While policymakers point to timelines and legal frameworks to justify readiness, the public often experiences these reforms as impositions rather than collaborations. That Auto-EPS took two decades to materialise but still managed to catch its target population off guard is evidence of a hollow civic process, more internal than inclusive, …
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Pentecost, Possession, and Sacred Language COMMENT | Gertrude Kamya Othieno | Pentecost marks the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples, fifty days after the resurrection and ten days after the Ascension. According to Acts 2, the Spirit arrives with the sound of a rushing wind and tongues of fire, …
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Essay 5 of 7: How Uganda Forgot Its Citizens COMMENT | Gertrude Kamya Othieno | Across Uganda’s landscape, scattered like monuments to forgotten promises, are the carcasses of public projects. Half-finished classrooms overtaken by shrubs. Health centres without drugs or staff. Roads that begin with gravel and end in potholes. These are …
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Essay 4 of 7: How Uganda Forgot Its Citizens COMMENT | Gertrude Kamya Othieno | There was a time when corruption in Uganda caused embarrassment. Today, it invites laughter, shrugs, or casual acceptance. From boda boda stops to boardrooms, the phrase “olina kaki”, (give me something small) echoes with neither shame nor …
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Essay 3 of 7: How Uganda Forgot Its Citizens COMMENT | Gertrude Kamya Othieno | In most functioning democracies, citizenship is not an accident of birth – it is a skill, a mindset, and a shared understanding. It is cultivated early, often in classrooms, where young people learn the structure of the …
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COMMENT | Gertrude Kamya Othieno | The death of a Pope is no private affair. Over 50 heads of state descended upon Rome, standing beneath Michelangelo’s dome to honour a man whose life mirrored a carpenter from Galilee. Cloaked in diplomacy, spectacle, and centuries of ritual, they gather not just to …
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COMMENT | Gertrude Kamya Othieno | Every 1st May, like clockwork, Uganda joins the rest of the world to honour workers, by ensuring the actual workers stay hard at it, while officials in crisp suits wave to the cameras and give speeches on “dignity” and “solidarity” from the comfort of shaded …
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Inspired by the Daily Monitor headline: “Traditions, Rituals in Pope’s Funeral” COMMENT | Gertrude Kamya Othieno | As the world watched the solemn burial of Pope Francis, rich in symbolism, tradition, and spiritual reverence, it becomes impossible to ignore the striking parallels with other global rites of passage, particularly those found in …
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Essay 2 of 7: How Uganda Forgot Its Citizens COMMENT | Gertrude Kamya Othieno | In a healthy democracy, citizenship implies both responsibility and entitlement. It is a mutual contract: citizens invest trust, taxes, and participation, while the state delivers services, justice, and opportunity. But in Uganda, this social contract has been …
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Essay 1 of 7: How Uganda forgot its citizens COMMENT | Gertrude Kamya Othieno | There is a strange comfort in the way Ugandans talk about their country. Roads that are full of potholes, stalled government projects, or dubious public expenditures, all are retold not in anger but with laughter. It …
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The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
