Kampala, Uganda | ANDREW S. KAGGWA | Days after parliament quietly passed the National Biotechnology and Biosafety Bill, widely known as the ‘GMO Bill’, in early October, Meg Hilbert Jaquay, the Managing Director of Jakana Foods Limited, remains sad. Her company exports 30 metric tonnes of organic dried fruits to U.S., Europe, …
Read More »Uganda’s textile industry picking up the threads
Fine Spinners plan to sell T-shirts at US$3 on the local market Kampala, Uganda | ISAAC KHISA| It is Oct. 17, eighteen representatives of importers from Germany are touring Fine Spinner’s garment factory in Bugolobi, a Kampala suburb filming various activities and to ascertain the company’s production processes and capacity. Later, …
Read More »Live bullets and bloodshed turn spotlight on Kenyan police
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Live bullets, raids on houses and clouds of tear gas: for human rights defenders, the crackdown on Kenya’s opposition protest movement is yet another example of police impunity. Frequently accused of extrajudicial executions, Kenya’s security forces have defended their actions, saying their men had at …
Read More »Does this woman know who killed Kaweesi?
Kampala, Uganda | HAGGAI MATSIKO | She has met President Yoweri Museveni and the Director General of the Internal Security Organisation (ISO), Col. Frank Kaka Bagyenda. She is now being guarded by the Special Forces Command, the elite troops that protect the President but she still fears for her life. And the …
Read More »UGANDA: Fear of NGO big money
Latest on motive of raids on NGOs by security forces Kampala, Uganda | FLAVIA NASSAKA | Usually on Friday, staff at the Uganda National NGO Forum; an umbrella organisation for Civil Society across the country, clock off early as the office closes at 1pm. But on Sept.13 by 4 O’clock …
Read More »Secrets of Karamoja minerals
Fake investors and effects of government delaying survey of mineral-rich region Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | Big money is coming into Uganda from mining activity in various parts of the country and more could come in, especially if Karamoja which is considered “the basket of Uganda’s minerals” is surveyed. …
Read More »Business leaders bow to Xi as Communist Party pushes in
Beijing, China | AFP | Chinese billionaires are boasting about their Marxist bonafides. The Communist Party is tightening its grip on state-owned companies. And foreign companies are being asked to invite party cells into their offices. Under President Xi Jinping, the country’s ruling party is muscling back into business, expanding …
Read More »Tricky legal questions around Kenya’s repeat poll
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Kenya’s repeated presidential election, held after an August 8 vote was annulled, has still not been completed after violence prevented voting Thursday in flashpoint opposition strongholds. Some tricky legal questions remain: – When will the result be announced? – It is impossible to say at …
Read More »Behind the massacre in Somalia
Trump’s strategy and 5 factors around Mogadishu killing of 300 Kampala, Uganda | HAGGAI MATSIKO, IAN KATUSIIME, JULIUS BUSINGE | October 20| Hundreds of dead were burnt beyond recognition. One mother lost all her nine children. Wives, husbands, children and whole families perished in the Oct.14 bomb attack in Somalia capital, …
Read More »My god, 3.5 hours’: Xi gives marathon speech, China listens
Beijing, China | AFP | As Chinese leader Xi Jinping delivered his three-plus-hour speech at the Communist Party congress, delegates ranging from men in suits to military officers and former presidents dutifully turned every page as they read and listened to his words. On the internet, government bureaus peppered social …
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