As Uganda joined the rest of the World to commemorate International Women’s day held on March 8 under the theme: “Gender Equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”, MTN Foundation in partnership with Smart Girls Foundation embarked on the construction of a skilling facility with the capacity to train 400 girls annually in vocational programs.

The project that is expected to cost UGX230million will facilitate the construction of an auto vehicle servicing station, a newly constructed washing bay and the renovation of 3 classrooms with a capacity of 30 students per room and a main hall. 

The facility which will be housed at the Smart Girls Foundation offices in Kampala will specialize in vocational and business up skilling, inclusive of courses like electricity installation, house painting, tailoring, carpentry, welding, catering, among others.

Speaking during the ground-breaking ceremony held in Kampala today, Dorcas Muhwezi, the General Manager for Customer Experience at MTN Uganda, said the project is envisaged to give birth to 40 new women-led businesses in the country. 

Justine Mbabazi, the RDC Wakiso district and Guest of Honour, welcomed the initiative by MTN saying it complements government’s ambitions towards promoting gender equality and empowering the girl child.

The training facility will also put emphasize on mentorship sessions in career guidance facilitated by members of the MTN Women Group.

By Racheal Nuwahereza

First Son, and Commander of the Land Forces; Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba has today announced his retirement from the Ugandan army.

Through a tweet he made on his known Twitter handle on Tuesday afternoon, Lt Gen Muhoozi said he was satisfied with what he has achieved in the 28 years he has served in the UPDF.

“After 28 years of service in my glorious military, the greatest military in the world, I am happy to announce my retirement. Me and my soldiers have achieved so much! I have only love and respect for all those great men and women that achieve greatness for Uganda every day,” he revealed in the tweet.

Gen Muhoozi was born to President Museveni on 24 April 1974 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He attended schools in Tanzania, Kenya and Sweden and in 1986, when his father became President of Uganda, he returned to attend schools including Kampala Parents School Kings College Buddo and St. Mary’s College Kisubi.

He started military training in 1994 after he left high school and later attended the University of Nottingham from 1996 till 1998.

In 1999, Muhoozi formally joined the UPDF 1999 before being admitted at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst where he graduated in 2000. He then underwent the Egyptian Military Academy for company and battalion command course.

Muhoozi also attended the Kalama Armoured Warfare Training School, in Kabamba, Mubende District and in 2007, he joined the United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and graduated in 2008.

In May 2016 shortly after the presidential elections, Muhoozi was promoted to the rank of Major General which sparked rumours that he could be joining politics eyeing the presidential seat.

However, Major General, Muhoozi Kainerugaba denied habouring any presidential ambitions. “I am very happy in the military and in case I wanted to join politics, I know the procedures to go through. As you heard, I don’t have the ambition to be president. I am very happy being in the military and that is where I intend to stay for some time,” he told journalists.

In 2019, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General which in an unprecedented feat in Uganda’s military history meant that in a space of 20 years, Muhoozi has risen from the rank of sergeant to Lt General.

By announcing the retirement, many have been led to believe that the ‘Muhoozi project’ the ambitions have taken shape which we cannot independently affirm.

Meanwhile we await the official retirement ceremony to be held.

By Racheal Nuwahereza

In a bid to boost maternal and child health care, MTN Foundation has handed over a newly refurbished and equipped maternity theatre and ward to the Karugutu health centre IV in Ntoroko district.

MTN Foundation with support from the official partners of the MTN Kampala Marathon: Rwenzori Bottling Company, Vision Group, Stanbic Bank and Huawei dedicated UGX180million towards the refurbishment of the health centre.

Fredrick Kahuma, the hospital in-charge Karugutu health centre IV revealed that the health centre which serves a population of 27,000 people was a dire need for renovation of the dilapidated structures especially in the maternity theater which affected service delivery.

While handing over the facility, Ibrahim Senyonga the General Manager of the Enterprise Business Unit said the initiative to refurbish Karugutu health Centre IV reaffirms MTN’s commitment to improving the lives of people in Uganda through supporting government endeavors to extend quality social services to the communities.

“The health centre has also been equipped with medical equipment such as a suction used during operations, delivery beds, delivery kits and baby warmers used in neonatal intensive care units among other items. Our hope is to save lives of mothers and children during childbirth,” Ibrahim said noting that the initiative is timely as the world draws closer to celebrating the International Women’s Day.

The project was implemented by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) through Ministry of Health as part of a grand commitment by MTN Foundation and its partners to refurbish five other health centres across the country through UGX1.3Billion project funded by proceeds from the MTN Kampala Marathon since 2018.

Other health centres expected to benefit from the project include: Muyembe health centre IV in Bulambuli district, Kalangala health centre IV in Kalangala district and Pakwach health centre IV in Pakwach district.

By Racheal Nuwahereza

39-year-old Amon Namara, a Ugandan travel influencer living in South Africa has been remanded by a court in Johannesburg for allegedly tricking up to three wealthy women on the Tinder dating app to give him money and other materials such as with jewellery and clothes.

Posing as a very successful businessman and millionaire in Sandton Johannesburg who owned a Bentley and several properties in Johannesburg, Namara would take the unsuspecting women on whirlwind dates before siphoning off large sums of money from them.

Namara can be alluded to Simon Leviey who made international headlines last month after the release of the hit Netflix documentary, “The Tinder Swindler”.

Namara was last week arrested and charged with fraud, money laundering and theft.

Speaking to reporters at the court, Namara’s lawyer Eric Bryer said his client was under pressure and wanted to get out of jail as soon as possible adding that he understands there’s a legal process to be followed.

“We are in the hands of the law so we’ll see what transpires on Wednesday,” said Bryer.

On Friday, Namara appeared in court seeking to be released on bail, the court however pushed the bail hearing to Wednesday, this week.

By Racheal Nuwahereza

The world especially Africa was this week taken by storm when pictures of Luwizo, a citizen of the Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC) marrying three women on the same day went viral on social media.

32-year old Luwizo from Kalehe, South Kivu in DRC says he met the sisters after he fell in love with Natalie (one of the triplets) who he met via Facebook.

When he finally organized the meeting to formalize their union at Natalie’s place, Luwizo who was to be welcomed by one of the triplets said he was shocked to meet three identical women. “I almost fainted. I asked them amongst all of you, who is Natalie? They even told me I had met all of them on different days I visited,” he said.

Without his knowledge, Natalie, who was dating Luwizo introduced him to her other sisters Nadege as well as Natasha who all also fell head over heels in love with him. The beautiful love story culminated when all three of the sister proposed to him at the same time, to which he gladly accepted.

 “I became confused as I had planned to marry Natalie but what confused me was that I couldn’t marry one of the girls and leave the two behind!”

Triplets said: ‘When we told Luwizo that he had to marry the three of us, he was shocked. Because Luwizo had already fallen in love with all of us, he could not refuse the marriage. All three of us also loved Luwizo.’

 He exchanged vows with Nadege, Natasha, and Nathalie, in a private ceremony in DRC where people have the legal right to get married to more than one person. The dazzling ceremony was graced by close friends and family, except Luwizo’s parents as they were not comfortable with the fact that their son was getting married to three women at the same time.

“You have to lose something in order to gain another,” he Luwizo commented about his parent’s refusal to be part of his big day.  “In addition, one has their preferences and their own way of doing things.”

‘My parents do not understand what I am doing. They expressed displeasure over this polygamy. Later they did not even attend the wedding,’ said Luwizo.

Luwizo says that he is happy to marry all three, no matter what others think. All I can say is that love knows no bounds. Luwizo said, “It feels like I am having a dream.” His three wives are also very happy with this marriage.

The sisters, on their part, said they thought their future husbands would make them drift apart, terming the turn of events as ‘a dream come true’.

The sisters said they were at peace with marrying him because they have been close-knit since childhood. “Even though people consider it impossible for three women to share one husband, to us, sharing everything has been our life since childhood.”

Our dream came true. We thought we would be separated by marriage, but God heard our prayers,” Natalie commented.

By Racheal Nuwahereza