16 November 2009
By July 2009, as his legal battles took a turn for the worse, Maj. Gen. James Kazini was considering leaving Uganda for the United States, Daily Monitor can reveal.
For help, the former army commander, who was found dead in his lover's house last week, turned to Shaka Ssali, the Ugandan-born American journalist who works for Voice of America.
Dr Ssali confirmed yesterday, recalling that Gen. Kazini appeared to be "going through the motions" and wanted a "change of location".
In Dr Ssali's recollection of the telephone conversation, which happened sometime in September, Gen. Kazini's plan was to spend Christmas in the US, where they would have had a detailed conversation about what was troubling the friend he first met in 1985.
World Cup trophy here
Emulating soccer legends Diego Maradona and Fabio Cannavaro, President Museveni held aloft the prestigious Fifa World Cup trophy, hours after its arrival in Uganda on Saturday night.
Welcoming the solid 18-carat gold trophy, the President explained that the real significance of the 6kg-Cup is what it symbolises.
"The most important thing is not the trophy but what it epitomizes; the spirit of competition which is not confrontational," Museveni said.
Throughout its African tour, only Presidents are allowed to touch it. The trophy leaves Uganda for Djibouti today, its 37th African country, before reaching its final destination, South Africa on December 3 for the final Fifa World Cup draw.
Museveni congratulated South Africa for being the first African country to earn the right to host the World Cup.
Museveni warns against homosexuality
President Museveni has joined the anti-gay crusade, saying he had received reports suggesting that "European homosexuals" had launched a recruitment drive in Africa.
He urged the youth to reject the advances. Expressing his homophobia, Mr Museveni said the youth must stand firm and abhor the divergent sexual orientation. "I hear European homosexuals are recruiting in Africa," said Mr Museveni on Saturday, to an audience of mainly youth at the Kampala Serena Hotel that homosexuality is un-natural.
"We used to have very few homosexuals traditionally. They were not persecuted but were not encouraged either because it was clear that is not how God arranged things to be."
The NRM leader was speaking at the inaugural Young Achievers Awards ceremony, an event organised by Tetea Uganda, a private firm, to honour the country's youth who have excelled in various disciplines.
500,000 unwanted pregnancies registered annually - report
At least 56 per cent (519,000) of all pregnancies that occur in Uganda every year are unwanted, a new report shows.
The report by a US-based Guttmacher Institute shows that the highest unintended pregnancies occur in the West Nile region (64 per cent) while the Southwestern region has the lowest cases at 49 per cent.
There are about 1.2 million babies born in Uganda every year. The report which was also contributed to by the Economic Policy Research Institute (EPRC) at Makerere University says low contraceptive use among women, currently at only 24 per cent is to blame for the high number of unintended pregnancies.
Dr Fredrick Mugisha, a researcher at EPRC and co-author of the report said seven in 10 women in Uganda who want to avoid pregnancy instead of using contraceptives, use traditional methods which have high failure rates.
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