NEWS ANALYSIS

By Julius Businge Business owners query new taxes on ICT, education, health, agriculture Francis Kamulegeya, the senior country partner for PriceWaterHouseCoopers in Uganda says “you cannot grow a sector without taxing it”. Kamulegeya’s view flips the common belief that “you cannot grow a sector without giving it incentives”. But Kamulegeya’s …

By Haggai Matsiko Is she the reason Uganda’s most expensive parliament cannot deliver? The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, continues notching good ratings in opinion polls and among commentators on public affairs. However, the same cannot be said of her House and its 385 legislators.  In a recent poll by …

By Patrick Kagenda Impact of international travel ban to Kenya on arrivals to Uganda being watched Uganda’s tourism sector is keenly looking out for spill-over effects of security advisories against non-essential travel to regional flagship destination Kenya.   Amos Wekesa, the Chairman of the Uganda Tour Operators Association, says Uganda has …

By Julius Businge Budget priorities expected to enhance socio-economic transformation What should a Shs 15 trillion budget focus on in a country like ours?  A mini survey conducted by The Independent in Kampala on peoples’ perception about the budget found out that they were interested in seeing medicines in public …

By Flavia Nassaka Part of NAADS problem is that it is used as a political tool President Yoweri Museveni has ordered the closure of the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) program. He says it has not delivered to his expectation. He now wants the money allocated to it to be …

By Julius Businge  New poll indicates majority of Ugandans happy with the economy but… A poll conducted in April this year by Research World International (RWI) in partnership with Monitor Publications Limited and Uganda Governance Platform paints a good picture about Uganda’s economy since 2011. The major objective of the …

By Ronald Musoke The wealthy, at 42%, are the least optimistic Political opinion polls by their nature are supposed to be situational, often times, commissioned to gauge those things that are in the public domain at the time. If responses of Uganda’s richest people in the recently released opinion poll …

By Haggai Matsiko Can the opposition build enough muscle to change its poll-predicted fate in 2016? It is only 18 months to 2016 when Uganda goes to the next polls. Yet while President Yoweri Museveni, hit the campaign for these polls as early as 2012, not much has been going …

By Patrick Kagenda Museveni’s rant aft er the rout, opposition’s mistaken bravado On May 16, The Independent magazine run a story “Has Museveni Lost Luwero?” (See Issue 317, May 16-22). A week later, at 3:30 am on May 23, the Luwero District Returning Officer, Alex Komuhangi, announced Brenda Nabukenya of …

By Independent Team As Museveni’s election cash is set to flow again The forthcoming 2014/2015 budget is set to Finance Minister Maria Kiwanuka’s first election budget. She faces a common dilemma; uncontrolled public spending on elections, which requires an uncommon response; tough controls, especially on the foreign reserves.  Of course, …