By Patrick Kagenda Finance Minister Dr Ezra Suruma tells The Independent’s Patrick Kagenda and Joseph Were why, despite the closure of GTV attributed to the global economic crisis, the Uganda economy is still sound. Has the closure of GTV led you to change your earlier position that the global crisis …

By Odoobo C. Bichachi Last week’s momentous FDC delegates conference at Mandela National Stadium in Namboole set the party on the high road to the 2011 general elections. It also set the newly re-elected party president Col. Dr Kizza Besigye on course for a third clash with incumbent and likely …

Kisangala Onghwens & Bob Roberts Katende A triumph for democracy or more of the same? The second FDC Delegates’ Conference was concluded in the early hours of Saturday morning last week with every party member praising the maturity of the exercise. With departmental report presentations dealt with on the first …

By Rosebell Kagumire He was such a huge man, was the first reaction from the cultural leaders after spotting a skull at one of the burial sites. He must have been an LRA fighter, said another Acholi elder on the team. The leaders had trekked through the shrubs and thickets …

By Odoobo C. Bichachi  Power race heats up in FDC  Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) secretary for mobilisation Maj. Gen. Mugisha Muntu is challenging Dr Kizza Besigye for the position of party president. Aswa MP Reagan Okumu is itching to take over from Ogenga Latigo as leader of the opposition …

BY Wanyama Wangah The weakness in our education system was exposed during last year’s international university quiz competition now sponsored by Zain, which covers pre-university questions. All Ugandan universities were eliminated early with the exception of Nkumba University which had fielded Kenyan students. The performance in this year’s Primary Leaving …

By Onghwens Kisangala In January, Mohammed Kezaala, mayor of Jinja municipality, was arrested and charged by the Inspector General of Government (IGG), Faith Mwondha, with abuse of office and of misappropriating municipal funds. The IGG alleged that 100 iron sheets and 820 bags of cement earmarked for charity organisations were …

By Rosebell Kagumire For Justice Benjamin Odoki, that is the central question for activists calling for elector al reforms In 2011, two years from now, Ugandans are scheduled to vote in presidential, parliamentary, and local government elections. Many are resigned to another rigged electoral process. But a few who are …

By Mubatsi Asinja Habati Has Africa been spared the brunt of the global financial crisis, as many believe? Not if experts from the World Bank are to be believed. Addressing African leaders at the 12th African Union summit in Addis Ababa last week, the bank’s president, Robert Zoellick, said: “We …

By Patrick Kagenda After failing to take over the National Insurance Corporation (NIC) in 2005 in the teeth of competition from Nigeria’s Industrial and General Insurance (IGI), the Kenyan firm Apollo Pan African (APA) Insurance has at last made its way on to the Ugandan financial market. APA, which owns …