In The Magazine

By Peter Nyanzi NRM should have exercised political maturity and used the elections to forge reconciliation One thing that really rubs Ugandan government officials the wrong way is making comparisons between Uganda and Rwanda, especially when such comparisons show things are better in Rwanda.  This thinking is mainly rooted in …

By Heikki Holmås Rio+20 – will be a new opportunity to agree on how to achieve growth, welfare, and protect the environment. Parents all over the world want to give their children and grandchildren a secure future.  This must also be the goal for the world’s leaders when we meet …

The Independent Team The challenge behind the numbers Belt-tightening without suffocating the patient; that is the balancing act Finance Minister Maria Kiwanuka is attempting in the 2012/13 financial year budget. It will not be easy. For the first time in two decades, the minister of Finance is unable to report …

By Haggai Matsiko Expectations of oil cash give way to anxiety as oil waste regulations delay The presence of billions of barrels of oil – the black gold- would ordinarily arouse great expectations in the minds of people everywhere. Not so in the Albertan Graben. Increasingly, a voice of communities …

By Andrew M. Mwenda How BIDCO’s investment is changing the lives of people in the district and the potential it has to transform agriculture Uganda today consumes 250,000 tonnes of vegetable oil per year, up from 100,000 tonnes in 2005. Of this, 16,000 tonnes was produced locally from oil palm …

By Haggai Matsiko Thomas Richardson, the Senior Resident Representative for the International Monetary Fund who is leaving Uganda for a new posting in India in July, tells The Independent’s Haggai Matsiko about macro-economic management, managing oil money, and the need for a new generation of leaders. How has your tenure …

By Mubatsi Asinja Habati As senior judges retire and others pursue greener pastures the courts are left hopelessly empty As Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki prepares to retire next year and his deputy, Alice Mpagi Bahigeine, later this year, the delivery of justice in Uganda is hampered by staffing gaps in …

By Eriasa Mukiibi Sserunjogi With Uganda’s economic growth slowed down to zero, Maria Kiwanuka needs some magic to save the day A mixture of high expectations and anxiety will greet Finance Minister Maria Kiwanuka when she steps up on June 14 to read next year’s budget. There is likely to …

By Omar Mohammed In March 2006, Juma V. Mwapachu was in Paris; a few months away from completing his four-year stint as Tanzania’s Ambassador to France, when he received a call from State House telling him that President Jakaya Kikwete needed to see him. Mwapachu quickly bought a ticket and …

By Eriasa Mukiibi Sserunjogi Presidents of the two parties may pay the ultimate price for the EALA fiasco The full extent of the damage exacted by the controversial election of Uganda representatives to the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) will take some time to unfold. But the elections reopened old …