News Headlines
Uganda-Kenya rift over Lake Victoria escalates
June 1, 2020 by URN
The rift between Uganda and Kenya over rising water levels in Lake Victoria has escalated further after five Kenyan nationals...
World reacts with anger, dismay to US anti-black racism
May 31, 2020 by VOA
Protests were held in several cities around the world Saturday, in seeming solidarity with demonstrators in the US over the...
ICC clears former Ivory Coast president Gbagbo to travel
May 31, 2020 by VOA
The International Criminal Court (ICC) eased travel restrictions on former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo for the first time Thursday...
Uganda records highest daily COVID cases spike as Rwanda registers fir…
May 31, 2020 by URN
Uganda's has recorded its highest daily confirmed coronavirus cases tally thus far after 84 cases tested positive on Saturday. The...
Shoprite sued for Shs 300m for selling expired chocolate
A city resident has run to court seeking more than Shs 300 million in compensation from Shoprite supermarket for allegedly selling him expired chocolate. Francis Jjumba, in his documents submitted before the High court civil division, contends that on April 23, 2020, he purchased groceries including Ferrero Rocher chocolate from Shoprite…
Clear out? More Uganda Revenue Authority commissioners resign
Four senior commissioners from Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) have tendered their resignations, in what looks like a clear-out of the old guard.Together with Dicksons Kateshumbwa, the head of domestic taxes, other three commissioners have quit the tax body. They include; Henry Saka, from domestic taxes, Silajji Kanyesigye, the commissioner in…
US embassies in Africa speak up on racism in USA
As Minneapolis burns over the police killing of George Floyd and shock and disappointment in Africa grow, some US embassies on the continent have taken the unusual step of issuing critical statements, saying no one is above the law. The statements came as the head of the African Union Commission, Moussa…
400 migrant workers escape from COVID-19 camp in Malawi
More than 400 Malawian migrant workers who returned from South Africa have escaped from a coronavirus screening camp in the economic capital, Blantyre. Test results released Wednesday night were positive for 46 of the escapees while nearly 300 had yet to be tested. The situation raised fears that the virus could…
Uganda's COVID-19 cases increase to 329
Uganda has registered 12 more coronavirus cases, rising the national tally to 329. The new cases include 7 contacts to previously confirmed positive truckers and 5 cargo truckers who entered from South Sudan via Elegu. The new cases were confirmed from the 1,928 samples tested on Friday. The number of patients who…
Experts puzzled by Ugandans' complacency towards coronavirus
The overcrowding in downtown Kampala amid coronavirus outbreak pandemic is worrying ministry of Health officials. The permanent secretary ministry of Health, Dr Diana Atwine says following the partial easing of the lockdown on Tuesday when private cars were allowed back on the road after more than two months, Ugandans have become…
Suspected bomb explosion injures four in Nakaseke
Four people have been critically injured after a suspected bomb exploded in Kalagala village in Wakyato sub-county in Nakaseke district.The injured have been identified as Ernest Ssendawula, the village chairman, his vice Tom Ssendege and a resident John Lubagira. The fourth person is Francis Kizza the vice chairman of the…
Najjera couple 'sells' 16-year-old daughter to Portuguese national
A Portuguese national who was arrested two days ago for marrying a 16-year-old girl has presented a 'sales agreement' signed by the victim’s parents.Carlos Almeida Da-Costa was picked up on Wednesday after residents of Busibante in Najjera in Kira municipality tipped off Kira division police indicating that he had married…
Gulu University students to be screened for COVID-19
Returning finalists of Gulu University will be screened for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) ahead of the anticipated reopening of the university next month.At least 1,500 finalists from Uganda and beyond are expected to report to Gulu University for their final year semester after President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni ordered for a partial…
Uganda's coronavirus cases rise by 36 to 317
Uganda has recorded 36 more coronavirus cases - 24 drivers and 12 contacts to previously confirmed positive drivers. Uganda's cumulative total of confirmed cases has now risen to 317.
High court judge bodyguard arrested over death of Seeta traffic officer
A police constable, Alex Oduku, who was guarding Mbale High court judge Jesse Rugyema Byaruhanga during a hit-and-run accident has been arrested. Constable Oduku was captured by Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras entering a Rav4 vehicle registration number, UAS 597U. The vehicle which was allegedly being driven by the judge knocked…
USA offers each vulnerable Ugandan adult Shs 100,000 per month
Vulnerable Ugandans are set to get paid between Shs 100,000 and Shs 240,000 per adult per month for the next three months. The money will be provided by the United States Mission in Uganda from the US Agency for International Development which awarded an additional $10 million (about Shs 37.8 billion)…
Banks to close at 2 pm to allow staff beat curfew
Several commercial banks have announced they will revise down their closure time to allow staff enough time to drive home so as not to be caught by the 7 pm curfew.While some banks have not yet indicated that they will shift from the 3 pm closing time, at least two…
Ugandan farmer kidnapped from garden, taken to Rwanda
A Ugandan farmer, Obed Nicholas Tugumisirize alias Kacucu has been kidnapped from his garden in Kitojo village, Katuna town council at the Uganda-Rwanda border. Kacucu has been missing since Monday, and his kidnappers allegedly disappeared with him to the other side of Rwanda. His family members have already reported a case of a…
Uganda's COVID-19 cases rise to 281
Uganda's confirmed coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases have risen to 281 after 28 more people were confirmed from the 2,004 samples tested on Wednesday.The new cases include 21 drivers and 7 quarantined contacts to previously confirmed cases. The 7 foreign truckers who tested positive were denied entry and returned back to their…
Seeta traffic officer was knocked dead by High court judge
A High court judge was behind the steering of a Toyota Rav4 registration number UAS 597U that allegedly knocked and caused the death of traffic police constable Innocent Ayesigye in Seeta. Ayesigye succumbed to accident injuries on Tuesday morning at Rubaga hospital. The police leadership had transferred him from Mulago hospital…
South Africa eases restrictions on religious gatherings
South Africa has softened its coronavirus restrictions on houses of worship, with President Cyril Ramaphosa announcing Tuesday night that religious gatherings will now be allowed under strict conditions. Ramaphosa also announced a national day of prayer for Sunday, the day before restrictions are expected to ease across much of the country…
Ugandan COVID-19 patients suffered organ damage - study
Asymptomatic COVID-19 patients suffered significant organ damage, after treatment, a study by researchers from Makerere University reveals.The study, conducted in April involved 56 patients who were being treated at Mulago and Entebbe hospitals. The scientists found 12.8 per cent of the patients to have evidence of liver damage, when lung…
Mayiga: I qualify to be president
Charles Peter Mayiga’s work has managed to speak both to and for Buganda kingdom’s revived fortunes in the last seven years he has reigned as Katikkiro. And he is not done yet. Last week, he spoke to NTV’s On The Spot talk show host Patrick Kamara about his seven-year tenure as…
Museveni urges Ugandan entrepreneurs to borrow from UDB
President Yoweri Museveni has urged Ugandans to borrow from Uganda Development Bank (UDB) and invest in import substitution projects.The president said that the government recapitalized UDB to the tune of one trillion Ugandan shillings, with more funding expected to come from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to increase…
How Kutesa plotted Kavuya family return
On May 15, an explosive leak brought to the fore script details of a letter written by Sam Kutesa, the Foreign Affairs minister, authorizing three individuals to fly into the country, defying a presidential ban on passenger flights into Entebbe international airport imposed since March 21. The leak, which went viral…
Uganda's coronavirus cases increase by 31 to 253
Confirmed coronavirus cases in Uganda have increased tp 253 cases after another 31 people tested positive for the disease on Tuesday. The new cases were tested from 1,116 samples, and include 23 truck drivers and 8 contacts to previously confirmed positive drivers. All the contacts were under quarantine at the time…
Electric buses have sanitizer sprinklers, wi-fi, charging ports
In Kampala, street vendors, erratic drivers and hundreds of commuter taxis contribute to the traffic chaos in the city centre every day. But after road tests around Kampala last week, Kiira Motors newly released 12-metre long Kayoola Electric Buses (EVS) have proven they can reduce the traffic chaos and the huge…
Uganda's new COVID-19 testing labs redundant
The newly launched coronavirus testing laboratories deployed at various border points, and Kampala, are lying idle due to lack of reagents. Following a massive pile-up of cargo trucks at the borders - sometimes, stretching as far as over 50km, the ministry of Health promised weeks ago to scale up testing to…
Minister: Govt will help sectors hit by Covid-19
In December 2019, Molly Nawe Kamukama was elevated from a presidential principal private secretary, a job she held since November 2016, to minister of state for Economic Monitoring under the Office of the President – catapulting her from the fringes of politics onto the national stage. In this interview, Kamukama…
Bigirimana gets 3 more years
President Yoweri Museveni has handed a three-year contract to Pius Bigirimana as permanent secretary or secretary to the Judiciary. The new contract is effective May 2020. His last contract had expired at the end of April. The president also renewed for three years the contracts of three other permanent secretaries: Dorcas…
Two Somali nationals escape from quarantine in Masindi
Health officials in Masindi district are hunting for two Somali nationals who escaped from Masindi hospital Covid-19 quarantine centre.Ibrahim Muhamed and his wife Shamula Muhamed escaped from the centre on Monday. Dr Rogers Musinguzi, the head of Covid-19 case management team in Masindi district explains that the two were picked from…
Turbulence, warnings before Pakistan plane crash killed 97 - survivor
When the plane jolted violently, Mohammad Zubair thought it was turbulence. Then the pilot came on the intercom to warn that the landing could be “troublesome.” Moments later, the Pakistan International Airlines flight crashed into a crowded neighbourhood near Karachi's international airport, killing 97 people, all of whom are believed to…
10 more Ugandans, 34 Kenyan medics test positive for COVID-19
10 more Ugandans have tested positive for coronavirus, rising the national tally to 222 confirmed cases. The new cases were confirmed from the 1,189 samples tested on Monday, May 25. Nine of those cases are truck drivers, while one is a contact to a previously confirmed positive driver. The 30 foreign…
Sex workers turn cargo trucks into lodges in Elegu
The lengthy queues of cargo trucks in Elegu town, Amuru district in northern Uganda are facilitating illicit commercial sex trade in the area.As a safeguard to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), all lodges in Elegu border town were closed in March. But Kassim Akule, the LC I chairperson…
Thugs rob Shs 300m from Amal forex bureau
Thugs took advantage of the mandatory wearing of face masks in public to rob Shs 300 million from three workers of Amal forex bureau in Kisenyi, Kampala.Kampala Metropolitan Police (KMP) deputy police spokesperson, Luke Owoyesigyire says that the trio that included the manager Abdul Fatal Ahmed, assistant manager Hassan Ahmed…
Reverse migration: Moroccans trapped in Spain finally head home
It’s a reverse migrant crisis: Moroccan workers trapped in Spain are begging their own government to let them come back home. Construction worker Mohammed Benali is among hundreds of Moroccans who headed to their jobs in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta one day in March thinking they’d be home…
Burundi: Ruling party wins presidential vote
Burundi’s election commission declared ruling party candidate Evariste Ndayishimiye the winner of the country’s presidential election. The retired general won just under 69% of the vote, according to results released Monday. Opposition party leader Agathon Rwasa received about 24%, with five other candidates splitting the rest.
Nakaseke hospital runs out of food for COVID quarantinees
Nakaseke hospital is struggling to feed the 33 contacts to a COVID-19 positive truck driver currently quarantined at the facility. The truck driver was intercepted at Katuugo village in Wakyato sub-county, Nakaseke district on Tuesday last week after testing positive for COVID-19 at Elegu border testing point.The Nakaseke district surveillance team…
38 Rwandans who sneaked into Kalangala quarantined in Buvuma
38 Rwandan nationals who illegally entered into Buvuma district have been quarantined.The group which includes 28 men and 10 women entered the district through Kalangala district to Lubya island but were intercepted on Monday by the district COVID-19 surveillance team.
China warns USA against starting 'new cold war' with Beijing
China says some “political forces” in the United States have taken bilateral relations hostage and are pushing the world’s two biggest economies towards “a new Cold War.”
Gulu hospital runs out of hydroxychloroquine after rise in COVID patients
Gulu regional referral hospital has run out of hydroxychloroquine, one of the medicines used to manage cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Uganda.The anti-malaria drug has been widely administered to hospitalized patients suffering from COVID-19. Loum Bishop, the in-charge of COVID-19 case management at Gulu hospital said they are now short…
14 more contacts to truck drivers test positive for COVID-19
14 more contacts to previously confirmed coronavirus positive truck drivers have too tested positive. The cases were confirmed from the 1,084 samples tested on Sunday, May 24. According to the ministry of Health, the new cases were all under quarantine at the time of the testing. Among the new cases are 5…
Chinese construction projects create opportunity to spy on African leaders
A new report is warning that China may be spying on African government officials from within their own buildings. The report by the Heritage Foundation, a US-based conservative think tank, found that Chinese companies built at least 186 government buildings in Africa and 14 “sensitive intragovernmental telecommunications networks.” These buildings include residences for…
Too costly, complex to evacuate Ugandans stuck abroad - gov't
The process of returning Ugandan nationals stuck across the globe due to the coronavirus disease pandemic is very costly and complex, state minister for Foreign Affairs Henry Okello Oryem has said. In response to incessant calls for government to return the more than 2,500 Ugandans stuck abroad, Oryem said more thorough planning…
Uganda's coronavirus cases rise to 198
Uganda's confirmed coronavirus cases have risen by 23 to 198. The new cases registered from 1,187 samples tested on Saturday include 19 truck drivers and 4 contacts to previously confirmed positive truck drivers. According to the ministry of Health, the 38 foreign truck drivers who tested positive were denied entry and…
Kenya admits importing "substandard" PPEs for doctors
Kenya’s Health minister Mutahi Kagwe has admitted that the Kenyan government has been importing substandard personal protection equipment (PPEs), putting the lives of healthcare workers at risk. PPEs which usually include gloves facemasks, isolation gowns, eye protection goggles and shields, respirators among others are used by healthcare workers to protect themselves…
18,000 'Made in Uganda' phones exported to Morocco
Uganda has exported the first batch of 18,000 locally-made mobile phones to Morocco. The 2G-enabled analog mobile phones were manufactured at Simi Technologies, Uganda’s first mobile phone assembly plant in Namanve industrial park in Mukono district. Simi is owned by Chinese firm, Engo Holdings Uganda Limited.
Guard fired for ordering Nytil boss to wear face mask
A security guard deployed at Southern Range Nyanza Textile Industry (Nytil) in Njeru in eastern Uganda has been fired for instructing his boss to wear a face mask as a preventive measure against spreading coronavirus disease. George Muyomba attached to Pan African Carriers Uganda-Limited was dismissed from his job after he…
Uganda registers 15 more COVID-19 cases
15 more people have been confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), rising the country’s total to 175. The new cases are from the 2,106 total samples tested on Friday and include 12 truckers and 3 contacts to previously confirmed truck drivers. All the three contacts were under quarantine. The number…
Uganda has no capacity to treat foreign truckers - Aceng
It was getting costly and risky for Uganda to continue admitting and treating foreign truck drivers who have tested positive for coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Health minister Jane Ruth Aceng has said. Aceng says that Uganda does not have the capacity to treat all foreign truckers and as such, up to 145…
Kenya begins phasing out cross-border cargo trucks
The Kenyan government has said that all transit cargo will have to move by the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) from Mombasa to Naivasha where truckers will pick it for delivery to Uganda, Rwanda, and South Sudan. This takes effect on June 1, 2020.This effectively cuts off 600 kilometres that truck…
Company awarded Shs 181bn for cancelled sand mining licence
Court has awarded Shs 181 billion to a company dealing in sand mining and fish farming whose licence was cancelled by government in 2016.DMW Uganda Limited, owned by pastor Daniel Walugembe in 2019 petitioned the civil division of the High court challenging the directive by parliament in October 2016 to ban…
Rwandan genocide suspect arrest in France raises questions
Human rights and survivor groups are cheering Saturday's arrest in France of a top Rwandan genocide suspect, Felicien Kabuga. But questions are mounting about how he managed to evade justice for so long — and the fate of other suspects and accomplices in the 1994 killings. Neighbours in the Paris suburb…
15 more Ugandans test positive to COVID-19
Uganda's confirmed coronavirus cases have risen to 160 after another 15 new cases were registered on Thursday. The new cases were part of 2,729 samples that were tested.Ten of the 15 cases are Ugandan truck drivers who entered the country through Elegu point of entry with South Sudan, while five other cases were…
Police commanders swindle officers' COVID allowances
Police boss Martins Ochola has ordered for an investigation into allegations of police officers swindling COVID-19 allowances for junior officers.The chief of joint security, Maj Gen Jack Bakasumba, last week released close to Shs 3 billion for both senior and junior police officers incorporated in the COVID-19 national task force…
8 perish in fresh Kasese floods
Flash floods have killed at least eight people and displaced hundreds of people in Kasese district.Kabugho Bwangirini, 80, Agnes Matsika, 23, Felistus Kabugho, 17, Rorontina Masika, 45, Yubu Mutsombo, 55, Kayakers Mbusa, 16, Bwambale Kilema, 81, and Lothorach Lokwang, a UPDF soldier attached to Mountain battalion in Bwera were swept away by…
Can dogs sniff out COVID-19?
A dog’s sense of smell is much stronger than a human’s, detecting everything from aromas in the air to organisms in the dirt. Now, it is possible that canines may be able to smell the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Scientists think canines’ keen sense of smell is 10,000 to 100,000 times…