Day: November 7, 2022

Following an earlier glitch caused by a fire alarm at the mission operations control center in Dulles, Virginia, Uganda’s first-ever satellite, PearlAfricaSat-1 has finally been launched successfully. On Sunday afternoon, the launch was interrupted by a technical glitch that saw America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) postpone it. On Monday, the satellite was successfully launched in a five-minute window that opened at 5:27 a.m. EST(1:27pm EAT). About the satellite The satellite developed by Ugandan engineers Edgar Mujuni, Bonny Omara, and Derrick Tebusweke is part of the BIRDS program, a cross-border interdisciplinary satellite project for non-space faring countries supported by Japan. It follows Uganda’s agreement with Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech) in...

[Kampala Uganda, 7th November 2022] With 38 of its 54 states being coastal or island states, it is no surprise that Africa is home to over 100 port facilities, including massive terminals in Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town in the south, and Mombasa and Dar es Salaam in the east, and Lagos in the west. 90% of Africa’s imports and exports travels by sea. The volume of trade through these ports is enormous with South Africa alone in pre pandemic 2019 handling almost five million TEU (20 foot container equivalents) with just over 9 000 ship calls nationally. However, few of these ports operate optimally, lacking a fully integrated rail and road system which enables all of the operational elements to ‘speak’ to each other, and for freight and logistics companies to monitor the progress of...

Source: BBC Tanzania’s Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa will on Monday lead mourners in paying their respects at a funeral service for 19 people killed after a passenger plane crashed into Lake Victoria in Tanzania. The plane crashed on Sunday morning near the shore at the end of the Bukoba airport runway. Of the 43 people on board, there were 24 survivors, according to the operator Precision Air. The prayers will be held at the Bukoba football stadium, according to the area’s regional commissioner Albert Chalamila. Precision Air is Tanzania’s largest privately-owned passenger airline.

Source: BBC A Tanzanian passenger plane has crashed into Lake Victoria as it attempted to land in the lakeside town of Bukoba. The Precision Air flight was carrying 43 people, 26 of whom have been rescued and sent to hospital, said a local official. Rescue workers and local fishermen are on the scene searching for survivors. The plane is almost completely submerged with only the brown and green tail fin above the water, surrounded by rescue workers and fishing boats. Emergency workers are using ropes to try and pull the ATR 42-500 plane out of Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake. “We want to see if the landing gear is stuck so that we can ask for more technical assistance to push it out of the waters,” said top regional official Albert Chalamila. One end of the runway at Bukoba airpor...

The Buganda parliamentary caucus has expressed concern over the overwhelming destruction of central reserve forests in Buikwe district; they shifted the blame to the National Forest Authority (NFA). A delegation of Buganda region members of parliament toured various gazetted forests which included Namaziina in Ngogwe Sub County, Nakiza and Kisisita and they discovered that all the indigenous were cut down and replaced by eucalyptus trees. The leader of opposition Hon. Mathias Mpuuga condemned the corruption tendencies amongst some NFA officials who give away forests to the rich people and leave out the poor local occupants in the area, therefore calling upon district leaders to work as one in the fight against the vice. Mpuuga, noted that the national forestry authority was mandated to ...

The district chairman, Rev. Fr. Peter Bakaluba Mukasa has tasked the Mukono district chief executive officer Mr. Nkata Jamest to explain why Mukono ranks fifth in corruption in Uganda Mukono district leaders, civil societies, religious leaders and residents were in a meeting meant to gather views on the next 2022 - 2023 Mukono district budget. The furious Mukono district chairperson rev. Bakaluba said voters are currently demanding them the services they promised while campaigning, but they have nothing to show to the electorate. Bakaluba cited the district land that hosts the district headquarters which was sold by the former district leaders while the chief executive officer is in office. “This land we are sitting on was subdivided. It has mark stones in it, down there, someone made ...

Innocent Masinga, 27, was stabbed to death in the clash between the two rivalry groups in Lukojjo village in Nama district in Mukono. The two groups were fighting for ownership of the land. At the scene, we found the group of youths who had been hired by Kasozi Sam to drive away the group that his brother Ssozi Musisi had brought to the land was still fighting and police opened live bullets to disperse the angry youths. Meanwhile Innocent's body was lying in a pool of blood amidst the crowd. Residents who witnessed the incident also said a group of youths with sticks and machetes came and attacked the guards and started beating without asking anyone. The residents blamed the unending fights on police because fights are being fueled by two UPDF senior military officers fighting for the ...