How Kenya’s Gen Z have exaggerated expectations of their government and president THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | I am writing this article from Nairobi where young, educated Kenyans are keeping President William Ruto busy. At the beginning of these protests, naïve commentators commended Ruto for conceding to the demands of …

How our political debates over development focus on peripheral issues while ignoring the fundamental problems THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | I believe that human beings are inherently religious. We have axiomatic faith in particular beliefs based on our moral intuitions. These are kept alive through narratives. The great British economist, …

Why our president is caught in contradictions that he can neither grasp nor overcome THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | So, President Yoweri Museveni declared a “tough war” on corruption; promising to apprehend all thieves and send them to jail. Then young people decided to march onto parliament, the seat of …

The software that has gone into producing post genocide Rwanda and how it has shaped voting patterns THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | President Paul Kagame of Rwanda won re-election with 99.18% of the vote. Over 98% of the registered voters turned out to cast their ballot. I was in Rwanda …

What the July 15 presidential elections tell us about how Rwandan citizens view President Kagame THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Yesterday Rwanda celebrated its 30th year since liberation. It has been an incredible journey. In 1994, no one gave this country a chance. The state had been dismembered, the economy …

Why the Kenyan president may have opened the pandora’s box that will grievously impair his government THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Many people have hailed President William Ruto of Kenya for yielding to popular pressure not to sign the controversial Finance Bill. A friend in diplomatic circles in Kampala texted …

Why Congolese leaders should be wary of US and UN involvement in their country’s affairs THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | We begin from where we stopped in this column last week. Staff at the U.S. embassy in Kampala deliberately distorted my discussions with them regarding M23 rebels. They claimed I …

How America uses the United Nations to falsify information in pursuit of its ulterior designs for the world THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Sometime in March of this year, I received a telephone call from an anonymous number. I rarely pick calls from numbers I do not know. By a …

The tragedy of power and politics that presidents Biden and Museveni must navigate to keep their jobs THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | U.S. President Jo Biden and Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni have a couple of similarities. Both were born during the second world war. Biden turns 82 in November; Museveni turns …

How there is an increasing reliance on war and sanctions as the main instruments of Western foreign policy THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Western nations are facing a foreign policy crisis. This is especially so with the United States and her poodle, the United Kingdom. Since 1991, they have increasingly …