The group of students claims that for the last two years, they have not received money towards their tuition and upkeep.

They say they are likely to miss exams if the said outstanding fees are not cleared.

The students who are camped at the CHOGM square want parliament to intervene and ensure that the funds are released to facilitate their education.

They were later met by the deputy speaker who advised that their leaders also get in touch with the state house department of welfare and seek ways of addressing the issue.

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The delegates include Dr Boni Yayi from Benin, Joyce Banda of Malawi, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, South Sudan’s Salva Kiir and Tanzania’s Jakaya kikwete.

Minister mary Karoro Okurut

The others are Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi, DR Congo’s Joseph Kabila, Kenya’s Mwai Kibaki and Somalia’s newly elected Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

The information and National guidance minister Mary Karoro Okurut says other delegates include those from the office of Queen Elizabeth the second, the deputy speaker of the Chinese parliament Hu Jintao, senior government officials from South Africa, United States, Nigeria and Sudan.

Okurut says all preparations at Kololo ceremonial grounds where the cerebrations are to take place are in the final stages.

She adds that religious and international organisations that have confirmed their attendance include the AGA Khan Development Network, the Commonwealth, The East African Community, World Bank and the European Union among others.
Uganda celebrates 50 years of independence on Tuesday October 9th 2012.
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In an Islamic faith, men lead in prayers. This is why they take the front seats in the mosque, according to Mufti Shaban Ramadhan Mubajje and the deputy director of Shariah at the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council, Yahaya Kakungulu.

Mubajje also denies that separating women in the mosques is a form of discrimination. Mubajje says that the Islamic faith and Quran glorifies women more than men.

The deputy director of Shariah also says that they separate women from men in the mosques to prevent both sexes from getting involved in sexual intercourse.

He says that in Islamic faith and understanding prevention is better than cure.

Walakira Nyanzi

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Democratic Party (DP) Deputy organising secretary, who is also the deputy lord mayor, Sulaiman Kidandala has asked the inspector general of police, Kale Kayihura and president Museveni to stop brutalizing their people using all tools of coercion at their disposal.

Kidandala says that the fallen Ethiopian Premier Meles Zenawi was brutal, merciless, power hungry and blood thirsty; terrorized his opponents, gagged the Media and fundamentally killed all freedoms using the guns.

But in his final hours, Kidandala says, the guns could not help Zenawi or even defend him. Kidandala asks Kayihura and Museveni to respect and understand peoples’ interests. He says that people may mourn the dead but never will they mourn or forget brutal autocrats as a matter of principle.

Walakira Nyanzi

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Having taken Musisi’s money, the councilors and the lord mayor are organising to take Jenifer Musisi head on following her reported mismanagement of the city.

In the last secret meeting the lord mayor had with the councilor before he went to China they all agreed that they need to fight for their political sovereignty to avoid being swallowed by the technocrats in the names of Jenifer Semakula Musisi.

And upon realisation of this, rumours has it that President Museveni is about to replace Musisi with Annet Muhoozi who is Musisi’s deputy at the moment and she has been assigned to take over the entire administration of KCCA.

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 The Lord Mayor of Kampala, Erias Lukwago earns 16.7 million shillings while his deputy earns 11 million shillings.

The chairpersons of Kampala divisions/Division Mayors receive 10.7 million shillings each and their deputies get 8.2 million shillings. Kampala district councilors receive 4.45 million shillings and the division councilors get 3.5 million shillings.

The least paid staff member in Kampala district earns 1.8 million shillings according to the new salary structure and that person is a messenger.

Ultimate Media

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Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) is in shock after about 312 billion shillings meant to develop markets in the city went missing on the council’s bank accounts.

KCCA has consequently established a committee comprised of councilors to investigate the whereabouts of the said money. Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago says that the committee is headed by his deputy Sulaiman Kidandala.

 The money was meant to redevelop Kasubi, Kansanga, Owino (St. Balikudembe), Nnkulabye and Wandegeya market. However the KCCA director Jenifer Musisi claims that the money was used. But she doesn’t explain where it was used and who used it.

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HOW: In the case against William Samoei Ruto, Henry Kiprono Kosgey and Joshua Arap Sang, judges confirmed charges of crimes against humanity against Ruto and Sang, but declined to confirm those against Kosgey. In the case against Francis Muthaura, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta and Mohammed Hussein Ali, judges also confirmed charges of crimes against humanity against Muthaura and Kenyatta, but declined to confirm those against Ali. The decisions were taken by majority of the Chamber, with Judge Hans-Peter Kaul dissenting.

The cases will therefore move to trial against William Samoei Ruto, Joshua Arap Sang, Francis Muthaura and Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta at this stage. Both the prosecution and the defence have the right to request the Chamber to appeal today’s decisions. Today’s decision does not preclude the Prosecutor from re-requesting the confirmation of charges against Kosgey and Ali if supported by additional evidence.

WHO: In the first case, PTC II found that there was sufficient evidence to try William Samoei Ruto (a suspended government minister and deputy party leader of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM)) pursuant to article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute, in the commission of the crimes against humanity of murder (article 7(l)(a)), forcible transfer of population (article 7(l)(d)) and persecution (article 7(l)(h)) during post-election violence in Kenya in 2007-2008.

PTC II also found that there was sufficient evidence to try Sang (head of operations at a radio station in Nairobi ) for having ‘otherwise contributed’ (within the meaning of article 25(3)(d) of the Rome Statute) to the commission of the abovementioned crimes.

However the judges established that they lacked sufficient evidence to try Henry Kiprono Kosgey (a current Member of Parliament and chairman of the ODM) as indirect co-perpetrator of the abovementioned crimes.

In the second case, PTC II found that there was sufficient evidence to try Francis Muthaura (head of the civil service and secretary to the cabinet) and Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta (deputy prime minister and minister for finance) as indirect co-perpetrators pursuant to article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute, in the commission of the crimes against humanity of murder(article 7(l)(a)), forcible transfer of population(article 7(l)(d)), rape (article 7(l)(g)), persecution (article 7(l)(h)) and other inhumane acts (article 7(l)(k)) during the post-election violence in Kenya in 2007-2008.

Judges however established that they lacked sufficient evidence to try Mohammed Hussein Ali (chief executive of the postal corporation) for having ‘otherwise contributed’ (within the meaning of article 25(3)(d) of the Rome Statute) to the commission of the abovementioned crimes.

NEXT STEPS: William Samoei Ruto, Joshua Arap Sang, Francis Muthaura and Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta will face trial before the ICC in due course. Before the start of the trials, a number of preparatory hearings will be held to deal with issues such as the disclosure of evidence to the defense, participation of victims or the language to be used during the trials.

327 and 233 victims have been admitted to participate in the first and second cases respectively, through their legal representatives and will participate in the trial. Additional victims have a right to apply for participation in the trial.

COMMENTS:

“ICJ Kenya supports the decisions confirming the charges against Ruto, Sang, Muthaura and Kenyatta as an important step forward in ensuring justice for the victims of the terrible crimes of the post-election violence of 2007/8,” said George Kegoro, executive director of the Kenya chapter of the International Commission of Jurists. “We underline the judicial, not political, nature of the ICC process which seeks to respond on behalf of the 1200 killed, 900 sexually assaulted and the thousands still in camps as a result of the post-election violence, and urge all Kenyans to be confident in it and let justice run its course.”

“Now that the charges are confirmed ICJ Kenya calls upon the President and Prime Minister to fulfill their obligations to uphold the rule of law and suspend from office Deputy Prime Minister Kenyatta and Head of Civil Service Muthaura in line with chapter 6 of the Kenyan constitution and also call upon the suspects to vacate office of their own volition in line with their statements of 15 December 2010 to cooperate with the ICC,” Kegoro continued. “The suspects now need to present themselves voluntarily to the ICC and the Kenyan government must continue to cooperate with the ICC as per public statements made in this respect, article 86 of the Rome Statute, and Kenya’s International Crimes Act.”

“FIDA Kenya welcomes today’s decision to confirm charges against some of the suspects in these cases, in particular the confirmation of the rape charges against Kenyatta and Muthaura,” said Grace Maingi-Kimani, executive director of the Federation of Women Lawyers Kenya (FIDA Kenya ). “However we also underline the urgent need for the Office of the Prosecutor to bring forward charges for the rape cases in Kibera and Nyanza,” she added. “We further call for a local prosecutorial process to deal with the middle- and lower-level perpetrators of crimes committed during the post-election violence in Kenya .”

“Today’s decision to send these four suspects to trial represents a major step towards justice for victims of grave crimes which brought chaos to Kenya in 2007/2008,” said William R. Pace, Convenor of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court. “The decision declining to confirm charges against Kosgey and Ali does not refute that terrible crimes occurred during the post-election violence, but that the evidence assigning individual responsibility to the defendants did not convince the ICC’s independent judges at this time,” he said. “We now call for increased cooperation with the Court, including through the continued voluntary appearances of the suspects at the forthcoming trial proceedings.”

BACKGROUND: The ICC prosecutor’s investigation into crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Kenya during the 2007-2008 post-election violence was authorized by judges of PTC II on 31 March 2010, following a request by the ICC prosecutor on 26 November 2009. It was the first time the prosecutor initiated an investigation of his own accord (“propio motu”) without the need for a referral from states parties to the Rome Statute or by the United Nations Security Council. On 8 March 2011, PTC II issued summonses to appear for Ruto, Kosgey and Sang, as well as for Muthaura, Kenyatta and Ali, in relation to their alleged roles in the 2007-2008 Kenyan post-election violence, and they made their initial appearance before the ICC on 7 and 8 April 2011 respectively. On 30 August 2011, the ICC Appeals Chamber confirmed the admissibility of the two cases in the Kenya situation, rejecting the challenges of the Kenyan government.

PTC II held confirmation of charges hearings from 1 to 8 September 2011 in the case against Ruto, Kosgey and Sang, and from 21 September to 5 October 2011 in the case against Muthaura, Kenyatta and Ali. On 26 October 2011, PTC II announced that it would issue its decisions on wheth­er to send the cases to trial on the same date due to concerns for the safety of victims and witnesses involved in the cases.

PTC II is composed of judges Ekaterina Trendafilova (Presiding Judge), Hans-Peter Kaul and Cuno Tarfusser.

The ICC is the world’s first permanent international court to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. 120 states have joined the Rome Statute, the Court’s founding treaty. Central to the Court’s m and ate is the principle of complementarity, which holds that the Court will only intervene if national legal systems are unwilling or unable to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. There are currently seven active investigations before the Court: the Central African Republic; the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Côte d’Ivoire; Darfur, the Sudan; Ug and a, Kenya and Libya. The ICC has publicly issued 19 arrest warrants and nine summonses to appear. Three trials are ongoing. The ICC prosecutor has also made public that it is examining eight situations on four continents: Afghanistan , Colombia , Georgia , Guinea , Honduras , Republic of Korea , Nigeria and Palestine .

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We have been reliably informed that currently when Nambooze brings an argument Lukwago openly fights it. The bad meat between Nambooze and Lukwago started during the appointment of the Deputy Mayor.

Sources say that Nambooze had requested Lukwago to choice a catholic and an opposition councilor to be the deputy mayor since Lukwago was a Muslim.

The development came after the Democratic Party requested Lukwago to appoint Sulaiman Kidandala as the deputy mayor ofKampala. Nambooze argued that her resistance was not to rebel against the decision of the Democratic Party but she only wanted Lukwago to balance religions. Lukwago accepted and brought two names before the councilors to approve one of them to be the deputy mayor. That was the name of Luyiga and that of Kidandala.

When the councilors pressed him to give them one name for them to approve, Lukwago dropped that of Luyiga and gave them Kidandala. The furious Nambooze went out of the hall, jumped into her car and drove off. And this could explain why Nambooze announced to campaign for an NRM candidate in Luweero woman MP race while Lukwago declared to support the DP candidate in the race.

By James Okello

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Although he is the deputy organising secretary of the Democratic Party, Sulaiman Kidandala has accepted to work with NRM councilors who are the majority in KCCA.

Out of the 32 district councilors in KCCA, 8 are on Democratic Party ticket, two are on FDC ticket, two on independent and the rest are NRM.

Kidandala who represents Kawempe North at KCCA says that there is no way he could decline to work with NRM councilors who make up the majority in the council.

He was nominated deputy lord mayor of KCCA in December last year by the Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago amidst resistance from NRM councilors. Kidandala says that he is willing to work with all the councilors and the government so he asked them to stop fighting him and they concentrate on developing Kampala Capital City Authority.  

 By Walakira Nyanzi

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