Column

THE LAST WORD: How the ideology of a welfare state has destroyed our continent and impoverished its people THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Everywhere I turn these days, Ugandans (and Africans generally) are complaining about the sorry state of our education and healthcare systems. There is a …

Kampala, Uganda | AGNES E NANTABA | Isaac Kimaze Semakadde was in April named the most outstanding public interest litigation lawyer in Uganda by the Uganda Law Society. He describes public interest litigation as a special practice where an advocate sacrifices time, talent, resources, and energy that they could have rented …

Inside our belief that the salvation of our nations will come from the actions of one great man THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | If you follow discussions on politics in Uganda, or Africa generally, one factor is given as the cause of the slow rate of development – …

Kampala, Uganda | AGNES E NANTABA | 27-year old Francis Zaake Butebi combines controversy and success in the most unusual ways. He is one of the youngest MPs, shares a name with his home village, became an MP on the same day he graduated, and successfully juggled school and running a …

THE LAST WORD: How a book celebrated by the world’s leading economists is actually an intellectual absurdity THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Last Saturday, my intellectual friends and I held a thrilling debate on a book by James Robinson and Daron Acemoglu titled `Why Nations Fail’. The book …

Kampala, Uganda | AGNES E NANTABA | Most people know Sandra Suubi as the girl who won the Airtel Trace competition 2015 and went on to launch a fledgling music career. Not many know that Suubi combines her music with art. She is an eco-artist whose work has featured in art …

THE LAST WORD: Why trying to do everything for everyone,everywhere has ended up doing little for anyone, anywhere THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | The debate on health policy in Uganda is frustrating. Our health services are characterized by corruption, absenteeism, incompetence and apathy. Everyone is angry and …

Kampala, Uganda | JULIUS BUSINGE | Tony Elumelu is the founder of The Tony Elumelu Foundation, which is currently running a 10 year –The Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme–worth US$100 million. The Independent’s Julius Businge captured some of the responses to the key issues raised during a public lecture on Africapitalism …

Kampala, Uganda | AGNES E NANTABA | Kick boxing is often associated with brute force; which makes many assume that women – being softer and humble – cannot get involved or even excel in it. But Patricia Apolot, the Ugandan female kick boxer and queen of the martial arts, has for …

Why the failure of a third force has locked us in a choice between Museveni and Besigye THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | In debating whether President Yoweri Museveni should go or stay we are not indulging in an abstract theoretical exercise but a challenge of practical politics. …