Liberia's president in Uganda for polls

Liberia's President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is in Uganda to observe next week's general elections.

Sirleaf's special representative, Yvette Chesson-Wureh revealed on Saturday that the Liberian president was taking part in Uganda's polls as an observer under the Women's Situation Room.

The Women's Situation Room is a non-partisan monitoring structure that promotes active and direct contribution of women and youth to peaceful elections.

The body brings together different groups to promote stability during the pre-electoral, electoral and post-electoral phases by engaging youths, media, religious and eminent leaders.

The body also enlists eminent women in the host country to conduct negotiations with key parties to monitor and mitigate the violence that affects women both as voters and candidates.

The body functions on a 24 hours basis with a team of observers trained and will be deployed countrywide to collect information and report incidents.

Yvette said the body had established a hotline 0800333111 to be used by Ugandans to report incidents related to the polls.

The body's mandate is drawn from UN Security Council Resolution 1325 that reaffirms the role of women's participation and involvement in all efforts to maintain and promote peace and security.

Sirleaf was jointly awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize with Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Tawakkol Karman of Yemen.

The women were recognized "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work.

Sirleaf is the first elected female head of state in Africa. In 2014, she was listed as the 70th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.

Dr. Yvette Chesson-Wureh, special representative of the the President of Liberia and Initiator of Women's Situation Room speaks to UPDF Chief Political Commissar, Col Felix Kulaigye at the 6th annual Tarehe Sita thanks giving breakfast

Beacons of peace

Yvette hailed Uganda for its peacekeeping missions in the region and touted the country's army as a beacon of peace across the continent.

 "The rest of Africa sees Uganda as a country that is not waging war but peace," Yvette told Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) officers at a thanksgiving service at the army headquarters on Saturday.

"You are in Somalia, South Sudan and Central Africa. You are known as peacemakers," Yvette told the troops who convened for the 6th Annual Tarehe Sita Thanksgiving breakfast.