By Andrew M. Mwenda In his book, Weapons of the Weak, James Scott argues that studies of peasant resistance focus a lot on large scale revolts. ‘For the historical and archival records were richest at precisely those moments when the peasantry pose a threat to the state,’ Scott writes, ‘the …

By Patrick Kagenda Namboole Stadium outside Kampala was on March 13 the venue of an election that has become the talk of the country. ‘I have felt, smelt, experienced true democracy,’ screamed Dickson Opul to an excited crowd of about 1,000 people who gathered in the stadium last week for …

By Andrew M. Mwenda I was on a train at New York’s Grand Central Station on March 5 when a friend from my days at Stanford University entered. I was overjoyed yet embarrassed; one part of me wanted to hug her, the other to hide. She is a successful lawyer …

By Joseph Were The day the mountain Moved One survivor said it sounded like a bomb explosion. Another said the mud moved so fast that victims had no chance to escape. One man was in a church praying when he saw the mountain of rocks, debris, and mud pummeling downhill. …

By Andrew M. Mwenda In The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama says he has always been troubled by the gap between the magnitude of America’s challenges and the smallness of its politics. This makes even more sense in Africa. Nothing demonstrates it better than presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire and those …

By Andrew M. Mwenda As Uganda heads towards the 2011 elections, we are seeing the creation of more districts. I had exaggerated in a 2003 article that in ten years, Uganda will have 100 districts. The NRM has beaten me again turning what I used as hyperbole into reality; in …

By Bob Roberts Katende How Mao’s winning DP ticket has top politicians worried Norbert Mao, the new leader of one of the factions of the Democratic Party, is a stocky man with steady stare. When walking, his deliberate pace gives the impression of one who knows where he is going. …

By Andrew M. Mwenda Since her return to Rwanda as a presidential candidate, Victoire Umuhoza Ingabire has animated media interest. The main issue in her campaign is her claim that ‘those who killed the Hutu in the 1994 genocide have not been tried.’ This is another way of saying the …

By Matsiko wa Mucoori, Rukiya Makuma  & Mubatsi Asinja Habati  80% of perceived corrupt officials are NRM When the NRA rebels took power on January 26, 1986, President Museveni launched a working document called The Ten-Point Programme. The document contained 10 priority areas that the new leadership committed itself to …

By Andrew M. Mwenda Finally, I have settled down at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut where I will be a post-graduate fellow for the next couple of months. The place is below freezing but it offers the best environment for someone to indulge in intellectual speculation. With few public …