By Haggai Matsiko Fears of popular resistance fueling army, intelligence deployments In less than a month, the UPDF top brass and top spies have held two unusual security meetings in the oil region. During one of the meetings, on May 5 Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) …
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 »Land grabbing in oil region
By Haggai Matsiko A Minister threatens to evict 2,000 as big-wigs scramble for public land in oil region Somewhere in Hoima district the small sub county of Kyangwali is home to one of the Albertine’s biggest oil fields — Kingfisher – said to be one of the largest oil wells …
Read More »Tullow’s oil spin
By Agather Atuhaire Firm grabs positive headlines but critics say bribery allegations remain While appearing before the Parliamentary Ad hoc Committee on Oil on April 11 to defend themselves against bribery allegations, Tullow Oil Uganda officials said the Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs) they signed with Uganda are the most unfavorable …
Read More »Parliament to pass weak laws on oil
By Haggai Matsiko & Mubatsi Asinja Habati Corruption feared as laws vest too much power in executive over contracts The government has abandoned a key legislation for the oil sector—the Oil Revenue Management Bill—without which revenues from the sector might end up managed poorly. The government had promised to table …
Read More »Can MPs improve oil contracts? Part II
By Andrew M. Mwenda Parliamentary intervention in government contracts has been consistently counterproductive because MPs do not look at all sides (…continued from last week) I argued in this column last week that parliamentary intervention stopping the signing of oil contracts is likely to make a bad situation worse. First, …
Read More »Can MPs improve oil contracts? Part I
By Andrew M. Mwenda We should be suspicious of parliamentary interventions in lucrative government contracts because they often make a bad situation worse Recently, President Yoweri Museveni ordered government of Uganda officials to sign oil Production Sharing Agreements with companies. This was in spite of a resolution by parliament stopping …
Read More »Uganda: Government promises oil refinery in 3 years
By Julius Businge The Assistant Commissioner for petroleum exploration and production in the ministry of Energy Robert Kasande says the refinery to process Uganda’s crude oil will be ready in three years after government completing a feasibility study regarding its size, products and costs of the facility. The official made …
Read More »Oil bribery documents forged?
By Jasper T. Mpiriirwe An expert’s response Every forgery must have an original and an originator After reading the article: “Oil-bribes scandal in historical perspective” (The Independent, Issue no.) by Andrew Mwenda, I have been privately looking at what could have happened in this scandal now being investigated by an …
Read More »Oil bribes
By Eriasa Mukiibi Sserunjogi How Mbabazi lost round one Item no.6 on the Order Paper of Parliament on Nov. 9 was just 28 words. But its outcome could transform the relationship between parliament and the executive. Item 6 was a motion to force the most powerful member of President Yoweri …
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