Kabaka Ronald Mutebi has just flagged off the Kabaka Birthday Run 2016. Proceeds from the Kabaka Birthday run will will go to fight Fistula. Here is the action so far...... Storify below, LIVE Twitter feed at bottom
The National Resistance Movement (NRM) party supporters today celebrate their Uganda Elections Victory at Kololo Airstrip. Chief guest is President Elect Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. BELOW is a Storify of the event and LIVE Twitter feed from the celebrations that started last night. STORIFY
Byabashaija (right) says all is not well in his prisons
Prisons crisis: Current Population in Uganda's prisons is 45,527 exceeding the available capacity of 16,517 by 29,010 inmates....but that is not the only crisis! Who actually now owns chunks of the land in Luzira? Head of prisons Dr. Johnson Byabashaija was in Parliament yesterday and told the full story........
Save for the rain, it was a great sporty day at the Kampala Hash Seven Hills Run, an initiative aimed at raising Sh 240 million to for selected Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) schools to improve sanitation and renovate structures.
The National Social Security Fund's initiative in partnership with Kampala Hash House Harriers, a group of professionals, aims to improve learning conditions of more than 70,000 pupils in schools managed by KCCA. The early start in rain
NSSF Managing Director, Richard Byarugaba: “The NSSF Kampala 7 Hills Run is a vehicle through which we will progressively raise funds to contribute to the improvement of learning conditions in Kampala schools, mainly improving sanitation facilities and renovations.”
KCCA Executive Director Mrs. Jennifer Musisi: “I applaud NSSF Uganda for the initiative and call upon organizations and companies to participate in the run as it will go a long way in improving the learning conditions of children under Universal Primary Education (UPE)."
"Only 43% of KCCA schools meet the recommended pupil – toilet stance ration. On average, 57% don’t meet the required standards and 69% of schools don’t have provisions for children with special needs."
ICC STATEMENT Message from the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, calling for defection by LRA fighters My Office has received information from communities in Northern Uganda and from Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) fighters who have returned from the bush that many within the ranks of the LRA are still being misled by Joseph Kony and other senior LRA commanders that you will either be imprisoned like Dominic Ongwen, or even tortured or killed by the International Criminal Court (“ICC” or the “Court”), if you surrender and try to return home. This is not true, and it is a complete fallacy to suggest that the ICC engages in torture or killing of any individual.
As it concerns judicial proceedings, only the cases of Joseph Kony or Dominic Ongwen are before the ICC. No other LRA member is subject to ICC proceedings.
We have seen encouraging trends: many LRA fighters are returning home and reintegrating into their communities. I urge those still in the bush to also seize any opportunity to stop fighting and return home, where you have a chance to rebuild your lives.
Among the five arrest warrants initially issued by the Court in 2005, only two remain outstanding: senior LRA commanders Joseph Kony and Vincent Otti (believed deceased). Apart from them, there are no ICC arrest warrants outstanding for any other LRA soldiers.
Dominic Ongwen was arrested and is now being tried at the ICC because he was one of the five top commanders against whom ICC judges issued a warrant of arrest for atrocity crimes committed in Northern Uganda. Dominic Ongwen is facing a fair trial, which is impartial and public. Following the confirmation of charges hearing, which was held from 21 to 27 January 2016, ICC Judges have just confirmed all the 70 charges submitted against Dominic Ongwen by my Office.
The law applicable at the ICC and the Court’s Judges ensure that the rights of any accused person subject to proceedings before the Court are fully respected. As we move towards the trial in this case, Dominic Ongwen will continue to be represented by lawyers of his choice and will be afforded the necessary facilities to prepare his defence.
I take this opportunity to once again call on Joseph Kony to hand himself in and face justice. My Office will continue to galvanise efforts to arrest him. Anyone who has information about the whereabouts of Joseph Kony is invited to contact my Office at the following email (OTP.Uganda.Investigation@icc-cpi.int) or to send a text message only to the following Ugandan local number +25678-0245609.
Sending such information to the Court is an act of courage that will help to put an end to Joseph Kony’s alleged criminal mistreatment of his own people and those of other nations.
Having made due inquiry into the petition and on the basis of our findings set out in the judgment: 1) We hereby declare that the 1st respondent was validly elected as President in accordance with Article 104 of the Constitution and section 59 of the Presidential Elections Act. 2) Accordingly, this petition is dismissed with no order as to costs. Before we take leave of this matter, we would like to point out a number of areas of concern: Some of the areas that seem to come up at every Presidential election include: (i) An incumbent’s use of his position to the disadvantage of other candidates (ii) Use of state resources (iii) Unequal use of state owned media (iv) Late enactment of relevant legislation etc We must also note that in the past two Presidential Petitions, this Court made some important observations and recommendations with regard to the need for legal reform in the area of elections generally and Presidential elections in particular. Many of these calls have remained unanswered by the Executive and the Legislature. RELATED STORY LIVE twitter feed during the Election Petition
Lawyers meet during one of the sessions
We have looked at some of the election Observer Reports. Although the Reports point to several instances where the Observers found irregularities and malpractices, the main thrust of these Reports must be seen to be directed at the need for structural and legal reforms that would create a more conducive atmosphere that would produce genuinely free and fair elections. The Citizens Election Observers Net-work – Uganda (CEON -U) makes this very important Observation: “Uganda’s legal framework limits the foundation for conducting credible elections. These limitations prompted civil society to produce the Citizens’ Compact on Free and Fair Elections, which includes recommendations for legal reform: overhauling the Electoral Commission to ensure independence and impartiality; reforming the demarcation of electoral boundaries; ensuring recruitment of Polling officials is done in a transparently, competitively and based on merit; and the establishment of an independent judiciary to adjudicate on electoral disputes impartially. These recommendations were not taken up for the 2016 elections”. At the hearing of this Petition, we allowed, as amici curiae, a group of prominent Constitutional Scholars from Makerere University. They have given us a brief on issues pertaining to the holding of free and fair elections in Uganda. Suffice to say at this point that it is high time that the Executive and the Legislature started seriously to think about the crucial need to address legal reforms in our electoral laws. We shall consider these proposals in deeper detail when we give our full opinion.
