Sunday 31 January 2016

Group D's Mali in semis, Zambia falls short

Mali stunned Tunisia while Zambia fell after
 post match penalties
 against giant-killers Guinea



January 31, 2016

Zambia 0 (4) Guinea 0 (5)
Mali 2 Tunisia 1

Semis
Guinea vs DRC
Mali vs Ivory Coast

It was mixed luck for the two teams that edged out Uganda in the ongoing CHAN tournament in Rwanda.

Mali stunned Tunisia early in the day as Zambia fell short after post-match penalties.



Mali came from behind to book a historic place in the last four.

Abdoulaye Diarra scored the winner on 80 minutes after Aliou Dieng had canceled Mohamed Ali Monser first half opener after the break. Mali will play Cote d’Ivoire in the semis in Kigali.

Giant killers Guinea eliminated Zambia's Chipolopolo and will proceed to to face DR Congo. 



SOURCE: Cafonline

The 9th Annual Uganda ‘Hip-hop For Society’ at Sharing, Nsambya



It is Hip-hop time again in Uganda, but this time, focus was on the bigger picture.

Sharing Youth Centre Nsambya, Kampala hosted the 9th annual "Hip-hop For Society" event organised by the Breakdance Project Uganda (BPU) yesterday January 31, 2016. 





LIVE TWITTER FEED of highlights of the event




According to the organisers, "Hip-hop For Society is an annual event that uses popular interest in Hip-hop to create positive social change. BPU aims to promote formal and informal education and increase people’s access to both."


"Over the years, the event has welcomed people from all walks of life to participate in entertaining dance/rap showcases and competitions, visual art exhibitions, educational speeches and workshops, video screenings and discussions." 


Highlights from 2014






New York Times, NBStv reporting arrest of General Sejusa





The New York Times @nytimes  and NBS TV @nbstv in Kampala are reporting the arrest this morning of General Sejusa. No reason has been given for the arrest of the outspoken Ugandan lawyer, military officer and politician.


NBS TV have tweeted in the past hour "CONFIRMED: Renegade Gen. Sejusa arrested, taken to Makindye Military Barracks. Reason for arrest unclear: lawyer"



NBS tweet 

New York Times in an AP report, said " Dissident Ugandan General Arrested Ahead of Election"

NEW YORK TIMES STORY 



UPDATE 1



NTV @ntvuganda has given a little more detail, reporting that Deputy CDF Lt Gen. Charles Angina effected the arrest of Gen. Sejusa this morning.




UPDATE 2




UPDATE 3


ChimpsReports website, that is very reliable when it comes to security news, is now reporting that Gen Sejusa will face General Court Martial on Tuesday.


"The army spokesperson Lt Col Paddy Ankunda, when contacted by Chimpreports said Sejusa would be paraded before the General Court Martial on Tuesday next week."


"He however declined to release any information pertaining the unprecedented arrest, saying that this would be premature."






UPDATE 4

Free Uganda releases statement

(Statement by Dr. Vincent Magombe, Secretary Free Uganda Leadership Committee and Press Secretary FU - 31/01/2016)

Free Uganda Chairman, General David Sejusa has been arrested from his home in Naguru, a suburb of the Ugandan capital Kampala, which was earlier surrounded by special units of Uganda army, and is now being detained in Makindye Military Prison at the outskirts of the city.

Free Uganda is closely monitoring the situation and calls on Ugandans, and all Freedom Forces in the country, to await further announcements about these dangerous developments in Uganda



UPDATE 4


This is how Uganda's leading daily New Vision has covered the arrest.







Test drive for Uganda's solar bus Kayoola today at Namboole





Uganda's Kayoola Solar Bus has had a maiden public test drive this morning in Kampala.

The bus that took off to Mandela National Stadium, Namboole at about 8.3am, reached at 9am and underwent a three hour test. 

The Kayoola Solar Bus is a 35-Executive Seater with a range of 80km and a daily solar range extension of 12km. Photos and video via  @KiiraMotors and Observer Newspaper








Inside the Kayoola Bus






Paul Isaac Musasizi, the Kiira Motors Corporation (KMC) chief executive officer, said they were putting final touches to the 30-seater solar-powered bus that will officially be unveiled on February 16 at Serena hotel in Kampala.

Video of the Kiira dream in 3 minutes






Videos at the launch of the project in past year








UPDATE
The bus has arrived at Namboole

State Minister of education and technology 
Prof. SS Tickodri-Togboa flags off Kayoola Solar Bus
  for its Uganda Test Drive 



UPDATE
The Kayoola Bus tests start




Saturday 30 January 2016

CHAN: Rwanda goes down fighting

Doxa Gikanji celebrates his opening goal yesterday. 
All photos via @caf_online

January 30, 2016

Rwanda 1 DRC 2 (aet)
Ivory Coast 3 Cameroon 0 (aet)

TODAY
Tunisia vs Mali 4pm
Zambia vs Guinea 7pm

Semis
DRC vs Zambia/Guinea
I.Coast vs Tunisia/Mali

The Congolese, with their fancy hair-cuts and well calculated football, were stretched on Saturday, but their class showed in the end as they earned a CHAN 2016 semifinal place.

The Leopards of DRC took control from the first whistle, and Rwanda's Amavubi were on the ropes by the time Doxa Gikanji hit an absolute screamer in the 10th minute.

Half time of the African Nations Championship (CHAN) first quarterfinal match had the DRC comfortable with a 1-0 lead, with dangerman Ernst Sugira and the rest of the Amavubi struggling to keep up.






The half time talk by coach Johnny McKinstry and introduction of Dominique Savio Nshuti seems to have combined to inspire the Amavubi, as they showed a new purpose. If there was one player going to score, it was Sugira - and he did in the 56th minute to put Rwanda level.

He was then guilty of missing several chances before full time that would have sealed it for the hosts at a packed Amahoro Stadium in Kigali.

Extra-time turned out to be a little too much for Rwanda, and with Sugira limping, DRC hit late in the second half of extra time. Padou Bompunga headed in, capitalising on one of Rwanda's weak links - a lack of superiority in the air by their defence.





Sugira (shirt 16) and Emery (shirt 8) tried to put up a fight, but 
Rwanda's best was not good enough



In the second quarterfinal, Ivory Coast beat Cameroon 3-0 after extra-time

The first 90 minutes ended goalless. The goals were thereafter scored by Koffi Boua, Atcho Djobo and Serge N'Guessan 







Friday 29 January 2016

Nigeria's Goodluck Jonathan says former leaders can still play a pivotal role on continent


Goodluck Jonathan has joined a small club of former African presidents who are enjoying their lives in peace at home while also playing a new crucial role in developing the continent. 

Very few names come up, when you talk of former leaders who have given way to the political tide. 

The exclusive club includes names like Arap Moi of Kenya, Obasanjo and Goodluck Nigeria, Thambo Mbeki, Kgalema Motlanthe and F. W. de Klerk in South Africa, J Rawlings and John Kufuor Ghana, Quett Masire, Festus Mogae of Botswana and Namibia's Sam Nujoma and Hifikepunye Pohamba. 

Former Nigeria President GEJ, as he is fondly called, is the latest to have handed over power and on Wednesday addressed the global community in Geneva, Switzerland on the issues of Nigeria, politics, education and security. 

He has already formed a foundation, The Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, to further democracy, good governance and wealth generation in Africa.


At the "press conference" hosted by the Geneva Press Club, GEJ ably addressed diplomats, policy makers and journalists.  



GOODLUCK Jonathan: Nigeria, or any African nation for that matter, can never become wealthy by selling more minerals or raw materials such as oil. Our wealth as a nation is between the ears of our people.




"I feel that what people in my position, statesmen and former leaders, ought to be doing is to help build consensus all over Africa, to ensure that certain issues should not be politicized," he said.

"The allure of power and the worries about what will happen after leaving power are tempting that it takes a man who loves his people and nation, along with the fear of God to relinquish power easily in Africa."


Buhari and Jonathan joined by Kofi Annan last year


"Education is one of those issues. If former African leaders can form themselves into an advisory group to gently impress on incumbent leaders the necessity of meeting the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recommended allocation of 26% of a nations annual budget on education, I am certain that Africa will make geometric progress in meeting her Millennium Development Goals and improving on every index of the Human Development Index."

The full speech








TODAY IN HISTORY: Museveni sworn in. It is a fundamental change, he says January 29, 1986


Museveni swearing in January 29, 1986

Yoweri Kaguta Museveni made his famous 'fundamental change' speech on Wednesday January 29 1986, on the steps of Uganda's Parliament after he was sworn in as President.

''Nobody should think that what is happening today, what has been happening in the last few days is a mere change of guards,'' said Museveni, then just 40 years old.

''This is not a mere change of guards. I think this is a fundamental change in the politics of our country.''

Museveni was sworn in three days after his NRA guerrillas took over government. He is the 9th president since Independence in 1962.




Below is how the NEW YORK TIMES reported the events of the day in their January 30 edition.


REBEL SWORN IN AS UGANDA PRESIDENT
By SHEILA RULE, Special to the New York Times
Published: January 30, 1986

KAMPALA, Uganda, Jan. 29— Yoweri Museveni, whose National Resistance Army descended on this battered capital city last week and overthrew the military Government of Gen. Tito Okello, was sworn in today as the new President of Uganda.

The ceremony, witnessed by thousands of jubilant Ugandans, was held on the steps of the Parliament building, where some of the fiercest fighting erupted in the battle for Kampala.

The installation of Mr. Museveni, who arrived in a gleaming black Mercedes-Benz and wore jungle-green military fatigues and polished combat boots, came five years after he took his followers into the bush in his quest to overthrow the Government of President Milton Obote. No 'Mere Change of Guards'
''Nobody is to think that what is happening today, what has been happening in the last few days is a mere change of guards,'' said Mr. Museveni, 40 years old, who is the ninth head of state since this East African nation gained independence from Britain in 1962. ''This is not a mere change of guards. I think this is a fundamental change in the politics of our government.''
''Any individual, any group or person who threatens the security of our people must be smashed without mercy,'' Mr. Museveni said. ''The people of Uganda should only die from natural causes which are not under our control,'' he said, ''but not from fellow human beings.''

Mr. Museveni, who appeared confident and jocular as he spoke at length without notes, touched on several subjects, including the aborted peace accord he signed last month with General Okello, the failure of other African leaders to address the needs of their people and the need for unity and regional cooperation.




He said his first priorities would be the restoration of democracy and the protection of the security of individuals and their property. 

He Promises Elections

Mr. Museveni said there would eventually be parliamentary elections, but he gave no date.
His promises were cheered by the crowd of Ugandans, who have survived years of dictatorship, army lawlessness, tribal and political strife and brutal violations of human rights.
As Mr. Museveni spoke, reminders of the most recent fighting were evident around this once beautiful city. Beside the the road leading from Entebbe Airport, a soldier lay dead, his shoeless feet bound by wire.

In the distance, Mr. Museveni's troops hauled other bodies into a dump truck. Others had been buried along the road, with combat boots and spent shells serving as tombstones.

Bits and pieces of blood-stained uniforms were scattered nearby. On a hill where a fierce battle was fought, there were boxes carrying the words ''Farm Implements.'' Inside was ammunition. 

Routines of Life Returning
Yet in many ways life appeared to be moving back into its natural rhythm. Kampala's streets were alive with people going about the routines of life in a country that the young Winston Churchill called ''the pearl of Africa.'' Women sat sewing garments outside the Lifebad general store, and the local market was filled with fresh fruits and vegetables, testimony to the rich Ugandan soil.
Mr. Museveni, who rested a hand on a Bible as he spoke, said that democracy was ''the right of the people of Africa'' and that government must not be ''the masters but the servers of the population.''

He suggested that democracy would be built from the ground up, with village committees that would serve as the ''watchdogs'' for society against misuse of authority. 

A Very Young Army

Mr. Museveni said his army, noted for being highly disciplined and politicized, had executed five of its own for killing civilians. Judging from the faces of many of the rebels who came to the swearing-in ceremony, his army is also very young. One boy, asked how old he was, rested his rifle against his leg and held up 10 fingers.

Mr. Museveni, who signed a peace accord last month in Nairobi with General Okello in an effort to end years of bloodshed, characterized his participation in the peace talks as ''very painful'' because he was sitting there ''with the criminals across the table.''

He said he agreed to the accord because of pressure from other nations, which he criticized as being more interested in opening roads for trade than in the future of Uganda. He said his followers had made it clear they would not take part in any government in which ''criminals'' were involved. The accord was never put into effect, and Mr. Museveni moved on Kampala a month after it was signed.




Mr. Museveni spoke of pressure from his rebels to assassinate such people as Mr. Obote and Basilio Okello, the army commander under General Okello. But he refused, saying that if ''you kill Basilio, there are other Basilios who are also there.''

''The solution is to have enough strength to ship the whole garbage and put it where it belongs, on the garbage heap of history,'' he told the cheering crowd. He called on soldiers of the former Government who had not surrended to do so. Some will be included in a new national army, he said, and others will be rehabilitated in order to make a living in their villages. 

New Leader a Nationalist
Mr. Museveni, an avowed nationalist who says he strongly opposes tribalism, has called for a broadly based government and unity.
Symbolic of his intention was the presence on the platform of Godfrey L. Binaisa, a former President; Abraham Waligo, a former Prime Minister; Paul Ssemogerere, the Interior Minister under General Okello, and other officials who served in the administration of the overthrown leader.

Unlike many heads of state in Africa, the new leader voiced contempt for African governments for what he has said is their corruption and failure to meet the needs of their citizens.

He called African countries ''very backward'' and said that, with all their resources and potential, they lagged far behind the developed world in such areas as health care, life expectancy and industry. With all of Uganda's ''professors, with our excellencies, with our honorable ministers,'' he said, the country cannot ''make a needle.''

''His excellence is going to the United Nations,'' he said, apparently in reference to African leaders, ''and he is there for meetings with Reagan and Gorbachev, and 90 percent of his people have no shoes. They are walking on bare feet.''


*******





*******

CLICK HERE TO Read how Kampala was captured on January 26, 1986

I will run daily down-memory articles as the National Resistance Army (now UPDF) marks 30 years after they took power this week, until Tarehe Sita, the day NRA marks as date of the the start of the war. This is the fifth article. 

Thursday 28 January 2016

TODAY IN HISTORY: Saleh reveals attack by Fedemo as NRA heads to Tororo January 28 1986


Salim Saleh

After taking over the strategic city of Jinja on January 27, the National Resistance Army turned their focus on the border town of Tororo.

There was however tension in areas they had previously captured, when NRA Troops  battled members of the Ugandan Freedom Movement on a road between Kampala and Jinja, according to NRA field commander Salim Saleh. 

The New York Times reported that the trouble was said to have begun when the Resistance Army, led by Museveni, insisted that troops of the Freedom Movement and a second rebel group be disarmed before joining the new Government.


THE NEW YORK TIMES REPORT

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan. 28— Ugandan rebels who overthrew the Government two days ago were reported today to have clashed with another rebel faction.

Troops of the National Resistance Army, which seized control on Sunday, battled members of the Ugandan Freedom Movement on a road between Kampala and Jinja, according to Salim Saleh, a field commander of the Resistance Army.

The trouble was said to have begun when the Resistance Army, led by Yoweri Museveni, insisted that troops of the Freedom Movement and a second rebel group be disarmed before joining the new Government.

The Freedom Movement troops, armed with weapons seized from retreating soldiers of the former Government, instead set up roadblocks, according to Western diplomats. A meeting is reportedly scheduled for Wednesday (January 29 1986) between the opposing factions.


Ugandan Freedom Movement is a guerrilla group which had once been aligned to the ousted military regime of Gen. Tito Okello.

The new Government controls Kampala, Jinja and Entebbe. The Freedom Movement had initially joined the former Government, but then switched sides to the Resistance Army in battles for control of Kampala.

Soldiers of the overthrown Government, meanwhile, were reported on a looting spree as they fled toward the north and east.





Museveni, flanked by Saleh addresses his troop in the bush

Mr. Museveni has said that 7,000 soldiers have surrendered and that others have joined his movement, but many others have apparently refused to lay down their arms.

The new Ugandan leader, (who is due to be sworn in on Wednesday January 29), has said that he plans to form a broadly based Government and will not seek retaliation against those who opposed him.



The Orlando Sentinel Report


NRA rebels consolidating their control of Uganda swept east across the country Tuesday (January 28 1986) in pursuit of fleeing government forces. Thousands of refugees fled into neighboring Kenya to escape the conflict.

Mechanized units of the NRA charged out of Jinja, Uganda's second-largest city 45 miles east of the capital of Kampala, and advanced to Tororo, close to the Kenyan border.

Diplomats said soldiers were putting up token resistance on the highway between Jinja and the border, but rebels officials said the road was expected to be cleared of soldiers by the end of the week.


Salim Saleh


The whereabouts of the deposed Ugandan leader, Gen. Tito Okello, and army commander Basilio Okello, who is not related to the former head of state, were still not known. Gen. Tito Okello was reportedly in Kenya on Saturday.

The National Resistance Army Tuesday controlled about two-thirds of the country. The NRA proclaimed itself the government of the East African nation on Sunday after capturing the capital in a bitter two-day siege.

The rebels captured Jinja on Monday. The city of 55,000 people houses key railroad intersections and the Owen Falls dam, the main source of power for Kampala and western Uganda.

About 7,000 soldiers -- about half the nation's army -- were captured in the fighting, rebel leaders said. An NRA official said some were permitted to join the rebels but said others would undergo ''political re-education''.

''They will be put to work,'' an NRA official said. ''There are roads to be dug and houses to be built. These troops have destroyed large areas of Uganda and will now rebuild them.''

Kenyan border officials said about 8,000 Ugandans have crossed the border to escape the retreating government forces, who reportedly have looted and committed rape while fleeing the advancing rebel units.

Kenyan officials said 5,000 civilians had crossed the border at the Kenyan town of Busia, near the Ugandan city of Tororo, in the past two days. Another 3,000 crossed at Malaba, an Ugandan city 200 miles northwest of Nairobi, Kenya.

U.N. officials said Kenyan border forces were preventing Ugandan soldiers from crossing into Kenya but were permitting civilians to enter the country, which tried to mediate a settlement to Uganda's long civil conflict.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in Nairobi sent officials to the border to help process the flood of refugees, a U.N. official said in Nairobi.


ELECTIONS: What did IGP Kayihura say or not say?

IGP Kale Kayihura is angry that he has been misquoted

Leading Ugandan newspaper The Observer yesterday (27 January) quoted the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Gen. Edward Kale Kayihura as having said that his forces would intervene if the opposition won the elections next month.

After several hours in which the IGP was battered on social media, police finally responded in the afternoon, saying, “We believe that the IGP was quoted out of context by the various media houses during the recent event in Kapchorwa. We now avail to you the IGP's speech on that day - transcribed."

They promised to share the audio soon after.

The transcribed speech does not mention any controversial quotes by the IGP as reported by the press.

The transcribed speech did not however reduce the attacks on social media. It did not help that Kayihura did not respond on his twitter handle @askIGP all day Wednesday while police, only responded late in the day via their facebook page. 

Among the people who went to twitter to respond to the report was The European Union Ambassador to Uganda Kristian Schmidt, who asked Kayihura whether he was quoted accurately.

@EUAmbschmidt asked “General, I respectfully ask: Were you quoted correctly in today’s Observer?”



There was no direct reply to the ambassador until Thursday afternoon.





Most commentators on social media were unhappy with the said quotes, with only policeman, Assistant Inspector General of Police Asan Kasingye and civil servant Pam Ankunda coming out in defence of Kayihura.

They both fought back, arguing that Ugandans should first hear the other side of the story, from Kayihura, before criticizing the police. They said he had been misquoted.



In the news: EU chief Schmidt and PM Rugunda at an earlier event



Police spokesperson Fred Enanga thereafter asked that the reporters and their managers “correct the stories by providing the public with information that is truthful."

Prime minster Rugunda: “We are ready to give power to [Amama] Mbabazi or [Kizza] Besigye when there is free and fair election.”


Kayihura a day later : “We shall not hand over power to the opposition to destabilize the peace which we fought for. We are going to change you from having sticks to rifles and get ready to defend this country in case of any attack. The constitution gives police powers to protect the nation in case there is war and I want you to get prepared for this; anytime, we shall call on you.” 

HERE IS THE FULL SPEECH as transcribed by CP Fred Enanga

  
IGP’s speech at the crime preventer pass out at Sebei College on January 21, 2016

The Woman MP Kapchorwa, the Aspiring MP, the RDC, I am overwhelmed by your presence on this day, when we are beginning the sports gala organized by the UPF. 

It is a two day event where we are honoring and celebrating the people of Sebei as well as other parts of Uganda, which have produced athletes that have won gold medals and other medals and brought honor to the country. It would have been done a bit earlier, but we have done it now, especially we police, because you have given us your children and they are winning gold medals, in both international and regional championships, and as well, brought honor to the police, as well as to the country.

We would have it in Kampala, but we said we had to do it with the families of the athletes and the community. And so that is the reason we are here.

Today is the beginning; we saw it appropriate to combine it with the pass out of crime preventers who are passing out in this region. I would like to thank them for having turned up and responded to our call in such big numbers, 65000 is not a small number. 

RDCs of Kapchorwa, Kween, and Bukwo, I don’t know how many police officers you have there in uniform and if we are to deploy them, I don’t think we can confidently say we can fight crime. But with the resource of 65000 crime preventers and you have seen what they have shown to you in two months, because this means a lot, it means fitness, it shows a team which is organized, so this is our force and in case you are attacked from across, but I don’t think it can happen, now we have got a force to deal with them. All we need to do is to change the sticks and give them rifles and by the way I would like to tell you this, you are a reserve of the army, in case of war, you will be called upon because the police are the reserve of the army, according to the law.


Kayihura makes his speech at the weekend. 
Photo by Daily Monitor


According to the Police Act, the Minister of Internal Affairs, at any time, can call the police to serve as a military force, so by extension the crime preventers in case of any a war, can be called upon. And that’s why they should be trained in skills at arm and self defense, so that you have a force here. And by the way, this is a continuation where it started in our neighborhood zone, in the fight against state inspired terrorism of Idi Amin, through the struggles of Mr. Sabila and FRONASA who fought against Idi Amin and won. 

So what people are trying to vulgarize and confuse, started long time ago in 1977, in the fight against Idi Amin, when they empowered people to fight against crime in government.
And at that time Idi Amin was killing people, Maliyamungu, and so they mobilized the people, and fought with the support of Tanzania. Then later, after the Idi Amin dictatorship, they fought terrorism in the government after 1981, where some patriots went to the bush. This was by mobilizing people to fight the government which had the support of the most powerful countries in the world and removed it after five years.

We are celebrating 30 years next week and the victory of the people’s war. So when I went to the police and found the idea of this community policing, neighborhood watch, I said I will organize the ordinary people to fight crime and criminals and if you see in all communities, in all districts, the criminals are few, but they are organized, where as the law abiding citizens are many but are not organized. So the whole idea is organizing at the neighborhood level and empowering them with self defense and other skills as the surest way of eliminating crime.

For instance every year when we issue Annual Crime Report, the biggest crime is defilement and domestic violence, and the victims are women and girls. So the answer to that is the taekwondo you see here, and we want this program to develop in schools like this Sebei college, especially,  to empower the girls because we can not have enough police to police everybody.
Even the UN ratio says 1 police to 500 people, so you can never have enough police to ensure security. So it is only through people participation that you can effectively deal with the crime. So for this program, those who criticize it don’t understand what they are talking about and I want to pay tribute to those who have volunteered.



It is a volunteers program and that is what it is all about and I think our political leaders try to confuse it. And they have even misinformed our friends, the Europeans and Americans that even when they come here; they come asking for crime preventers. They think crime preventers are a group who cause mayhem at the rallies.

If you go to America you find crime preventers yet they have a bigger police force and resources than us the 3rd world countries. Am very very grateful to H.E the President, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet and even Parliament, who have come up very clearly to say no, this is a legitimate program, it is constitutional , lawful , it is empowering , its improving strength of the country .

These people who are talking, some of them are ignorant, and I am suspicious they want our country to remain disorganized and weak, so that they can swallow us, especially when they have heard there is oil. You know when they talk about the oil curse, what they mean. So the government is very clear on this matter and nobody should even waste our time because this is a democratic policing. We are empowering ourselves, the community, to fight criminals in the neighborhood. I don’t know even whom they vote and it’s not my business. Mine is special that the country is secure 24/7.

The other day there was some Human Rights Watch lady and she is even my friend, who came to ask me and even made a statement that we suspend crime preventers. And my response was, “ok if you want me to suspend crime preventers you should also suspend the criminals”, but will not suspend the crime preventers because the criminal’s are there.

So I will go deep in this, but most important is, this is a program of the police nobody should confuse. We have a department of community policing headed by a Commissioner who reports to Chief Political Commissioner of Police. She is called CP Namutebi, so it is not a grump just there  which we disown and they have got an organization right from national level, district, county and sub county, up to the village. And we are trying to link it to the LC system and “mayumba kumi”. We want to revise the “mayumba kumi”.

So I don’t know how many villages are in Sebei region? So it is times 30 which will be a big force, I have tasked the Director Ochom of Research and Planning, to in the 5 year strategic plan, come out clearly on this matter of the recruitment and training of crime preventers, and we see how we expect to  be by 2021. And I hope by that time we shall have 300 crime preventers per village in Sebei region, meaning each village will have two companies to defend it against criminals and vanish these people, the so called “kanyama”, who beat people and steal goats, chicken, cows and sheep which we survive on.
We want Uganda to create a crime free society on this idea and nobody will stop us as long as we have the responsibility of keeping this country safe and secure.
Crime preventers you are doing things out of charity, I want to thank you because you are volunteering, you are more enlightened, that may be the others don’t know, that it is in your interest to keep your neighborhood watch and your community safe and secure .

So I don’t need to pay you to keep your home. In the bush, I was not given a salary and I want to pay tribute to you because you have joined us to work out of conviction that whatever you do in the community is real serving and is also in your interest.
The President would wish to come to pass you like he has done it in other parts like the Elgon region but is very busy on other programs and even tomorrow, he would want to come but has delegated the Prime Minster of Uganda, because he appreciates the importance of this cause.
I just want to pay tribute to you for joining the effort, but it is not for nothing. We can’t give you salary because you are in millions; right now we have got 11 million throughout the country. The police are only 43000 and crime preventers are 11 million, but they have made a big difference in the whole country. We can’t pay you salary but you are going to get projects, this is real, so that as you serve, you have projects which can bring income to you at the same time you are liberating the country.


Police spokesman Enanga.

As police we shall share the little we have, you have got a very good SACCO and if this SACCO works, it will be a vehicle through which you can get more support.
We are trying to get you identification and this will be equivalent to a police warrant card, I can’t promise when, but it is in the making, as well as uniforms, torches, gumboots and watches. As I said, this is just the beginning of the sports gala, we will say more about sports tomorrow, but today was dedicated to passing out the 65000 crime preventers in the Sipi region.
Tomorrow it is going to be the main day where we shall begin at 6 O’clock, with a 10 km run and I will participate in the 10 km race. And I invite all of you to participate; including all crime preventers although I am passing them out today. If you fail to participate, I may have to reconsider because this should be your routine. We are determined to change and swipe all the gold medals the other side of the border in Kenya and bring them to this side of the boarder.
Thanks to your children.              
It is now my pleasure to declare the course of crime preventers in Sebei region complete and to pass you out as crime preventers of this region.

TRANSCRIBED BY
CP Fred Enanga
Press and Public Relations Officer
Uganda Police
27.01.2016