NRM WRANGLES WORRY MUSEVENI

President Yoweri Museveni is concerned about the infighting and clique formation in the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party, which he regards as internal sabotage.

The president likened the infighting in the party to a football team, where a teammate handles the ball and a colleague reports him to the referee.
"The referee has not seen, the linesman has not seen, but rather than keeping quiet, you immediately alert the referee about the mistake. This is what we are doing," he said.

My tuppence worth: i couldn't sum up this regime any better if i tried. Like the WORD puts it, 'out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.'

MPs announce move to restore term limits

More than 20 MPs yesterday morning turned up at a press briefing where they declared support for a plan to re-introduce term limits in the Constitution amidst growing calls for President Museveni not to run again in 2016.

Mr Karuhanga told journalists at the briefing at Parliament: “This year we celebrate 50 years of independence yet we are unsure of how to have another president when election time comes. We are tired of destruction every time we are changing leaders.”

Dishonesty accusation “After testing power for 25 years he should be the one to tell people ‘I am done, I no longer want to be in this prison’ but not saying that it is the party to decide, he has the experience,” bishop Niringiye said.

Ms Matembe said, “I was following an imposter whose style of leadership was to exploit people’s differences creating small districts based on ethnicities so that people were more conscious of their differences disguised as taking services nearer to them.” 

My tuppence worth: Very welcome move but i can't help but put a spin to it. My gut tells me that M7 is now gonna stand for up to 10yrs max in accordance with the new limit law. I could be wrong, but experience is seldom wrong....watch this space

‘I’m not bothered,’ Museveni on depreciating shilling

Speaking in Kampala at the launch of his wife Janet Kataha Museveni’s autobiography, My Life’s Journey, on Wednesday, President Museveni took a dig at those who rely on imported food stuffs and said he has little concern over currency fluctuations.

“For me I only eat traditional food. I don’t change,” he said. “When you have problems of imported food, for me am not bothered…I am not concerned because all the food am eating is local.”

The President’s comments will not offer any solace to traders and consumers of imported food and comes on the heels of a two day strike which entered its second day today. Mr Museveni said his menu is limited to homegrown food, something that cushions him from the vagaries of global currency wars.

Mr Museveni said that while he has heard the cries of his countrymen who say, “The dollar has gone up so what shall we eat?”, he is not bothered by the recent spikes in the dollar exchange rates.

The traders closed their businesses in protest at the rapid loss of value in the shilling, unfair competition and an apparent increase in the fee for trading licenses. The traders say they are also troubled because they pay taxes on imports to the country’s tax body in dollars rather than in shillings, exposing them to the swings in exchange rates.

How did we get to this? Oh, i know...YOU voted wisely! KUDOZ!

Each MP to get Shs190m for vehicles

After the MPs demanded a pay raise to protect themselves from the biting inflation, it has also emerged that authorities in Parliament are quietly negotiating with officials in government to increase MPs’ motor vehicle acquisition fund from Shs60 million to Shs192 million.
Ms Justine Lumumba, the new Housing Minister and a former Parliamentary Commissioner, told reporters on Friday that the commission sanctioned a Shs190 million car grant for each MP. There are 375 MPs in the Ninth Parliament. This means taxpayers will have to fork out more than Shs71.2 billion to buy new vehicles for MPs. However, Ms Lumumba said the cost and the modalities will be subject to discussion with the Ministry of Finance.
“We are still in negotiation with Ministry of Finance… everything has gone up, prices have doubled and others even tripled. To get sound vehicles we need this money to facilitate members,” she said. “After our negotiations, a decision will be made whether to buy new cars for MPs or give them money to top-up.”
It has also emerged that Speaker Rebecca Kadaga and her deputy Jacob Oulanyah have already acquired brand new vehicles at Shs419 million each—replacing the old fleet. The vehicles were bought from Spear Motors. “The vehicles for the Speaker and Deputy were old and we needed to replace them,” Parliament’s Public Relations Officer Helen Kawesa said on Friday. “They were bought 10 years ago, they had mechanical problems and a decision was made to have these vehicles replaced.” She added: “We followed all the procurement rules and the process was transparent. This purchase started six months ago.”
On Thursday, the lawmakers chased away journalists and stopped coverage of a plenary debate where they reportedly agreed to push for a pay raise in a move, according to sources, which is intended to shield them from rising cost of living biting other Ugandans.
Ms Kawesa later cited sections of parliamentary rules that allow ejecting journalists if their presence during discussion will threaten national security. But when asked if indeed MPs’ pay is a matter of national security, Ms Kawesa replied: “MPs requested a closed session because there were issues they wanted to discuss. There was no mischief. It’s only that the new MPs wanted privacy. They were not comfortable with the presence of the press.”
...posho now goes for UGX 4000 per kilo...just saying. But yet again, who cares?

Museveni explains Ssekandi, Mbabazi appointments

Mr Museveni on Tuesday informed the NRM Caucus sitting at State House Entebbe that he has appointed former Parliament Speaker, Edward Ssekandi, and outgoing security minister, Amama Mbabazi, as the next Vice President and Prime Minister, respectively. Mr Sekandi, the Bukoto East MP, is a “clean, trustworthy and consistent person,” the President is quoted as saying. Mr Museveni says Mr Mbabazi’s strength includes being NRM’s “most ideologically reliable cadre; discipline and vast legal knowledge”. ......IMO, Sekandi has received a well deserved reward for his role in throwing away term limits, rubbishing the CHOGM corruption report, etc. Mbabazi's appointment is yet again a confirmation that: 1. there are untouchables in gov't and 2. corruption is here to stay as long as M7 is at the helm. ...i can now throw up!

Besigye detained under colonial law

Police invoked the Criminal Procedure Code, a colonial era and rarely applied law, to stop Dr Kizza Besigye from leaving his Kasangati home in Wakiso District.
The opposition politician, however, is not under ‘house arrest’, the Force’s spokesperson Judith Nabakooba, said in a statement. She said Dr Besigye’s declaration of resuming the walk-to-work demonstration against high fuel and commodity prices – after a two-week lull due to ill-health following his violent arrest by security forces on April 28 - without involving them constituted an “illegal act”.
Dr Besigye yesterday said: “I am back here to consult my lawyers on this concept of preventive detention because I don’t know [about] it. I think court will listen to me and restrain these oppressors from infringing on my rights.”
“What they are doing is typical of [former presidents] Amin, Obote times. And I think this government is trying to bring back such obnoxious laws like President Museveni has repeatedly stated, and funny enough they have started applying one even before enacting it,” he said.
....2 steps forward and 25 backwards, perhaps?!

Let's end this

THE one-and-half-year-old boy kidnapped from Bugolobi, an upscale Kampala suburb, three weeks ago, was yesterday found killed in a swamp in a Kamwokya slum.

Three people are being held in connection with the kidnap and murder of the boy, a son to Sven Karekaho of the Uganda Revenue Authority and Naome Karekaho, the spokesperson of the environment watchdog, NEMA.

The family was too devastated by the murder.

If this doesn't break your heart, i don't know what will! Allow me, therefore, to suggest possible ways of proceeding that will not only ensure that the suspects give up credible info but will also send a stern message to would be copycats.

Warning: Some methods suggested in this post are likely to offend those sensitive to images of pain and blood

1. The Hand Saw: straight down the line brutality

Torture devices don’t come more downright extreme than the Hand Saw, and the diagram leaves little to the imagination. The victim was hung upside down to supply the brain with oxygen and slow down the blood loss so that they didn’t lose consciousness and died a suitably slow and excruciating death.

This cheap but effective two-man torture method was used to cut people in half throughout the Middle Ages, with those accused of adultery and blasphemy among the many who felt the Saw’s teeth bite. In Russia it seems to have been a favourite with judges for witches impregnated by “nightmare devils” or even by Satan himself. Now there’s an argument in favour of contraception.

2.The Guided Cradle: intruding where it really hurts

OK, let’s get this over with: an excruciating looking instrument sometimes referred to as the Judas Cradle or Chair. The accused was sat on top of a pyramid-shaped seat, with the point implanted rudely in their naked nether regions.

Some theories suggest the idea was to stretch and slowly impale the victim, with weights perhaps added to their legs. Others reckon the emphasis lay on hoisting and repeatedly lowering the victim onto the tip, varying the pressure while keeping them awake – hence its other name: the Vigil. Either way, it was pretty near unbearable. Apparently originally designed to get people to talk without causing undue injury and breakage of bones, it could still easily break the skin – while also leaving a few mental scars – and was potentially fatal. Heard enough?

3.Lead sprinkler

This tool, which kinda reminds me of a holy water sprinkler, was filled with either molten lead, tar, boiling oil or boiling water, then used to bless, errr, torture its victims by dripping its contents on their stomach, back and other body parts. Sounds like standard S&M practice to me, only with a greater deal of pain.

4.The Wheel

This device is known by many names, such as breaking wheel and Catherine wheel, but it only means one thing to those who perished by this means: pure agony.

The Wheel is more like an execution device, but the hours before actual death is excruciating. The victim is tied to the side of the wheel, then gets every bone in his body shattered one by one by an executioner using a hammer or an iron bar. Victims of this form of torture often took hours, or even days to die. Some were “fortunate” enough to be granted “mercy”, in the form of fatal blows to the chest or stomach.

5.Revolving Drum

Think of this one as somewhat akin to grating cheese, only this one grates a human torso ever so slowly. A popular tool in Spain for extracting information from prisoners many years ago, the Revolving Drum calls for victims to be put into it face down, their heads through the upper pillory and their legs firmly strapped. Their torsos pressed against a spiked drum, the prisoners are then asked questions. Any sign of resistance, and the torturer then slowly rotates the drum one full revolution. This process is repeated, and torturers even go to the extent of placing weights on the backs of victims to further press their torsos towards the spiked drum and cause more pain. The result, naturally, is death by very slow disembowelment.

6.Rat Torture

This method tortures both man and rodent, but it is man who tends to end up dying a horrifying death. A victim is completely restrained, and a full-grown rat is placed upon his or her stomach. The rat will be confined within a cage placed on top of it, which would then be heated, freaking the rat out enough to frantically burrow its way into the only way out: the victim's stomach and intestines.

7. GOLOLA!

.....Please feel free to suggest any more results oriented methods that i may have missed.