Ssembabule residents reject sh700m tank

The Ssembabule district leaders led by the resident district commissioner, Henry Baguma, refused to commission the valley tank citing shoddy work.

Ssembabule district leaders and residents have rejected a valley tank constructed  by the Government at a cost of sh700m.

The Valley tank was constructed by the Wankulukuku-based Ambitious Construction Company Ltd in Kampala funded by the Ministry of Water at Kagango village in Mijwala sub-county.

The Ssembabule district leaders led by the RDC, Henry Baguma refused to commission the valley tank citing shoddy work.

The Valley tank supposed to ho;d water for livestock during the dry season, has been abandoned by the community.

Its construction started in April and the technical hand over of the facility to the district had been set for November.

The RDC, Henry Baguma, told The New Vision that the Ministry of Water and the contractors did not allow the district authorities to participate in the planning and supervision process of the project.

We learnt that the Ministry of Water contracted Ambitious Company to rehabilitate the old valley tank, but the company preferred to construct the tank at another site. Efforts to reach Ambitious authorities were futile.

The Company Managing Director, Ramji Karsan Swaminarayan's phone was off.  He is said to be on official trip to India.   A source attached to the company said they complied with all the contract requirement set by the relevant consultants.

However, at the site rain water could not collect in the valley tank because it was constructed on a hill side and not the valley as required according to the deputy director under the Manifesto Implementation unit office of the President, Fred Kamugira.

“The problem is that tank was supposed to be constructed in the valley and not on a hilly site, water cannot collect here to serve the community,” he observed.

Kamugira, who visited the valley tank on the request of the Ssembabule district leadership, supported the decision of the district authorities for rejecting the hand over ceremony of the useless facility.

He said the Ministry of Water wasted government resources.  A source from the Ssembabule water office told The New Vision that the Ministry of water and the contractors refused to listen to the priorities recommended for the facility.

“This mess is because the district technical team was ignored throughout and the approvals were done in Kampala. We are not accountable for the losses,” the source that preferred anonymity said.

The source noted that the monthly site meetings were not conducted as required.
The local person selected to take care of the facility on behalf of the community Ben Lubega said the solar powered generator supposed to pump water from the valley tank also failed to function.

He said the pipes have also failed to access water in the valley tank because  rain water failed to collect in the facility during the rainy season.

Some of the community members from the neighboring villages complained that the facility was fensed off to benefit a few individuals.

The Ssembabule deputy DISO,Emmanuel Bagyenda, said the project consultants are also to blame over the shoddy works.
He said the 10m litres water tanks attached to the facility is irrelevant.

He said the water taps cannot provide clean water.  He said one of the project engineers from Kampala identified as Tabalo fled the site after the locals asked him to explain the mess.

The Ssembabule district Council Chairman, Dr Elly Muhumuza, expressed concern that the valley tanks constructed by the Water Ministry and the contractors at over sh500m are normally completed at sh70m under the district budget.

 “We suspect that the authorities in Kampala inflate the construct rates of the valley tanks, we complete the same works at sh70m,” he said.

He said the valley tanks constructed under the Kisozi model villages by the office of the President, have benefited the communities because of the value of money principle set

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Putin says will seek new six-year term as president in March polls

"I will offer my candidacy for the post of president of the Russian Federation."

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said he would seek a new six-year term in the country's March elections in a move that would make him the longest-serving Russian leader since Joseph Stalin.
Putin, who has been in power for the past 18 years, is expected to sail to victory, with only token opponents competing against him.
"I will offer my candidacy for the post of president of the Russian Federation," he said during a visit to a car factory in Nizhny Novgorod.
He made the widely-expected announcement surrounded by cheering workers, who prodded him to unveil his plans in a carefully-choreographed ceremony.
"There is perhaps no better place and better excuse to announce this," Putin said in a nod to his core constituency.
"Russia will go only forward! And no-one would ever stop her in this direction."
Predictably, a chorus of Russian politicians praised the announcement, while social networks were abuzz, with many ridiculing the Kremlin strongman.
Top Putin critic Alexei Navalny, who has earlier declared a Kremlin bid even although he will not be allowed to run due to a suspended sentence for fraud, called Putin a "swindler."
"I suggest we don't agree," the 41-year-old Western-educated lawyer said on Twitter, referring to Putin's plans to seek a fourth Kremlin term.
Putin's confirmation of the Kremlin bid came as Russia reeled from a decision by the International Olympic Committee to ban the country from the Winter Games as punishment over claims of state-orchestrated doping.
But despite a litany of mounting problems including corruption, poverty and poor healthcare, the 65-year-old leader enjoys approval ratings of some 80 percent.

Do you trust me?Just hours earlier Putin visited a glitzy ceremony for volunteers in Moscow where he sought to rouse supporters.
"I want to ask, do you trust and support me?" he addressed the huge audience of mostly young people.
"Yes!" the audience chanted.
Before Putin took the floor prominent figures, including athletes and Soviet-era celebrities such as 83-year-old actor Vasily Lanovoi, took to the stage to extol the country's successes, such as Soviet victory in World War II.
Cosmonaut Sergei Ryazansky addressed the audience via video link from the International Space Station.
Putin has sought to appeal to the country's youth after thousands of young Russians took to the streets earlier this year to protest alleged corruption among the elites, targeting Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev among others.
The demonstrations were sparked by a documentary fronted by Navalny.
Putin, who first became president after Boris Yeltsin sensationally resigned on New Year's Eve 1999, handed power to his ally Medvedev in 2008 at the end of his second term.
Putin served as prime minister -- though few doubted who was really in charge -- and returned as president in 2012.
If he extends his rule to 2024, Putin will have led Russia longer than Leonid Brezhnev, who presided over an era of stagnation from 1964 to 1982 and became the target of derision in his later years.
"He cannot not seek a new term," independent analyst Dmitry Oreshkin told AFP.
"If he left the system he himself created he would become weak and vulnerable."
Analysts say that after more than 17 years of leadership -- both as president and prime minister -- Putin fatigue may be spreading across the country.
Many Russians say they would vote for Putin simply because they don't see an alternative to him amid the former KGB officer's chokehold on domestic politics.
With the result of the election already a foregone conclusion, turnout could be low, dealing a blow to the Kremlin' hopes for a decisive new mandate, observers say.
According to a poll conducted by the independent Levada Centre pollster last month, just 58 percent of respondents said they would take part in the polls, down from 75 percent in December 2007.

What will happen after 2018?Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed this week that those figures came ahead of the start of a political campaign, saying they were set to grow.
Many expect that Kseniya Sobchak, a 36-year-old glamourous former host of a television reality show and daughter of Putin's former mentor, will likely be allowed to run against Putin to rekindle public interest in the dull election.
With the election virtually devoid of any suspence, the question is what will happen after Putin's expected re-election and later, after his new term ends in 2024, analysts say.
"The main intrigue is, what will happen after 2018, how the configuration of power will be changing," Tatyana Stanovaya, a Paris-based analyst for the Centre of Political Technologies in Moscow, to AFP.
Speculation has swirled over the past weeks that the Kremlin may be considering whether to change the constitution or create a brand new post for Putin in an effort to extend his grip on power.
"The main task for the Kremlin is to adapt the regime to Putin's future status - be it an extension of presidential powers or the creation of a new post," said Stanovaya.

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Sacked Gulu DPC narrates shooting ordeal

Ayiki denied climbing the TAKS Centre wall fence before being shot by a security guard.

GULU SHOOTING | AYIKI

Gulu acting Police Commander, Joseph Ayiki, who was shot and injured last week, has denied climbing over a fence at the Through Art, Keep Smiling (TAKS) centre.

Ayiki has been dropped by the Police Standards Unit pending investigation into the circumstances under which he was shot by an Exposs Security guard.

He said he entered the premises through a gate.

He said he went to the centre, located behind Acholi Inn in Gulu municipality to check on some friends. He said he was neither armed nor clad in the police official uniform.

He said he had arrangements with the his colleagues the Adjumani district Police Commander (DPC) and the OC CID at the centre.

“When I left the CPS, I walked to the TAKS centre and reached in about 5 to 10 minutes. When I reached, I knocked at the main-gate made of Bamboo wood, but there was no response. I walked to the small-gate and knocked. And again, there was response. I decided to push the door and went inside the compound of the TAKS centre. While there, the place was well-light, but I could not see anyone. I called out, but there was no response. I then decided to sit on one of the plastic chairs in the compound. I picked my phone so that I could start dialing the telephone number of my friend, the DPC of Adjumani, but realised that my MTN Paka-paka Airtime had expired. I could hear some low voices coming from one of the small houses within, but no one came out to tend to me.

“I then got up and started walking back towards the small gate through which I entered. At this point, I saw someone walking towards me and suddenly shouted that I stop. He ordered me in Luo: ‘bed piny’ (sit down), but I could not understand until he used a body language that could mean he was telling me to sit. I did not comply. He repeatedly shouted in a strong voice, then I went down on my knees  while raising my hands.

"Again, he shouted: 'but piny' (lie down). I refused to comply because that spot was wet and muddy because it had rained the previous night. He asked me to introduce myself to him both in Kiswahili and English, but when I tried to do so, he could understand me and also did not give me time to talk while I was lying down. But the guy surprised me with a bullet in my thigh. He just shot me,” Ayiki narrated.

Ayiki said the guard them stepped away and talked on the phone with someone.

He said he then used the opportunity to take off his canvass shoes and pull out the   shoelaces, which he used to tie his right thigh to avoid over bleeding, since he still had the energy.

"When the guard returned, I heard a truck coming and I was carried by some people, including a UPDF soldier, who I think came from Acholi Hotel after hearing a gun-shot, and carried me in the truck. I regained my consciousness in the hospital,” he added.

Ayiki said he could not neither dress in the police uniform, arm himself, nor pick either a body guard or escorts because he was on a private mission, not official work.

“It is not true that I climbed over a fence. First of all, there is not proper wall at the TAKS centre. The place just has Bamboos that can one cannot climb over. I just thought I would quickly go meet and pick up my friend and go for a short wedding meeting with them, since he was to wed this coming Saturday."

He said he did not know that his friends had left in the afternoon due to an emergency in Adjumani, since he had been busy with other officers trying to quell a strike by students of Gulu University.

Ayiki is at Lacor Hospital in Gulu, where he was admitted after the incident on  Tuesday, November 28.

He said his condition was steadily improving and that he hopes to get out of the hospital in about a month. He was able to get up and move supported by a four-roller trolley to and from his bed side room toilet and to the bed by the time our reporter visited him at 1:30pm today.

Ayiki is being looked after woman who identified herself only as "Never Joseph". Ayiki declined to disclose whether he is married or not, citing security reasons.

“I do not want to endanger my family members,” he said.

Ayiki was transferred to Gulu in June this year as the officer in-charge of statio, and was later appointed the Acting DPC of Gulu. Previously, he served as the OC-Station at Jinja East (2016).

He similary served as the OC-Station at Bwoma-Mawokota, South Mpigi district (2011-2016), after which he was the Office in-charge of Integrated Highway Police command at Katonga, commanding Gomba and Mpigi districts between 2011 and 2016.

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