By Mubatsi Asinja Habati As senior judges retire and others pursue greener pastures the courts are left hopelessly empty As Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki prepares to retire next year and his deputy, Alice Mpagi Bahigeine, later this year, the delivery of justice in Uganda is hampered by staffing gaps in …
Read More »Any hope for a recovery budget?
By Eriasa Mukiibi Sserunjogi With Uganda’s economic growth slowed down to zero, Maria Kiwanuka needs some magic to save the day A mixture of high expectations and anxiety will greet Finance Minister Maria Kiwanuka when she steps up on June 14 to read next year’s budget. There is likely to …
Read More »East African affairs enter national political arena
By Omar Mohammed In March 2006, Juma V. Mwapachu was in Paris; a few months away from completing his four-year stint as Tanzania’s Ambassador to France, when he received a call from State House telling him that President Jakaya Kikwete needed to see him. Mwapachu quickly bought a ticket and …
Read More »UPC, DP lick wounds
By Eriasa Mukiibi Sserunjogi Presidents of the two parties may pay the ultimate price for the EALA fiasco The full extent of the damage exacted by the controversial election of Uganda representatives to the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) will take some time to unfold. But the elections reopened old …
Read More »Africans endangered
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 …
Read More »EALA: How Zziwa beat Byamukama
By Agather Atuhaire NRM favourite for speaker loses to a “rebel” as parties assess damage, victories and future The National Resistance Movement (NRM) party was supposed to be the ultimate victor in the election of Uganda’s delegates to the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA). Of the nine seats, it took …
Read More »Uganda’s possible Tahrir Square
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 …
Read More »Makerere losing staff over low pay
By Mubatsi Asinja Habati Varsity left short of 1,200 lecturers Makerere University is daunted by vacant academic staff posts leaving its few lecturers overloaded and fatigued, a 2011 value for money audit report by Auditor General reveals. The university is supposed to have 2,491 academic staff in its eight colleges …
Read More »Africa’s political risk profile
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 …
Read More »Opposition shoots self in foot, again
By Agather Atuhaire Mutual suspicion undoes the fragile unity of the Parliamentary opposition and hands victory to the NRM A conflict between opposition parties Forum for Democratic Change and Democratic Party has destroyed any hope of opposition unity and jeopardized equitable party representation in the East African Legislative Assembly. On …
Read More »