
South Sudan: Centre for Inclusive Governance, Peace and Justice (CIGPJ) – Press Statement (17.05.2018)



In a Police Circular of 16th May 2018, the Inspector General of the Police Okoth Ochola has ordered a shift of policy towards the media. This is a change, but if we only see it on paper or in reality. Time will tell, because the laws that the Police use are still the same, they still have the Public Order Management Act (POMA), which has been used as a tool to oppress and silence opposition. Where the Police has interfered in journalistic endevours and political party works all across the Republic. All of that is well-known, as the Police needs to engage and give consent if anyone is gathering. That is so they can either stop it before it happens or have knowledge of any activity of any party, that is happening in public.
What is key from the message from the IGP was this:
“Unit commanders must observe the safety of journalists very critically and no journalist or citizen should ever be abused or tortured. Torture is a criminal offence according to the law and whoever will be found to be involved in the crime shall be expeditiously investigated and prosecuted. The constitution calls upon us all to preserve, protect and promote media freedoms” (IGP Okoth Ochola, 16.05.2018).
CEON-U reported this from the General Election and Campaigning in 2016:
“At the (media content) producer level, journalists reported pressure from government, security and ruling party officials, which sometimes saw the cancellation of critical radio programmes as well as suspension of presenters and talk show hosts for entertaining opposition candidates, especially Besigye. There were also increased cases of assaults and intimidation of journalists, self-censorship, and bribery” (CEON-U – ‘UGANDA GENERAL ELECTIONS 2016: REVISITING THE DEMOCRACY CONSTRUCT’ P:76, 2016).
It is not long ago, when Besigye was planning to hold a Radio Tour all-around Uganda, but the State sanctioned the radios holding him, but at the same period in time, the President could do the same and on the same topic, as Besigye was planning too. It is not many months ago. Therefore, the state is continuing to oppress and silence the other voices, than of the President.
Museveni likes to own the media, own the message and control it, therefore, he has lecture anyone to follow his voice and pattern, not question it, because then your not patriotic. That is what is well-known, so it is good idea that the Police are supposed to respect the covering of the journalists and their work. However, if they start to be to critical or get sources, which is questioning the Musevenisms, then know they will be besieged, be detained and lose their license. That is what Museveni does, so even if the journalist wouldn’t be arrested while on Live-Broadcast, like the police did in Kasangati in the recent year. Still, the NRM and Uganda Police Force has a long walk ahead.
It is nice that the IGP wants things to change, but they should also abolish POMA, so people are allowed to participate and be political active, without having the police breathing down their necks or coming with tear-gas, every time they congregate. This will certainly his a journalist, a camera-man or anyone covering it. They will not be totally shielded, I doubt the Police would do so. They usually cover all angles and anyone in the nearby passage get touched.
The Police can order and say they will leave the journalists be, but will they really follow through, when there are laws like the POMA in affect. That will not change the dynamics, unless, the Parliament makes other laws, that gives the provisions to the Police to act differently. Peace.
Here is the circular:



The National Resistance Movement (NRM) is something special and unique, their supposed vital role in society and their added liberation struggle, should in consideration make sure the society was better off after their reign, not being a burden after the NRM MPs leave office. However, they are just figuring out new ways to eat. Now the fallen MPs, the ones who served and had a majestic pay in Parliament want a bigger slice of the cake. Because getting 30 million shillings in pensions isn’t enough for this big-shots. They need more, they we’re representatives and honourable, they cannot go back to ordinary life after that.
The reports that they are poor and unemployed, shouldn’t make Museveni give them favors, he already have over 163 Presidential Advisors, a Cabinet reaching over 60 ministers and the space inside the Parliament isn’t big enough for everyone staying there at a Plenary Session. Therefore, this is just another waste. This is just more greed, from the previous Members of Parliament, who most of them at one point gave more salary increases and perks for themselves. Every single parliament of late has done so. They are getting suits, they are getting cars, they can spend allocated funds on foreign trips, they are paid for if they need health care abroad. Nothing is untouchable for these fellow brothers and sisters.
Now they expect to get a 100 million shillings add-on from the President, in way of a Presidential Handshake, paying them off, as you may, because of their previous engagement. Not that the ones now are getting the same, they we’re getting extra funds for voting on the age-limit and giving Museveni life-presidency. These people most likely we’re part of abolishing the term-limits and go their kick-backs for that.
That is why NRM is so special. So unique, so vibrant and fresh, it is the testament of greed. They we’re while in office, eating millions upon millions and getting kick-backs for voting correctly on the right laws. If they had been smart, they would have put the extra in the bank and in funds. To secure wealth for the years to come, if they cannot go into the private sector or get other jobs in their own districts. However, they we’re busy eating like there is no tomorrow. In addition, even when they have a giant pension package compared to the fellow citizen, they expect to nearly triple it. From 30 million shillings to 100 million shillings. That is insulting, to everyone else in the Republic who goes from hand to mouth.
They we’re supposed to represent the district, the people, the citizens, but their actions, time and time again. Shows, that they we’re only there to represent themselves and their tummy. It is a sad affair. It shows the greed and the lack of understanding of their role in society. Their lack of acceptance of their part of the play, which they anticipate to eat even more of the state. That has already doled dozens of millions on them, when they were representing.
Now they are just citizens, they are not honourable anymore, I am sure that the President can appoint enough advisors to have about 200 of them within next year. To fill the quota of former MPs. However, what they guide him about, expect being another crony on his payroll. Who knows, maybe they can all become deputy and chairpersons under the RDCs. So they get something to “do”. But that is still just a waste of public resources, just like giving them triple salaries. They shown now that they are not there for the public, but was there their tummy!
National Remittance Movement, that is the real NRM. Transmit funds from state reserves to private accounts. Handshakes, bribes, graft or overzealous pricing on government services. All of come into play and these former Members of Parliament knows that perfectly well. Peace.

“If everything is amplified, we hear nothing.” – Jon Stewart
Man, I am tired of his shit. Pardon me, but I am. I have seen and heard enough of the Musevenism and the giant National Resistance Movement (NRM) apologist Ofwono Opondo, the Director of Uganda Media Centre, which is under the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance, therefore, he is also employed now by the Minister Frank Tumwebaze. Therefore, the famous OO are far of the left-field and everywhere. He is steady on Capital Gang and NBS Frontline. I am tired of him. Today he even written a piece.
He is defending the NRM and Museveni at a rate, that is extensive, that his blood-pressure isn’t out of whack is strange. Because his level of lies and deception that he plays. If he is proud of his work, I would feel sorry, but everyone wants to eat. I am sure the hypocrisy and the tarnish of reality must hurt his brain-cells. Since it is long inbetween any truthful statements and the reality. That is because he has to play to his master. The reason why I am tired of his crap.
“So, those like Besigye, opposing NRM by propagating outright lies perhaps need to trade very carefully because Ugandans know the truth, otherwise, voters may not be kind to them at elections” (Ofwono Opondo – ‘NRM is Delivering on most of its Election Promises’ 10.05.2018).
It’s kinda hard believing that OO had to go this and say these words. When he knows the reality, but trying to make the numbers and the words fitting the paradigm of success. That always going back to the 1980s, always going back to a time with nothing and with inflation after a bush-war. Because that is the standard the NRM every single time seeks to. That they secured peace and made progress. But after doing, they haven’t delivered to the public, that is proven with the schools, the health care system and the unemployment rate. The lack of delivery of service, the rampant poverty, the debt level of the state and the lack of development in the state. All of that is the serious mess that the NRM are leaving behind, combined with a growing elite eating of the dying and rotten state, which is created in the image of Museveni. He has created this with all of his cronies and his self-control, that OO always say is right and doing the right thing.
OO is off the wall and high as a kite, when saying that, as the state is levying more tax on the public, the government loans are maturing and the oil revenue is still not hitting the fan. The giant development projects they have borrowed monies for are not to be sure off and the Rural Electrification Projects are still continuing. There are so many things missing and so much funding taken away, creative financing and creative spending of funds. That makes roads more expensive, more projects taking longer time and more cronies paid off, while land-grabs and grace periods to foreign investors, which makes sure the state earns less, but someone gets a favorable kick-back for so.
That OO is still praising all this is beyond me, that he is professing to a state that intimidate its citizens, that messes up the Sim-Card Registration for over a year and make a mockery out of the media. A state that is disconnected with the community, as they are not engaged delivering the needed services or state programs that actually could bring development. Instead they are looting and eating on the public plate. To say otherwise, is to look outside the window and lie.
That is why I am tired of the likes of OO. He can lie about his amount of hair on top of his head to his side-dish, he can lie about how many cups of tea has during the day, but he cannot lie about the reality and the state of affairs. Which he does everytime in public.
So, please shut up, OO stop lying, your bad at it! Peace.

If you ever where thinking that the Presidency of Pierre Nkurunziza was for the betterment of the Burundian people, you we’re terribly wrong. Now after the third term that he took for himself, counting the Arusha Peace Agreement and the Constitution. Today, the Imbonerakure and the army to intimidate and spread fear. To get the people to show up in masses to vote in favor of the President. This has been shown all over Burundi. That is the reason why the VOA and BBC was suspended during the campaigning and the referendum. The government didn’t want this out.
This is a government that want only the perfect news out. The CNDD-FDD don’t want the reality out. They want to look like perfect, like everyone is behind the President and his party. The whole state is eaten by the CNDD-FDD, the state is run by them and they are using the Imbonerakure, whose are more important than ever. They have gotten a bigger space in the Republic after the protest of 2015. When the people flee and more of the opposition leaders, and former leaders has been killed. If not like there are so many people whose been detained because they we’re against the referendum now.
This Referendum of 2018 isn’t to change the Constitution for the people, this is to sign off more terms for Nkurunziza and make it easier for him to rig the next elections. All of this is to secure him and his place. Make him the king and the rest is his peasants.
That is why this is the nail in coffin for the ideals of the Arusha Agreement of 2000 and the Constitution of 2005. Also, now after this the idea of continuing the East African Community mediation effort of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and H.E. Benjamin Mpaka. They should just give it up and stop it. The Inter-Burundian Dialogue has been flawed and controlled by the state, therefore, they have picked the times and stakeholders. It is just as they have been just buying time for Nkurunziza to change the Constitution in his favor. That is what is happening now. By any means necessary.
Nkurunziza are planning to rule for life, leave a legacy of blood and oppression. Pierre wants to be remembered for the toils and tyranny against his own citizens. That he did so to gain his own wealth, misuse public resource and create scarcity. You know that there is a dark side to the referendum, other than creating more terms for the President. Who already had the Constitutional Court in 2015, make a ruling in his favor, in such a way that he could run on the third term, when the President only could run twice. So laws hasn’t mattered to him in the past, so they will not now.
The Burundian population is his personal pawns, they are the ones that can be used and he can profit on. The people are the ones he needs to get personal profits, but not better their lives. Nkurunziza is now a soon a tyrant for life. He is not planning on leaving office. Pierre is planning to stay for life, use all tricks and consolidate all power within him. So that the everyone has to wait for his decrees and decisions.
Today, is just signifying it. All the way through the campaign period, that has campaigned for “no” to the referendum. They have been detained and harassed by Imbonerakura, this has been reported from districts all over the Republic. So it is not like the President hasn’t shown democratic values, but neither is this revision of the Constitution. It is made to secure him and seal his fate.
This is the end of the Arusha Agreement, the final nail in the coffin of the Inter-Burundian Dialogue. Why discuss peaceful transition and balance of power, when the President is taking it all already? There is nothing to give to the other parties and the real opposition to the President. The ones that are still alive is outside and in exile. That is because of the fear of the state, that has assassinated plenty of the opposition leaders and opposition activists in the Republic.
So a man that uses death and detaining of the opponents. Are not having political discourse and having consensus with all political stakeholders. That is a tyrant steering the wheel and deciding the path for everyone. Everyone just has to blindly follow and not questioning him. They have to stand on guard and be poetic about it.
That is why the Referendum of 2018 appearing. President Nkurunziza isn’t planning to send doves, to create a paradise, than he would believe in accountability, transparency and taxation with representation. It is not force-fed public, with a government forced in their face and they have to obey. There no other rule of law, and the state can even get rid of you if your speaking up against them. Nothing will be left behind, nothing will be left without touched and if you oppose them, expect to stop breathing or having a heartbeat.
That is what the Nkurunziza does and if people forget that, then they forget the reality of what he does. Peace.




Congestion at the site is creating huge challenges for humanitarian agencies who are returning to the area to respond to the urgent need to supply food, clean water and medical services for the displaced families.
JUBA, South Sudan, May 17, 2018 – Up to 150 peacekeepers are being rapidly redeployed to the Unity region to boost the UN Mission’s efforts to protect civilians being deliberately targeted by warring parties.
“What we are witnessing on the ground is the deliberate killing of civilians as well as the sexual violation and abduction of women and children. Homes and livelihoods are being systematically destroyed in a way that prevents families returning to their homes and being able to support themselves,” said the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Mission in South Sudan, David Shearer.
“Our fresh deployment will enable peacekeeping troops to patrol deeper to reach remote villages where the worst atrocities are taking place to create a protective presence and deter further fighting. It will also support the reinforcement of our base at Leer where many civilians are seeking sanctuary,” said David Shearer.
Thousands of civilians are fleeing the intense fighting as armed forces make their way down from Koch towards Leer. At least 30 villages or settlements have been attacked. UNMISS peacekeepers and human rights teams have witnessed the bodies of civilians killed during the fighting left unburied, dozens of huts burnt to the ground, cattle raiding and the destruction of critical services such as boreholes, medical clinics and food stores.
“The atrocities that we are documenting are a clear violation of human rights and international humanitarian law. Two aid workers have been killed and two wounded in the past month. Those responsible must be identified and held accountable for their actions,” said David Shearer.
A site next to the UN base at Leer previously held approximately 500 internally displaced people but the surge in violent clashes has increased numbers to about 2000. Almost 70 per cent of those seeking shelter are children.
Congestion at the site is creating huge challenges for humanitarian agencies who are returning to the area to respond to the urgent need to supply food, clean water and medical services for the displaced families. UNMISS is working closely with the agencies to support the safe delivery of aid.
The Mission continues to engage with local authorities and to urge the warring parties to stop the fighting and adhere to the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement signed by all parties just five months ago.



