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KENYA BITES EUROPIAN UNION

Nairobi - Kenya says it supports Britain's exit from the European Union and that it expects no major harm to its economy in the wake of fears of recession following the vote.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a statement on Sunday that the vote was the democratic right of the British people and that he respected the decision of the country.
According to The Star, Kenyatta insisted that all would be well, despite well documented reports of trouble looming for some of Britain's biggest beneficiaries, such as Kenya.
He said that the immediate repercussions for Kenya were limited, but that there would be a need for Kenya and the East African community to negotiate separate trade agreements with the United Kingdom.
As reported by Citizen TV, financial experts believed that there would be need for Kenya to prepare well to deal with any aftershocks that might result from the exit last week of Britain from the EU.
A historic referendum vote in the UK last week saw Prime Minister David Cameron being forced to resign in the wake of his failure to convince British people to remain in the EU.
Kenya's Central Bank had last week stated that there would be no effect on the economy and that any loopholes in that regard had been sealed.
In the wake of the British vote, there has been a petition to call for a second referendum which has so far garnered close to 1 million votes, in a bid to return to the polls and reverse the earlier decision.
The Washington Post reported that days after the exit from the EU, British people, according to search engine Google, had prominently asked for the meaning of the European Union, showing the gravity of the vote on most.http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/watch-kenya-supports-british-exit-from-eu-expects-no-major-harm-20160627-2

U. S. WARNS THE GOVERNMENT OF UGANDA ON ITS HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

KAMPALA , March 12 (NYUMBANI ) - Uganda has persistently violated the rights of its citizens and media in the aftermath of last month's election which saw President Yoweri Museveni retain his hold on power, the United States said. The comments are the latest sign of deteriorating relations between Western powers and Uganda, an ally in the fight against Islamists in the region. U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement on Friday that Uganda's repeated detention of opposition figures and harassment of their supporters, and the government's interference in a challenge of the poll results are "unacceptable activities in a free and democratic society". "The United States and Uganda have a long standing and strong partnership that has contributed to the stability and prosperity of the region," the statement said. "We are concerned that the Ugandan government's recent actions could endanger the economic and political progress that has enabled our relationship to grow." Uganda's electoral commission declared Museveni, 71 and in power since 1986, the winner of the Feb. 18 election with 60 percent of the vote. Kizza Besigye, who came in second with 35 percent and has rejected the results as fraudulent, has been under virtual house arrest for weeks. A second challenger, former prime minister Amama Mbabazi, has filed an official challenge to the results. Mbabazi said his lawyers' offices were raided soon after filing the challenge. The government has denied any involvement. Museveni has endeared himself to the West by contributing thousands of troops to a peacekeeping mission in Somalia. He has also been credited with bringing relative peace and economic growth to Uganda, a prospective oil producer. But critics say Museveni has not done enough to raise more Ugandans out of poverty or address widespread corruption. Monitors from the European Union (EU) have criticized Uganda for creating an "intimidating atmosphere" around the vote and have said the electoral body lacked transparency and independence. NYUMBANI NEWS REPORT.

THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION TO DISCLOSE THE BIOMETRIC DATA "MBABAZI'S PETITION"

THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION TO DISCLOSE THE DATA FROM THE BIO METRIC

VERIFICATION SYSTEM USED AT THE VOTING POLLING STATIONS.

In the amended petition, Mbabazi wants the Electoral Commission to disclose the image clone of the Biometric Voter Verification System [BVVS], database, electronic results transmission and dissemination system.

He claims that it's important to produce such information in order to "add up and tally the number of votes cast for each candidate as recorded in the DR forms for ascertainment of the final result in comparison with that announced and declared by the second respondent [Electoral Commission]."

Mbabazi also seeks the disclosure of the date on the BVVK [Biometric voter verification kit] for each polling station and the BVV database on the national basis to prove that the number of voters declared by the Electoral Commission was materially different from the number of voters recorded on BVV database.

"The number of voters declared by the second respondent included numbers of pre-ticked ballot papers stuffed at various polling stations and post-ticked and stuffed ballot papers in favor of the first respondent in Kiruhura, Sembabule, Bundibugyo, Kasese, Gulu, Lira, Kisoro, Arua, Apac, Moroto, Mpigi, Ntungamo, Pallisa, Rukungiri, Nakasongola, Kamwenge, Sironko, Isingiro, Kanungu, Rakai, Kaabong, Nakaseke, Amuru, Gomba, Kyankwanzi, Butambala, Rakai, Soroti , Luweero, Mubende and Serere, interalia," the petition notes.

Mbabazi contends that the BVVK and BVVS working for nine hours and allocating two minutes per voter could verify approximately 270 voters per polling station and yield approximately 7,562,700 voters nationally.

"In effect, the 10,329,131 voter the second respondent [Electoral Commission] declared as having voted could not have voted on polling day," Mbabazi says.

We have been informed that Mbabazi will use experts to illustrate how the biometric machines work. On February 20, 2016, the day the final results were declared, Mbabazi says that approximately 1,800,000 registered voters had not yet been counted although the number of polling stations declared were 26,223 out of the total 28,010 polling stations.

It's Mbabazi's contention that the results announced by the Electoral Commission in which they declared Museveni as the winner were manifestly different from the results announced at the various polling stations.

"At many polling stations where the petitioner won and or got higher votes than the first respondent [Museveni], the second respondent [Electoral Commission] declared zero results.

In other instances where the petitioners' votes were higher than the first respondent's, they were switched and given to the first respondent," Mbabazi claims.

TALLY CENTER

Unlike in the first petition, with the amendment, Mbabazi questions the process of counting and consolidating of the results through tallying and transmission of results from each polling station to the district tally center, and finally the national tally center saying that it lacked transparency.

According to Mbabazi's lawyers such a practice was contrary to article 1(4) of the constitution since it was shrouded in mystery coupled by concealment of announcing the results and declaring the winner.

"Clearly, the second respondent had no tally center as mandated by the law; instead the chairman [Badru Kiggundu] of the second respondent [Electoral Commission] was receiving forged figures from an illegal tally center run and operated by security agencies at inter alia Naguru," the petition alleges.

Mbabazi argues that at the national tally centre, the candidates' agents were merely listening posts without any input since Kiggundu and the Electoral Commission commissioners would receive results purportedly transmitted from the returning officers.

Mbabazi claims that the Electoral Commission officials would process and fix results and there-after show to agents what they called results.

"From the above process, there was room for switching results when purportedly tallying and doing all malpractices of rigging to alter the final results," the petition notes.

REGISTER

Mbabazi, in the amended petition, says that the Electoral Commission abdicated its constitutional and statutory duty of properly compiling and securely maintaining the national voters register.

Instead, the commission illegally and irregularly retired the duly-compiled voters register and relied on data compiled by the ministry of Internal Affairs for purposes of issuing national identity cards.

"On polling day, voters were identified using the national identity card issued by the national identification and registration authority instead of a voter's card issued by the second respondent contrary to sections 30(4) and 35 of the PEA," Mbabazi said.

As a result, Mbabazi says, many eligible voters who did not register for the national identity card were disenfranchised while ineligible voters who registered for the national identity card were verified as eligible voters

OPPOSITION LAWYERS' OFFICES BURGLED"MAIN SUSPECT,UGANDA POLICE"

Uganda polls: Opposition lawyers' offices burgled"main suspect,Uganda police"

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — An opposition group that launched a court case against the re-election of Uganda's long-time president accused the police of breaking into a lawyer's office and seizing crucial evidence.

Men in police uniform jumped over a wall fence and broke into the office of lawyers representing former presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi, the Go Forward group said Wednesday.

The incident took place Tuesday night in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, after guards assigned to protect the property were beaten, said Medard Sseggona, a spokesman for Go Forward.

"They were specifically looking for info relating to the petition," he said. "'It was a well-orchestrated move."

Mbabazi, who was the Go Forward Candidate in presidential elections last month, pressed a lawsuit at the Supreme Court challenging the re-election of President Yoweri Museveni. Mbabazi's legal team has described the elections as a "sham," echoing similar comments by Kizza Besigye, the main opposition leader.

Police spokesman Fred Enanga denied police were involved in the alleged burglary and accused the opposition of "playing games" aimed at discrediting the police. The police are investigating the incident, he said.

International election observers cited may irregularities with Uganda's elections, which were marred by late delivery of polling materials in opposition strongholds, some incidents of violence, and a government shutdown of social media.

In the lawsuit before Uganda's highest court, Mbabazi's lawyers argue that the elections were tainted by widespread illegalities and are seeking a vote recount in disputed districts such as Museveni's home area, where official results showed him winning with 100 percent support.

Museveni, in power since 1986, won about 60 percent of the votes and his nearest rival, Besigye, got about 35 percent, according to final tally. Museveni denied the allegations of vote fraud.

Offices of lawyers challenging Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's victory in last month's election have been broken into.

Lead counsel Mohamed Mbabazi said laptops, computers and documents were taken from his office.

The lawyers are representing Uganda's former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi who wants the election results annulled.

Local and international observers criticised the election process which saw Mr Museveni win 60% of the vote.

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Museveni v Mbabazi

Amama Mbabazi, 67, used to be an ally to President Museveni. He started his professional life as a lawyer and went on to hold a variety of ministerial roles under Mr Museveni including security, defence, justice minister. He has also been the attorney general and was prime minister for three years before he was sacked. He went on to challenge his old ally in February's election.

He hinted at an election rally that the two had fallen out over Mr Museveni breaking a promise that he would step down.

Yoweri Museveni, 71, has been in power since winning a five-year guerrilla war in 1986 and he is one of Africa's longest-serving leaders. His final term was meant to end in 2006, but in 2005 he won a campaign to lift the constitutional term limits.

WHY IS BARCLAYS BANK PULLING OUT OF AFRICA AFTER 100 YEARS

Why is  Barclays Bank pulling out of Africa?

IS AFRICA'S ECONOMY GROWING OR?

If Barclays is selling its African business, what does that tell us about the bank's view of the continent?

As the UK bank Barclays announced its full year results, local markets were less interested in the numbers and more interested in the back story.

The rumour mill had already been churning for months that there would be a big shake-up.

More specifically there were murmurs, now of course confirmed, of a sale in Africa.

And all this talk of Barclays wanting to get rid of its 62% stake in its Africa business is naturally viewed as an indication that the story of African growth isn't as real as many "Africa rising" headlines have been suggesting.

When a leading British bank gives up a legacy and a long history of operating in Africa, it's not a good a sign.

Bogged down

However the story of Barclays' supposed failure in Africa has as much to do with Barclays as it does with Africa as a continent.

Even though Barclays has maintained a presence in Africa for more than a century, the bank was very slow in taking up the fresh opportunities that presented themselves in the past decade.

Barclays was not as nimble as other banks, such as Standard Bank, Ecobank or GT Bank, which have been snapping up opportunities in Africa.

It was bogged down by the internal bureaucracy of tying up all its assets in a merger with South Africa's ABSA bank in order to create Barclays Africa.

That process began in 2005, and is yet to be fully completed, and both banks have retained their separate identities thus far.

BARCLAYS IN AFRICA SINCE 1925

Barclays has had a presence in Africa since 1925

Barclays Bank Plc currently owns 62.3% of Barclays Africa Group Limited (BAGL) which controls banks in 10 African countries including Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda

Barclays Africa Group employs 45,000 people across the continent

Barclays Bank Plc has announced plans to dramatically reduce its stake in BAGL

In addition Barclays owns Barclays Bank Egypt and Barclays Bank Zimbabwe which it also plans to sell

A full rebranding exercise was suspended a month ago, which should have been an indication of things to come.

The process took longer than had been anticipated which required global shareholders to wait patiently before earning the fair value for their stake.

Continental problems

But the challenge for Barclays has certainly been compounded by the volatility in global markets over the past year, the downturn in the commodities cycle, the slowing of China and the depreciation of many African currencies.

So the opportunities for more growth in Africa simply dwindled.

That may have created fears within Barclays that local African economies simply weren't ripe for retail banking.

In other words the thinking might have been that in the near future the signs were not promising.

The unemployment figures suggested that not enough jobs were being created for young Africans to start opening up personal and business banks accounts.

Many African economies have grown strongly over the last decade, including Nigeria: but Barclays isn't convinced the future is rosy enough

That doesn't bode well for a bank looking to increase its footprint on the continent.

It's quite unfortunate that Barclays was seemingly ham-strung in a situation where it should have had first mover advantage, having been in Africa for almost a century.

Staley's moves

Another important variable is Jes Staley himself. The new chief executive was appointed in late October and in less than six months he has made bold moves.

The urgency with which he is acting creates the impression that he's under pressure to turn things around - quickly.

From the moment he took over, he immediately raised concerns about the volatile market conditions that have seen the economies of Asia and Africa slowdown.

Chief executive Jes Staley says Barclays owns 62% of the assets but shoulders 100% of the liabilities for its African business, the reason he cites for wanting change

It's important to note that Mr Staley is not only pulling out of Africa, but also plans to downsize in other emerging markets such as in Asia, Russia and Brazil.

As the situation worsened and African currencies became weaker, the argument to stay on the continent became less compelling.

Of particular concern, has been the current state of the South African economy since Barclays Africa is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

An almost 40% fall in the value of the South African Rand since the beginning of 2015 inadvertently reduced the value of shareholders equity into Barclays Africa.

Unfortunately there is not much that banking executives can do to resolve global volatility and general perceptions about the state of the South African economy.

So without guarantees of when the situation would improve Mr Staley has opted to leave.

Who will buy?

The focus now is going to be on the steps that need to be taken in order to sell Barclays' stake of an almost two-thirds majority.

It doesn't come cheap.

Potential investors would need to raise nearly $4bn to buy Barclays.

In these markets, that could be deemed quite expensive.

Since January 2015, the South African currency has depreciated by almost 40%

In itself the sale will inspire a new round of speculation and possibly more rumours.

Already, there is talk of that the Public Investment Corporation, South Africa's largest pension fund, is interested.

But more investors will have to come to the party in order to foot that bill.

Depositors may be worried about what will happen to their funds.

Both Barclays and ABSA have assured bank regulators that depositors' funds are safe, and only share certificates will be changing hands.

Lost shine

Experts do not foresee a run on the banks.

However for African countries needing a cheerleader, the Barclays sale will have the opposite effect.

It signifies high risks in Africa, low growth prospects and lost shine.

The repercussions will be felt in the long term, as other investors decide take the Barclays cue and sell-up to refocus on Europe and America, the markets now deemed safer and better.http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35695601

KAMPALA SECURITY ON DEF-CON 3 LEVEL ALERT

KAMPALA SECURITY ON DEF-CON 3  ALERT

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One of Uganda's main opposition candidates has been briefly detained by police ahead of presidential elections on Thursday.

Kizza Besigye has been arrested on many occasions in past but this is the first time during this election campaign.

Mr Besigye has in the past lost three disputed elections against the long-time leader Yoweri Musevini.

Mr Museveni, 71, has been in power for 30 years and is running for a fifth term in office.

The BBC's Catherine Byaruhanga reports that he was released by police and they told her that he was being taken to his next rally.

Our correspondent says that shortly before he was detained Mr Besigye's car was driving along one of main highways in Uganda's capital, Kampala, and escorted by hundreds of supporters.

Witnesses say teargas was fired to disperse the crowd.

The police told our correspondent that he was not under arrest but was being held because he disobeyed orders not to disrupt city traffic.

Mr Besigye used to be President Museveni's personal doctor, but he went on to become his political opponent and has referred to him as a "dictator".http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35577300

FORMER REBEL LEADER APPOINTED DEPUTY SOUTH SUDAN

South Sudan president appoints rebel leader his deputy

South Sudan's president Salva Kiir has named his arch-rival Riek Machar as vice-president, after fighting for more than two years of civil war.

"I, Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of the Republic of South Sudan, do hereby issue this Republican Decree for the appointment of Dr. Riek Machar Teny as the first vice President of the Republic of South Sudan," the decree issued late on Thursday night said.

The appointment was agreed as part of an August 2015 peace deal, which has been repeatedly broken.

Machar, who was vice-president from 2005 until he was sacked in 2013, and who has yet to return to Juba since fleeing when war broke out in December 2013, welcomed the decree.

"It is welcome news because it is a step forward in the implementation of the peace agreement," Machar told AFP, speaking from Ethiopia. It was not immediately clear when Machar would travel to Juba to take up his post.

Civil war erupted in December 2013 when Kiir accused his former deputy Machar of planning a coup, setting off a cycle of retaliatory killings that have split the poverty-stricken, landlocked country along ethnic lines.

The two leaders come from the south's two main ethnic groups, Kiir from the Dinka people and Machar from the Nuer, tribes that are themselves split into multiple and sometimes rival clans.

Fighting continues, and the conflict now involves multiple militia forces who pay little heed to paper peace deals, driven by local agendas or revenge attacks.

Both the government and rebel sides have been accused of perpetrating ethnic massacres, recruiting and killing children and carrying out widespread rape, torture and forced displacement of populations to "cleanse" areas of their opponents.

Despite clashes and repeated failure to meet a string of deadlines in the August deal, both Kiir and Machar have said they remain committed to the peace deal.

Kiir and Machar are former rebel leaders who rose to power during Sudan's 1983-2005 civil war between north and south, after which South Sudan seceded in 2011 to form the world's youngest country.http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/2016/02/12/South-Sudan-president-names-arch-rival-Riek-Machar-as-vice-president

UGANDA'S POLITICAL TIDE

Uganda elections 2016: What are the issues at stake in the looming poll?

A supporter of Kizza Besigye poses near his campaign poster 

While a fifth term for President Museveni, extending his 30-year rule, is seen as a foregone conclusion, NYUMABANI looks at what the nation can expect from the upcoming poll.

Government funding

Topping the list will be the challenge of funding. Indeed, Gabrielle Lynch, associate professor of comparative politics at the University of Warwick, UK, told IBTimes UK a huge amount of money has been spent on this electoral campaign, and "there is not going to be much left in the coffers for the next financial year".

In July 2015, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) revealed that Museveni had authorised payment of at least $15m (£10.3m) to MPs to supplement their travel expenses as they toured the country ahead of the 2016 presidential election – a move critics have described as "politically motivated". According to the newspaper, Moses Bwalatum, a parliament spokesman, said that each lawmaker would receive around $40,000, almost five times their monthly pay.

"The ruling party has weakened itself over the past two years by valuing personal loyalty to Museveni over internal democracy," François Conradie, a political analyst with South Africa-based NKC Africa Economics, told WSJ.

Uganda's prime minister, Ruhakana Rugunda, meanwhile, denied budget spending was linked to electioneering, adding that the government would not be used to support Museveni's re-election.

"Government is guided by the budget in its expenditures. What it spends is predetermined by the budget, which must be approved by the parliament." Rugunda told WSJ.

Yet, a record $7.9bn budget — a 58% spending rise over the previous financial year – will leave whoever wins the polls with the issue of a limited budget to lead reforms, in the context of an already deeply indebted government facing inflationary pressure.

"Although a lot of promises have been made, it's a question of where the funds will be coming from," Lynch explained. "There is a lot of pressure to do something about jobs, payment of civil servants (teachers for instance). It will be very difficult to put a lot of these promises into effect."

In April 2011, Uganda was rocked by weeks of demonstrations – so-called Walk to Work protests – against spiralling food and fuel prices. The source of the discontent laid in $1.3m splashed out on Yoweri's swearing-in ceremony (after he won the February 2011 elections), and the acquisition of a eight fighter jets for a total cost of $740m – which the government justified by saying the nation needed to strengthen its defence systems.

This time round, data from 2015 showed youth unemployment peaking at 78% in some areas, and a restricted budget may mean Museveni could lose support in some rural areas where his popularity has been somewhat waning – leaving space to former prime minister Amama Mbabazi and veteran opposition leader Kizza Besigye (See more: Who are the main candidates running for president?)

Besigye or Mbabazi, meanwhile, made extensive promises in their manifestos – with election pledges revolving around job creation, teachers' pay increases, improvement of the decrepit healthcare sector for instance, but may not be able to make good on their ambitious reforms if the tight fiscal situation remains at current levels, Lynch added.

Museveni's last election?

In this context, Lynch believes there seems to be a strong feeling within the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) that these have to be incumbent president Museveni's last elections.

"I think there will be a stronger push for some kind of succession between now and the next election, and this is being reinvigorated by recent events in Tanzania," Lynch said. In neighbouring Tanzania, the Party of the Revolution (Chama Cha Mapinduzi, CCM) – the longest reigning ruling party in Africa – retained power in the October 2015 elections.

But new President John Pombe Magufuli was a surprise choice of candidate. Indeed, he was never a CCM party stalwart, and his candidature was widely criticised – leading CCM cohort and ex-prime minister Edward Lowassa to cross over to the opposition to challenge Magufuli for the presidency.

Once elected, however, Magufuli took steps to become more popular, joining hundreds of residents in the nation's largest city, Dar es Salaam, to take part in a public clean-up operation. He had ordered the scheme to replace independence day celebrations, saying it 

would be deplorable to waste millions of dollars on parties and military parades in a nation still fighting fatal bacterial infection such as cholera.

Nicknamed "the Bulldozer", Magufuli is indeed pushing ahead with reforms, and his decision to cut over-the-top government spending, battle corruption and improve services such as healthcare has even given birth to a hashtag #WhatWouldMagufuliDo.

"(Magufuli's) first few months in power have been discussed in neighbouring countries in Kenya and Uganda, and there is some feeling that perhaps Ugandans could have that: change and a more radical insider from the NRM who would not be such an ally of Museveni," Lynch explained.

"That will be an interesting question going forward, and will be quite significant in terms of people developing their ideas."

MUSEVENI SPENDS BIG ON CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Voluntary Ugandan crime preventers stand next to a helicopter used by President Yoweri Museveni for moving between rallies in Kampala, February 18, 2013. Museveni is outspending his opponents on the campaign trail by a huge margin, according to a report.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni spent almost 12 times more than his two closest opponents combined on his presidential campaign over the past two months, according to a report.

Ugandans go to the polls in presidential and parliamentary elections on February 18. Museveni and his National Resistance Movement have been in power for 30 years and have been accused of intimidating opposition activists in the run-up to the election.

The report, published on Thursday, records the minimum expenditure by parties and candidates during the election campaign. It is produced by the Alliance for Campaign Finance Monitoring (ACFIM), a Ugandan civil society coalition that includes anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International’s Uganda branch.

Across 16 Ugandan districts in November and December, Museveni spent in excess of 27 billion Ugandan shillings ($7.8 million). Amama Mbabazi, Museveni’s former prime minister and now an independent candidate running under the banner of Go Forward, spent 1.3 billion Ugandan shillings ($375,000), while veteran opposition candidate Kizza Besigye of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) spent 977 million Ugandan shillings ($282,000).

Museveni’s NRM was also way out in front in terms of total party expenditure. The report stated that the NRM spent 121 billion Ugandan shillings ($35 million) on the campaign trail between November and December—equivalent to 87.9 percent of campaign expenditure by all parties. Besigye’s FDC spent three billion Ugandan shillings ($865,000), while Mbabazi’s Go Forward spent 1.5 billion Ugandan shillings ($432,000).

“In a situation where you have one candidate that is in a league of his own in terms of campaign spending and the others are trailing far behind, you cannot even start thinking about fairness in any election,” Henry Muguzi, national coordinator of ACFIM, tells Newsweek, “We think this may undermine the integrity and also the fairness of the elections because the ground is clearly not level.”

Muguzi pointed to Museveni’s expenditure on media and journalists as an example of excess. According to the report, Museveni has a team of 20 local journalists following him on the campaign trail, each receiving a subsidy of 150,000 Ugandan shillings ($43) per day. Journalists following Mbabazi receive a minimum of 40,000 Ugandan shillings ($12) and those covering Besigye receive much less or nothing at all. The report did not specify how many journalists follow the two challengers on the campaign trail.

In November 2015, the Ugandan parliament controversially passed a motion to amend the Public Finance Management Bill, which allowed the government to secure loans from the central bank without parliamentary approval. According to Muguzi, the bill means that the NRM could well be raiding public finances to pay in part for their campaign expenditure.

Speaking to Ugandan newspaper Daily Monitor, Ofwono Opondo, a NRM spokesman, said that the party’s campaign was financed by money received from the electoral commission and support from volunteers. Opondo also justified the party’s expenditure based on the scale of their events. “No other party or organization has held activities such as NRM has done,” he said. Opondo was not immediately available to comment further on the report.

Museveni is expected to win February’s election, although recent opinion polls show he may be forced to sit through a second round of voting. A poll by Kampala-based Research World International found on Wednesday that Museveni received 51 percent support, ahead of Besigye on 32 percent and Mbabazi on 12 percent. In Uganda, a candidate is required to secure at least 50 percent of the vote in order to win a first-round election.http://europe.newsweek.com/uganda-2016-museveni-spends-big-campaign-trail-418571?rm=eu

NYUMBANI: CENTRAL AFRICA

NYUMBANI: CENTRAL AFRICA: THE WHITE HOUSE HIDDEN HAND IN CENTARL AFRICA BLOODSHED Seleka fighters take a break as they sit on a pick-up truck in the town of Goy...

Uganda Presidential Election 2016:MUSEVENI'S MURDER TACTICS ''MBABAZI''

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Uganda’s former prime minister accused President Yoweri Museveni Thursday of using murder, torture and violence to curtail growing support for the opposition in the upcoming presidential election. Amama Mbabazi, who is also one of the front-runners in next month’s polls, named nine of his supporters who have allegedly been either “assaulted, arrested, disappeared and even killed.”

"As the pressure of the campaigns is mounting, so are the continual attempts to intimidate and subdue my support base," the former premier said in a statement released to the press on his official Facebook page.

Mbabazi said one of his supporters, “Ms. Tumwebaze,” was murdered and her body dumped in a swamp, while the house of another supporter, “Mr. Okwii,” was burned down with his 4-year-old child inside. The head of Mbabazi’s security team, Christopher Aine, disappeared in mid-December after police accused him of leading a mob that assaulted supporters of Museveni earlier that month. Mbabazi’s campaign told Reuters that Aine’s family had identified a body shown on social media as his.

“These incidents are but a few examples of the violence this government is daily meting out on those who believe the time has come for Uganda to experience peaceful transition and a change of government,” Mbabazi said in the statement. "These cruel acts tantamount to gross human rights abuse. We have documented them and will pursue redress through courts of law up to the highest level.

Ugandan police denied claims of involvement in attacks. "We're ready to investigate every alleged case of violence, but the people who allege don't cooperate with us," Fred Enanga, the police spokesman, told Reuters.

This is not the first time Museveni, 71, has been accused of using illegal methods to advance his electoral chances. Human rights groups have accused his security personnel of using illegal arrests, beatings and other forms of violence to bully opposition supporters.

Out of the eight presidential candidates, Mbabazi and longtime opposition figure Kizza Besigye have emerged as the top challengers to Museveni, who is seeking a fifth term in office. The 2016 race is looking to be the tightest yet. But Museveni, who has ruled Uganda for nearly 30 years, is still widely expected to be re-elected to another five-year term, even asopposition against him grows.

The Ugandan president sacked Mbabazi from his premier position in 2014 amid a deepening power struggle. Ugandan police arrested Mbabazi along with Kizza Besigye, the second opposition candidate, and accused them of violating the East African country’s electoral and public order management laws. The pair was released without charges 12 hours later, but their arrest sparked violent protests in the central town of Kasangatia.