COLUMNISTS

COMMENT | Gertrude Kamya Othieno |  Following the release of the Amanya Mushega-led Education Policy Review Commission (EPRC) Report in February 2025, Uganda’s Minister of Education and Sports, Janet Museveni, hailed the recommendations as “game-changing”. The report, commissioned in 2021, proposes key reforms in education governance, language policy, vocational training, and assessment …

  How Donald Trump and Elon Musk are tearing America’s most insidious instrument of domination THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | The “reforms” to government spending by President Donald Trump and his newfound friend, Elon Musk, are the logical conclusion of the way “democracy” in America has evolved. America has, anyway, …

How politics in Kinshasa combines with international power politics to undermine regional efforts for peace in DRC THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Once again, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is on fire. This week, M23 rebels captured the strategic town of Goma and are now advancing on Bukavu. At …

Why the propaganda against Russian president, Vladmir Putin, that he is a dangerous expansionist makes no sense THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | I have just finished reading a book by Anne Jacobsen titled Nuclear War: A Scenario. It is a chilling account of the way nuclear war could breakout and …

COMMENT | JORDAN DDUNGU | In a bold and vigorous statement, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, son of President Yoweri Museveni, has called upon Ugandans to unite against the corruption plaguing the nation’s Parliament. His call for a protest next month is not just a political statement; it is a plea for justice …

The reasons, risks and costs of Uganda new shift in economic policies and diplomatic relations THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | We are a week away from celebrating NRM’s 39th year in power and the country is going through a major economic and diplomatic policy shift. The government is moving away from …

A letter from the editor of The World Ahead TOM STANDAGE | THE ECONOMIST | IT SEEMS APPROPRIATE that 2025 has been designated the year of quantum science and technology by the United Nations. Because like Schrödinger’s cat, which (in a quantum thought-experiment) was both alive and dead at the same …

  What Rwanda’s bid to host Formula One tells us about its president’s personal qualities as a leader THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | This December President Paul Kagame announced that Rwanda was bidding to host the world’s most iconic racing competition, Formula One. It is unfathomable that Rwanda would be …

How America’s pursuit of global primacy undermines democracy at home and international law abroad THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | I argued in this column last week that America’s pursuit of global primacy (hegemony) is increasingly becoming a liability to Europe’s security and economic prosperity. Germany is the biggest loser in …

The costs and consequences of American primacy on a continent that gave birth to the modern world THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | By 1900, there was no part of this planet that was not directly (or somewhat indirectly) ruled from a European capital – London, Paris, The Hague, Berlin, Rome, …