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Angolan journalist feels vindicated over 'corrupt' first family

In 1999, Angolan journalist Rafael Marques de Morais wrote an article titled "The Lipstick of Dictatorship" in which he denounced then-President José Eduardo dos Santos as corrupt. For his writing, he was arrested, held in solitary confinement, denied food and charged with defamation.

"I was jailed for that, went on trial for that, and went through hell for exposing corruption at the presidential level," he told VOA.

Today, as members of the dos Santos family have more than $1 billion in assets frozen and face charges of financial crimes, he feels vindicated. He says his fight to expose corruption was worth it.

"It's a long-overdue measure by the judicial authorities because Isabel dos Santos and the dos Santos family are at the top of the pyramid of those who have plundered the country," he said.

A light on dos Santos family

Marques has spent more than two decades chronicling corruption in his home country, with a particular emphasis on the diamond industry.

He has received numerous awards for his work including a Hellman/Hammett grant by Human Rights Watch in 2011. His initiative Maka Angola supports and publishes crusading, investigative journalism in the country.

Marques said throughout his career he has tried to shine a light on the systematic looting of Angola's wealth by members of the dos Santos family.

In December, a court accused the former president's daughter, Isabel dos Santos, and her husband of causing the state to incur more than $1 billion in losses through a scheme that involved two state-owned companies transferring foreign currency abroad and never being repaid.

Isabel dos Santos has been referred to as Africa's richest woman, with ownership interest in a mobile phone company, banks, cable television and a supermarket chain. In 2018, her brother, José Filomeno dos Santos, was arrested and accused of trying to steal $500 million. He is facing a trial before the Supreme court.

Marques said that for years former President dos Santos published decrees announcing the transfer of state assets to his own family and friends. 

"The evidence was always there," he said. "There was in Angola what I called in my thesis 'the transparency of looting.' So it was right in the people's face. It was evident there was not much effort in trying to hide the way President dos Santos was dolling out state resources, state funds, public state bank loans to his own children."

Will she return to face charges?

Isabel dos Santos and her husband live abroad. Although Angola's attorney general has demanded that they return to the country to face charges, it is unclear if they will. Marques says he hopes they have their day in court.

"When her father was in power as a dictator, I had seven people coming to arrest me at my house, pointing seven guns at me, and the whole neighbourhood was besieged," he said.

"I didn't run away. I didn't leave the country. I stood up to her father, a dictator, who had the mighty power, and that was in this country. I never fled. Why hasn't she come back to defend herself?"

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How 'first daughter' Isabel looted Angola to the bones

Self-made billionaire, she often claimed and often posted inspiration messages of how hard work makes dreams come true. In 2013, soon after she was named a billionaire, she told the Financial Times that her entrepreneurial spirit dated back to age 6, when she started her first business, selling chicken eggs to support her cotton candy habit.

"I'm someone who wakes up in the morning, very early, goes out to the field, puts on the boots," dos Santos recently told the BBC. "I build stuff, if necessary. If I need to carry boxes with my staff, and we need to put it on the shelves, I'll be putting it on the shelves in my supermarkets."

But Isabel dos Santos' estimated fortune of $2 billion was far from the fruition of hard work. Instead, the 46-year-old 'billionaire daughter of a dictator' with the help of her father, José Eduardo dos Santos, an autocrat who ruled Angola for 35 years and her husband Sindika Dokolo a Congolese art collecter built her fortune using stolen Angolan state funds. 

The Luanda Leaks, a new 8-month investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and 36 media partners has exposed two decades of unscrupulous deals that made dos Santos Africa's wealthiest woman and left oil-and diamond-rich Angola one of the poorest countries on earth.

The investigations also reveal how 'African corruption' is far from African corruption with Western companies and agencies, banks and firms facilitating the looting from the world's poorest. 

Based on more than 715,000 confidential financial and business records and hundreds of interviews, Luanda Leaks offers a case study of a growing global problem: Thieving rulers, often called kleptocrats, and their family members and associates are moving ill-gotten public money to offshore secrecy jurisdictions, often with the help of prominent Western firms. From there, the money is used to buy up properties, businesses and other valuable assets, or it is simply hidden away, safe from tax authorities and criminal investigators.

"The movement of dirty money through shell companies into the international financial system to be laundered, recycled, and deployed for political influence is accelerating," says Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. "It heightens the danger of political violence and human rights abuses."

ICIJ found that dos Santos, her husband and their intermediaries built a business empire with more than 400 companies and subsidiaries in 41 countries, including at least 94 in secrecy jurisdictions like Malta, Mauritius and Hong Kong. Over the past decade, these companies got consulting jobs, loans, public works contracts and licenses worth billions of dollars from the Angolan government.

In 2009, her business empire had expanded to include stakes in Portuguese banks and media companies, which provided her with millions of dollars in dividends. She renovated her $2.5 million duplex penthouse in Lisbon.

One invoice reviewed by ICIJ showed $50,000 spent on curtains, $9,200 on chaise lounges and nearly $7,500 on gym equipment from Harrods. Six years later, she bought a second apartment on one of the same floors for $2.3 million, though local land registry records don't indicate if the two units were merged into one.

Using shell companies in many tax havens such as Malta, dos Santos would use the tiny Mediterranean nation to dodge taxes and launder money across the globe. According to the documents, the dos Santos had by March 2013 created or invested in at least 94 companies in 19 countries. A third of these were shell companies.

Dos Santos and her husband Dokolo used a Maltese shell company, Athol Limited, to buy a $55 million apartment in Monte Carlo, documents show. In 2010, they acquired a controlling stake in a struggling Swiss luxury jeweller, de Grisogono. Dokolo's idea was to create a company that would control Angola's diamond industry from mining to polishing to retail, he told ICIJ through his lawyers.

Sodiam helped finance the acquisition and loaned the jewellery company more than $120 million total, records show. Dokolo — who invested his own funds in the jewellery company — had "full control of the management," according to a draft shareholder agreement in the leaked documents.

In the interview with RFI, Dokolo said the use of offshore jurisdictions was a business necessity. "It is very difficult for someone from Angola or the [Democratic Republic of the Congo], which are countries completely blacklisted on European markets, to open a bank account on European soil," he said. "If you are like me, a politically exposed person since 2001, it is almost impossible. I can be criticized for using financial vehicles located in tax havens, but is that illegal?"

The couple claimed through lawyers to have received no tax benefits through their offshore companies.

Reputation under fire

On June 12, 2013, less than two weeks after the Areia Branca evictions, dos Santos faced a question about a massive transfer of money. Unitel had made $460 million in loans the previous year to a Dutch shell company called Unitel International Holdings, later revealed to be owned by dos Santos.

Luis Pacheco de Melo, a representative of PT Ventures, one of four partners in Unitel, asked at a shareholders meeting whether the board of directors had signed off on the deal. Dos Santos assured him that the loans were properly approved, according to board meeting minutes.

De Melo wasn't the only one asking about the family's finances. An agent in charge of registering Mauritius companies for dos Santos' telecom business found information about her "source of wealth" missing from the documents.

A $1.3 million transfer from the Maltese holding company that controlled the Swiss jeweller to a Dokolo shell in the British Virgin Islands baffled a Swiss accountant. Auditors for the Maltese company couldn't find agreements for millions of dollars in loans from the Angolan government to the jewellery company.

On the Isle of Man, John Murphy, a local director for a shell company used to acquire London real estate, discovered a mysterious $50 million credit on its bank statement. "It cause[s] us serious concern," Murphy said in an August 2015 email to a dos Santos attorney.

He resigned soon after.

And, the documents show, Western banks started to back away. Regulators globally had been cracking down on financial institutions that didn't carefully vet public officials and those connected to them. Banks and financial regulators consider these clients, known as "politically exposed persons," or PEPs, as money laundering risks.

In 2012, Citigroup Global Markets Limited abruptly abandoned an investment deal linked to dos Santos; the banking giant later paid $15 million as part of a confidential settlement. Barclays Bank bailed on a similar deal a year later. Both banks were responding to concerns about the company's shareholders, including Sonangol and Exem Energy, documents show.

Emails show that the dos Santos financial team struggled to find banks to handle her growing business.

"I'm a bit concerned on the Deutsche," wrote Konema Mwenenge, one of Dokolo's closest advisers, referring to Deutsche Bank. "Sindika had accounts with Deutsche in the past and [they] were closed. They also blocked some of his payments when they acted as correspondent banks for several beneficiaries."

Dutch trust company Intertrust and ING bank closed accounts of dos Santos and Dokolo-linked companies that invested in Galp. One dos Santos business manager told another in an email that one bank had said Dutch authorities were scrutinizing her companies and imposing "extremely complex diligence" requirements.

One dos Santos executive complained to another that Spanish banking giant Banco Santander "ran like the devil from the cross" because of her status as a politically exposed person.

In September 2013, dos Santos' reputation took a big public hit. In an article written by Kerry A. Dolan, a staff writer, and Rafael Marques, a journalist and activist, Forbes magazine reported that dos Santos had exploited her status as Angola's first daughter on her way to amassing a fortune that the magazine then put at $3 billion.

"As best as we can trace," the story said, "every major Angolan investment held by Dos Santos stems either from taking a chunk of a company that wants to do business in the country or from a stroke of the president's pen that cut her into the action."

To counter bad news, dos Santos hired Portugal's best-known public relations consultant, Luis Paixão Martins and his firm, LPM Communication, which specialized in what it called "online reputation management," "storyselling" and "media coaching."

PR operatives touted dos Santos' business and philanthropic achievements. Dos Santos granted interviews and began to appear on panels at high-profile corporate events.

In 2015, she opened an Instagram account that would soon become her online calling card and now reaches 187,000 followers with snippets of news and homespun wisdom. That July, she posted about her latest business, a shopping mall set to open in a Luanda suburb, and said it would create 600 new jobs. She added:

"Work 😀 and build…this is how dreams are realized 😉👍."

Isabel dos Santos and her father

Banks back away

As dos Santos sought to repair her reputation, the dispute with the dissident Unitel shareholder flared into the open. PT Ventures filed an arbitration complaint with the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, alleging that Unitel's Angolan shareholders had wrongly withheld board seats and dividends.

It also alleged that hundreds of millions in loans made to the dos Santos Dutch shell company were part of a "scheme to loot Unitel of its assets … for the benefit of Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of Angola's President."

Luanda Leaks documents show dos Santos signed off on the disputed loans as both borrower and the lender. Unitel couldn't show proof that its board had approved the loans. Dos Santos' company denied the looting allegations and said all decisions were made in "the best interests of Unitel."

Increasingly excluded from the mainstream Western financial world, the dos Santos empire needed capital. Defiant, dos Santos blamed anti-African bias and vowed to build "a true African network" of banks as an alternative.

"Africa has been cut out from financial institutions," dos Santos told business students in London in 2017. "There's a lot of discrimination," she said. "We have taken upon ourselves to build these banks."

She increasingly leaned on her African network, including Banco BIC Cabo Verde. The bank, which she part-owned, helped her businesses move huge sums – and saw profits skyrocket. From 2013 to 2017, the bank turned a 1.7 million euro ($2.3 million) loss into a 12.9 million euro ($15.5 million) profit, according to ICIJ partner Finance Uncovered.

In Europe, dos Santos relied on the last bank that remained friendly to her businesses: Banco BIC Portugues (now EuroBic), in which she owned nearly half of the shares. The bank's then-chairman, Fernando Teles, was a dos Santos business partner.

When dos Santos' husband inquired about an $11.9 million loan for his de Grisogono jewellery business, Mario Silva, the couple's business manager, confirmed that the financing would be provided. He said Teles could greenlight more bank loans. Teles did not respond to requests for comment.

Eventually, Banco BIC, too, came under government scrutiny. In 2015, Portuguese central bank regulators had begun investigating allegations of self-dealing along with hundreds of "high-risk'' transactions at Banco BIC, some involving dos Santos, according to a confidential central bank report, obtained by ICIJ's Portuguese partner Expresso.

The regulators probed lax anti-money-laundering procedures, inadequate due diligence on politically exposed people — including dos Santos, her husband and her mother — and the preferential $11.9 million loan to Dokolo for de Grisogono.

They found that the bank had failed to monitor multimillion-dollar transfers out of Angola to European-based companies linked to dos Santos, her husband and associates.

"The bank's internal control system is INEXISTENT," the report concluded.

Neither dos Santos nor anyone else was ever charged with wrongdoing. In a statement to ICIJ, a spokesman for the central bank, Banco de Portugal, said regulators ordered Banco BIC to tighten procedures.

In a recent interview with a Portuguese news organization, dos Santos criticized media coverage of the bank inquiry and said she was a victim of "sensationalism."

"There's nothing in the report that mentions me," she said.

From crisis, an opportunity

The 2014 collapse of world oil prices sparked Angola's biggest economic crisis in decades. As the months dragged on, trash piled up in the streets of Luanda. Public hospitals ran out of syringes and antimalarial drugs. Women gave birth by cell phone flashlight.

Angola had used oil as collateral for loans from China to build roads and dams. Now it could no longer pay its debts, and Beijing wasn't happy. Neither were Chevron, ExxonMobil and Total, which were also owed hundreds of millions of dollars. In the past, Sonangol had come to the rescue. But costs at Angola's state oil monopoly had ballooned during the flush years. Now it was going broke.

Amid the bad news, dos Santos companies found opportunity. On September 16, 2015, nothing less than the future of Sonangol was on the agenda at a meeting Isabel dos Santos attended that included Alexandre Gorito, a Luanda-based senior partner at U.S. consulting giant Boston Consulting Group.

Boston Consulting, hired by dos Santos advisers, pitched a 52-page plan to rescue the state oil company. Working with the Lisbon-based law firm Vieira de Almeida, Boston Consulting would seek to amend government rules and laws as part of a restructuring to increase Sonangol's efficiency, Luanda Leaks documents show.

The plan included a leading role for a Maltese company, Wise Intelligence Solutions. Its only shareholders were dos Santos and her husband. The consultants and lawyers also revised a draft presidential decree creating a special government commission to oversee the Sonangol overhaul.

One month later, President dos Santos issued the decree forming the special commission. The Ministry of Finance gave Wise a $9.3 million contract to advise the panel. Wise wouldn't work alone. One of the company's accountants told dos Santos' financial advisors in an email he believed Wise did "not have the human resources and specific know-how" to deliver without subcontractors.

Wise would go on to hire Boston Consulting, along with PwC. Dos Santos later said the Angolan government asked for her help because she had international private-sector experience. The Western firms she brought in, she said, were "advisers that had worked with me in the past and that I trusted."

Under the contract, Boston Consulting would propose a new operating model for the oil company. Boston Consulting received $3.7 million from Wise, the leaked records show. PwC was paid $273,000 and Vieira de Almeida lawyers at least $490,000. It's unclear how much Wise kept.

Vieira de Almeida spokeswoman Matilde Horta e Costa told ICIJ that the law firm "takes its client intake and risk management procedures very seriously" and never advised dos Santos as an individual client.

Boston Consulting spokeswoman Nidhi Sinha told The New York Times, an ICIJ partner, that in Angola the firm "reviewed the payment structures and contracts … to ensure compliance with established policies and avoid corruption and other risks."

Grand vision

After 35 years in power, President dos Santos signalled that he would soon step down. The global oil slump and ensuing economic free fall had led to a spiral of public protests, government repression and violence. With retirement looming, the president made bold moves that would benefit his daughter.

His administration awarded an array of public works contracts, saying it hoped to boost employment and put money in the pockets of Angolans. ICIJ's reporting shows, however, that some of the main beneficiaries were Isabel dos Santos' businesses or the large or politically connected firms and banks operating with her.

In October 2015, the president officially authorized the redevelopment project he had approved one month before the Areia Branca evictions. The green light came in a presidential decree that, ICIJ documents show, his daughter's lawyers in Portugal had helped to draft.

Documents sent to her personal email account show, dos Santos reviewed bids from two Portuguese construction firms and a higher quote from a Chinese state-owned construction firm, China Road and Bridge Corp. One month later, the general director of dos Santos' construction and development company, Landscape, announced that China Road had won the job with a bid $50 million higher than the lowest bid. The Chinese company provided good financing prospects from the superpower's trade agency, according to internal emails justifying the choice.

China Road was a favoured contracting partner of the Angolan government. At the time dos Santos' company chose China Road as a business partner, it was barred from participating in any project financed by the World Bank following allegations that the company engaged in "fraudulent practices" on road construction deals in the Philippines. China Road told ICIJ the company complies with the law and opposes all forms of corruption.

When a lawyer for the cash-strapped Ministry of Finance (MoF) said it couldn't afford to cover a $232.5 million budget overrun on the project, Isabel dos Santos dealt with it personally, records show.

Replying to her project coordinator on her iPhone 30 minutes after receiving news of the possible snag, dos Santos wrote: "I don't think it's a problem, because we'll talk to the MoF right away." She would help the ministry fill the multimillion-dollar hole by spearheading a consortium of local banks or identifying other sources of funds, dos Santos wrote.

While Isabel dos Santos partied away with other billionaires using state funds, many Angolans lived impoverished lives 

A Dutch trade agency agreed to provide credit insurance for the dredging and land reclamation part of the work, and the $1.3 billion job went forward. Urbinveste and another dos Santos company, Landscape, stood to receive about $531 million, more than 40% of the total spending. Some of that money was to be distributed to subcontractors, and it isn't clear how much Urbinveste and Landscape ultimately collected.

Dos Santos said in the BBC interview that she didn't profit from the deal. Leen Paape, a corporate governance professor at Nyenrode Business University in the Netherlands, examined Luanda Leaks records at the request of ICIJ partner, Trouw.

Urbinveste's budget contained red flags, Paape said, including $100 million earmarked for project management and other unspecified costs. Such a large amount for project management, he said, "is not normal."

The redevelopment plan quickly ran aground. Today, the site of the former Areia Branca community is an empty spit of sand dotted with grass and scrub trees. Many former Areia Branca residents live less than 200 yards away in a slum littered with dead birds and rotting food and swarming with flies and mosquitos. Residents live in small huts of corrugated tin and wood, some sitting atop a mix of sewage sludge and mud that comes in at high tide. Many share beds draped in mosquito nets.

Among them: Talitha Miguel, 41, a teacher and mother of four. On a Sunday afternoon in October 2019, she sat outside her shack with three friends, baking small golden brown cakes for the market amid the sound of radios blaring popular music. Flies hovered around them. Miguel said the pushed-out residents now have no running water and only sporadic electricity. The area periodically floods, and the water surges into their houses with waste from the bay.

"In Areia Branca, life was hard, but we had a fridge, a TV," Miguel said. The houses were bigger, and they didn't flood. "We could breathe pure air," she said. "We stayed in front of the sea. We had trees. We lived healthy."

Swift exit

From her seat in the VIP section, dos Santos watched as her father, José Eduardo dos Santos, walked a red carpet in Luanda's Republic Square. In September 2017, he handed over power at the inauguration of his handpicked successor, João Lourenço.

A former defense minister, Lourenço took office with a vow to tackle corruption. The dos Santos era was rapidly coming to a close.

Inside Sonangol, the scramble began. On November 7, 2017, two months after Lourenço's inauguration, the head of Sonangol's subsidiary in the United Kingdom learned that she was about to be replaced.

Maria Sandra Lopes Julio, chief of Sonangol's UK unit, said she was sitting in her office when Sonangol's CFO, Raikundalia, walked in.

"He began by informing me that the Board of Directors of Sonangol EP had decided on my resignation, as part of the ongoing transformation process, and that I would be replaced by Mrs. Maria Rodrigues," Julio wrote in a five-page letter to Angola's petroleum minister.

Julio wrote that Raikundalia told her that she wasn't being terminated for incompetence. In fact, he praised her performance.

"I couldn't help but be amazed," Julio wrote.

Three days after Julio's dismissal, Sonangol signed a contract for consulting services with Matter Business Solutions, the Dubai company owned by dos Santos' business partner, Paula Oliveira. Signing for Sonangol: The new U.K. chief, Rodrigues. Oliveira signed for Matter.

The signatures cleared the way for a massive payment to the consulting firm in Dubai.

In a telephone interview, Rodrigues told ICIJ that she had worked at Sonangol since the early 2000s. Her brother married, then divorced, a sister of José Eduardo dos Santos before he became president.

Rodrigues said that she remembers signing only one document during her short stint as Sonangol's U.K. chief, though she doesn't recall the subject, and that Sonangol CFO Raikundalia brought the document to London and asked her to sign. Rodrigues said she doesn't know Oliveira.

The contract stipulated that Sonangol would pay for past and future services provided by Matter. Five days later, on November 15, 2017, President Lourenço fired Isabel dos Santos as head of Sonangol.

The Angolan news agency reported the firing on a Wednesday at 1.31 p.m. At 6:30 pm that same day, Sonangol asked its Portuguese bankers to pay $38 million to the bank account of Matter Business Solutions. The transaction details appear on a payment order shared by dos Santos with the news agency Lusa. Dos Santos said she approved the transfer order before her dismissal.

Oliveira said the last-minute invoicing was an attempt to have accounts settled, "once Matter discovered what had happened regarding Ms. dos Santos, coupled with cash-flow issues that were occurring at Sonangol."

In all, confidential Songangol records reviewed by ICIJ show, the oil company's bank executed three payments worth about $58 million to Matter Business Solutions on the day after the president announced her dismissal, November 16.

Three months later, dos Santos' successor at Sonangol, Carlos Saturnino, held a five-hour press conference and accused her of mismanagement. He said her tenure, which lasted less than 18 months, had been marked by improper business practices — including excessive compensation, conflict of interest, tax avoidance and an excessive number of consultants.

Saturnino alleged that dos Santos had approved upward of $135 million in consulting fees, with most of those fees going to the Dubai consulting company.

He identified 13 companies that had been paid for consulting services, including five with ties to dos Santos. Four others were her trusted advisers: the Lisbon law firm Vieira de Almeida and the global consulting giants PwC, Boston Consulting and McKinsey & Company.

Saturnino didn't respond to repeated requests for comment by ICIJ and partners. Dos Santos said in a recent interview that the payments were for legitimate services that consultants had already delivered.

She also offered a detailed response in a 10-page letter to Saturnino. Dos Santos wrote that when she was still head of Sonangol, its board approved the contract to the Dubai company, Matter Business Solutions.

Matter Business had been responsible for managing consultants for the Sonangol restructuring, she said, adding that she had no connection to the firm. Dos Santos said she abstained from voting on the contract "to ensure no conflict of interest."

Through her lawyers, Oliveira told ICIJ that dos Santos "has no legal or management role in Matter whatsoever" and that she is not an owner.

"The fees paid to Matter for their consultancy services were legitimately occurred and fully recorded in Matter's audited account," the lawyers said. "Any allegations that Matter or Ironsea were involved in (or set up to facilitate) the embezzlement of funds from Sonangol is patently false."

In the weeks and months after the firing, dos Santos proclaimed her innocence on Twitter and Instagram. She denied ever engaging in favouritism or receiving improper payments.

"It's nothing but a circus, a performance," she said in the interview with the Lusa news agency.

She dismissed unflattering stories as "fake news," called billing allegations unfounded and blamed her predecessor at Sonangol for overspending.

"I like to think that I have responsibility for the breadwinners of many families," she said. "We worked at Sonangol with a sense of mission, with a spirit to save the company, and we did it."

In March 2018, Angolan prosecutors opened a preliminary probe, and a court issued a summons for dos Santos to appear for questioning in July.

She didn't appear. She claims she didn't receive the request.

Under siege

Dos Santos' entire business empire was under siege. The arbitration panel at the International Chamber of Commerce ordered Unitel, which she co-owned with Sonangol, to pay its Portuguese shareholder, PT Ventures, more than $650 million for breach of contract. Her lawyers told ICIJ that the arbitration court found the controversial loans to her shell company caused "no damage." The ruling is confidential.

President Lourenço cancelled her public works contracts, including the Luanda redevelopment plan. Angolan authorities said they uncovered overpayments and other irregularities such as phony invoices, noncompetitive bidding and improper subcontracting.

Angola's state diamond-trading company severed ties to dos Santos, and her diamond exploration licences were revoked. The head of the state diamond company, Eugénio Pereira Bravo da Rosa, told ICIJ partners that its investment in Dokolo's luxury jewellery business was a financial disaster. The company expects losses on the deal to exceed $200 million, Bravo da Rosa said.

Pressed by ICIJ, Angolan officials last month released more than 400 pages of documents from Sonangol about dos Santos' business activities, including emails and financial records and invoices submitted by Matter Business.

In responses through lawyers, dos Santos questioned the veracity of documents ICIJ reviewed. Last year, the day before Christmas, dos Santos said, she got news from a group on WhatsApp. A court in Angola had frozen her personal bank accounts, those of her husband and her stakes in some of the country's largest companies, including phone provider Unitel.

The government said the couple and Silva, the financial adviser, were suspected of causing Angola to lose more than $1 billion through business deals gone awry. According to investigators, Portuguese police intercepted $11 million that dos Santos tried to transfer to Russia.

Dos Santos called the allegations false and vowed a legal fight. Angolan prosecutors say they are collaborating with authorities in the U.S., U.K., Switzerland, Brazil, Portugal and Congo. They say the intricacy of dos Santos' shell empire is making the job difficult. So far, they have uncovered 31 companies with links to dos Santos outside Angola, prosecutors said.

ICIJ found many more. Since 1992, dos Santos and her husband have created or invested in at least 400 companies and subsidiaries in 41 countries, an ICIJ review found. Ninety four of these companies are registered in secrecy jurisdictions, including Dubai, Mauritius and the British Virgin Islands, ICIJ found.

'It's Armageddon'

Many companies and executives who did business with dos Santos declined to say anything about their relationships with her.

After receiving detailed questions from ICIJ and its partner the BBC, accounting giant PwC said it planned to terminate its relationship with dos Santos family businesses.

Van Oord said it learned of the 2013 evictions only after questions from ICIJ partners Trouw and Het Financieele Dagblad. The families were removed before the company's involvement in the project. It promised to "use its leverage" with the Angolan government and contractors to ensure compensation.

Angolan authorities have identified only Isabel dos Santos, her husband and Silva as criminal suspects.

In an unrelated case, her brother, José Filomeno dos Santos, is accused of helping transfer $500 million from Angola's sovereign wealth fund to the U.K. The Angolan parliament recently voted to impeach Isabel dos Santos' half-sister Welwitschea dos Santos.

In voicemail messages left with an ICIJ reporter, Welwitschea dos Santos denied any financial link to Isabel or her father. She accused President Lourenço of getting her kicked out of Parliament, and she has appealed the decision. "I believe none of the sides are right," she said.

José Filomeno de Sousa did not respond to a letter seeking comment, nor did Isabel dos Santos' top lieutenant, Silva. Her lawyer, Brito Pereira, also didn't respond.

Her husband, Dokolo, denied using offshore entities to improperly avoid taxation. He blamed the new government for his and his wife's problems. Dokolo said through his lawyer the couple had been the victim of a hacking attack and that ICIJ's questions may be based on forged documents.

"It's Armageddon," Dokolo told Radio France Internationale. "The regime claims to act in the name of the fight against corruption, but it does not attack the agents of public companies accused of embezzlement, just a family operating in the private sector," he said.

No Western company has been accused of any wrongdoing in the Angolan government's investigation. Isabel dos Santos' father has also not been named.

The current president, João Lourenço, did not respond to allegations that he is conducting a "witch hunt" against the dos Santos family. Lourenço also did not comment on criticisms that his administration hasn't done enough to fight corruption.

Isabel dos Santos continues to insist that she made all her money during her father's rule solely by "taking risks and hard work."

President Lourenço's government, she says, is seeking to undermine "the legacy of President dos Santos and what he has achieved."

"There is an orchestrated attack by the current government that is completely politically motivated," she said in the BBC interview.

The family says it no longer feels at home in Angola. José Eduardo dos Santos lives in a heavily guarded, walled compound in an upscale neighborhood of Barcelona. Isabel has moved back to London, where her children attend school.

Dos Santos says that she can't go back because she fears for her safety and that she remains committed to Angola. In interviews with British and Portuguese media outlets, she emphasized that her companies are among the country's biggest taxpayers and employ thousands. She told Bloomberg News that she worries the asset freeze could doom her companies.

Until her recent legal struggles, dos Santos often shuttled between Lisbon and London while attending conferences in New York, Russia and China. This month, dos Santos was scheduled to attend a gathering of the global elite, the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland. Unitel is a partner.

Last week, the Forum said she would not be attending.

Article republished with slight edits from International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

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‘Siyinza kuganza mwana ne kitaawe

Bya PATRICK KIBIRANGO ne LAWRENCE MUKASA ABATUUZE b'e Namungoona baalabye katemba omukozi ne mukama we bwe beerangidde ebisongonvu lwa kumugoba ku mulimu n'agamba nti, kino kyavudde ku kugaana kuganza...

Court adjourns Shs 142bn Basajjabalaba case indefinitely

The Constitutional court has adjourned indefinitely passing judgement in the case in which businessman Hassan Basajjabalaba was dragged over his Shs 142 billion compensation.

This is the fourth time the panel of five Constitutional court judges led by Kenneth Kakuru has failed to deliver their ruling. The other justices on the panel include Elizabeth Musoke, Geoffrey Kiryabwire, Stephen Musota and Cheborion Barishaki.

Kakuru said today Thursday that the case file is huge and new submissions, which he didn't reveal, keep emerging even when the judgement is ready. He explained that once they are satisfied with the harmonization of the issues, they will be delivering it on notice instead of working under too much pressure.

However, a lawyer who was in court and preferred anonymity alleges that the judges must be doctoring something in the verdict, arguing that it's rare for the Constitutional court to send judgement notices to parties like they did when indeed the judgement is not ready.

The case arises from October 2010 and April 2011, when Basajjabalaba and his five companies using guarantees issued by the Bank of Uganda obtained $65 million (about Shs 238 billion) from four commercial banks including United Bank of Africa (UBA), Orient bank, Bank of Baroda and Tropical bank but failed to pay back the loan.   

Basajjabalaba had been guaranteed the loans in question on allegations that he demanded government money in form of compensation to cater for losses caused to him as a result of the cancellation of contracts he had signed with the defunct Kampala City Council (KCC) to develop several city markets.

The businessman was reportedly meant to manage and develop markets including Shauriyako, Nakivubo, Nakawa and the Constitutional Square, but the same contract had allegedly been entered without the advice of the attorney general.

Following this, a committee was set up to verify Basajjabalaba's claims against the government and it was found that his claim was worth only Shs 54.7 billion and not Shs 142 billion as he claimed. However, Basajjabalaba was not satisfied with the money and thus appealed to President Yoweri Museveni who also directed the then-attorney general Prof Khiddu Makubuya to handle the matter expeditiously.

Makubuya suggested that Basajjabalaba gets a compensation of Shs 142.7 billion and Shs 29.9 billion for the Nakawa market. Legal Brains Trust challenged the procedure leading to the compensation, citing that it was fraudulent and demanded that Basajjabalaba and 19 other respondents refund the money in question.

The petitioner argued that the respondents conspired to commit corruption since the transactions were erroneously made. However, Basajjabalaba and his companies through their lawyers led by Caleb Alaka told court that the compensation was lawful since it was sanctioned by both parliament and the then Finance minister. 

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Okulonda kwa Ssentebe wa NRM e Mityna kuzzeemu kigoye wezinge

Bya Sofi Nalule   Okulonda Sentebe wa NRM owa disitulikiti ye Mityana kwawuddemu abawagizi n'abamu ku babadde besunga okukwatira ekibiina bendera.   Wetwogerera bino nga Abraham Luzzi aludde nga...

Good News: Apple’s Low-Cost iPhone To Hit Market Soon

Truth be told, iPhone has a very good position on the list of good mobile phones in the world. It's a dream gadget to many people but because if its high cost (if you need a brand new one), owning one is still a mystery It's for that matter that Apple decided to manufacture a […]

The post Good News: Apple's Low-Cost iPhone To Hit Market Soon appeared first on Chano8.

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Mukuume obumu musobole okwekulaakulanya

Bya Lilian Nalubega Bazzukulu ba Nsamba abeddira Engabi balamaze ku butaka bwabwe e Buwanda omutaka Nsamba n'abakuutira omwaka guno bagutambulize ku mulamwa ogw'okuba obumu n'okukola ennyo basobole...

3 Chinese cities on lockdown over deadly virus

China decided Thursday to lock down three cities that are home to more than 18 million people in an unprecedented effort to try to contain a deadly new viral illness that has sickened hundreds and spread to other cities and countries in the Lunar New Year travel rush.

Police, SWAT teams and paramilitary troops guarded Wuhan's train station, where metal barriers blocked the entrances at 10 am sharp. Only travellers holding tickets for the last trains were allowed to enter, with those booked for later trains being turned away.

Normally bustling streets, shopping malls, restaurants and other public spaces in the city of 11 million people were eerily quiet. In addition to the train station, airport, ferry, subway and bus services were also halted.

Similar measures will take effect from Friday in the nearby cities of Huanggang and Ezhou. Theatres, internet cafes and other entertainment centres were also ordered closed, further increasing the economic costs of the response to the outbreak.

"To my knowledge, trying to contain a city of 11 million people is new to science," Gauden Galea, the World Health Organization's representative in China, told The Associated Press in an interview at the WHO's Beijing office. "It has not been tried before as a public health measure. We cannot at this stage say it will or it will not work."

The illnesses from a newly identified coronavirus first appeared last month in Wuhan, an industrial and transportation hub in central China's Hubei province. The vast majority of mainland China's 571 cases have been in the city.

Other cases have been reported in the United States, Japan, South Korea and Thailand. One case was confirmed Thursday in Hong Kong after one was earlier confirmed in Macao. Most cases outside China were people from Wuhan or who had recently travelled there.

A total of 17 people have died, all of them in and around Wuhan. Their average age was 73, with the oldest 89 and the youngest 48. Images obtained from inside Wuhan following the closure showed long lines and empty shelves at supermarkets, as residents stocked up for what could be weeks of relative isolation.

That appeared to be an over-reaction, since no restrictions have been placed on trucks carrying supplies into the city, although many Chinese still have strong memories of shortages and privations in the years before the country's recent economic boom. Such sweeping measures are typical of China's authoritarian communist government, although their effectiveness in containing the outbreak remains uncertain.

Local authorities in Wuhan have demanded all residents wear masks in public places and urged government staff to wear them at work and for shopkeepers to post signs for their visitors, Xinhua news agency quoted a government notice as saying.

Xinhua cited the city's anti-virus task force as saying the measures were taken in an attempt to "effectively cut off the virus spread, resolutely curb the outbreak and guarantee the people's health and safety."

Liu Haihan left Wuhan last Friday after visiting her boyfriend there. She said everything was normal then, before human-to-human transmission of the virus was confirmed. But things have changed rapidly.

"(My boyfriend) didn't sleep much yesterday. He disinfected his house and stocked up on instant noodles," Liu said. "He's not really going out. If he does he wears a mask."

The significant increase in illnesses reported just this week come as millions of Chinese travel for the Lunar New Year, one of the world's largest annual migrations of people. Chinese are expected to take an estimated 3 billion trips during the 40-day spike in travel.

While state broadcaster CCTV has largely ignored the outbreak to emphasize traditional observances of the festival, reports have filtered in of events such as temple fairs being canceled in cities including Beijing.

Analysts have predicted the reported cases will continue to multiply.

"Even if (the number of cases) are in the thousands, this would not surprise us," the WHO's Galea said, adding, however, that the number of cases is not an indicator of the outbreak's severity, so long as the mortality rate remains low.

The coronavirus family includes the common cold as well as viruses that cause more serious illnesses, such as the SARS outbreak that spread from China to more than a dozen countries in 2002-2003 and killed about 800 people, and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome, which developed from camels.

China is keen to avoid repeating mistakes with its handling of SARS. For months, even after the illness had spread around the world, China parked patients in hotels and drove them around in ambulances to conceal the true number of cases and avoid WHO experts.

In the current outbreak, China has been credited with sharing information rapidly, and President Xi Jinping has emphasized that as a priority.

"Party committees, governments and relevant departments at all levels must put people's lives and health first," Xi said Monday. "It is necessary to release epidemic information in a timely manner and deepen international cooperation."

Health authorities were taking extraordinary measures to prevent additional person-to-person transmissions, placing those suspected to be infected in plastic tubes and wheeled boxes where air passed through filters.

The first cases in the Wuhan outbreak were connected to people who worked at or visited a seafood market, which has since been closed for an investigation. Experts suspect the virus was first transmitted from wild animals but the virus also may be mutating. Mutations can make it deadlier or more contagious.

WHO plans another meeting of scientific experts Thursday on whether to recommend declaring the outbreak a global health emergency, which it defines as an "extraordinary event" that constitutes a risk to other countries and requires a coordinated international response.

Many countries are screening travelers from China for illness, especially those arriving from Wuhan. North Korea has banned foreign tourists, a step it also took during the SARS outbreak and in recent years due to Ebola. Most foreigners going to North Korea are Chinese or travel there through neighboring China.

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Comedian Salvado Idringi To Celebrate 10 Years In The Industry As Africa Laughs Returns

February 14th 2020 which will be Valentine's Day will also be one of the most memorable and special days in the life of award-winning comedian Patrick 'Salvado' Idringi as he will be celebrating 10 years in the industry as well as his 35th Birthday. Salvado who is arguably Uganda's funniest man is set to take […]

The post Comedian Salvado Idringi To Celebrate 10 Years In The Industry As Africa Laughs Returns appeared first on Chano8.

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With inequality rising, does the world really need billionaires?

As world leaders rub shoulders with billionaire executives at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of cities around the world demanding action against growing inequality.

The WEF, in the ski resort of Davos-Klosters, has been an annual event for the world's richest elite since its foundation in 1971. It has also become an anathema for those who claim global inequality is out of control. In cities around the world including Nairobi, Delhi, Manila and London, thousands of people joined street protests in the run up to the forum.

Antonia Musonga, who is coordinating protests in Kenya under the Fighting Equality Alliance, explained why his group has taken to the streets of Nairobi.

"The time to abolish billionaires is now," Musonga told VOA. "Because what it means for us is that those people with a lot of wealth, they also have access to power, privilege, influence over our democracy and how we live our lives today."

There are over 2,100 billionaires in the world. A report by charity group Oxfam says they own more wealth than the poorest 4.6 billion people on Earth -  and the gap between rich and poor is widening, with half the world's population living in poverty.

Anti-government demonstrations have erupted in more than 30 countries in recent months, from Chile to France, South Africa to South Korea. Their political aims may vary but they share the same anger, says Oxfam's Amitabh Behar.

"Across the world, there is a narrative of anger," Behar said. "People are coming to the streets and they're essentially asking, 'do we need billionaires in this world?' And that's the critical question that the World Economic Forum should try and answer. The billionaires need to pay their taxes but I think the real responsibility lies with the government. Government needs to ensure that everybody pays the right taxes."

A global survey by the American public relations firm Edelman shows that rising income inequality is undermining confidence in capitalism around the world, with 56 per cent of respondents saying it was doing more harm than good, despite a year of economic growth in many developed countries.

"I think people in the developed countries had had an idea that, in fact, you work hard, you're going to make it to the next level in the next generation. That's not true now," says Edelman's Chief Executive Officer, Richard Edelman.

The forum's founder, Klaus Schwab, insists Davos is not just a mountaintop billionaire's party.

"It's a place where you really can talk to the leaders of governments, business and so on, and you'll find good open ears to listen to you and to act together with you," Schwab said on the eve of the summit.

With the focus this year on the climate emergency and campaigner Greta Thunberg a star speaker, Davos is doing its best to shed its image as a hideaway for the super-rich. Most observers say there's some way to go yet.

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Amaanyi gange gaakendeera

NNINA emyaka 27 naye amaanyi g'ekisajja ndabika nnina matono. Bwe mala okwegatta ndwawo okuddamu okuyunga. Nkolera safaali era obudde obusinga nkomawo nga njagala kusanyusa mukyala wange. Njagala ddagala....

Body of Ugandan shot dead in Rwanda repatriated

The body of a Ugandan national, Teojen Ndagijimana recently shot dead last week by Rwandan security operatives has been brought back into the country.

Ndagijimana, 25, a resident of Kabingo village, Murora sub-county in Kisoro district was shot dead on Saturday at Kumugu trading centre Musanze district in Rwanda, about three kilometres away from the Ugandan border.

Ndagijmana was shot together with two Rwandans, Erike Biizimana and Emmanuel Mbabazi - all residents of Burera in Rwanda. According to residents, Ndagijimana and his brother identified as Augustine Gatsiri had crossed to Rwanda through the porous border to smuggle into Rwanda tea bags.

Each of them was carrying a sack containing teabags worth 35 kilograms. Ndagijmana's body was handed over today Wednesday to Ugandan authorities at Chanika border at around 12:30 pm amidst tight security from both countries.The body was taken to Chahafi health centre IV for post-mortem.

Burera district mayor, Marie Chantal Uwanyirigira and senior superintendent of police, Jean Bosco Rudasingwa led the Rwandan delegation while Uganda's delegation was led by Captain Peter Mugisha, Kisoro resident district commissioner, Ruhunde Christopher and James Nsaba Buturo the MP for Bujumbura County East.

Rwandan security operatives had reportedly planned to hand over the body yesterday Tuesday night at around 10:00 pm, but Ugandan authorities rejected the move, questioning the motive of handing over the body in darkness. 

While handing over the body, Uwanyirigira said that although the shooting incident is unfortunate, Ugandans must desist from crossing to Rwanda through porous borders because Rwandan security have orders that they will follow to the latter. She said that Rwandan laws strongly prohibit smuggling and drug trafficking. 

"We're sorry as Rwandans, it was not a planned action because we're friends and the only message I can tell all Rwandans and Ugandans is to respect the order from Rwanda and all countries. In Rwanda, it is not allowed to use drugs and transport drugs. It is not allowed. Also, smuggling is not good and the only reason [they were shot] is because when they have been arrested by our security officials, they tried to be aggressive towards our security organs. It was a way of handling the case because they wanted to kill our security organs. The incident took place when he was with two people from Rwanda and the Rwandans are also dead. But next time it is good to respect the order we have." said Uwanyirigira.

Captain Mugisha urged Ugandans to remain calm and not retaliate in any form despite being annoyed at the shootings since Rwanda closed its border to Uganda in February 2019. In November last year, Rwandan security officials also shot and killed two Ugandans John Bosco Tuhirirwe, 30, a resident of Nyakabungo village in Kyabihangwa parish and Job Byarushaga, 37 for illegally crossing into Rwanda.

Earlier in May 2019, John Batista Ncherengye, a Rwandan national and Alex Nyesiga Atuheire, a Ugandan national and resident of Nyakabungo village in Rukiga district in western Uganda were shot dead admittedly by Rwandan security officers from inside Ugandan territory. 

"People are not happy and will not be happy. You cannot lose your beloved one and become happy. Let us first burry then we shall come back to sit with the LCs in meetings to see how best we can handle the situation since the government is handling the situation government to government. For us, we're going to handle the situation as locals. But I tell them not to be so annoyed to the level of fighting." said Mugisha. 

Ugandans stage a peaceful protest at the Uganda-Rwanda border following the killing of Teojen Ndagijimana

Ever since Rwanda closed its borders with Uganda to purportedly expedite the construction of the single customs at Gatuna border tensions between the two countries have hit pitch high. Several delegations and meetings set out by either country have failed to resolve the outstanding issues and the mantle has now been passed unto Presidents Yoweri Museveni and Paul Kagame.

The presidents, it had been reported were set to hold talks in London, during the UK-Africa Investment Summit this week but no further communication has since come out of both camps to suggest that the meeting indeed took place. Kagame accuses Ugandan authorities of abducting Rwandan citizens and locking them up in ungazetted areas.

He also accuses Uganda of hosting and facilitating dissidents especially Rwanda National Congress and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, who have declared war on the Kigali government.

Rwanda advised its citizens against travelling to Uganda, saying it can't guarantee their safety and even those seeking education, food and health services have been blocked. Uganda, on the other hand, accuses Rwanda of infiltrating its security agencies including the army, police and intelligence organs to carry out espionage activities. Earlier this month, Uganda withdrew charges of illegal possession of firearms from nine Rwandans and freed them back to Rwanda as 'gesture of goodwill' aimed at cooling the tensions. 

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Huge tree blocks Kampala-Jinja road

Traffic flow along the Kampala-Jinja road has been paralysed after a huge tree fell in the middle of the road in Banda.

The eucalyptus tree fell on the road at around 12 pm. Motorists were stuck for several hours along the busy road stretching from Kyambogo all the way to Kireka.

The tree hit one vehicle whose driver was yet-to-be identified. Kintu Kiryoowa an eyewitness said the tree fell abruptly hitting the Corona. Another woman who identified herself as Natukunda said the driver was removed from the car unconscious and rushed to hospital. 

Fire brigade team, traffic and OCs from Banda and Jinja road were deployed to cut and remove the fallen tree. 

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Inside Gen Museveni, Mbabazi Kisozi meet

Photos of President Museveni and former Prime Minister John Patrick Amama Mbabazi in a private meeting on New Year's Eve stirred an intense political debate on social media.

The meeting happened at the president's Kisozi ranch in the central district of Gomba. The presidential team that posted the photos on social media didn't provide any detail stirring up a speculation frenzy. To some, the meeting had actualized a long-held rumour of Mbabazi's possible return to cabinet or to the NRM where he was the all-powerful secretary general until his ouster in December 2014 when he declared his presidential run against Museveni.

Mbabazi's 2016 presidential challenge scarred his four-decade friendship with President Museveni. At Kisozi, Museveni took Mbabazi on a tour of the farm before resting under a tent.

Mbabazi is seen in photos holding an envelope. The envelope, according to well-placed sources, contained correspondences Mbabazi had shared with Museveni about the Brazzaville Foundation – a UK based international charity, where Mbabazi serves as a member of its advisory board.

"About three weeks earlier, Mbabazi had sent Museveni an invitation to join other African heads of state in Lomé [Togo] for the launch of the Lomé initiative on fake drugs and drug trafficking. Originally, Museveni had scheduled to meet Mbabazi over the invitation on January 4 but pushed it forward to December 31," a source said.

Museveni reportedly called Mbabazi in the morning on December 31 and asked him to find him at Kisozi.

Mbabazi had been expected to issue a statement about the meeting but changed plans and "decided to enjoy" the speculation on social media. He went as far as joking at a gathering that everything was set for him to become a Resident District Commissioner (RDC) for Nakapiripirit district.

THE LOMÉ INITIATIVE

The Observer at the time was however told that Mbabazi's mission was to follow up on the Brazzaville Foundation's invitation to Museveni to attend the heads of state summit, which was held last week in the Togolese capital Lomé.

Mbabazi sits on the organisation's advisory board together with José Ramos-Horta, a Nobel peace prize winner, Olusegun Obasanjo, former Nigerian president, Kgalema Motlanthe who served as President of South Africa between September 2008 and May 2009 and Kabiné Komara, the former prime minister of Guinea.

Others are philanthropist Cecilia Attias, Pär Stenbäck, the former general secretary of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Sundeep Waslekar, the president of the Strategic Foresight Group, Mathews Phosa, the former general treasurer of South Africa's ruling party ANC and Amara Essy, Ivory Coast's former Foreign Affairs minister.

Amama Mbabazi (3R) welcomes Museveni in Lomé

Prince Michael of Kent, a paternal first cousin of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II is the organisation's patron. According to a statement released by the organization, its primary objective is to develop economic, environmental and conflict prevention initiatives to promote sustainable development, strengthen the rule of law, and facilitate peaceful cooperation on the African continent.

"It takes its name and inspiration from the Brazzaville Accords, signed in the Congolese capital on December 13, 1988. A key moment in modern African history, the Accords are an example of Africans taking the lead, negotiating a peaceful resolution to the South African conflict, thereby paving the way for the end of Apartheid," reads a statement issued by the foundation.

 Museveni attended the summit with presidents; Macky Sall (Senegal), Mahamadou Issoufou (Niger), Nana Akufo-Addo (Ghana), Adama Barrow (The Gambia), Denis Sassou-Nguesso (Congo) and the host Faure Gnassingbe (Togo).

The summit discussed the growing global threat posed by the trafficking of fake medicines. It is estimated that between 10 and 15 per cent of all pharmaceutical products sold around the world are falsified.

The situation is said to be worse in Africa, with some regions recording as high as 60 percentage of falsified medicines, which has caused the death of nearly 122,000 children before the fifth birthday.

The foundation took up the fight against fake medicines in March 2017 in Oyo, Congo, leading to two major operations by Interpol in 2018. Meanwhile, Uganda's beef will have 'space' in the United Kingdom market, thanks to a commitment by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Addressing the UK-Africa investment summit in London on Monday morning, Johnson displayed unusual charm to the African leaders, underlining the need for closer business with the UK.

On Uganda, he said "I told H.E Kaguta Museveni that his beef cattle will have an honored place on the tables of Britain."

Immediately, State Minister for Investment Evelyn Anite, also attending the summit, called this an opportunity tweeting "Big thanks to PM. Boris for this great opportunity for the Ugandan beef farmers."

sadabkk@observer.ug

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Ziza Bafana releases maiden song under new management

By Hussein Kiganda The panic that the self proclaimed katonda wa ragga, Ziza Bafana has been in is unexplainable. From one management to the other, Ziza ran from manager Roja to other managements and now finally to Masika management, which is headed by a lady called Masika. To prove his worth back into the industry, […]
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Boda boda rider arrested over UPDF dog tag chain

A boda boda rider Paul Mugerwa has been arrested and detained at Kawempe police station over alleged illegal possession of a Uganda People's Defense Forces (UPDF) chain commonly known as dog tag.   

Mugerwa, a resident of Kiganda Zone in Kawempe Division, Kampala was arrested by police officers deployed at Paniafrica Company Limited when they saw him wearing the UPDF chain, which contains the registration number and name of individual UPDF soldiers.   

The officers questioned Mugerwa on the particulars of the chain but he had no idea - leading to his arrest and subsequent detention at Kawepe police station. 

The name tag belongs to R/A214238 Deo Nandyaka, a UPDF soldier. In his statement at Kawempe police station, Mugerwa claims that he picked the chain from Big Brother House bar in Kawempe. 

Deputy Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson, Luke Owoyesigire, says that Mugerwa is being held on charges of illegal possession of government stores as police try to track the owner of the UPDF chain.

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Abeddira Engabi balabuddwa ku kufumbiriganywa

Bya Lilian Nalubega Omutaka Aloysius Lubega Magandaazi, omukulu w'ekika ky'Engabi Ensamba avumiridde eky'abazzukulu mu kika kino abadda ku bazzukulu ba Kannyana ne babawasa n'agamba nti, gano gaba mawemukirano...

Eddy Kenzo Surprises Fans With His Immaculate Skills Behind The Bar Counter

Last Friday, or rather Saturday morning, was yet another epic moment as one of Uganda's biggest artistes Eddy Kenzo served his fans with 'Semwekozo' Cocktails. It was the BET award winner's turn to showcase what he had up his sleeves when it comes to bartending. The 'Stamina' singer real name Edrisah Musuuza despite being muslim, […]

The post Eddy Kenzo Surprises Fans With His Immaculate Skills Behind The Bar Counter appeared first on Chano8.

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Capital Shoppers, Tuskys' bakeries closed over poor hygiene

Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) has closed several bakeries belonging to top supermarkets around Kampala for failure to adhere to basic health standards.

The bakeries include that of Capital Shoppers in Ntinda and Nakawa branches, Tuskys supermarket Ntinda and Nansana branches, and Mega Standard on Burton street. Others are S&S supermarket in Nkumba and Outlet bakery at Freedom City.

In a statement issued by UNBS on Tuesday, the closed bakeries had filthy operating areas that put the lives of the consumers at risk. The standards body posted pictures online showing dirty water, and unwashed utensils used to bake.

In a statement, UNBS said it held a sensitization meeting with the owners of the bakeries last October. It cautioned supermarket owners against poor hygiene and selling of products that are not certified.

Outside Kampala, the agency also closed several bakeries in Mbale, Arua and Masindi. The standards body warned supermarkets to remove expired products from their shelves, ensure foodstuffs are not mixed with detergents or perfumes.

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Kkooti egobye egimu ku misango egyaggulwa ku bali ku gwa Kaweesi

Abantu bano mu kiseera kino bali mu kkomera ku bigambibwa nti beenyigira mu kutemula Kaweesi kyokka mu kiseera kye kimu, baggulwako omusango gw'okubeera abayeekera b'ekibiina kya ADF. Bano kuliko Abubaker...

Ekyabadde mu ntujjo ya ‘Floral & Cocktail Party’ e Munyonyo

Ekyabadde mu ntujjo ya 'Floral & Cocktail Party' e Munyonyo ebyana gye byalagidde emisono n'emibiri nga bwe balya obulamu. Bannakampala abali b'obulamu beezira kuwulira wali masanyu nga basitukiramu...

Three trainees die during police training

Two female and one male trainee have died at the ongoing military training at Police Training School (PTS) at Kabalye in Masindi district.

4500 Probation Police Constables (PPCs) and 500 Learner Assistant Inspectors of Police (LAIPs) started a one-year police course in September last year.

It is alleged that two female trainees lost their lives due to over bleeding after they got miscarriages during the 52 days of training. Police spokesperson Fred Enanga said he was still waiting for a report from PTS commandant, ACP Abubaker Ziwedde. Nevertheless, Enanga said it is not unusual for trainees to die during this kind of training. 

"Usually, during some of the rigorous training programs, of course, due to dehydration and so on, there are those trainees who get so weak. But we shall need to find out at least; based on the postmortem report what was the cause of death? Was it something arising out of natural or unnatural causes?" said Enanga.  

Though details of the victims have remained scanty, a source at Naguru police headquarters said a special probe has been set up to understand how pregnant ladies were admitted for the training because it is against the recruitment procedures.

"After the death of female trainees whose death was attributed to miscarriage as a result of rigorous exercises, a fresh medical examination was conducted and three other ladies were found pregnant. They are still stuck at the school," said the source.

A source said the trainees died because of intense military training that is always undertaken by all police trainees in their first two months commonly referred to as '52 days of sleepless nights.' It is said one female trainee dropped dead in the fourth week, while another female and male trainee died in November and December respectively.

Nevertheless, the source put the death toll to five so far, while those that are sick are eight. At least 20 military trainees arrived at PTS to take the recruits into rigorous military training in September two weeks after they had arrived for the course.  

The recruitment exercise that started in July last year was marred with scandals after 130 recruits were rejected upon reaching the school because they had incorrect academic papers and health documents.

Inspector general of police, Martins Okoth Ochola ordered for fresh scrutiny of all files of trainees and it was established that over 2,100 were above the required age. For PPCs, they were supposed to be between 18 and 22 years, while LAIPs were supposed to be between 23 and 25 years old.

With almost half of the trainees being overage, the police's policy advisory committee (PAC) chaired by Ochola resolved to tactically re-advertise 2000 vacancies purposely to accommodate the 2000 recruits who were on the verge of being turned down. The age qualification was amended from 22 to 25 years for PPCs and 25 to 28 for LAIPs.

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Kawempe Imam arrested over defiling 15-year-old girl

Residents of Kawempe, a Kampala suburb have arrested and handed over to police the Imam of Bilali Mosque in Bwaise for allegedly defiling a 15-year-old girl.

Sheik Muhammad Abdullah Kefeero, 40, a resident of Nabukalu zone in Kawempe division, was arrested by the residents and taken to Kawempe police station after they allegedly found him pants-down and about to have sex with the senior-one girl of Bumutanzi senior school inside his shop last week on Thursday. 

 

According to Fred Mutesasira, the area defense secretary, he has been receiving information that Kafeero has been using religion to lure young girls into sexual acts with him.

"Last week, I received another complaint about the same person that there is a girl whom he has been teaching the Koran and later defiles her, I monitored him and informed police, secretly we visited his shop in Bwaise and we found him locked inside his shop defiling the girl," Mutesasira added.  

Deputy police spokesperson for Kampala Luke Owoyesigyire confirmed Kafeero's arrest by the community. 

 

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PLE: Uneb withholds results of 1,512 candidates

The Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) has withheld results of over 1500 candidates who sat for last year's Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) pending completion of investigations over possible exam malpractice.

Today, Friday Uneb released the 2019 PLE results of 695,804 candidates from 13,475 centers. Of these, 473,893 (68.2 per cent) were Universal Primary Education (UPE) candidates and 221,912 (31.8 per cent) privately sponsored candidates. Uneb executive secretary Dan N. Odongo said the board has withheld results of 1,512 candidates from about 40 examination centers, but unlike in previous times, the board will henceforth not release details of the schools whose results are still under investigation.

"Yes, we have not displayed that list [of withheld results] this time. When the examination security committee gives them [candidates] a hearing, some of the results may be released. [However], schools have complained to us before that once we display them in the media and eventually acquitted, there's some damage done to them," Odongo said at Kampala Parents, a private school.

It was the first time Uneb was releasing results from outside its premises or ministry of Education offices. Education and Sports minister Janet Museveni justified the release of the results from Kampala Parents, saying that the Office of the President conference hall in Kampala which usually hosts this function had a malfunction with its air conditioning system.

Odongo insisted that the board has taken a deliberate decision to first conclude the fair hearings to candidates – in about three weeks – then display schools and districts from which results will have been cancelled.

"This is what we shall be doing from now and in the future. Those candidates who will be cleared will have their results released," he said.

"This is much lower than the 3,346 withheld in 2018. Schools whose results are withheld will be notified through their district inspectors of schools," he added.

Although the examination was conducted smoothly, cases of malpractice were reported. Uneb reports indicate that these were mainly cases of external assistance given to candidates by third parties inside examination rooms and circulation of fake papers prior to the examination.

Odongo said that at least 61 persons have so far been arrested from various parts of the country and charged, awaiting court action. Meanwhile, Uneb chairperson Prof Mary Okwakol said the board did not register any case of tampering with the examinations at storage stations.

"As noted last year, the biggest problem still lies with the teachers who assist candidates within examination rooms. This is facilitated by some school administrators," Okwakol said.

She added that in one centre in Mpigi, a scout reported back with Shs 500,000 which had been given to her as a bribe to allow teachers of the schools whose names were withheld to write answers for the candidates.

For candidates whose results have been released, the board has uploaded them on their school portal. However, district and municipal inspectors of schools can collect hard copies of the results from Uneb offices in Ntinda starting today.

The board has urged parents and candidates to utilise the SMS service on mobile networks to get their results instantly. To get 2019 PLE results, got to messages, type PLE, leave a space, type full index number and send to 6600.

nangonzi@observer.ug

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Makerere probed over importing graduation gowns from China

The Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) has opened an audit into the recent importation of Makerere University graduation gowns from China. 

 

Team Uniform Ltd, the sole provider of the patented Makerere graduation gowns, last week imported into the country about 7,000 gowns from China for the 70th graduation that kicked off this week on Tuesday. 

 

The imported gowns were short of the over 13,000 gowns needed and the under-delivery sent the university into panic mode to seek emergency supplies from local tailors in Wandegeya and Kireka, Banda (near Kyambogo University) so as to fill the gap.

 

The importation of the gowns drew continent-wide criticism from many Africans who wondered why gowns had to be imported from abroad despite the presence of local tailors. Now Uthman Ssegawa, the acting PPDA executive director, told reporters in Kampala today that the gowns procurement contract was below Shs 1 billion which means that it should have gone to local suppliers. 

 

"For supplies, any supply that is below Shs 1 billion should be to local providers that is the national providers and the resident providers. So the gowns fall under this category. If you're buying a vehicle [it] falls under this category. For works, we reserved contract works below Shs 45 billion to local providers - those are the road works. For other works like construction, we reserved all contracts below Shs 10 billion recently. So on the issue of Makerere university gowns, these gowns are below Shs 1 billion so they should have been awarded to a provider with facilities in Uganda." Ssegawa said. 

 

The university vice chancellor Prof Barnabas Nawangwe distanced the institution from the procurement crisis, saying where and how the supplier gets the gowns doesn't matter so long as he delivers the desired quality and quantity.

 

Students had threatened to disrupt the four-day graduation ceremonies if all graduation gowns had not been delivered. And to avert the disruption, Nawangwe ordered his staff to procure the gowns at whatever price, saying the university was already receiving enough bad press. 

 

Team Uniform signed the contract with Makerere in 2017 but recently claimed that the university had not yet cleared over Shs 300 million from last year's graduation delivery and no down payments had been made for this year's supplies.

 

Nawangwe said the contract indicates that the supplier had to have the capacity to use their own money and that payment would only be effected upon delivery and satisfaction of the university. Each student pays a mandatory Shs 98,000 for the gown, and for this year's 13,509 graduands, it would translate into about Shs 1.3 billion. However, it is understood that the university uses part of this money to organise the graduation ceremonies. 

Nawangwe made a public apology on Tuesday for the inconvenience caused and said the contract with Team Uniform was under review due to possible breach including sourcing for supplies from China and under delivery. Ssegawa said there are three local manufacturers in Uganda that would have made the gowns locally and supplied the university – Southern Nyanza (former Nytil), Fine Spinners, and Sigma Knitting.

He said the authority has asked for the file of the procurement of the gowns from the university and they expect to receive it by January 23, 2020, and the audit will be finished within three weeks. 

"Specifically in relation to the gowns, PPDA has been in contact with Makerere University to further provide it with the procurement file. We understand that this procurement was signed in 2017 February that is before our guidelines. The PPDA allows that the contract can be amended. We anticipate that Makerere should have amended this contract to provide that the supplier who is contracted should buy supplies from Uganda. We're undertaking a contract audit to find out what would have gone wrong with this particular procurement." added Ssegawa. 

If Makerere is found to have breached the rules, the issue will be forwarded to the university council for action, which could include terminating the contract and sourcing providers afresh. 

 

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