In The Magazine

By Andrew M. Mwenda Two years ago, the German construction company Strabag won a tender to build a 70km tarmac road from Kigali to Bugesera in Rwanda. The company delivered a high-quality tarmac road with proper drainage and pavements for pedestrians ‘ a testament to the efficiency and effectiveness of …

By Mahmood Mamdani In the second of this four-part series, renowned Ugandan scholar Professor Mahmood Mamdani examines the historical causes of Zimbabwe’s crisis After the Lancaster House Agreement had expired, the government tried to occupy the middle ground by shifting from the ‘willing buyer, willing seller’ formula with a new …

By Rosebell Kagumire Uganda could attain an electronic system to handle voter registration and voting ahead of 2011 presidential and parliamentary elections but only if government and the Electoral Commission (EC) will give it a chance. The proposal to supply about 20,000 both battery and solar-powered biometric voting machines by …

By Onghwens Kisangala Dr John Jean Barya, associate professor in the department of public and comparative law at Makarere University, comments on the political events in Uganda in an interview with The Independents Onghwens Kisangala. This is the second in a two-part series. FDC experienced some internal upheavals in the …

By The Independent Team ‘If Museveni reconstitutes the Protestant base through UPC,’ one analyst said, ‘he can easily become formidable again. He knows that the Catholics do not have a political party or a leader ‘” so they cannot be politically threatening. Sometime in October 1994, President Museveni held a …

By Andrew M. Mwenda State House insiders describe how President is strategising to deal with First Lady’s growing political appeal President Yoweri Museveni’s cabinet reshuffle announced on February 17 has been the most revealing of his politics. Mr Museveni appointed his wife, Mrs Janet Museveni, state minister for Karamoja. By …

By G. Pascal Zachary Democracy has taken root in Africa,’ says Princeton Lyman, an analyst with the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington DC. And from the perspective of history, it does seem that the people of sub-Saharan Africa have entered a robust period of democracy. The trend toward multi-party …

I pick up where I left off last week: the tragic collapse in the quality of government in Uganda has gone hand-in-hand with corruption on a scale never previously witnessed. Roads are full of potholes, schools are burning, hospitals are death traps and public parks are overgrown bushes. Public institutions …

By Mahmood Mamdani In this four-part series, renowned Ugandan scholar Professor Mahmood Mamdani examines the historical causes of Zimbabwe’s political crisis. It is hard to think of a figure more reviled in the west than Robert Mugabe. Liberal and conservative commentators alike portray him as a brutal dictator, and blame …

By Rosebell Kagumire Questions about the clandestine operations of Ugandan security agencies have once again been raised after a Canadian court denied asylum to a former worker of the Internal Security Organisation (ISO). Fahad Huthy Mutumba, 35, a Montreal resident, claims to have worked as an office clerk with ISO …