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Man jailed 15 years for defiling granddaughter |
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Tuesday, 21 May 2013
Godfrey Wekale will have to serve a 15-year jail term after the High Court in Mukono sentenced him for defiling his 12-year-old granddaughter.
Justice Vincent Zehurikize convicted the 47-year-old man after he pleaded guilty to the offence.
“While the convict is remorseful and has pleaded guilty, the crime he committed on his own granddaughter was a serious offence. There is need to send a strong message to other would-be offenders that such acts cannot be tolerated by court,” Zehirikize stated.
He told Wekale that if he is not satisfied with the verdict, he has a right to appeal to the Court of Appeal with 14 days, as provided by the law.
Court heard that on December 2009, the convict – of Lweza in Wakiso district – had sexual intercourse with an underage girl.
Prosecution led by Rachael Nabwire heard that the incident happened when the victim decided to pay his grandparents a visit during the festive season. It is said that that was the time the incident occurred.
The victim, a Primary Six pupil then, told Court that on the fateful day, when she was a sleep, she realized that she was having sex with some body.
By using the light which was in the room, the victim managed to identify her grandfather Wekale as he tried to sneak out of the room. But he threated her and directed her not to tell anyone about what had happened.
Since then, Wekale started having sex with her whener he returned home.
But on January 4 the following year, the victim’s grandmother noticed something unusual in the way the young girl walked.
And so upon inspection, the truth was finally out. When the matter was reported to police, Wekale was arrested, which led to his subsequent prosecution.
Prosecution asked court to give the convict a deterrent sentence, which would act as a warning lesson to potential other such offenders.
“Wekale was a person in authority over the young girl and was expected to take care of her but chose to lure her into sex. We pray that he is given a maximum sentence as this court’s discretion allows,” prosecution asked court.
However, the defense lawyer Jackline Kagoya asked court to be lenient to his client, saying that he was remorseful of the act committed and that the three years he has spent on remand should also be considered before passing verdict.
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UCC directs TV broadcasters on local content |
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Tuesday, 21 May 2013
The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has issued a directive requiring television broadcasters to prioritise local content over foreign content, a move aimed at promoting national identity, culture and enhance benefits from works locally created.
In a recent notice, UCC, the regulator of the communications and broadcasting sector, revealed that free to air television station licensees must ensure that an average of 70% of its programming during prime time (6:00pm to 11:00pm) consists of Ugandan television content.
Of the 70% content required by UCC, 50% must feature drama, comedy and reality show programs, 10% will be reserved for local documentary programs, 5% for sports and 5% for children’s programs.
Pay TV subscription licensees must also ensure that a minimum average of 20% during the Uganda television performance period measured over the period of a year, consist of Ugandan television content
“The UCC recognise the role played by local content in promoting national development, given the cultural and linguistic diversity of Uganda. It’s important that broadcasting stations in the country emphasise content relevant to the local audience and produced under Uganda’s creative control,” said the body executive director Eng. Godfrey Mutabaazi
He added that the set quotas have been made after benchmarking with other countries like South Africa, Australia, Tanzania, Canada and Spain and through consultations with broadcasters, independent producers and other key players in the sector.
In the same spirit of deepening local content penetration in television broadcasting, local Tv content provider Pearl Sporto has entered a partnership to have space on the platform of channels broadcasted by StarTimes Digital pay television.
Launching the deal in Kampala last week, Sports minister Charles Bakkabulindi appealed to producers of television content to focus on information that has the positive bearing on the acceptable country’s socio-economic set-up.
The StarTimes country chief executive officer Kevin Chen said the company was sensitiveon local content to its audiences, a milestone that will be enhanced by the firm’s network coverage expansion plan to reach all regions of the country by the first quarter of next year
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LRA poaching elephants in Central Africa - UN |
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Tuesday, 13 May 2013
UNITED NATIONS - Armed groups in central Africa are using powerful weapons, some of which may be left over from the civil war in Libya, to kill elephants for their ivory, the United Nations said on Monday.
In a report to the U.N. Security Council, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said elephant poaching was a growing security concern, particularly in Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad and Gabon.
Ban said the illegal trade in ivory may be an important source of funding for armed groups, including warlord fugitive Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).
"Also of concern is that poachers are using more and more sophisticated and powerful weapons, some of which, it is believed, might be originating from the fallout in Libya," his report said.
Ban said that in Minkebe Park in northeastern Gabon, more than 11,000 elephants had been slaughtered between 2004 and 2013, while in Chad in March, poachers killed 86 elephants - including 33 pregnant females - within a week. In Cameroon's Bouba Ndjida National Park, more than 300 elephants were killed during the last two months of last year.
"The situation has become so serious that national authorities in some countries, such as Cameroon, have decided to use the national army, in addition to law and order enforcement agencies to hunt down poachers," Ban said.
United Nations officials say growing Asian demand for ivory is helping to drive a poaching boom.
The U.N. Security Council's Group of Experts, who monitor an arms embargo imposed on Libya at the start of an uprising in 2011 that overthrew Muammar Gaddafi, said last month that the North African state had become a key source of weapons in the region as its nascent government struggles to exert authority.
The experts said weapons were spreading from Libya at an "alarming rate," fueling conflicts in Mali, Syria and elsewhere and boosting the arsenals of extremists and criminals in the region.
Ban's report singled out the LRA and Kony, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes. He and his commanders are accused of abducting thousands of children to use as fighters in a rebel army that earned a reputation for chopping off limbs as a form of discipline.
LRA fighters fought the Ugandan government for nearly two decades before being ejected from their strongholds in the north of the country in 2005, forcing them to establish bases in the jungles of other countries in the region.
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KCCA debate: Lukwago, Musisi dash to House |
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Tuesday, 21 May 2013
Parliament is bracing itself for a heated debate on Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) report with both the Lord Mayor, Erias Lukwago, and KCCA Executive Director, Ssemakula Musisi, underscoring the importance of the debate with their attendance.
The parliamentary VIP gallery is packed to the rafters with pro-Lukwago and Musisi councilors eager to see where the pendulum on the contentious report will swing.
The report by the Public Service and Local Government committee of parliament has caused waves since its release last week, with its recommendation for the President to take over the Executive and Legislative functions of KCCA for six months to stem what MPs have described as “shameful anarchy in the city.”
The report follows a petition to parliament late last year by Lukwago in which he accuses Musisi of grossly mismanaging the city and spawning paralysis at City Hall.
Opposition MPs were earlier this morning engrossed in a meeting with Lukwago in what appears to be a last ditch attempt, according to sources that attended the meeting, to block debate on the report on grounds of its authenticity.
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