Last week the court ordered Parliament to stop the payment, but the money had already been deposited into the lawmakers’ banks accounts.

Opposition to the payments of more than R90,000 to MPs has united  President Yoweri Museveni , who calls it morally reprehensible, with his arch rival Bobby Wine MP, who has denounced it as shameful.

The agree the money should be paid to bodies specially set up to fight COVID 19.

The High Court case was brought by independent MP Gerald Karuhanga who opposed the payments.

Uganda’s had 81 confirmed cases of COVID 19, but not deaths from coronavirus to date.

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They include a pop star-turned MP and a football-champion-turned President.

ends intro

The list of battle hymns will doubtless grow as it does in times of turmoil.

But right now Liberia’s President George Weah, Ugandan MP Bobi Wine, Congolese singer Fally Ipupa and Senegalese musician Ye’n a Marre all have recorded songs on how to beat COVID 19.

Weah, the former football player of the year, began his before the countries went into lockdown. He speaks through most of his song.

Bobi Wine must be wondering how his arch enemy Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni – who has never wasted an opportunity to crack down on him – will react.

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They accuse of Museveni of trying to bully and intimidate journalists ahead of elections next year.

ends intro

Filmmaker Moses Bwayo made a documentary about pop singer turned MP Bobi Wine who is an inveterate  challenger of President Yoweri Museveni.

Uganda police arrested Bwayo last month and held him for two days before releasing him to appear in court yesterday.

He is now being in police cells until his hearing resumes tomorrow.

Bwayo’s facing charges of unlawful assembly.

Last year 39 Ugandan journalists were sacked for reporting on the activities of Bobi Wine who says he’ll end Museveni’s 34 year Presidency in next year’s election. 

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Presidents Yoweri Museveni and Paul kagame have signed an extradition treaty aimed at stopping subversive activities by their respective nationals.

Presidents Joao Lourenco of Angola and Felix Tshisikedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo witnessed the signing of the extradition treaty.

The four leaders’ summit agreed that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni will verify Rwandan claims of hostile activities on their border.

Within 15 days of  Museveni publishing his findings, he’ll be back at Gatuna/Katuna with Rwandan President Paul Kagame to talk about opening borders and normalizing relations.

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The election currently underway in Malawi perfectly illustrates the generational battle in African politics.

Peter Mutharika, vying for a second and final term as President, has a record of achievement to show voters.

He’s brought down inflation this past five years from 14% to 9%.

He is promising the people of one Africa’s poorest countries that Malawi is going  the way of Singapore or Malaysia.

This is somewhat hyperbolic given that more than half the nearly 19-million Malawians live under the poverty line.

Food shortages dog daily life and the 11% of the population with electricity suffer frequent power outages.

Mutharika’s image has been further dented by his having to return a $200 000 campaign donation from a businessman implicated in a $3-million scam involving the contract for supplying food to the police force.

There are seven faces on the presidential ballot paper competing for the votes of seven million electors.

Mutharika’s main rival is his former hand-picked  vice president Saulos Chilima who broke with him last year when it became clear he was running for a second term.

The incumbent, who is a former law professor, is 78 years old.

His sister-in-law Callista, widow of former President Bingu Wa Mutharika, is among those who have advised him that he has passed his sell-by date.

This is a telling argument with more than half of the electorate younger than 35 years.

Former telecoms executive Chilima is 46.

The third frontrunner is former Lazarus Chakwera who ran second to Mutharika in 2014.

He has revived Hastings Banda’s Malawi Congress  Party  and secured the endorsement of former President Joyce Banda. Chakwera is 64.

Age has been a determining factor in a number of recent African political contests.

In South Africa, Julius Malema and Mmusi Maimane, both 38, made much of the fact they were running against 66-year-old Cyril Ramaphosa.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, 74, is going to extraordinary and unconstitutional lengths  to ward off the challenge of Pop-singer-turned MP Bobi Wine, who is 37.

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa, 76, had his work cut keeping 41-year-old Nelson Chamisa at bay.

Two African presidents have fallen to popular protest this year.

In Sudan, Omar Al Bashir is 75.

Algeria’s Abdelaziz Bouteflika is 82. 

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This will allow 74-year-old President Yoweri Museveni to stand in elections scheduled for 2021.

Uganda’s opposition fiercely resisted the so-called age-restriction act passed in December 2017.

By scrapping the presidential age limit 75, they argued, it was giving Yoweri Museveni a virtual life presidency.

Museveni came to power in a 1986 coup overthrowing Idi Amin and promising to restore democracy in Uganda.

He has repeated changed the law enabling him to become Africa’s fourth longest-serving president.

Opponents took the matter to Uganda’s Constitutional Court and lost.

The decision by four votes to three in the Supreme Court upholds the ruling of the Constitutional Court

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Uganda denies Rwandan accusations that its supporting rebels opposing President Paul Kagame and jailing torturing and deporting its citizens.

The love-hate relationship between Uganda and Rwanda –  who share a political, ethnic and security history – destabilizes the Great Lakes Region.

Rwandan leader Paul Kagame fought to bring Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to power.

Uganda, in turn,  supported Kagame’t Tutsi rebels after the 1994 genocide by Hutus.

Now Uganda’s accused of supporting the Rwanda National Congress led by South African-based Kayumba Nyamwasa and the Hutu rebel group called the Democratic Front For The Liberation of  Rwanda.

Closing two of the three border crossings between the countries has virtually paralysed trade in the region.

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The South African owners of MTN are seeking an urgent explanation from Museveni, as are the governments of France, Italy, Rwanda and Belgium who’s nationals he booted out.

The exact motivation for deporting MTN Uganda chief executive Wim Vanhelleputte last week and four other top MTN executives  two weeks earlier is unclear.

Ugandan officials say the executive remained in contact after the expulsions and were running the company over the internet.

Others insist the action is a manifestation of a bitter row between Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni who is sheltering member of the Rwanda National Congress opposed to his counterpart Paul Kagame

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The request has gone to Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni who has to consider the regional security threat posed by calling such a meeting.

Burundi shunned an East Africa Community summit at the beginning of this month.

Now its calling for a meeting of regional leaders and stipulating its agenda.

President Pierre Nkurunziza blames his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame for his troubles since 2015 when he contested an unconstitutional third term in power.

He alleges Kagame is offering military training to Burundian refugees who left the country after an attempted coup that year.

Kagame, in turn, accuses Burundi of sheltering FDLR rebels responsible for the genocide in his country 24 years ago.

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Authorities say they are holding him to carry out medical tests following his claim to have been tortured while in detention.

Bobi Wine has been charged with treason after his supporters stoned  President Yoweri Museveni’s car.

The judge granted him bail and returned his passport to enable him to seek medical treatment  abroad.

Wine’s lawyer Robert Amsterdam say they’ll resist allowing Ugandan authorities, who he says tortured his client, to examine him.

Amsterdam says Wine, who can only walk with crutches, is in considerable pain and suffering from kidney failure.

He has not been granted access to Wine since his rearrest.

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