How the former parliamentary speaker made a series of blunders that may sink her otherwise great political career THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | Rebecca Kadaga is a lady of many parts. For twenty years, she held sway over Uganda’s parliament: first as deputy speaker (20001-2011), and then …
Read More »Michela Wrong’s Rwanda hatchet job
How attempts to tarnish the name and record of Paul Kagame soils the reputation of a British journalist THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | Finally, I have finished reading Michela Wrong’s 516 memoir of Patrick Karegyeya; a former Rwandan intelligence chief who was killed on or about New Year’s …
Read More »Uganda’s COVID overreaction
How copying and pasting Western solutions to the pandemic was unrealistic for Uganda and Africa THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | When COVID-19 struck, the world held its breath. In early 2020, there were doomsday predictions that the pandemic would devastate Africa, given the continent’s poverty leading to …
Read More »I am shocked Ugandan journalists are angry
Museveni’s violence and what it should teach us THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Yesterday the NRM government, in characteristic style, used military police to unleash violence against a group of activists escorting Bobi Wine to the UN Human Rights office to deliver a petition. It was the same …
Read More »Bobi Wine’s dangerous duplicity
What the evacuation of his family from Uganda before elections reveals about Uganda’s musician turned politician Kyagulanyi THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M MWENDA | In 2018, I appeared on Frontline program of NBS television with Bobi Wine. In the heat of the debate he said that if there were chaos …
Read More »Uganda’s prosperity paradox
How rapid economic growth and improving quality of life are causing mass discontent THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | There is widespread anger especially among the youths in Uganda’s urban areas, but most pronounced in Kampala. Very many commentators on current affairs think this is a result of …
Read More »Why and how the opposition is playing right into Museveni’s hands
On Wednesday, Kampala went on fire after police arrested pop star turned politician/presidential candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine. The riots continued through yesterday (Nov.19). The partisans on either side are in overdrive. Critics of government post videos of police shooting at crowds where some people have, unfortunately, died. THE …
Read More »On Uganda’s election violence
How the president, the security services and the opposition are beneficiaries of this political pathology THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | Election season is with us and the police are in overdrive to beat the hell out of opposition candidates. The leading and perhaps most popular opposition presidential …
Read More »Col. Bantariza: A lion retires
THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | I woke up yesterday morning only to hear that the deputy head of the Uganda Media Centre Col. Shaban Bantariza is dead. The news struck me like a thunderbolt partly part because I least expected it but largely because Bantariza was not …
Read More »Lessons on poverty from COVID
Why measuring poverty using income is misleading and why we need to switch to using wealth THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | It is seven months since Uganda locked down due to COVID. The lesson I have learnt from the lockdown is not related to health but economics. …
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