Accept defeat, Zambia president tells Uganda's opposition

Entebbe.

Zambian president Edgar Chagwa Lungu has asked Ugandan’s opposition members to concede defeat and recognise Mr Yoweri Museveni as the duly elected president following the highly contested February 18 elections.

Mr Museveni, 71, won 60.75 per cent of the vote while his closest challenger Dr Kizza Besigye took 35 per cent, according to the Electoral Commission records. However Dr Besigye who has challenged President Museveni previously rejected the results, asking for an independent audit.

However, after landing at Entebbe International Airport this afternoon, Mr Lungu said the opposition must accept the will of the majority of Ugandans.

“Let the opposition parties accept the will of the people and accept the win of president Museveni because he went through elections and won,” said Mr Lungu.

The 59-year-old Zambian leader who has been president since January 2015, and is in the country to commemorate the swearing-in of President Museveni scheduled for tomorrow, seemed to take a swipe at Dr Kizza Besigye who came second in the February 18 presidential elections.

"If you have a football club, you can't use only one striker who doesn't score. My advice to them [opposition] is to accept the win and also change the striker because he has failed to score for all these years he has been on the football ground," said Mr Lungu.

Dr Besigye has challenged president Museveni for the country’s top job four times although he has never accepted defeat.

Mr Lungu also advised Ugandans to love their president and attend his ceremony as he swears in for his 5th term at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds tomorrow.

Mr Museveni who has been at the helm for 30 years will take oath to extend his rule to 35 years.

Mr Lungu joins Tanzania president John Pombe Magufuli and other foreign dignitaries who are in Uganda for the same function.

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Transport through Muhoroni-Londiani disrupted after road caves in

A section of Londiani-Muhoroni road which was swept away by flood waters.

Commuters using Londiani-Muhoroni were forced to seek alternative routes after the road linking the two towns was washed away by flood waters.
Heavy rains pounding Kisumu county and its environs has rendered the highway impassable after a gulley five metres wide cut through the road on Wednesday.
The section, an alternative for motorists who do not wish to pass through Kericho while traveling to Kisumu, has been closed indefinitely.
Muhoroni OCPD Muthuri Mwongera, in an assessment of the damage caused after river Nyando burst its banks, asked drivers to avoid the route.
He urged them to use alternative routes as it won't it possible for them to make it to either side of the road built barely two years ago.
"The road will only be used once it has been repaired," Mwongera said.
"Before we fix the road, motorists will have to use the longer route from Kisumu to Kericho and vice versa," he said.
A huge traffic snarl up formed on both sides of the damaged section after the bridge collapsed.
Assistant Inspector General of Police Joseph Keitany said that police officers have been deployed at the scene to ensure that no person attempts to cross the road.
"We are also going to erect signs around that area to ensure that people can see that the road has been closed indefinitely," Keitany said.
No injuries were reported in the incident. The disconnection adds to the misery the residents of Nyando belt who have suffered serious effects of the long rains as a result of flooding.

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Tobiko orders review of Eurobond file cleared by EACC

Director of Public Prosecution.

Director of Public Prosecution Keriako Tobiko will review the Eurobond case after the anti-graft agency and Auditor General reported that no money was lost in the alleged scam.
“The file shall be independently reviewed by my office and a decision thereon made shortly based on the facts, evidence and the law" Tobiko said in a statement to the media on Wednesday.
Earlier this year EACC cleared the National Treasury‘s chiefs and asked the Director of Public Prosecution to order a thorough forensic audit on how the Eurobond billions were spent.
The commission had interviewed more than 30 government officials who were to help shed light on claims made by the Opposition that proceeds from the bond were kept in secret offshore accounts and used without the authority of the Controller of Budget as required by law.
EACC further also recommended that the matter be referred to the office of the Auditor-General as it was the independent body with the mandate to audit accounts under Article 229 of the Constitution.
The Auditor General was to carry out a special audit on development projects that were implemented by ministries, departments and agencies in the financial years 2013/14 and 2014/15 in order to ascertain the utilization of the funds and whether there was value for money.
The Opposition has maintained that at least Sh140 billion was missing.
It wants to know how the money was used, which infrastructural projects it funded as claimed by Treasury CS Henry Rotich, and if the projects were of economic value to Kenyans.

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NSSF injects 34 billion/- to revive NMC factories

THE National Social Security Fund (NSSF) is planning to revive the National Milling Corporation (NMC) mills and granaries across the country - in line with the industrialisation initiative spearheaded by President John Magufuli, it was revealed in Arusha.

According to the NSSF Director-General, Professor Godius Kahyarara, the pension fund will invest over 34bn/- to revive the state milling and grain storage facilities in Kyela District, Mbeya Region, Iringa, Dodoma and Mwanza with the four factories said to be valued at 80bn/-.

“The NMC factory at Iringa is in fact already operating - milling and packaging maize meal (flour), which sells cheaply at just 40 per cent of the market price,” said the NSSF chief, adding that the fund, in its five-year development strategy, will ensure that all NMC mills in the four regions are reclaimed, revived and put into active production.

Speaking during the occasion to inaugurate Mafao House, a commercial complex built by the NSSF as well as the PPF Plaza built by PPF Fund in Arusha, the Minister responsible for Policy, Parliament, Labour, Youth, Employment and the Disabled, Ms Jenista Mhagama, said a grand plan that will see social security schemes invest in new factories will be rolled out at the end of this month.

“While NSSF is working to revive the NMC facilities, I am on the other hand planning a joint meeting with all pension funds in the country to plan the establishment of new factories in the country, as well as reviving old but potential ones; the president’s initiative to make Tanzania an industrialised country is not a joke.

In a few years’ time, this is going to be the case,” she said. On his part, President Magufuli assured all pension schemes that plan to invest into factories and other productive industries that the government will give them a five-year tax holiday to help them gain ground.

“Many foreign investors have in the past enjoyed tax holidays; this time it is our own enterprises that will benefit from such incentives to boost local investments,” the president stressed.

While NMC granaries and mills are being revived in Mwanza, Mbeya, Iringa and Dodoma regions, it is still not known what will happen to the National Milling facilities located in the Unga Limited section of this city.

The NMC property is being used by a local miller, Philemon Mollel, through his Monaban Company Limited. Meanwhile, when NSSF together with its counterpart, the PPF Fund jointly invited Dr Magufuli to inaugurate their two new commercial complexes in Arusha; they probably expected the president to be impressed.

He was not. “While these two high-rise buildings may look beautiful to the eye, the amount invested into their constructions could have been channelled into better projects such as industrial premises and factories, to boost employment and increase state revenues,” the president pointed out.

He reminded pension fund officials that the rate of occupancy in the commercial buildings was astoundingly low, which reduced the towering structures into white elephant projects.

Dr Magufuli noted that the 60 billion/- invested by the two schemes for both buildings could instead have financed a number of factories to boost production for both local and export markets.

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TIB disburses 550m/- agricultural loans

TANZANIA Investment Bank (TIB) has issued agricultural loans totaling more than 550bn/- to farmers across the country.

This was revealed here by the deputy minister of Finance and Planning, Dr Ashatu Kijaji, when responding to a basic question from Mr Innocent Bashungwa (Karagwe – CCM) who wanted to know the government’s plan to ensure TIB and Tanzania Agriculture Development Bank (TADB) works to alleviate poverty in the country.

Deputy Minister Kijaji said that apart from agricultural loans, TIB has also supervised government loans to the agriculture sector amounting to 58.8bn/- by end of 2015, issued through 121 private companies, 11 micro finance institutions and 78 SACCOS.

She said TIB has also issued 489.2bn/- for the purpose of 181 Rural Electrification Agency (REA) projects providing financial support for implementation of different projects and 257,000 homesteads have benefitted.

“About 17 groups of small miners have also benefitted from loans from the TIB amounting to 8b/-,” the deputy minister added. TIB has also invested in the Tanzania Railway Limited (TRL) and Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation’s (TPDC) gas project by providing loans to Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (Tanesco) for compensation purposes as the electricity utilities puts in place new power lines.

She noted that TIB and TADB main objective is to provide short and long term loans to fund strategic development plans, including developments of human settlements in Temeke and Kinondoni, cashew nut processing industries and water pipelines.

The loans from the two institutions, have also helped create new employment opportunities and increase production of export products such as flowers, coffee and gold.

She added that the bank is also supporting implementation of government’s development plans that include the 2025 development vision and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 and Africa agenda 2063.

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Mount Kilimanjaro porters trained on HIV prevention methods

MOUNT Kilimanjaro porters have been urged to be proactive in war against HIV/AIDS as a way to ensure the nation does not lose its workforce or increase the number of dependants due to the malady.

Kilimanjaro Regional Commissioner (RC), Mr Said Meck Sadiki told the porters that HIV/AIDS statistics in the country and particularly in the region shows that the problem is still huge; hence they have to be responsive in the fight.

Mr Sadiki told the porters that the government’s target is to avoid new infections, stigma and discrimination and at the end of the day see to it that no death occurs due to AIDS.

He was officiating over five-days training on HIV/AIDS to the porters at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania hall at Himo. The training was organised by Kilimanjaro Against Gender Based Violence (KIAGBV), supported by Tanzania Commission for AIDS (Tacaids) and Geita Gold Mine (GGM). The RC said such training was very important, as porters are part of youths who are affected by the malady.

“The HIV and AIDS problem has a huge adverse effect to the nation’s social and economical setting. Some of them are losing the workforce as people suffer for a long time and become weak, and eventual deaths increase the number of dependant groups such as orphans, widows and widowers,” said the RC.

He said the National AIDS Policy calls for all sectors to actively take part in the fight against the problem while the government provides leadership and coordination to the sectors on ways of planning and implementation of interventions.

That is so, he added, because HIV/AIDS is not only a health issue but a cross-cutting one, affecting every sector, including tourism.

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Prime mister mr. kassim Majaliwa. takes advice on probing UK bank

PRIME Minister, Mr Kassim Majaliwa, said yesterday the government was working on Kigoma Urban MP (ACT-Wazalendo) Zitto Kabwe’s advice that it should launch an investigation into the bribery scandal with the UK bank.

“We have received an advice from Mr Kabwe to probe the UK based Standard ICBC and Stanbic Tanzania over USD 6 mi l - lion (about 12bn/-) bribery scandal in a treasury bond deal sealed on March 8, 2013 which we are working on,” Mr Majaliwa said.

Speaking in Dodoma yesterday, the PM said the government was working on the matter and that immediately after proper assessment and thorough investigations by security agencies, the matter would be made public.

On Thursday evening, Mr Kabwe asked Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr Job Ndugai, to form a parliamentary selectcommittee to probe into the scandal with a UK bank. The outspoken MP demanded that the committee should launch investigation into the UK based Standard ICBC and Stanbic Tanzania to get the truth on the matter.

Reports say the alleged hefty bribe facilitated the purchase of USD 600 million (Sh1.2 trillion) treasury bonds in 2013 by the UKbased Standard Bank.

Debating budget estimates for the Ministry of State in the President’s Office (Good Governance and Public Service Management), Mr Kabwe argued that on March 8, 2013, the government took an external loan facility of USD 600 million (about 1.2tri/-) by the help of UK’s Standard Bank, now known as Standard Bank ICIC plc. He added that if the government implemented the contract, it would have started servicing the loan in March 2016.

According to the Kigoma Urban legislator, the loan was marred by serious corruption allegations that have landed some officials in court. However, the prime minister yesterday said that there was no cause for alarm over the matter, insisting that the issue was under close watch by government agencies.

“As the leader of government business in the House, I have received the advice from Mr Zitto and we are working on it and after proper analysis by government machineries, we will be in a position to reveal findings,’’ insisted Mr Majaliwa.

In the House, Mr Kabwe presented a letter of Tanzanians living in the Diaspora, who wrote to the Prevention and Combatting of Corruption Bureau (PCCB), demanding that the government launch investigations into the saga.

However, he pointed out that PCCB used reports by UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which did not investigate the UK’s Standard Bank. “Today PCCB is being helped and advised by experts from the UK while the bank implicated in this scam is from that country,’’ he noted, adding that the corruption watchdog was afraid to charge the UK based bank because those giving advice on the matter were from the UK.

To know the truth to justify appropriate legal steps instituted against the offenders, the Parliament ought to repeal section 120(2) to form an independent parliamentary select-committee to investigate into the multi-million scam.

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