Iconic South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has died at the age of 90.
In a statement made by Dr Ramphela Mamphele; the acting Chairperson of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu IP Trust, he said on behalf of the Tutu family that this iconic leader of the anti-apartheid movement died peacefully at the Oasis Frail Care Centre in Cape Town this morning.
It is reported that Archbishop Desmond was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the late 1990s and has been in and out of hospital in recent years to treat infections associated with his cancer treatment.
Dr Mamphele however did not give details on the cause of death.
The South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on his Twitter Account that the passing of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu is another chapter of bereavement in their nation’s farewell to a generation of outstanding South Africans who have bequeathed a liberated South Africa.
Desmond Mpilo Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his campaign of non-violent opposition to South Africa’s white minority rule.
He will be remembered as an outspoken critic of the country’s previous brutal system of oppression against the country’s Black majority.
Chaos has today erupted along Kikuubo lane as energetic traders and other members of the public scrambled to grab clothes and food that a street preacher brought to donate to street children.
David Kaita of Spirit Awakening Ministries says as a street a preacher, he wanted to share this year’s Christmas with the needy and people who are less privileged. He was shocked to discover that the people who the kids were targeting for food donations would in turn target him for the donations he was taking to the same kids.
Many people resorted to grabbing the clothes from the preacher’s assistants, and this made it quite difficult for the organizers to distribute the clothes fairly to the intended beneficiaries of whom mothers and children were the priority.
Kaita adds that they have otherwise distributed clothes to over 200 people in Kampala including street children and other less privileged groups.
One person has been confirmed dead and several others injured in a fatal accident that occurred today along Mbarara-Lyantonde road.
Police identified the deceased as Tinfayo Siraji, the bus driver who was driving a TAUSI BUS Reg No. UBK 516S that was involved in the accident. The bus was from Ishaka/Mbarara heading to Kampala when it collided with a Fuso lorry Reg. no UBD193P heading to Mbarara.
The wreckage left by the collision between Tausi Bus & a Fuso.
It is alleged that the Fuso lorry loaded with Sugar going to Mbarara was trying to overtake an unidentified Wish car in a corner.
The body of the driver has been taken to Lyantonde hospital mortuary while the injured were rushed to Lyantonde Hospital for emergency care.
In the effort to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the first injectable PrEP option has been approved by the US FDA, the country’s drug regulatory authority.
The pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) drug; cabotegravir, goes by the name Apretude, is an HIV PrEP option that people at-risk can take at intervals of two months. It has been approved for use in adults and adolescents by US regulator. The user has to be HIV negative and weigh at least 35 kgs.
Before this approval, only two types (Truvada and Descovy) of PrEP had been approved for use for HIV negative individuals at-risk.
Dr Marianne Mureithi, a researcher on HIV/AIDS with the Kenya Aids Vaccine Initiative (Kavi), says the injectable is a breakthrough that has come right in time as PrEP is more effective at preventing HIV on a population level since the six shots per year make it easier for people to adhere to.
Results from the research and study conducted by WHO last year in south and eastern Africa showed that women were biased about the injectable but there were better results from the injectable PrEP compared to the oral pills.
Two studies highlighted by the FDA showed that, compared to oral pills, the injectable PrEP offered potent protection.
In one of the studies, participants who took the new injectable, Apretude, had a 69%less risk from getting HIV compared to taking the Truvada PrEP pill that was used in the study.
The second study showed a 90% less risk of getting HIV after taking the injectable.
The Aids vaccine advocacy coalition (Avac) said in a statement shortly after this approval that the approved injectable PrEP is now available in the US and that Avac and partners would work to support the review by health regulatory authorities in other parts of the world.
The Uganda National Meteorological Authority warns that the country will experience tough changes in temperature after experiencing the hottest years, that is 2019 and 2020
The Director Training and Research at the authority Dr. Bob Alex Ogwang says the southern and western regions are warming faster than other regions.
Ogwang adds that rainfall trends are increasing in eastern, northeastern and a few areas in southwestern region while a decreasing trend is cited in northwestern, central and western Uganda.
The Kenyan government has accepted to lift the ban it had imposed on Ugandan poultry products.
Kenya banned the importation of poultry products including chicken and eggs from within and beyond East Africa, earlier this year, claiming they wanted to protect and support the Kenyan producers recover from the disruptions occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic.
It is still remembered that Kenya has also banned beef, milk and maize from Uganda, making the country lose huge billions in foreign exchange.
Following the approval of a retaliatory measure to the Eastern neighbour, earlier this month, the two countries held a successful talk in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital.
And yesterday, delegations from both countries led by Uganda’s Agriculture Minister, Frank Tumwebaze and his counterpart, Peter Munya, leading the Kenyan side, and agreed that the bans be lifted for the benefit of both countries.
The Nigerian office of the president says dozens of people have been killed in violent attacks between farmers and herders in the country’s central Nasarawa state.
The statement released yesterday by office of the President; Muhammadu Buhari said at least 45 farmers were killed and several others injured.
Buhari expressed grief over the heart-wrenching killings and said his government would leave no stone unturned in fishing out the perpetrators of this senseless and barbaric incident, and bring them to justice.
Hundreds of travelers using the Northern Uganda route were last night stranded when police impounded the buses they were travelling in for violating curfew.
The buses were impounded at Kamdini Checkpoint in Kamdini Town Council in Oyam District.
The impounded buses including Eastern Nile Coach REG No. UAK 206G, Friendship Bus KCF 702G, Mega Express UBK 798P, and Real Bus UAM 834Y, among others were reportedly impounded after their arrival between 11pm and midnight, leaving the travelers stranded as some slept in buses while others loitered in the township.
Police manning the roadblock released the buses at 4am after cautioning the drivers against violating curfew time.
Over 10,000 laboratory technicians have today joined doctors and medical interns to lay down tools over various grievances including low salaries, poor working conditions among others. This first-ever strike also involves technicians working in blood banks and the six government reference laboratories.
Following an address they made to the media yesterday, the laboratory technicians under their umbrella body, Uganda Medical Laboratory Technology Association (UMLTA) said they had put the ministry of Public Service on notice over their intended strike three weeks ago, but they didn’t get feedback prompting them to lay down tools.
The laboratory professionals told journalists that their efforts to serve in the health sector haven’t been recognized by government, that even as many of them have advanced in their studies to attain degrees and PhDs, government still gives them an entry salary of Shs1.2million.
Patrick Dennis Alibu, UMLTA secretary-general made reference to a letter that they had written on 29th November 2021 directly addressed to the honourable minister of Public Service with copies given to the ministry of Health requesting government to pay attention to their grievances.
Alibu added that while the interns’ strike was going on, they were told they held in-house meetings but never got any feedback from the ministry of Public Service whom they had directed the letter to. Alibu said that the strike was their last resort.
Alibu says even though many of his colleagues went back to study when Makerere University started degree courses in 1998 followed by Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) in 2000 the money they earn is the same as that earned by diploma holders and lab assistants whose take-home salary is Shs 800,000.
For him, if degree holders are recognized by accounting officers, then they would be earning around the same as medical officers who are currently earning a gross salary of Shs 3 million and are in industrial action to have their salary enhanced to Shs 5 million.
Despite their circular being sent out to accounting officers in 2019 to provide for recruitment of degree holders it hasn’t happened. The medical laboratory officials who are in their first-ever industrial action are also asking that their focal persons in local governments be elevated to the same level as district health officers to be able to manage the dynamics of laboratory services that come with the emergence of new pathogens and diseases like the hemorrhagic fevers and COVID-19.
Livestock farmers in Ankole sub-region want the government and its agencies involved in the supply of acaricides to work with the farmers to find a solution on tick-drug resistance.
This was revealed at a farmers’ parliament organized by the Mbarara Network of Farmers’ Voice in Sanga Town Council, Nyabushozi-Kiruhura district.
The farmers blamed the National Drugs Authority (NDA) officials for failure to regulate acaricides used to spray their animals in the fight against ticks on their farms.
Anna Rose Ademun, the Commissioner Animal Health in the ministry of Animal husbandry told farmers that government is looking forward to create zones in all the four regions of Uganda where famers will be guided on which acaricides they should use in the fight against ticks.
