NEWS ANALYSIS

By Melina Raquel Platas When the NRA marched into Kampala in January of 1986, the new President, Yoweri Museveni, faced a daunting challenge: How to lead a country that had been in political turmoil for 15 years. Between independence in 1962 and the arrival of Museveni in 1986, executive power …

By Charles Onyango-Obbo Uganda is a medium-size African country, but at 71 has the continent’s second largest cabinet. Even more remarkable, it has the world’s third largest cabinet after North Korea! The question is, to what end? There is an increasing body of literature that argues, quite convincingly, that there …

By Eriasa Mukiibi Sserunjogi & Dicta Asiimwe Why president ordered MPs to pass traditional rulers Bill When Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II, to wild cheers from his subjects at a December 31, 2010 fete at the palace, used a dummy of a key to symbolically unlock the New Year, he …

By Andrew M. Mwenda A special investigation into a joint Uganda-Kenya security hunt for terrorists Just before the December 20, 2010 grenade attack on a Kampala-bound bus in Nairobi, two major incidents had taken place in the Kenyan capital. First, on the morning of December 3, 2010, attackers suspected to …

By the independent team & agencies Former judge Bruguire admits he conferred with French government over decision A French judge placed Rwanda’s defence minister and five other aides of President Paul Kagame under investigation in a probe into an attack seen as sparking the African country’s 1994 genocide, legal sources …

By eriasa mukiibi sserunjigi How accurate is Museveni’s 66% poll score? IPC survey says Besigye has 60%. Does he? The heated debate over the credibility of the recent pre-2011 election survey by Afrobarometer that gave the incumbent, President Yoweri Museveni, a commanding lead of 66 percent has obscured assessment of …

by mubatsi asinja habati The documents were designed as a new form of journalism that gives readers the original documents on which the stories are based. So why the denials? US Assistant of State for Africa, Johnnie Carson, who has over 40 years of foreign and diplomatic service, is one …

By Matthew Stein Up close with AMISOM’s “Somali expert” This upcoming January, Maj. Barigye Ba-Hoku, the Africa Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) spokesman, will have completed three years in Somalia. “I’m now in my own right an expert on Somalia,” he recently said during an impromptu visit to The Independent. …

By kabona esiara Rwanda switches to digital broadcasting in January 2011 The National Bureau for Information (ORINFOR) monopoly on the television broadcast industry in Rwanda has come to an end. By next year, a second signal distributor for terrestrial digital broadcast network will be licensed. The development brings in competition …

By matthew stein New report questions Rwanda-DRC strategy in the Kivu Rape. Violence. Displacement. Minerals. Pillaging. These are all words that have become synonymous with the relentless conflict in the Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In 2006, the U.N. estimated that 27,000 sexual assaults had taken …