Cover Story

By Isaac Mufumba Alex Kamugisha is angry. After losing in the just concluded primaries for the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party flag-bearers’ race for the 2011 general election, he believes the Rujumbura County elections were rigged. Under the NRM constitution, Kamugisha is expected to drop his candidature and support …

By Isaac Mufumba On the morning of September 13, Vice President Gilbert Bukenya walked out of Namboole a lonely and dejected man. His situation was understand able. The elections to the post of Secretary General of the NRM had just left Bukenya with an egg on his face. So emphatic …

By The Independent Team Disagreed on; Northern and Luwero war Election strategy Will UPC departure boost or weaken IPC? When Olara Otunnu returned to Uganda in December 2009 after 23 years in exile, many political analysts predicted that his entry would boost the opposition interparty cooperation, which was then a …

BY Bonny Rwiyamilira A cloud of allegations is leading Rwanda to renege on earlier commitments to peacekeeping The chorus of denunciations over a leaked United Nations High Commission for Human Rights (UNHCR) report that accuses the Rwandan Army of genocide in the 1990s against Hutus in the Democratic Republic of …

By Matthew Stein Century old law scrapped symbolising new day for press and civil freedom. On the morning of Aug 25, 2010 a dozen or so journalists clamoured into the registrar’s dingy basement office at the Court of Appeals on Parliament Avenue in the hope of witnessing history. The registrar, …

By Matthew Stein During a recent press conference organised by the Uganda Journalists Association (UJA) in the wake of the Andrew Mwenda and Eastern Africa Media Institute sedition victory, Mwenda recalled his four days of detainment with pride and fondness.  ‘Going to jail for me was a very important milestone,’ …

Situation may get worse in 2011 when opposition enters race Kampala, Uganda | BY THE INDEPENDENT TEAM | Dan Mugarura, the Chairman for Electoral Affairs of the main opposition party, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), is a very worried man. ‘If you can shoot your own child and wife, …

By Independent Team Is Tinyefuza backing  Mugira against Kayihura? When they were brought in one at a time with their well-trimmed marine-style hair, designer moustaches, and warm jackets and neat T-shirts draped over their fit bodies, they seemed out of place. They are terrorism suspects and the Chieftaincy of Military …

By Andrew M. Mwenda It is August 2 and I am attending an election campaign rally by Paul Kagame, presidential candidate for the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Many people are wearing Kagame and his party campaign souvenirs. However, one man, Jack Mutabazi, 52, a peasant and resident of rural Bugesera, …

By Muganwa Gonzaga Paul Kagame is re- elected easily on his record The Rwandan Patriotic Front’s (RPF) Chairman, Paul Kagame, and his well-placed campaign machine drew unprecedented crowds wherever they went this election season. It opened on July 20 at Amahoro stadium in Kigali and got bigger in the countryside. …