NEWS ANALYSIS

ANALYSIS: Troubled South African leader Zuma heads towards exit Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s jovial leader Jacob Zuma is a former herdboy who fought in the anti-apartheid struggle and has held onto the presidency despite a plethora of scandals. Now aged 75, he has survived by building …

Low private sector lending, decline in interest rates to take toll on the bank’s profitability for the year ending Dec 2017 Kampala, Uganda | ISAAC KHISA | Uganda’s commercial banks seem to be laying down new strategies as the industry anticipates to record subdued earnings in 2016 owed to low private …

Monrovia, Liberia | AFP | Liberians were awaiting Wednesday the result of a presidential election they say represents far more than the choice of a successor to Africa’s first elected female head of state, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Sirleaf’s predecessor Charles Taylor fled the country in 2003 with hopes of avoiding …

Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | Kilak North MP, Anthony Akol, is baffled by rulings the Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga has been making recently. Akol who was one of the six MPs suspended by Kadaga told The Independent on Dec. 19 that, in his view, there is a problem in …

Moscow, Russia | AFP | Thousands of Russians on Sunday endorsed the candidacy of Alexei Navalny, seen as the only Russian opposition leader who stands a fighting chance of challenging strongman Vladimir Putin in a March vote. Thousands of people who back the charismatic 41-year-old lawyer were meeting in 20 …

How the struggle to liberate Rwanda has shaped the character of post genocide reconstruction THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | This year, the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) celebrated its 30th birthday in a magnificent conference hall at its headquarters in Gasabo, 15km outside of Kigali. The party headquarter complex …

Madrid, Spain | AFP | Barcelona further tightened their vice-like grip on the La Liga title by sweeping aside eternal rivals Real Madrid 3-0 on Saturday to leave the European champions 14 points adrift down in fourth place. Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and Aleix Vidal were on target for the …

Juba, South Sudan | AFP | A ceasefire between South Sudan’s warring parties went into effect just after midnight Sunday, in what is the latest bid to end a devastating four year war. Government and several armed groups signed a ceasefire deal Thursday during peace negotiations in Addis Ababa, to begin …

Monrovia, Liberia | AFP | George Weah emerged from Liberia’s slums to become a superstar footballer in the 1990s, and has leveraged his status as a revered figure among the country’s young and poor in his second run for the presidency. Weah will face Vice President Joseph Boakai on December …

Activist points out key issues that require urgent action Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Human Rights Day is observed every year on December 10, the day the United Nations General Assembly adopted, in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – a milestone document that proclaimed the inalienable rights which …