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Protests leave Kampala in smoke

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Protests leave Kampala in smoke

August 20,2018 – A large swathe of downtown Kampala was forced into a lock-down this morning as police engaged protesters in running battles.

Youth protesting the continued detention of Kyadondo East legislator Robert Ssentamu Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine set up barricades and lit bonfires in different areas of the city attracting a prompt response by authorities. Riot Police backed by the military quickly moved firing live bullets forcing many people to seek shelter.

Unfortunate passersby, caught in the fracas were beaten and some arrested as police water engines doused the flames.

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Kampala Central under lock down

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Kampala Central under lock down

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UGANDA IN THE FOREIGN PRESS:Uganda's decades-long dictatorship becomes increasingly brazen

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UGANDA IN THE FOREIGN PRESS:Uganda's decades-long dictatorship becomes increasingly brazen

Vanguard Africa August 17, 2018

HELEN EPSTEIN

Smart dictators understand the power of music. On Monday, August 13, the immensely popular Ugandan MP Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Afro-beat musician Bobi Wine, was arrested, along with 35 others in the northern Ugandan town of Arua after a scuffle involving the convoy of President Yoweri Museveni. Police shot dead Kyaluganyi’s driver, Yasin Kawooya, the same evening. For three days Ugandan authorities declined to inform Kyagulanyi’s family or his lawyers of his whereabouts. On Thursday, he was finally produced at a military court martial. His two lawyers say they wept when they saw him. He’d been beaten so badly, he couldn’t see, speak or stand. “I believe he didn’t know what was going on or understand the charges read to him,” MP Medard Seggona, one of the lawyers, told journalists. Several others arrested at the same time have also been hospitalized for injuries sustained while in detention. Kyagulanyi has been officially charged with “illegal possession of firearms,” but many Ugandans have expressed the opinion on social media that he’s being targeted because he poses a political threat to Museveni, and to the presidential prospects of Museveni’s son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who is a high-ranking brigadier in the army.

Since Museveni seized power in 1986, many of his critics have been detained in unknown locations, beaten within an inch of their lives or died under suspicious circumstances. In December 2012, 24 year-old MP Cerinah Nebanda was poisoned. Like Kyagulanyi, she was a young, charismatic and outspoken critic of Museveni’s repression and corruption, and her parliamentary colleagues called for an independent inquiry. Museveni called them “fools” and had them jailed on trumped-up charges. In September 2017, Special Forces troops raided Parliament to stop the filibuster of a bill that would entrench Museveni in power indefinitely. During this operation, security forces crippled MP Betty Nambooze, who required a six-hour operation to repair her damaged spine.

I’m an American, but the torture of these heroic Ugandans is harrowing to me. For years, I was a humanitarian aid worker in Uganda. About ten years ago, I noticed that the nation’s health indicators were lagging, even though US taxpayers were spending hundreds of millions of dollars annually on programs there. The reason was simple: billions of dollars from Uganda’s treasury and foreign aid programs had been siphoned into Museveni’s personal coffers, enabling him to cement his grip on power through bribery and terror, while citizens languish in poverty. I soon realized that Uganda’s health challenges – as well as other development issues – will not see meaningful improvement so long as a tyrant like Museveni holds sway, and leaders with a heart, like Kyagulanyi, Nambooze and Nebanda, are brutally silenced.

Kyagulanyi’s most recent ordeal has been unfolding under the horrified gaze of thousands of fans on social media. Youths in Kyaluganyi’s neighborhood rioted on Thursday and Friday, and Ugandans in the diaspora are being urged to ask their elected officials to sanction the Museveni regime. But so far, the donor community has said little. On Friday, the US Embassy and European Union finally issued a statement expressing concern about the events and urging the Ugandan government to respect its own constitution, but neither suggested that Museveni’s government would suffer any consequences for their actions.

In order to understand the muted tone of these statements – and, no doubt, the others to come – it is important to know that Museveni is probably the West’s strongest military partner in Africa. Ugandan troops are fighting on behalf of the US, UK and EU in Somalia, as well as serving as guards alongside US troops in Iraq. What is more, France is training Uganda’s army along the border with Congo, and Ugandan troops are also reportedly preparing to join the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.

Given that Museveni has successfully entangled himself with western military interests, the regime’s increasingly brazen and outright brutal behavior is likely to continue.

Helen Epstein teaches public health and human rights at Bard College and is the author of Another Fine Mess: America, Uganda and the War on Terror.

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OTT is as oppressive as King Solomon'a yoke

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OTT is as oppressive as King Solomon'a yoke

By Joseph O. okuja.

SOLOMON’S YOKE (1 KINGS 12)

1 Kings 12 tells us that the people of Israel petitioned their new King, Rehoboam, son of Solomon, to relieve them of the “yoke” his father had suffered them to bear. The “yoke,” we learn from the story, was the cost of maintaining the political establishment; it was an excessive income tax and forced labour. The story goes on to say that Rehoboam promised to take his subjects’ plea under consideration after consultation. Apparently, he talked the matter over with his elders who advised him to serve his people and give them a favourable answer. He rejected the advice. Then he consulted his ministers and they strongly advised him against any reduction of the income tax; after all, ministers have to be supported in the style to which bureaucrats always like to be accustomed. So, after three days, Rehoboam told the people: “My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.” Whatever chastisement with scorpions may be, it is certainly not pleasant to the recipient. And that is something you might remember when the #TaxGatherers pay you a “courtesy” visit and leave you with an additional assessment for not including an item of income in your income-tax return. Now it is getting worse! When shall we return sovereignty, which the constitution assumes they have, to the people? Some of the Israelites were so resentful about the “yoke” that when Rehoboam’s chief tax collector, a one Adoniram, made his round among them, they unceremoniously met him with such a hail of stones “that he died.” This was rather hard on Adoniram and his family, and am not recommending this for the Tax Gatherers. There are more orderly and effective ways of getting rid of the “yoke”. Listen to the Elders. Listen to reason.

Taxes are a controversial topic. Nobody wants to pay too much in taxes, but the government needs money to function–and, of course, there’s plenty of disagreement on why we should be paying taxes and who, exactly, is paying too much or too little! Arguments have been made for and against the OTT and mobile money tax. I do not care what side of the divide you fall; but what I know for a fact is that these taxes are mere money raisers. There is nothing in the character of these taxes that involves any other purpose. In levying them, the government did not rely on any tax principle other than that the citizen must pay for the upkeep of this government, in proportion to the amount of OTT services and mobile money transactions they consume. Period! Government is simply saying to its citizens: “Sorry Ugandans, but we need money with which to carry on this political establishment, and we don’t have any other source of money but you. We will, however, ease the pain of payment by just gathering it whenever you participate in these activities. Go labour, produce and pay tax!”

Taxation has never been so central to public debate until this year when it became evident that there is no limit on how much government can confiscate. Should we be taxed more? Can we be taxed better? What should government be doing to increase the legitimacy of the taxes they gather from us? When it finally dawns on you that a government is as strong as its income, you’ll appreciate the bitter truth that political power is the source of material betterment and a guide to the personal destinies for those who are shrewd enough to pursue it. Don’t you ever wonder why, in spite of our limited resources, the number of districts and constituencies with the full package of individuals to fill administrative positions, LC positions and MP positions does not seem to have an end in sight? Don’t you ever wonder why money is always available for politicians and their political activities, including armoured cars and sharp shooters; and yet none is available for teachers, doctors, drugs, hospitals, sanitary pads, etc.? Politicians and Public officials are not producers. Their taxable funds consist of what they have gathered from the producing public in the private sector. Sadly, under the law, government can take everything the citizen earns, even to the extent of depriving them of their subsistence, except that they must leave citizens with something so that they can produce something more to be confiscated.

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FDC pays the price as contest for Uganda opposition crown intensifies

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FDC pays the price as contest for Uganda opposition crown intensifies

Bobi Wine and Kusasira at the Kabaka birthday run in 2017

Kizza Besigye.

July 28,2018 – FDC emerged empty handed from the seven electoral contests concluded yesterday highlighting the internal divisions within the party and a growing assault within the broader opposition against Uganda’s defacto opposition leader Dr.Kizza Besigye.

After the dust had settled, UPC and Jeema had gained a seat each while the FDC lost its closest race to Dr. Elioda Tumwesigye in Sheema Municipality.

The loss of Bugiri was particulary significant because it was the scene of a three-way battle between the Dr, Besigye on one hand and the ruling NRM, and  a coalition of independent Kyaddondo East MP Robert Ssentamu Kyagulanyi, Jeema, the Uganda People’s Congress UPC and the Democratic Party on the other.

While it would look like a revolt against the FDC for its refusal to back Jeema’s Asuman Basalirwa in the race, to those in the know, it was the culmination of anti-Besigye animus dating back to long before the 2016 Presidential election. That election itself, in which Dr. Besigye run on the FDC  ticket despite the party having General Mugisha Muntu as its president and presumptive  flag bearer had long been seen an opportunity for also-run opposition presidential aspirants such as Dr. Abed Bwanika and DP’s Norbert Mao as their turn to finally rise to the fore.

For some strange reason, these intelligent but perennially unsuccessful presidential  aspirants blamed Dr. Besigye for their poor showing. But keenly aware of their lack of appeal, they threw their weight behind former Premier Amama Mbabazi’s bid under the Go Forward banner in the 2016 presidential polls.

Unbeknown to them, despite his smooth talk and promise of insider knowledge of the NRM’s dirty tricks department, Amama Mbabazi was a cold candidate who would not have won a popular vote even within his former home base the NRM. The emergence of Besigye as a factor in the race threw their plans into total disarray. Efforts to mediate between Amama and Besigye came to naught after after chief proponents of a single opposition flag-bearer led by Bishop Zac Niringiye and gave up an finally left the two to seek a compromise over several days at Bugolobi Suites.

According to people familiar with the effort, Besigye stuck to his bid to run after the only reason Amama advanced was that Besigye was still young and had other chances, while the 2016 race was Amama’s only shot at the presidency given the age-limit restriction on presidential candidates  that was in face then.( A panel of judges hearing a petition against lifting age caps on  presidential aspirants this week struck the provision from the constitution in a 4-1 majority decision.)

Besigye’s insistence on standing united the fringe opposition parties who saw him as greedy and presumptive, against him and the FDC in general. That set in motion a tacit agreement by the smaller opposition forces to launch an assault against Besigye in a bid to wrest the Ugandan opposition crown from him.

It is instructive that when the DP called a so called reunion with its youth wing – the Young Democrats – last May, speaker after speaker did not address they unity question but rather used the podium to lampoon Dr Besigye and the FDC. Non-conformist DP voices such as Mukono Municipality MP Betty Nambooze, Kampala Mayor Erias Lukwago and Masaka Municipality MP Mathias Mpuuga that as seen as aligned to Dr Besigye aso became objects of attack.

In an rare alignment of interests also, the NRM which has been aggressive in denying the opposition any platform to organise, this time round suspended the Political Organisation Act, giving the police the police a tacit signal to allow a well attended DP reunion fete  at Makerere University Sports Grounds.

After the Amama flop, the anti-Besigye camp have now placed their faith independent MP Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu aka Bobi Wine as their new torch bearer against Besigye. While Basalirwa’s triumph in Bugiri is likely to be savored by the newfound alliance against Besigye as  first blood, it comes against a background of an FDC split down the middle between the pro-Mugisha Muntu and Besigye camps. This is reflected in the fact that no FDC MP, including Abdul Katuntu, showed to support Namatende’s bid against Basalirwa.

But whether the anti-Besigye camp can rely on Bobi wine to lead their charge is a other matter. The youthful MP, who run as an independent after failing to find accommodation in both FDC and the DP appears to be choosing his own fights. Months ago he was in Rukingiri to support the FDC’s bid for the successful District Woman MP race there. In Bugiri he was ranged against Beigye. While his latest actions have excited the anti-Besigye forces, they may mean more than the fact that Bobi Wine is simply being his independent self.

PS: PLease see our story on M7’s deployment of Bryan White to try and eclipse Bobi Wine’s rising star.

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NRM's Ellioda Tumwesigye pulls off world first by representing two constituencies

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NRM's Ellioda Tumwesigye pulls off world first by representing two constituencies

July 28,2018 – Minister for Science and Technology and Sheema North MP  Dr Elioda Tumwesigye has probably become the first legislator in the modern world to simultaneously represent two electoral areas in parliament after he was declared the winner in the race for the  for Sheema Municipality MP seat.

The Electoral Commission last night declared the ruling NRM’s flagbearer Elioda the new MP for Sheema Municipality after garnering 13,500 votes against FDC’s Virginia Plan Mugyenyi’s 11, 489.

The victory places Elioda in the odd position of representing two electoral areas until another election is organised after a vacancy is declared Sheema North. Besides the legal quandary this creates, it is not clear if Elioda will be eligible to collect the privileges and entitlements for the two constituencies. It is was not immediately clear if Ellioda who in 2016 received Ushs 200 million to buy a vehicle for his conveyance would be eligible for new funding for the same item.

Elioda and the ruling party ignored ignored a humdrum of opposition to his contesting without first resigning from the Sheema North seat, arguing that there was no legal requirement to do so.

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Museveni deploys Brian White against Bobi Wine

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Museveni deploys Brian White against Bobi Wine

July 22, 2018 – Kyadondo East Member of parliament Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu aka Bobi Wine is the target of a multi-pronged effort to contain him by President Museveni.

After failing to stop his sprint to parliament last July and the MP snubbing several attempts to co-opt him into his ‘broad-based hat’ Museveni has changed tactics and resorted to creating alternative centres of power with the youth constituency.

The Spear News has independently learnt from multiple sources that President Museveni has chosen to groom mysterious socialite Brian White as a a new pole of influence among Kampala youth.

To this end, Brian White has been the beneficiary of hundreds of millions of shillings from State House that he has been dishing out to city youth under his Brian White Foundation. He is also enjoys protection by armed police from the VIPP Unit.

A source who accompanied White to one of his meetings with Museveni, said he was left speechless to see the head of state stoop to such a level to contain Bobi Wine and decamped White’s Podium soon after.

The source who has intimate knowledge of Mr. White’s dealings gave us information about sources of his money that we cannot repeat here for legal reasons.

He also gave us details of he embattled socialites gun troubles that saw him shoot one of his neighbours one crazed night.

Apparently White has police escorts and a police bodyguard but he keeps his bodyguards gun over night. That is how he ended up shooting his neighbour to near death, a case he has been able to kill through an out of court settlement with the victim.

White who has no known sources of income has recently suffered a turn for fortunes that has seen him confined to his rented Munyoyo residence from which he risks eviction. Police this week towed a  high end Mercedes from his resident after he apparently failed to pay the vendor. He has also recently been forced to surrender another vehicle to police after it emerged on Interpol’s stolen vehicles alert.

These events are likely to turn the socialite toxic for a number of people that he has tried to associate with. Last month, he tried to become a sponsor to the Bikka Football Kingdom, a tournament that is dear King Ronald Muwenda Mutebi who personally presides over the opening match.

After suffering embarrassment there, he tried to worm his way into Kyabazinga Gabula’s circles during the Kagulu Hill challenge.

It is not known how much influence if any White has managed to chip off Bobi Wine but the honorable appears to under attack from many quarters. This week, a video of aging singer Bebe Cool emerged in which he described Bobi Wine’s conduct as unbecoming of a member of parliament and concluded by referring to him as a cockroach.

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Maureen Kyala pleads for Nambooze's life

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Maureen Kyala pleads for Nambooze's life

June 19, 2018 – Former presidential candidate Maureen Kyalya has appealed to President Museveni to save the life of detained and bed-ridden Mukono Municipality MP Betty Nambooze Bakireke.

In a post on the Spear’s Facebook page, titled “YOUR EXCELLENCY #YKMUSEVENI PLEASE DO NOT ALLOW # HON NAMBOOZE DIE AT YOUR HANDS, Kyalya says there is no value and it is not necessary for Nambooze to die in state custody.

“The pain and loss of our fallen comrade Abiriga is still unbearable. The fear of abduction and death for all politicians and businessmen is breathtaking.  The last thing we can affors to do is take the very high risk of having a vocal and loved opposition member of parliament die at the hands of our government,” Kyalya writes before making an even more personal appeal to Museveni.

“MY DEAREST FATHER #YKMUSEVENI. ON MY KNEES I PRAY AND AS YOUR DAUGHTER WITH ALL HUMBLENESS, PLEASE DO NOT LET #NAMBOOZE LOSE HER LIFE AT YOUR HANDS BECAUSE THE REPERCUSSIONS COULD BE UNBEARABLE FOR THE ENTIRE NATION,” her post reads on part.

She goes on to suggest that Nambooze should be confined to her home in the same manner that opposition supremo Kiza Besiigye was held in his home sometime last year, while allowing her access to medical treatment.

Nambooze was first arrested last Wednesday and taken for questioning at Jinja Road Police Station in Kampala. She was later transferred to Naggalama police station where she was released on  police bond that was due to expire today. She was however picked again on Friday morning and taken to Kireka police station from where the bond was cancelled.

She was detained overnight at Naggalama police station from where her health deteriorated.

She was admitted to Kiruddu government hospital on Saturday. Hon. Nambooze says her pains intensified after the the ambulance that was transporting her gto Kiruddu hospital was rammed from behind by a police patrol car.

She was due to travel back to India for medical review last Friday but these plans were cut short by her arrest.

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Monitor journalist demands for Museveni's apology over Kayihura

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Monitor journalist demands for Museveni's apology over Kayihura

June 16, 2018 – A monitor journalist wants President Museveni to apologise to Ugandans over the torture and harassment meted out on them by disgraced former Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura.

In a lengthy post on social media, Mr Eriasa Mukiibi Sserunjogi discusses Kayihura’s various failings and Museveni’s indifference to them as the appointing authority.

Below, we reproduce Mr. Mukiibi’s unedited post in full:

Why Museveni should apologise over Kayihura

Gen Edward Kale Kayihura is under arrest. It is expected that the string of questions  he has to answer is so long and complex that he nearly certainly can’t have all the answers. It will in the end be up to President Museveni to decide what Kale will be charged with, or whether he will be charged at all.

When Museveni finally sacked Kale as police boss in March, I posted an article on this platform under the headline, “But why did we end up with Kayihura for 12 years?”

Kale was not qualified to lead our police force or any public institution. A number of people in Government and Security do agree with me on this one. I once asked a gentleman who is close to power why Museveni kept Kale as police boss for that long. In answer, the gentleman told me that during meetings with the President, some top Security officers had complained about Kale and even suggested to the President that the police chief be relieved of his duties. But the President, I was told, would always retort that he was prepared to sack Kale if someone that could do what Kale did emerged.

Of course you now know what the President meant. It was about holding Kizza Besigye at bay, often using extra-legal means. Kale had done his homework and noticed that Museveni needed someone he would rely on to stave off the challenge from his most enduring political opponent. He devised a plan to foil Besigye.

Needless to say, the plan to stop Besigye came with a huge budget. Kale had to strategically place fifth columnists close to Besigye and within the wider Opposition. He also had to enlist an army of journalists, commentators and other groups, including unemployed youth, for the same purpose. This he did fairly successfully. He then equipped the police to better levels than it had ever been under Museveni, and swelled its ranks with ill-trained and ideologically skewed but effective fighters against Besigye.

Kale’s efforts were momentarily diverted when Amama Mbabazi emerged as a force against Museveni in the run-up to the 2016 general election, but soon enough he returned to his primary duty of fighting Besigye.

On several occasions, President Museveni publicly voiced his approval of Kale’s work methods and praised him as a “good cadre”. By that time Kale had distinguished himself as the second most important politician within the ruling party, easily eclipsing the vice president, prime minister, secretary general or any minister. If something required the President to intervene, perhaps the shortest route to the Chief Politician was through Kale.

Kale and the policemen he patronised, like Siraje Bakaleke, freely and openly did NRM or Museveni politics, contrary to their calling as policemen. They did more illegal things like holding opposition politicians without charge, using lethal force against peaceful protesters and attacking and taking charge of headquarters of political parties (DP and FDC). An aggrieved citizen once dragged Kale to court and a magistrate at Makindye court summoned the police chief. A pro-Kale gang responded by invading the court on the appointed day and holding the magistrate and lawyers captive for hours. The magistrate died months later.

When the late businessman Nsenga’s widow was charged with the murder of her husband, war broke out between the police and the Directorate of Public Prosecutions. Kale was said to be protecting his relative from prosecution but the former DPP Buteera stuck to his guns and the widow was convicted of murder even after Musana, a deputy director of CID, took the unprecedented step of testifying against the State in the case.

Many people were arrested and charged in court with crimes they did not commit. It was worse if those people were Muslims. The other week the DPP lost interest in a case involving a woman and her three brothers who Kayihura claimed were working with the Australia-based Dr Aggrey Kiyingi to overthrow the government. The moment Kiyingi said he would contest in the 2016 presidential elections, Kayihura pronounced him a terrorist and arrested his associates. They stayed in jail since 2014, during which time the woman lost her house in Muyenga.

There are many such cases of people who were arrested without conclusive investigations and ended up in jail for years, their lives ruined, and then suddenly released to go back to their lives as if nothing happened. Once a crime was committed or Kale imagined one had been committed, he would nearly immediately come up with suspects. He would have you believe that ADF is the most effective terror organisation in the world, always managing to commit crimes in our fair country. The police under Kale, in equal measure, nearly always managed to arrest or pinpoint the offenders even though we very rarely had them convicted in court. Think of the Muslim men arrested over killing Kaweesi.

I have in the past written about how Kale undermined the police’s capacity to detect or investigate crimes. CID under Grace Akullo was rendered redundant as Kale created parallel units often led by officers with questionable integrity who have been accused of extorting from members of the public, covering up crimes and committing crimes themselves.

I’ll stop there because we can’t exhaust Kale’s sins against Ugandans. But it is instructive that as all this happened, President Museveni publicly extolled Kale especially because Kale remained fairly effective on the political front.

It is possible that because Kale got away with all that, and became very rich in the process, an idea crossed his mind — why not? He is in his early 60s and Museveni is in his 70s, having already done 32 years in power. Perhaps Kale dreamt when he had put on his master’s Crown and the master got to know of the satanic dream, turning him against one of his best servants of all time. But did we have to first get to that?

This day, after the budget is read, Museveni will address the country. I hope he will find it in his heart to look me in the eye on television and apologise over Kale. For most of the over 12 years Kale was in charge of our police, we deserved better. And Museveni always had the power to change things but he didn’t.

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Nambooze in critical condition at Naggalama police station

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Nambooze in critical condition at Naggalama police station

Hon. Nambooze on drip at Naggalama police station today

June 15, 2018- Mukono Municipality MP Betty Nambooze Bakireke is reported to be in critical condition at Naggalama police station where she was detained overnight on charges of offensive communication.

Pictures of a very sick Nambooze, sleeping on an improvised bed at the police station with an IV line attached to her hand began circulating on social media this afternoon. The officers watching over her say they cannot do anything about her condition because their orders are to keep her in custody.

On Wednesday, Nambooze had been released on police bond by Naggalama police until June 19. But she was picked from her doctors clinic yesterday morning and driven to Special Investigations Unit in Kireka. She was later transferred and detained overnight at Naggalama police station after President Museveni spoke against extending police bond and bail to murder suspects.

While Mr. Museveni blames police and the judiciary for the rising levels of violent crime  because they release suspects back into the community, he presides over an underfunded justice, law and order sector. Despite the huge case backlog and resource gap, the sector has been allocated only Ushs 1.4 trillion in the 2018/19 budget.

Detention centres are teeming with hundreds of suspects for various crimes including murder whose prosecution is pending.

Less than 10 percent of the suspects in the high profile murder cases have been proven guilty and several were freed when the DPP withdrew charges against them, several years after they were arrested and tortured to confess to crimes they did not commit.

[thespearnews-blog]

Uganda sinks deeper into debt trap

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Uganda sinks deeper into debt trap

June 15, 2018 – Uganda’s Finance Minister Matia Kasaija yesterday unveiled a Ushs 32 trillion budget for fiscal 2018/19 which once again showed the deepening indebtedness of Ugandans.

Mr. Kasaija will spend Ushs 10.6 trillion on debt servicing and repayment which is equivalent to 33 percent of all the money he expects to receive this year. That compares with the Ushs 2.3 trillion equivalent to 7.1 percent of the budget that has been allocated to cater for the health of Ugandans or the Shs 3.1 trillion that has been allocated to education.

Uganda’s outstanding debt stands at $10.53 billion equivalent to 38 percent of all the value Uganda generates in a single year.

While Kasaija and Museveni boast that the debt is sustainable, this figure represents a rapid deterioration since just 13 years ago, Uganda was among the first beneficiaries of debt relief which saw 90 percent of our foreign debt written off, leaving the country with less than $500 million of old debt to pay.

Although debt is supposed to help accelerate development of key infrastructure, the returns in Uganda’s case are debatable because of corruption that leads to a high cost of procurement and delays in implementation. For instance Ugandans are still paying high tariffs for using electricity because of overpriced hydro and thermal generation plants owned by well connected individuals.

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Uganda risks further dip in confidence as SGR chief is sacked

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Uganda risks further dip in confidence as SGR chief is sacked

June15, 2018 – The reported sacking of Standard Gauge Railway Project Coordinator Kasingye Kyamugambi could set back the plans for a minimum of four years according to a warning Works Minister Monica Azuba Ntege issued last year.

If it is confirmed, the development is also likely to cast Uganda as an unreliable partner among her regional peers and vindicate the decision by Rwanda to switch to Tanzania as the development partner for her SGR.

The Daily Monitor reported today that a decision to sack Eng. Kyamugambi had been taken and would be made formal next week.

Kenya has been extending her SGR westward towards the border with Uganda with the ultimate aim of connecting Uganda to the sea.

The sacking of Kyamugambi, which has been prompted by a dispute over the class of railway to build also means that Uganda’s system may not be compatible with Kenya’s.

According to a report she wrote in response to allegations by a parliamentary committee which said the cost had been inflated, changing the SGR’s design from the contentious China Class 1, to Class 2, would require new studies and funding negotiations that could come with an additional four year delay penalty for the project.

Kasingye is the latest fall guy in a project that has been troubled since inception in 2012 when Museveni assumed its leadership, moving the initial contract from one Chinese firm – China Civil Construction Corporation CCCC to China Harbour Engineering Corporation.

Trouble for Kyamugambi stems from insisting on delivering a seamless Class 1 railway compatible with Kenya’s SGR network.

[thespearnews-blog]

Police pick Nambooze again

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Police pick Nambooze again

Nambooze as she awaited her fate at police yesterday

June 14, 2018 – Spear News has just learnt that Mukono Municipality MP Betty Nambooze is en-route to Special Investigations Unit in Kireka, after police picked this morning as she was receiving treatment from her doctor.

Hon. Nambooze had been released on police bond from Naggalama police station until June 19. She was due to travel to India for medical review tomorrow.

It was not immediately clear why police picked her ahead of the expiry of her bond. There was drama yesterday after it emerged that the so-called General Inquiry File police opened against her did not have a  statement from a complainant and police could not name any.

Nambooze was being held on a charge of offensive communication based on a social media post she made a day after Arua Municipality MP  Col. Ibrahim Abiriga was felled by bullets as he approached his residence in Kawanda on the outskirts of Kampala.

“When I asked them who was offended they told me it was the President but that he is not a complainant and it’s the State complaining on his behalf,” Nambooze told Spear News last night.

Below we reproduce the post that put the MP in trouble:

“One great writer said that, to the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth but when death comes more so abruptly and in such a gruesome manner like it happened to my Honourable brother Col. Ibrahim Abiriga, truth ceases to matter but the fact that a life is lost.

I would therefore on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Mukono Municipality wish to express our condolences to his family, relatives and to the people of Arua Municipality for this gruesome assassination that only adds to the trauma we are already suffering as a country over unexplained murders. It very sad that Honourable Abiriga was murdered together with his brother also his body guard.

Am however, not going to insult Abiriga’s memory by pretending that he was my freind. He was far from it….He wasn’t shy about expressing his opinion….which I highly doubt was his opinion,to me he was a loud speaker for the people who have chosen to love power more than the future of our Uganda. He knew how to offend and irritate those of us who find Museveni’s Government a curse to our country. He is one of the politicians who really bastardised the politics of this country. As other people were being murdered including fellow Moslems, Abiriga clapped loudest that there should be no change…he invested all himself to maintain the status quo and it’s within this status quo that he has perished.

When one day I ran towards him to grab his yellow cap at Parliament,my intention was to show him that even with the guards the regime was fooling him with,it couldn’t secure him fully. For that act and another of grabbing Pecos Kuteesa’s military cap, I paid with my backbone. Am now maimed for life and when I returned to Parliament after hospitalisation Abiriga tried to mock me, for which I almost physically fought with him.

But when news of Abiriga’s assassination came, I went cold with pain…I cried tears, but deep inside I knew I wasn’t crying for Abiriga, he was gone, I was crying for my country. We need our colleagues like Abiriga to stay around to realise the mess we have sunk our country in and maybe join forces to dig it out of the pit. We need to reject any politics that targets people because of their political beliefs. This isn’t a matter of political correctness. It’s a matter of understanding what makes us strong. Uganda will be better not through elimination of those we don’t agree with or innocent people to traumatise the Nation but because of our effort to put up systems that will work for us all irrespective of our political beliefs. Every life must be respected and every murder must be condemned.

As we bury Abiriga, leaving his young family without a provider, it is high time we all raise one voice to say that the status quo is hopeless, there are no winners in a sinking boat. IT IS TIME TO CHANGE even when Museveni still insists that those terrorising us are idiots we must come out boldly to tell him that we have no use with a Regime and a President who cannot successfully deal with “idiots”. Rest in peace Abiriga.”

[thespearnews-blog]

Nambooze detained at Naggalama

New Post has been published on http://thespearnews.com/2018/06/13/nambooze-detained-at-naggalama/

Nambooze detained at Naggalama

June 13,2018-Sickly Mukono Municipality MP Betty Nambooze has been detained overnight at Naggalama police station. The legislator was transferred to Naggalama after recording a statement at Jinja road police station where she spent most of the day after she was arrested.

[thespearnews-blog]

Akena accuses NRM of politicising Abiriga's death as Nambooze is arrested

New Post has been published on http://thespearnews.com/2018/06/13/akena-accuses-nrm-of-politicising-abirigas-death-as-nambooze-is-arrested/

Akena accuses NRM of politicising Abiriga's death as Nambooze is arrested

June 13, 2018 – Uganda Peoples Congress leader Jimmy Akena has condemned attempts by the NRM to politicise and find scapegoats for the death of Arua Municipality MP Col. Ibrahim Abiriga.

Akena was reacting after it was confirmed that Police in Kampala were holding Mukono Municipality legislator, Betty Nambooze Bakireke, after her arrest earlier today from her residence in Mukono, 21 kilometres east of Kampala.

The Spear has learned that Nambooze is being held over statements she made on social media about the death by shooting last Friday of the now late Arua Municipality MP, Col. Ibrahim Abiriga and his bodyguard.

Police entered her residence just before 10 am, and served her with summons to appear. She was later bundled into a police car that drove her to Jinja Road Police Station in Kampala.

Her lawyers led by Kampala Mayor Erias Lukwago were denied immediate access to their client.

The legislator who suffered injuries to her spinal cord during a scuffle with police at Parliament last November, was due to travel back to India for a medical review of her condition on Friday.

It was not immediately clear what charges would be preferred against her and whether she would be allowed leave to travel for medical attention.

News of Nambooze’s impending arrest started circulating on Monday, setting off a tense 48 hours until she was picked this morning.

Last evening, Police confirmed that they would be summoning her to answer questions about the circumstances surrounding the death by shooting of Arua Municipality MP Col. Ibrahim Abiriga and his bodyguard last Friday.

Briefly answering a question that was put to him on a WhatsApp group, Police Spokesperson SSP Emilian Kayima confirmed that Nambooze would be summoned to record a statement.

“We are summoning her to record a statement to this effect,” Kayima said.

His statement attracted immediate reaction from members of the multi-stakeholder group, expressing concern that Police was straying from the hunt for the real killers.

“I hope u stay focused on the bigger problem and not just use scarecrow kind of investigations. I wish Allah unveils the assassins and the investigators this time produce facts not fictitious suspects,”posted Ahmed Bogere Masembe.

“I pray that security Agencies remain focused on finding the killers …comical posts may derail investigations like in the past,” commented Daniel Kaweesi’ of the Uganda National Commission for UNESCO.

The atmosphere at Nambooze’s residence in Mukono was tense most of Tuesday as the local police station appeared to be beefing up its ranks in preparation for Namboole’s arrest. The complement of female officers was increased to six while more manpower appeared to be coming in from sister stations.

[thespearnews-blog]

We want Nambooze - Police

New Post has been published on http://thespearnews.com/2018/06/12/we-want-nambooze-police/

We want Nambooze - Police

June 12,2018 – Police has confirmed that they will be summoning Mukono municipality MP Hon. Betty Nambooze to answer questions ariaro the circumstances surrounding the death by shooting of Arua Municipality MP Col. Ibrahim Abiriga and his bodyguard last Friday.

Briefly answering a question that was put to him on a WhatsaWh group, Police Spokesperson SSP Emilian Kayima confirmed that Nambooze would be summoned to record a statement.

“We are summoning her to record a statement to this effect,” Kayima said.

His statement attracted immediate reaction from members of the multi-stakeholder group, expressing concern that Police was straying from the hunt for the real killers.

“I hope u stay focused on the bigger problem and not just use scarecrow kind of investigations. I wish Allah unveils the assassins and the investigators this time produce facts not fictitious suspects,”posted Ahmed Bogere Masembe.

“I pray that security Agencies remain focused on finding the killers …comical posts may derail investigations like in the past,” commented Daniel Kaweesi’ of the Uganda National Commission for UNESCO.

[thespearnews-blog]

Police looking for soft targets as Nambooze is blamed for Abiriga assassination

New Post has been published on http://thespearnews.com/2018/06/12/police-looking-for-soft-targets-as-nambooze-is-blamed-for-abiriga-assassination/

Police looking for soft targets as Nambooze is blamed for Abiriga assassination

In hot soup: Nambooze

June 12, 2018 – The investigation into the death by shooting last Friday of Arua Municipality MP  Colonel Ibrahim Abiriga and his brother cum bodyguard Said Butele is taking a familiar path with police moving to focus public attention on suspects it has little evidence to even support an investigation.

Online News Agency Uganda Radio Network is reporting that police have opened up investigations against Mukono Municipality MP Betty Nambooze Bakireke and three others over incitement or even direct participation in the assassination of Abiriga.

Nambooze is a suspect, on the basis of a video she posted on social media in which she explains the motive behind an incident at parliament when she tried to whisk Abiriga’s yellow cap off his head. Nambooze says the act was intended to show the deceased his vulnerability despite having bodyguards all around him.

A source privy to the ongoing investigations told URN that Nambooze was being investigated for inciting violence.

The second file is opened against Nasser Mugerwa, who sent out an audio recording claiming responsibility for Abiriga’s assassination. Mugerwa details how they used crime preventers that have been trained by the government to kill Abiriga and that many other supporters of the Ruling party National Resistance Movement (NRM) who backed the Age Limit amendment Bill were on the waiting list.

He listed MPs Evelyn Anite, Ruth Nankabirwa, Simeo Nsubuga and Raphael Magyezi as the next possible targets. Mugerwa also threatened President and his Son.

“All of you who touched on the constitution, you will pay. Even you Museveni and your son Muhoozi we are following you step by step,” Mugerwa says in the audio which is making rounds on social media.

The third file is against one Jane Kuli, whose Facebook post on May 24, 2018, foretold that Abiriga would die in the first week of June, while the fourth file is against a Ugandan based in Sweden known by the pet name Peng Peng who circulated a video this morning stating that President Museveni and the NRM were behind the murder of Abiriga.

The offending Facebook post has since been found to be fake, having been an edit of an earlier post that was done hours after Abiriga had been killed.

With the exception of Nambooze, the three others are looked at as persons of interest in the murder of Abiriga and his brother Said Butele. The two were gunned down on Friday evening in Kawanda, Wakiso District.

“Someone like Mugerwa, he has gone on record and confessed to being behind the assassination. We have to bring him in and find out what he knows. The rest will be subject to investigations,” the officer who preferred anonymity told URN.

The development fits into a pattern of rash action by police in past high profile killings that have seen hundreds if suspects arrested but with a dismal conviction rate.