COLUMNISTS

By Andrew M. Mwenda A common joke about our roads in Uganda goes like this: If you see someone driving zigzag, then you know he is sober; and if you see someone driving straight, they must be drunk. Why is the logic of driving inverted? Because we have too many …

By Obed K. Katureebe In early February 2006 President Yoweri Museveni called an urgent meeting with the Sembabule district NRM leadership at State House Nakasero. High on the agenda was who should be the NRM’s official woman candidate for Sembabule district in the February 2006 parliamentary elections? Museveni, who was …

By Andrew M. Mwenda The recent Uganda Peoples‘ Defence Forces (UPDF) attack on the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) camps in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was certainly the right thing to do, although the assault itself was ill-timed, poorly planned and incompetently executed. Before the assault, the Uganda government …

By Tony Okao Otoa Jr One of my favourite Shakespeare plays is the one about Julius Caesar. The thing about this play that really makes me overly amazed is the ignorance of the leaders at the time and the intrigue and backstabbing that follows at the end. However my most …

The Independent Team As the scent of an impending reshuffle of President Yoweri Museveni’s cabinet persists, The Independent conducted a random survey of the public rating of the current cabinet. In a startling finding, the survey revealed an increasing clamour for a complete overhaul of up to three-quarters of Museveni’s …

By Andrew M. Mwenda One of the key issues of 2008 was the price at which the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) bought land belonging to security minister, Amama Mbabazi. I strongly believe it was a good price. Many believe it was a rip-off. If i am right, workers should …

By The Independent Reporter Statement by the government of Rwanda on the report of the UN group of experts on the Democratic Republic of Congo The Government of Rwanda expresses its deep disappointment at the report of the UN Group of Experts, which contains dangerous inaccuracies and outright lies. This …

By Roland Atinkson On 30 November, Joseph Kony failed ” once again ” to sign the Final Peace Agreement negotiated in Juba between the LRA/M rebels and the Government of Uganda (GoU). The absence of Kony’s signature (and, thus, that of President Museveni), worries many in Acholi, and has contributed …

By Andrew M. Mwenda On December 17th last year, the first issue of The Independent hit the streets. I remember vividly one of our colleagues, Asuman Bisika coming with his eyes beaming into our small office along Kanjokya Street with the first copy of the magazine. It looked wonderful and …

By Andrew M. Mwenda What does the appointment of internal affairs minister, Ruhakana Rugunda, as Uganda’s permanent representative at the United Nations imply? Some people believe that this is the beginning of the end of Rugunda’s long political career. Others insist this could mark his rise to a more prominent …