𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐋𝐎𝐑𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐄𝐖𝐒 𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐔𝐏

𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐔𝐄 305
🄰🄵🅃🄴🅁🄽🄾🄾🄽 🄴🄳🄸🅃🄸🄾🄽
𝐌𝐀𝐘 22, 2023
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🇺🇬  President Museveni’s Greater Masaka tour to focus on promotion of PDM and Wealth Creation
📌 President Museveni will Tuesday May 23 visit Masaka subregion before he continues to Kalangala District where he will be spreading the gospel of “securing your future through wealth creation and shared prosperity”. State House Comptroller Ms. Jane Barekye has confirmed that the President will be heading to Masaka District to promote investments, wealth creation and the Parish Development Model. During his visit, he is expected to visit some of the local model farmers and parish development model beneficiaries in the the central region.

🇺🇬 NAADS distributes seedlings to PWDs, elderly, youths and women
📌 The National Agriculture Advisory Services (NAADS) has distributed at least 7,136,000kgs of maize seeds under the Food security initiative to 891,568 households. The beneficiaries include people with disabilities, youths, women and older persons. The State Minister for agriculture Hon. Fred Bwino says that NAADS established five grain stores including Kyegwegwa(1), Kasese(2) and Kitagwenda(2) under the Agri-led program for Rwenzori sub region.

🇺🇬  Speaker Among wants East African Parliaments to pass law against homosexuality
📌 The Speaker of Parliament Anita Among has called upon her colleagues reigning over the different Parliaments in East African states to support Uganda by taking on her example of passing the Anti-Gay Bill. Among made the statements while attending the virtual meeting with all Speakers of Parliament in EAC States in Arusha, Tanzania.
“We recently passed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill which is due for assent, we humbly request your support to identify with us to protect the morals, values and the generations to come,” she said.

🇺🇬  Refurbishment of Kampala-Mukono railway line underway
📌 The Uganda railways corporations (URC) has embarked on the refurbishment of Kampala- Mukono MGR section. Hon Robert Kafeero Ssekitoleko, the Board Director explains that the first step will be to remove the old line and the same bars will be used to lay the new concrete sleeper panels. The project is expected to last 13 months.

🇺🇬 NCHE issues list of expired courses offered in Ugandan Universities
📌 The National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) has released a list of expired courses offered by institutions in Uganda after it emerged that several foreign universities had rejected a number of degrees from Ugandan students saying the courses they had pursued are “expired” or “outdated.” According to the May 20, 2023 list that contains a comprehensive list of expired programs, Makerere University has the highest number of programs at 159, followed by Bugema and Bishop Stuart universities, tied at 63, Kabale University (59), Busitema (28), Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) (34), Cavendish University (34), Uganda Christian University (UCU), Makerere University Business Schools (25), Mountains of the Moon University (18), All Saints University Lango (14), Ankole Western University (4), and Avance International University (5).
“As part of our commitment to upholding academic standards and compliance, every University acknowledges the importance of being informed about these expired programs in order to make informed decisions regarding admissions and educational qualifications,” NCHE said.

🇺🇬  OBONGI: Three missing persons on rescue mission found
📌 At least three residents of Obongi District who had reportedly gone missing after the speed boat they were sailing in capsized in the waters of the River Nile have been rescued and are safe. Dragudu Ignatius, the public relations officer for North West Nile region has confirmed the incident and that the rescued persons were part of the fifteen people who volunteered to mount a search for a missing police officer who reportedly jumped into water on Saturday at 9:00pm after he was deployed to guard Obongi ferry.

🇺🇬  KALANGALA: Govt suspends construction of weighbridges due to raising water levels
📌 According to Kalangala Infrastructure Services (KIS), which operates the two ferries, MV Pearl and MV Ssese connecting the Kalangala Islands to the mainland, the building of two weighbridges was suspended due to the rising lake level in Masaka district. Mr. John Baptist Lubega, manager of ferry operations said the weighbridge building had to be put on hold since water levels had started to rise once more. Lubega says they will continue the job in the upcoming days if the assessment shows no damage will be done.

🇺🇬 ARUA: Locals get connected to new water system
📌The Government has connected at least 14,000 residents of Ayivu Division, Arua City, to a newly installed water system. The Ministry of Water and Environment through the Water and Sanitation Facility-North (WSDF-North) programme constructed the Odramacaku Rural Growth Centre (RGC) piped water supply and sanitation facilities. The system has connected residents in five wards of Anzu, Kubo, Mbaraka, Anyara and Mite in Ayivu Division.

🇺🇬 MASAKA: Police arrests son for  killing his 86 year-old mother over SAGE money
📌Police in Masaka City have detained two suspects including the deceased’s son aged 46, following the alleged murder of Victor Birigo Namaganda, 86, in Kimaanya B, Kimaanya -Kabonera division. Relatives told authorities that the elderly woman on Saturday received Shs75,000 from Government’s Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment (SAGE) program, suspecting to have instigated assailants hence her death in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

🇺🇬  KARAMOJA: Security forces to close popular exit routes as restriction to fight cattle raids
📌 Security forces have proposed to close some popular exit routes in Karamoja region as the new crackdown intended to fight commercialized cattle raids. Cattle buyers in the Karamoja livestock cattle market were only advised to use Moroto- Soroti and Kaboong- Karenga for transporting cattle out of the sub region. However, the livestock keepers say they are counting huge losses since cattle buyers have abandoned the markets.

🇺🇬 KAKUMIRO: Nabbanja tips women on how to support their families
📌 Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja has tipped women to use their positions of power to fight poverty and help the disadvantaged. The call came asshe presided over Women’s day celebrations in Kakumiro District that was graced by several MPS and Government officials.

🇺🇬 KIRYANDONGO: Police arrests over 160 in operation targeting criminal gangs
📌 At least 169 suspected criminals have been arrested and are held at Kiryandongo District Police Station over the weekend during a joint operation that was carried out by Security agencies in the district. The District Police Commander (DPC), ASP Dan Muhangi explained that they managed to arrest 114 Male suspects and 55 females, all of who were netted from Wonder-World Park, a restaurant in Kigumba Town that operates from Monday to Sunday organizing “karaoke”, which according to him promotes nudity as the dancers appear almost naked on stage and that it had become a hiding nest for criminals. Maj. Ngungu Wilfred, the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) commander who headed the operation said operations will continue until Kiryandongo district becomes a better place.

🇺🇬  SOROTI: Legislator donates choir attire worth Shs30M
📌 Church choir at St. Patrick Catholic Madera parish in Soroti City East was on Sunday left over whelmed after Hon. Herbert Edmund Ariko donated to them 70 brand new uniforms, a vessel for the parish priest and the catechist during the first mass prayer. Hon.Ariko thanked the choir for the great hymns during the church service and pledged his continuous suppprt.

ACROSS BORDERS
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🌍 Kenya deploys new commander to DR Congo
📌 Kenya has finally deployed a new commander to the East African Community Regional Force (EACRF), banking on his past experience in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to deal with concerns raised by Kinshasa. Maj-Gen Aphaxard Muthuri Kiugu assumed office in Goma. He is tasked to solve a multitude of problems, including suspicions from Kinshasa that the EACRF is slow on tackling rebels against the Congolese Government.

🌍 IMF’s influenced South Sudan’s ban on US dollar transactions
📌 The Government of South Sudan banned the use of the dollar in the economy as part of the conditions towards building a track record for future IMF supported financing program. The IMF staff team led by Niko Hobdari which visited South Sudan from May 3-12 lauded the country’s authorities for implementing prudent fiscal and monetary policies and meeting all but one end-March 2023 quantitative targets under the nine-month Program Monitoring with Board Involvement (PMB). Amongst the targets which were met by South Sudan at the end of March 2023 included quantitative targets on international reserves, Bank of South Sudan (BoSS) net credit to the Government, the payment of salaries to Central Government workers and the non-contracting and non-guaranteeing of new non-concessional debt by the Central Government.

🌍  TANZANIA: US pledges support to East Africa private sector
The United States has pledged to support private sector growth in East Africa and has invested more than $40 million in Zanzibar. The commitment was made by the American ambassador to Tanzania, Mr. Michael A. Battle, during his visit to the East African Business Council (EABC) head office in Arusha.
“We are focused on promoting the growth of the private sector and sustainable economic development in the East African Community (EAC) region,” he said.

🌍 SOUTH AFRICA: Cholera outbreak kills 10
Health authorities in South Africa on Sunday urged the public to be “extra vigilant” after an outbreak of cholera killing at least 10 people near the capital of Pretoria. The Department of Health in Pretoria’s Gauteng province said 95 people visited a local hospital since Monday showing cholera symptoms, including diarrhoea, stomach cramps and nausea. Lab tests on Sunday confirmed at least 19 were cases of cholera. Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, the provincial head for health said 10 have so far died including a three-year-old child and nine adults.