COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama | In 2021, acclaimed Filipino journalist Maria Ressa won the Nobel Peace Prize (alongside Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov) in unprecedented recognition of the role of journalism in today’s world. Underscoring the award, the Nobel Committee stated, “Free, independent and fact-based journalism serves to protect against abuse of …
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COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama | The signs are ominous – the growing militarism is steadily revealing itself as the masked bandit it always has been. In May 2024, the Human Rights and Peace Centre (HURIPEC) at Makerere University released a gem of a report, ‘GUNS, BREAD AND BUTTER: Militarization of Economic …
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COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama | When the opposition party, National Unity Platform (NUP) led by musician Bobi Wine/Robert Kyagulanyi invited itself to the village brawl that is Uganda’s governance, the ruling regime received NUP with wide-open jaws — chomping on NUP supporters for the rather grave crime of daring to support …
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COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama | You cannot miss it. The hauntingly sunken face of Kizza Besigye. Winnie Byanyima, Besigye’s wife, told AFP that Besigye went on a hunger strike on February 10 protesting his continued illegal detention. His detractors, still harping on about the performative antics of activism, claim that Besigye’s …
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COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama |Dear reader, as we say in Ugandan speak, let us be guided. Today’s class will revisit the use of UPPER CASE (or CAPITAL LETTERS as my teachers taught) in online communication. The great internet code deems typing in CAPITAL LETTERS offensive, equivalent to YELLING. Typography and …
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COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama | The hunt is on. ‘Tis the season. The 2026 elections beckon. Every election cycle, the stakes are higher as the entrenched ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party desires to sink its 39-year-old corpulent posterior deeper into Uganda. In consolidating its unwieldy bulk, the NRM increasingly discards …
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COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama | Dear reader, Happy New Year! With the customary niceties out of the way, let us resume our dalliance with the state of governance in Uganda. In case you missed it, there is a raging online debate about the relevance of activism in NRM’s Uganda. In one …
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COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama | Dear reader, the presidential convoy is a most curious perk — whether understated or unrestrained. In Uganda, it is a fast and furious display of grandeur. Through the presidential convoy, one can track the metamorphosis of President Yoweri Museveni’s regime. The convoy could tell the …
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COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama | This is familiar territory. Opposition strongman Kizza Besigye is back in the news headlines, with yet another court case hanging over him; feels like a homecoming. There was a time when the media would breathlessly report about state security forces arresting and manhandling Besigye. The slightest …
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COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama | An online petition by a section of Christians on behalf of embattled former Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) executives facing prosecution over the Kiteezi garbage deaths sent me down memory lane. The petition questioned the arrest and detention of former KCCA executive director, Dorothy Kisaka and …
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The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
