Catholicism and the Worship of the Dead: Rev. Fr. Ngobya remains exhumed after 26 years

Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: (Romans 3:13)

Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.(Mark 7:6-7)

Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. (Matthew 15:4)

8Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. (Colossians 2:8)

Rev. Fr. Ngobya remains exhumed after 26 years

http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/630083-630083-rev-fr-ngobya-remains-exhumed-after-26-years.html  

Publish Date: Apr 04, 2012

By Ali Mambule

Catholics from different parts of Uganda were on Tuesday astonished to learn that the heart, lungs, part of the brain and the kidney belonging to the late Msgr. Aloysius Ngobya who died 26 years ago were found intact.

Bishop John Baptist Kaggwa of the Masaka diocese told thousands of the believers who turned up for a special mass to pray for Msgr. Ngobya and the Sr. Amedeo Byabari at Kitovu Cathedral that the former’s clothes were also recovered when his grave was dug.

“I would not have said this but I was given the permission to declare what we recovered from the two servants of God’s graves,” Bishop Kaggwa told the Catholics who chanted and sang in praise of God.

The mass was also meant to publicly announce the team that was given the task to investigate and the acts of the two deceased persons to establish the truth about claims that they performed miracles before they are declared saints.

Reynard Cruise told the gathering that the work of investigating the acts of the two people begun earlier in 2002. The mother general Mary Magdalene Nakirijja of the Bannabiikira Sisters requested Bishop John Baptist Kaggwa to initiate the study or opening the ratification for Sr. Amedeo Byabari.

“In the same year, the Bishop also received a similar request from a number of Catholics for Msgr. Ngobya," Cruise, the deputy postulate in this work told the gathering.
He said that after eight years of critically analyzing the claims, Bishop Kaggwa decided to let the investigations into the ratification of the two servants of God to begin as stated by the Catholic faith.

Investigations
On October 10, 2010, Dr. Wadray Rudman was appointed to investigate the issues and Rudman in turn appointed Cruise to deputize him.

"On October 12, I requested Bishop Kaggwa to carry out investigations in the Diocese which investigations the Bishop is officially launching today," Cruise added.

Cruise, the vice postulator read the cause of the investigations of both Msgr. Ngobya and Sr. Amedeo and submitted the copies to the Bishop together with a list of witnesses and opinion of the theological census.

Two historical committees in charge of the two servants of God were sworn in together with other members to carry out the work.

Whereas Fr. John Baptist Kintu was sworn in as the chairperson for Msgr. Ngobya's committee, Sr. Sebastian from Bwanda was sworn in as the chairperson for Sr. Amedeo Byabari's committee.

Rev. Fr. Alex Sekatawa, the notary of the first session which sat in Kitovu Cathedral during the mass on Tuesday said that during the Episcopal conference that sat at St. Augustine's Institute Nsambya, the President of the conference the, Archbishop of Gulu John Baptist Odama asked the assembled Bishops for their opinion regarding the advisability of introducing the ratification and canonization causes of Msgr. Ngobya and Sr. Amedeo Byabari as requested by Bishop Kaggwa of Masaka diocese, and the assembly approved it.

No Rome flight for remains
While preaching to the Catholics, Bishop Kaggwa assured that the remains of the two servants of God would not be flown to Rome as some people had thought.

"We shall keep the remains amidst us and be contented that no-one would take them away," Bishop Kaggwa said but he did not highlight whether Ngobya and Sr. Amedeo would be reburied.

However, Bishop Kaggwa said that permission would soon be granted to believers who wanted to be given a chance to visit the place where Msgr. Ngobya's grave was.

"That place is now holy. Everyone will be given chance to visit it but you only need to be patient," the Bishop added.

He urged Ugandans to respect each other's religion and condemned those who changed religion like clothes, and called upon to respect the issue of matrimonial homes. He lashed at those who went in for trial marriages.

"Msgr. Ngobya and Sr. Amedeo came from religious and respectable families which all of you must fight to achieve," he said.

Bishop Kaggwa stressed that Msgr. Ngobya was a Ugandan who knew politics and prophesied that the National Resistance Army would take over the Uganadan government then before his death, which became a reality.

"Don't ask me what he would say about today's politics because I'll not speak for him," Kaggwa added.He called for justice for everyone saying that there were a number of innocent people rotting in prisons.

Msgr. Ngobya's grave remained enclosed and condoned off.

Ebyewuunyisa ku mulambo gwa Msgr. Ngobya: Teyavunda

http://www.bukedde.co.ug/news/62856-Ebyewuunyisa-ku--mulambo-gwa--Msgr--Ngobya--Teyavunda.html  

Apr 04, 2012

Masaka

Bya S. Baagalayina ne Ali Mambule

OMULAMBO gwa Fr. Ngobya guwuunikirizza bannaddiini bwe guziikuddwa ne gusangibwa ng’ebimu ku bitundu byagwo omuli omutima, ensigo n’obwongo nga tebyavunda, byakala bukazi. Ngobya yafa emyaka 26 egiyise.

“Omutima, obumu ku bwongo bwe, ekimu ku bibumba bye, ensigo ze n’amagumba ge bisangiddwa mu ssanduuko mwe baamuziika kw’ogatta n’engoye zonna ezaamuziikibwamu,” Omusumba John Baptist Kaggwa ow’Essaza ly’e Masaka bwe yategeezezza Abakristu abangi abaakung’aanidde ku Lutikko e Kitovu eggulo n’agamba nti kino kyewuunyo kyennyini.

Yabadde ayimba mmisa ng’ogumu ku mikolo egyakoleddwa ng’abakugu abaasindikiddwa Paapa Benedict XVI, okwongera okunoonya obujulizi okunaasinziirwa okulangirira Fr. Aloysius Ngobya ne Sr. Amedeo ng’Abatuukirivu mu Klezia Katolika.

Kaabadde kayisanyo kennyini ng’ebisigala ebyabadde mu ssanduuko ebbiri; emu nga nnyimpi endala nga mpanvu, nga biyingizibwa mu Lutikko e Kitovu wakati mu bannaddiini abaakulembeddwa Abasumba basatu, okwabadde Paul Kalanda eyawummula e Fort Portal ne Anthony Zziwa owa Kiyinda Mityana, abasosoodooti n’abasiisita bangi ddala.

Bano bonna baakulembeddwa bbandi y’Abaseminaaliyo b’e Bukalasa bakira abakuba ennyimba ezitendereza Katonda, olwo abantu bangi abaakedde okweyiwa ku Lutikko ne batandika okuyaayaana nga bagezaako okukwata ku ssanduukop zino ate abalala nga bwe bakoonyaako ssapule zaabwe.

Ng’oggyeko bannaddiini omukolo era gwetabiddwako banene bangi omwabadde Pookino w’e Buddu, Charles Kiyimba Kwewaayo ne Bannabyabufuzi ab’enjawulo.

EBISIGALA TEBABITWALA ROMA
Abantu bangi baawuliddwa nga baalajanira Abayitale abazze okukola omulimu guno nti baleme kubatwalako bisigala bino era Bp. Kaggwa n’ayanguwa mangu okubagumya nti ebisigala bya kusigala tebabitwala Roma.

Wabula yabasabye bwe baba basaba nga bayita mu bantu bano ababiri bakikole n’obwegendereza baleme kukikoleramu nsobi ate n’asaba abakyalina ebibasiba, omuli obufumbo obw’ensonga, babitereeze basobole okusaba essaala zaabwe zituuke.

Mu lukuubo, lwonna omwayisiddwa ssanduuko zino abantu bakira bakunukkiriza ne bazikwatako, okussaako obucupa bw’amazzi n’okubikkako leesu zaabwe n’ekigendererwa ky’okufuna emikisa okuva eri Fr. Ngobya ne Sr. Amedeo.

Omusumba Kaggwa agambye abantu abeetabye ku mukolo guno nti baabadde baamukisa okubaawo ne beerabirako n’okwewulirirako ku by’amagero Katonda by’akolera eggwanga lye nti kuba tewali yali amanyi lunaku ki lwe kiribaawo.

BEEWUUNYA SSANDDUUKO
“Mulaba ssanduuko zino tezenkanankana, n’abantu tetwenkanankana, oluvannyuma lw’emyaka nga bali mu ttaka, baasimmuddwaayo ng’eno ennyimpi mwe muli ebisigala bya Sr. Amedeo nga wayise emyaka 33 ng’aziikiddwa mu limbo e Bwanda ate eno ennamba mwe muli ebya Msgr. Ngobya amaze emyaka 26 ng’aziikiddwa,” Bwe yakkaatirizza.

N’agattako nti obunene bwa ssanduuke zombi, kyabadde kibamala bumazi okumanya, byenkana wa ebyazuuliddwa mu ntaana zaabwe n’agamba nti omubaka eyatumiddwa okuva e Roma, Br. Raynold Kruse yazitaddeko envumbo era tekikyasoboka kubabikkulirako kulaba biri munda. “Mbakakasa nti Msgr. Ngobya ne Sr. Amedeo ssi baakulinnyisibwa nnyonyi kutwalibwa mitala w’amayanja wazira bajja kusigala mu makkati gaffe”, Omusumba bwe yagumizza abantu n’akubirwa engalo nnyingi n’obululu.

Agugumbudde abavvoola Yagugumbudde abavvoola enzikiriza z’abalala n’abagamba nti bwe kiba nga balemeddwa okubuulira ebyo bye bamanyiiko waakiri ebituuti babiveeko nti kuba ye tayimirirangako ku Ataali n’ayigiriza bya Busiraamu.

“Eddiini za njawulo n’ebyezikiriza bya njawulo era tuziwe ekitiibwa, yigiriza by’omanyi, ttovvoola ddiini ya munno, ab’enzikiriza endala mbawa ekitiibwa kyabwe kuba nninayo mikwano gyange bangi, ebyabwe ssibiyigiriza kuba ssibimanyi,” bwe yakkaatirizza.

Abakristu abagenda e Mbuye, ayongedde okubakomako nti ‘teri by’amagero bikolebwayo n’abagendayo beetwalira muliro, nti era tewaaliyo kulabikirwa kwa Bikira Maria.
NGOBYA YALAGULA OKUFA KWE
1. Ku by’amagero bya Ngobya, Omusumba ategeezezza nti olutalo lwa NRA nga lukwajja, Ngobya yalagula nti ye Ngobya okufa nga luwedde era bwe gwali.

2. N’agattako nti ate Ngobya bwe yatunuulira mu kabienti y’omugenzi Polof. Yusufu Kironde Lule nga yaakalangirirwa ku Bwapulezidenti n’alagula nti eyo tejja kuwangaala.

3. Ekirala, abajaasi b’omu nkambi y’e Kasijjagirwa baamukunguzza ku kabangali ng’akutte ekikopo omuli omugaati n’evviini ne bamwegayirira okutuula n’agaana nti tatuula nga Mukama we tatudde wabula bwe baamutuusa mu nkambi, wonna ne wakyankalana okutuusa lwe baamuzzaayo.

Otunnu links Lubanga crimes to Museveni

Otunnu links Lubanga crimes to Museveni


http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1377910/-/awnvagz/-/index.html

By Ismail Musa Ladu


Posted Sunday, April 1 2012 at 15:47

Uganda Peoples Congress party president Olara Otunnu wants President Museveni tried for recruiting child soldiers between 1980 and 1986, saying both convicted warlord, Thomas Lubanga, and the president are birds of the same feather.

According to the former UN Under-Secretary General and Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, President Museveni is a typical candidate for the ICC given his role in co-opting child soldiers into his guerilla outfit that toppled the military government of the late Tito Okello Lutwa in 1986.

In an interview with Uganda Correspondent Newspaper, a UK-based paper, the UPC party chief was quoted as saying that the Uganda’s president should not be treated any different from Mr Lubanga because the warlord did not only commit similar atrocities but was also sponsored by President Museveni.

“Mr Lubanga was a relatively small player in the DR Congo. What gave Lubanga his power and sway in the Congo was actually sponsorship by Ugandan leaders,” Mr Otunnu said while on a working visit to the United Kingdom.

“The little fellow [Lubanga] who was manipulated from Uganda has been charged, but the real fellows who were in charge of his crimes are walking scot-free. That is what is wrong with the application of the Rome Statue.”

He said in the interview that he told ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo that the ICC’s process and choice of those to be indicted has not only been politicised but highly selective too.

“I still very much hope that what was done inside Uganda and elsewhere in Congo will be punished. I hope to see a day of reckoning when the ICC will investigate and bring them to book for what they did,” Mr Otunnu said before adding that, “Thomas Lubanga was not a hugely significant player in the overall scheme of things.”

The government spokesperson, Mary Karooro Okurut dismissed the UPC party boss claims saying they shouldn’t be taken seriously because there is nothing new about it.

“That is what he has been saying since he returned,” said Okurut.
Background

The particular provision in the Rome Statute under which Thomas Lubanga was convicted was drafted by Mr Otunnu himself.

The UPC leader also faulted western countries for turning a blind eye to atrocities committed against Ugandans while they react to similar atrocities in other countries like Cote-d’Ivoire and Mali where he said fewer civilians are massacred on streets.
iladu@ug.nationmedia.com

UN envoy, clergy clash over genocide claims

UN envoy, clergy clash over genocide claims


http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1378076/-/awnduwz/-/index.html

By Sam Lawino


Posted Monday, April 2 2012 at 00:00

A United Nations official and clergy have clashed over a claim that killings in northern Uganda during the insurgency do not amount to genocide.

Mr Patrick Amihere, the United Nations representative in the northern Ugandan, clashed with the clergy during a dialogue on Amnesty Act in Gulu on Friday, when he said the killings do not amount to genocide as claimed by the clergy, because there was no deliberate and systematic destruction in whole or in part of the Acholi ethnic group.


“The bishops and other leaders should be acquainted with the legal instruments and not let their understanding and perception limit the dealing with complexity of the crime,” Mr Amihere said during a meeting organised by the Northern Uganda Transitional Justice Working Group to seek opinions of northern Uganda leaders on the Amnesty Act.

The retired Bishop of Kitgum Diocese, the Rt. Rev. Macleord Baker Ochola II, had earlier said that whereas the Amnesty Act, which will expire in May, should be extended and amended to realise its full goals, the government must also take responsibilities for “genocide” in northern Uganda.

“Government was there and they acted as if there was no government. LRA was killing people and they were not stopped,” Bishop Ochola said.

He said the world should not only prosecute LRA leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity, but also investigate the killings in northern Uganda.

“UN says mental element and how do you judge mental intent to destroy a tribe, of course there was genocide in Uganda and it is clear,” Bishop Ochola said.

Bishop Ochola quoted a report released by African Peer Review Mechanism in 2004 that stated that 1,000 children were dying per week in IDP camps in northern Uganda, adding that although it is difficult to measure mental state to adduce genocide, there were underlying elements that indicates that genocide occurred.

The Bishop of Christ Central Christian Ministries in Teso, the Rev Bernard Ebian, wondered whether the UN was satisfied with any research reports on the killings.
The Rev. Ebian claimed that at times the UN officials were escorted by government agents to people who were told by the government to downplay factual information.

He said the people in Teso were demanding further investigations into crimes committed in the region during insurgency to ensure peace, security and reconciliation.

The Chairman of the Itesot War Victims Association, Mr Papa Imodo, said alleged mass murders carried out by government troops in Teso Sub-region in the 80s amounted to genocide.

He cited Serere were he claimed that 200 people were killed and Mukura where 69 people were suffocated in a train wagon.

The government has previously dismissed claims that the northern war was a genocide, denying allegations that it targeted the Achoil. Most deaths have been blamed on the LRA.
editorial@ug.nationmedia.com

Digging into the deception of the American New world order system: Jason Russell’s masturbation and the Invisible children deception

First Watch:

KONY 2012 SCAM - Obama Deploys US Special Forces to Africa ( ALEX JONES INFOWARS )


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJFPNn76nFk

Jason Russell (KONY 2012) gets naked, goes crazy & and swings nutz in San Deigo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-2BYwMCmbU


THE MAIN REASON THAT THE U.S. IS TARGETING THE LRA IS THAT IT IS "UNSETTLING" AMERICA'S ATTEMPT TO RAPE THE AREA OF ITS OIL AND MINERAL RIGHTS.

http://www.antipasministries.com/other/article026.htm


New film on LRA courts controversy

http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2012/03/new-film-on-lra-courts-controversy.html


Obama sends 100 US troops to Uganda to fight LRA: It is not what you think!!!


http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2011/10/obama-sends-100-us-troops-to-uganda-to.html



My analysis

It is very possible that this Jason Russel guy is a CIA agent. Now, that his invisible children film has been exposed as a documentary intended to hide the evils of the American new world order system, this so called Jason madness is intended to divert attention from critical analysis of the film to Jason’s condition. The truth is that Kony has been terrorizing Uganda for decades amidst the silence of the Americans. But, now that he is an obstacle to their rooting of Congo resources, they want to swing into action. They want to justify their sending of 100 US soldiers to help track Kony. They have protected Museveni and hidden his dictatorship and human rights violations in the war in northern Uganda and Congo.



Jason Russell Arrested? Co-Founder Of Invisible Children, 'Kony 2012' Creator, Not Charged In San Diego (VIDEO, UPDATE)


Posted: 03/16/2012 4:45 pm Updated: 03/19/2012 7:04 am

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/16/jason-russell-arrested-invisible-children-kony_n_1354455.html


Jason Russell, the co-founder of Invisible Children, the advocacy group behind the "Kony 2012" viral video, was detained and taken by police to a medical facility for evaluation on Thursday morning after he was reported to be in his underwear, yelling incoherently and disrupting traffic in a San Diego neighborhood.

Law enforcement officials say there are no charges pending against Russell.

Lt. Andra Brown of the San Diego Police Department told The Huffington Post that a 33-year-old white male was not arrested but "transported to a local medical facility for evaluation and treatment." She would not confirm the identity of the man involved in the incident, but various media outlets report that it was the 33-year-old Russell.

In a statement posted online, Ben Keesey, the CEO of Invisible Children, also confirmed that Russell had been involved in an incident: "The past two weeks have taken a severe emotional toll on all of us, Jason especially, and that toll manifested itself in an unfortunate incident yesterday. Jason’s passion and his work have done so much to help so many, and we are devastated to see him dealing with this personal health issue."

Scroll down for Keesey's full statement.
According to the San Diego Police Department, officers responded to reports of a male in his underwear pounding his fists on the sidewalk and yelling incoherently, disrupting traffic in the Pacific Beach neighborhood of San Diego. Police said that one caller reported that the man was nude and could have been masturbating, but officers did not confirm that when they arrived.

According to TMZ, Russell was allegedly under the influence of alcohol. Police also told TMZ that he was vandalizing cars.
Russell created the 30-minute film featuring himself, his son, Gavin, and a former child soldier from Uganda named Jacob. Last week, the film received millions of views and rocketed Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, to fame. However, many were quick to respond with criticisms of the film and the organization's spending practices.
Russell is described on the organization's website as a "grand storyteller and dreamer" who dreams of "redefining the concept of humanitarian work" and having "nine more children" with his wife.
"Kony 2012" has received nearly 100 million views on Vimeo and YouTube.
Updated 6:25 p.m. EDT:

Mamdani blames World Bank for poor education standards

Mamdani blames World Bank for poor education standards

http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/629923-Mamdani-blames-World-Bank-for-poor-education-standards.html


Publish Date: Mar 28, 2012


By Francis Kagolo
Renowned scholar Prof. Mahmood Mamdani has blamed the World Bank for the poor quality of university education in Uganda and across Africa.

Mamdani particularly attributed Makerere University’s current woes and fading glory to the World Bank’s ill-fated structural adjustment policies (SAPs) on education.

He said the Bank ill-advised African governments, Uganda inclusive, to shift investment from higher education and focus on primary education in 1980s. He said the policy did not only kill higher education but also murdered the quality of primary education too.

According to Mamdani, “the World Bank convinced the Government that university education was not only elitist but a luxury that society could not afford.”

As a result, the Government focused on primary education and left universities to be funded mainly by the students’ families through the private sponsorship scheme.

“The logic was elegant but populist and faulty,” Mamdani said. “It has had disastrous consequences for higher education, not just in Uganda but wherever it has been applied in Africa.”

He made the remarks during the fourth lecture of the Makerere University Africa lecture series on Thursday.

The lecture was held in memory of Dr. Joshua Mugyenyi, a former Bank of Uganda secretary, whom the former premier Prof. Apollo Nsibambi eulogized as “an intellectual and Uganda’s political liberator for fighting (Milton Obote’s) autocratic rule.”

Mugyenyi participated in the formation of the National Resistance Army (NRA) in Kenya in 1981 which later took over power in 1985.

Mamdani quashed the World Bank’s education policies, arguing that the primary school system could not thrive without a flourishing university system.

“Who would train administrators and teachers for primary schools? Who would design the curriculum? The answer to both questions is: universities,” he stated.

He added: “It is nonsense to think that the benefit of higher education goes only or even mainly to those who teach, work or study there.”

“It is like saying that the benefit of a power dam goes only to the management and the workers in the dam, ignoring the millions whose workplaces and houses, offices and streets, are lit by that power.”

Mamdani expressed discontent that the Government was lagging behind in increasing funding for higher education even after the World Bank realized its mistake and changed the policy in the late 1990s.

He however, said the World Bank ought to pay for its mistakes by funding universities like Makerere whose suffering is a result of its ill-conceived policies.

“The World Bank claims to be a champion of the free market. Well, the first law of the market is that if you make a bad investment, you must pay for it,” he said.

“But the Bank has a long history of making bad investments, yet it has never paid the cost of even one wrong decision. It has simply withdrawn and left its clients to pay the bill. The Bank has the luxury of not living by the rules it forces on others.”

Prof. Nsibambi, however, defended the Government for implementing the World Bank 1980s’ policy on education, saying Uganda would lose out on aid had the policy not been implemented.

The former Ugandan Prime Minister said Madman was unrealistic in his criticism of the Government.

“When the World Bank came up with the policy, Uganda produced a defiant budget in 1987. The Bank then denied us credit. President Museveni had to tactfully accept the SAPs because he was managing an ailing economy,” Nsibambi defended the 1987 education adoption.

The memorial lecture was also attended by a number of ministers and Kenya’s medical services minister, Prof. Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o.

Don’t teach sex in schools: President Museveni challenges Neo-liberal corporate interests behind the HIV/AIDS crusade

First Read:

Ugandan President confronts junk science head on : Museveni warns on male circumcision

http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2011/07/ugandan-president-confronts-junk.html


My analysis

I think President Museveni has come to the realization that the enormous interests behind HIV/AIDS crusade are aiming at promoting condom use in order to boost ‘corporate’ profits. Most of these NGOs in the HIV/AIDS crusade have been infiltrated by neo-liberal corporate interests. Neo-liberal capitalists are interested in increasing HIV infection all over the world for profit sake. President Museveni is right to emphasise abstinence and being faithful. These are the best methods of protecting the Youth against HIV spread. Recently, President Museveni challenged Uganda’s bogus circumcision crusade. The president has come to the realization that corporate profiteers are only interests in increasing the level of HIV infection so as to reap more profits from people’s misery. Statistics indicate that Mbale is one of the places in Uganda with a sky rocketing, HIV infection rate. If Circumcision reduces the rate of HIV infection, how comes HIV infection is increasing among the Bagishu who culturally practice circumcision ? This is the million dollar question.


Don’t teach sex in schools - Museveni

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1362342/-/axe1enz/-/index.html

By Felix Warom Okello & Patrick Okaba

Posted Friday, March 9 2012 at 00:00

President Museveni has warned civil society organisations against promoting sex education in schools and asked the community to declare a zero tolerance for gender based violence.

Speaking at the national celebrations to mark the International Women’s Day in Nebbi, West Nile yesterday, the President warned that while the motive of “foreign NGO messages on sex education” may be good, they must not encourage promiscuity and turn classrooms into bedrooms.

Mr Museveni says, instead of promoting the use of condoms under the guise that it will prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies and unnecessary abortions, the NGOs and teachers should focus on abstinence.

“Be careful with some of these messages from foreign NGOs. For them they are saying a child can become a wife as long as she uses a condom. This is not the way to counsel our children,” Mr Museveni said.

“Our message is put padlocks on your private parts until the time comes to open them when you have a husband. You are not there just to taste and taste (jaribu, jaribu). I can’t tell my daughter or granddaughter to do that. If you start with the right message from the beginning, they will take it.”

Mr Museveni also warned that if the practice is promoted in schools, the country will plunge into immorality.

Although there have been efforts to fight gender-based violence, the President noted that it still occurrs in homes, schools and workplaces. He further proposed that those who engage in incest and defilement be hanged to stop the crime completely.

“I don’t support the idea of mutilation for men who commit incest or defilement. I think hanging them is much better. Girls are not only threatened by harmful cultural practices such as female genital mutilation, and defilement, it goes on with impunity leading to many negative consequences,” he said.

Although the government has been promoting the ABC (Abstinence, be faithful and the use of condom) in the fight against HIV/Aids, the Ministry of Education, according to Mr Aggrey Kibenge, the undersecretary, advocates only abstinence in schools.

He urges that their biggest population in schools are minors (below 18 years) and should not be introduced to behaviour that will provoke their instinct.

“The children in our schools are very young and active. I can’t imagine my child in P2 being taught sex education. What does she know?” Mr Kibenge asked in an earlier interview with Daily Monitor.

The women, through their National Women Council chairperson, Ms Rose Najjemba, want the government to reinforce the socio-economic and political programmes for women with more funds. She said yesterday that human rights for girls have been compromised.

“The women in Uganda are still not benefiting from the economic empowerment. I propose that any man who commits incest, should be castrated and we shall push for the law on this,” Ms Najjembe added.

The Regional Representative of UN Women for East and Horn of Africa, Ms Simone Elis, also asked government to enforce the relevant laws that protect and promote girls education and women’s rights.

“The gender-based violence has frustrated efforts to promote rights of girls and women and even economic empowerment should be geared towards poverty alleviation,” she said.

New film on LRA courts controversy

FIRST READ:

EXPOSING THE CHARACTER OF THOSE WITH WHOM TODAY'S CHRISTIAN LEADERS HAVE ALLIED THEMSELVES


http://www.antipasministries.com/other/article205.htm

WATCH CONTROVERSIAL MOVIE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc


New film on LRA courts controversy

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1362338/-/axe1fdz/-/index.html

By Tabu Butagira

Posted Friday, March 9 2012 at 00:00


In Kampala, former Gulu District chairman and Democratic Party president Norbert Mao, who features in the video urging a halt to massacres by LRA rebels, however, faulted the documentary for lack of balance.“It needs to be told clearly to the world that northern Uganda does not have LRA activities. Invisible Children seems scared to take on Uganda government, and if they are not showing atrocities committed by UPDF, we are not happy,” Mr Mao said.



A sensational video released by Invisible Children, a US charity, chronicling LRA anarchy in northern Uganda, has raised suspicion after its maker exhorts immediate American military action at a time the rebel force poses no threat to the country.


The 30-minute documentary titled, Kony 2012, has at its heart a tear-jerking narration by LRA survivor Jacob, a teenager from Acholi sub-region, the former epicentre for the rebellion.


The rebels first escaped to South Sudan and onward to DRC’s dense Garamba Forest, before spreading to Central African Republic.



Latest UN alerts indicate they have resumed plunder of villages, abduction and or killing of civilians after a four-month respite.


In the movie uploaded on YouTube on Monday, which had been viewed 32.6 million times by 6pm yesterday, Jacob tells of how LRA rebels beheaded his brother.

“It’s better to kill us,” he tells the movie-maker Jason Russell, a co-founder of Invisible Children. The teenager says immediate death would relieve him of an uncertain future, and enable him spiritually re-unite with his slain brother.


The image of toddler Garvin, Mr Russell’s son, is flashed and he can be heard concluding that Kony is a “bad guy” who must be “stopped”.


UPDF spokesman Felix Kulayigye said he had not watched the video but welcomed any help to capture or kill the elusive rebel chief.


“Whether Kony is in Uganda or not, the bottom line is he must be eliminated. The crime he is committing elsewhere is still against humanity,” Col. Kulayigye .


Critics

Government officials contacted by this newspaper were unaware of the video that has elicited social media comments from world celebrities; singer Robyn Rihanna and TV personality Oprah Winfrey.

“Everybody who’s tweeting me about #LRA I’ve helped. Gave major dollars had Invisible Children on my show 2x,” Oprah tweeted.


In Kampala, former Gulu District chairman and Democratic Party president Norbert Mao, who features in the video urging a halt to massacres by LRA rebels, however, faulted the documentary for lack of balance.

“It needs to be told clearly to the world that northern Uganda does not have LRA activities. Invisible Children seems scared to take on Uganda government, and if they are not showing atrocities committed by UPDF, we are not happy,” Mr Mao said.


The NGO also came under strong criticism after it emerged that it spent only 30 per cent of the $8.9m (Shs 20b) it mobilised for the children in their names from well-wishers. The bulk of the cash was expended on salaries, office rentals, travel as well as filming, according to Invisible Children’s audited accounts.


Invisible Children, Enough Project and Resolve jointly wrote to US president Barack Obama on Wednesday, urging him to keep the Special Forces in the Great Lakes and pressure regional governments to cooperate to apprehend Kony before the end of this year.


tbutagira@ug.nationmedia.com

‘Circumcision doesn’t reduce HIV spread’: Gregory Boyle and George Hill challenge Uganda’s Bogus Circumcision Crusade

FIRST READ:

Archbishop Dr. Luke Orombi should fight HIV using the bible and not conjectural science

http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2011/06/archbishop-dr-luke-orombi-should-fight.html

Ugandan President confronts junk science head on : Museveni warns on male circumcision

http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2011/07/ugandan-president-confronts-junk.html

Circumcision is the same as baptism :Archbishop Dr. Luke Orombi urges Christians to embrace Male circumcision

http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2011/06/circumcision-is-same-as-baptism

‘Circumcision doesn’t reduce HIV spread’

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1360190/-/axfghjz/-/index.html  

By FLAVIA LANYERO

Posted Tuesday, March 6 2012 at 00:00

Contrary to recent popular claims that male circumcision reduces HIV/Aids transmission by 60 per cent, a group of researchers has disputed the findings, saying the action will only increase the spread of HIV/Aids and can only reduce its transmission by 1.3 per cent at most.

Researchers Gregory Boyle and George Hill in a study published by Australia’s Thomson Reuters, base their argument on a recent male-to-female transmission of HIV study in Uganda, which showed that more women contracted the virus after unprotected intercourse to infected circumcised male partners.

They concluded that male circumcision is associated with a 61-per-cent increase in HIV transmission. “Across all the three female-to-male trials, of the 5,411 men subjected to male circumcision, 64 (1.18 per cent) became HIV-positive while among the 5,497 controls, 137 (2.49 per cent) became HIV-positive,” Boyle and Hill said.

“So the absolute decrease in HIV infection was only 1.31 per cent, which is not significant. Examination of epidemiological data shows that male circumcision does not provide protection against HIV transmission in several sub-Saharan African countries, including Cameroon, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda and Tanzania, all of which have higher prevalence of HIV infection among circumcised men,” they concluded.

Uganda rolled out medical male circumcision drive two years ago after the World Health Organisation-UNAIDS in 2007 recommended male circumcision as an HIV preventive measure based on randomised clinical trials in female-to-male sexual transmission in South Africa, Kenya and Uganda, which suggested that circumcision could reduce infection by up to 60 per cent.

Thousands of men have undergone the surgical pinch in Uganda. However, President Museveni in July last year castigated the call for male circumcision as a measure to curtail HIV/Aids, saying it was “diversionary” and called for abstienence.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Dr Asuman Lukwago, yesterday, said he was not aware of the new findings but said should it be proved otherwise, the country will drop the method for other viable ones.

“We do not strongly condone it and neither do we dispute it. We work in a world of information and evidence and when it is proven otherwise we shall be alerted and we change our policies just like we did for malaria medicine,” he said.

flanyero@ug.nationmedia.com



Circumcision-generated emotions bias medical literature

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1464-410X.2012.10917.x/full  

1.Gregory J. Boyle1,
2.George Hill2

Article first published online: 7 FEB 2012
DOI: 10.1111/j.1464-410X.2012.10917.x

Sir,
In the Journal of the American Medical Association, Tobian and Gray [1] seek to re-evaluate the risks and alleged benefits of male circumcision (MC), but seem blithely unaware that two authoritative medical associations, the Dutch Medical Association and Royal Australasian College of Physicians, have just completed comprehensive reviews [2,3]

The authors base their argument on three methodologically deficient African clinical randomised controlled trials (RCTs), which purport to show that MC protects against female-to-male HIV infection. However, these trials were terminated early, thereby overstating any putative protective effect [4]. Despite the assertions of the authors of the three African RCTs, both medical associations, after extensive critical review, independently declined to recommend circumcision of male children [2,3].

In an egregious omission, Tobian and Gray failed to acknowledge that in a parallel RCT into male-to-female transmission of HIV carried out in Uganda [5], MC was associated with a 61% relative increase in HIV infection among the female sexual partners of HIV-positive men.

MC ablates the foreskin, destroying its protective, sensory, mechanical, and sexual functions and carries many potential short-term complications and risks, including haemorrhage, infection, and possible death, as well as possible long-term psychosexual difficulties [4,6–8]. MC invokes an abundance of human rights and ethical issues [4,6].

Tobian and Gray have taken a position in stark opposition to that of two highly respected medical societies. In so doing, they have peremptorily dismissed the very substantial issues of certain inherent injury, complications that may result in irreversible mutilation or death, and intractable moral, child abuse, human rights, and ethical problems [2–4,6].

MC changes human and sexual behaviour [4,6–8]. Most doctors favouring MC are circumcised themselves [4]. Circumcision status ‘plays a huge role in whether doctors are in support of circumcisions or not’[9]. Circumcised doctors often defend circumcision by producing flawed papers that minimise or dismiss the harm and exaggerate alleged benefits [10].

Tobian and Gray are products of circumcising cultures. Their article exudes Freudian defences of denial and rationalisation [6,10]. The authors seem blinded by their own circumcision-generated emotional needs. The readers of such articles must be aware of the culture-of-origin and circumcision status of the authors, in order to properly evaluate assertions about MC [4].

Invariably, when biased opinions promoting MC are published by doctors trying to justify their own psychosexual wounding [10], uncircumcised doctors (who mostly see no need for amputating anatomically normal healthy erogenous tissue) are quick to refute such overstated claims [2,4]. We fully expect that this distortion of the medical literature [11] will continue until non-therapeutic male circumcision is prohibited by law and most circumcised male doctors have passed from the scene.

References

•1
Tobian AA, Gray RH. The medical benefits of male circumcision. JAMA 2011; 306: 1479–80
oCrossRef,
oPubMed,
oCAS,
oWeb of Science®
•2
Anonymous. Non-therapeutic circumcision of male minors. Utrecht: Royal Dutch Medical Association, 2010. Available at: http://knmg.artsennet.nl. Accessed January 2012
•3
Circumcision of Male Infants. Sydney: Royal Australasian College of Physicians, 2010. Available at: http://www.kids.vic.gov.au/downloads/male_circumcision.pdf. Accessed January 2012
•4
Hill G. The case against circumcision. J Men's Health Gender 2007; 4: 318–23
o CrossRef
•5
Wawer MJ, Makumbi F, Kigozi G et al. Circumcision in HIV-infected men and its effect on HIV transmission to female partners in Rakai, Uganda: a randomised controlled trial. Lancet 2009; 374: 229–37
oCrossRef,
oPubMed,
oWeb of Science® Times Cited: 55
•6
Boyle GJ, Goldman R, Svoboda JS et al. Male circumcision: pain, trauma and psychosexual sequelae. J Health Psychol 2002; 7: 329–43
oPubMed,
oWeb of Science® Times Cited: 15
•7
Boyle GJ, Svoboda JS, Price CP et al. Circumcision of healthy boys: criminal assault? J Law Med 2000; 7: 301–10
•8
Bensley GA, Boyle GJ. Physical, sexual, and psychological impact of male infant circumcision: an exploratory survey. In Denniston GC, Hodges FM and Milos MF eds, Understanding circumcision: a multi-disciplinary approach to a multi-dimensional problem. New York: Kluwer/Plenum, 2001: 207–40
•9
Muller AJ. To cut or not to cut? Personal factors influence primary care physicians' position on elective circumcision. J Men's Health 2010; 7: 227-32.
oCrossRef,
oWeb of Science®
•10
Goldman R. The psychological impact of circumcision. BJU Int 1999; 83 (Suppl. 1): 93–102
Direct Link:
oAbstract
oPDF(105K)
•11
LeBourdais E. Circumcision no longer a ‘routine’ surgical procedure. Can Med Assoc J 1995; 152: 1873–6
oPubMed,
oCAS,
oWeb of Science® Times Cited: 5

UPDF in Kony hunt accused of rape, looting in Congo

First read:

EXPOSING THE CHARACTER OF THOSE WITH WHOM TODAY'S CHRISTIAN LEADERS HAVE ALLIED THEMSELVES

http://www.antipasministries.com/other/article205.htm  

UPDF in Kony hunt accused of rape, looting

http://www.observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17456:updf-in-kony-hunt-accused-of-rape-looting&catid=78:topstories&Itemid=116  

Friday, 02 March 2012 00:33

Written by Emma Mutaizibwa

Army denies allegations of US research group

A new report accuses UPDF of massive plunder of resources like diamonds and timber in the tiny and war-wracked Central African Republic (CAR) where the army is pursuing bands of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

The dossier, titled 'The Lord's Resistance Army in the Central African Republic' and authored by the New York-based Social Science Research Council (SSRC) in December 2011, alleges that some Ugandan soldiers operated a prostitution ring, raped and infected Congolese refugee girls in CAR, with the deadly HIV.

The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) is an independent, non-profit international organization founded in 1923. It nurtures new generations of social scientists, fosters innovative research, and mobilizes necessary knowledge on important public issues. However, army spokesman Col Felix Kulayigye, on Thursday described the report as the usual banter from self-seeking organisations attempting to account for money from donors.

"That report is unfortunate. It's from masqueraders who are trying to earn bread from our blood and sweat. The UPDF is one of the most disciplined forces in Africa and we are pro-people. Anyone can check our record", Kulayigye said.

In November 2011, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group also accused the UPDF of plundering timber, gold and diamond not only in CAR but also in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Culture of impunity

The report claims that government representatives in Bangui claimed that the UPDF "has allowed a culture of impunity, because those in charge were also involved in illicit activities in CAR, including illegal logging, looting of mineral resources and the sale of everything [one can] think of, from bicycles brought from Uganda on UPDF transport planes to AK 47s and bullets".

When the LRA began making incursions into CAR, President Museveni started courting the support of his counterpart, Gen Francois Bozizé. This culminated in a visit by Bozizé in August 2007, eventually sealing the deal for the UPDF to enter the country in pursuit of Joseph Kony, the elusive rebel leader. Since then, the hunt for Kony and his rebels has ensued. After escaping from the Garamba jungle pounded by helicopter gunships in a December 2008 operation, Kony has found sanctuary in French-speaking CAR. Kony and his acolytes have continued to plant a trail of bloodshed and despair in CAR, killing, abducting and looting property, especially in the towns of Obo and Djema.

This unending bloodshed persuaded the United States government to commit 100 elite soldiers to the anti-LRA effort last year. In his address to Congress on October 14, 2011, President Obama said: "I authorised a small number of combat-equipped US forces to deploy to central Africa to provide assistance to regional forces that are working toward the removal of Joseph Kony from the battlefield. I believe that deploying these US Armed Forces furthers US national security interests and foreign policy and will be a significant contribution toward counter-LRA efforts in central Africa".

Paralles with DRC

The latest string of allegations draws parallels with widespread accusations, including a UN report, that Ugandan soldiers were involved in looting DR Congo natural resources during an incursion between 1997 and 2003. As a result, the DRC sued Uganda at the International Court of Justice, and Uganda was ordered to pay $10bn in compensation. According to the latest report, in the first few months of UPDF's presence in CAR, government officials in Bangui were somewhat indifferent about the Ugandan army. This stance changed slightly in July 2010 when President Bozizé asked the UPDF to leave their base in Sam Ouandja and return to their initial base at Obo.

The report suggests that Bozize did that because he feared the UPDF were plundering diamonds.

"It is unclear why Bozizé asked the UPDF to stay only in Obo and Djema, but the proximity of Ugandan soldiers to the diamond mines of Sam Ouandja might have been a concern for the President", says the report. By December 2011, the report claims, dissatisfaction with the Ugandan army was barely concealed.

Timber alarm

The minister of Commerce and resident of Haut Mbomou was quoted as saying that the UPDF were not welcome in CAR as they were more interested in looting resources than chasing the LRA, according to the report. The report adds that the minister showed the author a handwritten report from the highest local official in Obo, detailing the "destruction of the Obo forest by UPDF soldiers cutting timber and transporting it in army trucks towards Bambouti and South Sudan".

According to the minister, when UPDF commanders were confronted about the timber, they said they needed it to fix bridges and roads. While it is true that the roads in CAR which the UPDF relies on to move are in a very bad condition, the minister stated that: "it is not the job of the UPDF to fix roads; certainly not the roads of southern Sudan where most of the timber is going".

According to the report, allegations of illicit logging on the part of the UPDF are not new; similar claims were made against the Ugandan army in South Sudan in the past. The report claims that local discontent with the UPDF stems primarily from the fact that the Uganda armed forces have taken too long to end the LRA menace. At a local level, the report says, Ugandan soldiers stand accused of mistreatment of women.

Prostitution and rape

A representative of an NGO with a presence in Haut Mbomou said UPDF soldiers, by bringing cash to impoverished areas, had created "a market for prostitution", fanning conflict in the local communities.

The report claims that another NGO worker said UPDF soldiers bring alcohol from Uganda and sell it or give it to young women, including underage girls. Allegations of sexual exploitation of children by UPDF elements were reported by various sources. A representative of a UN organisation said there were reports of several girls, some as young as 12, involved in prostitution with Ugandan soldiers. An internal report for a UN organisation based on investigations from field staff states that it is not "unusual to see girls and women sneak into the UPDF base at night, or find UPDF personnel embroiled in brawls over girls or women".

The report cites at least one very serious case of sexual violence by a Uganda soldier against a 16-year-old girl. Abducted at 14 by the LRA near the town of Obo, the young girl returned home at the beginning of 2011 and, in unclear circumstances, was raped by a UPDF soldier at the Ugandan army base in Obo in May 2011. According to the girl, who became pregnant as a result of the rape, the perpetrator eventually left for Uganda, leaving her "in the custody" of another soldier who continued to abuse her at least until August 2011 when she spoke to a UN worker.

The report points out that this case is similar to another incident reported in February 2011 by a Sudanese NGO worker. In September 2010, two Ugandan soldiers reportedly took a young Congolese girl of 15 named Marie to a clinic in Nzara, South Sudan. The girl had been "rescued" from the LRA by the Ugandan soldiers, who allegedly gang-raped and impregnated her, before taking her to the clinic "nearly dead".

As the army spokesman said, the UPDF does have a reputation of being relatively well behaved, compared to many armies in the world, but as American soldiers have demonstrated in Iraq and Afghanistan, even the most disciplined armies have rogue elements.

Growing apathy

Government officials in the Central Africa Republic have expressed what appears to be a commonly-held belief that the UPDF does not want to end the threat of the LRA, as this would end US aid to it for LRA operations. At both government and local levels, a worrying conviction seems to have been formed, which holds that chasing the LRA is a pretext for Uganda to maintain an invading force in CAR indefinitely. Such views have been fueled by claims that former LRA combatants are quickly integrated into UPDF units once captured, without proper demobilisation and reintegration processes.

In fact, the report claims that at least one third of the total UPDF force chasing LRA groups is composed of former LRA combatants. It is further claimed that former LRA combatants receive no payment for their efforts. The report says the fighters are deceived that their salaries are to be obtained once they are back in Uganda.

Kampala, Bangui ties favourable
At the highest level, however, the relations between Kampala and Bangui remains cordial, says the report - a revelation that appears contradictory. President Bozizé and his son, Jean-Francis Bozizé, the defence minister, have not publicly criticised the Ugandans. A diplomat said that with the exception of the episode in 2010 when President Bozizé asked the Ugandan army to leave the diamond-rich area of Sam Ouandja, both father and son have refrained from publically discussing the Ugandan presence in CAR.

President Bozizé has responded well to Uganda's diplomatic demarches, and has visited Kampala regularly in the last four years, most recently in December 2011 when he attended the meeting of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region.

mutaizibwa@observer.ug

South African tycoon accuses Otafiire of selling him fake gold

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1358662/-/axvbysz/-/index.html

By CHRIS OBORE

Posted Sunday, March 4 2012 at 00:00

Justice Minister Gen. Kahinda Otafiire and the former External Security Organisation deputy chief Emmy Allio have locked horns with a South African businessman over Shs1.8 billion gold deal gone bad.

The businessman, running a Kampala-based firm called International Metals and Minerals (IMM), partnered with Mineral Point Ltd (MP) run by Gen. Otafiire and Mr Allio but the South African accuses the duo of luring him into a fake gold deal in Mwanza, Tanzania.

In a written statement reported to have been sent to President Museveni, the businessman, Henri Van Der Westhuizen, said: “I was lured to Tanzania by Gen. Otafiire and Mr Emmy Allio to meet a conman.”

After the deal unravelled, Mr Van Der Westhuizen says he has had friction with some security chiefs, who have allegedly threatened his life.

Gen. Otafiire denies any dubious dealings, saying the South African businessman tested the gold himself, exported it from Tanzania to Uganda and then to Dubai and “after two weeks he came back claiming that the gold is fake.” He added that his company was just a commissioning agent whose work was to identify the gold dealer for IMM.
“If I identify for you the girl and you are impotent, do you blame me?” the General asked. “The minister is now claiming that Gen. Mayunga is suing him for $100,000, which I had stood surety for, for the South African buyer. If I see Henry, I will cut off his head.”

Gen. Otafiire said the South African investor wanted him to deal with rebels in DR Congo, which he decline being a government minister.

His business partner, Allio, said at his office on Ecobank building on Thursday that: “We made a loss as a company because of that foolish man. We expected from him our $36,000 commission.”

Mr Allio further said Mr Van Der Westhuizen should reveal the people who conned him because after he took the gold to Dubai, he came back and said the Gold was fake.

According to Mr Van Der Westhuizen, IMM entered a strategic partnership in which Mineral Point was to assist it in identifying business opportunities, especially gold buying.

“During the week of July 19, 2010, Mr Emmy Allio approached me with a potential gold buying opportunity. Mr Allio told me that minister, Maj. Gen. Otafiire, has a trusted friend in Tanzania, Lt. Gen. Silas Mayunga, who is a big diamond and gold dealer,” he says.

The deal
Mr Van Der Westhuizen says Mr Allio discussed the proposal with Gen. Otafiire and in his presence, a call was made to Gen. Mayunga and a rendezvous fixed for Mwanza on July 25, 2010.

He said he was taken to a gold refinery where he was first shown a sample of genuine gold after which he was asked for the money to clear security personnel at the airport, who would assist when they are exiting with the gold.

“I was only carrying $3,500 at the time as I thought this was just an introductory and viewing exercise,” he said, adding that Mr Allio who did not want to go out of his hotel room for fear of being identified, pestered him to conclude the deal because Gen. Mayunga was drunk and that “this is a very dangerous man.”

The businessman says he later chartered a plane back to Uganda to pick the money and he returned to Mwanza with $230,000 hoping that “with the presence of the Gen. Otafiire, Lt. Mayunga would allow us to make a down payment and that we could carry the product to Dubai, sell it, come back and do the next deal.”

This did not happen as Lt. Gen. Muyunga reportedly said he had earlier been conned by Canadians, therefore; he needed full amount of $765,000.

Mulago, police block media from accessing nodding disease patients

First Read:

A God Creation or a creation by human kind!!!!Mysterious Nodding Disease hits Northern Uganda


http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2012/02/god-creation-or-creation-by-human.html


Mulago, police block media from accessing patients


http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1359214/-/axupwtz/-/index.html

By Stephen Otage


Posted Monday, March 5 2012 at 00:00


The Kitgum Woman Member of Parliament, Ms Beatrice Anywar, clashed with Mulago Hospital administrators and the police, after they attempted to confiscate cameras from journalists who had gone to cover patients of the nodding disease syndrome yesterday.

The clash erupted as journalists tried to take photographs and videos of the patients who were seated on the floor of the pediatric ward at the Acute Assessment Centre watching television.

The hospital administration has since Saturday barred the press from covering the 25 patients, who arrived at the hospital on Friday evening, after being detained in Gulu Distrcit on their way to Kampala for treatment.

The patients and attendants booed the hospital executive director, Dr Byarugaba Baterana, when he attempted to explain that the media was barred from covering them because the hospital respects their confidentiality.

“Even when we were in Kitgum, the local authorities stopped journalists from coming to the villages to see the situation,” an unidentified attendant said.

Meanwhile, the hospital authorities yesterday announced that government has taken over the management of the 25 patients after it emerged that most of them had different ailments.

“We have one we have done a CT scan on and we found that he has meningitis and a brain tumor, while others have known epilepsy and the rest have conditions which are not related to nodding,” said Dr Hellen Aanyu, the doctor who has been attending to the patients since they arrived.

Not new illness

According to Dr Banterana, the nodding syndrome is not a new phenomenon because it has been in existence elsewhere since 1962.

“This syndrome was in southern Tanzania and South Sudan in 1962 and now it has come to Uganda. We do not know what causes it but we have taken samples. Some of these children came when they had convulsions while others were dehydrated but we managed to resuscitate them and we are progressing well with their management,” he said.

According to Ms Anywar, good Samaritans have started donating assistance to the patients.
sotage@ug.nationmedia.com

What it means to be a Kampala street preacher

What it means to be a street preacher


http://www.monitor.co.ug/artsculture/Reviews/-/691232/1332502/-/ac025/-/index.html

By Christine Katende

Posted Wednesday, February 22 2012 at 00:00

My name is Joel Nshuti. I am a 29-year-old street preacher who resides in Nsambya-Kolombe. I preach the Gospel around Shoprite traffic lights. I was born a protestant but as life went on, God called me into the saved world with the aim of saving his people from the bondage of sin. Most people who see me preaching say I am either mad or have nothing to do.

The fact is, mad people don’t behave like me. The scriptures I preach about transform peoples’ lives. I started street preaching in 2008.

One night, I heard a voice telling me that I should go out and start preaching the word of God to the people who need salvation. This happened a few months after I had lost my job as a cleaner in Nsambya hospital.

I truly believe that it is by the power of God that I now preach because when I left Rwanda in 1995, I could neither speak Luganda nor English but now, I properly preach the gospel in Luganda. This gives me a chance to proclaim to as many people as possible. Being a primary five drop out, I found it easy to learn Luganda. I stopped school when my father passed away during the Hutu-Tutsi war in 1994. You may wonder if I can’t preach without raising my voice high.

Yes I can, but the problem is that I preach to hundreds of people, meaning that if I don’t raise my voice they won’t hear the words of salvation. I raise it so that even people seated in other taxis can hear. Most people say we are paid yet it is not true. Personally, I do this to get a reward in heaven which is eternal life.

There are families which abandon their children when they get saved; I am lucky mine was happy about the news. My mother just told me to be strong because that’s the only way I can find God and help others meet him. I only receive spiritual guidance from my pastor, Richard Kahiru of Right Temple International Ministries in Nsambya but not money as people think. He doesn’t pay me for anything.

For the hot sun in which I always stand as I preach the Gospel, it will be God to reward me because I don’t feel it. Here, the money I get is from well-wishers and my part time milk selling business. I wake up at 6am and sell milk before heading to my street preaching station. I preach on a daily basis from 8pm to 1pm, then go for the lunch hour fellowship at Pastor David Kiganda’s Church in Mengo Kisenyi after which I return to my duty station untill 9pm. Most of the time I go without lunch because I am busy spreading the healing word of God. I always target traffic jam hours because it is the best time to get people’s attention.

It is three years now since I joined the Gospel street preaching crusade, and it is from that that I have been able to rescue people’s lives from the bondage of demonic powers and curses that have tied them for long. I have brought back hope into people’s lives. I realise this when different people come back to me with testimonies of how the word I preach changed their lives. They get healed; get jobs and others have gotten married.

Although I have had all the good things, the worst comes when people start yelling at me. Some people have a negative attitude towards what we do, but I know it is hard to please all mankind. They abuse me but this doesn’t stop me from preaching to them, though it hurts. I will never forget the day I was attacked by three men in a taxi. It was last year around December when I was heading to Najjera. As I travelled, I thought it would make sense if I preached the Gospel to the people in the taxi I had boarded. Little did I know that the preaching was annoying the rest of the passengers, it was after one of them asked me to shut up that it got to me.

As if it was a joke, I continued. In the process, a man grabbed me by the neck saying they were going to throw me out for being big headed.

He immediately stopped the taxi and threw me out. I got very scared and asked God to forgive me because I could not stand such insults any more. Something reminded me of Psalms125 which says: “Those who trust in God are like Mt Sinai. They will never be shaken.” Meaning, God takes care of every situation. It is from then that I became stronger and continued to preach the word of God untill now.

As told to Christine Katende

A God Creation or a creation by human kind!!!!Mysterious Nodding Disease hits Northern Uganda

First watch:

Nodding disease: Cure unknown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOuDEYd1aZs&feature=relmfu

Disabling Nodding disease high in Northern districts

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-DbeA1ISns

First read:

Testing biological weapons on Ugandan Guinea pigs: Deadly Ebola virus breaks out in Luweero(Uganda)

http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2011/05/testing-biological-weapons-on-ugandan.html

LUWEERO EBOLA VICTIM FREQUENTED FOREST: OH! REALLY

http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2011/05/luweero-ebola-victim-frequented-forest.html

THE DRUG EPIDEMIC, VIRUSES,
EBOLA, AND AIDS
[IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK!]

http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000081.htm

Witccraft and the Paranormal

http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000310.htm

My analysis

This disease is not caused by God. It has nothing to do with demon possession. It has to do with testing either drugs or biological weapons. A place like northern Uganda which has experienced war for over 20 years is a fertile ground for testing drugs by pharmaceutical companies and biological weapons, simply because the rule of law virtually breaks down. Unfortunately the people we call on for help are part of the deal. According to the daily monitor.

‘’The United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says the cause, mode of spread and cure for the disease still remains a mystery. According to current CDC findings, test results show no association with food, environment, occupational and water exposures as some reports have indicated. This observation rules out reports that children in the affected areas were drinking dirty river water, relied on relief food during the war and reports that fall-out from munitions used during the LRA war could have caused it. For now, the already affected children are sentenced to death by the disease. “The children definitely die with it – it’s not rapidly progressive, but it seems to take hold of them. The nodding is in fact a type of seizure which causes damage on the brain,” said Dr Scott Dowell, CDC lead investigator, in an interview with the Center for Global Health policy, United States’’. (http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1329170/-/b0pd91z/-/index.html)

Nodding disease: Top US scientist jets in


http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/629080-nodding-disease-top-us-scientist-jets-in.html

Publish Date: Feb 17,

A US-based lead investigator of the nodding disease has arrived in Uganda hoping to find more clues to the puzzling epileptic epidemic that has so far affected 3000 children.

Dr. Scott Dowell told journalists on Thursday that the numerous tests done at the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, USA have not revealed much about the disease.

He said, however, that two strong leads being followed are the connection to the river blindness (onchocerciasis) and low serum concentration.

Serum is the component of blood which does not contain the white and red blood cells or the clotting factor.

Medical information describes serum as the blood component which includes all the proteins not used in blood clotting (coagulation) and all electrolytes, anti-bodies, antigens and hormones. The substance is used in many diagnostic tests as well as blood typing.

The affected children get stunted, malnourished, dehydrated and mental retardation in addition to nodding which, the doctors say is actually “a series of seizures.”

Several of the victims have died, according to Dr. Anthony Mbonye, the Commissioner for Health Services in the Ministry of Health, but that the number of deaths has not been ascertained yet.

Dr. Dowel who is the CDC's director of the Division of Global Disease Detection said that tests have ruled out close to three dozen causes for the severe seizure disorder including a big number of viruses. But he observed that there was low Vitamin B6 detected.

He dismissed speculation that the disease could be connected to the chemicals in the gun powder that could have been used during the insurgency in the north. He also said that there is no evidence that the disease is communicable.

The studies on the disease started in 2009 when the Government of Uganda asked the CDC to help test the disease, according to Dr. Dowell.

The initial results showed no connection with the hypothesized environmental, food occupational and water exposures. There was also no connection to exposure to munitions and crushed roots, he said

The medic said that though the tests have not yielded clear leads to the disease, he and his team are here [Uganda] to help the Ministry of Health treat the affected people and also carry out more research. The affected people, over 95% of whom are children aged 5 to 15, will also be treated with epileptic drugs.

In addition to the anti-convalescents, the doctors will treat the other symptoms as more research on the disease goes on.
He noted that some other studies have indicated that epilepsy is on the raise in northern Uganda.

According to Dr. Mbonye, other scientists engaged in different environmental and health research are to be commissioned to carry out further studies in their different fields in the affected areas in a bid to unravel the disease's mystery.

Could mysterious nodding disease in Africa have global implications?

Debra Black Staff Reporter

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1121730--could-mysterious-nodding-disease-in-africa-have-global-implications

Nodding syndrome — a disease with epileptic-type symptoms prevalent in parts of northern Uganda — is a medical mystery that is confounding medical researchers and scientists alike.

The disease causes young children and adolescents to nod violently in an apparent seizure. It happens frequently throughout the day, including when they eat.

Over the past year there has been a growing outbreak in northern Uganda, specifically in Kitgum, Pader and Gulu. It is believed that thousands of cases have developed, but officials from the U.S.-based Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have only been able to confirm a couple hundred.

A team from the Atlanta-based health organization is returning to Uganda in February to consult with local officials about a treatment trial.

Some researchers have suggested the disease may be linked to river blindness, which also affects all three communities.

River blindness, carried in bacteria inside a nematode worm known as onchocerca volvulus, is transmitted to humans by a bite from a black fly infected with the worm. The disease affects 18 million people, mostly in Africa.

The worms burrow into the skin, reproduce and release millions of offspring that spread throughout the body. After they die, they trigger a severe immune inflammatory response in the body which causes vision loss and severe itching.

It isn’t clear how it is related to nodding syndrome, researchers admit. At the moment all they know is there is an association between the two diseases.
History of Syndrome
The first cases of nodding syndrome — or descriptions of what could have been the disease — date back to the early 1960s in Tanzania, said Scott Dowell, director of Global Disease Detection and Emergency Response for the CDC, in a phone interview with the Star.

Over the past decade, clusters of the disease have popped up in South Sudan and Uganda. The onset in Uganda seems to have begun in 2003 with several thousand cases in Kitgum, Dowell said.

The disease appears to strike most children and adolescents between ages 5 and 15. Children appear healthy until about age 5 and then they begin having strange head-bobbing episodes.

Dowell describes it as a kind of perpetual motion, with the head constantly nodding up and down as if to say yes.

The nodding outbreaks differ in individuals, according to Dowell. In some patients it happens every few minutes. In other cases, it happens only three or four times a week. In many cases it makes eating and drinking difficult.

Those who experience it often appear disoriented and not aware of their surroundings when it’s happening, he explained. “It’s very unusual. There is nothing like this anywhere else in the world.”

It is 40 to 100 times more common than epilepsy, he added.
Causes and treatments?
Researchers had hypothesized it might be caused by a new viral encephalitis, but that didn’t bear any fruit. They also thought perhaps it was a prion disease — such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease — but they have ruled that out, as well.

Now scientists are betting on the possibility that nodding syndrome is associated with river blindness. In all three CDC investigations so far, said Dowell, researchers have found an association.

Children and adolescents with the disease are more likely to have antibodies against river blindness and were more likely to be exposed to it. But scientists don’t know how river blindness transforms itself into nodding syndrome.

None of the children or adolescents who suffer from nodding syndrome recover. “Once they have it, it is forever,” said Dowell. It is very debilitating — they can’t eat, they are malnourished and they have cognitive problems, so they drop out of school and become totally dependent on their parents and the community, Dowell said.

Currently, sufferers are being treated with anti-epileptic medications and family members report the children are experiencing some relief.

The CDC has also recommended that they be treated for river blindness and malnutrition.
Global Significance
“Because we don’t know what causes it or its transmission routes, we don’t know what implications it may have for the rest of the world,” said Dowell.
Some diseases in Africa are local and others turn out to be globally important. He cites as an example “slim disease” — a wasting disease in West Africa. “It turned out to have been caused by HIV before HIV was discovered.”
In the case of nodding syndrome “we don’t know the implications of this for the rest of the world,” Dowell said. “It’s quite clear it has huge implications for those living in Kitgum district in Uganda, but it could turn out to have just as huge implications for the rest of the world.”

Govt Offers Condolences Over Nodding Disease

By Sheila Naturinda, The Monitor, 8 February 2012

The government yesterday fell short of apologising to the people of northern Uganda over the nodding disease, only offering condolences and promised to present a comprehensive report before Parliament today.

The deputy leader of government business, Gen. Moses Ali, acknowledged that the situation was 'mysterious' but said he had asked Health Minister Christine Ondoa to explain and answer all demands made by the political leaders of the Acholi sub-region districts where children are affected.

"We accept that the disease has been mysterious. We offer our condolences to the victims and promise to address this House tomorrow (today) on the disease; other matters we shall discuss then," Gen. Ali said.

For the second time in less than two months, the MPs from northern Uganda had demanded that their area be declared a disaster area or else they ferry all children affected by the disease to Kampala.

"We can see that northern Uganda has been ignored. We need action now," said Ms Beatrice Anywar, the Kitgum Woman MP.

"Our children are tied to trees like goats to avoid them falling into fires and hurting themselves," Ms Ms Anywar said.

The mysterious disease was first reported in the Acholi-sub region in 1997.

There are currently more than 3,000 children affected and more than 200 deaths registered at the local health facilities.

Demands
Among the demands of Acholi MPs tabled before Parliament yesterday are: declaring Acholi sub-region a disaster area, having a comprehensive report, creating of mobile clinics, a full budget channeled to the areas, and intensifying research to discover the name and cause of the disease.

In January, Ministry of Health set its third deadline to roll out a comprehensive action plan on nodding disease. This could be the report Dr Ondoa will present to the Parliament today.

Kamya: Government Shs7b nodding disease plan a sham

By AGATHA AYEBAZIBWE & JAMES ERIKU

Posted Tuesday, February 14 2012 at 00:00

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1327144/-/b0qqxwz/-/index.html

Opposition politician Beti Kamya has questioned government’s claim that it has completed a Shs7b plan to manage the nodding disease that has caused misery in several Acholi districts.

Writing to the Speaker of Parliament yesterday, the Uganda Federal Alliance president said the statement by junior health minister Richard Nduhura to MPs that government had completed a Shs7 billion plan to manage the disease contained glaring contradictions.

She wondered, for example, how the minister could claim the plan had been shared with the Acholi Parliamentary Group, yet Kitgum Woman MP Beatrice Anywar, whose constituency is worst-hit, was clueless about the plan.

Ms Kamya also wondered how the ministry could have come up with a plan yet medical officials in the affected districts of Kitgum, Pader and Lamwo were ignorant of these arrangements.

“Madam Speaker, is it possible that the Ministry of Health put together a Shs7 billion plan without the participation and knowledge of the Director of Medical Services & DMO? If not, then the plan started after January 25 and by February 9, it had been long completed and even shared with development partners! Is that feasible?” writes Ms Kamya.

She adds: “Madam Speaker, I do not find the minister’s statement credible or convincing and the country already smells a Global Fund / GAVI-like scandal in the making, which we must not allow,” wrote Ms Kamaya. “I therefore petition Parliament, in the spirit of transparency, to order the Ministry of Health to immediately table before parliament, and get published in the media, the very plan that Hon. Nduhura claims.” More than 3,000 children are affected by the disease which has so far killed about 200 victims.
Low school turn up

And as the politicians jostle, our survey in the affected districts reveals that most primary schools in the affected districts have registered low turn up for the new term as many parents opt to keep away their children from social gatherings including church services.

In Pader, where 2,500 children are said to have contracted the disease, official statistics from the education department put the number of pupils not going to school since the term began at 700.
Mr Obol Okidi, the district education officer, said many children suffer general body weakness while others are mentally retarded, affecting their ability to attend school.
His counterpart in Kitgum, Mr Okwee Okaka said at least 221 children have dropped out of school in his district especially in Amida, Akwang and Lagoro sub-counties.

Logistical limitations are also crippling response services. The Pader health boss, Dr Janet Oola, whose district has more than 2,000 confirmed cases of nodding disease, said only two of the four ambulances are functional.In Lamwo District, most of the 800 cases reported are in border sub-counties-most about 40 kilometres away from Padibe Town Council where the district hospital is located.

The district health officer, Dr Charles Oyoo, said he had informed the public not to rely the district’s ambulance because it is strained serving all the sub-counties. Efforts to get more ambulances, he said, had bore no fruit. MP Anywar has accused government of negligence and playing hide-and-seek as the nodding disease continues to spread across the Acholi sub-region.
editorial@ug.nationmedia.com