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Police have arrested two university students on allegations of sedating a woman and repeatedly raping her on Independence Day October 9.

The suspects are; Innocent Wasande and Emmanuel Mwijukye while the alleged victim has only been identified as Cindy. According to records, Wasande is a student of Makerere University while Mwijukye is a student of Kampala International University (KIU) western campus. They allegedly raped Cindy after drugging her inside a bar in Nakulabye, Lubaga Division, in Kampala City.

Cindy said that she left her home and business area in the Kabawo zone, Lubaga division at around 7 pm on Monday. She then went to Nakulabye for leisure where the suspects allegedly befriended her.

“I didn’t go with any friend or relative. I went alone but I found two young men who tried to befriend me. I don’t know what they did, and I don’t know how I was taken out of the bar up to being raped and then being taken to a medical facility,” Cindy reportedly said.

Old Kampala police detectives have said that Cindy was rescued by a passerby who saw the students sexually assaulting her in turns. She alerted other people who came to her rescue and arrested the two students.

“Cindy was sedated while in the bar and these students successfully sneaked her out of the bar without the management’s observation. They came into the bar determined to get one female victim to satisfy their sexual urge,” detectives said.

Cindy has said she operates a mobile money shop and often goes to Nakulabye to spend her evening after work. Luke Owoyesigyire the deputy Kampala metropolitan police spokesperson said bars have men and women who target victims of the opposite sex.

“We now ask the management of these bars to always be very observant to know who came in alone or accompanied. If someone came into the bar alone and there were people supporting him or her to get out of the bar, please interrogate them to know whether they are related and ascertain the condition of the client,” Owoyesigyire said.

This is not the first time people have been sedated inside bars, raped, or robbed clean. A number of civilians and security officers have been victims of people sedating them inside bars and afterwards, they rob them clean. This is common in Kawempe Tula, Kanyanya, Mpeleerwe, and Makindye Salama road.

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Stanbic bank donates Mama Kits worth Shs 300m to health centres

Stanbic Bank Uganda and the Parliamentary Forum on East African Community Affairs (PEACA) have joined hands to support safe motherhood across the country.

They donated maternal and newborn essential supplies and equipment known as Mama Kits worth Shs 300 million. The donation was received by the state minister for Health in charge of General Duties Anifah Kawooya at the ministry of Health headquarters in commemoration of National Safe Motherhood month and Stanbic Bank’s Corporate Society for Safe Motherhood campaign. 

Gladys Muchae, Stanbic bank’s country head of credit said that even though the recent Uganda demographic and health survey by the Uganda National Bureau of Statics showed a significant reduction in maternal mortality from 336 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2016 to 189 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2022, more effort needs to be made to achieve the third SDG goal of bringing down these numbers to 70 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030. 

“The health of mothers in our country impacts all of us, and therefore it is important to team up, promote and improve maternal health care. We therefore have identified 40 constituencies to which we shall deliver more than 4,000 Mama Kits to ease the birth process for mothers in under-served areas,” she said.

The Corporate Society for Safe Motherhood was launched early last year to bring together entities and individuals to raise awareness and limit preventable maternal and neonatal deaths in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Through the campaign, more than Shs 800 million was invested in maternal health in the form of equipment and Mama Kits last year alone. 

To date, this initiative has reached nearly 30 health centres with the recent engagement expected to increase this number to about 70 health facilities throughout the country.

“In addition to these 4,000 Mama kits, we shall soon deliver another 1,000 Mama Kits to identified health facilities in Mbale. But we have so far delivered 1,000 Mama kits to health centres in Karamoja, Kajjansi, Kalangala, Mukono, Arua and Luweero. In total this year, we have delivered 6000 Mama Kits and impacted about 100,000 women,” Muchae added.  

In her remarks, Kawooya said the donation is a timely and highly resourceful strategy that does not only support communities but also saves lives.  

“The number of women giving birth especially in rural areas is increasing every day but many of them don’t have the requirements to ensure a safe delivery making the mortality figures still relatively high and so we must work hard to ensure that we bring them down. Mama Kits are a big demand in our constituents and therefore this donation has come at the right time,” she said.

She commended Stanbic for its efforts in bridging the gap and supporting the government in extending maternal and neonatal well-being and pledged that the ministry will ensure that the donated items reach the right people and serve the exact purpose.

Rain, heavy traffic disrupt UCE exams

The early Monday morning downpour in Kigezi sub-region slightly disrupted the commencement of the Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) examinations.

The rains started at around 8.10 am which affected many candidates whose schools were using motorcycles to pick up the exams from the police stations. 

At Kabale police station, the storage facility for Kabale district, the distribution started about 10 minutes to 09:00 a.m. Heads of schools arrived to collect the examination scripts with umbrellas. Some heads of schools like Medard Turamyomwe Salongo of Nyamweru secondary school in Nyamweru sub-county, Rubanda district were seen braving the rain to transport the exams on a motorcycle.

Elly Maate, the police spokesperson for the Kigezi region says that despite rain disrupting the distribution, no incident of sabotage has been registered in the region. Maate says that security is ready to ensure that the exams are done peacefully up to the end.

In Soroti district/city, the distribution of papers was delayed in a number of schools over lack of transport. Most of the schools relied on motorcycles for the distribution of papers but the exercise was delayed because of the poor road network. In Asuret Seed secondary school, examination papers arrived at 9:18 a.m. after students had long settled in examination halls. 

Some of the head teachers were seen arriving to pick up examination papers from Soroti West Central police station around 9:00 a.m., the official time for the commencement of morning papers. Elizabeth Ayura, the deputy headteacher of Gweri secondary school told our reporter that the school didn’t have reliable transport for picking papers early. 

“We had to resort to the motorcycle after failing to secure a vehicle for transporting papers. This took us a while on the road to reach here,” she said while rushing to sign the papers.

Patrick Omoding, the supervisor for Soroti said that they opened the distribution of papers at 8:30 a.m. to enable distant schools to deliver papers on time. Omoding says that although some slight delays were recorded, examinations have commenced peacefully in all the centers.

There were some delays reported at Kawempe police station distribution center as several teachers arrived late for examination papers. The distribution of the exams started 41 minutes after the hour of 8 a.m. Some of the teachers at the distribution center told our reporter that the delay had been caused by the high traffic on Bombo road because of the night downpour.

Hajj Sentamu Abdul Noor, the headteacher of Mbogo College School said that some teachers travel a long distance to reach the distribution center and others were new and not well versed with the system and were delayed in filling out the forms.

Generally, however, the examinations commenced with a sense of relative normalcy in stark contrast to the last two cycles plagued by the disruptive effects of COVID-19 restrictions and the Ebola outbreak.

Jennifer Kalule, the spokesperson for the Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) said that the examination papers were delivered on time to both the main and sub-stations.

In the bustling storage centers of Kampala, mostly situated within police stations, the examination papers and other related materials were dispatched on Sunday evening and reached their designated centers around 8:00 pm.

Despite initial concerns of morning rain disrupting the examination, the weather cleared before 7:00 am, ensuring a smooth start to the testing process. Scouts and other officials were prepared at the storage areas by 6:30 am, and a crucial briefing meeting took place at 7:30 am. 

However, as per the guidelines, the containers were not opened until 8:30 a.m. The chief scout at Nabweru police station commented on the early arrival of their team, stating, "We came early today; the first day is always complicated. We held a briefing for scouts to foster familiarity and to address any potential issues promptly." 

Meanwhile, as the UCE examinations get underway, Uneb has once again issued a stern warning to both schools and candidates, cautioning them against any involvement in malpractice. Kalule noted that they emphasize that engaging in any form of misconduct could result in the cancellation of their examination results and potentially expose them to criminal charges.

The candidates began their examinations with Geography (paper one) in the morning, a compulsory subject that all registered candidates are required to write. In the afternoon, they will sit for Geography (paper two). A total of 364,421 candidates are registered to sit for UCE this year.

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