THE LAST WORD

By Andrew M. Mwenda As NRM climbs down from idealism to reality, the FDC may need to learn something about its own utopias On Dec. 15, a special National Resistance Movement (NRM) Delegates Conference called by President Yoweri Museveni will be held at Namboole National Stadium. The main purpose is …

By Andrew M. Mwenda What the governor’s statement tells us about what will happen in 2016 Bank of Uganda (BoU) Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile recently revealed that during the 2011 presidential elections, the government approached the Central Bank for large sums of cash to finance a supplementary budget. BoU obliged. Mutebile …

By Andrew M. Mwenda How the fight against corruption is actually the way this evil has grown and consolidated in our country Two weeks ago, President Yoweri Museveni forced the minister of Finance to reappoint Richard Byarugaba as Managing Director of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF). The president argued …

By Andrew M. Mwenda What creates enduring political institutions that can ensure peaceful transfers of power from incumbents to new leaders? Two important events happened in Africa last week that provide important insights into our continent’s political evolution. First, was the death of the president of Zambia, Michael Sata. This …

By Andrew M. Mwenda How the discourse on press freedom in Rwanda has missed the promising developments in that country Last week I attended President Paul Kagame’s lecture at Chatham House in London. It was without the usual hecklers i.e. mindless anti-Kagame fanatics. It attracted the more refined minds of …

By Andrew M. Mwenda It is a product of poor incentives rather than lack of professional competence The usual response of the international development community to public sector incompetence in poor countries is obvious – and makes sense. First they advise that we should put in place institutions of accountability …

By Andrew M. Mwenda An inside look at why the US has deployed its military to fight Ebola and Western media coverage of this “rescue mission” Over the last month, efforts to fight Ebola in West Africa, especially Liberia, have dominated the news on all international cable and satellite television. …

By Andrew M. Mwenda How Britain’s leading institution has lent its services to the deniers of the genocide against the Tutsi And so it was that after a couple of text messages I decided to spare an hour to watch a documentary by the BBC titled “Rwanda: The Untold Story”. …

By Andrew M. Mwenda If Mbabazi plans to challenge Museveni for the presidency of Uganda, he has begun on a wrong footing Since he was dropped from cabinet, speculation has been rife about what former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi is going to do. Will he challenge President Yoweri Museveni for …

By Andrew M. Mwenda I spent the first week of this month in Dubai. Now I first visited Dubai in 1996. It was, I thought then, a big city. I have since visited this desert town almost every year since 2002. But compared to today, the Dubai of 1996 was …