Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | These are the top stories in this week’s THE INDEPENDENT. COVER STORY Joint 2021 opposition candidate impossible: Why Bobi Wine, Besigye, Muntu can’t unite THE LAST WORD Inside Museveni’s 34 years: The pros and cons of the President’s long rule and what they portend for …
Read More »The fate of First Family children
Case of Africa’s troubled richest woman casts new light ANALYSIS | THE INDEPENDENT | When the former long-serving leader of Zimbabwe, Robert Gabriel Mugabe died on September 06, 2019, attention almost immediately turned to the wealth he is alleged to have looted while in office and those likely to benefit …
Read More »After Sultan Qaboos, Oman to retain its treasured neutrality
Dubai, United Arab Emirates | AFP | The sultanate of Oman, positioned geographically and diplomatically between the rival powers of Iran and Saudi Arabia, earned outsize influence under the long reign of the late Sultan Qaboos. As the health of the royal ruler declined, and speculation turned to who would …
Read More »IN THE INDEPENDENT: Bobi Wine consultations
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 …
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