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Friday, December 18, 2020

Burundi’s Ex-President Pierre Buyoya Dead

By Our Correspondent, BUJUMBURA Burundi

Former Burundian President, Pierre Buyoya is dead. He breathed his last on December 17th at the age of 71.

Details of the cause of his death are scanty but with high suspicion that Buyoya may have succumbed to Covid-19.

Our reporter will keep tracking details of this developing story on the demise of the former Burundi leader, a military man at a rank of Major.

Before his death, Buyoya served as High Representative of the African Union for Mali and the Sahel.

He had been battling court cases in Burundi until he was convicted in absentia to life imprisonment for the murder of his predecessor Melchior Ndadaye in 1993.

Buyoya rejected claims of murdering his predecessor Ndadaye.

Melchior Ndadaye was Burundi’s first democratically elected president and was assassinated in October 1993 in a military coup that would lead the country into a civil war between the army and rebel groups opposed to government leading to 300,000 deaths until 2006.

Ndadaye had succeeded Buyoya, carried by the army in power in 1987 and who became president again in a new coup between 1996 and 2003, before handing over power to Domitien Ndayizeye, a Hutu, under a peace agreement signed in 2000 in Arusha (Tanzania).

Buyoya was convicted of “attack against the head of state, attack against the authority of the state and attack tending to bring about massacre and devastation”, according to the text which only contains the operative part (conviction and sentence) of the decision handed down by the Supreme Court.

The name of Pierre Buyoya had already been cited in connection with this assassination, without the beginning of any proof being provided.

Eighteen senior military and civilian officials close to the former head of state were sentenced to the same sentence, three others to 20 years in prison for “complicity” in the same crimes and only one, the former transitional Prime Minister, Antoine Nduwayo, was acquitted.

According to Buyoya, the trial was conducted “in violation of the Arusha Accords” and was neither “fair” nor “equitable” as the rights of the defence were allegedly violated.

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Zimbabwe evicts families amid pandemic

HARARE, Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe authorities are being criticized for evicting hundreds of families of squatters amid the COVID-19 pandemic and struggling economy.

Legal experts say the destruction of their homes in the capital this month, leaving many homeless in a rainy season, is a violation of the constitution.

Fifty-two-year-old Bigboy Mabhande and his family are among hundreds of families of alleged squatters who are now homeless in Zimbabwe’s capital.

Harare city officials demolished the homes they were living in, saying the land is for a school, not residential use.

The father of five is trying to rebuild enough of the demolished home so that his 16-year-old son can move in and continue his studies at a nearby school.

“It (the destruction) really pained me," Mabhande said. "We had to ask for a place to stay from a relative. I am now rebuilding this room so that my son, who is writing exams, can stay in there, since it’s far where we are temporarily staying.”         

Wilbert Mandinde, a program manager at Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, says the demolitions by Harare city should not have been done in the middle of a pandemic and during the rainy season.

“In any event, there are demolitions of such a nature the government or local authority has an obligation of ensuring that people are not left in the open," Mandinde said. "But people have alternative places where they will stay, where there is running water, ablution facilities, where there is electricity. Hence, we are pushing to ensure that they get these things. There are diseases — we are in the COVID-19 pandemic, among other things. There are children. All are things that have to be taken care of. We want authorities to be able to provide sufficient and minimum standards for the people affected.”

About 200 families have been affected. The rights group has asked the high court to push the city to ensure the families have a decent place to stay.

Jacob Mafume, mayor of the city of Harare, says he regrets the incident, which happened when he was in prison on allegations of corruption. He vows to act now that he is out on bail. 

“We are going to look into how court orders are enforced by the deputy sheriff and other governmental departments that created this humanitarian crisis," Mafume said. "But we need to assist people to get food, to get tents, to get shelter. And also to look at, is it possible to regularize some of these settlements? Once we do that, we will be able to come up with a solution. We do not want to implement any orders in an inhumane manner. But we need to be considerate, because the season, as we know, is the rainy season, when people are most vulnerable.”    

But for now, it does not look like it will happen any time soon. And the affected families fear that properties will be destroyed by the rainy season, which ends in March and April of next year. 

 

Kenya police brutality and abuse caused 230 deaths

By Mosses Odhiambo, NAIROBI Kenya

The Kenya Directorate of Public Prosecutions has handled at least 236 cases of police abuses in the past three years.

This brings to the fore the extent to which police excesses have continued to blight the lives of Kenyans.  

Of the cases, 107 were in respect of killings by police officers in the process of handling suspects.

DPP Noordin Haji (pictured down), in a report for the years 2017 to 2020, said at least 31 cases involved shooting by law enforcement officers.

Thirty other cases, the DPP said, involved deaths of suspects while in the custody of police officers.

During the period, the DPP also handled five cases of persons killed by alleged stray bullets and 19 under other circumstances.

Over 70 cases of assault and inhumane treatment by police officers were also handled by the DPP during the period.

Haji said there were enhanced efforts to ensure criminal justice accountability during the period under review.

Even so, the numbers are low compared with the cases reported by various agencies monitoring police abuses.

Missing Voices, a website that documents police killings, says at least 376 people were killed or forced to disappear during the period.

It reports 27 cases of police killings and enforced disappearances in 2017; 75 in 2018; 144 in 2019; and 130 in 2020.

Data from the website show that most of those killed were youth from informal settlements with Nairobi accounting for most of the cases.

The concern over the years is that those killed by the police do not get justice.

Haji, in the report, said his office has taken measures to address the violations and excesses of the law enforcement agencies.

His office has established a civil rights division to enhance the promotion of human rights and address cases of inaction or action by law enforcers that result in criminal violation of citizens and non-citizens.

The division, he said, is tasked with ensuring violations are prosecuted or dealt with administratively by the National Police Service.

Haji said his office is working with IPOA to negotiate a memorandum of understanding to create rules of engagement between the two agencies.

ODPP is also developing a standard operating procedure for IPOA to guide investigators and prosecutors on dealing with police abuses.

Haji said they have designated an IPOA desk to follow up on all cases of police excesses.

“The ODPP officers act as contact persons between the two institutions,” Haji said in the report handed over to President Uhuru Kenyatta last month.

The DPP has also formed a team to liaise with the civil society with a view to coming up with regulations to actualise the Constitution’s provisions for freedom of peaceful assembly.

The office has established a division to deal with such abuses arising from instances where victims were exercising freedom of speech.

Extrajudicial killing is generally becoming costly even to the exchequer, taking the case of the over Sh820 million the Attorney General’s office is reported to have spent in compensation of victims of police abuses.

In June, Duncan Ndiema was taken to court for the murder of 13-year-old Yasin Moyo, which is among notable cases in the DPP’s file.

The youngster was shot while standing on the balcony at his parents’ flat in Mathare on March 30.

Beckham Osoro Orwaru was charged, following public outcry, with the killing of 26-year old Karani Kinyiri in Mathare.

The death occurred while the officer was enforcing curfew orders.

Former Mlolongo OCS Stephen Lelei and former AP officer Fredric Leliman allegedly killed Jacob Mwenda and Elizabeth Nduku in 2016 in Mlolongo town.

Leliman is also an accused person in the 2016 murder of rights lawyer Willie Kimani and two others.

Emmanuel Ambunya of Kenyatta National Hospital police post was charged with the murder of university student Carlton Maina in Kibera slum.

The officer was accused of murdering the Leeds University student on December 22, 2018 at Laini Saba and is out on Sh60,000 bail.

AP officer Zaddock Ochuka Oyieka was charged in March with the murder of Daniel Mburu Wangari, a boda boda rider, outside Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital.

The rider was shot on February 18 following an argument over an unofficial Sh50 parking fee with security guards at the hospital.

Mburu had volunteered to rush to the hospital a two-and-half-year-old boy retrieved from a river in Korogocho slums.

These cases are a fraction of the pending complaints before IPOA and with the police.

There are those that are yet to go to court as they are still being investigated, among them the killing of a two-and-half-year-old boy in Kahawa West and that of three-year-old girl in Kahawa Wendani.

 

Kenya orders 24 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine

By John Muchangi, NAIROBI Kenya

Kenya has ordered 24 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine, enough to cover 20 per cent of the country’s population, the Star has learnt.

The Ministry of Health submitted its request to the global vaccine alliance Gavi last week.

The doses will cost Kenya a total of Sh10 billion, the ministry confirmed.

This is approximately the cost also given by Gavi, which says each dose will cost about $3 (about Sh320).

The amount is already heavily discounted by Gavi through donations from a number of developed countries, the World Bank, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, among others.

“The first to be vaccinated will be frontline workers, then the vulnerable and the elderly,” acting director-general of Health Patrick Amoth told the Star.

He said Kenya did not dictate which vaccine to receive because Gavi has signed agreements with manufacturers of about nine vaccine candidates.

“The Oxford University-Astrazeneca candidate will be ideal for Kenya because it fits within our cold chain supply system. It can be stored in 2-8 degrees and we have refrigerators for that,” Amoth said. "It is also being tested in the country in Kilifi."

Pfizer- BioNTech’s, Moderna’s and Russia’s Sputnik V vaccines have all reported efficacy of more than 90 per cent.

However, the first two require ultra-cold storage not widely available in Kenya.

The Pfizer candidate is also not among the contracted vaccines that will be supplied to poor countries through Gavi.

Kenya expects to receive a vaccine early next year, but Amoth did not specify the timeframe.

He said Kenya will grant emergency use approval to the appropriate candidate immediately that vaccine gets such approvals in Europe and the US.

“Once they get the approval from the European Medicines Agency and in the UK, then we will also consider granting such authorisation in Kenya,” he said.

The announcement means Kenya has applied for the largest number of doses in East Africa.

Last week on Thursday, Uganda’s Ministry of Health said it ordered nine million doses to cover 20 per cent of the country’s population of 43 million people.

“Plans are underway to secure additional doses of the vaccine to cover more people,” the Ugandan Health ministry said in a statement.

Uganda said it specifically applied for the Oxford University-Astrazeneca vaccine because it has no capacity to store other vaccines that require ultra-cold conditions.

Rwanda's Minister of Health Daniel Ngamije on Sunday also announced they had applied for either AstraZeneca or the Moderna vaccine.

Ngamije didn't, however, say how many doses they applied for but said they hoped Rwanda would be among the first countries in Africa to receive them.

It is not known if Tanzania, which claims there is no Covid-19 there, applied for any vaccine.

Separately, Egypt announced it applied for 20 million doses from Gavi, and expected to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine.

In Egypt, priority will be given to medical staff, followed by those with chronic diseases, Health minister Hala Zayed said,

Egypt has also received its first batch of coronavirus vaccine, produced by the Chinese company Sinopharma.

Gavi is supplying Covid-19 vaccines to 92 developing countries, including Kenya, through a facility called Covax.

Covax was created by Gavi, Unicef and the WHO to deliver two billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines by the end of 2021.

The facility says it has already secured millions of ready-made doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca candidate, ready for distribution to the 92 developing countries. 

The Geneva-based Gavi had given beneficiary countries up to December 7 to make their requests.

Experts say although there won’t be enough vaccines for every Kenyan, getting the shots to the right people could tame the pandemic.

Although Covax has signed agreements for nine different candidates, the Oxford candidate might reach developing countries first because it can utilise existing infrastructure in most countries.

The Oxford vaccine can utilise standard 2-8 degree cold chain infrastructure for transport, storage and delivery.

Gavi says it has already secured “hundreds of millions of doses” of the candidate through an MoU between Gavi and AstraZeneca, as well as through agreements between Gavi, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Serum Institute of India, the contracted manufacturer.

"Access to safe and efficacious Covid-19 vaccines for the most vulnerable groups everywhere in the world is the only way to bring the acute stage of this pandemic under control,” Gavi CEO Dr Seth Berkley said in a recent statement.

The Oxford vaccine — being tested in Kilifi in a phase I trial — uses a harmless, weakened version of a common virus that causes a cold in chimpanzees.

The Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, said it has already manufactured millions of doses and will make millions more immediately governments authorise its use.

Kenya has formed a Covid-19 Vaccine Taskforce, which will develop policies and guidelines on how the vaccines will be rolled out once available.

“These are processes that are currently underway. We are quite excited and we are going to have a discussion with AstraZeneca to ensure that Kenya is first in line because about eight countries are on trial for the vaccine,” Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi said recently.

In September, the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation endorsed new guidelines on groups to prioritise for vaccination while supply is limited.

The framework advises countries to prioritise health workers who are directly engaged in the Covid-19 response.

The framework also leaves countries to make their own decisions depending on the type of vaccines that are available and what countries intend to achieve.

“Health is not, however, the only dimension of wellbeing that has been severely affected by the pandemic,” the guidelines say.

This means the choice for Kenya might also depend on whether the highest priority for the country is just to prevent death or to curb the spread of the virus and return to normalcy. – The Star

 

Ouattara sworn in for controversial third term

ABIDJAN, Cote d'Ivoire

Cote d'Ivoire's President Alassane Ouattara officially inaugurated on Monday his third term as head of Cote d'Ivoire at the presidential palace in Abidjan.

This is the first time that an elected president has been sworn in on the Constitution in Cote d'Ivoire. The oath-taking hearing was conducted by the President of the Constitutional Council, Mamadou Kone, in the presence of members of this institution.

An audience of high-level personalities including a dozen heads of state and government mainly from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), diplomats accredited in Cote d'Ivoire and civilian personalities, and national soldiers, among others, attended the ceremony, including the former leaders from other countries such as Nicolas Sarkozy (France), Goodluck Jonathan (Nigeria) and Ernest Bai Koroma (Sierra Leone), as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of France, Jean-Yves Le Drian.

On behalf of the Constitutional Council, Mamadou Kone congratulated President Alassane Ouattara.

In a solemn address, Alassane Ouattara said he was "proud and grateful" for the renewed confidence in him. "It is with great honor and responsibility that I took the oath," said Alassane Ouattara, before making the commitment to "fully" assume his office.

Alassane Ouattara condemned with "the greatest firmness" the murderous violence during the ballot and insisted that "these acts must not go unpunished". He also noted the economic momentum that Cote d'Ivoire is experiencing with a "marked improvement" in the living conditions of the populations and a "reduction in poverty".

"For this new mandate, we will offer more opportunities to every Ivorian, the priority will be centered on the education, training and employment of young people," he said.

"We will ensure that the structural transformation of the economy creates jobs", continued Alassane Ouattara not without insisting on other priorities, including the empowerment of women and the improvement of the quality of care offer.

Alassane Ouattara also made a commitment to promote national reconciliation and social cohesion, notably through the resumption of dialogue with the opposition for the holding of legislative elections " in the first quarter of the year 2021".

Alassane Ouattara was declared re-elected with 94.27 percent of the vote in the first round of the October 31 presidential election.

Monday, December 14, 2020

US lifts Sudan’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism

Washington, USA

The United States formally rescinded Sudan's status as a state sponsor of terrorism on Monday, removing the biggest barrier to the African country's access to international lending institutions and economic development, The Washington Post reported this afternoon.

Sudan was designated as a state sponsor of terror in 1993 in part for its support of militant Palestinian organizations such as Hamas, as well as for harboring al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Less than two years ago, a popular protest movement led to the ouster of Omar al-Bashir, who ruled Sudan for three decades and whose policies often antagonized the United States and Israel.

“Today we return to the international community with all our history, the civilization of our people, the greatness of our country and the vigor of our revolution,” tweeted Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, he added that the move would help reform the economy, create jobs and attract investment.

North Korea, Iran, and Syria continue to be designated as state sponsors of terror by the U.S. State Department, which precludes them from receiving American aid or defense deals, as well as engaging with U.S.-dominated lending institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Monday’s move comes after a flurry of negotiations between Khartoum and the Trump administration that bore all the hallmarks of transactional diplomacy. In return for its removal from the terrorism list, the unelected, transitional government that Sudan has had in place since Bashir’s downfall pledged to normalize with Israel — part of the Trump administration’s last-minute push to improve relations between Israel and Arab nations under the so-called the “Abraham Accords.”

Sudan’s government also agreed to pay $335 million to settle claims made by victims of the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the bombing of the USS Cole off Yemen’s coast in 2000.

A deal with victims of the 9/11 attacks, however, has not been reached, and lawyers representing that group have rejected the deal between Washington and Khartoum, saying they deserve much more in compensation.

In Sudan, the announcement was celebrated as a major milestone of the emerging post-Bashir era, and a chance for many to reengage with the global economy, from aspiring students seeking scholarships in Western countries, to businesses seeking trade deals, to a government hungry for foreign investment in its flagging economy.

“It is excellent news,” said Sidgi Kaballo, a Sudanese economist and professor in Omdurman, a burgeoning city across the Nile River from Khartoum. “It will allow the integration of the Sudanese financial system with the global networks that operate in U.S. dollars and the easy transfer of funds to and from Sudan.”

Some of the benefits of the move would be immediate, particularly in trade and day-to-day financial activities, but the biggest changes will only come with major investments from the world’s biggest lending institutions.

Sudan entered into a one-year monitoring program with the IMF this September, after which it is expected to receive large-scale loans and investments to revive an economy decimated by spiraling inflation, dilapidated infrastructure, and the inability of foreign companies to invest easily.

The U.S. lifted most of its bilateral sanctions on Sudan in 2017, but the continuing of the terror sponsor designation limited much of its economy’s potential for growth.

People from around the country voiced cautious optimism that the moment could mark the beginning of a reversal of years of bad fortune.

Mohamed Mahmoud, 33, a farmer in the vast Al-Gezira irrigation scheme south of Khartoum, said he looked forward to importing new parts for his agricultural machinery that had previously been blocked by U.S. sanctions.

“Al-Gezira was booming before 1993,” he said. “With new investment from Western countries, we hope to see that again.”

Some people’s struggles under the sanctions were more personal. Asmaa Bashir, 26, had always wanted to leave Sudan and study in Europe or the United States, but Sudanese students couldn’t receive scholarships from colleges in those countries.

“I couldn’t even get paid through PayPal for the Arabic tutoring I did on Preply,” she said, referring to the U.S.-based online educational platform that links people around the world for informal classes. “Sudanese people have so many talents, and we hope we will now be able to share them more widely with the world.”

The ongoing negotiations between the 9/11 victims’ families and U.S. Congress, however, have kept the question open over how much Sudan will ultimately have to pay as part of an agreement in which Congress will grant it “legal peace” — another designation Sudan does not have but seeks to be protected from the possibility of further U.S.-based lawsuits against its government.

“As much as this should be a moment of celebration and pride for the Sudanese, it comes with an asterisk,” said Cameron Hudson, a former State Department and CIA official specializing in Sudan. “It would be a terrible injustice, and self-defeating to U.S. policy, if we delisted Sudan only to have it continue to suffer the indignity of further terror-related claims, all because we could not sort out our own domestic politics.”

Two Democratic senators, Charles E. Schumer and Robert Menendez, from New York and New Jersey respectively — where the majority of 9/11 victims were from — have held up the passage of legal peace for Sudan, seeking a larger settlement package that the two senators had introduced last week.

“We offered two versions in the spirit of cooperation and compromise, both of which overcome severe problems with the deal the State Department cut with Sudan that has tragically pitted different groups of victims of terrorism against one another,” the senators’ offices said in a joint statement.

A lawyer for the terror victims’ families spelled out their opposition in starker terms, rejecting the inclusion of a settlement in a U.S.-Sudan deal over the terrorism list and normalization of relations with Israel.

“The September 11 families aren’t asking for any special favors, just to be left alone to pursue their long-standing lawsuit against Sudan and other regional parties for supporting al-Qaeda so that it could become the international terrorist organization that has murdered so many innocents,” said Jack Quinn, counsel to the 9/11 families. “They aren’t a part of this Sudan settlement, and they are not asking to be.”

ABC News reported last week that the Trump administration had offered the 9/11 victims group $700 million, more than double the previously announced sum, to push the legal peace deal through.

The rescinding of Sudan’s state sponsor of terrorism designation, however, was entered into the Federal Register, without objection from Congress during 45 days they had to review its terms.

“This is long overdue,” said Ihab Osman, chairman of the U.S.-Sudan Business Council. “It ushers in what we hope will be the start of a long and prosperous future for U.S.-Sudan political, economic, and environmental partnerships.”

Wednesday, December 2, 2020

WHO in final phase of tracing origin of Covid-19

GENEVA, Switzerland

The World Health Organisation has entered the final stages of the search for the origins and exact source of Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2), which has so far killed over 1.3 million people and infected over 55 million worldwide.

On November 10, the international health agency released its plan to identify the origins of the virus and how it first crossed over to humans in China, where the outbreak was first reported.

The Chinese government remains guarded about this information.

The WHO has faced harsh criticism, especially from the Trump administration for not moving quickly enough with the probe. The UN agency first started the investigation mission in mid-February, when the world still hoped that the new coronavirus could be contained.

In May, more than 130 WHO member states, including China, passed a resolution that included a call for the inquiry with several countries pressing for the investigation to start.

“Building on the recommendations from the 73rd World Health Assembly, WHO, together with the government of China, are setting up an international multidisciplinary team to design, support and conduct a series of studies that will contribute to origin tracing work,” the dossier said.

In July, a three-week scoping mission, in which two WHO experts travelled to China, laid the groundwork for the larger investigation that was quietly released. The larger mission of international experts, including epidemiologists and animal health specialists, had been expected to start its investigation in “a matter of weeks” after that, the WHO said in July. However, these plans stalled.

According to the report, some countries retrospectively identified cases of Covid-19 weeks before the first case was officially notified through surveillance, and unpublished reports of positive sewage samples could suggest that the virus may have circulated undetected for some time. The WHO team aims to explore how the circulation of SARS-CoV-2 might have started, gather evidence from the cluster of cases identified in December 2019 for potential links and clues to its origin.

The search will start in Wuhan — the Chinese city where the virus was first identified — and expand across China and beyond.

According to the report, an international team of epidemiologists, virologists, and researchers with expertise in public health, animal health, and food safety will lead the WHO’s Covid-19 investigation. The agency has not released their names.

For Covid-19, the researchers will study samples from before and after the time the coronavirus outbreak was publicly declared in late December 2019.

“An outbreak of pneumonia of unknown cause was identified through surveillance in Wuhan, however the possibility that the virus may have silently circulated elsewhere can’t be ruled out,” the report said.

It is widely assumed that the virus originally came from bats, but the intermediate animal host that transmitted it between bats and humans remains unknown. Scientists believe the killer virus jumped from animals to humans, possibly from a wet market in the city of Wuhan city, in the province of Huanan.

In Wuhan, researchers will take a closer look at the Huanan meat and animal market, which was closed after many of the first people diagnosed with Covid-19 were found to have visited. Early investigations sampled frozen animal carcasses at the market, but found no evidence of SARS-CoV-2, according to a November 5 report of the WHO mission’s terms of reference.

However, environmental samples, taken mostly from drains and sewage, tested positive for the virus.

“Where an epidemic is first detected does not necessarily reflect where it started,” the WHO report said, noting that preliminary reports of viral RNA detected in sewage samples before the first cases had been identified.

Britain became first country to approve Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use

James Paton, LONDON UK

The U.K. became the first western country to approve a Covid-19 vaccine, with its regulator clearing Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE’s shot ahead of decisions in the U.S. and European Union.

The emergency authorization clears the way for the deployment of a vaccine that Pfizer and its German partner have said is 95% effective in preventing illness. The shot will be available in Britain from next week, according to a government statement Wednesday.

"We can see the way out and we can see that by the spring we are going to be through this,” Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Sky News.

The U.K. had signaled it would move swiftly in approving a vaccine, and doctors across the country were put on standby for a possible rollout. For the government, it’s an opportunity to make up for missteps during the pandemic as Britain’s death toll nears 60,000.

The U.K. regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, said on Wednesday that the vaccine “met its strict standards of safety, quality and effectiveness.” Pfizer, along with Moderna Inc. and the University of Oxford’s partner, AstraZeneca Plc, have sprinted ahead in a bid to deliver coronavirus vaccines in record time.

Pfizer and BioNTech earlier this week sought regulatory clearance for their vaccine in the European Union, putting the shot on track for potential approval there before the end of the year. In the U.S., a Food and Drug Administration panel is set to meet on Dec. 10 to discuss the vaccine.

China has given authorization to its three front-runners for emergency use. Russia cleared a vaccine known as Sputnik V in August, while a second inoculation was approved in October, even as the last stage of trials to establish safety and efficacy are still taking place.

The British government in late November invoked a special rule allowing its drug regulator to move ahead of the EU as the country prepares for the Brexit transition period to conclude at the end of this year.

The U.K. has ordered enough doses of the two-shot Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to immunize 20 million people. The companies also have deals to supply hundreds of millions of shots to Europe, the U.S., Japan and elsewhere.

The Pfizer-BioNTech shot dashed to the head of the queue after delays to the trials of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, which has also shown promising signs in preliminary results of broad studies. 

The U.K. partners have faced questions after acknowledging that a lower dosage level that appeared more effective resulted from a manufacturing discrepancy.

Tuesday, December 1, 2020

Uganda's 'Bobi Wine' Survives Second Assassination Attempt

KAMPALA, Uganda

Uganda opposition Presidential candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, yesterday suspended his campaigns after police shot one of his aides and wounded a police bodyguard identified as Wilfred Kato Kubai.  

Bobi’s right-hand man Daniel Oyerwot, aka Dan Magic, survived with mutilated lips as police fired teargas and rubber bullets to disperse Bobi Wine’s supporters at Kyampisi Trading Centre, Kayunga District.  

The injured were rushed to Nazigo Health Centre III before they were moved to Mulago National Referral Hospital for better management.

Bobi Wine’s car was also shot at as he attempted to bypass a military blockade as he arrived in Jinja City for his second rally. 

In the first 21 days of presidential campaigns, opposition candidates and their supporters have stared defiantly into barrels of the gun, and at death every day, as hordes of armed policemen and soldiers continue to follow them at every turn, breaking up rallies deemed to run counter to the Covid-19 rules limiting gatherings to 200 people.

Candidates have been blocked from main roads; towns, campaign venues, booked TV and radio programmes and hotels.

At the old Nile Bridge, police and army personnel who had been heavily deployed diverted him towards Budondo Village where he was set to address his supporters.  

Kyagulanyi is seen here helping his police bodyguard identified as Wilfred Kato Kubai who sustained injuries from Uganda police forces

But after the diversion, Kyagulanyi tried to use force to access Jinja City through one of the roads that had been blocked by police and the army. The army instantly shot his car tyres and shattered the windscreen. 

In the midst of the fracas, Kyagulanyi and his supporters kept yelling at security for blocking his campaign meetings. 

Kyagulanyi, who is running for presidency on National Unity Platform (NUP) party ticket, told journalists in Kayunga that he was compelled to suspend his campaigns as a protest against “the continued brutality and killing of his supporters.”  

The NUP leader has accused the Justice Simon Byabakama-led Electoral Commission (EC) of keeping silent even as police continue to target his supporters.

He asked his supporters to remain calm and indicated that he would seek a meeting with EC today to discuss the way forward. 

“We have been brutalised and killed but the EC has continuously remained silent on these matters. Do they want me killed before they come out? Are they even in charge of this election or they are hoodwinking Ugandans?” Kyagulanyi said shortly after the Jinja shooting. 

He added: “Over 100 people were killed two weeks ago during the riots, although the government only mentioned 54. I was abducted at the nomination centre right in front of EC, my campaigns have been blocked and just yesterday, five people were killed. In all this, EC has been quiet. Tomorrow we shall go and face them and demand for these answers.” 

Yesterday’s shootings in Kayunga and Jinja came exactly five days after EC wrote to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Martins Okoth Ochola, asking him to stop blocking presidential candidates and indicated that they have a right to move and access the designated campaign venues, and hold their campaign meetings, in compliance with the Covid-19 Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as issued by the Commission.

Paul Bukenya, the acting EC spokesperson, told reporters last evening that the EC had seen images of the confrontation between police and Kyagulanyi and that they were ready to receive his complaints. 

Bobi’s right-hand man Daniel
Oyerwot, aka Dan Magic, survived with
mutilated lips as police fired teargas
and rubber bullets

“Kyagulanyi is a registered candidate and he is free to come and express himself on any issues as long as he is not comfortable. It is unfortunate that the police are acting this way but our means have always been on engaging the stakeholders,” Bukenya said. 

Bobi Wine had early at 7.30am set off from his Magere home in Wakiso District to head to Kayunga District for his campaign through Gayaza Road. His cars were followed by boda bodas and supporters chanting freedom songs as well as NUP slogans. 

About 200 metres away from Nakifuma in Mukono District, teargas and bullet started flowing as police battled NUP supporters. Police dispersed the supporters but they quickly regrouped.

Daudi Hiriga Were, the Kiira Region police commander, who headed the operation, said Bobi Wine had flouted their orders to follow certain routes which led the of police to fire teargas at the supporters. 

“We have been directing him to use certain roads, which he refused to comply with and as police, we have to swing into action,” Higira said. 

“If there were four presidential candidates like Kyagulanyi in this presidential race, no police or army officer would remain in the barracks,” a Bobi Wine follower on the campaign trail said when interviewed for this story.

That statement sums up the military- siege situation Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine and other candidates have had to navigate since they were nominated in November to challenge President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni’s 35-year grip on power. Before Bobi Wine was nominated on November 3, dozens of army, the police and Local Defense Unit personnel besieged his Magere home in Kasangati town council Wakiso district.