NEWS ANALYSIS

By Haggai Matsiko Uganda outspends Kenya on military for the first time Uganda’s expenditure on arms surpassed Kenya’s for the first time in 2011, a new global arms expert report shows. Uganda spent US$1.02 billion; about double Kenya’s US$735 million. Details show that Uganda spent US$270 million on its usual …

By Mubatsi Asinja Habati & Julius Businge Prices go up but experts say she is barking the wrong tree On a busier day Bashir Mutebi, a timber dealer, would be negotiating deals to sell timber to Sudanese and Kenyan traders, and retailing to dealers in Kampala. Usually, he would sell …

By Miriam Mukama When a woman gives birth, usually it is joy. The newly born baby makes the mother a heroine of sorts and, she is thanked, given gifts and praised even in the humblest of communities where life hardships are too many. But Catherine Namukasa, 22, despite giving birth …

By Steve Terrill The lights Daniel Ntibaziyandemye uses for his nocturnal fishing trips are charged by pedal-powered generators that offer an affordable means of creating energy, even for the poor. The small generator, which stands knee-high inside a wooden frame, is operated by what looks like a recumbent exercise bike …

By Eriasa Mukiibi Sserunjogi Lukwago, Musisi, Land Board fight to control prime city plots Immediately the now indicted George Agaba took office at Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), he raised uproar with directives he made about the management of the city’s public land. As acting Director for Physical Planning, Agaba …

By Mubatsi Asinja Habati Museveni aide blocks donor project, wants Shs 1bn, State House cited in major land scams A land dispute between President Yoweri Museveni’s Press Secretary Tamale Mirundi and the Nakawa Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) is standing in the way of a US$4.5 million (Shs 9 billion) project. …

By Tracy Gwambe But new policy on compulsory computer classes for HSC students tests school resources Up a dusty road in Kawempe Division of Kampala district lies Kawempe Royal College; a mixed day and boarding school behind a small blue gate. One of the teachers here, Shamira Naluyingi, is feeling …

By Haggai Matsiko When Museveni wears Beijing’s big boots On Feb. 21, the China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC), acquired a third of Uganda’s newly discovered but potentially huge oil reserves in a US$ 2.9 million farm-down deal with the British firm, Tullow Oil and France’s Total. Nothing official yet, …

By Eriasa Mukiibi Sserunjogi Ssemogerere offers advice but party’s troubles are bigger than just removing Mao Standing at the headquarters of the Democratic Party at City House, Second Floor, it is difficult to imagine why controlling Uganda’s oldest political party is a do-or-die job for some people. A few meters …

By Rukiya Makuma Without her courage nodding disease would still be hidden away in northern Uganda She was desperate to call attention to the gravity of a rare disease ravaging northern Uganda that is crudely called “nodding disease”. Opposition firebrand Beatrice Anywar, however, never imagined how ferrying some of the …