Boda boda riders call for extention of curfew hours

Boda boda riders in Bundibugyo, Uganda 

Bundibugyo, Uganda | Arua City News | Boda boda riders in Bundibugyo town are demanding an extension of the nighttime curfew hours. While announcing the full reopening of the economy on December 31, 2021, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni said boda bodas would continue operating between 5am and 7pm because criminal elements use them to commit crime under the cover of darkness.

The riders argue that it is absolutely prejudicial to deny them an opportunity to work when other transporters are working. The riders say that they are struggling to pay off loans they acquired in the last two years amidst the COVID-19 restrictions.

They claim that people who don’t have private means of transport are also closing their businesses earlier before boda bodas stop their operations. The riders also argue that some of them transport day-scholars who leave school after 6:00pm.

Abubakar Musoke, the chairperson of Bundibugyo boda boda rider’s association, says that a number of riders have lost their properties due to accumulated debts as a result of limited resources to pay up.

He claims that boda boda business usually flourishes in the morning and evening hours. He condemned the police brutality and high handedness used to arrest their members found riding past the curfew hours.

Dickson Turigye, a boda boda rider in Bundibugyo town, says that they want an extension of the nighttime curfew from 7pm to 10pm so that they can also cash in on persons who stay in town doing business at night.

Patrick Muhumuza, another rider says that in the last year, over 20 riders have had their motorcycles confiscated by Tugende for failure to service their loans. He says that they are harassed by police officers enforcing the guidelines, who sometimes extort money from them.

Latif Bwambale, who has been in the boda boda business for close to 10 years argues restricting their business when the economy has finally opened is a disservice to the business community that heavily relies on them.

Amos Banghi, the Bundibugyo Resident District Commissioner says that his office has not yet received any reports on the police brutality directed at the riders. He has promised to intervene in the matter, saying that he cannot look on as people are tortured.

The RDC, who met the riders on Tuesday asked them to corporate with the security agencies and promised to meet the security officers to discuss the issue of police brutality.

There is growing demand from a number of sectors demanding the lifting of the curfew on boda bodas. E-Trade Association, an umbrella organization that converges companies and organizations that use the power of the internet to create jobs in Uganda have been urging the government to ease the COVID-19 restrictions on boda bodas and allow them to operate beyond 7pm.

The association says the move will ease transportation for Ugandans. The association says the boda boda sub-sector employs over 1.2 million people.

Police haunt for teacher on the run over defilement of pupil

Albert region police spokesperson Julius Hakiza confirmed report. 

Hoima,  Uganda| Arua City News | Police in Hoima is hunting for a primary school teacher over alleged defilement of a 14-year-old girl.

The suspect has only been identified as Leonard, a teacher at Yana Primary school in Hoima East division, Hoima city while the girl is also a pupil of the same school.

It is alleged that on January 26, 2022, the teacher found the girl shopping for scholastic materials at Hoima central market and convinced her to go with him to his home in Kinubi, a Hoima city suburb.

The teacher allegedly locked the girl inside his room the whole day and convinced her to have sex with him.

The girl’s parents became suspicious after they waited for her to return home in vain. The following day when the girl returned home, they tasked her to explain where she had spent the night, but she declined.

When the parents became tougher on her, she revealed that she slept at the teacher’s place and that he forced her to have sex with him. This prompted the parents to file a case at Hoima city central police station.

Julius Hakiza, the Albertine region police spokesperson says the teacher has since gone into hiding adding that he is being pursued.

According to Hakiza, once arrested, the suspect will be produced before the court to be charged with defilement.

On January 27, 2022, another primary school teacher in Hoima city was arrested for aggravated defilement.

George Obiga, 36, a teacher at Mother Claudia Primary school in Rwenkobe cell in Hoima West division is accused of defiling an eight-year-old pupil.

Obiga reportedly sneaked into the minor’s home in Rwenkobe cell on January 27, 2022, while her parents were away and defiled her.

Residents heard the minor screaming for help and rushed to see what was happening, only to find Obita red-handed defiling the minor.

He managed to escape but residents pursued him until they apprehended him. They handed him over to Hoima City central police station where he is locked up for aggravated defilement.

Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development (USMID-AF)

USMID Roads Projects

Period: November 2019 – October 2021

Partners: World Bank, Government of Uganda

Project Type: Infrastructure Develpoment

After the successful implementation of the first phase of the Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development (USMID) Program, Government, has received additional financing to the tune of US$ 360 million from the World Bank/IDA to implement the second phase of the Program (USMID Additional Financing-USMID-AF) for 5 years starting in fiscal year 2018/19.

USMID-AF will maintain the development objective of “Enhancing Institutional Capacity of Selected Local Governments” BUT the geographical coverage of the Program will extend to Eight additional municipal local governments of Kitgum, Kamuli, Mubende, Kasese, Busia, Ntungamo, Apac and Lugazi and also introduce support to 8 districts of Adjumani, Moyo, Yumbe, Arua, Isingiro, Kiryandongo, Kamwenge and Lamwo, that have faced a high influx of refugees to strengthen these LGs’ abilities to cope with the recent and future refugee influx in Uganda and to deliver critical infrastructure to host communities/local governments. The program will deepen impact and results in terms of institutional strengthening, planning and financial management, infrastructure provision and local economic development. USMID-AF draws a lot of lessons from the implementation of the first phase of USMID.

The Ministry and the Program Support Team has prepared an Operational Manual for USMID-AF in order to guide the participating Municipal and District Local Governments in the implementation of the Program.

Improvements to the operational manual have been drawn from lessons learned from implementing the first phase of USMID and the manual includes the performance assessment tool that will be used for verifying program performance at the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Municipal and District Local Governments level by the Independent Verification Agent (IVA) among others.

The program will be executed and coordinated by the MLHUD which is responsible for urban development. The institutional strengthening at the municipal Local Governments level will target technical, fiduciary (financial and procurement), Local Economic Development and environmental and social sustainability with a focus on the following seven thematic areas:

i. Improved linkage between Municipal Physical Development Plan, Five-year Development Plan and Budgeting;

ii. Increased municipal own source revenue (OSR);

iii. Improved procurement performance;

iv. Improved municipal Accounting and core financial management

v. Improved Execution/Implementation of infrastructure sub-projects for improved urban service delivery;

vi. Improved accountability and transparency (monitoring and communication); and

vii. Enhanced environmental and social sustainability (Environmental, social and resettlement due diligence).

Bodies of Hima cement factory fire lined up for DNA testing

Cement factory fire. Courtesy photo

Kasese, Uganda | Arua City News | The bodies of the fire victims at Hima Cement are lined up for DNA testing at Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital-FRRH to identify the victims. On Saturday, fire broke out at the factory killing three people and injuring six others.

The bodies were first taken to Kasese Municipal Health Center III mortuary but medics, relatives and employees couldn’t positively identify them because they were severely burnt. Carol Kezabu, the Hima Cement Factory Public Relations Officer told URN on Monday that they have opted for DNA testing to positively identify the victims.

The bodies were evacuated to Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital-FRRH where DNA testing will be conducted. Kezabu also says that other victims with severe injuries have also been evacuated to Kampala for better management.

“We are still working closely with all families to ensure we establish their right identities,” she said. Kezabu said that the company management spent the better part of Monday in a meeting to discuss the aftermath of the incident including resuming their operations.

On Sunday, the National Building Review Board-NBRB launched investigations into the fire outbreak to establish the exact cause. Flavia Bwire, the Executive Secretary at the National Building Review Board, said they had picked samples from the fire scene to aid their investigations.

ICT ministry seeks UGX70BN for Parish Development Model

  

Chris Baryomunsi appearing before the ICT committee chairedby Moses Magogo.

Kampala, Uganda | Arua City News | The Ministry of Information, Communication, Technology and National Guidance is seeking Shs70.6 billion to implement the Parish Development Model (PDM).

Cabinet approved the implementation of PDM as the delivery strategy for transitioning households out of the subsistence economy with effect from 01 July 2021.

The ICT ministry was charged with the responsibility of spearheading Pillar 5 (Community Data) of PDM which involves setting up the Parish Development Management Information System (PDMIS) to among others validate information on the beneficiaries, evaluate the livelihood and standards of living of people and tracking the progress and performance of the different pillars so as to report real time implementation of the programme.

While presenting the ICT sectoral Budget Framework Paper for 2022/23 before the ICT Committee, the Minister of ICT, Chris Baryomunsi justified the need for Shs70.6 billion saying it would go a long way to build a strong monitoring and evaluation system to measure the success of the programme.

“As we start the Parish Development Model, we have to collect data and information. We need to buy devices, particularly computers, to give parish chiefs and train them and other government leaders on how to collect information and feed it to the central database for monitoring,” Baryomunsi said.

He said that several government projects have failed because of a weak monitoring and evaluation system which makes it difficult to measure the impact of the intervention and ascertain its success.

“We are developing a digital dashboard which is going to be at the central level where at the glance, you can check on the many parishes on what has been done and where there are challenges. So if these parish leaders can feed in this information, then we can monitor at the central level,” he said adding that part of the money will be used to communicate and educate Ugandans on mindset change.

“We need citizens to have a patriotic sense of responsibility, but also most importantly, to have that mindset that makes them aware that they must work hard,” he said.

Muhammed Nsereko remained skeptical about the success of the PDM if the funding gap is not addressed. The Shs70.6 billion for PDM remains among the unfunded priorities.

“How is the ministry going to conduct data analytics when there is such a funding gap on data collection and even procurement of laptops? Won’t this be lip service? The success of this programme must be backed by data,” Nsereko said.

Barnabas Tinkasiimire, Buyaga West County MP urged the Ministry of ICT to race against time and move faster in setting up information systems to capture data and information considering that the programme is scheduled to be fully operational by March this year.

The digital transformation programme for Ministry of ICT and other sector agencies have a financing gap of Shs231.3 billion with Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) requiring Shs51.1 billion to upgrade the signet, while Vision Group requires Shs2.9 billion to revamp defunct vernacular papers as per the presidential directive and ICT Ministry seeks an additional Shs12.1 billion for communication and mindset change.

The State Minister for National Guidance, Godfrey Kabbyanga Baluku beseeched the ICT Committee chaired by Eng. Moses Magogo to consider the sector’s budget shortfalls and avail funds for the same if the Ministry is to fully implement its digital transformation programme.

Reception and Management of Migrants (RMM)

Urban Refugees

Strengthening Mechanism for Reception, Management and Integration of Involuntary Migrants in Arua City

Period: November 2019 – October 2021

Partners: Cities Alliance, AVSI Foundation, UBOS

Project Type: Urban Migrants

About this Project

AVSI is leading a consortium comprising of AVSI Foundation, Arua City and Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) with funding from UNOPS/Cities Alliance to implement a 2 years Project Titled Strengthening Mechanism for Reception, Management and Integration of Involuntary Migrants (RMM) in Arua District.

The project recognizes the that there has been a growing/high incidence of rural/settlement – urban migration and increased number of out of camp self –settlement of refugees and other unregistered migrants. Most of these have moved to settle in the City to escape conflict and persecution, environmental shocks and seek social amenities and economic opportunities. Consequently, there has been a rapid rise in urban population resulting into congestion, cultural clashes and conflicts between host communities and the migrants over social amenities, rise in crime rate, increase in number of abandoned and unaccompanied children and increase in urban poverty.

This project therefore intends to address primarily involuntary migrants/refugees and host communities; the intervention seeks to pilot strategies and approaches that can support Arua City Council, institutional and community stakeholders to better structure and manage the reception and integration of the involuntary migrants through a coordinated and effective engagement of all stakeholders in examining the phenomenon of involuntary migrants in Arua City Council.

Project Goals: To strengthen the structural and institutional mechanisms for reception, management and integration of involuntary migrants in Arua City Council.

Objectives of the Project

To support research, documentation, collaborative learning and knowledge on reception, integration and management of involuntary migrants

To strengthen the institutional and structural capacity of Arua City Council and stakeholders to effectively manage reception and integration of involuntary migrants.

To model and adopt sustainable livelihoods approaches for host communities and the migrants to leverage on existing opportunities within Arua City Council.

Project Outcomes:

Outcome 1

Informed policy, planning and resource allocation on the reception, management and integration of migrants through accurate data and documentation.

Outcome 2

Strengthened institutional and structural capacity of Arua City and stakeholders to effectively manage the reception and integration of involuntary migrants.

Outcome 3

Improved Socio –economic status of extremely poor and vulnerable migrants

Project Partners