By Agather Atuhaire One villager’s life changed but others still wait in vain Tuwangye Yorokam excitedly tells anyone willing to listen how electricity has made everything exciting in his village of Rutooma in Bwizibwera, Mbarara district in western Uganda. Tuwangye, 42, lives in a village about eight kilometers away from …
Read More »We don’t have torture as a service
By Mubatsi Asinja Habati After the US-based Human Rights Watch published a report on torture, deplorable health conditions and forced labour in Uganda’s prisons, The Independent’s Mubatsi Asinja Habati spoke about it with Uganda Prisons Service Commissioner General, Dr Johnson Byabashaija. A report by an international organization, Human Rights Watch …
Read More »Fire-fighting in energy ministry
By Eriasa Mukiibi Sserunjogi Should government borrow Shs 350bn to pay off unclear debts? Irene Nafuna Muloni, the new Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources was only 26 years old when President Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986. Museveni has now handed Muloni a task he has failed to …
Read More »American group predicts instability over Museveni
By Agatha Atuhaire President is now 67 and cannot govern forever Election year 2016 will be a turning point for Uganda, according to a report by the powerful American policy solutions provider, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). As a sign of likely instability, the June 30 report …
Read More »Belief without reason and evidence is bull
By Musaazi Namiti When you look at how death strikes, you realise God doesn’t know when we will die, so he can’t reserve another life for us in heaven when we die. The recent assertion by the eminent British scientist Stephen Hawking that there is no life after death will certainly …
Read More »Ministries point at each other as teachers’ strike deadline draws near
By Stephen Kafeero Nyaburu Merab, a teacher at Bat Valley Primary School, is at crossroads with life. She is torn between staying on her job of miserable pay or leaving it and be jobless. She is now a Grade V teacher, having upgraded from Grade III. But she still earns …
Read More »Posta Uganda’s tricky Shs1.4bn restructuring
By Rukiya Makuma Post office body lays off 200 workers but some return amidst allegations of corruption James Muganzi was one of 196 workers who were laid off by the Uganda Post Ltd, commonly called Posta Uganda, in May. When the termination benefits were calculated, Muganzi was among the top …
Read More »Prison tales of torture, forced labour
By Mubatsi Asinja Habati Human Rights Watch (HRW) has published a stinging 80-page report listing the deplorable conditions Uganda’s inmates endure in congested in cells; sometimes sleeping hungry, in turns, moreover on bare floor covered with lice-infested blankets. The report details how they must work in the gardens all day …
Read More »The Kwoyelo trial: A pre-emptive attack on truth?
By Haggai Matsiko Experts divided over the value in trying former LRA commanders locally Hours before the ground-breaking trial of Thomas Kyoyelo started in Gulu on July 11, hundreds had gathered outside the newly established International Crimes Division of the Uganda High Court. They could not find space in the …
Read More »Rockefeller supports agriculture insurance in Africa
By Mubatsi Asinja Habati Heather Grady, the Vice President of the Rockefeller Foundation, an international humanitarian organisation, on July 4 spoke at Makerere University about climate change, food security, and the introduction of agriculture insurance. The Independent’s Mubatsi Asinja Habati interviewed her. Insurance for agriculture is new in Uganda. How …
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