ARTICLES 2008-2015

By Independent Team A few days ago someone asked me why has Rwanda been so successful and what has made it so. He was partly reacting to an article I wrote elsewhere, outlining the reasons to which I attribute the strong emotions debates about Rwanda tend to provoke. A few …

By Andrew Mwenda The common message against President Paul Kagame of Rwanda is that he is a ‘media predator.’ The Ugandan ‘democracy’ crowd claim I cannot host a show like Andrew Mwenda Live in Rwanda. Yet the threat to the show would not be Kagame perceived intolerance. The show would …

By the independent team With just four months to the February 2011 elections, queries are being raised on multiple registrations in the national voters’ register. The Independent last week published a story in which a casual survey of the e-register showed staggering double registration in three constituencies. But the Electoral …

By Andrew M. Mwenda An important feature of the recently concluded NRM election primaries was the violence and fraud that characterised the process across almost the entire country. This produced a large number of aggrieved NRM politicians who have declared they want to run as independents. This is intriguing because …

    By Peter Guest His response to the global economic downturn has transformed the African Development Bank Quiet streets greeted the African Development Bank’s return to Abidjan, its former headquarters, this May for its 45th annual meetings. The bank left in 2003, precipitated by the deteriorating security situation in …

By Eriasa Mukiibi Sserunjogi & Dicta Asiimwe Why party losers are defying Museveni On Sept. 20 President Yoweri Museveni met about 3,000 supporters of his party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM), from Mawokota North constituency in Mpigi district. The meeting was organised by the newly elected queen of the area, …

By The Independent Team With big strides made against both malaria and pneumococcal disease, Rwanda is on track to meet UN Millennium Development Goal number four, the reduction of child mortality, officials say. “Rwanda is one of the few countries in Africa that stands a chance of reaching the MDG …

By Isaac Mufumba Muhlbauer  EC voter registration system cannot catch double registration Former Soroti Municipality MP Mike Mukula, who is fighting to claw back the seat in the 2011 parliamentary elections, is getting support from an unlikely quarter  the Electoral Commission. It has given his wife two voter numbers, meaning …

By Mubatsi Asinja Habati Sam Mugumya, a Forum for Democratic Change youth activist and Dr Kizza Besigye’s personal assistant, has borne the brunt of police wrath during political demonstrations. Whenever Mugumya has participated in a demonstration pursuant to his constitutional right, the police have either clobbered him or threatened to …

By John Howse The Constitutional Court is under pressure. The Independent has found that currently 123 petitions stand unresolved before the court with only 41% of cases being resolved since the court’s inception in 1996. This year, an unprecedented 40 petitions have been filed in the court. The last highest …