a European Union-style strategy, setting conditions for membership which it hopes will incentivise aspirants to democratise and stabilise. This is what the EU did, successfully, with then-undemocratic countries such as Portugal, Spain and some Eastern European states after the fall of the Soviet Union.

    But is this really what SADC is now doing with Burundi in particular? Or does it simply not want to be burdened with the responsibility and the potential damage to its reputation of bringing on board such a delinquent neighbour?

    For whatever one might think of the wisdom of admitting DRC, it did commit SADC and especially South Africa, to try to rehabilitate the chronically turbulent country.

    Though the file is far from closed – and indeed DRC was a major issue at the recent summit – South Africa and SADC claim some success, citing the relative stability of the country.

    SADC would also point to the intervention of Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola in 1998 to save the Laurent Kabila regime from a Rwanda-led military intervention; and also the Force Intervention Brigade, comprising troops from three SADC countries, and which is still fighting armed rebel groups in eastern DRC.

    Another factor that might explain the different SADC approaches to DRC then and Burundi now is that in 2004, SADC leaders – probably as a result of the indigestion caused by admitting DRC – placed a moratorium on new membership, though not completely closing the door on new members in unusual circumstances. The aim was to consolidate the organisation. The exceptions were that after Seychelles pulled out, SADC admitted Madagascar to take its place, as it were, and then when Seychelles decided to return, SADC accepted it as a previous member.

    If SADC is seriously considering admitting Burundi and Comoros, it seems rather fanciful to hope, though, that setting them democracy, stability and rule-of-law conditions for membership will really cure their chronic bad habits, as aspirant EU members changed theirs.

    For one thing, there is a large credibility deficit in SADC’s strategy because of the yawning gap between SADC’s ostensible values and the actual practices of some of its members.

    And the EU has a whole lot more than SADC to offer new members; such as free access to the world’s biggest market for their goods, services – and perhaps most importantly, workers – as well as generous development funds.

    If SADC really hopes to get grudging democrats such as Burundi to plod in the direction of democracy and good governance, it needs to provide a better example and to tie a much bigger carrot to the end of the string. DM

    Source:Daily Maverick

  • Uganda:Makerere withholds 14,000 transcripts over fake marks

    {Makerere University has withheld 14,895 transcripts for students who graduated in February until the institution completes cleaning up its results management system after some staff infiltrated the system and falsified some of the students’ marks.}

    Prof John Ssentamu Ddumba, the university vice chancellor, yesterday asked the former students and the public to give them three to four weeks to investigate the matter and remove those who were illegally listed in the 67th graduation booklet.

    “There is nothing the university can do. But students can give us three to four weeks to sort out the problem and we will start issuing transcripts again. We hadn’t started giving them out yet and I can’t give them when we know there is a problem,” Prof Ddumba told Daily Monitor yesterday in an interview.

    The university took the decision on March 9 after suspending four staff from the Academic Registrar’s department on suspicion that they participated in altering students’ marks without permission from their bosses.

    The suspects include Mr Mike Bitamale Barongo, the head of ICT, Mr Dennis Mbabazi, Ms Joyce Namusoke, and Mr Christopher Ntwatwa, all administrative assistants in the Academic Registrar’s office, who have since been arrested. Only Mr Barongo was later released.

    It is against this backdrop that the Academic Registrar, Mr Alfred Masikye Namoah, on March 20 wrote to the university staff, students and stakeholders indicating they had temporarily shut down the transcripts processing in order to clean up the mess.

    “The Academic Registrar with the college registrars recalled and scrutinised the names of students on the 67th graduation list. During the verification, names of 58 students with altered marks were withdrawn. The university management discovered that there was alteration of marks,” Mr Namoah wrote almost a month after the February graduation ceremony.

    “This is to inform our graduates and any other stakeholders that the transcripts processing system is temporarily shut down. The university will continue to give updates regarding this matter,” he added.

    This is not the first time that Makerere withholds students’ transcripts after graduation. In 2015, a total of 13,776 students were affected as they waited for the university officials to verify their results.

    Ms Christine Amori, an Industrial and Organisational Psychology graduate, is one of the affected former students who has failed to appear for interviews after graduation for lack of a transcript to prove that she completed her studies. She looked agitated yesterday at the news and for some hours, lingered in the Senate Building, which houses the transcripts office pondering on her next move.

    “There is high competition out there for the jobs. I went to apply for a job at the Uganda Management Institute but I was asked to submit my academic documents. When I came to pick up the transcript, I was turned down. I don’t know what to do,” Ms Amori said.

    Like his boss, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe, the deputy vice chancellor in charge of finance, said they regret the inconvenience they have caused their clients but appealed that the public gives the university an opportunity to clean up its system.

    “It is true the university realised there is a mess in the results of the 67th graduands. They had to halt issuance of transcript so that they can clean up the whole process and issue transcripts without any doubt. It is unfortunate for our former students that we can’t serve them right now,” Prof Nawangwe said.

    Mr Deus Kamunyu, a lecturer, supported the university management decision to suspend issuance of the transcripts in order to safeguard the institution’s data and image.

    Prof Ddumba said the university has engaged its Senate IT team to clean up the system. However, some staff members are worried that because the team has been working with the suspects in the same department, they could be used to tamper with the evidence to use against those already in police custody.

    In 2008, the Senate at its 133rd meeting noted with concern that the data they were storing on the Academic Records Information System (ARIS) was not secure and was not functioning as well as expected. It was also noted that some academic units had declined to use it and instead developed their own.

    A committee was subsequently set up comprising Prof Sandy Stevens Tickodri-Togboa, the former vice chancellor in charge of Finance and former State minister for Higher Education, Dr Idris A Rai, Dr N Mulira and Dr L.K Atuhaire.

    The team later recommended that the systems developed to handle examination results be equipped with alerts so that they can instantly notify the control centre of changes being made to marks indicating the location and user.

    “That information would enable the Control Centre to verify whether proper authority to make changes was given,” the report on ARIS assessment notes.

    But the university officials have never implemented some of the recommendations with reports of altered results without authority continuing to haunt the university almost 10 years after the safeguards were proposed.

    Awarded. Makerere University Chancellor, Dr Ezra Suruma (right), hands over a certificate to Mr Rodgers Mukalele (left), the most outstanding student in sciences during the 67th graduation ceremony last month.

    Source:Daily Monitor

  • Kenya:Trial adjourned after suspect in lawyer Willy Kimani’s case falls ill

    {The trial of four Administration Police officers accused of murdering lawyer Willy Kimani and two others was adjourned after one of the suspects fell ill in court.}

    Stephen Morogo requested Lady Justice Jessie Lessit to discontinue the hearing because he could not follow the proceedings due “to abdominal complications”.

    Mr Morogo told the judge through his lawyer that “he begun vomiting while on his way to the court from Kamiti Maximum Prison where he is detained.”

    State Prosecutor Nicholas Mutuku told the court that although he was ready to proceed with the case, it was in order for the suspect to be given medical attention.

    Mr Mutuku asked the court to direct health personnel to provide a detailed medical report explaining Mr Morogo’s sickness and treatment.

    The judge directed prison authorities to escort the suspect to hospital for treatment.

    She also ordered that a medical report be produced in court on March 27.

    Mr Morogo is jointly charged alongside Senior Sergeant Fredrick ole Leliman, Leonard Mwangi Maina, Sylvia Wanjiku Wanjohi and police informer Peter Ngugi Kamau with the murders of lawyer Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri.

    They allegedly killed the three dubbed “The Mavoko Three” at Soweto in Athi River.

    The three were allegedly kidnapped as they left Mavoko Law Courts on June 23, 2016 then locked up at the Syokimau AP camp before they were moved at night.

    Stephen Marogo, one of the accused persons in the murder case of lawyer Willy Kimani during a past appearance in court.

    Source:Daily Nation

  • Magufuli effects mini-reshuffle

    {President John Magufuli yesterday effected mini-reshuffle of the cabinet, dropping the Information, Culture, Arts and Sports Minister, Mr Nape Nnauye, whom he replaced with Dr Harrison Mwakyembe.}

    President Magufuli also appointed Prof Palamagamba Kabudi to take over from Dr Mwakyembe as Constitution and Legal Affairs Minister.

    Director of the Presidential Communications Unit Gerson Msigwa said in a statement in the city yesterday two newly appointed ministers will be sworn in today at the State House.

    Mr Nnauye thanked the president for giving him an opportunity in the cabinet and asked Tanzanians to support the head of state in his initiatives to build the new nation.

    Addressing the media aboard his vehicle outside St Peter’s Church at Oysterbay after the police reportedly cancelled his scheduled press conference at Protea hotel, Mr Nnauye particularly commended Dr Mwakyembe for the appointment, asking the media fraternity and Tanzanians to accord him the support he needs to perform his new duties.

    The mini-reshuffle has come just a day after Mr Nnauye was given a report by the team he had formed to investigate allegations against Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner Paul Makonda on the invasion of a local radio station.

    The former minister had pledged to hand over the report to the Head of State for appropriate action, saying the report and subsequent actions will give a lesson to politicians bent on abusing their boundaries of duty.

    Source:Daily News

  • UN finds 10 mass graves in crisis-hit DR Congo region

    {The United Nations said Wednesday investigators found 10 mass graves in the violence-wracked Kasai region in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s centre.}

    “We have communicated to the (Congolese) government the presence of seven mass graves in the town of Demba … and three mass graves in Tshimbulu,” UN human rights officer Barbara Matasconi told reporters in capital Kinshasa.

    The remote region has been plagued by violence since mid-August when government forces killed a tribal chief and militia leader, Kamwina Nsapu, who had rebelled against the central government of President Joseph Kabila.

    Clashes between government forces and Nsapu supporters began in central Kasai, but the violence has since spilled over to the neighbouring provinces of Kasai-Oriental and Lomami, leaving at least 400 people dead.

    Matasconi said her office has received “very serious” allegations of other mass graves but they have not been “confirmed”.

    The Congolese government previously admitted to the existence of three mass graves in the region, but provided no details on the identities of those killed or how they died.

    Two foreign UN experts, an American and a Swedish-Chilean, along with their four Congolese staff were kidnapped on March 11 in the region. A Uruguayan peacekeeper was also shot and injured the week before that.

    The United Nations has nearly 19,000 troops deployed in the DR Congo, its largest and costliest peacekeeping mission, with about 100 of those troops in the Kasai region.

    Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) soldiers sitting at the back of a pick-up truck in Rutshuru on November 4, 2013. 10 mass graves were found the violence-wracked Kasai region.

    Source:AFP

  • Uganda:Three arrested over Kaweesi murder

    {Police have arrested three suspects in the murder of Police Spokesman Andrew Felix Kaweesi who was gunned down with his bodyguard and driver last week.}

    The Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, told mourners during the burial of the remains of Kaweesi yesterday that one suspect had been intercepted trying to cross the border into the Democratic Republic of Congo.

    The police Flying Squad operatives had earlier arrested two suspects, both Muslims linked to Nakasero Mosque in Kampala. At around lunch time yesterday, another was arrested in western Uganda as he attempted to cross the border into DR Congo.

    “As we talk now there are people who have been arrested. One was intercepted as he was escaping to Democratic Republic of Congo,” Gen Kayihura said, during the burial at the late Kaweesi’s home in Kitwekyanjovu village in Kyazanga Sub-county, Lwengo District.

    The suspected killers were driven to the Flying Squad headquarters at Nalufenya Police Station in Jinja District. Their identities were not readily established.

    The late Kaweesi was killed together with his bodyguard Kenneth Erau and driver Godfrey Wambewo by gunmen moving on motorcycles, a short distance from his residence in the city suburb of Kulambiro last Friday.

    When contacted last evening, infuriated Nakasero Mosque leaders and Muslims reacted with consternation and accused the police authorities of playing politics and tarnishing their religion. The Muslim leaders challenged those claiming that they arrested two men linked to any of their mosques in Kampala to produce evidence.

    Mr Siraje Kifamba, the spokesperson of Nakasero Mosque, last evening said he was not aware of any person arrested by police from Nakaseo Mosque.

    “I am not aware of anyone arrested from Nakasero Mosque not even from the William Street Mosque,” Mr Kifamba said. “We are not aware of the arrests police is talking about.. may be ask the people who gave you that information to give you evidence of the arrests,” he added.

    The footage

    Gen Kayihura said police obtained a footage from a nearby supermarket near the scene of crime in Kulambiro showing three killers, who participated in the shooting, riding motorcycles but said their identities were still being scrutinised.

    “Kayihura doesn’t sleep. We are not sleeping. Security agencies aren’t sleeping. Instead of discouraging messages, you should be like fighters and use this opportunity to fight on,” Kayihura told the mourners.
    The minister of Internal Affairs, Gen Jeje Odongo, praised the late Kaweesi as a professional and hardworking police officer.

    Gen Katumba Wamala, the minister of Works and former Chief of Defence Forces, who recruited Kaweesi into the police in 2001, said his killing should teach the men and women in uniform that they are as vulnerable as civilians.

    “We are human beings in the first place, and we belong to the population. You have seen how the population has responded since the incident happened. We belong to the people. This must be a reminder that our strength is in the people,” Gen Wamala said.

    The widow, Annet Kaweesi, said she was at a loss on what she will tell her children when they grow up because currently they don’t know what happened to their father.

    She is expected to undergo a Caesarean today. Bishop of Masaka Diocese, John Baptist Kaggwa, said Kaweesi was a hero in Lwengo.

    “Last year, I was with him during a confirmation ceremony. He urged children to study and parents to pay fees for their children. Kaweesi was not rich to give out money, but the richness God gave him was to befriend different people regardless of his bank account,” Bishop Kaggwa eulogised.

    He said Kaweesi encouraged parents to educate their children.

    “He saw this place was lagging behind. He decided to uplift it through education. He bought land and partnered with his friends and the school exists,” the bishop said of Kaweesi.

    He added: “Kaweesi was a security officer but he did not distance himself from the ordinary people. He constructed roads and ponds for irrigation and animal water.”

    Bishop Kaggwa also praised the late Kaweesi for partnering with friends to bring electricity to the area for development.

    “He was an example of Christ who washed his disciples’ feet but asked them to do what he had done. He was an example. He had responsibility and would be forgiven if he never showed up for events,” Bishop Kaggwa said.
    He added: “Kaweesi would play with his children; you politicians, do you have time for your children?”

    Voices

    “As we talk now, there are people who have been arrested. One was intercepted as he was escaping to the Democratic Republic of Congo.” Gen Kale KAyihura, Police boss.

    “The fallen Andrew Kaweesi will be remembered as a humble and calm man who served his country with zeal. He never let his profession to interfere with his humanity.” Col. Felix Kulayigye, the UPDF representative in parliament

    “I am not aware of anyone arrested from Nakasero Mosque not even William Street Mosque.” Mr Siraje Kifamba, the Spokesperson of Nakasero Mosque.

    “The deceased loved his home district. When he got some money, he decided to invest it in his home district.”
    Ms Winnie Ssozi, the headteacher Kitooro Hill View in Kyazanga town.

    “Kaweesi has been an inspiration to many of us as he came from a humble background and rose to the top.”

    Mr Rajab Kyebambe, a crime preventer.

    Rest in Peace. IGP Kale Kayihura lays a wreath on the casket containing the remains of AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi during the burial ceremony at the deceased’s country home in Kitwekyanjovu village in Lwengo District.

    Source:Daily Monitor