Weekly News Round-up
Uganda’s main media houses last week reported a number of important issues that Uganda Correspondent feels its weekly readers deserve to know about; just in case they missed out. Read excerpts from those stories in our news round-up here.
MPs tell Kayihura, Mbabazi to resign over bombs
By Our Staff Writer – 19th-25th July 2010
Between the two of them, they probably control more than 70% of all Uganda’s internal security concerns. The budget allocation to meet those challenges, in all probabilities, can’t be too far off from the 70% mark either. So their actions must attract legitimate concerns from Ugandan taxpayers’
However, Mr. Amama Mbabazi, Uganda’s Security Minister, and the Inspector General of Police Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura, have been asked to resign by Uganda’s opposition MPs following the multiple bomb blasts that rocked Uganda’s capital Kampala on July 11th leaving approximately 76 people dead.
In his statement, the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Prof. Moris Ogenga blamed Mbabazi and Kayihura for “sitting” on intelligence information that could have helped avert the tragedy. “We hold these two people fully responsible for the security lapses and demand that they do the only honourable thing and resign”; Latigo said.
He then added that “…we the opposition note that on July 5 the leader of the Al-Shabaab Muhammad Abdi Godane restated their threat to hit Uganda and Burundi and that this threat was well known to our security agencies” who he says, never “…alerted Ugandans and asked them to be cautious”.
Security Minister Amama Mbabazi however took full advantage of the tragic events in Kampala to further his Ministry’s objectives.
While, addressing reporters in Kabale, Mbabazi said the attacks were coordinated on phone and through the Internet. He then urged MPs to pass the Interception of Communications Bill 2007 which allows security agencies to tap telephone calls among others. This Bill has since been passed.
Excerpts sourced from www.monitor.co.ug
Rwanda: Missing opposition activist found dead
By Our Staff Writer – 19th-25th July 2010
Mr. Andre Kagwa Rwisereka, a senior Rwandese opposition politician who had been reported missing, has been found dead.
The Democratic Green Party said Mr. Rwisereka was found dead near his abandoned car. Party officials who saw the body said Mr. Rwisereka’s head was virtually severed from his body. The Democratic Green Party has been struggling to register for the Rwanda general elections scheduled for August this year with little or no success at all.
Human Rights Watch, an international human rights organisation, has accused the Kagame government in Rwanda of clamping down hard on the opposition before the general elections.
The Democratic Green Party Chairman Mr. Frank Habineza told the BBC that they are “…calling upon the Rwandan government to use all means possible to find out the cause of his death”. Mr Habineza also revealed that Andre Rwisereka’s body was found at a location that was approximately 3kms from Butare town; the same place where his car was also found.
Mr. Eric Kayiranga, the Rwandese police Spokesperson, confirmed Rwisereka’s death to Reuters News Agency but quickly suggested that robbery might have been the motive. “People who saw him that night say he had a lot of money”; Mr Kayiranga said.
This tragic news story comes hot on the heels of the shooting of former Rwandan army Chief Lt. Gen. Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa in Johannesburg-South Africa last month. The government of Rwanda denies any involvement in Kayumba’s shooting. South African authorities arrested and charged some people in connection with Gen. Kayumba’s shooting.
Excerpts sourced from www.bbc.co.uk
