Why government of Uganda, the AU and Western powers need to rethink their involvement in Somalia THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | On May 26, 2023, Al Shabab attacked a UPDF base in Somalia with devastating effects. UPDF said 54 soldiers were killed while Al Shaba claimed to have killed 137. …
Read More »What if I carry my pet to the bank?
COMMENT | Dr. Olivia Aketch | While running one of my day to day veterinary clinic routines recently, I received an urgent transaction. In a bid to meet my patient’s point of care therapeutic levels, I jumped on to a boda since the rains had hit so hard through the …
Read More »A cautionary tale of experimenting with genetically modified mosquitoes in Uganda
COMMENT | Barbara Ntambirweki | Last week the Ugandan media was awash with reports that a British firm, Oxitec, in partnership with Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) is set to develop a technique for inserting a lethal gene into mosquitoes to combat malaria. While Uganda has one of the highest …
Read More »What kind of authoritarian would Trump be?
COMMENT | JEREMY ADELMAN | Following Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election in 2016, many pundits predicted a worldwide breakdown of democracy, and some warned of civil war. But, aside from Africa’s Sahel region, military coups remain rare, and civil wars rarer still. Instead, democracies have tended to break …
Read More »When election losers pretend to be winners
COMMENT | Jan-Werner Mueller | More than two months after the decisive victory of pro-democracy parties in Poland’s general election, opposition leader Donald Tusk has finally been sworn in as prime minister. Initially, Mateusz Morawiecki, his predecessor from the right-wing populist Law and Justice (PiS) party, had been reappointed by President Andrzej Duda, beholden to PiS, under the …
Read More »Uganda’s anti-gay crusade
COMMENT | PEPE JULIAN ONZIEMA | In the 1990s, as a 15-year-old high-school student in Uganda, I was a member of a “writers’ club” that would summarize for our fellow students key articles from the lone copy of the local newspaper our school received each day. One day, I was …
Read More »The rule of law under fire across the world
COMMENT | ANA PALACIO | It has been an eventful year, to put it mildly. In fact, the world has endured so much war, disruption, tension, and uncertainty that we are left to wonder whether the rules-based global order, which has guided international relations since World War II, will survive …
Read More »World Malaria Report 2023: A call for concerted action to address growing threats
COMMENT | DR MARTIN LUKINDU | The World Health Organization’s World Malaria Report 2023, released this month, paints a concerning picture of the global state of malaria in 2022. Despite continued efforts, malaria remains a significant public health challenge, with both malaria incidence and mortality higher now than they were …
Read More »Do not miss your next flight please!
COMMENT | Samson Tinka | On 13th December, a passenger who had booked a ticked on Uganda airlines to Dubai missed a flight because he came late. This would be ok because we miss flights for one reason or another. However, he and colleagues filmed a short video and later shared …
Read More »Powering Uganda to 52,000MW: Challenges and prospects
Despite many achievements, Uganda still faces daunting challenges, particularly with an installed generation capacity per capita of 40 MW per million people—one of the lowest in Sub-Saharan Africa. COMMENT | By DR HARRISON MUTIKANGA | The strides made in Uganda’s electricity subsector over the last two decades are commendable; witnessing a …
Read More »