By Haggai Matsiko Ruling party set to pick flag bearer early October When Tanga Odoi, the electoral commission chairman of the ruling party on July.10 launched the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party’s electoral road map for party structures, he officially launched what is expected to be one of the fiercest …
Read More »Muntu Vs Besigye
By Haggai Matsiko FDC members face some tough choices As the two Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) giants—Kizza Besigye, the party’s founding president and Mugisha Muntu, its current president—face off in a contest over who should lead the party in the 2016 presidential race, observers are praising the party’s democratic …
Read More »Besigye, Muntu, Mbabazi
By Haggai Matsiko July was bound to be a hot month in Uganda, politically speaking as most of the major opposition groups have announced they will be electing their flag-bearers for the 2016 elections. But few anticipated the events of the last week of June. In a sign of the …
Read More »Arrest. Expel. Block
By Haggai Matsiko Arrest. Expel. Block. The Independent has learnt that those are the three main options several meetings of NRM leaders on the Amama Mbabazi issue have been discussing. The most anticipated of the meetings is the Central Executive Committee (CEC) slated for early July. The desired outcome is …
Read More »Museveni Vs Mbabazi online
By Haggai Matsiko Who is winning on social media? No Ugandan presidential candidate has created as much activity on social media as former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi who in a June 15 YouTube video announced his intention to stand against the incumbent, President Yoweri Museveni in the 2016 elections. His …
Read More »Opposition’s ‘unholy’ alliance
By Haggai Matsiko Can Besigye, Bukenya, Mbabazi, Muntu work together? The morning after about 98 percent of the top contenders against President Museveni launched a coalition dubbed The Democratic Alliance (TDA) on June 10, there was a lot of excitement among hundreds of supporters gathered at Hotel Africana in Kampala. …
Read More »Museveni’s 2016 Budget
By Haggai Matsiko Suspicions of vote buying eclipse record Shs 24 trillion budget On May 25, Keith Muhakanizi, the secretary to the Treasury, wrote to the Clerk to Parliament notifying the House of the final corrigenda to the 2015/2016 Shs.24 budget that Finance Minister Matia Kasaija presented on June 11. …
Read More »NRM in trouble over register, again
By Haggai Matsiko Fights in party primaries could be worse than 2010 Since April 27, when President Yoweri Museveni launched a massive registration of members of his ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party registers members, questions have emerged about the `real’ motive behind it. The NRM party register tends to …
Read More »Inside Burundi’s attempted coup
By Haggai Matsiko Warning to leaders seeking to unconstitutionally cling onto power Apart from fears Burundi could return to another civil war similar to the 13-year long one that ended in 2006, many point to the Burundi instability as a reminder of what danger lurks when leaders seek to unconstitutionally …
Read More »Museveni’s cash worries MPs
By Haggai Matsiko Shs90bn spent, more needed Recently, as celebrations to mark 100 years of Christianity in Kinkiizi diocese neared, the main subject of speculation was not whether President Yoweri Museveni would donate but whether his donation would be bigger compared to that of his former prime minister turned-rival, Amama …
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