Gen Tumukunde, Gen Okecho, Col Bantariza finally retire from the army

By Joan Pounds

Three serving Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) including Deputy Executive Director Uganda Media Centre, Col Shaban Bantariza and Lt Gen Tumukunde have been retired from the army. 

The other officer is Lt. Gen Frederick Okecho.
The three officers’ retirement was announced at a ceremony in Mbuya Army barracks that was presided over by the Chief of Defense Forces (CDF) Gen Edward Katumba Wamala on Monday.
Tumukunde’s retirement comes just weeks after President Museveni promoted him to the rank of Lieutenant General early this month.

Lt Gen Tumukunde, also former Director General of Internal Security Organisation (ISO), skipped the rank of major general in the promotion that was seen as reconciliation between him and President Museveni after falling out of favour with the establishment in 2005.

He was forced to resign as army MP after he openly expressed his opposition to the lifting of presidential term limits from the Constitution to allow Mr Museveni run for a third term. 

Early this year, Col Bantariza accused the former Chief of Defense Forces (CDF), the late Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, of masterminding his arrest and prosecution because of the trust President Yoweri Museveni has in him. 

Col. Bantariza had been arrested, charged and remanded over fraud-related offences while still the Director of National Leadership Institute (NALI).

He had been charged with seven offences which included misappropriation of resources, forgery, conspiracy to defraud, ill treatment of subordinates and misconduct.
However, on April 14 this year, the General Court Martial chaired by Maj Gen Levi Karuhanga acquitted Col Bantariza on grounds that prosecution failed to prove a case against him.

Two months later, President Yoweri Museveni re-appointed Col Bantariza as Deputy Executive Director Uganda Media Centre.

Officer waiting
The army is yet to retire former intelligence Chief David Tinyefuuza, who returned from exile and is now a critic of government although he is viewed by some sections of society as a mole.

UN rights chief warns over upsurge in Burundi killings

By Estella Jones

Geneva - The UN human rights chief warned on Monday that Burundi risked sliding back into civil war after a dramatic rise in killings, arrests and detentions in the troubled east African country.

Almost every day, dead bodies are found lying on the streets of some of Bujumbura's neighbourhoods," Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement.

In many cases, the victims appear to have been killed by a bullet fired at close range. The bodies sometimes show signs of torture and are typically found with their hands tied behind their backs," he said.

Zeid noted that many of the victims had reportedly been arrested by police of Burundi's National Intelligence Agency (SNR) before their deaths.

Discredited elections

"This succession of unexplained killings, and the widespread perception that they may be linked to state institutions, is instilling a deep sense of fear within the population, especially in neighbourhoods known to be supportive of the opposition," he warned.

Burundi, in the heart of a region that has been one of the world's most volatile over the last three decades, has been gripped by unrest since April surrounding a violent and discredited election.

President Pierre Nkurunziza won a highly controversial third term in July in polls boycotted by the opposition and denounced by the United Nations as neither free nor fair.

His re-election bid sparked an attempted coup by rebel generals and months of civil unrest led by opposition groups, who condemned it as unconstitutional.

The government accuses those who took part in the protests against his third term of "insurrection".

'Absolute impunity'

Since April, Zeid's office said it had registered 134 killings, more than 90 cases of torture and hundreds of cases of arbitrary arrest and detention, including 704 arrests this month alone.

"We have also been receiving many allegations of torture carried out by the police or the SNR, with the reported aim of forcing victims to confess to participation in an armed rebellion," Zeid said.

"The perpetrators of both torture and killings appear, to date, to have enjoyed absolute impunity," he lamented.

Zeid stressed that because such serious crimes are going unpunished, "more people are looking to take the law into their own hands".

There is an increasing risk that spiralling tit-for-tat violence will plunge the country back into its bloody past," he warned.

Burundi's civil war killed at least 300 000 people from 1993-2006 and sporadic violence has continued since, with fears mounting of a renewed conflict, which could have ripple effects throughout the region.

Zeid also said search operations had intensified across Burundi aimed at seizing illegal weapons, and that in Bujumbura, police now often surround specific neighbourhoods, blocking all entry and exit points to carry out the searches.

Given these searches sometimes continue for several days, this method raises serious concerns with regard to freedom of movement," he said, also noting "consistent accusations" of looting and destruction of property by police during the searches.

Bukonzo East MP Bihande Has Lost His Seat In Parliament.

Bukonzo East Member of Parliament Yokasi Bihande Bwambale has lost his seat following a Constitutional Court ruling.
The same court also ordered the Kasese MP to refund all the salary and allowances he has been drawing since he was convicted by the Anti-Corruption Court two years ago for uttering false accountability regarding the funds he received from Parliament to develop his constituency.
In a unanimous decision of the court, the panel of five justices led by Deputy Chief Justice Steven Kavuma on Monday ruled that from April 3, 2012, Mr Bihande should have stopped receiving a monthly salary and allowances since he had ceased being an MP.

“The second respondent (Mr Bihande) shall vacate his seat in Parliament immediately. His seat in Parliament is declared vacated,” ruled the justices.
The justices added: “from the 3rd day of April 2012 when the 2nd respondent (Mr Bihande) was convicted of offenses involving dishonesty and moral turpitude, he ought to have ceased to receive any salary, allowances and any other emoluments and privileges accorded to a Member of Parliament having ceased to be an MP….”
The other justices on the panel were Eldad Mwangusya, Richard Buteera, Prof. Lillian Tibatemwa and Fredrick Egonda Ntende.

Further, the court ordered Mr Bihande, the husband to Kasese District Woman MP Winfred Kizza to pay all the costs that the petitioner, Mr Fred Police Busige, a concerned voter of Bukonzo East constituency used in successfully pursuing this petition.

In 2012, the then Anti-Corruption judge Catherine Bamugemereire convicted Mr Bihande after he pleaded guilty to embezzling Shs20m and forging accountability for the constituency development funds (CDF) that he received before uttering false accountability to the chief accountant of Parliament.
He was sentenced to a fine of Shs1 million or two years in jail in default for the charge of uttering a false document and to a fine of Shs2m or in default be imprisoned for three years.
The MP opted to pay the fine and he regained his freedom.