SPLENSIZY'S BLOG

Uganda activist charged for calling President Museveni 'a pair of buttocks'

Stella Nyanzi, a controversial Ugandan academic and human right activist was last week charged with 'cyber harassment' for referring to the President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, as 'a pair of buttocks' in a Facebook post.

It was alleged that her comments contravened the 2011 Computer Misuse Act and that she engaged in 'cyber harassment' and 'offensive communication'.

Nyanzi who is a big critic of the present administration has always criticized the president for poorly running the country. Before insulting the President, she had initially dragged out his wife, Janet Museveni calling her 'empty brained' on social media.

Ms Nyanzi, a mother of three, who describes herself as a 'medical anthropologist' pleaded not guilty to the charges and was remanded in custody until 25 April.

The Udaipur police has arrested five persons including two Nigerian nationals and a woman over the weekend, for duping many people across the country through online fraudulent activities.

The notorious gang have been operating for two years and have duped people of 3 crore rupees. Rich and educated people from big cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur and many other places had fallen victims to their allurement and deposited lakhs of rupees, police said.

The thugs frequently changed their locations to evade arrest. Presently, they had been operating from Mumbai before falling in the police net, the gang befriended their victims on social networking sites before playing their tricks, police said. The gang had purchased ready made garments from the duped money and dispatched to Nigeria through air cargo.

The two Nigerian suspects Victor alias Kalvin and Idumi Charles, along with their aid Prema Das Soni were arrested from Virar in Mumbai while two men Sandip Mahindra and Naresh Pancholi both residents of Udaipur were held for aiding them.

Prema was in a live-in-relationship with a Nigerian citizen who introduced her to Victor and Charles. Surprisingly, Victor even had a voter identity card which is issued only to Indian citizens. The card reflects a Hyderabad address. The Nigerian Embassy has been informed about the arrest, police said.

"We had a tip from our informer that Sandip and Naresh were into some illegal activity. When we interrogated them we realized they were part of an international racket that committed online frauds through various means. These two men operated bank accounts in Udaipur and transferred money which were deposited in these accounts from all over India by victims who were lured into lucrative deals by the masterminds.

Speaking to reporters, Udaipur SP Rajendra Prasad Goyal said the bank account holders were mostly less educated people who didn't knew what was being done with their account, they were paid petty amount in return of sharing the details. Police has seized 11 Lakh rupees cash, 7 kilo silver, 20 gram gold biscuit, many ATM cards, signed cheque books from Sandip and Naresh's custody.

" For the first time, police took initiation to crack the case. A special team was formed and we played the victims by posing as their client and engaged them into prolonged chatting sessions to get their details" said Chandra Purohit, Circle Inspector of Ambamata police station.

The perpetrators used the social media platform mainly Facebook and Whatsapp to earn confidence of people. They played various tricks on people once they initiated conversation or stroke friendship with them. At times they posted attractive advertisements of selling products like branded clothes, home equipment at discounted prices.

When enquiries poured in, they would contact the clients through text messages and ask to deposit money at certain account numbers. Once they got the money, they would terminate communications with the person forever.

"When one of our men befriended the woman, she made a story of having trapped in an emergency situation on a ship, which she said had been attacked by pirates. She asked for financial aid from the cop assuming that he had believed her story" Purohit said.

Another trick would be of posing as good Samaritan and offering gifts. When someone agreed to accept the gift, they would be asked to pay for the custom duty for the parcel.

Source: Times of India

One of Kenya’s most wanted terror suspects, Fatuma Mohamed Masou, who had a Sh2 million bounty on her head, was found dead in Kedong, Kenya.

She was the wife of slain terrorist Kassim Omondi, who was killed by police during a raid in 2013.

On the run since September last year, her body was found in Kedong, near Naivasha, more than a month ago, but the police officers who stumbled upon her remains did not immediately identify her.

Her family did not show up for the brief burial ceremony at the Naivasha Muslim cemetery, but instead asked well-wishers to inter her remains.

Police put a bounty on Ms Masou’s head after they accused her of hiding yet another terrorist, Ishmael Shosi, who was killed in September last year during a raid in Mombasa.

They believed she was armed, dangerous and closely linked to jihadist networks in Somalia and the region. Although she was arrested soon after her husband’s death in 2013, she was released after denying before a magistrate that she had been found in possession of assorted firearms, including two hand grenades and a gun.

And then, about a month ago, police officers stumbled upon two bodies in a field in Kedong, Naivasha.

After fingerprint identification, it turned out that the two were some of Kenya’s most wanted fugitives, said local police boss Titus Mathuku. The other was Farid Omar Awadh, also on the police wanted list.

A Naivasha-based Muslim preacher, Adam Ali Hassan, on Sunday said family members had positively identified the two bodies before they were buried at the Naivasha Muslim cemetery.

“The family of Awadh came and positively identified the body,” said Mr Hassan. “We also got in touch with the family of Masou and, after giving them her physical descriptions, they confirmed that she was the one. They have given us the go-ahead to bury her.”

As news of her death sunk in on Sunday, police officers said they were also holding two men suspected of being Al-Shabaab militants sent by the terrorist organisation to launch attacks in Kenya during the Easter season.

Juma Mwangoh Athman, 24, was arrested Friday evening at his house in Shika Adabu, Likoni, after a raid by the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU).

Two hand grenades, pouches of an AK-47 rifle, a jungle jacket, 10 rounds of ammunition and one pair of binoculars were found in the house.

Coast regional CID boss Pius Macharia said his officers had been monitoring the suspect for some time.

“We are now questioning him to establish whether he has been involved in other terror-related activities,” said Mr Macharia.

The other suspect, Stephen Wagechi, was nabbed while sneaking into Mandera from Bula Hawa in Somalia. He recently converted to Islam and assumed the name Mohammed.

According to a police report seen by the Nation, Wagechi was born in Thika and was converted to Islam in 2014 at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology by a Mr Yusuf, who was also a student at the campus. He is expected in court on Tuesday.

The arrests come a day after police released a list of nine suspected terrorists that they said may either have sneaked into Kenya from Somalia or are in the final stages of planning

They are Habib Karongo, alias Jureyj; Juma Were; Mohamed Tajir; Abdullahi Jarso Kotola; Gufu Tari Gufu; and Ahmed Said Omar.

Others are Abubakar Abdikadir Abubakar; Issa Abdalla Kauni; and Fuad Abubakar Manswab.

Manswab is a close associate of one of the Western world’s most wanted terror suspects, Samantha Lewthwaite, and has been on international and local police radar since 2011.

He was first arrested alongside British terror suspect Jermaine Grant in December 2011, the same night Lewthwaite escaped a police dragnet in Kisauni, Mombasa.

Source: The Nation Kenya

Former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, the grand patron of Kegites Club was pictured yesterday with his members celebrating the Easter season at his Presidential Library, Ogun State.

The Kegites club is a Nigerian popular socio-cultural club which originated from the University of Ife, Ile ife (now known as Obafemi Awolowo University). The club was formally formed in (1962).

The club first chief was Professor Olusegun Adeshina

More photos below...