Why UPDF, the AU and Western powers should let Al Shabab take over power in Somalia THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Last week, Al Shabab militants made a devastating attack on a UPDF base in Somalia. They claimed to have killed 138 of our soldiers and taken many more hostage. …

How good institutions become dysfunctional in heterogenous countries with deep interethnic divisions THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | So, we begin from where we stopped last week with lessons from my former lecturer at the University of London, Mushtaq Khan. Studying South Korea and Pakistan, he found that what makes …

How good institutions become dysfunctional in heterogenous countries with deep interethnic divisions THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Last week, a friend sent me a long dissertation about Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty, a book by James Robinson and Daron Acemoglu. Why Nations Fail is …

Lessons for the rest of Uganda’s economy from the local content rules enforced in our oil sector THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | For over thirty years now, Uganda government generally and President Yoweri Museveni specifically, have promoted an open-door policy on Foreign Direct Investment. Foreign firms are given freedom to …

Why homophobic Ugandans are not evil people to hate but ignorant people to pity THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Sometime in 2014, I went with my son, Michael, then a lad of 19 years, to Serena Hotel in Kampala for lunch. I was in Constitutional Court challenging the Anti-Homosexuality Act …

Inside the politics that have led our capital city to move from potholes to giant craters on its streets THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | The road infrastructure in Kampala is in shambles. We can no longer even talk of our city roads being dominated by potholes. In fact, today we …

The quintessential public servant and free market intellectual Uganda will miss THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Tragedies rarely come in a trickle but in a flood. And so it was that on Wednesday last week, I heard of the death of my former lecturer and friend, John Ntambirweki. Then on …

A dynamic intellectual of unsurpassed brilliance, great teacher, loving husband and doting dad dies THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | I was going through my Instagram on Thursday morning when I read that Prof. John Ntambirweki is dead. If someone asked me to describe him, I would say that John …

How political calculations have shaped the destinies of Kampala and Kigali THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | On Sunday April 2nd, I went running in Kigali from Serena Hotel to the airport at Kanombe and back a total of 20km. It was a comfortable and relaxing run. The streets were …

Lessons for Uganda’s policy-makers from the experience of her oil industry THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | I spent this week in Hoima (Kingfisher) and Bulisa-Bugungu visiting construction works on oil rigs and central processing facilities in the Albertine Graben. I was greatly impressed by the work that Petroleum Authority Uganda …