THE LAST WORD

By Andrew M. Mwenda For sometime now, my articles comparing Uganda and Rwanda have generated the most intense debate on our website, my private emails and my phone’s SMSs. President Yoweri Museveni’s supporters accuse me of doing PR for President Paul Kagame. Many people ask why I compare the two …

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 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 Andrew M. Mwenda When you are poor, every Tom, Dick and Harry steps over your nose. This was the impression I got when I read the lecture (as opposed to a speech) by US President Barack Obama in Ghana. The uncritical enthusiasm with which some elites in Africa received …

By Andrew M. Mwenda Finally, the dust has settled over the death and burial of Michael Jackson. Throughout his career, Jackson fought two battles; one with himself, the other with general societal norms. The battle within himself was an attempt to discover the childhood denied to him by his father’s …

 By Andrew M. Mwenda In the 1997/98 budget, government allocated Shs 200 billion to education; in the 2009/10 budget, Shs 1.1 trillion. Although the budget for education has grown fivefold in twelve years, there is little (save for a spike in student enrolment and new buildings) to show for it. …

By Andrew M. Mwenda For three weeks now, Western media have covered the elections and resultant demonstration in Iran with unparalleled zeal. But the reporting has been a one sided affair without even the slightest attempt to show balance. The partisan way they have covered the opposition to the complete …

By Andrew M. Mwenda Writing about the 2009/10 budget in this column last week, I argued that Uganda has achieved allocative efficiency without realising technical efficiency. The result: Although large sums of the budget are allocated to priority sectors like health, education, infrastructure and energy, these funds are diverted by …

By Andrew M. Mwenda The 2009/10 budget in Uganda once again presents the puzzle to many analysts of our nation. In spite of a world-wide recession (advanced economies declined by 7.5% in the last quarter of 2008), Uganda’s economy grew by 7%, an impressive performance by any standard. Indeed, growth …

By Andrew M. Mwenda Three weeks before the 2003 presidential elections in Rwanda, President Paul Kagame received a report from the Auditor General; 36 mayors (heads of districts) had misappropriated public funds. He ordered their arrest. But just before the police could apprehend them, senior Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) officials …