ANDREW MWENDA: Why the belief that Ugandans are angry because youth lack jobs and other economic opportunities is mistaken THE LAST WORD | ANDREW MWENDA | Last week, President Yoweri Museveni inaugurated a $600 million fertilizer and aluminum plant in Tororo. A few days before, he had opened a new $150 …
Read More »Museveni’s forgotten railway unit
Why 30 years later, we should not condemn but sympathise with the president’s fanciful and failed dreams THE LAST WORD | ANDREW MWENDA | Last week someone sent me a video of President Yoweri Museveni speaking on December 22, 1988. In it, the President who was just two years in …
Read More »The triumph of colonialism
How European claims to promote `civilisation’ in Africa remain the supreme aim of all our governments THE LAST WORD | Andrew Mwenda | One of the most successful ideological projects in contemporary history has been European colonialism, or what Marxists used to call imperialism. Vladimir Lenin called imperialism the highest …
Read More »Africa’s highway to a dead-end
Why our obsession with foreign direct investment as a driver of our transformation is misguided THE LAST WORD | Andrew Mwenda | It is the Italian thinker-philosopher, Antonio Gramsci, who coined the term hegemony. He used it to refer to the sum total of beliefs, values, explanations and perceptions that …
Read More »THE LAST WORD: Recasting debates on development
What a reading of Marx and Lenin teaches us about the effects of multinational capital on poor nations THE LAST WORD | Andrew Mwenda | Raymond Mujuni of NBS television tweeted that he has began his masters’ degree in development studies with a reading of Karl Marx. This column is …
Read More »The future we must fight for
Why our democracy will not be strengthened by a violent contest but dialogue and compromise THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | The current struggle between President Yoweri Museveni on the one hand and the two most popular opposition groups to wit Defiance led by Dr. Kizza Besigye, and …
Read More »Closing and merging public agencies
Why the new government reform measures should not throw away the baby with the bathwater THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | The decision by government of Uganda to reduce the number of semi autonomous government agencies, commissions and other bodies is a very good and long over due. …
Read More »In defence of social media tax
THE LAST WORD: Why taxing mobile money and social media is a politically revolutionary act that may help improve our democracy THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Since government introduced a tax on mobile money and social media, there has been deafening opposition to it from every …
Read More »Museveni leadership of economy
THE LAST WORD: How the president’s successful economic stewardship is now in the past with little direction on the future THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | President Yoweri Museveni has been named 12th among 24 leaders globally whose individual contribution has had a significant positive impact on their …
Read More »Kayihura’s road to jail
KAYIHURA: How the former IGP became a victim of his own success, internal power struggles and changing geopolitics THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kale Kayihura, was the longest servicing officer in a top and sensitive security position under President Yoweri …
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