COLUMNISTS

By Andrew M. Mwenda How BIDCO’s investment is changing the lives of people in the district and the potential it has to transform agriculture Uganda today consumes 250,000 tonnes of vegetable oil per year, up from 100,000 tonnes in 2005. Of this, 16,000 tonnes was produced locally from oil palm …

By Elamu Denis Ejulu We are seeing and hearing more tales involving deportation of Africans on planes amid screams and resistance News from the Middle East concerning the predicament of over 700 black Africans, most of them of South Sudanese and Eritrean origin, facing the prospect of deportation from Israel …

By Andrew M. Mwenda Given Museveni’s long rule and potential for family succession, is Uganda now vulnerable to an `Arab Spring’ I argued in this column last week that Africa has almost similar structural conditions as the Middle East on the eve of the Arab Spring – sustained economic growth …

By Andrew M. Mwenda How realistic is the risk of political upheaval in Africa and what can be done about it? Two weeks ago, I was in Nairobi, Kenya to attend a conference on Africa’s political risk profile. The moderator of the first session posed four questions for discussion: Is …

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram Public investment and basic social protection can turn around economies by creating millions of jobs Recent political developments, including the defeat of incumbent governments in France and Greece, suggest that the public’s tolerance for economic policies that do not reduce unemployment has collapsed. Indeed, given the …

By Dr. Robert Rutaagi Uganda’s competitiveness in the domestic, regional and global markets Niche’ and its adjunctive derivative ‘marketing’ is a terminology that is greatly abused. The word niche is of French origin, meaning “a small hole, in a large wall, usually used to hang a photograph or art craft”. …

By Andrew M. Mwenda How one of Africa’s distinguished scholars has been misled to become hostile to a government that should be his natural ally Prof. George Ayittey is one of the most thoughtful and influential intellectuals on contemporary Africa. He has been consistent in his condemnation of Rwanda’s President …

By Dr. Robert Rutaagi The end of local marketing and the eternity of global marketing Sometime last year, the Uganda Manufacturers Association (UMA) and other stakeholders, organised a splendid Industrial and Trade Exhibition whose theme was “Buy Local”. As I listened to and read through the local electronic and print …

By Andrew M. Mwenda A combination of sound technocratic management with a good dose of political skill will do the job I argued in this column last week that any attempt by Kampala City Council Authority (KCCA) to carry out transformative reforms in our city will create high political tensions.  …

By Naomi Wolf Excessive surveillance infringes on the privacy rights of individuals contrary to constitutional provisions Almost no one had read the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) before it was rushed through the United States House of Representatives in late April and sent to the Senate. CISPA is …