By Andrew M. Mwenda On October 24th, I went to Entebbe Airport to catch a South African Airways flight via Johannesburg to Namibia. Airline officials said I needed a transit visa through South Africa. I explained that I was not going to enter the country, only to change flights in …

By kabona esiara  Projects worth Rwf 219 billion registered  The experts are busy. Some are attending to clients trickling at intervals, while others are scrutinizing a pile of documents submitted by people seeking construction permits. These architects, engineers, surveyors and environmentalists who used to be scattered in different parts of …

By matthew stein More than four months after Jean-Leonard Rugambage, the outspoken deputy editor of Umuvugizi newspaper was shot outside his home in Kigali, his killers have been sentenced to life in prison. Rwanda’s High Court sitting in Kimihurura, ruled that Didace Nduguyangu was guilty of ‘homicide and illegal possession …

By rukiya makuma   Iron bar hit men spread terror beyond Kampala    Property crime up in Mbarara Corporal Patrick Nyamua, RA No. 162991, a chief clerk in Bombo General Military Hospital, is fighting for his life in ward 3A, bed 11, in Mulago National Referral Hospital, Kampala. He has …

By Andrew M. Mwenda On Wednesday last week, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) published results of its National Household Survey which showed that the proportion of people living in poverty has declined from 31 to 23%. It was good news for President Yoweri Museveni who had just been nominated …

By Andrew M.Mwenda With nominations for parliamentary candidates finished, independents (largely malcontents who lost in the NRM primaries) are now the largest political party in the contest albeit a non-organised and unconscious one. By November 30, out of the 238 directly contestable seats, independents had fielded 269 candidates (in 95 …

By mubatsi habati & dicta asiimwe Bidandi’s lanterns, Naomi’s black dress, and Besigye’s new barber  This time, the presidential candidates’ nomination days – Oct.25 and Oct.26 ‘ exceeded expectations. The frenzy, excitement, and colour of the mammoth crowds on streets that had been perfectly cleared of traffic compensated for the …

By eriasa mukiibi Museveni’s plan for Buganda in 2011  While on tour in the US in mid-September, the king of Buganda, Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II, received an unusual emissary from NRM Secretary General and Security Minister Amama Mbabazi. The emissary, according to sources that were involved in the meeting, …

By matthew stein Report ranks Rwanda’s press freedom among worst in the world The Rwandan government has expressed outrage over a recent Reporters Without Borders (RSF) report that ranked it amongst the ten worst countries in the world for press freedoms. Placed in the 169 spot, out of a total …

By Andrew Mwenda Last week, I finished reading Bob Woodward’s new book, Obama’s Wars, an inside account of Obama’s approach to the war in Afghanistan. Then on Sunday night, I watched a two-hour documentary on National Geographic titled Inside Talibanistan, an interesting tale of the complexity of fighting the Taliban …