NEWS ANALYSIS

By Ronald Musoke How government got stuck between environmentalists and manufacturers On April 15 the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) started to enforce the ban on light weight carrier bags usually given to customers in shops. It was an act of unprecedented defiance as the day before, on April 14, …

By Haggai Matsiko July was bound to be a hot month in Uganda, politically speaking as most of the major opposition groups have announced they will be electing their flag-bearers for the 2016 elections. But few anticipated the events of the last week of June. In a sign of the …

By Flavia Nassaka Is it what Uganda really needs? Nelson Kajura likes his job as a primary school teacher. But at Shs250,000 per month it does not pay enough to cater for his family of six  in an urban area. The ever increasing rent and prices of commodities and services …

By Haggai Matsiko Arrest. Expel. Block. The Independent has learnt that those are the three main options several meetings of NRM leaders on the Amama Mbabazi issue have been discussing. The most anticipated of the meetings is the Central Executive Committee (CEC) slated for early July. The desired outcome is …

By Edgar Tushabe Muhairwe What will President do next? What is not in dispute, however, is that President Museveni had summoned Mbabazi and former Vice President Gilbert Bukenya to a meeting scheduled for June 15 to explain why they were allying with the new formed The Democratic Alliance (TDA). The …

By Keith Muhakanizi The New Budget: What is in there for you? The new budget, like has been the case before, is focussing largely on infrastructure development and improving service delivery. A major accomplishment during this fiscal year 2014/15 was Parliament’s adoption of the Public Financial Management Act (PMFA) of …

By Haggai Matsiko Suspicions of vote buying eclipse record Shs 24 trillion budget On May 25, Keith Muhakanizi, the secretary to the Treasury, wrote to the Clerk to Parliament notifying the House of the final corrigenda to the 2015/2016 Shs.24 budget that Finance Minister Matia Kasaija presented on June 11.  …

By Ronald Musoke Tracing the origins of River Nyamwamba’s fury Whenever it shines a lot, usually it is an indication that someone will drown in the river,” says Janet Kyakimwa.  The 35 year old woman knows a thing about River Nyamwamba in western Uganda on the edges of the Rwenzori …

By Agnes E. Nantaba Inside the political legacy of the First Lady With her arresting profile, large warm eyes, bright white teeth and jet-black hair, Janet Museveni in 1986 came across as an engaging first lady. She was young; just 37-years old and her husband, President Yoweri Museveni, had just …

By Independent Team Is Uganda headed for a debt crisis? What happens when you take a bunch of election spending reality, throw in a pinch of anticipated oil dollar excitement, and wrap it all up in some new accounting procedures? That is the question analysts of Uganda’s 2015/16 national budget …