Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | These are the top stories in this week’s THE INDEPENDENT. COVER STORY Chasing militants or money?: Investigation questions UPDF mission in DR Congo THE LAST WORD Aiding the enemy Part 2: America’s opportunities and main challenge as it seeks to contain China from dominating Asia …
Read More »How to broaden political appeal
Lessons for Uganda’s opposition from the repositioning of the National Front, France’s far-right party THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M MWENDA | On February 8, 2022, BBC’s Steven Sucker hosted Marine Le Pen on the Hardtalk program. Le Pen is the leader of the National Front (FN), a right-wing …
Read More »The real problem of Uganda
Educated Ugandans can’t see they don’t need a perfect policy environment to become prosperous THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | There are two suffocating beliefs among the vast majority of educated Ugandans. The first is that a university degree (does not) just provide someone an opportunity to search …
Read More »Behind the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Why the U.S should beware of the law of unintended consequences THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M MWENDA | There is a huge misunderstanding of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Many people see it as an unprovoked act of aggression by a megalomaniacal President Vladmir Putin against a small …
Read More »Africa’s politics of fiction
It is incredible how politics in our part of the world is far removed from reality THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | What determines the governance strategies elites employ in any given country? The philosopher, Karl Marx, argued that the way people organise themselves to solve their basic …
Read More »UPDF, the DRC and the ADF war
Why it’s about hearts and minds; not bullets COVER STORY | ANDREW M MWENDA | Kambi ya Yua is an eight-acre hill site in the middle of a jungle that runs for over 100km from Uganda deep into inside of the DR Congo. It has no neighbouring human settlement, no access …
Read More »IN THE INDEPENDENT: Museveni out of US summit
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | These are the top stories in this week’s THE INDEPENDENT. COVER STORY Museveni out of U.S. democracy summit: Why it doesn’t matter and why all eyes should be on 2022 US-Africa Summit THE LAST WORD Our anti-corruption pretense: How poor countries indulge in rituals of …
Read More »On Museveni and his critics
What we always miss about the governance strategies employed by leaders of poor countries THE LAST WORD | Andrew M Mwenda | Last Sunday, a high school alumni found me at a cafe in town and with a sardonic smile gave me an unwelcome compliment. “Andrew,” he said as he bit …
Read More »No one size fits all
How Dubai, a city state ruled by an absolute monarch, challenges Western notions of rationalism and individual autonomy THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | I spent the whole of this week in Dubai, the second richest emirate of the United Arab Emirates. It is a city-state that …
Read More »Losing sight of grand strategy
How Kampala’s cold war with Kigali harms Uganda’s national interest and what can be done about it THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | Last week, Uganda’s Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) arrested the Vice Chancellor of Victoria University, Lawrence Muganda, apparently on charges of espionage. Muganga is not …
Read More »