Uganda beats Tanzania to lift African Cricket Association T20 Cup, Alupo speaks truth to EU at UN General Assembly, Ruto asks G7 to support poor countries, Uganda announces Ebola outbreak

Uganda Cricket Team on Thursday cruised to victory at the African Cricket Association (ACA) T20 Cup in Benoni, South Africa, becoming the pioneer winners of the ACA trophy.

The Cricket Cranes who arrived in South Africa on Tuesday 15th September were placed in Group A alongside Botswana, Mozambique, and Ghana with the tournament played in the T20 format and all games hosted at Wilmore Park in Benoni. Uganda defeated Botswana in their opening game followed up by two more wins against Mozambique and Ghana.

Uganda met fiercest rivals Kenya in a rain-affected semi-final with the Cricket Cranes winning by 3 wickets in a tense game. The best was clearly saved for last when Uganda met Tanzania in the final, Tanzania posted 174/5 in their 20 overs and Uganda seemed to be out of their depth until the final 4 overs where Riazat Ali Shah took center stage with a counter-attacking stroke play that saw Uganda chase down the total with two balls to spare. The win means Uganda won all five games in the tournament and take home the trophy for the 1st time.

Uganda who is currently ranked 25th in the World will move up in the global T20 rankings after picking up some valuable points from the tournament. The team will left South Africa Friday evening and arrived back in Entebbe Saturday early morning.

VP Alupo represents Uganda at UN General Assembly

Uganda’s Vice President Major Jessica Alupo last week led a delegation of Ugandan officials to attend the 77 UN General Assembly in New York. The Session to mark 77 years of the UN was being held in-person for the first time since 2020, when the COVID19 pandemic affected travel and gatherings. Alupo, while addressing the General Assembly, called for strengthening of international cooperation, collaboration and solidarity for the world to take transformative actions to address the common challenges that include; poverty, health pandemics, climate change, food insecurity and biodiversity loss among others. She held a marathon of meetings with world leaders on the sidelines of the Assembly.

Accompanied by Vincent Bagiire Waiswa, the Permanent Secretary of the Foreign Affairs ministry in Uganda, together with Adonia Ayebare, Uganda’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Alupo paid a courtesy call on Amina Mohammed the UN Deputy Secretary General on Friday. The Vice President extended Uganda’s appreciation for the support rendered by the UN during its operations under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) among other engagements.

Earlier, the VP on behalf of Uganda, pledged $3M towards the Global Fund seventh replenishment. She stated that over the years, the fund has helped Uganda realise significant strides in the fight against HIV/AIDS, Malaria, TB and most recently, Covid-19.
She also had the honour of meeting @FilippoGrandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in New York, where she rallied for increased support towards Uganda’s refugee program. Uganda is one of the biggest refugee hosting countries in the world. Grandi hailed Uganda’s open policy on refugees.

Maj Alupo also met with Bayramov Jeyhun, the Foreign Affairs Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan, with whom they discussed different areas of cooperation, especially the Non Aligned Movement, where the two countries share common values. Azerbaijan chairs the NAM and Uganda will take over the Chairmanship next year.

Kenya’s Ruto calls for post-Covid support

In New York, Kenya’s President William Ruto called upon global financial institutions to extend public debt relief to developing countries in his first address as the head of state at the United Nations General Assembly. Ruto while making his address at the 77th General Assembly, noted that many countries are still recovering from the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and debt relief will go a long way in securing the development projects that have already been put in place by these countries. He called upon other countries to partner with the developing countries to help in the recovery from the pandemic. The President further urged the G20 to extend and expand the scope of the common framework to suspend or reschedule debt repayments by middle-income countries during the pandemic recovery period. Ruto said developing countries are heavily burdened by external debt servicing and run the risk of losing development gains due to the shocks inflicted by the pandemic.

Former Uganda Airlines boss has case to answer

Back at home, Court has ordered former Uganda Airlines boss Cornwell Muleya to defend himself on the charge of disobedience. The Zambian national is charged with disobeying orders to appear and make a statement in regards to corruption related offenses. On Friday, court heard from three prosecution witnesses that included two Inspectorate of Government officials Gideon Abudum, Supervisor Special Investigations, Ms Loreen Akello- as well as Francis Kabera, the security manager at Airtel.

Mr Abudum told court that he drafted the summons which were signed by the Deputy IGG and sent to Mr Muleya through his personal email. The Buganda Road Court Grade one magistrate, Asuman Muhumuza explained that the law requires the court at the closure of prosecution to determine whether or not the evidence adduced has established a prima facie case against the accused in order to put him on defence. Daily Monitor reported that Mr Muhumuza relied on the evidence of Mr Abudum and Ms Akello that indeed Mr Muleya was served with summons requiring him to appear in-person at the IGG’s office but he defied. Court also declined to temporarily give Mr Muleya his passport as sought by his lawyer who noted that he needed to travel to Equatorial Guinea for a business consultancy deal since he is unemployed.

Uganda announces Ebola outbreak
Uganda said on Sunday its Ebola caseload had jumped to 16 people while a further 18 people also likely had the disease, fueling fears of a spreading outbreak that involves a strain for which a vaccine has not yet been found. In a tweet, the Ministry of Health also said the death toll of confirmed cases remained four while 17 others classified as probable cases had also died. The outbreak had also now spread to three districts, all in central Uganda. Uganda announced the outbreak of Ebola, a hemorrhagic fever whose symptoms include intense body weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat, vomiting, diarrhea and rashes among others. The current outbreak, attributed to the Ebola Sudan strain, appears to have started in a small village in Mubende district around the beginning of September, authorities have said. The first casualty was a 24-year old man who died early last week. The World Health Organization says the Ebola Sudan strain is less transmissible and has shown a lower fatality rate in previous outbreaks than Ebola Zaire, a strain that killed nearly 2,300 people in the 2018-2020 epidemic in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.