Adoa beat Forum for Democratic Change’s Alice Alaso in the Febraury 18 elections to clinch the seat.

According the results by the Electoral Commission, Adoa polled 48,762 votes against Alaso’s 32,651 votes on the polling day.

Serere district returning officer, Atim Awori declared Adoa as the winner of Serere district woman member of parliament. Adoa beat Alaso with a big range of 16,111 votes.

However, Alaso logged a petition saying the elections were not free and fair and was marred by intimidation from state operatives who she said tortured her supporters.

While speaking to the media, Alice Alaso, the FDC vice president for Eastern Uganda, explained that the loss of the FDC at parliamentary level was not due to FDC’s waning support but the resistance it faced from the state machinery.

“Our supporters were tortured, beaten and killed by the state institutions including the military and police. This was done where the use of money could not work,” said Alaso, who lost the Serere Woman MP seat to NRM’s Hellen Adoa.

Alaso narrated that what the opposition was up against in Teso sub-region, for instance, was not just the ruling party but a combined force of the state machinery.

“When the campaigns started, there was a whole battalion of the army that was deployed here. But, a week to the end of the campaigns, another contingent was sent in. This army did not only intimidate our supporters, but they physically tortured opposition supporters,” she said.

Alaso added that her supporter Dennis Eyoru was killed on the eve to the election, and also spoke of pre-ticked ballots.

“We have evidence of a car from the ministry of gender that carried the pre-ticked ballots. This car moved with boxes of pre-ticked ballots and we could not do much as people. We raised alarm to the electoral commission but no one came to our help,” she said.

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Former principal accountant in Ministry of Public Service Christopher Obey has refused to refund money which he allegedly stole belonging to pensioners. Obey appeared before the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) today chaired by Alice Alaso to defend himself over his alleged forgery of files purportedly belonging to former workers of EAC [pensioners] and paid shs165bn. The purported pensioners were 2434 in total and the committee discovered that they were all fictitious.

The committee put it to him that he was the very person who generated the ghost files for these fake pensioners with assistance from Peter Ssajjabbi who claimed to be the secretary general of the EAC pensioners numbering 2434. However he claimed that the files originated from pensions registry though he couldn’t name the person who gave them to him.

The committee asked him to save its time and refund the loot but he said he cannot refund money which he claims he never took. The committee is meeting him again tomorrow Thursday over the same shs165bn theft scandal of pensioners’ money.

In another twist, a renown   City lawyer, John Matovu, says lawyer Bob Kasango may not pay the 7.8 billion shillings he promised to refund because he is bankrupt. This came after lawyer Kasango was forced by the committee to refund this money which was part of the 15.4 billion paid to an alleged ghost law firm.

Matovu told the committee chaired by Alice Alaso that lawyer Kasango is totally broke and there is nothing under his name. He told Members of Parliament that they should be careful because the bank statement tabled before committee by Kasango could be a forged one. Matovu told the committee that Kasango is a devil lawyer who conned him of 12 billion shillings which could have come to him from government under the agreement he had with him. He said that Kasango’s accounts had zero balance on the several times he checked and doubts that he will get the funds to pay back. Matovu said that he has been hunting Kasango through police and court summons since October last year and failed to trap him.

He pinned Kasango for using fake documents purported to be from Matovu’s lawyer firm and procured pension money irregularly. Matovu told the public accounts committee that the order Kasango used to get 7.8 billion shillings was illegal. He however, confirmed to the committee that about 6339 pensioners were paid their pension out of the 15.4 billion shillings.

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The summoned officials include the former Permanent Secretary Jimmy Lwamafa, the Ministry’s registrar Jennifer Atoo, former head of the department of Compensation Stephen Kiwanuka Kunsa, former Principal Accountant Obe Christopher, former Commissioner Human Resource JJ Nansera, and Wycliffe Mugume working in the Ministry of Health now, among others.

Members of Parliament detected that Mar. JJ Nansera approved the ghost payment without verification from the audit department. They noted that on several transactions the ministry officials irregularly paid ghost pensioners and left out the genuine ones. MPs noted that the ministry paid 165 billion shillings to ghost pensioners; this case against the accused taken to court was dismissed due to lack of evidence and the suspects are now pleading the ministry to lift the interdiction and resume work.

The PS Muwanga told the committee that she was surprised that there was such a case and added that up to now she has got no proof this money was lost. MPs also learnt that 88.8 billion shillings was irregularly budgeted for as contribution to social security in the financial year 2011/12 and caused parliament to approve this alleged ghost payment.

The committee further observed that the Ministry of Public Service paid 15 billion shillings to HUL AND PARTNERS, which is stated as a law firm, and this was done with approval from the Attorney. In this case MPs noted that this ghost law firm had asked for 12 billion shillings in respect to damages to ghost pensioners due to delays in their payment but was given15 billion shillings yet its location was not known and the Uganda Law Society could not trace its existence.

Members of Parliaments were surprised that this law firm was irregularly paid by the Ministry of Public Service and it did not go to court. The MPs who include Alice Alaso, Gerald Karuhanga, Theodore Sekikubo, Emmanuel Dombo, Paul Mwiru and Jacob Apolot said that the summoned officials should appear before the committee as the committee begins fresh investigations into this pension scam. They were furious that people retire at 60 years, live miserable lives after retirement and die without getting their pension and those still alive get it after more than 20 years. The fresh investigations into the matter will kick off next week with the summoned officials.

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Photo Courtesy of BBC

The Member of Parliament for Butambala County  Muwanga Kivumbi has demanded for a detailed investigative report of the recent killings of prominent personalities and Muslim clerics.

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The MPS who included the woman mp for Serere district Alice Alaso said that Uganda loses about 3000 people in accidents per year in the country.

She said that government should implement traffic regulations to ensure safety for the road users.

The mp for Kaberamaido county Dr. Omona Kenneth  said that government has to monitor traffic officers on high way especially on roads like Kampala –Gulu road – Juba  because in every two weeks on this road there is an accident and lives lost.

He said that some traffic officers on the road  are not disciplined  and their misconduct are contributing to the increasing road carnage.

Ultimate Media

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Speaking to journalists at parliament today Alaso said that teachers have been agitating the same over a period but government seems to be ignoring their call.

She said parliament has been recommending for the salary increment of teachers but no report has been taken serious.

She says that it’s possible for government to increase the salaries and therefore there is no reason as to why they should keep on postponing. He called upon government to quickly respond to the teachers before the two weeks given by teachers’ elapses.

Meanwhile Alaso called upon government to look into the education system and come up with the system that is favorable to this country.

She says that the system as it now is more experimental and therefore it cannot help Uganda in future.  She says that if Uganda continues with the current system Uganda will face human resource crisis.

She called upon education specialists in the country to come together and develop the system that will help Uganda in future.

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FDC Secretary General, Alice Alaso

Alaso told parliament that since the quarantine was put on the movement of cattle inTeso over the outbreak of the foot and mouth disease, the government never sent the vaccine to the area to solve the problem.

She said that the people in  Teso  are financially badly off because they cannot sell their cattle because of the ban on the movement of the cattle in Teso.

She said that the vaccine should be taken toTeso and vaccinate the cattle affected by foot and mouth disease and cure them to enable the lifting of the quarantine.

Alaso says the restriction on the movement of livestock has also affected traders in livestock products who include, butchers, traders in hides and skins and milk vendors.

Ultimate Media

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FDC Secretary General, Alice Alaso

The Uganda Electoral Commission released the long awaited voters register indicating Uganda has 13 million voters after a national wide voter registration exercise.

But FDC Secretary General Alice Alaso, says the Electoral commission figure is too high compared to Uganda’s population of 31 million people.

She says it is practically impossible for Uganda to have more than 13 million voters of above 18 years of age, yet national statistics indicate that more than 50% of Uganda’s population is below 15 years of age.

Alaso also the MP for Soroti Municipality says her party has received information that non Ugandans were registered in some districts to vote in the next years general elections.

The Electoral Commission Chairman, Eng. Dr. Badru Kiggundu however recently defended the electoral commission figures, saying those disputing the voter register numbers are basing on unconfirmed statistics as the last population census in Uganda was done in 2002, and hence the country has no dependable basis of telling the total population.

By Mugisa Isaac Mathias

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