Can halve infant deaths among poor not rich | THE INDEPENDENT | In some of the world’s least-developed countries, spacing births two years apart, instead of one, can nearly halve infant mortality rates, a study finds. But in more developed nations, increasing the interval between successive childbirths makes little difference …
Read More »Controversy over National Coffee Bill
Proposed law alone is not a solution to the challenges facing the coffee industry Kampala, Uganda | PATRICIA AKANKWATSA | One of Uganda’s favourite crop, coffee, could soon be heavily regulated as the government takes a step to amend the existing law. The proposed law, National Coffee Bill, 2018, seeks …
Read More »Africa moves to conserve animal genetic resources
Only developed countries including the US, China, India, some in Europe and South America have well–established gene banks Kampala, Uganda | ISAAC KHISA | For the recent decades, Africa’s indigenous animals such as the East Africa’s sinewy Ankole cattle; a product of the centuries of selection for traits adapted to …
Read More »DRC Ebola concern up
What WHO emergency declaration means | THE INDEPENDENT | On July 17, the second worst Ebola outbreak of all time, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was officially declared an international Public Health Emergency of International Concern. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said this means all countries should …
Read More »De-risking investment in the agriculture sector
Insurance could unlock finance in agribusiness; boost farmer’s productivity and incomes Kampala, Uganda | ISAAC KHISA | Christopher Elema, 40, a maize farmer in Kiryandongo District, located 225kms, north-west of Kampala, was in February this year paid Shs6.5million as compensation for his failed crop yields. He had planted 40 acres …
Read More »ANALYSIS: Police on torture
Why activists say IGP Ochola’s latest order is a joke Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | At a recent event organized in Kampala to commemorate the international day in support of torture victims, Mario Obiga Kania, the State Minister for Internal Affairs asked several uniformed police officers in attendance to …
Read More »Criminalising being poor
Why governance standards set in the West and imposed on poor countries are dangerous THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | Last week, a friend posted on a social media platform an article by a US scholar about life in a democracy and an autocracy as imagined by Americans! …
Read More »Bad news over LDU recruitment
Political risk exposed Kampala, Uganda | IAN KATUSIIME AND JULIAN SABIITI | Some of them forged documents. Others bribed. Many were rejected and many fainted in the physical recruitment training. But still they did not give up. The countrywide recruitment of Local Defense Unit (LDUs) that started on July 15 …
Read More »Uganda softens stance on investing in National Parks
New investors commit Shs228bn to build lodges in the country’s conservancies Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | The Ugandan government is expected to sign several concession agreements with new investors next month seeking to build top of the range lodging facilities in five national parks. The new development is a …
Read More »‘Wildlife-based tourism can transform African economies’
Doreen Robinson, the head of the Wildlife Unit at the UN Environment Programme was one of the co-organizers of the first ever Africa Wildlife Economy Summit held recently in the Zimbabwean town of Victoria Falls. She spoke to The Independent’s Ronald Musoke about what the conveners hoped to achieve …
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