Letter – Re: Impassioned Plea from Oakbay Employees – Please Save Our Jobs (20.04.2016)

Oakbay Employee Letter 20.04.2016

Press Statement: Commander of New Uganda Battle Group arrives in Somalia (20.04.2016)

AMISOM 32

Mogadishu, April 20, 2016 – The Commander of a new battle group from the Uganda People’s Defense Force (UPDF), serving under the African Union in Somalia (AMISOM), has arrived in Mogadishu.

Col. Ronald Bigiriwa, the commander of battle group 18 jetted into Somalia yesterday afternoon with another batch of soldiers serving under him.

The new group is replacing battle group 15 based in Arbiska, which under the command of Col Silvio Aguma has completed its one year tour of duty. Col. Bigirwa was received by Lt. Col. Paul Muhanguzi, the Commanding Officer of 35 Battalion under battle group 15.

Addressing the soldiers moments after arrival, Col. Bigirwa called for discipline, alertness and dedication.

“My headquarters is going to be based in Arbiska and these troops are going to occupy the positions in the basecamp and outside Mogadishu town,” Col. Bigirwa said.

Speaking about his expectations, he expressed optimism that his team will deliver on the mission and play its part in bringing peace and stability in Somalia.

“It is just to continue with the mission of pan-Africanism. We are going to start where battle group 15 which is rotating out ended and we will continue with the task. We are ready for the challenges. These troops have trained enough and are ready,” Col. Bigirwa said.

In November last year, another Ugandan battle group rotated out and was replaced by battle group 17, commanded by Col. Bob Ogik.

BURUNDI AFTERMATH Are Burundians deliberately silent or being silenced? (Youtube-Clip)

“The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein today warned of a “sharp increase in the use of torture and ill-treatment in Burundi” and voiced concerns about worrying reports of the existence of illegal detention facilities, both in Bujumbura and in the countryside. His Office (OHCHR) estimates that some 595 people have been ill-treated or tortured since April 2015, a figure which is likely to be an under-estimate.  Daniel Lutaaya has been speaking to the Burundian Ambassodor to Uganda H. E Jean Bosco Barege to find out the truth or otherwise to this matter” (WBS TV Uganda, 2016)

Press Statement – South Sudan: Riek Machar’s Failure to Return to Juba (20.04.2016)

Machar Kiir

JUBA, South Sudan, April 20, 2016 –  Statement Delivered by State Department Spokesperson John Kirby, April 19, 2016

The United States is gravely disappointed by Riek Machar’s failure to return to South Sudan’s capital Juba today to form the Transitional Government of National Unity. This represents a willful decision by him not to abide by his commitments to implement the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan.

The United States and other partners have gone to great lengths to facilitate his return, including the return to Juba of his political advance team and security detail. His failure to go to Juba, despite efforts from the international community, places the people of South Sudan at risk of further conflict and suffering and undermines the peace agreement’s reform pillars – demilitarizing South Sudan, injecting transparency of public finances, and pursuing justice and reconciliation – that offer South Sudan a chance for renewal.

We call upon the government to exercise maximum flexibility for the sake of peace, and on Machar to return to Juba. We will coordinate with our partners on appropriate responses to obstruction of the peace agreement by Riek Machar.

Nominations headache for coalition parties in Kenya as aspirants line up for lucrative positions (Youtube-Clip)

“They may be facing off on all other matters but there is one issue which now threatens the major coalition parties in Kenya. With many aspirants lining up for lucrative elective positions, the race for nomination slots in the parties promises to cause friction and even fallouts within both CORD and Jubilee alliances. In some cases even the slot for the presidency is a matter for much acrimony” (KTN News Kenya, 2016)

Opinion: Preventative Arrest is used against the Opposition, especially the ones that are in the sense of the President is violating his playground.

Rukungiri 19.04.2016

I don’t know what the plan is for these Police Officers of the NRM regime now-a-days. It’s like it is their plan when they wake up and find some opposition members to detain. Not find some murders or criminals, but political opposition.

Today after driving from Kabale there level of arrest and towing of cars in convoy over the mountains shows the depressing levels of oppression towards the opposition. It was not only Dr. Kizza Besigye! The other ones who also was taken in custody by the Police we’re Erias Lukwago, Munyagwa Mubarak and Ingrid Turinawe. We could see pictures of the towing over the Rwamucucu toward the Ntungamo. So the actions of the Police was clear, ride them over the mountains with all force where they got towed by an Armored Personnel Carrier (APC). In Ntunagamo they destroyed the car of Besigye and sprayed them with pepper-spray. From there taken away in the well-known Police-Van that has been in public display of character since Mid-February!

Besigye Release on Bond 05.04.2016

So the madness of today proves the value of disgrace the government and security agency have against their own citizens and political active citizens. Instead of using intelligence to catch killers and thieves the police officers are busier to write bond papers with “prossession” and Preventative Arrest than doing proper police work. This must be the idea of the 1986 generation and use of the liberation that we’re to happen.

The NRM regime is busy using the Police Force and Army to spread fear and intimidate the locals and citizens then creating freedom and liberty. The Police Force are detaining politicians who are not the voice of the President. The President decides how easy life can be for the opposition and oppositional figures. With the long-serving Erias Lukwago has to continue to court to be justified to work as Mayor in Kampala.

Kampala 16.11.15 UPF 2

That the streets with mambas, APC and other anti-riot police cars that are riding in the streets. We can now see the manifestation of the suspect spying and following opposition leaders from the Police Force. That they are espionage are important part of the Police activity. As the limited freedom of the opposition is clear!

The Preventative Arrest is used by the Police by any means. Certainly the Police Force should have other means and other tasks at hand. Still, even getting people hired to monitor the Anti-Porn bill. Instead they are busy with spying on the Opposition and detaining them. The law that is in-force is called this: Habitual Criminals (Preventive Detention) Act 1951. An is used to catch opposition day-after-day!

That the Police Force we’re saying that certain routes of driving is wrong and not-right to drive for an Opposition leader, since he had planned to travel to Rukungiri after being in Kabale. That proves the non-sense and attitude of the ruling regime. And that should be questioned. President Museveni and IGP Kayihura knew that this would happen as the orders usually happen from above. They would only happen if the DPC wanted to show progressive thinking and try to take the space of Andrew Felix Kaawesi in Kampala. But I doubt this was the case today.

The action of deciding where a supposed “free” citizen is driving is insane. The sudden actions from the Police prove the malice. This malice and clear message is only in the mind of the IGP and the President. That Besigye and the other FDC leaders is used to being in the spot-light of the Police. That comes with the territory. The Territory that President Museveni sees as his playground. The Playground that FDC and opposition violates. So the Preventative Arrest is supposed to be a warning of his power and his justice. Not the justice or freedom after the codes of law. The rule of law doesn’t matter when you have a ruler of Museveni. The types of Museveni think he is above the law and the one that matter is him. Therefore the Opposition is a hassle and shouldn’t do anything but be a silent minority. So the arrests are set to stop the actions of the opposition and the recruitment of them.

Entebbe Road Kampala 19.02.2016. Demonstrations

So the Preventative Arrest and violations of JUST action is just to perceive and preside the power without question. President Museveni is militarized leader and deals through chain-in-command. He is the general everybody is supposed to blindly following his orders. In that sense that the opposition violates that grounds to oppressive behavior. And with the oppressive behavior against him he has to show aggression without mercy. Therefore the Police detain and harass the opposition until they learn to follow. But that is what we ordinary folks called a Police State and Militarized State or Totalitarian State.

NRM Regime is using the Preventative Arrest at every moment towards the Opposition, the ones that are in the sense of the President violating his playground. It is worrying how easy and how much they have done it over the recent months. This has escalated since Polling Day in Mid-February 2016. There been through the Pre-Election Period the same kind of actions as the Opposition have been detained and released on Bond. The Police work to stifle and cross the opposition at every step. This is tool of oppression the Uganda Police uses the most and will continue to use. This Preventative Arrest and also the Public Order Management Act; an Act I have discussed before and can easily address again! Peace.

Erias Lukwago statement after hectic day with the Police (19.04.2016)

Lukwago 19.04.2016

Statement from Erias Lukwago:

The notorious police van has just dumped me and Hon. Munyagwa Mubarak at my residence in Lubaga, and sped off with Dr. Besigye and Ingrid Turinawe still on board. We were bundled into the said van at Ntungamo police station where we had been detained after towing our vehicle at Butoberere and pulling us through the hilly areas of Rwamucuucu amidst a heavy downpour. Our vehicles were vandalised and teargas canisters hurled therein. Many thanks to the people of Ntungamo and Kabale for your unwavering support notwithstanding the excessive teargas and live bullets unleashed by the trigger happy police” (Lukwago, 19.04.2016).

BREAKING: Ghaleb Cachalia, son of struggle stalwarts Amina & Yusuf Cachalia has been unveiled as the DA’s Ekurhuleni mayoral candidate.

Ghaleb DA

“Throughout my life, I believed the ANC embodied these values. It was where I put my faith for a better life for all South Africans. It was the party that enshrined my values when Nelson Mandela signed our constitution into law in 1996.

But sadly, after 22 years of ANC government, we have been betrayed. The ANC has changed, and the ANC of Jacob Zuma is not the ANC of Nelson Mandela.

I accept this DA nomination, not just because I’m leaving the ANC, but because the ANC has left me.

The time has come for change and the DA is the vehicle to deliver that change.”

– Ghaleb Cachalia

How Kenyan Churches were “sold” to the rich but corrupt politicians (Youtube-Clip)

Uganda: President Museveni said: “Homosexuals are Disgusting” (Youtube-Clip)

“Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has signed into law a bill that toughens penalties against gay people and defines some homosexual acts as crimes punishable by life in prison” (CNN, 2016)