Tag: GreatLakesNews

(Chimpreports)-{Ugandans will take long to have another president with the person and quality of President Yoweri Museveni once he is gone, Inspector General of Police Gen Kale Kayihura has said. }

The Police boss on Monday said that he shuddered at how Ugandans up to date had chosen to turn a blind eye to the positive attributes in their leader and resorted only to hurling insults at him as though he was the worst President the country has had.

He added that while Ugandans despised President Museveni, many people out in the region craved to have a leader like him.

“Here you are saying, you are tired of him, he should go, but your friends out there wish he was their president,” Kayihura told hundreds of Makerere University students whom he had just passed after attending a course in patriotism, crime prevention and self defence.

“Recently I hosted my fellow police commanders of the EAPCCO and the President came and facilitated it the conference, but when he left everyone was telling me ‘Oh, ‘You have a great leader, if only he was our President.’

The Eastern Africa Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation brings together top police leaders from 13 countries across the region.

Kayihura urged the youngsters to utilize their attained education to always internalize the messages in the President’s national addresses, which he said contained a clear roadmap of the country’s future right from independence.

At the function, the IGP took a moment to distribute copies of a handbook titled ‘Uganda was not Created by the British,’ containing some of the president’s key national addresses.

“These should help you comprehend better where Uganda has come from and envision where we are headed. Once you have this knowledge you will work toward the development and transformation of you county, rather than wasting time in crimes and politicking.

The General also suggested one or two courses to be undertaken by university students every semester, to help them enhance their patriotism, safeguard their communities and contribute to the country’s stability.

{Despite Burundi’s request that the United Nations mission helping it recover from decades of ethnic war end by mid-2014, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is recommending its renewal for another full year as the country moves towards crucial elections amid political violence and intra-party tensions.}

“Our best efforts to consolidate peace in Burundi, as advanced as they are, remain incomplete,”

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative Parfait Onanga-Anyanga told the Security Council today in presenting the latest report on the small Central African country, where hundreds of thousands of people have perished in largely inter-ethnic fighting between Hutus and Tutsis that erupted even before it gained independence from Belgium in 1962.

Noting the fragility of essential peacebuilding indicators, he told the Council that political actors meeting from 27 to 29 November to assess the road map adopted last March had recognized the need to tackle such challenges as the “climate of distrust” among key political stakeholders, the absence of an agreed process to review the constitution and persistent violence among young people affiliated with certain parties. For such reasons, the Secretary-General had called for sustained political support.

Burundi is often cited as a success story in UN efforts to consolidate peace in countries that have been ravaged by conflict and was the first country, along with Sierra Leone, to be put on the agenda of the UN Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) when it was set up in 2006, to prevent post-conflict nations from relapsing into bloodshed.

In his report recommending a full year’s extension of the UN Office in Burundi (BNUB), Mr. Ban noted Burundi’s “substantial progress, overcoming formidable challenges since the end of the civil war,” but warned that such gains are far from irreversible as the country prepares for presidential elections in 2015 – “a litmus test” for long-term stability.

“Now, more than ever, the Government of Burundi must demonstrate visionary leadership by continuing to promote the spirit of dialogue and consensus enshrined in the [2000] Arusha [peace] accords, which has helped Burundians to address the structural causes of conflict in their country,” he said. “Given Burundi’s history and social make-up, majority rule and a winner-takes-all mentality could erase such hard-won gains.”

He noted that a UN strategic assessment conducted from September to December found that the political scene remains deeply polarized, with the Government using its dominance in Parliament to enact laws infringing on political and civil rights, contributing to a shrinking of political space, while the opposition threatens to take steps to confront the Government.

Mr. Ban stressed that President Pierre Nkurunziza’s request that BNUB, headed by Mr. Onanga-Anyanga, be drawn down within six months as of 15 February, so that Burundi can take fuller ownership of its political process, “poses a difficult dilemma, given the continuing need for a United Nations political presence whose functions cannot be entirely covered by the United Nations country team.”

The Government has suggested the country team, a collection of UN agencies concerned principally with development and humanitarian issues, take over BNUB’s role, which is political. If the Government persists in its position that a 12-month extension is not acceptable, Mr. Ban suggested the Council consider two other options.

A new peacebuilding mission with a more focused mandate could replace BNUB as an interim step to preparing the ground for a transition of functions to the UN country team, or “as a last resort” a special envoy could be appointed to facilitate dialogue and broad-based participation in political life and coordinate efforts to ensure an environment conducive to a free and fair poll.

BNUB was set up in 2006 following a ceasefire between the Government and the last remaining rebel force to support peace consolidation, democratic governance, disarmament and reform of the security sector. It replaced the UN Operation in Burundi (ONUB), a peacekeeping mission which at its peak had nearly 6,000 military personnel.

Noted increasing tensions and intra-party disputes, Mr. Ban urged all political actors to refrain from using incendiary language and voiced concern at acts of violence committed by youth affiliated with political parties and the apparent impunity they seem to enjoy.

“Acts of political violence, including those committed by these youths, must be prosecuted,” he stressed. “I urge the Government and political parties to take all necessary measures to ensure that youth are not exposed to political manipulation that could lead to acts of violence and intimidation.”

He also voiced concern at continued impunity for human rights violations, including sexual violence and rape, urging the authorities “to apply a strict zero-tolerance policy regarding human rights abuses committed by the security forces.”

Mr. Ban urged the Peacebuilding Commission to continue its efforts to sustain international support and mobilize resources for Burundi and called on development partners to fill the funding gap for the implementation of Burundi’s second poverty reduction strategy.

“The international community has made a significant investment in Burundi,” he noted. “It must continue to play a constructive role through enhanced coordination, particularly for the preparations for the elections and support for security sector reform. More broadly, the significant progress Burundi has made in furthering peace and stability must be reinforced by socioeconomic development.”

UNSC

{Remittances in 2013 rose to a historical high despite a significant erosion of the growth rate in comparison to the previous year.}

Kenyans living abroad sent back home Sh110.76 billion ($1.29 billion) compared to the Sh100.4 billion ($1.17 billion) sent in 2012, setting a new record. Despite this, remittances in 2013 posted the slowest growth rate since 2010.

Last year, diaspora inflows grew 10.2 per cent in comparison to the 31.3 per cent growth posted in 2012. In 2011 remittances rose 38 per cent.

Dr Joy Kiiru, a Nairobi university economist who has studied diaspora remittances in Kenya, said the slower growth could be attributed to a lagged response to the economic crisis that has had its grips on Europe and the United States over the last few years.

“Kenyans living abroad have remained largely resilient in terms of sending money back home but I think this is the effect of the crisis. It was not felt immediately. There was a time lapse,” said Dr Kiiru.

Following the financial crisis in 2008-2009, many of the world’s economies plunged into recession and are only just beginning to come up for air.

World Bank research shows that migrants living in developed economies were among the most affected demographic groups by the high levels of unemployment as a result of recession. According to Dr Kiiru, the potential positive impact of economic recovery is also unlikely to be felt in Kenya immediately.

However, Mr Robert Bunyi, a market analyst, said based on the broad statistics provided by Central Bank, it is “very hard” to draw conclusions on diaspora remittance trends.

Daily Nation

{At an impromptu news conference in Kampala on Friday, the speaker of the South Sudanese Legislative Assembly Manesseh Magok Rundial said his president, Salva Kiir, had never written to President Museveni, requesting for military support as government officials here claim.
}

The surprise revelation puts new pressure on the government to produce the letter and contradicts earlier assertions of a formal request of military support from Juba, capital of South Sudan, made by President Museveni and his army officials. Angered by this revelation, some MPs are trying to sponsor a parliamentary push for the recall of UPDF from South Sudan.

Magok told journalists at Parliament that there was no formal communication between Kiir and Museveni in regard to the hurried deployment of UPDF troops to help SPLA government forces to put down a rebellion led by Dr Riek Machar, the former vice president.

“What I know is that our president [Salva Kiir] has never written any letter to President Museveni requesting for support [in this particular conflict], if such a request was made, it might have been a telephone conversation,” Magok said.

Magok convened the press conference after a long wait for the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) Speaker Margaret Nantongo Zziwa, whom he wanted to brief about the state of affairs back home. Magok’s revelation contradicts what the junior minister for Defence, Gen Jeje Odongo, and army chief Katumba Wamala told Parliament’s Defence and Internal Affairs committee recently.

“On January 9 when the committee first sat, I told them that the letter didn’t exist because I had information from [the ministry of [Defence] that Kiyonga was travelling to Juba to try and get Kiir to write the letter,” Kyadondo East MP Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda told The Observer on Friday.

Hours before Magok’s delegation met the committee on Thursday, Gen Jeje Odongo laboured to convince the committee that the said letter existed. Asked to produce it, Jeje said he couldn’t possibly have access to communication between two heads of state.

He was eventually chased from the committee. Magok’s revelation threatens to discredit government in regard to the deployment of Ugandan troops.

“This information coming from the speaker [of South Sudan Parliament] is the best confirmation we can get. It is now clear that Parliament and the whole country was deceived by the government,” Hassan Kaps Fungaroo, the shadow minister for Defence, told The Observer on Friday.

The Observer

{LIGHTNING in Burundi killed seven high school students and wounded 51 others when it struck a classroom where they were sheltering from a ferocious storm, officials said Saturday. }

“This was an exceptional disaster that hit not only our town, but also other areas of the country, when we should be in the dry season,” said Prudence Kabura, a local government official in Nyanza-Lac, some 150 kilometres south of the capital Bujumbura, of the storm on Friday.

As many as 500 houses were also destroyed by the heavy rains, he added.

The tragedy follows a series of fatal lightning strikes in recent days.

Last week lightning killed four people and wounded nine others as they sheltered inside a small church in eastern Burundi, local official Egide Ndikuriyo said.

The following day, two people guarding a herd of cows were also struck by lightning, while houses and crops were damaged by the heavy rains, Ndikuriyo added, noting the unseasonal nature of the storms.

{“Muslims were shouting and yelling, saying, ‘We are looking for the bishop of the church to slaughter him – we are tired of the existence of this church near our mosque and the noise they are making.”}

Everywhere Muslims immigrate comes the jihad, the hate, the cries of victimhood, the killing. Devout Muslims are spreading interfaith dialogue and tolerance via the symbols of their faith, the quran and the sword.

This is happening with bloody frequency in Tanzania. One priest was shot, and another beheaded last year …. And Muslims destroyed dozens of churches and demanded heads of all church pastors in Tanzania.

“Muslim Extremists Attack Visiting Preacher on Tanzania’s Zanzibar Island,” Morningstar News, January 24, 2014

Members of nearby mosque threaten to burn down church building

pamelageller.com

{According to Radio France International, thirty persons convicted in the assassination of President Laurent Désiré Kabila worry about being left out in the drafted law of amnesty.
}

Thursday, January 23, senators considered the text submitted by the government that provides amnesty for crimes committed before July 1, 2003.

However, the accused in the assassination of President Laurent Kabila were tried in January 2003. The lawyer Eric Miza who represents eighteen of Sentenced Persons, senators should have included those convicted, and should have been done in the name of national unity process. He hoped that members will correct the law at the second time.

“The bill passed its first evaluation in the Senate; it remains second in the National Assembly. We believe that it will make an effort to correct this void occasioned by the Senate.”

{Warnings by Kenyan security forces of impending attack just days before Somalia’s Shebab gunmen stormed a Nairobi mall killing at least 67 people last year were ignored, parliamentary investigations have found, according to reports.}

“There was general information on the impending terror attack on all the malls and other strategic Western interests, especially in Nairobi,” the parliamentary report read, quoted by Kenya’s Sunday Nation newspaper.

Warnings of an attack were made in August and again just 19 days before the September 21 attack on Westgate, when gunmen stormed the upmarket mall hurling grenades and shooting shoppers and staff, the report notes.

Another security report, issued a year to the day before the Westgate siege began, specifically said the Shebab were planning to attack the partly Israeli-owned complex.

“Another intelligence briefing in February 2013 warned of attacks like those that happened in Mumbai in late 2008, where the operatives storm a building with guns and grenades and probably hold hostages,” the report read, quoted in the newspaper.

“It is unclear what measures were put in place to prevent the attacks.”

Somalia’s Islamist Shebab said the attack was a warning to Kenya to pull its troops out of southern Somalia, where they are fighting the Shebab as part of an African Union force.

The report is also critical of how various security forces — including police, army and special forces — handled the four-day siege, noting the “poor coordination by the multi-agency forces during the operation”.

It also criticised a “nationwide systemic failure” of the immigration department, with widespread corruption in the issuance of identity cards.

The report, the result of investigations by the joint parliamentary committee of National Security and Defence and Foreign Relations, is expected to be discussed when parliament reopens next month.

Four men are on trial in Nairobi for allegedly providing logistical support to the attackers.

All the gunmen in the Westgate siege — understood to have totalled four, not the dozen that security forces initially reported — are believed to have died during the attack, according to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Western officials have suggested that as many as 94 people could have died in total in the attack.

khaleejtimes.com

{A British man who was facing charges in Uganda of possessing a gay sex video has arrived home after being deported.
}

Bernard Randall, 65, from Faversham in Kent, had denied a charge of trafficking obscene publications.

On Wednesday Judge Hellen Ajio ordered he should be deported from Uganda.

Mr Randall, who would have faced a possible two-year prison sentence if found guilty, said he was looking into the possibility of the Ugandan man he lived with claiming asylum in the UK.

Mr Randall, who first appeared in court in Uganda in November, was charged alongside his friend Albert Cheptoyek, 34, with whom he shared a house.

BBC

At least 17 people were killed and 30 others injured after the explosion of the armory of military camp in Nyonolo, Mbuji -Mayi, Kasai – Oriental.

The provincial governor , Alphonse Ngoyi Kasanji attributed the explosion to lightning. Among the dead, two injured, including a 3 year old girl , who died from their injuries after being taken to hospital. A government delegation arrived in Mbuji -Mayi to inquire about the situation.

The provincial governor presented this report to the delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister in charge of national defense, Alexandre Luba Ntambo , after visits to the scene of the accident and health facilities in Mbuji -Mayi.

According Ngoyi Kasanji , 14 bodies of victims of the explosion are kept in the morgue of the nearby polyclinic.

Radio Okapi