Tinye Throws Last Dice

Renegade Ugandan General David Sejusa, the former Coordinator of Intelligence Services has missed his last chance to appear before the Parliamentary Rules, Privileges and Discipline Committee to explain his continued absence from the house.

General David Ssejusa

On October 17th, the committee wrote to Sejusa asking him to appear in person and defend his absentia from parliament, where he represents the army.
It came after Sejusa, who fled the country in April this year snubbed earlier summons issued by the committee. The summons were dispatched to the General through the British media, Foreign Affairs ministry, the British Embassy, his known personal Email Address and the Pigeon hall.
Fox Odoi, the chairperson Parliamentary Rules, Privileges and Discipline Committee said Thursday Ssejusa was expected to appear before the committee on Thursday at 11am but he was a no show.
He said as a result, the committee is left with no option but to write its report without hearing from Ssejusa and present it to the house next week.
He said the committee will look at the all the evidence tabled before it by some of the witnesses who testified before it and written correspondences between the office of the speaker and the purported lawyers of Ssejusa.
General Ssejusa fled into exile in April this year after authorizing a letter, in which he called for investigations into a plot to bump off senior army officers and politicians opposed to plans by President Yoweri Museveni to have his son Kainerugaba Muhoozi replace him.

Prison Officers Investigated for Overworking Prisoners

Members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of parliament are calling for a thorough investigation of Prison Officer’s and Commissioner’s for subjecting prisoners to casual labor on their farms with no pay.

Luzira Prisoners

This came up during the appearance of Prisons Officers led by Prisons under Secretary Simon Kimono before the committee to answer to audit queries in auditor general’s report of 2010/2011.
The officials struggled to explain why prisoners are subjected to casual labor outside prisons’ farms yet they are not rewarded for their work.
This after MP Eddie Kwizera, the acting lead counsel of PAC demanded to know how much money prisoners earn from their work and how much goes to the prisons department saying that it is well known that prisoners are subjected to work on farms in villages and on prison officials farms.
Kimono said that the Commissioner General instructed in a circular that a record of all earnings by prisoners out of farm work be kept which is 2,500 Shs per prisoner on a worked day and the money be given to prisoners to carter for their basic needs such as toiletries, sugar and others which are not usually provided in prisons.
However, the committee established that prisoners are not aware of what they are supposed to earn and Kimono was betrayed by a self confessed commissioner Rwigyiama who told MPs that he has ever used prisoners on his farm but that he had paid them.
In his defense, Kimono told the committee that he cannot keep over 800 prisoner’s idle saying that it could be a source of insecurity if they are not occupied with work.
Arua Woman MP Bako Christine says that all prisons officers should be investigated for subjecting prisoners to labor on their farms and at the same time giving them one meal a day which she said is inhumane.

DRC Army To M23: Surrender And Save Your Lives

M23 rebels fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have been advised to surrender if they want to save their lives.

A Congolese army tank patrols outside Bunagana in eastern Congo close to the Uganda border on October 31, 2013.

On Wednesday, the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) recaptured Bunagana, one of the last remaining strongholds of the March 23 movement (M23), raising hopes that the end to the 18-month-old rebellion is near.
The rebels fled to the nearby hills where about 200 die-hard fighters are still holding up at an altitude of about 2,000 meters.
The army is preparing to launch a final offensive against the M23 rebels, who defected from the FARDC in April 2012 in protest over alleged mistreatment in the army.
On Friday, Congolese army spokesman Olivier Amuli said the rebels were “caught in a vice”.
“We are giving a final chance to all M23 fighters to surrender,” Amuli said, as the army carried out mopping up operations to end the insurgency.
The UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, known as MONUSCO, said that “several dozen” M23 rebels had surrendered to the UN peacekeepers.
On Monday, UN special representative to Congo Martin Kobler told the Security Council, “We are witnessing the military end of the M23.”
“Practically all M23 positions were abandoned yesterday, except for a small triangle at the Rwandan border,” said Kobler, who is also the head of the 20,000-strong MONUSCO.
He said the M23 had abandoned a key position on Mount Hehu near the Rwandan border, adding, “It is practically the military end of the M23.”
Speaking to the nation on Wednesday night, Congolese President Joseph Kabila asked the remaining M23 rebels to surrender, saying, “I reiterate my call to the members of this armed group who have just been flushed out of our territory… to demobilize themselves voluntarily.”
“Failure to do so will leave us with no option but to force them to do by force,” he stated.
The M23 rebels and several other armed groups are active in the eastern Congo and are fighting for control of the country’s vast mineral resources, such as gold, the main tin ore cassiterite, and coltan (columbite-tantalite), which is used to make many electronic devices, including cell phones.
Since early May 2012, nearly three million people have fled their homes in the eastern Congo. About 2.5 million have resettled in Congo, but about 500,000 have crossed into neighboring Rwanda and Uganda.
Congo has faced numerous problems over the past few decades, such as grinding poverty, crumbling infrastructure, and a war in the east of the country that has dragged on since 1998 and left over 5.5 million people dead.