JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN — The editor-in-chief of South Sudan’s oldest English-language newspaper, the Juba Monitor, has been arrested for allegedly defying a court order to stop publication over alleged malpractice.
Anna Namiriano was arrested Tuesday afternoon after not acting on an order issued last week by Juba’s Kator High Court to shut down the paper. She reportedly was being held at Juba’s central prison.
The case involves a dispute between the newspaper’s management and the family of its late founder, veteran journalist Alfred Taban, who died in April 2019. Taban’s family had filed a lawsuit in 2020 against the independent newspaper’s managers and its publisher, Grand Media Africa, accusing them of mismanaging the paper’s ownership and resources.
The family has sought restrictions on the newspaper’s activities until the case is resolved.
Last week, the Kator High Court suspended the Juba Monitor’s activities, said Becu Pitia Lagu, an attorney representing the Taban family.
“Anna deliberately refused to implement the court ruling which was passed on the date 13th of this month asking her to close down the newspapers, cease the activities of the company,” Pitia told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus.
Lazarus Yuggu, an attorney representing Namiriano, said the court never informed his client or the publisher of the shutdown order. He called his client’s arrest illegal.
“There is no reason why the judge issued that order,” Yuggu told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus. “There is no court contempt at all, because all of us were present at the court. I think this company is not actually a foreign company, whereby a judge may suspect [someone] of absconding or running away from the jurisdiction or something of that kind. The parties are present before the judge.”
Yuggu said the paper’s management had already paid printing fees for a week in advance, so they continued publishing. “They just wanted to print for the one week that has been paid for,” the attorney said.
Namiriano plans to appeal the court order, Yuggu said.
The Juba Monitor was established in Juba roughly a decade ago after Southern Sudan seceded from the rest of Sudan. - Viola Elias, Voice of America
Elderly persons benefiting from the Social Assistance Grant for Empowerment (SAGE) programme in Yumbe District have petitioned government to increase the money given to them from the Shs25,000 to Shs100,000 to cater for the increasing cost of living.
“I have been using the SAGE money to pay school fees for my children but prices of commodities have gone high. Schools have also hiked school fees. We request the government to increase the money to at least Shs50,000 or Shs100,000 per month,’’ he said.
Ms Neisha Drabo, another beneficiary, said: “Through this money, I have bought some animals and I use part of it to buy things like sugar, soap, food items and medication since I don’t have any other means of earning money. If it is increased, this will make our lives better.”
The district chairperson, Mr Abdulmutwalib Asiku, said about 7,000 elders have benefited from the programme in the district in the last nine years now.
He said Shs18 billion has been injected into this programme and the money has improved the livelihood of the elders in the district to some extent.
“Since this money is paid after every three months, there is need for the elders to plan to not only use the money for consumptive expenditure but also to see what specific investments they can put up,” he said.
Ms Catherine Mavenjina, the Member of Parliament representing Elders in Northern Region, said they have formulated a Bill appealing to government to reduce the SAGE beneficiary age from 80 years and increase the amount of money for the elders.
“In northern Uganda, many people die before reaching the age of 80 years, so for that matter, we are saying the age be reduced to at least 70 years. We also want the money to be increased from Shs25,000 to either Shs 100,000 or Shs50, 000.” By Robert Elema, Daily Monitor
This will ease access to the artificial limbs, which later improves productivity
Amputees and people with physical disabilities have asked government to scrap taxes on artificial limbs.
They say they are financially incapacitated yet they need the items for support to improve their productivity.
Sheikh Muhamadi Ngobi, the Imam of Buseyi Mosque in Iganga Municipality, who was amputated due to diabetes, on Tuesday said his prosthetic leg was made from Mulago hospital at Shs 1.2m, but it is “too heavy” compared to a normal leg.
“The prosthetic legs are very expensive and I can’t afford them; the one which I bought at Shs 1.2m is too heavy but I have nothing to do, except to appeal to the government to think about us as he does to other categories of people like the elderly,’’ he said.
Mr James Mudiba, a resident of Kasokoso Village in Iganga Municipality, who was amputated following an accident, said government should relieve them of the taxes to allow them resume daily activities. “Most of us had all the body parts, but accidents, diseases left us amputated. There are alternatives like artificial limbs but we can’t afford them,’’ he said.
Ms Irene Kabale, the chairperson of Busoga Rural Development Agency, who is one of the amputees, said the process of getting an artificial leg is not easy.
Ms Kabale, who survived diabetes after one leg was amputated, said the artificial limb was paid for by the Minister for the Presidency, Ms Milly Babalanda, at Shs3.5m.
Ms Kabale urged government to donate artificial limbs to all amputees who are financially-incapacitated.
“Government is giving out artificial limbs to army officers who lost their legs or arms in war. It should also do the same to other Ugandans who are amputees due to accidents and diseases by setting up a centre where they can receive them on a regional basis,’’ she said.
Ms Betty Irene Tamwizanga, the Reproductive Sexual Rights Officer of Integrated Disabled Women Activities, an Iganga-based organisation, said they are requesting the government to remove taxes on artificial limbs so that they are affordable to the most-vulnerable person in the village.
“We [people who work with people with disabilities or amputates] face a challenge of acquiring those artificial legs or hands due to the fact that they are too costly to most of our people,’’ she said.
Ms Tamwizanga said taxes should be scrapped so that organisations can afford them and donate them.
She added: “We request the government to put aside some money for people with disabilities like it does for other categories of people”
Mr Derrick Mwesi, a health worker at Ortho Health services in Najjanankumbi, said the government should reduce the taxes on imported materials that are used to make artificial limbs so that they can be affordable to all amputees.
“Eighty percent of people with disabilities cannot afford those artificial appliances when the taxes are high,’’ he said, adding that when a person’s leg is amputated up to the knee, the artificial limb costs as much as Shs3m.
He added: “When taxes are reduced, we can import these artificial limbs in large quantities and donate even to the needy.”
Ms Esther Mirembe, a nurse in Buyende District, said many amputees in rural areas are finding it difficult to move because they can’t buy the [expensive] artificial limbs which cost between Shs2m and 4m.
As a result, she said some have resorted to buying locally-made artificial legs which cost between Sh500,000 and Shs1m. “But because they are too heavy, they end up abandoning them in their houses,’’ she said. By Tausi Nakato, Daily Monitor
Comedian Jasper Muthomi, popularly known as MC Jessy has come to disclose how he was duped with a campaign job after meeting Deputy President Wiliam Ruto on Wednesday last week, April 13.
Speaking on Thursday, April 21, Jesse revealed that on a fateful day, he was called for a meeting at the DP's office in Karen alongside his competitor in the race for the UDA ticket in the Imenti South parliamentary race. The nominations were scheduled to happen the next day on April 14.
According to the comedian, the DP implored them to settle on one candidate through consensus and they agreed to continue with negotiations at a later date.
However, the comedian narrated that he was shocked to see the Deputy President send out a statement claiming that Jessy had stepped down in favour of another United Democratic Alliance (UDA) candidate, Mwiti Kathaara.
"I went there knowing that I was the prominent aspirant, I had even told the people that were we going for nominations. Maybe the mistake I made was to accept dialogue.
"I did not stand there to admit that we had agreed to step down, when people visit Ruto's residence they take photos and the information about me stepping down was shared later on social media platforms. That was not what we agreed," Jesse insisted.
Jessy made it clear that he did not accept to relinquish his seat in favour of Kathaara and that he had decided to vie as an independent candidate after his supporters learnt of the trick played on him.
According to the comedian what transpired in the meeting, is not what was made public afterwards.
Addressing the photos of him shaking hands with Ruto, Jessy detailed that the photos were taken before the meeting with Ruto and other UDA officials.
"MC Jessy will join the presidential campaign team after postponing his parliamentary bid in favour of Mwiti Kathaara for the South Imenti Seat,” Ruto had posted on his social media handles. The posts were pulled down on multiple occasions without an explanation.
Despite the fallout, Jessy maintained that he would still support Ruto's presidential bid in the August 9 General Election.
"The lesson I have learnt is to never trust a politician. And avoid confiding people about your political moves, you never know what they do with it," the ex-Churchill show star remarked,
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