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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Hello Uganda! Lycamobile Enters Uganda’s Telecom Market As It Expands Global Footprint

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The post Hello Uganda! Lycamobile Enters Uganda's Telecom Market As It Expands Global Footprint appeared first on Chano8.

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Singer Rema Namakula Denies Selling Her Car To Pay Alleged ‘Introduction Debts’

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The post Singer Rema Namakula Denies Selling Her Car To Pay Alleged 'Introduction Debts' appeared first on Chano8.

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The Icon set for a musical come Back

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KIU Titans secure fitting jerseys for 2020

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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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