By Haggai Matsiko Scourge leaves country with Shs 2.6 trillion swindled The low key start on Oct.22 of criminal proceedings against three cabinet ministers; Sam Kutesa, Mwesigwa Rukutana, and John Nasasira, who are confidantes of President Yoweri Museveni, is the latest sign that the fight against corruption has shifted. On …
Read More »Besigye reacts to Museveni’s fear
By Haggai Matsiko The entry way to opposition leader Kizza Besigye’s home in Kasangati, a Kampala city suburb has become familiar even to those who have never been there. Most have seen the pinkish-red walls of the brick-red tiled bungalow on TV as heavy deployment of police attempt to keep …
Read More »Uganda team inspires Obama
By Haggai Matsiko Little known base ballers give hope to U.S. president’s campaign For a bunch of Ugandan 12-year-olds—mostly from the poorest families in the sugarcane growing town of Lugazi, near Kampala, a recent trip to the U.S. was the highlight of their lives. Unknown to them, even US President …
Read More »It’s raining oil dollars in Hoima
By Haggai Matsiko Foreign big-money investment frenzy in Tullow’s backyard It’s Sunday, but this town’s Main Street is beehive of activity. Nothing unusual; this is Hoima, Uganda’s oil boom town. Builders, masons, and painters can be seen everywhere hanging on wobbly wooden scaffoldings in a frenzy of construction activity. The …
Read More »Stemming gun violence
By Haggai Matsiko Will a pact to check the illicit gun trade have an impact on Uganda? United Nations diplomats from over 190 countries, including Uganda, are at the organisation’s headquarters in New York discussing a pact to regulate the global arms trade. The Global Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) would …
Read More »Living in fear of oil waste
By Haggai Matsiko Expectations of oil cash give way to anxiety as oil waste regulations delay The presence of billions of barrels of oil – the black gold- would ordinarily arouse great expectations in the minds of people everywhere. Not so in the Albertan Graben. Increasingly, a voice of communities …
Read More »Economy on right track- IMF
By Haggai Matsiko Thomas Richardson, the Senior Resident Representative for the International Monetary Fund who is leaving Uganda for a new posting in India in July, tells The Independent’s Haggai Matsiko about macro-economic management, managing oil money, and the need for a new generation of leaders. How has your tenure …
Read More »Pearl wants Musolini out
By Haggai Matsiko A book by university students that questions Museveni’s promises of fundamental change earns the ire of the police Musolini must go, I let him into my house. I will personally see him out, even with his own appointed guards at the door. I celebrate my 50th birthday …
Read More »ACODE under investigation
By Haggai Matsiko Mutebile letter to commercial banks upsets NGOs involved in oil advocacy Plot 86 on Kanjokya Street in Kamwokya, a Kampala city suburb, is quiet block with a few latest model SUVs crammed into its tiny parking space. It’s the nondescript home of the Advocates Coalition for Development …
Read More »National water
By Haggai Matsiko Fight over Muhairwe’s job rages on as corporation declares profits National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) has just announced a Shs 10 billion profit. So why is the management at the corporation punching holes in the numbers instead of celebrating? Failure to name a new managing director …
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