Washington, United States | AFP | Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman who was indicted on Monday, had always worked behind the scenes in lucrative consultant deals before the 2016 US presidential race. The veteran strategist advised Gerald Ford in the 1970s and Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, …
Read More »Uhuru Kenyatta: Re-elected, but at what cost?
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Uhuru Kenyatta, who won a second and final term in Kenya’s controversial election re-run, is the son of the country’s founding president and a man who epitomises the country’s elite. The 56-year-old US-educated multi-millionaire, whose family owns an array of businesses, properties and land, followed in …
Read More »Africans in Israel unwelcome in Tel Aviv, refugees dream of home
Kampala, Uganda | STEPHEN WEIZMAN | Tens of thousands of Africans who fled misery at home for safety in Israel are living in limbo, fearing deportation though some have lived in the country for more than a decade. Recognising a rising tide of discontent among Israelis over the migrants’ presence in south …
Read More »Tears and cheers over new GMO law
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 …
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The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price