Column

    THE LAST WORD: Why the president’s countrywide tours may win him peasant votes but not make them rich THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | President Yoweri Museveni concluded his countrywide tour, an early campaign effort creatively dabbed “wealth creation,” with a letter to “bazukulu”. The letter is …

How an unknown young man’s death turned him into a political football for opportunistic politicians THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | Last week, it became apparent that the initial news that a one Michael [K]alinda aka Zigy Wyne had been kidnapped, eye yanked out, fingers chopped off and …

UGANDA HISTORY | Prof. P.G. Okoth & Dr. Yokana Ogolla | The Jopadhola were part of migrant groups of Luo people who moved from Bar-El-Ghazel in South Sudan and eventually pressed their way southwards through Teso and Kaberamaido till they reached Budama in present Tororo district around 1500. Adhola moved …

HISTORY COLUMN |  Salmom Wandera Owino | The Jopadhola also known as Badama (the name given by the Baganda invaders) belong to a sub group of Nilotes called the Luo people. The Jopadhola originate from a Luo prince called Adhola whose original name was Onongor. The family of Adhola led …

THE LAST WORD: Why we should be wary of the influence of new communication technologies in the hands of extremists THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | In 1948 George Orwell published his novel, 1984. It is a classic statement of the danger to individual liberty posed by increasing …

Why governance standards set in the West and imposed on poor countries are dangerous THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | Last week, a friend posted on a social media platform an article by a US scholar about life in a democracy and an autocracy as imagined by Americans! …

The challenges of being independent in Uganda’s increasingly polarised and toxic debates THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | In March of this year, President Yoweri Museveni invited me to speak to National Resistance Movement (NRM) Members of Parliament (MPs) then on a retreat in Kyankwanzi. The day before …

  How the Cranes blundered in Cairo when they went on strike over pay and refused to train THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | Last week, the Uganda Cranes players went on strike in Cairo Egypt, where they were competing in the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). They …

How our government’s attempts to do too many things for all citizens spreads our meager resources too thin THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA |  Poor countries suffer a fundamental contradiction in both design and aspiration. The state is designed and thus seeks to perform functions exactly like states …

Why Africans need to look beyond the oversimplification of our development challenges THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | Last week, a member on a WhatsApp chat-group I belong to posted a video of a Singaporean professor explaining why that country transformed from a third world to a first …