By Stephen Kafeero Mohandas Ghandi once said: “I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.” The message embedded in these words is at variance with the thinking of many Ugandans today who take it upon themselves …
Read More »Obama speaks out
By The Independent Team Is this the first time that you’ve ever ordered someone killed? Three days after the killing of former Al Qauda leader Osama bin Laden, US President Barack Obama spoke to CBS TV “60 Minutes” correspondent Steve Kroft. Was this the most satisfying week of your Presidency? …
Read More »Power slipping away from Museveni in NRM
By Eriasa Mukiibi Sserunjogi Parliament rebels, Muhoozi not in control of army, no bail law for opponents Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi usually prefers to be the perfect picture of calm even at his most harassed moments. So a few eyebrows went up when the dapper NRM-strongman, on the afternoon of …
Read More »Who will defend the rural poor?
By Andrew M. Mwenda The benefits of high food prices go to the rural poor (the majority) while the costs are incurred by urbanites, a minority. As I write this article, food prices in Uganda are falling rapidly. For instance, the farm-gate price of a kilogram of maize in Kiryandongo …
Read More »From lanky patriot of 1975 to “Heavy” baron today
By A Correspondent Glued to their seats in a classroom that was the biggest in this rural primary school of Bubangizi, were parents fearful of what was going to befall their school since the lanky undergraduate of political science at Makerere University had decided to say what everybody had on …
Read More »Origin of HIV: myth and reality
By Dr Sam. A. Okunonzi The first 14 AIDS patients were from Manhattan and Greenwich Village in New York. On June 5th 1981, the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) reported a cluster of cases of pneumocysitis pneumonia, a very rare condition, in 5 gay men in Los Angeles. This was …
Read More »Can govt meet teachers’ pay demands?
By Stephen Kafeero Both primary and secondary school teachers threatened a countryside strike demanding 100% salary rise. The government responded defiantly saying there was no money in the budget to cater for the wage increment. The Uganda National Teachers Union (UNATU) said the teachers’ poor pay has been compounded by …
Read More »When rural Rutooma got electricity
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 …
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