COLUMNISTS

By Prof Mahmood Mamdani This is an edited version of Prof. Mahmood Mamdani’s presentation at the Abu Mayanja Annual Lecture on August 7, 2009 at Kampala International Conference Centre. I am greatly honored to have been asked to give this lecture. I met the late Abu Mayanja in 1961. I …

By Andrew M. Mwenda  In this column last week, I argued that after every successive election in Uganda, the quality of government has tended to deteriorate. Many Ugandans think this is because our nation has a sham democracy. ‘Were we to have genuine democracy,’ my friend Erias Lukwago, MP for …

By Andrew M. Mwenda & Molly Lister Did minister Onek touch a live wire? Sometime early this year, then minister of state for micro finance, Gen. Salim Saleh, went to meet the Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Keith Muhakazi. He had a couple of documents with him …

By Andrew M. Mwenda It is difficult to conduct a debate on anything in Africa whose premise is the reality on the ground. Most debate ‘ whether on public policies or political institutions, on democracy or accountability ‘ uses as its reference point, the experience of the Western world. Take …

By Isaac Mufumba On Sunday June 7, Prince Edward Columbus Wambuzi, backed up by three of Busoga Kingdom’s 11 hereditary chiefs, a host of musclemen called Kanyamas and some followers from his native Bulamogi County, installed himself as Isebantu Kyabazinga of Busoga when he took the crown from the head …

By Andrew M. Mwenda When you are poor, every Tom, Dick and Harry steps over your nose. This was the impression I got when I read the lecture (as opposed to a speech) by US President Barack Obama in Ghana. The uncritical enthusiasm with which some elites in Africa received …

INEA It sits astride the Kumi-Soroti highway. Prominent behind the low roofed shops is an oval-shaped structure towering above the bushy compound. This infamous protrusion is a monument at Okunguro Railway Station. It is a reminder of the rebellion where 55 victims of the bloody insurgency were finally laid to …

By Bob Roberts Katende It is 10.45 am on July 15 and the place is Room 408 of Parliament Building. The house is buzzing with activity as journalists swarm around with their notebooks and cameras loosely craning their necks. Five men from the Uganda Land Commission (ULC) emerge from the …

By Andrew M. Mwenda Finally, the dust has settled over the death and burial of Michael Jackson. Throughout his career, Jackson fought two battles; one with himself, the other with general societal norms. The battle within himself was an attempt to discover the childhood denied to him by his father’s …

By Patrick Matsiko wa Mucoori Whatever clucks and walks like a duck is always a duck even by another name. No matter whether the UPDF calls itself a disciplined pro-people’s army or defender of human rights, it will always be more known by its actions than its words. In April …