In The Magazine

By G. Pascal Zachary Democracy has taken root in Africa,’ says Princeton Lyman, an analyst with the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington DC. And from the perspective of history, it does seem that the people of sub-Saharan Africa have entered a robust period of democracy. The trend toward multi-party …

I pick up where I left off last week: the tragic collapse in the quality of government in Uganda has gone hand-in-hand with corruption on a scale never previously witnessed. Roads are full of potholes, schools are burning, hospitals are death traps and public parks are overgrown bushes. Public institutions …

By Mahmood Mamdani In this four-part series, renowned Ugandan scholar Professor Mahmood Mamdani examines the historical causes of Zimbabwe’s political crisis. It is hard to think of a figure more reviled in the west than Robert Mugabe. Liberal and conservative commentators alike portray him as a brutal dictator, and blame …

By Rosebell Kagumire Questions about the clandestine operations of Ugandan security agencies have once again been raised after a Canadian court denied asylum to a former worker of the Internal Security Organisation (ISO). Fahad Huthy Mutumba, 35, a Montreal resident, claims to have worked as an office clerk with ISO …

By Onghwens Kisangala The upheavals that preceded the FDC delegates conference over the partys suspension of Rubaga North MP Beti Kamya summed up one of Uganda’s core challenges: democracy and the question of Buganda.  The Independents Onghwens Kisangala discusses the issues with Prof. John Jean Barya, a top scholar in …

By Odoobo C. Bichachi Last week’s momentous FDC delegates conference at Mandela National Stadium in Namboole set the party on the high road to the 2011 general elections. It also set the newly re-elected party president Col. Dr Kizza Besigye on course for a third clash with incumbent and likely …

Kisangala Onghwens & Bob Roberts Katende A triumph for democracy or more of the same? The second FDC Delegates’ Conference was concluded in the early hours of Saturday morning last week with every party member praising the maturity of the exercise. With departmental report presentations dealt with on the first …

By Rosebell Kagumire He was such a huge man, was the first reaction from the cultural leaders after spotting a skull at one of the burial sites. He must have been an LRA fighter, said another Acholi elder on the team. The leaders had trekked through the shrubs and thickets …

By Odoobo C. Bichachi  Power race heats up in FDC  Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) secretary for mobilisation Maj. Gen. Mugisha Muntu is challenging Dr Kizza Besigye for the position of party president. Aswa MP Reagan Okumu is itching to take over from Ogenga Latigo as leader of the opposition …

By Andrew M. Mwenda Twenty three years since he came to power, President Yoweri Museveni shows no plans of leaving. We should not be surprised by this because Museveni is walking the long-trodden path of other African dictators of old like Marshal Mobutu of Zaire, Paul Biya of Cameroon, Omar …