The Calvary follows the People’s President in Nakasongola district; Besigye tests the water quality and other reports from the district!

Nakasongala FDC Convoy 3.1.2015 P1

Today the Uganda Police Force in Nakasongola district has followed the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) convoy for the presidential candidate Dr. Kizza Besigye. He we’re not allowed to watch the situations of the schools or other public buildings. They we’re shut down by Police. The Highway Police force we’re following the FDC Convoy. DPC Charles Nsamba have been busy ordering his troops around and following the FDC men and their campaign trail, as they are seemingly committed to attend and follow the public rallies they have.

Nakasongala FDC Convoy 3.1.2015 P2

He was visiting water-wells to check the water quality and the police didn’t stop him. Where he we’re proving the point that water the people of Nakasongala is drinking, are the same as the ones that animals drinking. And it doesn’t look to clean or sanitized. This was a stop near Migyera town in the district.

Nakasongala FDC Convoy 3.1.2015 P3

In Migerya town the NRM People couldn’t help themselves, they tried to get the boda-boda drivers to shun the rallies and public event of the FDC convoy. They we’re getting paid if they didn’t ride around and gotten people to the event. Also a free yellow t-shirt by the NRM organizer; when the money didn’t come from the NRM organizer! They pleaded with FDC leaders to get paid… while tucking away the yellow t-shirts. Because they needed money for fuel, but the plea didn’t leave to anything and they left the plot in Migerya town. So they we’re trying to be doubled paid that day and still do ordinary work.

Nakasongala FDC Convoy 3.1.2015 P4 Water Well

He also visited the Kitalaganya landing site where it’s visible that the state of the water is not good and far from clean.

Kitalaganya 3.1.2015 KB P1

Kitalaganya 3.1.2015 KB P2

Reports from this district earlier last year in 7th October 2015:

“Nakasongola district is struggling to attract and retain teachers as the staff turnover persists leaving the education sector in turmoil. Records from Nakasongola District Education Department show that there are only 133 out of the 285 required secondary school teachers in the district” (Radio Buddu 98,8 and 95,5).

Nakasongola 2015 Oil - Waste 3.2.2016

And a report that is to interesting not address while we’re in Nakasongola district:

That this trucks that drives from Hoima through Nakasongola where a helicopter comes and picks it up! This a business done by President to sell oil-blocks shaded in transports saying – “hazardous waste” and amidst broad day light. A truck like this have 20 blocks of oil or more. The company who earns on the business is Great Lakes Company (From a great source).

We can see that this is an interesting district. All the projects that I have looked through in the Nakasongola have been subsidized from foreign donors. So if the Government of Uganda have done anything in the area, they have been funded by donor money and not by own tax-base. That is something to think about, especially with the water-crisis and steady issues with drought in Nakasongola. Time for the Nakasongola District to get enough teachers’ so there people can learn from the past and make a better future. Peace.

Mzee claims oppostions lies; a presidential candidate can’t lie he says; meanwhile his political history are built on lies!

m7-1970

When you have been in-charge since 1986 it’s hard to remember those days where yourself we’re luckily picked into positions of government and had real elections. Since Mzee have had total control since the bush-war! Which is a statement in itself; here yesterday he claims superstitious power and Devine right to rule. That is inspiring and terrifying. Take a look yourself!

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Mzee said this about his opposition recently:

“A president is next to God. You don’t tell lies when you are a president or aspiring to be one. You cannot have a president or somebody aspiring to be a president telling lies. That is a disaster for the country. You would rather say I don’t want to comment, but to tell lies when you want to be a president?” (…)”I want people who are engaged in the elections to stop bad politics, telling lies, trying to use violence because we are not going to tolerate those mistakes, in particular the use of violence and bad politics will be resisted and defeated. This should be clear to all and sundry” (Kiggundu, 2016).

He can argue that other candidates isn’t fit, that is what politicians do and point out flaws in plans in the way they want to run their station. This isn’t that, this is calling out and saying no-body except him can. The thing that bothers me is how he talks about lies and truth as “the President is next to God” means that there is a Devine order setting the standard on his behest. Mzee the man who caught the power with the gun, claims that God have given him the right.

MuseveniandIdiAmin

The lying is just wrong in many ways, he has been telling stories for thirty years, promised to retire more than twice and changed his mind about the constitution more than any kind of totalitarian leaders world-wide. So that he talks about leaders lying is like throwing stones in a glass-house, aye?

That he is messed up with the engagement into politics is meaning that it’s okay if it is on his terms. Something that is common now this days or facilitated to Mzee wishes. Like it is amazing “I don’t want to comment”. Than displaying his thoughts anyway: “but to tell lies when you want to be a president?” Well, he should know the answer to this, because he has forgotten the history of losing the rigged 18th September 1980 Parliamentary Election as the leader of the newly founded Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM) and got only one seat and a meager display. As disaffection with the Electoral Commission of the time he went into the bush and started the National Resistance Army (NRA). Because he couldn’t stand the Obote II government he had ushered in together with help of Tanzanian forces that we’re God-sent to end the Idi Amin Dada dictatorship. Something many people are grateful for!

So let me point out the lie in the matter of hand as he says the Opposition lies. They claim the same as he did in the 1980s of fraudulent and rigged elections. There have been proofs of that ever since the Electoral Commission has run multi-party elections since 2001. Because the numbers towards the changed NRA into the political party National Resistiance Movement (NRM) shows startling numbers that only can be beaten by the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) and now political party Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) who have run the country with nearly no obvious opposition. There been proof of stronger opposition in Uganda, so there is definite a lie. A lie that the world knows and the election observers since 2001 could tell or read through reports on these elections tells of malfunctions and frauds done by the ruling-party. Just like the lies of the political freedom and genuine candidates for the general election February 2016 from the NRM.

Kabaka in the Bush with NRA P2

 

The man who made himself a hero because a lost election and have ever since rigged elections. First by not opening for multi-party systems meaning he neglected the oldest parties of the land Uganda People’s Congress and Democratic Party. The Buganda Kingdom party Kabaka Yekka (KY) we’re long gone since Obote, Mzee former running mate who he needed to get closer to power disfranchised the kingdoms and banished them. That is while you we’re in the bush we’re doing secret deals with Kabaka and his men. Because your needed their support to regain strength for the future dealings and strong leadership. That is another lie Mzee now deflects and tries to avoid since he try at any cost to add more kingdoms and fiefdoms to regain more loyal cronies that will not be political henchmen, but loyal subjects to his will since they will get a cultural position in their respected region.

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Mzee, your claiming that opposition is making bad politics. That is way for you’re to lie, since you’re the guy who has set the standard for the politics done in the land in the recent decades. So if somebodies does bad politics in the land it’s because for the simple matter the executive have made it happen that way and rubberstamped it. The opposition which is still marginal in seats and places of power and with a shadow government doesn’t have the force to make that change, they can at least stifle business, but the NRM and their loyal paid cronies can decided the basic business.

Mzee I could go on and on. There is enough footprints in the sand been made since you started your political walk since you left University of Dar Es Salam in 1970s and started his political journey from there. Where he also went into wars and made civil war for his own gain and kept it ever since. That is not Devine powers next to God, that is the power invested in guns and alliance with necessary people to gain it, and then never leave.

Mzee, have enough lies on his own and to claim things on the opposition is just foul play, but at this rate it’s business as usual. Peace.

Reference:

Kiggundu, Edris – ‘Besigye not presidential material – Museveni’ (01.01.2016) link: http://www.observer.ug/news-headlines/41889-besigye-not-presidential-material-museveni

Mzee might think Besigye and Muntu is “unserious” about Veterans Pay; We think you are foolish Mzee; Who don’t compensate those who fought for you or the country you have been running!

NRA M7

“Besigye and Muntu don’t talk in a serious manner. They just talk in a manner which is not serious, which is not responsible. I am also a veteran, I have not been paid. I am actually a bigger veteran than all those fellows combined” – Yoweri Kaguta Museveni at a presidential rally in Busoga late December as a response to FDC leaders in Yumbe the same week.

We have all heard rubbish before from Mzee. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has been speaking with power before. This is nothing new. This is actually normalcy. If he didn’t address the matter like Abim Hospital visit, he wouldn’t be his normal self. He can’t help himself.

We know that all three is veterans. They all served under the army or battalions of either rebels or governmental forces. Even if we go back to the now governmental forces; that are now the former rebel forces, that is going back to 1980s.

Besigye Luweero 1980s

We know that Yoweri Kaguta Museveni have been in army since 1970s, even Dr. Kizza Besigye have become a colonel, Mughisa Muntu who became a General in the same army. Yoweri himself became only a lieutenant. And he claims to be more than them. That is kind of ridiculous. That is not what the matter is about!

The matter remains on one single fact. Veterans are supposed to be supported after fighting for the causes of their nation, armies and their expected time spent serving their nation. It is a way of securing moral authority and validity of the nation by paying back to the citizens who pick up arms.

Mugabe Military

A national leader and head of state will know the value of their armies. Even the great dictator Robert Mugabe or Bob of Zimbabawe do. Recently the only paid civil servants are the army personnel, not teachers, bureaucrats or other state officials. That is because they have army training and can point guns. They can make a coup d’état or overthrow a regime. That is why certain individual leaders decide to be gentlemen with their armies and keep them happy first, to secure their power.

That is not always the way. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is different recent reports tells a story of his army in the AMISOM mission in Somalia have not been paid for 9 months. Their wife can have a baby in the time they are out in the field and still not wage for their duty. That should lead to mutiny in the field. Though that news would not come out, unless there we’re reports from eye-witness through social media, because the press sending news from Somalia is payed and secured by the agents of the states who have armies as a part of the AMISOM. The matter why I say this? Is simple! When the leader of the day doesn’t really sufficiently pays the armies who fight for him now? Why would he pay the ones who are done serving him?

AMISOM 32

Mzee can say that he is more of fighter then the two FDC leaders, still doesn’t make it right. Secondly he can say that he isn’t paid for his duties as them. That doesn’t make his argument right. As the head-of-state for 29 years, he had time to fix the issues and secure funding and funds to foot-the-bills and make a difference on the matter if it really did matter to him. Instead he has secured business for him and his family. Made sure his farm has gotten more cows and gotten bigger private planes and car-park. Not securing funding for veterans or payment for salaries of the armies of today. That is beautiful like a masterpiece of thieving, not being a statesman. Something Mzee should be by now. He have had the time to leave the legacy. Instead he have been thieving and taking money through special programs. NSSF and other have been embezzled for ages. That is how he has afforded to this business.

That is why Mzee haven’t been too busy building out hospitals or medical systems. Since he can now afford to travel abroad with him and his family to be healthy. That is the life of the president. Who can himself travel to Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom or anywhere else to secure health care, why build your own countries health care when you can pay abroad for the care with the tax-payers money.

Mzee have surely kissed his own ass and served himself well. That the statehouse in Entebbe is the state of the art, house in Nakasero hill is a fortress and his farm have more equipment then a American Southern farm of the same size. He surely doesn’t need veterans pay. As so many of the other men who fought the same wars as him or the ones who fought for him after in DRC or recently in South Sudan for that matter. Well, they are just common folk, you only need their vote and that they vote for you know and then. Well, they don’t need a secure lively hood, they are just common folk, and they can fix that on small plots with the hoes they are not getting from you! Because you can’t allocate funds for that either!

cadets10 UPDF

Mzee you can say that Besigye and Muntu are not speaking in serious matter. If they we’re speaking in a serious manner, they would do like me, and make you naked. You’re the king in the new clothes. And that is none! Be proud of you none pay of veterans salary; While you have embezzled more funds than letters in the bible. To be honest it is kind of impressive and sad at the time! So with your magnificent lifestyle you can’t compete with the common man who fought for you and deserve creditials and compensation for served time. They are the ones that need so, not you, you Mzee have already taken enough and eaten enough. And you should stop taking your armies for granted. You never know when the time is up and when their hunger strike at you. Peace.

Press Release: Appointment of Governors for 28 States created by Presidential Order 36/2015 in South Sudan (29.12.2015)

SPLM 29.12.15

An Exclusive with H.E Jean Bosco Barege, Bururundi Ambassodor to Uganda On Burundi Crisis (Youtube-Clip)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGJ1FS_lOMs

“He said there is no Burundian who was killed unfairly in Burundi. He also said the government is willing to sit and discuss and discuss with those with grievances” (NBS TV Uganda, 2015).

What NRM’s #Steady Progress really is…

KCCA at work

We all know that the election is going on and that NRM have a campaign slogan as such: “Steady Progress”. This is the time when NRM is telling in each district they visit about the 29 years of “steady progress”. Well, I will not, I am not NRM. And not a great fan of the NRM. As those of you who read my page/blog should understand by now. I will show another story of the #Steady Progress have been under the NRM and Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s presidency.

#Steady Progress under the NRM-Regime is that there been violence and arresting the opposition leaders with different claims. And have rhetoric that attacks others then look into their own missteps. Especially when Mzee hear the reports of the violence were from NRM-Supporters together with the Police in an area (Ntungamo clashes for instance). There isn’t the first time the President Museveni spreads fear in the name of democracy and not the last. He can put his words into a leopard’s mouth and see if the animal bites.

#Steady Progress is to have close hospitals in the weekends and having no nurses at the referral hospital in the districts. #SteadyProgess is to suspend health workers after showing the terrible working condition of the Health Care facility.

Burundi Report Police

#Steady Progress is to use the colonial law of preventative arrest when it fits the NRM-Regime and if it fits the new law Public Order Management Act then the Police will take care off or silence Political Opposition leader, Human Rights Activist or even random pedestrians.

#Steady Progress is that the police tells the world and journalist on how to conduct themselves and how to be a part of campaign convoys of the opposition leaders.

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#Steady Progress is that the Police are interfering in Opposition leader’s rallies instead of securing them.

#Steady Progress is to give a higher pay-rise to the Electoral Commission chairman from 6 million shillings a month to 35 million shillings each month.

#Steady Progress is first to lose the money to sustain and make the National ID cards, and not give them to the citizens. Then later deliver this to the Internal Displaced People in the camps and also immigrants from neighbor countries then the initial voters and citizens of the country.

#Steady Progress is to have terrible roads in and around the villages. #Steady Progress is to finally have rail system working between Kampala – Namanve, but not for the rest of the country, and it had to happen right before the election.

cadets10 UPDF

#Steady Progress is to go into neighbor countries with the army without international mandate for securing the friends and caretakers of nations around to secure loyalty to the President of Uganda, not to secure Uganda.

#Steady Progress is to make the currency weaker and weaker. #Steady Progress is to make the Bank of Uganda a personal visa card for the government because of the new amendments to the Public Finance Bill of 2015.

#Steady Progress is to make the nomination of candidates for elections more expensive so only the ones that are friends and cronies of the President will be sure of having the funding and support to stay on as candidates.

#Steady Progress is to bankrupt the national airliner and still only have on international airport in the country, also to get British Airways to cancel their flights to Entebbe and stopping fly to it after the set date of contract with the Airport.

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#Steady Progress is to give away expensive cars to Regional District Commanders to ensure the safety of NRM and not the people of the northern regions.

#Steady Progress is to promise loyal cronies more districts and sub-counties to secure loyal men in charge over areas and make the opposition unsure of the new constituency.

Kable NRM Primaries P1

#Steady Progress is to have a chaotic internal elections with pre-ticked ballots, late ballot delivery, wrong names on the ballot, stealing the forms for final counting, winners jailed for misconduct, bribing voters in villages to vote for candidates, letting members of other parties vote in the internal ones, sole candidacy in many constituencies and also clear indication of rigged for loyal Mzee men and woman.

#Steady Progress is to land as hunting-grounds or for services rendered for the government either to the likes of Aga Khan or other foreigners, even trade of forests and mineral rich land, to get it pocketed while the Government of Uganda can.

#Steady Progress is to borrow more and more money to fund the aid deficit created by the “Anti-Gay-Bill” fiasco. That left a vacuum from foreign interest together with the strategic loss of partners to sustain their aid to the country and picking other feasible projects there.

#Steady Progress is give money to religious leaders to secure their congregation who their God has picked as leader and who their lord has anointed to the position.

#Steady Progress is to get a bigger government and more ministries so that all the ones closes and most loyal get a place in the central government.

Uganda Parliament Museveni

#Steady Progress is to give a person the role of ministry without a portfolio or office

#Steady Progress is to use more on private plans and military equipment then on basic school kits, school buildings or even medical supplies.

#Steady Progress is for the President to claim again and again that he is the only Mzee who can keep the country safe and keep control of the army.

#Steady Progress is to have old medicine or copy medication instead of having extra supplies through the NMS.

#Steady Progress is to have ghost-workers, ghost-voters, ghost-schools, ghost-roads or ghost-expenditure.

#Steady progress is to fire all of the UNRA workers and getting the funding for bigger projects through the World Bank cancelled.

#Steady Progress is to see that Uganda Human Rights Commission loses it funding from it’s donors.

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#Steady Progress is to hire “Crime Preventers” as securing votes and create havoc in other candidate’s rallies to make sure that people stay loyal to the Mzee, and also ship them from NRM rally to NRM rally to make the party look more popular.

#Steady Progress is to have more and more car accidents on the bad roads, even lose the lives of more Members of Parliament due to bad roads in the districts.

#Steady Progress is for the rich and for the wealthy to take their family members or themselves to health facilities abroad to heal and prosper.

#Steady Progress is to borrow money on the future-oil monies and trade of the oil refinery from Russian state-owned company to buy military equipment.

#Steady Progress is to lose battalions and soldiers in Somalia and leave new recruits with little or no supply. The army in Somalia has to sell equipment for food and necessities; instead of fighting the terrorist group Al-Shabab.

#Steady Progress is that landslides after heavy rains and floods have no covering or security funds from the government nor any restrictions or helping agents to save lives on that matter.

#Steady Progress is given funds of 51 billion to the post-election violence for the Police and army for the “excuse” to secure the safety and peace in the country.

#Steady Progress is to tear down other candidates posters while sealing off and securing with Police force the incumbent presidential candidates ones on the walls.

Ready to Move with Sevo Music Campaign for 2016 P5

#Steady Progress is to use a tiny fortune to make a gig-song and have singers on the campaign trail.

#Steady Progress is to pay boda-boda men in town and villages to not drive to opposition rallies.

#Steady Progress is to have a rising inflation and devalue the currency before and after every election time, leading the results for more expensive fuel, food and living prices in general. 

#Steady Progress is to send SMS’s to everybody to tell them to VOTE MZEE, even if they don’t are NRM members or belongs with the Party, instead he sends to all Ugandans in the companies to gain support.

#Steady Progress is to pay boda-boda drivers to drive people to Mzee’s venues, give away t-shirts, give away free fuel, feed the public food and give money to the attendance of the crowd.

#Steady Progress is to use 500 billion shillings for campaigning for the presidential candidate, to give out handouts to loyal men and woman in the districts, cars to chiefs and other gifts of that nature to feed the loyal NRM people in up-country and the rest of the country.

#Steady Progress is to close off transmitter of radios who send messages opposing the NRM-Regime.

#Steady Progress is to deliver a campaign package of 20 million shillings to NRM Parliamentary candidates.

We can all see and this a gist of the actions and events leading up to the 29 years of #Steady Progress from Mzee and his NRM party. This was certainly not the things he fought for in the bush-war or the idea he sold at the time. It has surely changed. I could have displayed all the corruption cases, embezzlements and such, but as I said this gist of the actions from the NRM party and Mzee. We have not taken in account his foreign adventures and military actions, or all the people that have been left behind. Peace.

EU Letter to H.E. Yoweri Museveni on Inter-Burundian Dialogue (14.12.2015)

EU Burundi Uganda Letter

“Police to blame for Ntungamo violence” – Written by Ibrahim Nganda Ssemujja

Ibrahim Nganda Ssemujju

On Saturday and Sunday last week, I joined Dr Kizza Besigye as he campaigned in Mityana and Mubende districts. On Monday, Besigye campaigned in the districts of Kyegegwa and Kyenjojo. He was in Kamwenge yesterday and will today traverse Bundibugyo and Ntoroko. Col Besigye will complete the Tooro sub-region tomorrow and return to Ankole through Rubirizi, up to Bushenyi.

The response in Mityana was overwhelming, but expected. It is Mubende that made a big statement. I travelled in the same vehicle with Kampala lord mayor Erias Lukwago and Lubaga North MP Moses Kasibante. Because of the crowds along the main road, we occasionally stopped to at least greet them.

A senior NRM leader from Mubende later told me that “the MPs may win, but for Mzee, I don’t know”. Mubende has in the past overwhelmingly voted for Museveni, the reason it was nicknamed the Karamoja of Buganda. But this Karamoja of Buganda has significantly changed.

At Busimbi grounds, where we had the main rally, the crowd was as big as has been the case elsewhere, almost bigger than Mukono’s. The enthusiasm, especially among young people, was even more humbling. And there is no better person that illustrated the need for change than Mr Odrek Rwabwogo, husband to one of President Museveni’s daughters. While campaigning for the post of NRM vice chairman in charge of western Uganda, Rwabwogo noted that his father-in-law seized power when Uganda had 10 million people. Last year’s national census put the country’s total population at over 34 million people. This means that at least 24 million people have been born when Museveni is president. And to Rwabwogo, the new generation needed some “fresh air”.

That is what I saw in Mubende. Blue T-shirts bearing the FDC logo and Dr Besigye’s portrait were not being distributed but sold along streets. And of course Besigye continued receiving gifts, especially goats, everywhere he went. There is a gentleman who gave him Shs 400,000 at the Mubende rally. This one did it more dramatically by handing him a Shs 50,000 note at a time as the crowd ululated. The same man again pulled out a bundle of Shs 20,000 notes and started showering lord mayor Lukwago with a note at a time. This was followed by the offering of goats, some draped in Besigye posters.

IGP Kale Kayihura 16.12.15 P1
The NRM leader I mentioned earlier told me “it will be difficult to resist the wave of change this time”.
I am sure Mr Museveni watches and analyses these images daily. He knows his days are numbered. It is the reason he has started attacking media organizations. The crime of NTV and Daily Monitor is to continue broadcasting and printing these images. At FDC, we actually think the media has not reported the full extent of this wave of change, but we are not editors to determine that. The truth is that Besigye has bigger crowds than all the other candidates combined. And these crowds are not ferried, because the FDC and all Besigye supporters don’t have enough resources.

IGP Kale Kayihura 16.12.15 P2
You remember the talk of switching off NTV? Thank God it was a rumour. I have been told other TV proprietors, including those of NBS and WBS, have been summoned by State House and warned. Of course for Daily Monitor, it is routine. When the paper had just started, Museveni always complained against it and its founders were dismissed as Acholis who wanted to remove the new government. All people with names starting with letter O – Obbo, Oguttu, Ogen and Ouma – have since left the Monitor but Museveni’s hatred continues. I will, in a future article, revisit this relationship.

Ntungamo 13.12.15
I want to concentrate more on the Sunday violence in Ntungamo. I saw images of young people wearing Museveni campaign T-shirts being battered by candidate Amama Mbabazi’s supporters. And this was also expected. There is no presidential candidate that has suffered at the hands of NRM hooligans like Amama. Television stations showed us NRM youths defacing Amama’s posters in Bushenyi in broad daylight. And Lt Gen Henry Tumukunde flew a Museveni campaign chopper to the venue of Mbabazi’s rally in Fort Portal, moments before his arrival! All these look like actions of a panicky dictator. I was happy when NRM Secretary General Kasule Lumumba condemned these actions and distanced the ruling party from them. But the fact that they have continued is a clear indicator that someone somewhere is encouraging and probably financing them. What the police should have done was to arrest Ronald Kibuule when he lined up NRM youths along Mukono town council streets to provoke Amama.

NRM - Go Forward 13.12.15
Again police should have arrested Ntungamo municipality MP Yona Musinguzi who was seen distributing Museveni T-shirts to youths that stormed the venue for a Mbabazi rally. The reason presidential candidates harmonized campaign programmes was to avoid such scenarios. What inspector general of police Kale Kayihura is forgetting is that when you unleash violence, you are actually teaching everybody to be violent. In fact, Amama’s supporters have tolerated this for too long. Instead of protecting a regime that has lost popularity, Gen Kale Kayihura should prepare and begin rehearsing how to lose and hand over power. This is inevitable.

Press Statement: Uganda Contigent Commander Brigadier General Sam Kavuma concludes a one year tour duty in Somalia (30.11.0215)

AMISOM 32

A colorful send off for the outgoing Contingent Commander of the Uganda Peoples Defence Force (UPDF) and AMISOM Sector 1 Commander, Brigadier General Sam Kavuma was held last evening, Sunday 29 November 2015, in Mogadishu.

Brigadier General Kavuma who has completed a one year tour of duty in Somalia handed over the reigns of power to the incoming Contingent Commander Brig General Sam Okiding.

Like his predecessor, Brig. Gen. Okiding will be in-charge of Sector 1 region, currently under the control of Ugandan peacekeepers. Sector 1 troops secure Banaadir and Lower Shabelle regions and protects State House, all government ministries, Parliament, Aden Abdule International Airport and the sea port.

The Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General (DSRSG) for Somalia Mr. Raisedon Zenenga was the chief guest at the send off ceremony.

“We are here to celebrate, not his departure but his achievements and we are here to thank him for the great work he has done. Gen Kavuma, you had the most difficult task in the world. That is not an exaggeration and the verdict on your performance is very clear from not only what we have heard tonight but from what we witness ourselves daily,”  said Mr. Zenenga.

The Force Commander Lt. Gen. Jonathan Rono reminisced about their experiences on the frontline and commended his bravery. He said, “You have done your bit, you have done your job. To the incoming Commander, you have been inducted.”

The incoming Contingent Commander Brigadier General Sam Okiding served in the Mission in 2012 during the Afgoye and Baidoa operations.

“The complexity of this operation is still fresh in my mind because it entails a lot of languages; the diplomatic, the military, political, cultural languages and so on and so forth but my blessings and salvation is that I have all of you. There is no way Brigadier Okiding will fail when I have all the support,” he noted.

In his remarks, Brigadier General Kavuma said, “The Mission is still on, it still needs all our efforts, I want to wish you all the best, I want to wish our Mission success and I’ll always pray for you so that you don’t get any issues with the mind and health, so that in future we can come back to Somalia as tourists ,to enjoy our fruits. I’m very sure that this Mission is going forward.”

Present at the ceremony were Ugandan Ambassador to Somalia Major Gen. Nathan Mugisha, AMISOM Deputy Force Commander Gen. Nakibus Lakara, Brigadier General Antonio Maggi EUTM Somalia and senior military officers from the Somali National Army and Somali Police Force.

Joint Statement: “The Commonwealth should play a leading role in the fight against corruption” (27.11.2015)

Malta

Unchecked, corruption can choke off development, rob people of faith in their governments and sow the seeds of instability and conflict. But against this challenge, the Commonwealth has a tremendous opportunity to lead.

Corruption afflicts the Commonwealth in many ways. The Commonwealth includes both countries where vast amounts of wealth are stolen from the people and major financial centres that can be used to launder corrupt wealth. It is a community of nations with a set of shared values, shared sense of rule of law and a shared history of institutions. Because of all we share, the Commonwealth is a vital international forum to tackle this agenda.

Today, at the start of CHOGM 2015, we set out an aspiration for the Commonwealth to lead the world in tackling corruption and the laundering of the corrupt wealth around the Commonwealth.

Ahead of the proposed Anti-Corruption Summit in 2016, hosted in the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth can build a consensus on tangible steps to address corruption and on a leadership role that the Commonwealth can take.

TI-Ukraine-blog

These steps need thorough debate, but they should include:

1. Considering a formal Commonwealth scheme for cooperation and mutual legal assistance to fight corruption

2. Expanding the Commonwealth Secretariat’s existing technical support to anti-corruption agencies and bringing professionals and practitioners together to help countries exchange ideas and find solutions tailored to their needs

3. Learning from the insights of the Commonwealth Associations of Anti-Corruption Agencies and the Commonwealth Africa Anti-Corruption Centre

4. Strengthening Commonwealth financial centres to lead the world in standards of transparency, integrity and effective anti-money laundering systems

5. Ensuring that all Commonwealth States meet the standards of beneficial ownership transparency that the G20 has agreed

6. Building better frameworks for sharing information on corruption and money laundering risks, so that strengthening one financial centre does not displace the problem to another jurisdiction

7. Raising standards of access to information rights for the public and whistleblower protections, across the Commonwealth

8. Reviewing the legitimacy of immunity for officials that guarantee against criminal proceedings across the Commonwealth and whether it can be reformed to end unnecessary high levels of protection that block justice for the corrupt

This week at the People’s Forum, the Business Forum, the Youth Forum and the Women’s Forum, as well as the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, we have called for the entire Commonwealth community to support this aspiration. If the Commonwealth can build a joint compact across all of its communities, we can break the strangle hold that corruption has on so many parts of the world.

A Statement written and Co-Oped by:

Transparency International and Hon Joseph Muscat, Prime Minister of Malta