By Joseph Were Donors fear the President is either raiding the reserves at Bank of Uganda or printing new money World Bank Country Director John Murray McIntire who flew into Uganda on January 12 landed right into the middle of a perfect storm brewing between the government on one hand …
Read More »ICC, let Kenyans shape their destiny
By Andrew M. Mwenda The recent indictment of leading and powerful Kenyan politicians by the International Criminal Court (ICC) presents as a serious dilemma. By all conventional accounts, Kenya is one of the most successful democracies in Africa. It has a free press. It has a multiparty political system. It …
Read More »Uganda has 3rd largest cabinet in the world
By Andrew M. Mwenda At 71 members strong, Uganda has the third largest cabinet in the world after North Korea and Kenya. This is in circumstances where the global average of ministers is 30. The average for Sub-Saharan Africa is 40. Even by regional standards, apart from Kenya, the average …
Read More »Why Museveni keeps more westerners, Baganda in cabinet
By Melina Raquel Platas When the NRA marched into Kampala in January of 1986, the new President, Yoweri Museveni, faced a daunting challenge: How to lead a country that had been in political turmoil for 15 years. Between independence in 1962 and the arrival of Museveni in 1986, executive power …
Read More »Museveni’s big cabinet keeps his rivals happy
By Charles Onyango-Obbo Uganda is a medium-size African country, but at 71 has the continent’s second largest cabinet. Even more remarkable, it has the world’s third largest cabinet after North Korea! The question is, to what end? There is an increasing body of literature that argues, quite convincingly, that there …
Read More »Museveni’s war with Buganda
By Eriasa Mukiibi Sserunjogi & Dicta Asiimwe Why president ordered MPs to pass traditional rulers Bill When Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II, to wild cheers from his subjects at a December 31, 2010 fete at the palace, used a dummy of a key to symbolically unlock the New Year, he …
Read More »Buy the truth, we’ll pay the price
By Andrew M. Mwenda In December 2010, The Independent celebrated its third birthday. Given the high mortality rate of newspapers in Uganda, it is really a miracle that we are still alive – and growing. Over the last three years, The Independent has consolidated its place within the Ugandan news …
Read More »The Al Shabab threat
By Andrew M. Mwenda A special investigation into a joint Uganda-Kenya security hunt for terrorists Just before the December 20, 2010 grenade attack on a Kampala-bound bus in Nairobi, two major incidents had taken place in the Kenyan capital. First, on the morning of December 3, 2010, attackers suspected to …
Read More »S. Africa and Rwanda: tale of majority failure and minority success
By Andrew .M.Mwenda Two epoch-making political transitions in Sub-Sahara Africa simultaneously dominated global news in April 1994, South Africa and Rwanda. South Africa’s was a transition from white minority rule to black majority rule; Rwanda’s from ‘Hutu majority’ rule to ‘Tutsi minority’ rule. The transition in South Africa was peaceful, …
Read More »French court lifts arrest warrants over Habyarimana plane crash
By the independent team & agencies Former judge Bruguire admits he conferred with French government over decision A French judge placed Rwanda’s defence minister and five other aides of President Paul Kagame under investigation in a probe into an attack seen as sparking the African country’s 1994 genocide, legal sources …
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