Rwandans show love for the president with 99% victory in election but uncertainty looms on future without him COVER STORY | IAN KATUSIIME | Thirty years since he led the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) to capture power in Kigali after ending the genocide against the Tutsi, Rwandan President Paul Kagame was …
Read More »Ruto awakened class politics
It now threatens to engulf him as the character of Kenya’s politics shifts in ways even he could not have predicted COMMENT | PETER LOCKWOOD | Many of the grievances of Kenya’s Gen-Z, young people who took to the streets in late June, have been palpable for years. I witnessed these …
Read More »Ugandans swing towards military rule
New survey shows shift away from democratic culture COVER STORY | THE INDEPENDENT | Ugandans are growing increasingly more uninterested in elections and elected leaders and, they see little hope in the opposition providing better leadership than the current one of President Yoweri Museveni. That is the general view based on findings …
Read More »A plea for political economy
Studying politics separately from economics creates an artificial gap between interconnected subjects COMMENT | KAUSHIK BASU | The world economy is at a turning point. As global supply chains face increasingly frequent disruptions, the structures underpinning markets and international trade are unraveling, leading to economic instability which, in turn, is spilling …
Read More »Why women’s participation in Uganda politics is cosmetic
Political parties are to blame for male dominance Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Political parties in Uganda have a long way to go to improve the position of women in their ranks. This according to a study by Kyambogo University lecturer, Hannah Muzee, of the Department of Political Science and …
Read More »Challenge of the Congo
Why Congolese leaders should be wary of US and UN involvement in their country’s affairs THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | We begin from where we stopped in this column last week. Staff at the U.S. embassy in Kampala deliberately distorted my discussions with them regarding M23 rebels. They claimed I …
Read More »Big moment ahead in Bobi Wine Vs Mpuuga
Assessing the fallout in Masaka and what lies ahead for 2026 COVER STORY | IAN KATUSIIME | The feud between the National Unity Platform (NUP) and former Leader of Opposition in Parliament Mathias Mpuuga has festered for months and all indications are that it will go on until the 2026 elections. …
Read More »Leaders and the logic of strategy
The tragedy of power and politics that presidents Biden and Museveni must navigate to keep their jobs THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | U.S. President Jo Biden and Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni have a couple of similarities. Both were born during the second world war. Biden turns 82 in November; Museveni turns …
Read More »Africa’s intellectual crisis
How our mindless quest for development using Western institutions often leads our nations to disaster THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | I have always wanted to write a book about political governance in Africa. This is because [most of the time] whenever I read anything on governance in Africa: an academic …
Read More »Double-dealing defines U.S. politics
BEIJING | Xinhua | Washington delights in touting such noble terms as democracy, human rights and rules-based international order, but what it does betrays what it truly believes. The Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, featuring violent protesters, damaged statues, vandalized offices and terrified lawmakers inside the “seat of American democracy,” …
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