RWENZURURU PRIME MINISTER SUSPENDED OVER EMBEZZLEMENT

Rwenzururu King Charles Wesley Mumbere has suspended Prime Minister Mr. Henry Bwambale Kandabu until further notice as investigations into his alleged embezzlement continue.
King Mumbere made the announcement on Monday evening while addressing the Kingdom press unit at his palace in Kasese town.
Mumbere says Mr. Kandabu who has been in office since October 12, 2012 has failed to account for 40m shillings donated to the Kingdom by a charity organisation to carry out renovations around the palace.

He however declined to name the organisation that donated money.
First Deputy Prime minister Mr. Ivan Syauswa will continue care taking the office of the Premier until a probe team releases its report.
The King has instituted a four man probe team led by Mr. Enock Jimmy Muhindo the speaker to the Kingdom House of Representatives.

Other members of the probe team are Minister for Local Administration Noah Nzaghale, Auditor General in the ministry of finance John Kyamakya and Erinest Baluku representing the Rwenzururu veterans’ development association.
King Mumbere says, when tasked to account for the money on May 5th, Mr. Kandabu a prominent businessman in Kasese town instead indicated irrelevant projects for which he reportedly spent the money.
The same probe team has also been instructed to investigate former minister for special duties in the office of the King Mr. Erisania Cameroon Isingoma for allegedly soliciting 13m shillings in the name
of the Kingdom several months after his sacking.
Mr. Isingoma was sacked from the kingdom cabinet in January this year following a reported misappropriation of 30.7m shillings out of the 50m shillings released by State House to cater for King Mumbere’s treatment abroad.
This case is still under investigations by the Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Directorate in Kibuli, Kampala.
However, when contacted the Prime Minister Mr. Henry Kandabu confirmed that he received the suspension later but declined to comment on the accountability for the 40m shillings.
END

4 OTHER FAGIYA UCHAFU SUSPECTS REMANDED TO MUBUKU PRISON IN KASESE

Four other suspects arrested in the Fagiya Uchafu operation in Kasese district were on Tuesday  remanded to Mubuku prison by the Kasese Grade II magistrate Stephen Saabu Kabbyanga.

Luka Kamabu a resident of Kihoko in Ihandiro sub-county, Musisi Mbusa of Kyogha in Bwera sub-county, Julius Bwambale and Abdul Girigore Bwambale both from Mpondwe-Lubiriha town council were charged jointly with the twenty four others remanded last month.

They were also charged with five counts of murder, attempted murder, stealing with a gun, being in possession of ammunitions and using a gun illegally.

Luka, Girigore, Bwambale and Mbusa were not allowed to take plea because they case is of capital nature which can only be heard by the High Court. They were remanded to Mubuku prison until June 4^th for the mention of their case.

Meanwhile, the twenty four suspects already on remand also appeared in court for mention of their case as the State continues with inquiries.

Paraded before the Grade II magistrate are Swalleh Muhindo, Hamuza Salimboko, Kato Ali, Moses Watsema, Pedson Saturday, Solomon Bwambale, Malikani Kambale, Anifa Masika, Harriet Muhindo and Deo Musinguzi.

Others are Aggrey Mugabe Mugarura, Kombi Kasyakulhu, Jacob Kapuru, Emilio Thembo, Rabson Masereka, Vincent Kibaya, Joseph Masereka, Godfrey Kaija Muthende and Francis Bwambale.

They will also return to court on June 4^th. END

SEVEN COMMITTED TO HIGH COURT OF MURDER OF UPDF SOLDIER IN KASESE.

The Grade II magistrate court sitting in Kasese on Tuesday committed seven men to the High Court over alleged murder of a UPDF soldier.

State prosecutor Mike Mwanje produced committal papers before the Grade II Magistrate Stephen Saabu Kabbyanga saying investigations indicate that the suspects committed the crime.

Prosecution alleges that on October 2, 2012 while at Molem cell in Hima town council the suspects who include Happy Charles, Emmanuel Habimaana, Stephen Amanyire, Aramanthan Isingoma, David Kato, Benson Kagama and Yusuf Ragu killed Pte Ivan Mugenyi.

Pte Mugenyi was waylaid by a group of people as he and a colleague called Nishaba were returning to the 303 brigade headquarters in Kavera barracks from shaving their hair, the state adds.

It is alleged that the suspects arrested a day after the reported murder used stones, clubs and blows to kill the soldier for unclear reasons.

The prosecution says they will use the postmortem report on the deceased, the medical reports of the suspects and some of the clothes left behind by the suspects to pin them in the High Court.

Court however cancelled the bail for Stephen Amanyire and remanded him to Kitumba remand home because he is a juvenile that cannot be mixed with adults in Katojo prison.

The magistrate also issued arrest warrants for Emmanuel Habimaana who after being released on bail some time back has been absconding court sittings.

The Grade II magistrate did not allow the suspects to speak anything because their case is of capital nature and committed them to the High Court with immediate effect. END

KYANZUKI RESIDENTS INNOVATE ALTERNATIVE ROAD

Once an admirable residential area, Kyanzuki Township in Bulembia division, Kasese Municipality is now a hard to reach area. Many people wonder how a township can be hard to reach and live but this is a
reality following the flash floods that did not only take the lives of 8 people, also washed away houses and bridges.
With 19 bridges damaged across the district when all the major rivers took to the center of madness. Nyamwamba River became the master of all as it damaged whatever it came across in its valley said to have been neglected for decades.
It was May 1, 2013 when the River burst its banks that had been weakened by aggressive human activity. With the destruction of Kilembe Mines Hospital and other developments in the valley, it also took away Kyanzuki Bridge that connects a residential area of hundreds of homes to the entire Kasese Municipality.
Kyanzuki an area that boasts of Kilembe secondary school-Kasese’s highly populated with an enrolment of about 1500 students, Kyanzuki primary school with over 700 pupils, Masule primary school and the
Park Trekkers a tourist guiding company. All these institutions have now been cut off from life because the only bridge to Kyanzuki is no more. Neither can one detect that there used to be a bridge.
A business woman in Kyanzuki who identified herself as Rachael Basimire now treks the nearby hills for about 5kms to reach Bulembia town ship where she jumps on a boda boda motorcycle to Mawa market in Kasese town to buy food stuff and palm oil for sale in the Kyanzuki market.
During the golden time, it used to take Ms. Basimire Shs. 1500 on a boda boda to reach Kyanzuki but currently to get those to carry the merchandise through the hills needs about Shs. 10000.
“There is no way people in Kyanzuki will avoid hard life so long as there remains to be no bridge. You see me passing through these hills to access Kasese town. But how will I come back with the food that I
am going to buy from Mawa market? Definitely I will have to increase the price for the Matooke and palm oil”. Ms. Basimire said on Saturday.
However, the Bakonzo have a saying that “Akathayihambirira sikalhwa Omwiya” meaning that a chick that does not toil hard does not hutch from the egg. Hundreds of men from Kyanzuki and the neighboring areas that have been benefiting from the cut off road hutched a plan at the weekend to open an alternative road that can be used only for motorcycles and pedestrians to move in and out of Kyanzuki.
This takes courage by men, local leaders and the Kasese Municipality MP James Mbahimba to get hoes, spades and other hand machinery to dig through the rocky Bunyandiku hills opening up a road that will link the area to the Kilembe mines fields where life can start from.
It takes another courageous journalist to reach the hill which the men are bisecting to make what had looked impossible possible. Walking from Katiri Bridge in Bulembia where all vehicles stop from these
days, is a 1hour walk to reach the men-young and old doing a communal work to reload life to their town.
One man identified as Baridi does not want me to take a photo of them digging the road before I also dig part but he is shouted at by the rest saying “this is a journalist coming to show our plight to the
rest of the world, he is doing his work now”. These men together with their leaders and the MP cannot stop working. They shout whenever a big stone is uprooted and rolled over downhill to the Kilembe Mines compressor area. What damage it causes there is none of their concern.
Mr. Headmon Mwanguhya one of the mobilizers said that the suffering people are going through in Kyanzuki is the reason they are forced to participate in the digging out on alternative road. He describes the life in Kyanzuki as “unbearable” because the trend of business has taken another twist.
Mr. Mwanguhya breaks down the prices of commodities in Kyanzuki after the collapse of the bridge. A match box is at Shs 200 from shs 100; a kilogram of sugar that has been at 3500 is at 5000, a candle wax of 200 is at 500 because the electricity is no more. This is the same to other commodities.
“So, we are here digging the new road to make sure motorcycles can reach Kyanzuki with hope that traders can reduce on the biting prices of goods. All traders are with us here on this work because the
consequences of the floods affect us all”. Mr. Mwanguhya said.
The area MP James Mbahimba rests his elbow on the hoe holder when his turn to talk comes. He says that if Kyanzuki continues to be cut off up to June, then the school life there will be a gone case.
“My prayer is that together with these hardworking and cooperative men, we chat a way that can take our students and teachers back to Kyanzuki especially Kilembe secondary school when the second term
opens late this month”. Mr. Mbahimba said.
According to the MP there are dozens of civil servants who have been residing in the comfort weather of Kyanzuki who need to go to work and may be shift their families from there but no way.
Although many other places in Kasese district were affected by the floods with about 1000 people in three settlement camps, other people forgetting about the location of their houses, life has become
  unwarrantedin Kyanzuki parish where whoever wants to move out quickly would need to borrow the angels’ wings to do so.  END

TRANSPORT PARALYSED AS MUBUKU BRIDGE IN KASESE COLLAPSES.

Heavy tracks traveling from Kampala to Kasese and vice versa have been affected in the latest diversion of the route as experts try to save Mubuku bridge in Kasese from collapsing.

After three consecutive water overflows in the Kasese main rivers in one week, Mubuku Bridge on River Mubuku on the Kasese-Fort Portal road developed cracks forcing disaster management officials to order that trucks loaded with lagged beyond five tones cross no more.

Kasese’s main Rivers of Mubuku, Rwimi, Nyamwamba and Nyamugasane again flood for the third time in a week. Two people died on Monday after being swept away by the Rwimi River that separates Kasese and Kabarole districts.

The National Coordinator of the emergency operations in the Office of the Prime Minister Maj. Gen. Julius Oketta confirmed the development that a quick assessment on the bridge indicated that only light vehicles can cross as ways of rectifying the problem are being sought.

He said that police has been instructed to divert the heavy trucks at Busega round about not to take the Fort-Portal road but instead go through Mbarara as the best alternative.

The same has been done at the Kasese Round-about to stop heavy trucks from the Democratic Republic of Congo not to use the Kasese-Fort Portal road.

This means, there could be a big effect on the Lubiriha market at the border with DRC since most of the trucks bringing merchandise and goods from Kampala and Mombasa might have been blocked on the way heading to Kasese.

Gen. Oketta however, said that a robust and coordinated response operation started on Tuesday morning to try save Mubuku Bridge with bags of sand being heaped on the sides so that the pavement is not washed away in the next floods.

 Meanwhile, heavy machinery is being applied to make a road diversion for opening the Buhunga road that will work as the only alternative to access Kilembe Township following the collapse of the Katiri Bridge on one side.

The Mayor Kasese Municipality Mr. Godfrey Kabbyanga said that the collapse of the bridge was hindering plans to restore electricity line to the Kilembe Mines tunnels that need power to pump water from the undergrounds.

Currently, engineers from Kilembe Mines and Umeme are working around the clock to fix the electricity line that was cut off during the Wednesday floods.

END

FOUR PEOPLE DIE, HOUSE HOLDS DISPLACED AS FLOODING HITS KASESE

Hundreds of Households in Kasese municipality have been displaced following the floods that resulted from River Nyamwamba that burst all its banks on Wednesday morning.

What was reported as the usual over flooding of the River that have taken lives of many people every rainy season turned into an incident that cannot be recalled by people who have lived in Kasese town over time.

Most of the affected places are almost the whole of Nyamwamba and Bulembia divisions that are crossed by the River Nyamwamba. The areas affected most include Kilembe valley, Acholi Quarters, Kizungu, Nyakasanga, Base Camp, Kanyangeya and Kamuliquizi.

Due the problem, the traffic was affected along the Kasese-Fort Portal road whereby there was no vehicle entering Kasese town from Fort Portal and vice versa after the water cut of the road at Nyakasanga about 200 meters from the Kasese airfield.

Hundreds of people were stranded on either side of the road including Kasese woman MP Ms. Winfred Kiiza who was returning to the constituency from Kampala. Police took control of the situation by blocking vehicles from risking the water.

Unconfirmed reports from Kilembe valley indicated that the former procurement Officer of Kasese district Mr. Paddy Karusu and another man should have died a house that collapsed when they were trying to rescue shop goods in Kanyaruboga area.

The District councilor for Kilembe sub-county Mr. Emmanual Kaghuma says that water hit the house in which Mr. Karusu was operating a retail shop along the Kasese-Kilembe road which collapsed immediately and nobody could access the house several houses after the incident.

“The people who were near the house say Karusu and another man said to be a teacher an Nganki primary school were trying to rescue the good from his shop when floods overpowered his house which collapsed on them there and then. Chances of survival are very minimal” Mr. Kaghuma said.

The heavy down pour that also destructed the Kasese district Labour Day celebrations in Hima town council has forced most of the downstream rivers to over flood right away from the Rwenzori Mountains to the lakes.

In Kilembe, two bridges that connect the nearby villages to Kilembe town have been washed away while the bridge that connects Kyalhumba to Kisinga sub-county has also collapsed.

The management of Kilembe hospital reportedly discharged all the patients that were admitted to hospital after it was also flooded even in the wards. An eye witness says, the patients with their care givers were seen climbing uphills to the nearby villages to get out of the fateful valley.

Daily Monitor could not verify the reports since none of the administrators at the hospital was available by press time. However, eye witnesses saw the staff quarters at Kilembe Hospital having been flooded with one of the medical workers who climbed a tree stranded until 5pm when he was rescued from the river.

The electricity power in the whole of Kasese town was cut off following the floods that raided peoples’ houses posing a risk of a fire outbreak.

One of the people, whose houses have collapsed Mr. Geofrey Kamalha of Saluti B village in Kasese town, says he found when there was nothing to save from the building because everything had been taken away by the water.

“ I was not there when the house collapsed and there was nobody else because we had all gone to work. This house is a big loss to me because their no way I can renovate as everything is down. This is a big loss”.

END