Maj Gen. Kahinda Otafiire, Minister of Internal Affairs, has counseled National Resistance Movement-NRM leaders and followers who are calling for change to adhere to the proper...
The Uganda Communication Commission (UCC) has issued a public warning about the rise in fraud cases. According to UCC’s Acting Head of Communication and International Relations...
Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the first son and Commander of the Land Forces in the UPDF, has been sued in the Constitutional Court for expressing political...
Pius Mayanja, better known as Pallaso, is recovering from a knee injury sustained while performing at La Grande hotel on Easter Sunday. Pallaso, who is known...
By Gad Masereka The King of Obusinga Bwa Rwenzururu Kingdom, Charles Wesley Mumbere, has chastised those who use social media to destabilize the Rwenzori Region’s community....
Aped Longole, the LC3 vice-chairperson of Napumpum sub-county in Kotido district, was killed by joint security forces in Karamoja. He died while transporting rustled animals from...
A passenger bus operated by Global Bus Company overturned this morning at Nabyewanga on the Kampala-Masaka road, injuring three people. According to eyewitnesses, the driver of...
A case against a man who allegedly circulated fake news that President Yoweri Museveni had died has been dismissed by a Luwero Chief Magistrate’s court. Since July 15, 2021, Jamir Ssekyondwa, a resident of Kabunyata trading centre in Kamira sub-county, Luwero district, has been on remand. He was arrested and charged with offending others in violation of section 25 of the Computer Misuse Act of 2011. According to the charge sheet, Ssekyondwa used his phone number 0707262*** to send messages to 0757453*** on July 5, 2021, claiming that Museveni had died when he had not. During the court hearing, Ssekyondwa pleaded guilty to the crime, and the prosecution asked the court to find him guilty. However, in his ruling, Luwero Chief Magistrate Samuel Munobe stated that the facts presented by the state do not reveal the major elements of the offence, such as repetitive communication or willfulness in such communication, and the interference with the right of privacy of the person in hearing. Munobe went on to say that the accused could not be found guilty based on these facts because it would violate the able constitution principles laid out in Article 28(12) of the Constitution of Uganda (1995) as amended, which states: Nothing in clause (l) of this article shall prevent the court or tribunal from excluding the press or the public from all or any proceedings before it for reasons of morality, public order, or national security, as may be necessary in a free and democratic society. “The facts, for that matter, do not reveal the legal offense.” Chief magistrate Munobe ruled, “The charge is dismissed, and the accused is accordingly discharged.” Ssekyondwa was taken aback by the decision and remained in the dock until the magistrate informed him that he had been released. Ssekyondwa had been on remand for eight months by the time he was released, despite the fact that the maximum sentence for the offense, if convicted, is only one year. Dorothy Mukasa, the executive director of Unwanted Witness, applauded the decision but chastised security agencies for using the Computer Misuse Act to silence Ugandans who use electronic platforms to express their views. As digital rights activists, Mukasa is concerned that the offence is selectively used to imprison people who criticize top government officials and President Museveni, but that these people never appear in court to demonstrate how their privacy has been violated. “Right now, you can’t demonstrate physically, so electronic platforms are your only option for expressing yourself.” Security organs, on the other hand, are closing the space, bringing the country to total dictatorship,” Mukasa said. And all the while, Swaibu Nsamba Gwogyolonga, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) chairperson for Katikamu South Constituency in Luwero district, is still fighting charges of offensive communication stemming from anti-Museveni Facebook posts. Nsamba was arrested in 2017 after writing a Facebook post about how he plans to announce and mourn Museveni’s death when he passes away. A Photoshopped image of Museveni and how he will appear after his death accompanied the post. He was granted Shs 50 million in non-cash bail. However, Nsamba’s case has never been resolved, and he is scheduled to appear in Magistrate Court at Buganda Road every month.
Allan Ssewanyana, a detained Makindye West MP, is seeking an injunction to stop the election of the speaker of parliament until he is allowed to run for the same office. MPs are expected to vote on Friday for the next speaker of parliament to replace the late Jacob Oulanyah, who died on Sunday in the United States of America after being rushed for medical treatment. Ssewanyana, who is being held on remand at Kigo Maximum Prison on several murder and terrorist charges, says he has expressed interest in being the next speaker. Ssewanyana claims that while he is on remand, he is still only a suspect who is innocent until proven guilty, implying that he has all rights to engage in the process, including expressing interest and running for speakership. Similarly, in addition to being ill, spending too much time on remand without trial, and having numerous pending responsibilities for which he has been seeking bail, Kawempe North MP Muhammad Ssegirinya told the court that if the current deputy speaker of parliament resigns, he would like to run for the position. The trial magistrate instructed the MPs’ counsel to study the appropriate legal routes via which their interests in the contest for speakership might be successfully represented when delivering her verdict, in which she further remanded the MPs until April 6. “……regarding the application that the accused parties want to make in relation to the speakership contest, this can be done through their counsels,” she said. Lukwago stated that before seeking an injunction to stop the ongoing process for the election of the speaker, he will seek an audience with the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament (LoP) Mathias Mpuuga to inform him of the MPs’ interest in running for the same position. MPs, on the other hand, had already expressed their dissatisfaction with the slow pace of the investigations into the murder charges leveled against them. They also blamed the prosecution, led by Richard Birivumbuka, the Masaka local chief state attorney, for what they called persecution, claiming that the state has continuously failed to find substantial evidence that would allow them to be committed to the High Court for trial. However, in his response, Birivumbuka requested that the court give him until the next adjournment to present the committal papers for the two MPs, claiming that he was nearing completion with the preparation of crucial witnesses in the case.
Mr Nathan Okori, Speaker Jacob Oulanyah’s father, has stated that his son died of “poisoned” causes rather than natural causes, but has also stated that the...