kfm.co.ug
@kfm Fri, 02 Aug 2024 10:07:20
Traders heed to president’s call to resume business today
The leadership of traders under Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA) last evening resolved to resume normal businesses and have their members open up shops following a two- day strike that started on Wednesday. The latest strike was triggered by an abrupt cancellation of their meeting with president Museveni. This follows a meeting with the traders’ leadership that was chaired by the Prime Minister Robina Nabbanja, assuring them that the President was considering rescheduling their meeting at as soon as possible. The meeting was attended by among others, Kampala Minister Minsa Kabanda, Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka and section of land lords and arcade owners. In a letter dated 1st August 2024 to KACITA Chairperson Thadeus Musoke, Nabbanja asks traders to continue […]
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@kfm Fri, 02 Aug 2024 15:17:16
Court to rule on MPs’ bail on Monday next week
The Anti-Corruption Division of the High Court has set Monday July 5th to rule on the bail applications filed by embattled Members of Parliament; Youth Mutembuli, Cissy Namujju and Paul Akamba. The MPs who have been on remand at Luzira prison for the past two months, have today made a fresh attempt at seeking bail before Justice Lawrence Gidudu. MP Mutembuli’s sureties include; Mutibwa Geoffrey Eric, the MP for Bunyole West County, Florence Nebanda, the Woman representative for Butalejja, Stephen Baka Mugabi, his Bukooli North counterpart as well as Namukose Minsa Kirya the principal community development officer Mukono Municipality. Namujju’s sureties include; Alex Brandon Kintu (Kagoma North), Pamela Amogo (Budaka), Javiira Ssemwanga (Buyamba County, Rakai district and Muhammed Sentayi (Bukoto West) Lwengo District. […]
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@matookerepublic Wed, 31 Jul 2024 05:34:00
Dr. Sudhir to be honoured at 7th Pan-African Pyramid (PAP) Global Awards
Business magnate Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia is set to be the chief guest at the highly anticipated 7th Pan-African Pyramid (PAP) Global Awards 2024. The prestigious event, which also marks the 10th Anniversary Bonfire Dinner, will take place on August 31, 2024, at the Fairway Hotel. Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia, who chairs the Ruparelia Group and serves […] The post Dr. Sudhir to be honoured at 7th Pan-African Pyramid (PAP) Global Awards first appeared on Matooke Republic.
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@matookerepublic Fri, 02 Aug 2024 08:48:00
UBL launches Laga Swagga Promo with Shs1 billion worth of instant cash prizes to reward consumers
Uganda Breweries Limited (UBL) has launched a nationwide consumer promotion dubbed “Laga Swagga” which will see over 400 loyal consumers redeem cash prizes worth Shs1 billion over a duration of 12 weeks. Loosely translated as ‘show off your style’, the Laga Swagga promotion will reward consumers through daily and weekly prizes which are up for […] The post UBL launches Laga Swagga Promo with Shs1 billion worth of instant cash prizes to reward consumers first appeared on Matooke Republic.
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@matookerepublic Fri, 02 Aug 2024 10:17:39
Johnnie Walker Uganda injects Shs550m into the 2024 Golf Open
Uganda’s premier golf championship, the Johnnie Walker Uganda Open, returns this August, promising an unparalleled golfing experience on and off the course. Renowned for attracting top international talent, the 2024 edition will take place at East Africa’s oldest golf course, the Par 71 Entebbe Club. The announcement was made earlier today at a press launch […] The post Johnnie Walker Uganda injects Shs550m into the 2024 Golf Open first appeared on Matooke Republic.
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@matookerepublic Fri, 02 Aug 2024 10:22:16
Paris 2024: Cheptegei, Kiplimo among the nine Ugandan athletes in action today
Uganda’s Olympic contingent is set for a busy day at the Paris 2024 Olympics, with nine athletes in action on Friday, August 2. The day’s events kick off at 11 am with Jesse Ssengonzi competing in the Men’s 100m butterfly. The 21-year-old swimmer aims to make a splash and set a new personal best on […] The post Paris 2024: Cheptegei, Kiplimo among the nine Ugandan athletes in action today first appeared on Matooke Republic.
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@matookerepublic Fri, 02 Aug 2024 10:26:21
Woman kills husband for using her Kyeyo money to marry another wife
A woman has stabbed her husband, Gumisiriza Amos, a resident of Rushambya village in Ibanda district, for allegedly using her Kyeyo money to marry another wife. The incident happened on July 30 at around 5 p.m. It’s alleged that Atuhaire Justin went to Saudi Arabia for work. While there, she kept sending money to her […] The post Woman kills husband for using her Kyeyo money to marry another wife first appeared on Matooke Republic.
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@matookerepublic Fri, 02 Aug 2024 10:40:46
How 8 suspects escaped from Police detention in Sheema
Police in Greater Bushenyi have launched a manhunt for eight suspects who escaped from Sheema Central Police Station. According to Martial Tumusiime, Greater Bushenyi Regional Police spokesperson, the escapees include Jocknions Akampa, who faces murder charges, Matovu Hakimu, accused of theft, Aggrey Musika, charged with criminal trespass, and Ambrose Byamukama, facing charges of burglary and […] The post How 8 suspects escaped from Police detention in Sheema first appeared on Matooke Republic.
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@matookerepublic Fri, 02 Aug 2024 10:56:57
Speke Resort hosts wedding planners
Speke Resort Munyonyo, a premier five-star resort, hosted an exclusive cocktail and venue showcase for wedding planners on Thursday. The event aimed to highlight the resort’s exceptional amenities and solidify its status as Uganda’s top wedding destination. Guests were given a comprehensive tour of the resort, showcasing the various facilities that make Speke Resort Munyonyo […] The post Speke Resort hosts wedding planners first appeared on Matooke Republic.
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@observer Fri, 02 Aug 2024 07:53:07
8 suspects escape from Sheema Central police station
Police in Greater Bushenyi have launched a manhunt for eight suspects who escaped from Sheema Central police station. The police station is located on the Mbarara-Bushenyi highway in Kabwohe town council. Martial Tumusiime, Greater Bushenyi Regional police spokesperson identified the escapees as Jocknions Akampa who is on murder charges, Matovu Hakimu on theft, Aggrey Musika on criminal trespass, and Ambrose Byamukama charged with burglary and theft. Others are Asingwire Musinguzi, Benson Mpumwire, Ashraf Tugume and Accum Clinton on aggravated robbery. Tumusiime says the suspects escaped at around 3 am in the wee hours of the morning when the officers on duty were sleeping. He says that the suspects escaped through the toilet window. Tumusiime says the two offices have been arrested and charged with negligence of duty. {loadposition inarticle}
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@allafrica Thu, 01 Aug 2024 16:08:34
Youth Activism On the Rise
[Nile Post] In a recent tweet, prominent Ugandan opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu alias Bobi Wine commended the youth for their relentless efforts in standing up against abuse of power and arrogance exhibited by those in authority within the country.
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@kfm Thu, 01 Aug 2024 14:43:55
NSSF injects shs.45 million in NSSF- KAVC Volleyball tournament
The National Social Security Fund has injected at least shs.45 million in this year’s NSSF –KAVC International Volleyball Tournament, which kicks off this Friday at Lugogo Mtn Indoor Arena and Lugogo Hockey grounds. The president of the Kampala Amateur Volleyball Club Irene Kiconco says about 30 teams have confirmed their participation in this year’s three-day event tournament. And these include teams from Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda Kenya and Tanzania among others. She says the Women’s APR Rwanda and APR men’s team also Rwanda are the defending champions. However, the Head of Marketing at NSSF Barbra Arimi, also the head lead sponsor of the tournament, says this is intended to promote talent in sports. “We are proud to say that owing to […]
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@observer Thu, 01 Aug 2024 14:25:36
Is Chinese influence in Uganda disrupting legal, digital spaces?
A few months before the 2021 general elections, police arrested presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, on allegations of breaching Covid-19 guidelines during a rally in Luuka district. News of his arrest sparked protests in several urban centers across the country which saw uniformed and plain-clothes security operatives unleash wanton violence on civilians, leading to the deaths of several people, whose specific number remains a subject of speculation to date. Numerous others remain maimed with life-long disabilities. From then on, civilians and activists have since adopted and adapted to new forms and forums of protest from physical to largely digital spaces where they hold public officials to account. Digital spaces have quickly proven to have transformative power of exposure and mobilization, especially among the youth. The Covid-19 lockdown also partly inspired digital activism. New civil society organizations such as Agora Discourse and Public Square have emerged to use X (formerly Twitter) to facilitate critical dialogues in an effort to expand the frontiers of human rights and democratic governance in Uganda. However, government has not rested either. It has not only invented deleterious laws to limit freedom of expression on digital platforms, but also leveraged on Chinese technological capabilities to control digital democracy in Uganda. According to Jacob Kiguli, a human rights activist, China has strategically positioned itself as a “no-strings- attached” development partner for Uganda. “This mutually beneficial diplomatic posture has enabled it to penetrate Africa’s digital space by providing the government with ICT systems to surveil citizens, even more especially on human-rights activists and political opponents,” he says. ‘DIGITAL VILLAGES’ IN UGANDA On July 09, 2024, President Museveni met Gao Hover, the president of Huawei in sub-Saharan Africa during the cabinet retreat at the National Leadership Institute (NALI) in Kyankwanzi. Huawei, China’s worldwide ICT infrastructure provider and telecommunications equipment manufacturer, offered to help the Ugandan government set up a digital village prototype in Butaleja district to facilitate the uptake of ICT in rural areas, especially in education and business processes. Kiguli says such an offer is typically cut out of the guidebook of how China operates. “Projects that threaten people’s privacy and expose them to digital surveillance always come shrouded in generous offers, promising to improve the well-being of its targets,” he says. HOW DIGITAL VILLAGES FUNCTION IN CHINA As exciting as the idea of a digital village might read on a Chinese government website, there are allegedly nefarious intentions often behind them, such as data exploitation and control. Information on the internet shows that digital villages like Xiong’an New Area, the collection of vast amounts of data on residents for smart city management could be abused by the Chinese government. Residents of this village never get told the scope of personal data collected from them through various sensors and devices. Neither do they know the ultimate purposes for which their data is used, beyond what they consented to. Their data could be sold to third parties or be used to manipulate public opinion and behavior. Huawei store in South Africa Digital villages in China also often have internet access controlled by the state. In places like Yunqi Cloud Town, while there is significant technological advancement, internet content is heavily censored, which restricts access to information and limits freedom of speech. Residents only have access to government-approved information, affecting their ability to make informed decisions and participate fully in civic life. Therefore, behind the glittering promise that digital villages which Hover wants to introduce to Uganda will become hubs of innovation or create smart agriculture, lies many dangers to democracy as explicated by the underlying negative capabilities they carry. BUTALEJA, A PRECURSOR TO CHINA’S SOCIAL CREDIT SYSTEM? Butaleja is a popular destination for Chinese social experiments in Uganda. Dubbed as Uganda’s rice hub, the district received Shs 7 billion worth of agricultural equipment in 2023 from China, including 11 tractors, 11 combine harvesters, three maize threshers, three rice milling systems, transformers and standby generators. It is intriguing that almost a year after that, Hover offers to set up a model digital village in the same district. Critics claim Butaleja is now a prototype, which could be expanded and replicated in other parts of Uganda. “The ultimate goal behind digital villages like the one planned for Butaleja is the creation of a social credit system, akin to the one in China,” says Michael Wandera, a social critic. Whereas China is still testing the system, it already works in some places, including rural areas, and can negatively impact villagers as well. “China uses this system to track social behavior and economic activity, and finally assign scores that can affect access to social services and opportunities. A low social credit score can lead to penalties, such as restricted access to loans, jobs and even travel. By this, China effectively controls and modifies behavior through digital means,” he adds. PREVIOUS FOOTPRINTS IN UGANDA Huawei technicians have been reported to help intelligence officers in Uganda to spy on government critics and political opponents. Added to this is the $126 million worth of Closed-Circuit Television Camera (CCTV) surveillance technology which the same company sold to Ugandan police in 2019 to mitigate the high crime rates, especially in urban centers. Whereas these cameras have a limited record of performance, they have facial- identification capabilities that are said to be exploited for mass surveillance. Government aims to install a total of 5,552 cameras across urban centers, border points, and highways. The most recent data shows that approximately 3,233 cameras were planned for Kampala alone, but only 2,547 have already been installed and connected to 107 monitoring centers at different police stations. By press time, Huawei had not responded to the queries via email. INFLUENCE OVER UGANDA’S LEGAL FRAMEWORK AND GOVERNANCE SYSTEM As China’s domestic reach and grasp on Uganda becomes tighter, it has influenced the government to increasingly borrow from Beijing’s best practices to control society by applying laws related to freedom of expression and access to information. Uganda enacted the Computer Misuse Act to address cybercrimes such as unauthorized access, hacking, and the spread of malicious software. However, the law was couched in broad and vague language, and it has previously been used to target political opponents, journalists and activists. This is not different from China’s cybersecurity law which grants the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) extensive control over the internet and digital communications. Under this law, the CCP requires Chinese companies such as Huawei, ZTE and Star Times to store data locally and provide access to authorities upon request. This makes it easy to censor online content and monitor citizens’ activities. “This practice is one the Ugandan regime is on the course of following, to the abuse of our Data Protection and Privacy Act, 2019,” reasons Kiguli. “China’s law requiring its companies to store data locally also undermines Uganda’s Data Protection and Privacy Act because the Act applies to the processing of personal data by both public and private entities in Uganda, including data collected, stored, or processed within the country. As such, the prerogative that the Chinese government has over Chinese companies renders Ugandan data subject helpless in case their data is abused from where it’s stored, in China.” He adds that Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) is also becoming highly influenced by the malignant strategies exercised by China’s Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) to censor and control public information. One such strategy is the shutdown and throttling of internet services during the electoral season or whenever the government feels politically threatened by public opinion on social media and other digital spaces. The wide powers used to do this are often inferred from the broad and vague Section 5 (1) (b) of the UCC Act (as amended) which empowers the Commission to monitor, inspect, license, supervise, control and regulate communications services. Therefore, it is difficult to establish the full picture of Chinese influence over Uganda’s digital democratic space. The author is a lawyer and journalist {loadposition inarticle}
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@allafrica Thu, 01 Aug 2024 12:59:03
No Evidence Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni Asked Kenyan President William Ruto to Be Ruthless With Protesters
[Africa Check] IN SHORT: As anti-government protests continue in Kenya, we have found no evidence that the Ugandan president encouraged his Kenyan counterpart to allow soldiers to deal with the demonstrators. The quote attributed to Yoweri Museveni has been fabricated.
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@sqoop Thu, 01 Aug 2024 13:01:50
Contestant accuses Miss Uganda Foundation of extortion
Miss Uganda Foundation is in the spotlight for alleged financial exploitation and scheming of contestants. Ms Lourine Winniefred Adyero who is the current Miss Uganda North, but was recently eliminated from the Miss Uganda (general) contention, has come out to accuse the organisers of the pageant for extorting money from contestants in the disguise of […]
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@matookerepublic Thu, 01 Aug 2024 12:35:27
79 pupils struck by lightning in Nebbi district
About 79 pupils were struck by lightning at Oweko Primary School in Ndhew Sub-county, Nebbi District. The incident happened when the pupils had gathered at the school’s playground for inter-school football and netball competitions. When it started raining, they sought shelter in nearby structures. However, lightning struck, leaving many injured. According to Mr. Bosco Okwai, […] The post 79 pupils struck by lightning in Nebbi district first appeared on Matooke Republic.
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