Uganda

Minister Rukutana released on bail

admin — Tue, 15 Sep 2020 16:50:01 +0000

Minister Rukutana released on bail admin Tue, 09/15/2020 - 16:50

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

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The state minister for Labour, Employment and Industrial Relations Mwesigwa Rukutana has been granted bail. Rutukana is battling charges of attempted murder, assault, malicious damage and threatening violence.

Rukutana was arrested with three of his bodyguards from his home in Kagugu in Rushenyi on September 4 and subsequently appeared in court on September 7. He was then remanded to Kitalya prisons in Wakiso district until today September 15. According to police, Rukutana and his guards shot at a vehicle belonging to a supporter of his rival Naome Kabasharira injuring one of the occupants, Dan Rwibirungi.

Today, Rukutana was granted cash bail of Shs 4 million by Ntungamo chief magistrate, Sarah Kolya Mponye. His four sureties were asked to execute a non-cash bond of Shs 50 million. The sureties included Jim Muhwezi, Robert Kabonero, Michael Mawanda, and Haji Ali Mutebi. Rukutana was also asked to deposit his passport with the court.

Rukutana appeared before the chief magistrate, via Zoom videoconferencing technology from Kitalya prison. In the application, the lawyers argued that Rukutana had a right to bail since the offences are bailable. The lawyers also argued that Rukutana had a permanent place of abode in Ntungamo district which is under the jurisdiction of the Magistrates court.

However, the prosecution led by Eunice Baine had objected to the bail application on grounds that the offence was grave and the accused may interfere with the investigations and witnesses because he is a minister and the investigations were still going on.

Kolya, however, overruled the prosecution and granted bail to Rukutana. She adjourned the case to November 3 when the case will up for mention. However, Rukutana’s co-accused who are also his bodyguards are still in detention. They are Egec Paul, Kozala Faizal and Okello John Bosco.

Last week during the swearing-in of the new chief justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo, President Museveni affirmed his stand against granting bail to suspects of capital offences, such as murder, rape, defilement and assault, saying it makes people lose interest in the judicial system.

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Kiira boat accident: Police recover body, two still missing

admin — Mon, 31 Aug 2020 12:20:01 +0000

Kiira boat accident: Police recover body, two still missing admin Mon, 08/31/2020 - 12:20

Monday, August 31, 2020

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Daily MonitorNational

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Kiira boat accident: Police recover body, two still missing

BY PHILIP WAFULA
A search team that worked through the night has retrieved the body of a woman believed to be part of the five whose boat was carried away by the river on Sunday evening.
The Kiira region Police Spokesman, Hajji Abbey Ngako, on Monday said “the body of a woman has been retrieved and the search is underway to find the other child and a lone boater.”
Asked to give a brief description of the woman and age, Mr Ngako said police are going to issue a detailed statement ‘soon’, but all efforts will be made to identify the victims.
The unfortunate incident occurred on Sunday at around 5pm when a family of four tourists (man, woman and two children) and a guide were heading to the Source of the Nile but their boat experienced engine failure and was pushed to the dam.
The guide jumped out of the boat and was rescued by a UPDF marine, while the four were washed through the spillways, including a lone boater who was trying to rescue the quartet.
However, the man, one child and the lone boater were later rescued and taken to Jinja Referral Hospital.
Meanwhile, Mr Emmanuel Njuki, the Corporate Affairs Manager at Eskom Uganda, has said the search team worked overnight and there is not so much that can be done during the night; but with more light today, there will be back-up and they are doing their best.

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Time to reconnect with nature

admin — Sun, 30 Aug 2020 19:20:01 +0000

Time to reconnect with nature admin Sun, 08/30/2020 - 19:20

Sunday, August 30, 2020

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Daily MonitorOther Features

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Time to reconnect with nature

Some lodges have introduced low covid rate

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22-year-old paints away poverty

admin — Sun, 30 Aug 2020 19:20:01 +0000

22-year-old paints away poverty admin Sun, 08/30/2020 - 19:20

Sunday, August 30, 2020

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Daily MonitorOther Features

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22-year-old paints away poverty

Mukundane, 22, works exclusively with blue and black ballpoint pens to draw portraits

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Kampala landlords, tenants move to settle rent arrears

admin — Sat, 29 Aug 2020 19:00:01 +0000

Kampala landlords, tenants move to settle rent arrears admin Sat, 08/29/2020 - 19:00

Saturday, August 29, 2020

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Daily MonitorOther Features

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Kampala landlords, tenants move to settle rent arrears

Whereas some landlords heeded the tenants’ call to waive the rent arrears during the lockdown, others only rescheduled the rent clearance

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Uganda seeks to ship oil to South Sudan, Rwanda

admin — Thu, 20 Aug 2020 00:51:39 +0000

Uganda seeks to ship oil to South Sudan, Rwanda admin Thu, 08/20/2020 - 00:51

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

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Daily MonitorBusiness

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Uganda seeks to ship oil to South Sudan, Rwanda

According to Uganda National Oil Company, the Jinja storage terminal has been restocked to market it as a point of pick up

Africa

Business

A sour taste creeps into Kenyan tea

admin — Mon, 12 Jun 2023 07:00:01 +0000

A sour taste creeps into Kenyan tea

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admin Mon, 06/12/2023 - 07:00

Thursday, May 25, 2023

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The Citizen

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A sour taste creeps into Kenyan tea

Summary

East Africa seems to be in the early beginnings of militant contestation over natural resources.

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This week, Dutch multinational Ekaterra Tea Company suspended its operations in Kericho, Kenya’s South Rift region, after militant residents invaded two of its estates and burnt mechanical tea pickers, harvesters and a tractor.

The company said its 16,000 employees would only report to work once the security situation is stabilised.

The Daily Nation reported that large tea producers in Kericho, Bomet, Nyamira and Nandi counties would also scale down their operations until adequate security measures were in place.

It quoted Kenya Tea Growers Association (KTGA) chairman Silas Njibwakale as saying darkly that there had been a notable escalation in insecurity in the tea estates with the breakdown of law and order severely disrupting business operations, thus hampering the growth of the tea sector.

“What started in October 2022 with daylight raids and theft of tea leaves and machinery has now escalated to organised attacks on business premises and deliberate destruction of critical assets,” said Mr Njibwakale.

Police officers have been seriously injured in recent months as they dispersed residents who invaded the estates of Ekaterra and another multinational, James Finlay’s, to steal green leaves. Kericho Governor Erick Mutai’s motorcade was pelted with stones when he intervened.

Politicians have been accused of inciting Kericho residents against the massive tea plantations during last year’s election campaigns with promises that they would help them to reclaim some of the lands. However, the crisis was fully on show 15 years ago, during the post-election violence (PEV) that followed the disputed December 2007 elections in which 1,400 people were killed and 350,000 displaced.

At that time, the more dry-eyed analysts, storytellers and documentary makers who studied the wreckage of the violence, which was mostly concentrated in the Rift Valley, partly blamed it on the tea plantations. They said the plantations had so much land, acquired in the colonial and immediate post-independence periods, leaving the local people “packed like sardines in ghettos” in dry patches of land.

Local militancy

With the increasing population, combined with the deterioration in the environment, they warned of local militancy that would seek to seize tea plantations for the people’s livelihood and bring with it levels of pillage way beyond what was witnessed by the tea firms during the PEV.

The government, and the national economy, are now caught between a rock and a hard place. Expropriating the plantations might be good for short-term electoral politics but disastrous economically. Indeed, Njibwakale said, “We appeal to the President (Dr Ruto) to intervene and restore order, protect local and foreign investments and avoid a situation where Kenya loses its international tea market niche.”

Times have changed. In the aftermath of Covid-19 and the squeeze brought by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, economies squeezed by high dollar interest rates, and mounting debt, many developing countries are desperate and offering foreign investors incredible sweetheart deals.

Njibwakale spoke in the company of Slyvia Ten Den, the Ekaterra managing director for Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda. She would have been aware that Rwanda, and President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s Tanzania, would gladly snap up Ekaterra at the first chance, not to mention Uganda.

Yet, in some of these countries, they too will be aware that the politics of land has become more fraught. President Hassan’s government just concluded negotiations with an energy consortium for a $40 billion liquefied natural gas export project.

The project had been delayed by the John Magufuli government and was pulled back on its feet after he died in 2021. However, even in famed “peace-loving” Tanzania, the government will deploy the army to guard the LNG project. Uganda has deployed thousands of troops to guard its 1,443-kilometre crude oil pipeline being built to the Tanzanian port of Tanga.

East Africa seems to be in the early beginnings of militant contestation over natural resources (minerals, land, fish) that, in Nigeria, saw extensive sabotage of the crude oil pipelines by saboteurs, rebel groups and locals stealing the oil to process in bush refineries and sell to the local markets.

The process is more advanced in Kenya, where a version of it has been witnessed in the farm invasions in Laikipia (mostly owned by white folks). Zimbabwe, during President Robert Mugabe’s rule, had a violent seizure of white-owned farms.

In Zimbabwe, it was not the fairytale ending that nationalists had hoped for. The farms collapsed in the people’s hands and its agriculture cratered. The backlash on world financial markets was brutal. A cash-strapped Zimbabwe has been borrowing and scrapping together billions of dollars to compensate the white farmers.

It’s hard to see how this ends in a win-win for everyone. Maybe technology could come to the rescue. It is possible to produce higher-yield tea, on smaller land parcels, with chunks freed for redistribution to the people. But that might be one of those things that are easier said than done.

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US investors inject $40m for Zanzibar’s blue economy lots

admin — Sun, 11 Jun 2023 15:00:01 +0000

US investors inject $40m for Zanzibar’s blue economy lots

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admin Sun, 06/11/2023 - 15:00

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

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The Citizen

Original Article

US investors inject $40m for Zanzibar’s blue economy lots

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Arusha. The United States has pledged to support the private sector growth in East Africa and invested more than $ 40 million to the blue economy in Zanzibar.

The commitment was made by the American ambassador to Tanzania Michael A. Battle during his visit to the East African Business Council (EABC) head office in Arusha on Thursday.

"We are focused on promoting the growth of the private sector and sustainable economic development in the East African Community (EAC) region", he said.

Taifa Group signs Sh330 billion electricity deal in Zanzibar

According to him, some $40 million has been injected by the US investors for the development of various segments of the blue economy in the Isles.

These are fisheries, aquaculture, maritime transport, coastal marine and maritime transport, tourism, energy and other marine ecosystem services.

Mr Battle, who is also accredited to the EAC, paid a visit to the EABC offices to explore areas of partnership aimed at strengthening East Africa- USA trade and investment ties. EABC executive director John Bosco Kalisa told the US envoy that the bloc was open for business.

"There is a political goodwill from the EAC Heads of State to improve trade and investment climate in the region,” he pointed out.

He said the admission of DR Congo has expanded the bloc's market to $305.3 billion and a total population of 283.7 million.

The EAC has conducted a verification mission to assess Somalia's readiness to join the Community as the eighth member.

Mr Kalisa further stated that the regional business body was committed to promoting trade for peace programmes in the region "to ease doing business".

Also highlighted during the visit was USAID's Feed the Future project through TradeMark Africa and Corporate Council of Africa.

Other issues which came up for discussion were the US East Africa Trade and Investment Forum and the forthcoming US- Africa Business Summit 2023 to be held in Botswana.

“The EAC treaty is people-centered and market-driven, and EABC is at the forefront of championing advocacy for the full implementation of the Common Market and Customs Union protocols,” Mr Kalisa said.

However, he emphasized that the acceleration of the Common Market was crucial for the achievement of the Monetary Union and attendant single currency economy.

Other areas discussed during the visit included strengthening partnerships with US Alumni and AmCham, tax harmonization, women, youth, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in trade.

The US ambassador was also informed of the 14th African Union Private Sector Forum 2023 in Nairobi, and the East African Business and Investment Summit slated for Kampala, Uganda later this year.

Later Mr Kalisa hosted Uganda's High Commissioner to Tanzania and the EAC Fred Mwesigye expressed his commitment to promote trade ties between Tanzania and Uganda through closer collaboration with EABC.

Other areas discussed during the visit included the African Continental Free Trade Area and improving productive capacities based on country comparative advantages.

The two also deliberated on areas of partnership to strengthen economic diplomacy, empower SMEs, youth and women in trade, and the Africa Waste is Wealth Conference in Nairobi later this year.

"Economic diplomacy is central to boosting intra-EAC trade and creating shared prosperity and jobs for East Africans," the EABC boss explained.

He elaborated that the regional business body championed public-private dialogues with ministers and trade facilitation agencies at the borders "to unlock barriers to trade, especially non-tariff barriers".

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Comissiong cops Presidents’ Award St Martin Book Fair

admin — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 14:50:01 +0000

Comissiong cops Presidents’ Award St Martin Book Fair

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admin Mon, 06/20/2022 - 14:50

Friday, June 17, 2022

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Barbados Today

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Comissiong cops Presidents’ Award St Martin Book Fair

MARIGOT, St. Martin — His Excellency David Comissiong, Barbados’ Ambassador to CARICOM, recently received The Presidents’ Award from the St. Martin Book Fair. The annual Award is the final highlight of the three-day St. Martin Literary Festival, said book fair coordinator Shujah Reiph.

“The Presidents’ Award is presented to individuals and institutions whose work is noted for its excellence and for combining literary, cultural, and liberation components in the service of progress, of their people or nation, and of humanity,” said Lasana M. Sekou, House of Nehesi Publishers’ consultant to the festival.

“This is an unexpected gift,” said Comissiong while accepting the ebony statute award before the 120 plus guests that filled the literary big tent.

The festival’s main book launch and closing ceremony — dedicated to noted Bajan novelist and political thinker George Lamming (8 June 1927 – 4 June 2022) — was held at the Port of Galis Bay, overlooking Marigot Harbour with the night lights of Anguilla in view across the channel.

The theme of book fair 2022, “The Rebirth” had already been elaborated on by Comissiong in his keynote address at the opening ceremony of the festival in the garden of the Government administration building in Philipsburg.

Over the three book fest days, some 38 guest authors from Canada to Australia, the St. Martin public, and visitors to the island at book fair activities, had come to know David Comissiong as Barbados’ Ambassador to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and to the Association of Caribbean States.

“Few knew that he was a former senator in the government of Barbados and that he was born in St. Vincent,” said Reiph. Comissiong is also a founder-member of the Caribbean Pan-African Network; the Clement Payne Movement of Barbados; the Caribbean Chapter of the International Network in Defence of Humanity; and the Global Afrikan Congress.

Comissiong was an architect and the first director of the Barbados Government’s Commission for Pan-African Affairs. He also represented the Caribbean region at the 7th Pan-African Congress in Uganda (1994).

Comissiong played a key role in the United Nations’ World Conference Against Racism in South Africa (2001) and has represented the Diaspora on the African Union’s Economic Social and Cultural Council.

Since 2012, the alumnus of The University of the West Indies (UWI) has served as a member of Barbados’ National Task Force on Reparations.

An attorney-at-Law since 1984, Comissiong is the author of The Wide Streets of Tomorrow: Essays and Speeches, It’s the Healing of the Nation: The Case for Reparations, The Pan-African Love Story of Arnold and Mignon Ford; and The Year 1953 and The Shaping of the Soul of Guyana (pamphlet, 2022).

Among past recipients of the St. Martin Book Fair Presidents Award are Edwidge Danticat (USA/Haiti), Computech (St. Martin), Benny Wenda (West Papua), Norman Girvan (Jamaica), Casa de las Americas (Cuba), George Lamming (Barbados), Quince Duncan (Costa Rica), Nicole Cage (Martinique), Kamau Brathwaite (Barbados), Will Johnson (Saba), Drisana Deborah Jack (St. Martin), and Derek Walcott (St. Lucia).

The Presidents’ Award is named after the presidents of Conscious Lyrics Foundation (CLF), House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP), and the University of St. Martin (USM), said Reiph. (PR)

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Sakaja dares DCI boss Kinoti to arrest him

admin — Sun, 19 Jun 2022 13:20:02 +0000

Sakaja dares DCI boss Kinoti to arrest him

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admin Sun, 06/19/2022 - 13:20

Friday, June 17, 2022

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Nairobi News

Original Article

Sakaja dares DCI boss Kinoti to arrest him

Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja has dared the Directorate of Criminal Investigations boss George Kinoti to arrest him over claims that he is a suspect in an international criminal syndicate. This after Mr Kinoti said the senator and officials of Team University in Uganda, where the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) candidate for the Nairobi gubernatorial race claims to have acquired a degree, are suspects in an international organised crime syndicate. “We will not surrender our capital city to frauds. We will involve all international agencies in investigating and prosecuting anyone involved in academic fraud,” Mr Kinoti told the Nation. But in his response, Mr Sakaja said he will not be intimidated and dared the DCI boss to make good his threats. "Threats of arrest and persecution by the state will not intimidate us or change the will of the people of Nairobi. Our resolve remains firm. Bwana DCI Kinoti, I'm at my Riverside office, karibu or let me know if you'd like me to come over," Sakaja said. "Your office will not install a project on the people of Nairobi. My qualifications are legit and the relevant institutions have refused to play along with your games. Let the people decide," the senator went on. Mr Sakaja has been cleared by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to contest for the top county seat but is currently battling several petitions touching on his academic qualifications. The petitions include those questioning his academic qualifications and specifically a degree he says he acquired from Teams University in Kampala. The said degree has since been revoked by the Commission for University Education (CUE). If found guilty of forging his academic degree certificate and transcripts, Mr Sakaja faces a three-year jail term. But even as the embattled senator fights to clear his name, he has received support from Deputy President William Ruto, who on Thursday lashed out at the authorities, demanding that Mr Sakaja be left alone. “I am telling my competitors and my former (political) party Jubilee. Please leave Sakaja alone,” Ruto said during a campaign rally in Nyamira County. “Sakaja has gone to school and we have seen his papers. Stop taking him round in circles. The deep state and system are making calls all over the place. They have even called State House in Uganda while looking for means to stop Sakaja from contesting for the Nairobi gubernatorial seat,” the DP said.

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Uganda

Minister Rukutana released on bail

Kiira boat accident: Police recover body, two still missing

Time to reconnect with nature

22-year-old paints away poverty

Kampala landlords, tenants move to settle rent arrears

Uganda seeks to ship oil to South Sudan, Rwanda

A sour taste creeps into Kenyan tea

Summary

Thank you for reading Nation.Africa

Tea giants lose certification after Kenya sex abuse probe

Kenya launches probe into sex abuse claims at UK tea firms

Local militancy

US investors inject $40m for Zanzibar’s blue economy lots

Thank you for reading Nation.Africa

Taifa Group signs Sh330 billion electricity deal in Zanzibar

It's the content that counts

Hasheem Thabeet to miss AfroCan basketball competition

Comissiong cops Presidents’ Award St Martin Book Fair

Sakaja dares DCI boss Kinoti to arrest him