Kampala. President Paul Kagame has called for an end to the tension between Uganda and Rwanda that led to closure of Rwanda border on February 28.

Mr Kagame, who was addressing the Africa CEO Forum 2019 in Kigali on Tuesday, said on the official presidential Twitter handle Presidency/Rwanda @Urigwiro Village that Uganda and Rwanda can avoid “quarrels” that might hurt both countries.

“To say the least, if we can’t work together as brothers, sisters, friends, we can decide to give each other peace and forget what we have to do together but above all avoid quarrels that will be destructive because no one will win from any serious quarrel,” he told the summit. 
His reconciliatory tweet is seen as a change from his earlier hardline position when told Rwanda’s local and central government officials on March 16 during a retreat at Rwanda Defence Forces Combat Training Centre, Gabiro in Gatsibo District that no one can bring him to his knees.

However, Mr Olivier Nduhungirehe, Rwanda’s minister in charge of East African Community Affairs, yesterday told Daily Monitor that Mr Kagame has not softened.

“The President has been clear right from the start and as government, we have given three options. The first option is that we want to work towards normalisation of the relations for economic cooperation. We have said this before. The second option is that if the first option is not possible, we should ignore each other. But that’s not our preferred option. The third option, which is the worst is that if Uganda wants do harm to us, and continues to support our enemies, Rwanda is ready to defend itself,” Mr Nduhungirehe said.

Uganda’s Regional Cooperation Minister Philemon Mateke yesterday said that “there are no quarrels” between both countries. 
In a separate interview, Col Shaban Bantariza, the Uganda Media Centre deputy executive director, last evening said: “That is a positive statement and that has been the policy that nobody benefits from such a situation.”

Rwanda closed the border with Uganda and all the Ugandan cargo trucks have been blocked from entering Rwanda over allegations that Uganda is harassing and arresting Rwandans, an allegation Uganda has denied. 
During the same forum, which was also attended by DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi, Mr Kagame also said it was only the people or Rwanda who can remove him from power.

“Whether you like me or not, President Kagame is here as President of Rwanda, it is the business of the people of Rwanda. If they want Kagame, they will have him and if they don’t they will remove him,” he said. 
Rwanda also claims that Uganda harbours the Rwanda National Congress dissidents to undermine the Kigali government.

President Tshisekedi said leaders should not conflict because it’s a waste of time. 
“Our countries will be neighbours forever, as leaders, we are here temporarily but our countries will always be there. Conflict with each other is a waste of time, time that could be used to build our countries,” he said.

Kigali.

President Museveni has donated $200,000 (about Shs600m) towards the construction of a school in Rwanda.

According to a State House statement, President Museveni made a cash payment of $100,000 (about Shs300m) with the balance of $100,000 (about Shs300m) to be paid later.

He announced his contribution on Friday evening during a fundraising dinner organised by the Rwanda Chapter of Ntare School Old Boys Association (NSOBA) at Serena Hotel in Kigali, Rwanda. The dinner was also graced by President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, himself an Old Boy of Ntare School in Mbarara.

Museveni visit
Mr Museveni arrived in Kigali on Friday for a two-day visit for the fundraising towards construction of the Ntare School replica in Rwanda. The school will accommodate about 1,000 students on a 60-hectare plot of land and is expected to have its first intake in 2017.

The fundraising was also meant as a reunion of the Old Boys, with the last such reunion having taken place last year in April at Ntare School in Mbarara, where Mr Kagame’s message to the school alumni was delivered by Rwanda’s Chief Justice Sam Rugege, who is also an Old Boy of the school. Mr Kagame also donated $30,000 (about Shs825 million) to the school.

President Museveni and his host Paul Kagame were both students of Ntare School in Uganda’s district of Mbarara in the 1960s. Ntare School was established in 1956 and admitted students without regard to their religious denominations as was the case with many religious-founded schools in the country at that time.

President Museveni said this is the reason Ntare School has a unique history that has made a big impact, according to the State House statement.
President Kagame on his part congratulated Ntare School Old Boys both from Uganda and Rwanda for their support towards the establishment of a Ntare School in Rwanda.

He asked them to continue strengthening the relationship and inculcate the spirit of togetherness not only between the two countries of Uganda and Rwanda, but the entire East African region.

He praised Mr Museveni for accepting the invitation to the occasion.

The State House statement said before the fundraising dinner on Friday evening, Mr Museveni and Mr Kagame held talks at the Serena Hotel and discussed issues of mutual interest between the two countries.

Ntare School Rwanda Chapter is expected to be a modern institution in Africa with international standards, providing both international and national curricula.

Museveni foreign contributions

Rwanda. In July 2011, Mr Museveni pledged $300,000 (about Shs777m then) to Nalukunga Primary School in Rwanda, while on a fence-mending visit to the country following years of uneasy relations between the two countries.

Tanzania. President Musveni has also funded the construction of schools in the Kagera region of northern Tanzania. In a Sunday Monitor story of November 25, 2006, it was reported that State House had entered a contract with Multiplex Ltd, a Kampala-based firm, to build schools in Tanzania. The schools were to be built at Nyaligamba, Muhutwe, Kamachumi and at Nyamiyaga Murongo in Muleba District at a cost of $932,823.20 (Shs1.72 billion).

Source: Daily Monitor

9:00pm  |   CORONAVIRUS: Three billion under lockdown

Let me leave you with this five-minute read that should paint for you a picture on what's happening around the world as the United Nations warns that humanity is under threat.

This story is by AFP:

More than three billion people are living under lockdown measures to stem the spread of the killer coronavirus that the United Nations warned Wednesday is threatening all of humanity.

As the global death toll soared past 20,000 Spain joined Italy in seeing its number of fatalities overtake China, where the virus first emerged just three months ago.

"COVID-19 is threatening the whole of humanity -– and the whole of humanity must fight back," UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said, launching an appeal for $2 billion to help the world's poor.

"Global action and solidarity are crucial. Individual country responses are not going to be enough."

Markets rebounded after Washington vowed to spend $2 trillion to fend off a US economic collapse, while governments elsewhere are still taking ever more dramatic steps to contain the disease.

India's stay-at-home order for its 1.3 billion people is now the biggest, taking the total number of people facing restrictions on their daily lives to more than three billion.

 Indian police personnel stand guard at a traffic light during the first day of a 21-day government-imposed nationwide lockdown

Russia, which announced the death of two patients who tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday, is expected to follow suit.

President Vladimir Putin declared next week a public holiday and postponed a public vote on controversial constitutional reforms, urging people to help each other and follow instructions given by medics and the authorities.

In Britain, heir to the throne Prince Charles became the latest high-profile figure to become infected while Prime Minister Boris Johnson praised the country's response to tackle the outbreak despite accusations it was slow to act.

The G20 major economies will hold an emergency videoconference summit on Thursday to discuss a global response to the crisis, as will the 27 leaders of the European Union, the outbreak's new epicentre.

China has begun to relax its own draconian restrictions on free movement in the province of Hubei -- the original epicentre of the outbreak -- after the country reported no new cases.

Huge crowds jammed trains and buses as people in the province of 50 million people took their first opportunity to travel.

But Spain saw the number of deaths surge to 3,434 after more than 738 people died in the past 24 hours and the government announced a 432-million-euro ($467 million) deal to buy medical supplies from Beijing.

 A member of the Military Emergencies Unit (UME) carries out a general disinfection at the Apanid residence for people with physical and intellectual disabilities in Madrid

'People dying alone'

At La Paz university hospital in Madrid, accident and emergency nurse Guillen del Barrio sounded bereft as he related what happened overnight.

"It is really hard, we had feverish people for many hours in the waiting room," the 30-year-old told AFP.

"Many of my colleagues were crying because there were people who are dying alone, without seeing their family for the last time."

Spain and Italy were joined by France and six more EU countries in urging Germany and the Netherlands to allow the issue of joint European bonds to cut borrowing costs and stabilise the eurozone economy.

This is likely to fall on deaf ears when the 27 leaders talk on Thursday -- with northern members wary of pooling debt with big spenders -- but they will sign off on an "unprecedented" recovery plan.

 Police officers control motorists during an anti-drug operation in Marseille, southern France

Coronavirus cases are also spreading in the Middle East, where Iran's death toll topped 2,000, and in Africa, where Mali declaring its first case and several nations announced states of emergency.

And in Japan, which has postponed this year's Olympic Games, Tokyo's governor urged residents to stay home this weekend, warning of a possible "explosion" of the coronavirus.

The impact of the pandemic is also hitting European football in a big way, with top-flight leagues and tournaments cancelled.

'Wartime level of investment'

The economic damage of the virus -- and the lockdowns -- could also be devastating, with fears of a worldwide recession worse than the financial meltdown more than a decade ago.

But financial markets rose after US leaders agreed a stimulus package worth roughly 10 percent of their economy, an injection Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said represented a "wartime level of investment".

The US Senate was poised to pass the massive relief package for Americans and businesses ravaged by the pandemic as New York hospitals braced for a wave of virus patients,

Meanwhile, nearly 130 million Americans, or 40 percent of the population, are under or will soon come under some lockdown order, including in the largest state of California.

President Donald Trump has voiced hope the US will be "raring to go" by mid-April, but his optimism appeared to stand almost alone among world leaders.

Anxious Indians raced for supplies after the government ordered the world's second-biggest population to stay at home for three weeks from Wednesday.

"To save India, to save its every citizen, you, your family... every street, every neighbourhood is being put under lockdown," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.

Whether the order will be obeyed in full remained to be seen. Mumbai vegetable trader Rafiq Ansari said his customers were getting angry over shortages and price hikes.

"I don't understand what's going on," the 35-year-old told AFP. "We are going to face major shortages in the days ahead."

Iran announced it would ban intercity travel as it finally got tough with the virus that has killed more than 2,000 people in one of the world's deadliest outbreaks.

Many governments are listening to health experts who warn the only way to slow the epidemic -- and save the lives of the elderly and vulnerable -- is by imposing "social isolation" measures.

 Priest Don Kresimir Busic holds a crucifix and prays with a woman in Manta, near Cuneo, Piedmont, as part of a countryside procession to bless houses against the coronavirus pandemic

 

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8:43pm  |   The President has spoken

President Yoweri Museveni's message is clear, and key among the additional measures are the following:

- Public transport has been suspended for the next two weeks.

- Markets have been limited to selling only foodstuffs.

- Only essential staff to be allowed in government offices.

 

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8:39pm  |   'What we are dealing with has been handled before'


While concluding his speech, the President makes a biblical allusion (Isaiah 26:20) to contexualize what the world is going through at the moment in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

The scriptural extraction says (depending on the version of the Bible you are using): "Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by."

"What we are dealing with have been there before and have been handled," says Museveni.

He wraps up his speech by reminded the public that eight of the original nine coronavirus cases in Uganda are recovering steadily. The other one is not steady yet.

"I wish you good luck, I wish you God's protection. Thank you very much," he signs off.

 

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8:35pm  |   Government vehicles to be stationed at district headquarters

Museveni says: "Now that we have got cases in other parts of the country (beyond Kampala and Entebbe), we have a system of getting samples from suspected people all the way to Entebbe for testing. There are teams near villages who do surveillance.

"These inform people who are at the 100 hubs across the country, who in turn take samples [from the suspected people] and send them to Entebbe aboard Posta Buses."

To ease this countrywide surveillance, the President says: "I am directing that all govenrment vehicles in the districts (except the ones for the army and Police) should be centralised at the district headquarters under the command of the district health officer, aided by a Police officer.

"We are going to ensure that [these vehicles] have enough fuel."


______________________________


8:27pm  |   Business of boda bodas

"In Kampala, companies will be identified to start doing this business of bodabodas. I hope there won't be corruption and bribery," says Museveni.



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8:27pm  |   Government offices should be rid of non-essential staff

"Each ministry and government department should work out a plan of the essential staff that need to remain on duty," says the President.

This can be done on rotational basis.

"At district level, district officials can identify boda bodas who can deliver food and other cargo to wherever it is needed. This  crisis will teach us other methods of doing business," adds the President.

 

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8:23pm  |   Markets to sell only food - nothing else

After dealing with public transport, the President says the other big problem are the markets, as they bring together many people.

He, however, says he is happy to learn that the people in these markets have tried to adhere to hygiene measures - washing of hands with soap and water. But that is not enough.

Therefore, the  second new additional measure is that the markets should be for selling only food - matooke, sweet potatoes, caassava, rice, beans, peas, chicken, meat, etc.

Save for food, the selling of other items has been suspended.

"We think this will reduce numbers and then they can maintain social distance. We think by removing the non-food items and sellers, it will reduce the numbers," says Museveni.


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8:18pm  |   Ambulances allowed to move

The only other vehicles allowed to move are ambulances, vehicles of security agencies and some institutions as well as vehicles for sanitary services (like KCCA garbage collection trucks).

"This is to cause people to postpone their unsafe journeys from one point to another point. The only people who can move safely are those moving using private cars," says the President.

 

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8:13pm  |   Government suspends public transport

In its latest measures, the government has decided to suspend all public transport - that includes taxis, coasters/minibuses, buses, passenger trains, auto rickshaw (tuk tuks) and all boda bodas.

The suspension is for 14 days.

Why this suspension?

"Because we want to limit movement. The only vehicles to move should be private vehicles, which should carry no more than three people, including the driver," says the President.

But there are a few exceptions.

Trucks and lorries delivering cargo (food and other essentials) are allowed to continue moving.

The President says that boda bodas and tuk tuks can move only if they are carrying cargo. He says boda boda riders should not simply sit back and sulk over the suspension of their services - instead, they should think about using their bikes to transport cargo.


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8:09pm  |   President begins address

The president is speaking to the nation.

He says the original nine cases are in "good condition" and their temperatures are going down - save for one, whose temperature keeps flactuating.

"We are going to get scattered cases across the country. Therefore, we are happy that we took the other big steps in the past - we closed the schools in time and we closed the churches and mosques."

With more coronavirus cases coming up, the President says the country needs to take additional measures.

 

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7:47pm  |   Coronavirus in Uganda: Graphical illustration

To get an idea of what is happening in the country in light of the new coronavirus, this map below from the government information portal shows where the confirmed cases are located and where alerts to the ministry are coming from.

 

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7:43pm  |   'Nothing has caused prices of food to be hiked'

In his fourth address on Tuesday, President Museveni reiterated his call to Ugandans to adhere to his and the health ministry's directives aimed at arresting the spread of the new coronavirus within the population.

In his message, he mentioned that he may call a ban on the usage of public transport in case the situation worsens. In doing so, he would also promote using bicycles as an ideal alternative.

The President also warned "crooks" against hiking the prices of especially foodstuffs, saying he would use spies to catch anyone taking advantage of the situation. If found, a culprit will be arrested and their license revoked.

"Nothing has caused prices of foodstuffs to be hiked. The bananas we had yesterday are the same today, the maize is the same. So the crooks who are taking advantage of coronavirus to hike prices of foodstuffs anywhere in this country will be arrested and their licenses revoked," he reechoed his warning in a tweet.

 

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7:25pm  |   'It is a tough job during such a difficult time'

Also called Ma Yun, the 55-year-old Chinese tycoon sent out a message of thanks to Ethiopian Prime Miniter Abiy Ahmed for "helping us distribute supplies throughout Africa".

The large packages were delivered to the recipient nations using Ethiopian Airlines.

Source: The New Vision

They say all great mysteries begin at the end and end at the very beginning; River Nile is a perfect picture to accompany that phrase.
We all know where it ends, pouring northward through the sudans, where it meets its biggest tributary, the Blue Nile before heading to Egypt and finally into the Mediterranean Sea. But locating, let alone, agreeing on the origins of this magnificent river, has befuddled the world since time immemorial. The Bible and the Quran both hint on this mystery and both ancient and present day voyagers have waded in with their own suggestions.
John Hannington Speke has been principally credited as the man who discovered the source of the Nile which he pinned down at the Ripon Falls on Lake Victoria in Jinja centuries ago.
But almost every year, a new person claims to have found the “true” source of the world’s longest river and the debate goes on and on.
Last month, one of the world’s largest scientific and educational establishments; National Geographic, joined the fray as they premiered a television series titled Wild Nile on their NatGeo Wild platform (DStv Channel 182).
The series opens with an establishment shot of the sky-hugging Mountains of the Moon; then the camera rises from a tropical forest through alpine valleys to the glaciers that crown the various mountain ranges. Close-ups of the snow-capped peaks of Rwenzori is a sight to behold. The legendary three-horned chameleon and the shimmering Ruwenzori Turaco – both endemic to this region – make an early appearance on this naturally-embellished stage of geographic wonder. Rwenzori is dotted with many small rivers but it is River Mobuku – notoriously famous for flooding and swallowing human lives – that gets a good feature here.
Then the narrator elaborates that White Nile – which is the Nile’s headwaters – starts with the melting snow of Rwenzori and the rains of mountains of Rwanda and Burundi all which send their waters downwards into Lakes Edward and Albert before feeding Lake Victoria which eventually spouts the Nile out northwards.
Well, another rather other sources of the Nile. But the clearest of all things throughout this argument has always been that River Nile flows out of Lake Victoria at Jinja making it the only place where one can see something tangible to call a source. Jinja is the ‘official’ source of the Nile and it was recently declared one of the seven wonders of Africa by the Seven Wonders of Africa Project.

About The documentary
The three-part documentary series looks critically at the different possible sources of the Nile before taking viewers on a truly spectacular journey along the Nile, revealing the secret lives of its inhabitants.

The first part Wild Nile. Paradise Found explores the different sources of the Nile while the second part Wild Nile: Heart Of Darkness continues the story from when the river leaves Lake Victoria to progress peacefully through Murchison Falls National Park until the third part Wild Nile: River Of Kings is introduced as the river reaches Sudan. The last part looks at the Blue Nile tributary which originates from Ethiopia. In Wild Nile: Paradise Found, which premiered on September 9, National Geographic claims that the “Nile’s source can be pinned down to the area of the Rwenzori mountain ranges in Uganda.”

Rwenzori, a possible source

 But some experts have argued that a source of a river has to be a melting glacier at a higher altitude and it cannot be a lake because something else has to feed the lake first hence Rwenzori Mountain and other water bodies around the great lakes region coming into the picture here.

Gladly, National Geographic doesn’t allow the bigger story of the significance of the Nile to the people and wildlife living on its banks it to get lost into the argument of the source.
The series confirms just how, for instance, in Uganda alone – the Nile has a herculean effect on the people and wildlife creating and supporting some of the country’s best tourism products.
Straight from the source at Jinja, the Nile turns Uganda into the best adventure destination in the region thanks to a range of activities, including the best white-water rafting in the world, bungee jumping, quad biking and camping.
Move to Murchison Falls and the Nile presents a spectacle of a waterfall squeezing through a 6-metre rocky gorge to fall 43 metres which is the hardest water drop in the whole world.
This is no ordinary river and this definitely is not an ordinary storyline of source to sea; Wild Nile series explores the countless waterways, islands and lakes that support the entire river system and looks at some of the river’s most fascinating inhabitants using state-of-the-art cameras to slow down and capture fast moving animals in all their glory.

Source: Daily Monitor