By Andrew M. Mwenda As the elections for next year get closer, the contours of its alignments are becoming apparent. The election of Norbert Mao to lead DP and Olara Otunnu to lead UPC ‘ Uganda’s founding political parties ‘ adds an important dimension to the leadership of NRM by …

By P. Matsiko wa Mucoori & Mubatsi Asinja Habati Aircraft flying life had expired UPDF told CAA to clear flight On March 9 last year, an Ilyushin IL-76 Russian made aircraft, operated by the Johannesburg-based Aerolift Company Ltd, crashed in Lake Victoria killing 11 people on board. The Ministry of …

By Andrew M. Mwenda Mugisha Muntu’s challenge to Kizza Besigye for the presidential candidature of FDC reveals the major dilemma facing the opposition in Uganda. Besigye has twice demonstrated extraordinary courage by challenging President Yoweri Museveni. Yet the factors that made him galvanise Ugandans in support of his candidature also …

By Dicta Asiimwe Former Vice President and now President Museveni’s advisor on microfinance Dr Specioza Wandira Kazibwe is again in the spotlight over abuse of public funds under the government’s Bonna Bagaggawale programme. The money meant for people with disabilities (PWDs) in Busoga under the Bonna Bagaggawale (Prosperity-for-All) has sparked …

By Andrew M. Mwenda Let me speculate. There are always ominous signs when a leader or regime is about to collapse. Take the example of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: There was the rum’s heart; then Cleopatra’s dream and later the soothsayer’s warning. There were equally also many ominous signs in 1969 …

By Isaac Mufumba Are they a means to a political rather than social-economic end? For most of the last part of 2009, government was dolling out food to sections of the population in West Nile, eastern and northern Uganda, following a famine that ravaged those areas leaving at least 50 …

By Andrew M. Mwenda The killing of three Baganda youths by President Yoweri Museveni’s security detail at Kasumbi tombs is shocking but not surprising. There is a quiet battle between Museveni and Mengo. The president knows that Mengo is becoming a major pillar of resistance to his authority. Although this …

By Bob Roberts Katende  UNESCO experts plan to rebuild tombs             Govt agrees to pay Buganda debt Traditionally, the Baganda have a saying: ‘Akugoba yakuwa ekkubo’. It is similar to the phrase often attributed to the Mandarin of China that any crisis represents both danger and opportunity. The burning of the …

 By Mubatsi Asinja Habati In the March 22 Parliamentary by-elections in Rukiga County, NRM’s Edson Kakuru defeated three rivals after polling 10,910 votes against his closest opponent – FDC’s Jack Sabiiti with 9,329, Independent candidates Amos Mugisha’s 6,786 votes and Medard Gumusiriza’s 291 votes. The voter turnout was 63% of …

By Andrew M. Mwenda In his book, Weapons of the Weak, James Scott argues that studies of peasant resistance focus a lot on large scale revolts. ‘For the historical and archival records were richest at precisely those moments when the peasantry pose a threat to the state,’ Scott writes, ‘the …