Tag Archives: Haggai Matsiko

By Haggai Matsiko When Museveni wears Beijing’s big boots On Feb. 21, the China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC), acquired a third of Uganda’s newly discovered but potentially huge oil reserves in a US$ 2.9 million farm-down deal with the British firm, Tullow Oil and France’s Total. Nothing official yet, …

By Haggai Matsiko Invisible Children’s ‘Kony 2012’ viral campaign draws unfriendly fire If videos would kill, Lord’s Resistance Army rebel leader Joseph Kony would be dead by now.  Within just four days, a video—Kony2012— that aims at having him arrested by the end of this year, had gone viral with …

By Haggai Matsiko Lawyers sneak ex-LRA commander Kwoyelo past conviction because of problematic legal framework and poor structure of war crimes division When the UPDF arrested Thomas Kwoyelo, one of the commanders of the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels from the Garamba forests of DR Congo in March 2009, …

By Haggai Matsiko Besigye (1999), Bidandi (2003), who is next after Kyankwazi? Until recently, it was unheard of for an NRM party member to boycott summons by President Yoweri Museveni to the National Leadership Institute at Kyankwanzi which is respected as a sort of shrine where party folk go for …

By Haggai Matsiko MPs targeting Museveni could cause major shocks Apart from the Walk-to-Work protests that sparked countrywide unrest—making it Africa’s third biggest story of 2011 according to The Economist magazine—many observers agree that parliament’s fight against graft was Uganda’s biggest story. The 9th parliament’s exposure of alleged corruption by …

By Haggai Matsiko Makerere University, the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development and the French Embassy held an international Conference on Land Policies in East Africa that brought many scholars. The Independent’s Haggai Matsiko spoke to Prof Maurice N. Amutabi of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa about land …

By Haggai Matsiko Experts say the Mo Ibrahim Index’s latest ranking of Uganda would be flattering if it weren’t so fictitious Experts have criticized the latest rankings of the Mo Ibrahim Africa Governance Index as a fiction, out of touch with realities in Uganda. The main bone of contention is …

By Haggai Matsiko Ladislus Rwakafuzi, a senior Human rights Lawyer in Kampala, spoke to The independent’s Haggai Matsiko about the trial Kenyan suspects of the July 11 bomb attacks, including Kenyan lawyer, Al’Amin Kimathi. Some people say that governments use the war on terror as a pretext to crush dissenting …

By Haggai Matsiko Lawyers, public bicker over whether terrorist bombing convicts should have got only 25 and five years in jail for killing 80 people The 25 and five year jail sentences awarded to the self-confessed terrorists involved in the July 11, 2010 twin-bombings in Kampala have sparked heated debate …

By Haggai Matsiko After the July 11, 2010 synchronised bomb attacks that ripped through two Kampala spots – Lugogo Rugby Club and Ethiopian Village – killing over 80 people in crowds watching the televised football World Cup final,  security checkpoints, sniffer dogs, car and body scans became part of daily …