Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The top stories in this week’s THE INDEPENDENT. COVER STORY BOBI Wine Consultations: How People Power plans to dodge police roadblocks THE LAST WORD Kampala grinding to a halt: How NRM politics has made Kampala a dysfunctional city and what cannot be done about …
Read More »MUSEVENI: The importance of the Galamba-Bireembo Trek
COMMENT | Yoweri Kaguta Museveni | An armed conflict has got four levels: a war; a campaign;an operation; and a battle. All these levels can either be short, like the 6 days war of 1967 between Israel and the Arabs or a protracted one such as the 30 years war …
Read More »US killing catapults Iraq back to aftermath of 2003 invasion
Baghdad, Iraq | AFP | Iraqi factions threatening to oust US troops, officials denouncing American “violations” and fears of a new Gulf war: a US strike has catapulted Iraq back to the tumultuous aftermath of the 2003 invasion. The precision drone strike outside Baghdad airport on Friday killed top Iranian …
Read More »IN THE INDEPENDENT: Sabiiti on the spot
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The top stories in this week’s THE INDEPENDENT. COVER STORY Sabiiti on the spot: Exposing the police boss’s biggest problem THE WEEK Election 2021 plans: EC starts verification of voters’ register at village level THE LAST WORD Inside Europe’s savior complex: How Western efforts …
Read More »From comic to commander-in-chief: challenges for new Ukraine leader
Kiev, Ukraine | AFP | Ukraine’s election has catapulted Volodymyr Zelensky, a 41-year-old standup comedian and television star with no political experience, into the nation’s top job. As leader of a country dependent on international aid and battling separatists, Zelensky will have to deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, deep …
Read More »Mnangagwa loses ‘reformist’ claims after new crackdown
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | After Zimbabwe’s authoritarian leader Robert Mugabe was forced from power, his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa declared the country had turned the page on repression. Today, such claims sound deeply hollow as Zimbabwe reels from its second crackdown on protest in less than six months, analysts …
Read More »Uganda’s growing public debt
PUBLIC DEBT: Why is it growing? Is it prohibitive, unsustainable? Kampala, Uganda | ANDREW M. MWENDA | On January 10, I watched with increasing depression a debate about Uganda’s national debt on the NBS Frontline show. Although the Minister of State for Finance, David Bahati, made many good arguments …
Read More »Sudan protests biggest threat yet to Bashir: analysts
Paris, France | AFP | Deadly protests that have grown across Sudan in recent weeks are the biggest threat to President Omar al-Bashir’s iron-fisted rule since he swept to power in a 1989 coup, experts said. Clashes have killed at least 19 since demonstrations began two weeks ago, initially in …
Read More »ANALYSIS: Torture in 2018
Justice Katureebe pain and Bobi Wine’s pockets Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | Many Ugandans, including Chief Justice Bart Katureebe, agree that this year has been one of the worst for human rights violations. This year coincided with the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but in Uganda, …
Read More »ANALYSIS: The year Bobi Wine
NRM, FDC battled eight by-elections but a young untested legislator became the issue Kampala, Uganda | IAN KATUSIIME | This year, 2018, saw some upsets and changes in the political lay of the land as 36-year-old legislator Robert Kyagulanyi popularly known as Bobi Wine continued to exert his presence on a …
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