In The Magazine

By Prof Mahmood Mamdani This is an edited version of Prof. Mahmood Mamdani’s presentation at the Abu Mayanja Annual Lecture on August 7, 2009 at Kampala International Conference Centre. I am greatly honored to have been asked to give this lecture. I met the late Abu Mayanja in 1961. I …

By Mubatsi Asinja Habati In 2000, a proposal to privatise some services at Entebbe International Airport was hatched. This came after a study, Big Push Strategy, by the UN Conference on Trade and Development recommended that Entebbe be transformed into a modern cargo handling centre in Africa. The study was …

By Andrew M. Mwenda  In this column last week, I argued that after every successive election in Uganda, the quality of government has tended to deteriorate. Many Ugandans think this is because our nation has a sham democracy. ‘Were we to have genuine democracy,’ my friend Erias Lukwago, MP for …

By Andrew M. Mwenda & Molly Lister Did minister Onek touch a live wire? Sometime early this year, then minister of state for micro finance, Gen. Salim Saleh, went to meet the Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Keith Muhakazi. He had a couple of documents with him …

By Andrew M. Mwenda It is difficult to conduct a debate on anything in Africa whose premise is the reality on the ground. Most debate ‘ whether on public policies or political institutions, on democracy or accountability ‘ uses as its reference point, the experience of the Western world. Take …

By Onghwens Kisangala About three weeks ago, President Museveni on a local TV talk show strongly defended the quality of government services as he whipped out the growth of health sector from a few hundred hospitals in the 1980s to thousands of them today. However in an interview with The …

By Isaac Mufumba On Sunday June 7, Prince Edward Columbus Wambuzi, backed up by three of Busoga Kingdom’s 11 hereditary chiefs, a host of musclemen called Kanyamas and some followers from his native Bulamogi County, installed himself as Isebantu Kyabazinga of Busoga when he took the crown from the head …

By Melina Platas In my constituency,” says Gilbert Bukenya, “no one listens to Mengo.” It is late Thursday morning and the Vice President has just strolled in to his third floor Parliament office. Wearing a pale yellow shirt and slacks, he looks relaxed as he eases in to his chair, …

By Joseph Were Since President Museveni announced on July 12 while appearing on WBS television that he would never grant Buganda Kingdom the federal system of government, the sense of the Rubicon being crossed has become pervasive. A headline story in the government-run Sunday Vision newspaper the same day did …

By Joseph Were Museveni has not spoken publicly on it, but a common anecdote tells how in February 1993, President Museveni held an Army Council meeting in Gulu and high on the agenda was the proposal to restore kingdoms in Uganda. These   had been abolished by president Milton Apollo …