COLUMNISTS

By Andrew M. Mwenda With only 8% access to electricity and 75% of subsidies going to big businesses, why are MPs supporting subsidies? Last week, a parliament committee passed a resolution cancelling the increase in electricity tariffs. Many Ugandans genuinely believe that in many of its actions, the 9th parliament …

By Erik Solheim The most important of all financial flows are the illicit funds that pour out of so many developing countries OSLO – Poverty is not only about not having enough money. It is also about exploitation and oppression, and about armed conflicts and wars that make it impossible …

By Andrew M. Mwenda Is the standoff between government and traders the tip of an irreparable breakdown of their relationship? Last week, striking traders paralysed business in Kampala. Negotiations between their association, KASITA, and the government did not yield much. As with all previous strikes and demonstrations in Uganda over …

By Andrew M. Mwenda But who benefits most from subsidies to UMEME? A cabinet sitting on Wednesday Jan. 11 discussed increasing electricity tariffs by 40 percent. Cabinet should remove these subsidies altogether because they are not economically sustainable and benefit the rich at the expense of poor citizens. Over the …

By Andrew M. Mwenda It is not corruption per se but the fragmentation of power that explains Uganda’s crisis. Two things stand in contradiction of one another regarding corruption in Uganda: On a positive note, it seems not to have undermined economic growth – at least, not yet. Uganda has …

By Victor Bwire Most of the reports now being discussed in Parliament relating to corruption have been lying in newsrooms As the demand for accountability in the use of public resources in Uganda intensifies, with parliamentarians on top of the efforts, one wonders how Ugandans will be mobilised to join …

By Andrew M. Mwenda My latest attempt to qualify Rwanda’s progress to the incredulous mind of a critic Over Christmas, Timothy Kalyegira and I got involved into a heated SMS exchange about Rwanda, a subject I am deeply interested in and one that he is equally obsessed with without noticing …

By Andrew M. Mwenda How theft of public resources has been used to build a broad multi ethnic coalition that sustains Uganda’s political system The last Quarter of 2011 in Uganda was filled with one corruption scandal after another. Yet in spite of many corruption scandals unearthed, the mass media …

By Hilary Onek The 7th Parliament never asked Nandala Mafabi and others to step aside during investigations that they took millions in bribes from Mukwano I could have chosen to ignore the article “Mbabazi, Onek playing bad model to young generation” (Sunday Monitor, December 11, 2011) but I will respond …

By Henry Zakumumpa Epidemic already killing more people than AIDS, TB, and malaria combined The Tobacco diseases epidemic is already with us in Africa’’ says Prof Peter Odhiambo, Chairman of Kenya Tobacco Control Board. ‘’Soon you will hear people announcing that the epidemic is coming to Africa. It is already …