Major Vianney Kazarama told AFP the two men had been arrested earlier Thursday, a day after the attack by around 70 militia members on the Indian contingent's base.

He said one of the men, named as Tembea Mumbere, had confessed to the killings. "He admitted to everything. He said that they had been sent to track down and kill people with MONUSCO," the acronym for the UN stabilisation mission in the country.

He said a second suspect, named as Justin Kambare, was "currently being interrogated".

He said the suspect was part of the tribal Mai-Mai Pareco militia.

"The motive being put forward is that MONUSCO was blocking their integration into the FARDC forces," the army spokesman said.

A disarmament and integration deal for militia groups is part of a wider peace deal in the mineral rich but restive eastern DR Congo.

Around 60 suspected rebels hacked to death three Indian UN peacekeepers during an attack on their camp early Wednesday in the town of Kirumba.

A further seven Indian troops were wounded in the attack.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon condemned the killings and urged Kinshasa to launch an immediate inquiry to "ensure that the perpetrators are swiftly identified and brought to justice."

The attack was "condemned in the strongest terms" in a statement by the 15-member UN Security Council.

Olara Otunnu’s failure to show up at Kololo Airstrip on Tuesday raises questions as to whether his party still believes in the viability of an opposition coalition against President Museveni during next year’s presidential elections.

The IPC last Tuesday nominated potential candidates, one of whom will become its presidential candidate in the elections. The IPC which brings together five opposition parties, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), Justice Forum (JEEMA), Conservative Party (CP), and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), received nominations from four parties.

CP’s little known lecturer of philosophy at Makerere University, Prof James Kikongo was the first IPC presidential candidate to be nominated. FDC presented Dr Kizza Besigye, followed by JEEMA’s Hussein Kyanjo and later the youthful Michael Mabikke of the SDP.

Sources close to UPC say a disagreement on whether the opposition should boycott the 2011 general elections prompted the party to restrict its involvement in IPC, The Observer has learnt. A highly placed source within UPC told The Observer that earlier this month, Dr Olara Otuunu, the UPC president, urged the IPC to boycott the forthcoming elections, a proposal that was flatly rejected.

“Otunnu reasoned that the boycott would create a new political situation in the country. However, all the party presidents were opposed to his proposal. They said it was foolhardy to let President Museveni run against himself,” an insider in UPC said.

Although IPC tried to play down Otunnu’s no show at Kololo for the nominations, arguing that it will not derail the cooperation’s plans, the development will stoke fires from its critics, like the Democratic Party, who predicted a stillbirth.

DP leader, Norbert Mao, has been a lead critic of the cooperation, saying it is a political platform only designed to promote and widen FDC’s base at the expense of the other political parties.

“Our plans are still on track. We shall meet next Monday (August 23) to build consensus on who should be our flag bearer. UPC must not nominate a candidate, they can back any of those already nominated,” Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, the IPC spokesman, told The Observer on Tuesday.

Beginning on Monday, the four IPC nominees will meet and try to agree on a joint candidate among themselves. If they agree, then the candidate will be recommended to the IPC National Conference. In the event that no consensus is reached, the matter shall be put to a vote in the IPC National Conference.

A candidate shall win by more than 50%. In the event that no candidate gains more than 50%, then the voting will proceed to a second round on the two candidates who will have gotten the highest number of votes. Each party will send 50 delegates to the conference.

Otunnu vs Kiggundu

Right from the time he set foot in Uganda from exile, Otunnu, a former United Nations Under-Secretary and Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict, was opposed to Eng. Badru Kiggundu organising the elections. While touring Arua in June, Otunnu said Kiggundu must be removed if the elections are to be free and fair.

It however appears that Otunnu and the entire opposition have failed to dislodge Kiggundu. Although officially, UPC stated that Otuunu didn’t show up for nomination because he was attending a court hearing, it has emerged that there are simmering differences within UPC that are curtailing its continued participation in the IPC. Indeed that was confirmed by the varying reasons advanced for Otunnu’s absence.

Insiders said UPC asked for more time to hold grassroots elections. But the UPC spokesperson, Robert Kanusu told the IPC officials that they were unaware of the Kololo function until Monday night. The contradictory remarks go a long way to highlight the divide between UPC and IPC. The Observer has also learnt that the IPC roadmap was adjusted at the urging of UPC, but to the chagrin of the donors who have been bankrolling much of the cooperation’s activities.

UPC tears IPC

The Observer has learnt that some UPC officials are having second thoughts about the party’s continued partnership with some of the opposition parties. In a meeting early this week, some members encouraged the party to pull out. Their reasoning is that the IPC is dominated by FDC functionaries. UPC members, sources say, were unhappy that most of the leadership roles in the IPC activities ahead of the election of the flag bearer are dominated by FDC officials.

“Many of them thought that Otunnu would easily takeover the IPC leadership but that hasn’t been the case,” a source said. It is this faction, according to the source, that wants Otunnu to instead stand on a UPC ticket.

According to the road map, a copy of which The Observer has, with the exception of Wokuri Margaret, Coordinator of the newly formed pressure group, the National Alliance for Free and Fair Elections (NAFFE), the rest of the people coordinating IPC activities are FDC officials.

They include Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda (IPC Spokesperson, FDC), Ogenga Latigo (Leader of opposition, FDC), Francis Mwijukye (FDC), Frank Nabwiso (IPC Coordinator, FDC), Kassiano Wadri (Opposition Chief Whip, FDC), Alice Alaso (FDC Secretary General), Abdu Katuntu, (MP, FDC) and Anang Odur (FDC Vice Chairperson and chairman disciplinary committee.)

Patrick Mwondha, the source said, insisted in the UPC cabinet meeting that the party cannot pullout because it has been at the centre of the cooperation. As a matter of fact, only Mwondha turned up at Kololo.

And some officials said during the meeting that Otunnu couldn’t be nominated in absentia. Otunnu is said to be out of the country. The Observer has also learnt that some UPC members are uncomfortable with some FDC officials like Wafula Oguttu whom they allege is using his influence to have better coverage in a daily newspaper, and stifling the publication of stories favourable to UPC and Otunnu.

Wafula however said on Tuesday that publicity is created by activities the FDC has been engaged in. “If we have been moving around the country, and the media reports about our rallies, is that created by me?,” he asked.

However, there are also UPC officials who are aspiring to contest for various leadership positions and are already seeing that FDC officials stand better chances of being elected IPC flag bearers. These, sources say, would rather have IPC fail. These aspirants believe they stand a better chance of election as solo UPC candidates.

Related to this, some UPC members want a compromise candidate like former Buganda Kingdom Katikkiro Joseph Mulwanyammuli Ssemowogerere elected IPC flag bearer as a way of reconciling UPC with Buganda Kingdom with which they have had longstanding hostilities since the 1966 attack on the Lubiri.

It was because of those varying voices that the UPC executive tasked the UPC Secretary General, Joseph Bbosa to formally write to the IPC leadership communicating their stand.

On receiving the letter, Besigye, The Observer has been told, frantically tried to reach Otunnu on phone to urge him to accept the nomination in absentia but was unsuccessful. As a compromise, it was agreed that UPC be given more time to put its house in order.

President Paul Kagame of the Rwandese Patriotic Front was this week declared winner of the elections in that country with about 93 per cent of the vote. In any other country, the election in Rwanda would have been a foregone conclusion in favour of the incumbent. Led by President Kagame, the RPF ended the genocide when it took power in 1994 and has presided over the rebuilding of the country.

The 90-year-old passed away in his sleep at his home in Kizungu Zone, a leafy, quiet area of Makindye, a suburb of Kampala.

He passed on between 3:00am and 6:00am on 4th August 2010, his nurse said. The man who led Uganda from June 20, 1979 to May 12, 1980, had diabetes. 

Binaisa becomes the second former Ugandan president to die in the country. The other was Gen. Tito Okello Lutwa, who ruled from July 26, 1985 to January 26, 1986, when Predent Yoweri Museveni took over power.

Binaisa's family, according to their lawyer Erias Lukwago, wants him buried at Kololo where two other decorated heroes, Prof. Yusuf Kironde Lule and Ignatius Musaazi, are buried. Lule was Binaisa's predecessor and the first chairperson of the National Resistance Movement.

Musaazi founded the first national political party, the Uganda National Congress, in 1952.

Lukwago said he will move a motion in Parliament to have Binaisa buried in Kololo. "I have discussed the matter with the Speaker," he said.

Issa Kimera, a nurse from Bedside Services, which cares for the elderly, said Binaisa had lately been happy. He went to bed at about 7:00pm after supper. "As a routine, I went to check on him at three in the morning. He lay in his bed face up," Kimera recalled.

"Are you ok?" Binaisa, a lawyer, asked Kimera, who responded in the affirmative. "Where is my Nalongo?" he inquired in reference to Kimera's colleague, Christine Naguddi, who took care of him in daytime. 

Kimera informed Binaisa that Naguddi would report for duty later. The former head of state then went back to sleep. It was the last time he spoke to the nurse.

Kimera woke up at 6:00am, prayed and proceeded to Binaisa's room. Something was wrong, he sensed.

"He lay in the same posture where I left him at 3:00am. I touched him. His right side was cold. There was no life. I called his daughter Nakalema and Dr. Mayanja.

Before he breathed his last, Naguddi disclosed, Binaisa's condition was not good. It was why they had taken him to Dr. Mayanja's Victoria Medical Centre in Kampala on Monday. He was scheduled for a second visit yesterday.

The body was transported in an ambulance to Mulago Hospital yesterday for a post-mortem examination.

"It is God's decision. There is nothing we can do about it," Nakalema, who fought back tears, said.

His niece, Hajati Sarah Bagalaaliwo, described Binaisa as "an honest, people person who worked for the nation diligently".

Amos Lugolobi, a neighbour, remembered him as a good friend with whom he discussed development issues.

"He had too much information about Uganda. I hope someone cared to archive it somewhere because it was beneficial to the current generation," Lugolobi told journalists.

The area defence secretary, Ibrahim Bageya, recollected that Binaisa once contributed sh500,000 to the tarmacking of a road in the area. He also paid two security guards' salary for six months at sh40,000 per month each.

"He told us that being a president was stressful. He said managing the army was very hard," Bageya recollected.

Binaisa idolised President Yoweri Museveni for managing the army, he said.

The Government said Binaisa died of cardiac arrest. A State funeral was being arranged, Fred Opolot, the head of the Media Centre, said in a statement yesterday.

At Parliament, deputy Speaker Rebecca Kadaga announced the death to the few MPs who attended the morning session.

"With regret, I inform you of the death of the former President of Uganda, Godfrey Lukongwa Binaisa," she said.

"We passed a law on the death of past leaders. I trust the Government will get in touch with the family. For now, we observe a minute of silence in his honour," Kadaga said as MPs rose to their feet and bowed their heads.

Outside the chambers, Prime Minister Prof. Apolo Nsibambi hailed Binaisa for leading the country at "the most difficult of times when the army was indisciplined".

He said he did not wage war against the Government when he was deposed after he tried to shuffle the army.

"He was humble, sociable and gregarious," Nsibambi remarked.

"When he left the highest office, he went to the UK and practised law. He was a Queens Counsel, the highest rank of law under the Commonwealth.

"He showed that when you occupy the highest office, when you leave, you can do something else."

Several years after the death of his first wife, Binaisa in 2004 married a Japanese woman, Yamamoto. But the fairy-tale marriage collapsed in 2005. Binaisa is survived by six children, four of whom are based outside the country.

Late in the afternoon yesterday, Binaisa's home was quiet except for the many senior Police officers who had camped there.

Among them were the Mobile Patrol Unit chief, Christopher Abache, the Kampala South boss, Moses Kafeero as well as the acting commissioner of traffic and road safety, Basil Mugisha.

At a glance

• Born in 1920 to Canon Ananiya and Naome Binaisa
• Studied at Makerere College School and Kings College Budo
• Qualified as a lawyer in UK in 1955
• Became a member of the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1956
• Joined UNC, UCP and later UPC between 1955-1962
• Named Uganda's first Attorney General in 1962
• Helped create the 1967 Constitution
• Left government work and started a law firm in 1969
• Went into exile in 1972, after Obote was overthrown by Amin
• Worked as lawyer in London and US between 1972 and 1979
• Returned to Uganda after Amin was overthrown in 1979
• President of Uganda in June 1979
• Lost the presidency in May 1980 after 11 months in the office
• Went back in exile in the US until 2001 when he returned
• Married Japanese woman, Yamamoto in 2004 and separated with her in 2005

The scientists, from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Durban, and Columbia University, New York, say that an experiment with a trial group of South African women shows that those who used a vaginal gel containing tenofovir, an antiretroviral drug, were 39 percent less likely to become infected with HIV during sex than those who did not use it.

They say the gel was also 51 percent effective in preventing genital herpes infections in the women participating in the trial. The scientists noted that women with genital herpes run a high risk of HIV infection.

Making their announcement jointly in Durban and at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna, they said it was "an important scientific breakthrough in the fight against HIV and genital herpes."

If the research results are confirmed in further studies, the gel could revolutionize the lives of women whose partners fail to practise safe sex.

“Tenofovir gel could fill an important HIV prevention gap by empowering women who are unable to successfully negotiate mutual faithfulness or condom use with their male partners,” said Dr. Quarraisha Abdool Karim, Associate Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University.

The trial with the gel was carried out by the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), a joint UKZN-Columbia University research institute based at the UKZN's medical school.

The 889 women from KwaZulu-Natal who took part were told to use the gel up to 12 hours before, and soon after, having sex. They used it over a period of between 12 and 30 months.

Of the 889, 98 became HIV positive over the course of the experiment. Of those who used the gel, 38 became HIV positive, while of those who used a placebo, 60 became HIV positive.

"Women who used the gel in more than 80 percent of their sex acts had a 54 percent reduction in HIV infections," the researchers said, "whereas those who used the gel in less than half of their sex acts had a 28 percent reduction in HIV infections."

Of 434 women who tested negative for herpes, 29 who used the gel became infected, as against 58 who used a placebo.

"The reduced rates of HIV and herpes infections among the women who used the tenofovir gel are statistically significant," the researchers added.

Dr. Salim S. Abdool Karim, director of CAPRISA and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, said the trial results were "a significant first step toward establishing the effectiveness of antiretroviral drugs for HIV and genital herpes prevention; confirmatory studies are now urgently needed.”

The scientists said all participants in the trials were given HIV risk-reduction counselling, condoms and treatment for sexually transmitted infections. They added: "The trial team observed no substantive safety concerns from use of the gel. Further, no increase in risky behavior was observed in the women...

"All volunteers to the study who tested HIV positive were provided care including ARV treatment at the CAPRISA clinics and women who became infected during the study were enrolled into CAPRISA studies and/or the CAPRISA AIDS treatment program at their respective sites for ongoing care and support."

The twin attacks in the Ugandan capital dampened Africa's post World Cup euphoria, drew a barrage of global condemnation and marked an unprecedented internationalisation of Somalia's two-decade-old civil war.

"We are behind the attack because we are at war with them," Ali Mohamoud Rage, the Shebab group's top spokesman told reporters inMogadishu.

The movement's top leader had warned in an audio message earlier this month that Uganda would face retaliation for contributing to anAfrican Union force supporting the western-backed Somali transitional government.

Explosions ripped through a sports bar and an Ethiopian restaurant in Kampala where people had gathered to watch the football World Cupfinal between Spain and the Netherlands.

"The latest official count is 74 confirmed dead," Fred Opolot, a Ugandan government spokesman, told AFP.

Police Chief Kale Kayihura said one Irish woman was among the dead and added that two bodies had not been claimed by anybody and were "of interest" to the security services.

He explained that three blasts went off and that while one was a planted explosive device, the other two might have been the result of suicide explosions.

The blasts were the deadliest attacks in the region since 1998 bombings against the US embassies in Kenyaand Tanzania.

A US embassy spokeswoman confirmed one American was among the dead and an AFP correspondent saw at least three wounded US citizens at the city's main Mulago hospital.

Suspicion immediately fell on the Shebab, whose overall leader Mohamed Abdi Godane had warned in an audio message earlier this month that Uganda and Burundi would be targeted.

The two countries provide troops to the African Union mission in Somalia (AMISOM) which is fighting daily battles against the Shebab in Mogadishu in a desperate effort to prop up the government.

The Shebab accuse AMISOM of killing civilians during its operations around the tiny perimeter housing President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed's embattled administration.

"We will continue the attacks if they continue to kill our people," Rage said. "This was a defensive measure against the Ugandans who came to our country and killed our people. This was retaliation for their actions."

The Ugandans were the first to deploy to Somalia in early 2007 and form the backbone of AMISOM, which is the last rampart preventing the Shebab from claiming complete control of Mogadishu.

Ugandan officials insisted Monday that the July 19-27 African Union summit would go ahead as planned and that troops would not be withdrawn from Mogadishu.

The Kampala bombings were the deadliest in Shebab's history and the first attacks they have perpetrated outside Somalia.

In Kampala, medics and officials were still trying to establish the nationalities of those killed in the bombings while friends and relatives separated by the blasts were looking for their loved ones in hospitals.

"We just wanted to watch the World Cup. Unfortunately we went to the Ethiopian Village," said Chris Sledge, an 18-year-old US national who suffered serious injuries to his legs and a bruised eye.

"I feel OK. I'm going to need surgery," he said.

A statement issued by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's office "strongly condemns the vicious bombings... that claimed the lives of dozens of people and left hundreds wounded among Ugandans and other nationalities at establishments where they were watching the World Cup final."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was "deeply shocked" by news of the blasts, adding they were "cowardly attacks during an event that was widely seen as a celebration of African unity."

US President Barack Obama "is deeply saddened by the loss of life resulting from these deplorable and cowardly attacks," US National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said.

Obama called Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and offered his country's assistance while Interpol also announced it would send a team to Kampala.

Museveni condemned the attack and vowed to pursue the culprits.

"We should go for them because they are very irresponsible, backward and cowardly," he added at the scene.

Kayihura told reporters that arrests had been made but did not provide details.

The Kiboko Squad, he said, has its genesis in the Mabira demonstration of 2007 when billions of shillings in property was looted or destroyed.

He justified his and his friends' actions by invoking the right to self-defence. But the end does not justify the means. What Semakula describes is vigilantism which is illegal in our country, maybe an indictment on our security forces, but raises questions about the practice of democracy.

Vigilantism, which is taking the law into one's hands in total disregard of the state organs with keeping the peace, is illegal and internal affairs minister Kirunda Kivenjinja's suggestion that these men be brought to book, should be supported.

But what does this kind of group say about democracy? Groups like the Kiboko Squad and their extra-judicial operations can set back democracy irrevocably if not treated with the seriousness they deserve.

Groups like the Kiboko Squad dissuade the middle class from expressing dissent in an orderly manner, leaving the business of dissent to lumpens and disorderly types who have no stake in the economy, and are easily manipulated with a few coins of silver and are wont to loot and cause unnecessary havoc.

Democracy is here whether we like it or not. However, now at its budding stage, we can decide for posterity how this democracy will unfold and what the end product will be.

A vigilante group in Kenya, the Mungiki, has their roots in a similar beginning, but have now graduated to protection rackets, political assassinations and other forms of organised crime.

Let us nip the Kiboko Squad in the bud, otherwise the consequences may be too dire to handle.