By Rukiya Makuma Uganda’s retrogression after the success stories of the 1990s is main concern HIV/AIDS experts and activists at a high profile public debate in Kampala on August 23 focused on one question: Is Uganda moving in the right direction as far as HIV prevention is concerned? The `yes’ …
Read More »Uganda’s state building in Somalia
By Andrew M. Mwenda Why UPDF’s superior ideology has succeeded where America’s superior force failed Over the last four years, I have had numerous debates with my friend Mohamed Ahmed Yahya aka Mo, a Briton of Somali descent about UPDF involvement in his motherland. My view is that state consolidation …
Read More »It’s raining oil dollars in Hoima
By Haggai Matsiko Foreign big-money investment frenzy in Tullow’s backyard It’s Sunday, but this town’s Main Street is beehive of activity. Nothing unusual; this is Hoima, Uganda’s oil boom town. Builders, masons, and painters can be seen everywhere hanging on wobbly wooden scaffoldings in a frenzy of construction activity. The …
Read More »Dr Suruma and the IGG have opened a Pandora’s Box
By Andrew M. Mwenda This morning, September 7th, 2012, newspapers reported that the PPDA has cancelled the tender to construct a 700MW electricity dam at Karuma. For a country that has been experiencing electricity shortages for the last 25 years, this is a major setback. However, the story of cancelling …
Read More »Besigye, Mafabi gang on Muntu
By Eriasa Mukiibi Sserunjogi Rivalry could cost party in 2016 Col. Kizza Besigye’s home turf, the Kasangati Ssaza Grounds outside Kampala city, was on Aug. 23 the scene of excited ululations, political speeches, and feisty dancing to the kadodi, the imbalu circumcision dance from Mbale, eastern Uganda. The scene of …
Read More »Inside the UPDF chopper crashes
By Haggai Matsiko How often do three helicopters crash at a go? Soroti Flying School, 2kms northeast of Soroti town in eastern Uganda, was on the morning of August 12, a bee-hive of frenetic activity as army pilots jumped onto waiting helicopters while their top brass waved excitedly and gave …
Read More »Response to Prof. Mamdani
By Moses Khisa The assumption that Makerere hasn’t contributed to scholarship is gratuitous Makerere Institute for Social Research (MISR) Director, Prof. Mahmood Mamdani’s article, `Beyond the colonised, neoliberal university’, (The Independent magazine online Aug.12) was remarkably incisive and illuminating. But it also had some lapses, to which I return below. …
Read More »Calling the big banks’ bluff
By Frank Schäffler and Norbert F. Tofall Eliminate the financial system’s rapidly growing debt to create a new monetary order of free-enterprise The G-20’s decision in November 2008 not to let any systemically relevant bank perish may have seemed wise at the time, given the threat of a global financial …
Read More »I come to bury Meles Zenawi
By Elamu Denis Ejulu “I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.” – Mark Anthony, Julius Caesar I would apply these words to Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s prime minister, a resilient, intelligent, and larger …
Read More »Rwanda’s Congo PR failure
By Andrew M. Mwenda By responding to allegations about its involvement in DRC, Rwanda has allowed its detractors to define the debate Over the last two months, there has been a barrage of attacks against Rwanda accusing it of involvement in the Democratic Republic of Congo by supporting rebels hostile …
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