Uganda: Woman Survives As Police Chopper Blows Off Rooftop

Kampala — A woman and her two children on Monday afternoon escaped death after a helicopter flipped over their house in Biina, Butabika Parish in Nakawa Division and blew off the rooftop.

Ms Nampijja, now homeless, is being housed by her neighbour.

Narrating her life petrifying experience to this newspaper yesterday, Ms Nampijja said she saw a chopper coming down at a lower altitude and descending towards her house at around 2:30pm.

Upon sensing danger, she dashed into the house to rescue her children who were asleep but did not make it on time and out of shock, she got trapped in the house with her two children.

"We had not yet moved out when the helicopter blew off the roof. We cannot tell what had happened to the chopper," Ms Nampijja said.

The iron sheets flew off in different directions although none of her children was hurt by the falling debris.

Thugs, however, took advantage of the misfortune to rip off her belongings.

"I locked the shuttered door with the padlock but in the morning I found when thieves had robbed us clean," Nampijja said.

The Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, yesterday sent Mr Andrew Kaweesi, the police spokesperson, to ascertain the magnitude of the damage caused by their helicopter.

"I have come with our officers from our engineering unit to examine what needs to be done to repair this house. That is the message IGP [Kayihura] told me to come and tell you. It was our helicopter and we cannot deny that," Mr Kaweesi said.

Mr Edward Agaba, an eye witness, suspects that the helicopter might have lost balance since it allegedly rotated before it hit the house.

"It would rotate and stop in the air for seconds. It started moving at a very low height and we were all scared. We saw it moving as if it was going to crash-land," Agaba said.

However, Mr Kaweesi dismissed claims that the chopper was in a bad mechanical condition.

He suspected it might have been a "flying miscalculation by the pilot".

Col Ham Kaija, commandant Police Air wing and Capt Aziz Sentamu, who was flying the chopper, attributed the crash to bad weather.

"I was flying at a high loftiness but I realised there were clouds in this area that could not allow me have a clear view. I was forced to move at a very low elevation," Captain Sentamu said.

Col Kaija said Biina is one of the holding power centres for aircrafts before they are released to land. He added that planes are usually advised to move on elevated ground whenever they are uncertain of the weather.

Uganda's Opposition Leader Inaugurated in Mock Ceremony

A video posted on YouTube has shown Forum for Democratic Change leader Kizza Besigye on a podium taking oath of office with a banner proclaiming him as the elected president of the people's government of Uganda in the background.

Besigye House Arrest Reaches 40th Day

It has been 40 days since Ugandan police placed presidential candidate Kizza Besigye of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change under house arrest following that country’s February 18 presidential election.

The Ugandan Electoral Commission announced that the election had been won by the 30 year incumbent President Yoweri Museveni with 60 percent of the vote to Besigye's 35 percent. However, the results have been challenged in court by one of the other losing candidates. Besigye says he has not been able to launch a challenge because he has been under house arrest.

Ugandan police spokesperson Fred Enanga told VOA earlier this month that Besigye is being held under section 24 of the Police Act which empowers the police to carry out what they call “preventive arrest and detention” of anyone whose unrestrictive movement the police may deem a threat to public order.

The police have also restricted visitors to and from Besigye’s house.

On Easter Monday, police intercepted two mini-busses carrying a group of 72 people, including two Anglican Church Clerics from Besigye's home district of Rukungiri.

Besigye said the group had come to conduct prayers with him since he had been prevented by police from attending Easter Sunday services.

“Members of the All Saints Church which is my local church, have chosen to come and celebrate Easter Monday with me because I normally attend Easter service at their church and when they knew I could not go to any church, they decided to come and have a communion service with me. And so there were more than 70 members of our church who came this morning. They were detained about two or three miles (four kilometers) before reaching my home,” he said.

The police were not immediately available to respond to the Easter Monday incident, but police spokesman Fred Enanga explained to VOA earlier this month the police do not want troublemakers to visit Besigye.

“We have enabled several visitors to his place. Then there are actually those ones where we have information that their visit is not helpful to the situation we are trying to bring under control where there actually are more persons with inciteful messages and so on. Sometimes we do allow, sometimes we don’t based on the intelligence we have on the ground, on the intentions and motivations of those who are actually going to visit him,” Enanga said.

Besigye say the police have no constitutional basis to detain him in his own house or to stop anyone from visiting him. He again said the police detention of him in his own house is illegal.

“As I have said before, the police action is completely illegal; it has no basis at all in law because my home is not a place of detention. If they chose to detain whether for preventive purposes as they claim or any other reason, they should detain me in a place designated for detaining people, not my home,” Besigye said.

He also said if the police suspect that he has in any way broken the law, then the law requires that they bring him before a magistrate of the court of law.

“They cannot be the accusers; they cannot be the investigators and the judges. They must put me before people who will investigate their claims. I have never been presented to any court of law. It is now 40 days since I was detained. This is absolutely illegal,” Besigye said.

Besigye has also asked the courts to declare the siege of his house illegal and has requested damages to be awarded for the inconvenience and mental anguish it has cost him.

He said the delay in hearing his case is one more example of how Uganda is gradually turning into a kind of failed state, and also how the courts have been compromised.

Police spokesman Enanga said the police will respect whatever decision is made by the court regarding Besigye’s fate.

Uganda police amend charges against abusive nanny

Reports from Ugandan say that a charge of torture against an abusive nanny has been amended to attempted murder.

A security camera planted in the house shows the woman, Jolly Tumuhirwe (22), slapping, kicking and hitting the baby and thereafter stomping on the two-year old's spine.

Many Ugandans who have watched the video say they have been traumatised.

Punishment

These two Ugandan kids were punished (told to stand outside, in sacks) simply for speaking their mother tongue in class. “Vernacular” is forbidden, apparently. What’s wrong with being bi-lingual? What do they gain from ostracising our own languages and making kids feel ashamed of their culture?

Single East Africa Passport by 2015

Citizens of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda will be traveling using the new generation East African Passport, a modern regional traveling document likely to replace their national ones. TA communiqué from the Heads of State Summit, taking place in Uganda, which was made available here via the Arusha-based East African Community (EAC) Secretariat, quoted the five presidents agreeing to launch the new passport by November 2015.

The communiqué was signed by presidents Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi at the weekend in Kampala.

The current East African passport apparently is only valid within the five countries and thus holders also had to depend on their respective national passports when travelling abroad.

However, the new regional travelling document, to be released in 2015, will be an international one which means is likely to replace national passports.

Killing gays bill has been passed in Uganda

Uganda has passed the bill of killing  the Gays. There are about two million Reported Gay Men and women in Uganda.This Law is to put gays  in prison  and kill them one by one. Anyone caught or reported gay will be put in prison for life or killed. Anyone who Harbors a gay will be given 14 years in prison . Anyone who helps a gay will receive 3 years in prison. Anyone who talks to a gays will be given One year in prison. People in Uganda are rejoicing in the passing of the law as they dance in the streets. Many Say as Christians they are looking to kill them to help there government and say it with Joy and Happiness. Many have been beaten in the street already.some killed.

Ugandan teachers go on strike to demand 20 percent pay rise

Ugandan school teachers went on strike on Monday after their demands for a 20 percent pay increase were rejected, underlining the strains the government faces after Western donors cut off direct budget support last year. The government has long promised to raise teachers’ salaries, among the lowest in the east African country’s state sector, but has struggled to meet spending commitments since the donors cut aid over corruption allegations.
In July, it emerged that tens of thousands of public workers including teachers and police officers had not received their pay for months.
Uganda’s 160,000 teachers are among the worst paid public workers in the east African country. Primary school teachers earn an average 250,000 shillings a month and their secondary school counterparts take home 450,000 shillings.
In the past, the government has been accused of using its security personnel to intimidate striking teachers into resuming work. The government denies the allegations.
Analysts say it is not only the aid cuts that have hurt Uganda’s spending plans. Embezzlement, the extravagance of government officials, and the rising cost of political patronage have exacerbated the budgetary strain, they said.
President Yoweri Museveni, who has faced sometimes violent protests against his rule, is accused by critics of failing to punish officials who steal public funds and presiding over a bloated bureaucracy which eats public funds.