In The Magazine

By Haggai Matsiko Foreign big-money investment frenzy in Tullow’s backyard It’s Sunday, but this town’s Main Street is beehive of activity. Nothing unusual; this is Hoima, Uganda’s oil boom town. Builders, masons, and painters can be seen everywhere hanging on wobbly wooden scaffoldings in a frenzy of construction activity. The …

By Andrew M. Mwenda This morning, September 7th, 2012, newspapers reported that the PPDA has cancelled the tender to construct a 700MW electricity dam at Karuma. For a country that has been experiencing electricity shortages for the last 25 years, this is a major setback. However, the story of cancelling …

By Eriasa Mukiibi Sserunjogi Rivalry could cost party in 2016 Col. Kizza Besigye’s home turf, the Kasangati Ssaza Grounds outside Kampala city, was on Aug. 23 the scene of excited ululations, political speeches, and feisty dancing to the kadodi, the imbalu circumcision dance from Mbale, eastern Uganda. The scene of …

By Haggai Matsiko How often do three helicopters crash at a go? Soroti Flying School, 2kms northeast of Soroti town in eastern Uganda, was on the morning of August 12, a bee-hive of frenetic activity as army pilots jumped onto waiting helicopters while their top brass waved excitedly and gave …

By Moses Khisa The assumption that Makerere hasn’t contributed to scholarship is gratuitous Makerere Institute for Social Research (MISR) Director, Prof. Mahmood Mamdani’s article, `Beyond the colonised, neoliberal university’, (The Independent magazine online Aug.12) was remarkably incisive and illuminating. But it also had some lapses, to which I return below. …

By Frank Schäffler and Norbert F. Tofall Eliminate the financial system’s rapidly growing debt to create a new monetary order of free-enterprise The G-20’s decision in November 2008 not to let any systemically relevant bank perish may have seemed wise at the time, given the threat of a global financial …

By Elamu Denis Ejulu “I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.” – Mark Anthony, Julius Caesar I would apply these words to Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s prime minister, a resilient, intelligent, and larger …

By Andrew M. Mwenda By responding to allegations about its involvement in DRC, Rwanda has allowed its detractors to define the debate Over the last two months, there has been a barrage of attacks against Rwanda accusing it of involvement in the Democratic Republic of Congo by supporting rebels hostile …

By Agather Atuhaire Kasese woman MP Winnie Kiiza’s recent by-election was the latest shocker of the ruling National Resistance Movement Party. A margin of about 40,000 votes by which Kiiza beat her NRM rival Rehema Muhindo wrapped up the despair of the part which has won only one out of …

By Thierry Tanoh Continent needs better infrastructure in order to boost food production Last year, the international community recognised one of the worst humanitarian tragedies of recent times unfolding in the Horn of Africa, and moved in to ameliorate the widespread famine there. Now, poor rains, crop shortages, and continuing …