ARTICLES 2008-2015

By Andrew M. Mwenda Given that Besigye will not retreat, what are Museveni’s options? Last week on Thursday, the battle between police and Dr Kizza Besigye turned nasty. The police used harmers and guns to smash the windows of Besigye’s car, spray volumes of teargas and pepper-spray into his face, …

By the independent team In war, it is called a kill zone. A pre-selected area into which an enemy is lured before being mowed down. Kampala Metropolitan Police Commander Grace Turyagumanawe’s carefully selected kill zone for opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) leader Rtd. Col. Dr. Kizza Besigye was the …

By Mubatsi Asinja Habati In 2009 President Museveni set up the Medicines and Health Services Delivery Monitoring Unit to rid the health sector of corruption. The unit has caused arrests of many health officials for alleged corruption. The Independent’s Mubatsi Asinja Habati spoke to the unit Director Dr Diana Atwine …

By Andrew M. Mwenda Local councils have undermined the effectiveness of public administration without fostering the expected accountability dividend. In 2000, Frederick Golooba-Mutebi gave me a copy of his PhD thesis written at the London School of Economics titled “Decentralisation and Development Administration in Uganda.” It is a sobering account …

By Mwambustya Ndebesa The 1999 winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics, Amartya Sen asserts that there has never been food shortage in a functioning democracy. There is an argument currently that demonstrations cannot bring rain.  It’s an argument to discount those who are demonstrating because of high food prices.  …

By Mike Mahigigi Uganda lags while Kenya and Tanzania show simple ways to unlocking their potential There is worldwide consensus that youth aged 14 to 30 years are the most potentially economically dynamic segment of any population. Unfortunately in Uganda, 50 percent of youth, especially females, are not engaged in …

By independent reporters Review comes up in June, IMF blames crisis on reduced foreign reserves, high election spending, jets purchase. Food and fuel prices complicate plan As traders, religious leaders, students, and civil society organisations criticise the government’s reaction to the Walk-to-Work protests over high food and fuel prices, one …

By Mubatsi Asinja Habati Makerere University students went on strike in April over reports that it was planning to raise tuition fees from the average of Shs 3 million to Shs 6 million per year per student.  Before the strike the university’s Ag.Vice Chancellor, Prof. Venansius Baryamureeba told The Independent’s …

By Bob A. Kasango Let us all know that injustice anywhere is ultimately injustice everywhere In the January 31, 2009 issue of Newsweek magazine, Fareed Zakaria wrote about how in May 2006, a unit of American soldiers in Afghanistan’s Uruzgan valley were engulfed in a ferocious fire fight with the …

By eriasa mukiibi sserunjogi Public anger greets Museveni even before he is sworn–in Opposition politicians have vowed to continue with their walk-to-work campaign despite arrests and violent break up of their protests by the police.  Political pundits are puzzled on which direction the protests will take, especially in the run …