YEAR IN REVIEW:  April 2017 Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | April 08: Herbert Kabafunzaki, the Minister of State for Labour, Employment and Industrial Relations was arrested for allegedly soliciting and receiving a Shs5 million bribe from Aya Group chairman, Mohammad Hamid—the proprietor of Pearl of Africa Hotel Kampala. He was …

YEAR IN REVIEW: April 2017 Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPNDENT | April 10: Dr. Stella Nyanzi, the controversial research fellow of  Makerere University’s Institute of Social Research (MISR) was sent to Luzira Prison for allegedly using social media platforms to offend President Yoweri Museveni and the First Lady, Janet Museveni, who …

YEAR IN REVIEW: February 2017 Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Officially, the reason for President Yoweri Museveni’s Feb.21 appointment of a Commission of Inquiry into Effectiveness of Law, Policies and Processes of land Acquisition, Land Administration, Land Management and Land Registration  in Uganda  (in short `The Land Inquiry Commission 2017’) …

YEAR IN REVIEW: February 2017 Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Following on the November 27, 2016 attack by the army on his palace in Kasese, the Obusinga Bwa Rwenzururu king, Omusinga Wesley Mumbere,  faced a slew of arrests, detentions, and court appearances that culminated in his being blocked from returning …

YEAR IN REVIEW:  February 2017 Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | For the second time in two cycles, Uganda’s biggest opposition party, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), missed out on having a slot among the team of nine to represent Uganda in the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA). And, once …

January Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | January is known as a ‘dry month’ both literally and figuratively, therefore when news broke of a shady bonus payment to government officials, there was a sustained ire and condemnation from the public. The intense backlash set the pace for a year dominated by …

Accra, Ghana | AFP | Joseph Awuah-Darko sits on a stool at one of the world’s largest electronic waste dumps, watching polystyrene and insulation cables burn on the blackened ground. “It’s survival and dystopia,” says the 21-year-old British-born Ghanaian, surveying the stretch of wasteland around him as dense plumes of …

YEAR IN REAVIEW: January, 2017 Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Jan 9: President Yoweri Museveni restructured command of the army; naming Maj. Gen. David Muhoozi to the top job of Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) with Maj. Gen. Wilson Mbadi as the Deputy CDF. But the real attention was on …

Yaounde, Cameroon | AFP | A Cameroon court on Wednesday freed dissident author Patrice Nganang, accused of threatening President Paul Biya on social media, and ordered him to be expelled from the country, media reported. The court in the capital Yaounde ordered an end to legal proceedings against Nganang, which …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Long queues formed at petrol stations across Nigeria Tuesday, with motorists sometimes waiting up to 24 hours to fill up their tanks, as Africa’s number one oil producer faces a crippling fuel shortage. “I couldn’t travel. I would have loved to travel to Osun State …