ARTICLES 2008-2015

By Stephen Kafeero To boost their compensation awards, land owners are building in sections marked for demolition Plans to construct a modern highway have sparked a feverish property boom along Entebbe-Kampala Highway, as land owners construct new buildings, targeting to profit from generous compensation funds. Over the past three or …

By Mubatsi Asinja Habati Kasese, Bundibugyo tense  ahead of by-election On the morning of June 30, the king of the Rwenzururu, Omusinga Charles Wesley Mumbere Iremangoma, received an unusual phone call from President Yoweri Museveni. The Omusinga was that morning preparing for the 50th anniversary celebrations of his people’s declaration …

By Mubatsi Asinja Habati In the past few weeks, there have been simmering tensions among the Bakonzo, Basongora and Bamba/Babwisi in Kasese and Bundibugyo districts over the jurisdiction of Rwenzururu kingdom. The Independent’s Mubatsi Asinja Habati spoke to Loice Biira Bwambale, the acting Prime Minister of Rwenzururu kingdom. The Bakonzo …

By Charles Onyango-Obbo Recently I was visiting with Andrew Mwenda, the Strategy and Editorial Director of The Independent at his Butabika home when he squeezed me for a favour. He asked that I write about what I thought President Yoweri Museveni was trying to achieve with his “reconciliatory” actions towards …

By Andrew M. Mwenda Doesn’t a country that lost a million people deserve to protect its people against the threat of another genocide? In a space of one week in July, the Netherlands, Germany, UK and USA  announced they would cut their aid to Rwanda over its alleged involvement in …

By Joseph Were Museveni’s schmoozing with Stiglitz bad news for Mutebile When President Yoweri Museveni spoke at this year’s Joseph Memorial lecture in Kampala of the desirability of a “hybrid” economy, he marked a retreat from the current free market regime to his mixed economy days of the 1980s.  Time …

By Mubatsi Asinja Habati One mother tells of fleeing to save her children, the screams of her dying husband ringing in her ears Sara Ndiozi lost more than her husband in Rutshuru, when fighting broke out between the M23 rebels and government troops in the eastern part of the Democratic …

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 …

By Eriasa Mukiibi Sserunjogi & Mubatsi Asinja Habati With the average age of the top ministers at 70 years, what is the future for the country? When then 38-year old Moses Ali was in 1977 named finance minister by then-president Idi Amin and charged with revamping a free-falling economy, current …

By Dr. Pierre Damien Habumuremyi A lot more still needs to be done to prevent a culture of mediocrity The osition of the government relating to the need to improve customer service in Rwanda is simple.  A lot more still needs to be done. President Paul Kagame summarises the current …