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[Monitor] Finance minister Matia Kasaija was last night on the defensive following accusations that he irregularly dangled a top government job to secure the exit of his opponent in a parliamentary contest.
Many people have been killed since clashes began on Monday. Scores too had been killed in the run up to the vote as protestors marched against Conde's bid for a third term.
Judy Rugasira, the managing director of estate agency Knight Frank, says closing retail businesses that depend on the day-to-day cash flows for 60-days was damaging.
But as the country started to close down, sales in the retail sector slumped by 68 per cent, Rugasira said.
For the real estate sector, coronavirus came at a time when it was already struggling to attract demand and more properties were flooding the market.
A lot of space was being given up by government ministries as they built their own buildings, there was reduced Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the sector and more expatriates were leaving the country.
Rugasira says coronavirus will have a long term impact on the real estate sector, indicating that the non-performing loans that might come out of this might see interest rates up and reduce the ability of developers to borrow.
Uganda’s Electoral Commission announced on Tuesday that it will push ahead with organising the scheduled February 2021 General Election.
Amidst uncertainty over the coronavirus pandemic, the Commission banned mass gatherings and directed parties and candidates to use various media platforms to reach out to voters.
He said the new roadmap was problematic because of a history of partiality by the Electoral Commission in favour of the incumbent, and the failure to appreciate internal processes the party has to undertake to arrive at flag bearers.
While Uganda has a number of privately-owned FM radio and TV stations, the majority are owned by politicians who are members of the ruling National Resistance Movement party or people friendly to the party, who will not grant opposition members access to campaign on their platforms.
The Electoral Commission was faulted in a Supreme Court ruling on the 2016 elections for its failure to ensure state media gave candidates equal access.
[Monitor] By Job Bwire
[Monitor] By Rajab Mukombozi
Despite seeming to have softened his stance on the Ush10 billion ($2.6 million) that Ugandan legislators allocated themselves as part of the Covid-19 supplementary budget, President Yoweri Museveni is said to have ordered an audit of the expenditure.
In a letter dated April 28 to the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga, President Museveni said he instructed the Auditor-General to go over how the funds were used.
In a recent televised address on coronavirus, President Museveni described the Covid-19 cash as a trap that the MPs had laid for themselves and \"morally reprehensible.\"
Despite Speaker Kadaga's efforts to explain that MPs were to use this money to sensitise their constituents about the pandemic and for maintenance of ambulances in their constituencies, President Museveni and the Cabinet insisted the allocation was illegal and inappropriate.
As at April 12, the number of MPs that had returned the money stood at 101 out of a total of 458 legislators.
In some nations, there is a body or electoral commission that supervises elections, but that is not the situation in the United States. With each state having its own systems and laws for counting votes, vote-counting is still ongoing with people on the edge of their seats hoping to have a clear winner soon. Joe...
The post Get to know the Black candidates who have made history in the 2020 U.S. Election appeared first on Face2Face Africa.
Uganda, twice the size of Pennsylvania, is in East Africa. It is bordered on the west by Congo, on the north by the Sudan, on the east by Kenya, and on the south by Tanzania and Rwanda. The country, which lies across the equator, is divided into three main areas—swampy lowlands, a fertile plateau with wooded hills, and a desert region. Lake Victoria forms part of the southern border.
Multiparty democractic republic.
About 500 B.C. Bantu-speaking peoples migrated to the area now called Uganda. By the 14th century, three kingdoms dominated, Buganda (meaning state of the Gandas), Bunyoro, and Ankole. Uganda was first explored by Europeans as well as Arab traders in 1844. An Anglo-German agreement of 1890 declared it to be in the British sphere of influence in Africa, and the Imperial British East Africa Company was chartered to develop the area. The company did not prosper financially, and in 1894 a British protectorate was proclaimed. Few Europeans permanently settled in Uganda, but it attracted many Indians, who became important players in Ugandan commerce.
Uganda became independent on Oct. 9, 1962. Sir Edward Mutesa, the king of Buganda (Mutesa II), was elected the first president, and Milton Obote the first prime minister, of the newly independent country. With the help of a young army officer, Col. Idi Amin, Prime Minister Obote seized control of the government from President Mutesa four years later.
On Jan. 25, 1971, Colonel Amin deposed President Obote. Obote went into exile in Tanzania. Amin expelled Asian residents and launched a reign of terror against Ugandan opponents, torturing and killing tens of thousands. In 1976, he had himself proclaimed President for Life. In 1977, Amnesty International estimated that 300,000 may have died under his rule, including church leaders and recalcitrant cabinet ministers.
After Amin held military exercises on the Tanzanian border in 1978, angering Tanzanias president, Julius Nyerere, a combined force of Tanzanian troops and Ugandan exiles loyal to former president
With popular frustrations running high, and opposition leader Agathon Rwasa warning that he will not accept a \"stolen\" election, fears are mounting that a contested poll could lead to violence along the lines of what the country saw in 2015, when Nkurunziza's controversial bid for a third term prompted street protests, a failed coup, a crackdown and the exodus of over 400,000 people.
It now also appears that the EAC will be unable to send an observation team in time for the elections; Burundi's authorities have cited the COVID-19 outbreak as a reason to quarantine the observers for fourteen days upon arrival, though it is unclear whether the decision was genuinely made for legitimate public health reasons, given that the government has otherwise played down the outbreak.
Ruling-party nominee Ndayishimiye and long-time opposition leader Rwasa, who both fought as rebels in Burundi's 1993-2005 civil war, are the clear front runners, and emblematic of the former fighters' continued influence in national politics.
They say Nkurunziza, who pushed for the selection of his ally Pascal Nyabenda, the president of the National Assembly (the lower chamber of Burundi's parliament), only agreed to Ndayishimiye's candidacy after intense lobbying by generals.
While Rwasa has announced that he will not allow the election to be \"stolen\", CNDD-FDD officials believe that their party structures and ability to register and mobilise voters across the country cannot but deliver victory.
Malawi's governing party has called for a third presidential election, citing irregularities and intimidation in this week's re-run vote as unofficial tallies show incumbent President Peter Mutharika losing to the opposition leader.
Voters in the southern African country went to the polls on Tuesday for the second time in 13 months after the Constitutional Court scrapped the initial May 2019 presidential election over mass fraud.
The governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) called Friday on the electoral commission to annul the results collated so far of the second vote and declare a third poll.
DPP administrative secretary Francis Mphepo said in a statement: \"We wish to highlight several incidents that may potentially affect the integrity and credibility of the presidential election results.\"
In February, Malawi's top court found the election was marred by widespread irregularities, including the use of correction fluid to tamper with result sheets.
[Monitor] Members of Parliament (MPs) sitting on the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee yesterday rejected the Electoral Commission's (EC) decision banning open public rallies ahead of the 2021 General Elections.
A section of formal workers on Sunday took to social media to air their disgust after the National Response Covid-19 Fund made an appeal asking them to donate Shs10, 000 each, to compliment government's efforts in the fight against coronavirus.
The Shs15 billion could come directly from the 1.5 million employees and if the companies were so gracious enough to match, that would get us another Shs15 billion to get to Shs30 billion,\" said Mr Patrick Mweheire, the chairman Fundraising Subcommittee National Response Fund to Covid-19 which was established by President Museveni to mobilise resources from the private sector to supplement an already strained Ministry of Health in its combat against the Covid-19 pandemic.
Below is a sample of the concerns from social media:
\"The government has refused to relieve us of PAYE, Corporate taxes, our salaries have been cut, companies have closed, they are swindling money in the treasury by way of allocating MPs free millions of shillings, we are grappling to feed our families having lost our jobs or part of our salaries and they have the audacity to ask us again to contribute?
Hours after the appeal, Senior Presidential press secretary, Mr Don Wanyama said President Museveni on Monday (May 18) address Ugandans on government's efforts in the fight against Covid-19.
The number of COVID-19 cases in the country have risen to 227 after 24 people tested positive to the virus on Saturday.
Sand mining has resumed on the shores of Lake Victoria despite the recent presidential directive to the Minister of Water and Environment to clear all wetlands, riverbanks and lakeshores of encroachers.
The mining site, at Buwaya-Nakiwogo in Wakiso District, is said to be owned by a businesswoman in Bugolobi, Kampala.
Mr Matia Lwanga Bwanika, the district chairperson, said his engagement with the executive director of the National Environmental Management Authority (Nema), Dr Tom Okurut, revealed that he was aware of the mining.
Mr Bwanika said they had sought the intervention of Mr Noah Njuki, the Resident District Commissioner of Entebbe.
Other mining activities around Lake Victoria in Wakiso have been halted following the intervention of Mr Matia Lwanga Bwanika, the district chairperson.
CHIVHU district development coordinator (DDC) Michael Mariga yesterday stripped two MDC Alliance councillors of their posts and barred them from attending council meetings after they defied orders to resign from the civil service following their victory in the 2018 harmonised elections. BY MIRIAM MANGWAYA Edwin Maseva (ward 11) and Emmanuel Punungwe (ward 10), who are both primary school teachers, were stripped of their titles just before the beginning of the Chikomba Rural District full council meeting. Addressing other councillors during the meeting, Mariga said Maseva and Punungwe had failed to comply with a directive from the Public Service Commission (PSC), which ordered them to resign from the civil service 30 days following 2018 their electoral victory or stop serving as councillors. According to a letter dated April 15, 2020, written by the PSC secretary Jonathan Wutawunashe, which Mariga read out to councillors, civil servants serving as councillors would be violating the Constitution and the Public Service Regulations Statutory Instrument 1 of 2000 as stated in Circular 10 of November 2018. “Given the fact that it is a misconduct to engage in any other employment or service for remuneration without the written consent of the commission, it is advisable that you act immediately to correct the situation,” the letter read. “For avoidance of doubt, the commission hereby directs that as a civil servant, you should cease to serve as a councillor with immediate effect. Failure to comply with this directive will result in disciplinary action taken against you.” Maseva said Mariga had misdirected himself by relying on an old prohibition order which had been overtaken by events. “We are still in talks with the PSC on this issue and we have also engaged lawyers. As it is right now, the DDC’s dismissal is null,” Maseva said. Punungwe described the decision by PSC to dismiss them from council as part of political persecution of opposition officials. “This is a selective application of the law aimed at pushing certain agendas. I wonder why PSC decided to fire us from council instead of the civil service,” he said. Following the PSC directive, three Zanu PF councillors in Buhera Rural District Council who were also teachers, resigned recently from the civil service to continue serving in council. Follow Florence on Twitter @FloMangwaya
The Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) has authorised six companies to produce non-medical facemasks for over 30 million Ugandans aged six and above as government moves to ease the virus induced lockdown.
He further noted that he would lift restrictions on public transport starting June 4 but the driver and all passengers would be required to wear government supplied facemasks.
Public transport to open in June when all Ugandans have face-masks, says Museveni
She said this was part of their mandate to protect Ugandans from buying substandard non-medical facemasks which could be harmful to their health, in the wake of COVID-19.
\"UNBS is also giving out free non-medical facemask standards to aid certification of facemask manufacturers and mass production of non-medical facemasks that meet the national quality standards,\" she said.
So far, 55 companies have applied for certification, but Ms Kirabo says the number of companies certified to manufacture non-medical facemasks is expected to increase.
President Museveni has said Uganda's agriculture and ICT sector will not be affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic ravaging both people's lives and the real economy.
In his State of the Nation address this afternoon at State House Entebbe, Mr Museveni said: \" Apart from feeding us, these agricultural products end up by earning for us $2.005 billion (49 per cent of total merchandise exports) if we take the year 2019.\"
In this regard, Mr Museveni said: \"Our correct policy on the private sector, the corruption and obstruction of many of our public servants notwithstanding, has also attracted a total of 5,200 factories.
Turning to the ICT sector, Mr Museveni said the ICT sector is a growing one, employing 1,282,818 persons with 380,896 companies engaged in information technology, telecommunications, broadcasting, postal and courier and audio-visual.
Mr Museveni further stressed that in spite of the obstructions by the neo-colonial actors and foreign backers, Uganda is able to stand up today and weather this storm because of the correct actions we took.
Our plan is to distribute between 2 million and 3 million kilograms of additional maize seed targeting districts in Eastern, Northern and parts of central regions whose rainy season goes up to July.
So with our efforts to provide additional seeds to farmers, we believe that the country will be food secure during and after Covid-19 pandemic.
Could this pandemic be a blessing in disguise in terms of emphasis on food production and household income or its disruption in normal flow of work?
We want to see farmers earning more income, households living quality lives and food security becoming part and parcel of the routine fixture.
We have also selected some 17 districts which are tea growing areas in regions across the country and working with Uganda Developed Corporation tea factories will be established there.
Ugandan opposition leader and popular singer Bobi Wine has been freed after a brief arrest by the police. WIne had been taken away just after he was confirmed as a candidate in next year’s presidential election.
The local NBS Television, reporting from the scene, said the singer was put into a police van amid violent scuffles between police and his supporters.
Wine on Monday had gone to the nomination centre in Kyambogo in the capital, Kampala as Uganda’s electoral body started the nomination process for presidential candidates in the upcoming 2021 general elections.
Police fired tear gas to disperse his supporters who turned up to support him on nomination day.
Bobi Wine presented his nomination papers to the electoral commission to be cleared to challenge President Yoweri Museveni in next year's election.
Joel Senyonyi, spokesman for Wine’s NUP party, said “they [police] used a hammer and broke the windows of his vehicle and forcefully dragged him out … they bundled him into their own vehicle and took off”.
So far, 10 aspirants are vying for the top job. Others include former army commander General Mugisha Muntu and former Security Minister General Henry Tumukunde.
President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the country for 34 years, was the first to be nominated. He warned that any opponents who destabilize the country will be dealt with.
One presidential candidate Patrick Amuriat was arrested at the headquarters of his Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party.
Soldiers and police officers have been heavily deployed at the party's offices, the Daily Monitor newspaper reports.
Mr Amuriat is reported to have vowed to defy restrictions on the number of supporters accompanying him to the electoral commission where he is scheduled to submit his nomination papers at midday. The newspaper has tweeted a video of his arrest.
These are some of the events analysts say makes the outlook of the politics tense as Uganda braces up for elections February next year.
Wine, 38, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, aims to end President Yoweri Museveni’s 34 years in power.
The electoral commission, INEC, has approved direct primary for the All Progressives Congress (APC) to select its candidate for the September 19 governorship election in Edo State.
The APC headquarters had approved direct primary while the Edo chapter of the party wanted indirect primary.
Festus Okoye, the INEC spokesperson, appealed to the various political parties to conduct their primaries in full compliance with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution and Electoral Act 2010 law.
\"In accordance with Sections 85 and 87 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), 15 out of the 18 registered Political Parties have notified the Commission of their intention to conduct primaries for the purpose of nominating candidates for the Edo State Governorship election slated for 19 September 2020.
\"The Commission appeals to the various Political Parties to conduct their primaries in full compliance with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution and Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Political Party Primaries (2018) and the INEC Police COVID-19 Pandemic of 21\" May 2020.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Jane Frances Abodo has said her office was reluctant to sanction charges of being a nuisance against former Makerere University Research Fellow, Dr Stella Nyanzi last recently.
Counsel Walubiri had argued that it was high time the office of the DPP withdrew cases that have over stayed in the justice system like the treason case against Dr Kizza Besigye.
\"Perhaps, this is the time for the office of the DPP to weed out some files that have been pending in the criminal justice system for long as the same are clogging the system for no good reason,\" Mr Walubiri said.
DPP Abodo said she is determined to weed out undeserving cases from the justice system starting with those arrested during the ongoing lockdown.
Ms Winfred Adukule, the executive director of Freechild Uganda, urged the office of the DPP and the Judiciary not to forget about the juvenile justice in this Covid-19 lockdown.
Kirunda's far-reaching impact, which shows him as Uganda's most successful captain having led the Cranes to their best ever finish at Afcon finals, where they lost to champions Ghana in 1978, also had the game's most powerful man chip in.
\"
Kirunda's national team collection has him Cecafa titles in 1969, 1970, 1973, 1976 & 1977 (1969 as Gosage Cup and 1970 as Challenge Cup), three Afcon tournaments, four league titles and an impressive 32 goals as top scorer in 1978, when he was deployed as a striker.
Those who didn't watch Uganda's team of mid-late 70s,\" he tweeted, \"Can't know how great you were; with Omondi, Mike Kiganda, Nsereko, Dennis Obua, Polly Ouma, Paul Ssali...\"
Uganda coach Johnny McKinstry said \"the talent, dedication and discipline required to play at three Afcons, lead Uganda to the 1978 final and win five Cecafa Cups cannot be underestimated.\"
Cranes captain and 2016 Caf Champions League winner, Denis Onyango, was \"anguished by the demise of one of Uganda's greatest footballers.
Onyango's national teammate Murushid Juuko took a trip down to 2016 when Fufa ensured a cast of the 1978 Afcon finalists, including Kirunda, gave the Cranes pep talk before their final qualification game against Comoros at Namboole.
