Two Men of ‘Sauti ya Vijana’ who petitioned Musveni is now detained

SYV to Petition Museveni: 
(Press Conference held this day, 15th.Nov. 2015)

“The Electoral Commission must recall Mr. Museveni to be briefed upon the guidelines. The ground must be redressed to be free and fair for all prayers and Mr. Museveni should stop in-sighting violence and threatening voters. More to come. Sauti ya Vijana” 

Pictures from the event:

Aftermath: 

At this stage of events it’s very clear. They have been picked up by Police and jailed for talking about Free and Fair elections. Wish is a excuse to be guilty before judged in court nowadays in Uganda. The proud Yoweri Kaguta Museveni continues to tarnish his reputation and IGP Kale Kayihura continues to use force against civillians. President Museveni supposed to be revolutionary and a man working for justice. Right now the only is justice is left for his loyal cronies and not the citizens of the country. That is why these men are inprisonated. For making a petitions against the president. He has to use power against people making petitions. That show how far from Democracy the country is and how little you have to do to become a criminal in the country. Kigwa Leero!

Arbitrary arrests are not acceptable. Release them Now! Peace. 

EALS/UG/10/15 – Re: Call on Your Excellency to Reign in State Sanctioned Police Brutality that is stiffling the enjoyment of Democratic Rights and Freedoms in Uganda (22.10.2015)

Professor Lumumba at PAV Ansah Foundation Forum – “On the Subject of Governance!”

PLO Lumumba interesting as always! Right?

Ask ourselves! We should Ask Ourselves!

Peace.

Press Freedom in the East African nations with ratings of the environment in 2014 (+ reports that the Ugandan regime turned off the transmitter of the Radio Baba in Jinja yesterday)

Yesterday on the 21.07.2015 the NRM regime cut off the radio transmitter for the “Baba Radio” or as it’s really named 87.7 Basogo Baino FM in Jinja after Dr. Kizza Besigye had a great rally earlier in the day in Iganga and Jinja. Therefore it made me go through the report on ‘Press Freedom in 2014 – Harsh Laws and Violence Drive Global Decline’ that is coming from the NGO Freedom house. Today on 22.07.2015 Mr. Innocent Anyole is sacked from his job after trying to interview Dr. Kizza Besigye this sacking happen by Radio Director Hon. Moses Grace Balyeku, the NRM Chairman of Jinja and MP for Jinja West Constituency. He sure followed party line and broke the wing of the man who introduced FDC man Dr. Kizza Besigye. Well, let me introduce the Press Freedom in East Africa according to the global rankings of the Freedom House and their report on how it was in 2014.

This report has three important levels of how the media is and which place in society it has:

1. Free
2. Partly Free
3. Not Free

The difference between them comes to how great power the countries government controls the media or let them be. How the laws and treatment of journalist and media institutions is and how the events surrounding them have been in the recent year.

I will focus on the East African Countries and those in the “area” around how the quote and place this countries in the report. Because I write about the South Sudan, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda. These are the countries that will be taken. Not the whole world but the basic places that I usually cover in my blog somehow. So it shouldn’t be surprise to anyone.

Before addressing the numbers and rankings of the nations, let me take the quotes on some of the nations from the report as well:

“Ethiopian authorities stepped up arrests of independent journalists, including the Zone 9 bloggers, leading more than 30 to flee the country during the year, according to CPJ” (…) “In Kenya contained several vaguely worded clauses curtailing press freedom, including the threat of three years in prison for journalists who fail to obtain police permission before reporting on terrorism investigations or operations, or for coverage “likely to cause public alarm, incitement to violence, or disturb public peace” (…) “Somalia’s score improved from 82 to 79 due to the increased ability of private actors to open media outlets and the greater distribution of media, especially radio, throughout the south-central part of the country” (…) “South Sudan’s score declined from 62 to 68 due to the government’s near-complete disregard for constitutional and legal protections for freedom of the press in 2014, as well as the lack of such protections in rebel-held areas; a marked increase in restrictions imposed on journalists by the security forces; and heightened censorship, self-censorship, and retaliatory attacks on journalists”.

From here I will address the rankings of the East African nations coming when it comes to press freedom and the numbers that they have gotten from the expert committees that gone through reports and the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX). The stories this numbers are telling and the situation that the media has on the ground is staggering. Therefore it’s a story that has to be told. Now will explain the criteria of the global ranking that is made of scoring process, the value of the levels and what they mean for each country and last the main groups of questions that the researchers and analyst in cooperation with IFEX. That has crunched the numbers with the questions and reports from sources from the whole world.

Criteria:

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers”

Scoring Process:

“The research and scoring process involves more than 90 analysts—including outside consultants and members of the core research team headquartered in New York—who prepare the draft ratings and country reports” (…) “the other members of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) network for providing detailed and timely analyses of press freedom violations in a variety of countries worldwide, on which we rely to make our judgments”.

Scale Point for the levels:

“A country’s final score (from 0 to 100) represents the total of the scores allotted for each question. A total score of 0 to 30 results in a press freedom status of Free; 31 to 60 a status of Partly Free; and 61 to 100 a status of Not Free”.

Questions that makes the score:

The scores are put into three categories: Legal Environment (0-30points), Political Environment (0-40points) and Economical Environment (0-30points).

Placing of the East African nations: 

Rank	Country	Score	Status
164	Burundi	74	Not Free
172	Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)	79	Not Free
180	Ethiopia	83	Not Free
124	Kenya	57	Partly Free
172	Rwanda	79	Not Free
172	Somalia*	79	Not Free
152	South Sudan	68	Not Free
115	Tanzania	54	Partly Free
123	Uganda	56	Partly Free

*Somaliland got ranked 115 – Score of 54 and was set to be ‘Partly Free’

What this means:

This tells something about the environment that the press in the East African nations goes through. Of the eight nations three is ‘Partly Free’: Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. This means that certain levels of freedom is on the media, but has certain levels of strings on the press. It’s worse in the rest of the nations because they are on the level of ‘Not Free’: Burundi, DRC, Rwanda, Somalia and South Sudan. And they did make Somalialand as a separate territory as a ‘Party Free’ whiles the country as a whole is set as ‘Not Free’. Therefore in that setting certain areas of Somalia federation has more freedom then the rest.

What that is shocking for me is how low scores countries of Uganda has compared to Ethiopia. Ethiopia has been strict on media and journalist. Especially to those who are abiding opposition in the country. Uganda has many outlets, still the big ones has over time been disorganized by the regime like the Daily Monitor. That has not happen with similar media in Kenya. Though the laws for media there is isn’t similar reports on shut downs of radio station and papers when the regime disagrees. Rwanda I am sure that the government is strict on the media, because the news from there is usually in the mood of the regime. Burundi if it wasn’t for protests and deflectors, there would be less news and information on the regime of Pierre Nkuruziza. DRC and Kabila haven’t put this into motions after all the issues that have been in the last decades. The regime has control and want to be sure of the information that is put out. Therefore when you hear something negative it’s from the UN bodies or MONUSCO but not the press of the DRC or journalists. Tanzania has its freedom but also strangles on the media. The party has been running the country since independence so the feelings is that their intertwined and feel like they are together, instead of actually being critical of the politicians and society. But it should be worried that the different countries and how big the difference between the top and bottom of the scale in the East African. From Tanzania who got 54 points and the worst was Ethiopia got 83 points – the close competition was Rwanda, Somalia and Democratic Republic of Congo got all 79 points on the scale. 60 Points scale is the max for the ‘Partly Fee’ media nations. So that the environment is on a far level from partly and even longer way to being free. The thing that is worrying is that it’s less than 5 points from ‘Partly Free’ to ‘Not Free’ with Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. It’s just small tweaks and harassment of the media and in 2016 report will degrade this nations and how the media has a place in these countries. Though it doesn’t look to good, but hopefully I and others can be surprised. Until then let hope that the media get into a place where they can actually monitor their areas and speak their minds without fear or legal repercussions. Peace.

Reference:

Dunham, Jennifer, Nelson, Bret & Ahekyan, Elen – ‘Press Freedom in 2014 – Harsh Laws and Violence Drive Global Decline’ – April 2015 – Freedom House

Uganda – The Democratic Alliance (TDA): Press Statement on the Signing of the Protocol of the Democratic Alliance (10.06.2015)

(Youtube – Speech) President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe speech at the state visit in South Africa – 8th April 2015

Worth looking and listening to. From the industrialization of diamond industry to the spirit if Cecil John Rhodes and so on!

Robert Mugabe actually said: “We grow for those who want to smoke it!”.

Robert Mugabe said: “We want peaceful elections”. He disscussed the intervention in DRC from the Southern Africa standpoint. This with the fear from the  power struggle of Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda in the DRC.

He even said: “As a real dicatator! Yes A dictator who had cut the troath of Ian Smith”. Which he didn’t do. He (Ian Smith) died a natural death.

And so much of more, that you should listen to and get enlighten, and get the vision of President Mugabe today.

Enjoy!

Press Release: UNDP and Zambian Government sign multi-donor support for the 2015 presidential by-election

05 Jan 2015

Lusaka  –  The Ministry of Finance, Electoral Commission of Zambia, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on behalf of Ireland, Japan, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America have entered into a cooperative agreement to support the 2015 Presidential Election to be held on 20 January, 2015 with a total sum of USD3.09 million.

UNDP will co-ordinate direct electoral support to the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) on behalf of the cooperating partners with respective support levels of: Ireland – $62,000; Japan – $642,000; Sweden – $600,000; United Kingdom – $940,000; United States of America – $450,000 and UNDP – $400,000.

The Programme will focus on four components of credible elections: well informed voters and broad understanding of the electoral process, availability of key electoral information materials such as the Electoral Act, the Electoral Code of Conduct, Pocket books for Police on policing elections prior to and on polling day and that alternative dispute resolution mechanisms are in place to handle disputes prior to or after election day.

The project document signed with the Government of the Republic of Zambia on 11 December, 2014 is a positive development towards enhancing democratic governance which is identified as one of the priority reforms in the Revised Sixth National Development Plan 2011-2016 (R-SNDP). The consolidated support is intended to contribute to free, fair and peaceful elections in Zambia. The support will strengthen the institutions that deliver successful elections and increase citizen participation in national processes.

Commenting on the support garnered for the electoral process, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, Ms Janet Rogan stated that “Zambia’s electoral process has matured over the years and it is essential that the country continues to hold free, fair and peaceful elections that are of top quality.”

“Democratic principles are founded on strong institutions and the ability of citizens to participate and demand transparent and accountable national processes,” Ms Rogan added.

All partners hope that Zambia continues to enhance its electoral process and provide for equal participation for all citizens in the process.

Press Statement 12/11/2014 – By the Conveners of the National Consultation on Free and Fair Elections.

Hotel Africana, Kampala, Uganda.
From November 24-26, 2014, Ugandans from across the country and the Diaspora will convene in Kampala for the first ever National Consultation on Free and Fair Elections. The National Consultation will be attended by over 1,000 citizens and leaders representing the various segments of our society including political parties and organizations, religious institutions, business and traders’ associations, the labour movement, the NGO fraternity, professional associations, academia, women, youth and other citizens grouped in organized formations.

The goal of the National Consultation is to provide ourselves an opportunity for us to deliberate on a wide range of constitutional and electoral reforms needed to strengthen our Nation’s electoral system, strengthen the rule of law and constitutionalism in our country. That we have had major challenges in organizing credible regular, free and fair elections is now a widely accepted fact. That elections have remained a flashpoint for instability, conflict and human rights abuses is not in contention. The National Consultation is our single most important opportunity to challenge ourselves, overcome the past gridlock and unlock our potential to determine our future and destiny where elections become part of a solution rather than a source of conflict or misunderstanding.
The National Consultation is a culmination of a widely consultative and inclusive process that has gone one over the last 5 years. The work that brings us up to this point includes that done under the Citizens’ Manifesto process, the Free and Fair Elections Campaign, the Interparty Political Organization for Dialogue, to mention but a few.
Over the last 2 months, we have convened 14 Regional Forums on Free and Fair Elections. All in all, over 3,000 political, religious, civic and other leaders participated in these Forums from Karamoja to West Nile, to Bunyoro, Kigezi and Teso. In these Regional Forums, we witnessed a rare moment when Ugandans: men, women and the youth put aside their political, religious, professional and other affiliations to engage in a conversation about the future of our country. It is this spirit of love for country beyond our personal affiliations that we hope to bring into the National Consultation.

The Regional Forumshave witnessed an emerging consensus on major constitutional and electoral reform issues. Across the country, participants in these Forums debated and reached consensus on critical reform issues that have previously seemed impossible until now. These include, among others:
• The need to ensure that our political parties have internal democracy for them to act the building blocks for our democracy.
• The importance of ensuring that the Electoral Commission and other constitutional commissions should be constituted through a competitive recruitment process that emphasizes meritocracy and impartiality in doing business.

• The need to ensure effective redistribution of power among the agencies of state and building a strong system of checks, balances and accountability.
• The role of the military in our politics and the need to keep armed forces out of processes that are inherently partisan. .
• The importance of a credible and transparent Voters’ Register that is permanently displayed and available to interested citizens.
• The need to adopt rules that prevent the misuse and/or misappropriation of (public) funds in our elections and other important political processes.
These and many other issues will be debated over the three days of the National Consultation to develop and agree on a package of reforms. The main outcome of the National Consultation is therefore the Citizens Compact on Free and Fair Elections, which will contain this agreement. This Compact will be presented to Parliament for enactment into legislation. We also intend to undertake countrywide mobilization of citizens to support the reform programme that will be contained in the compact.
As Conveners, we believe that after the famous Lancaster Conference of 1961 and the Moshi Conference, this is the most important citizens’ gathering of our times as we look to work together in shaping the future of our country. While the Lancaster and the Moshi Conferences took place outside our country, the National Consultation on Free and Fair Elections is taking place on home ground, which is a manifestation of the progress, however marginal, that we have made as a country.

We approach the organization of this National Consultation with humility and a strong belief that it is “WE THE PEOPLE” that have the duty to create the foundations for sustainable peace, democracy and economic prosperity. We therefore call upon Government, political parties, public sector and private institutions, the civil society and all citizens to support the convening of the National Consultation and ensure its successful outcomes. We are unyielding in our commitment to ensure that the National Consultation is an inclusive process where all voices can be heard. We therefore thank all those who have in one way or another contributed to the convening process.
For God and My Country!