The News Today

Report shows how dictators exploited COVID-19 to quash opposition Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | In 2018, the American democracy advocacy NGO, Freedom House, gave Uganda a score of 37% in its Freedom in the World Report and labeled the country “partly free”. Then in its 2019 report, Uganda’s score …

Museveni, CEC, ethnicity feature in second face off Kampala, Uganda | IAN KATUSIIME | The second battle for the Speakership of Parliament between Rebecca Kadaga and Jacob Oulanyah threatens to be more bruising than the first in 2016. Speaker Kadaga and her deputy Oulanyah are wooing a House that has …

Kenyatta says East African behind Suluhu  Dodoma, Tanzania | THE INDEPENDENT & PSCU Kenya | The 6th President of Tanzania Samia Suluhu Hassan has assured the world she is ready to take full charge of the country. “For those in doubt, this woman will be an effective President of the United Republic …

Dodoma, Tanzania | THE INDEPENDENT | African leaders have today given a final salute to Tanzania’s John Magufuli, who died last week. Presidents of South Africa, Zambia, Botswana, Comoros, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Kenya attended state funeral ceremonies at Dodoma, central Tanzania. Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni paid his final tributes at the …

Mbarara, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Over 1,500 employees at Pearl Dairy Farms Lts have been laid off, almost a year after the company stopped exporting milk and milk products to Kenya. The yet unresolved trade Uganda-Kenya trade war, first in the dairy sector, and recently with maize, plus the effects …

Samia Hassan Suluhu becomes first woman president in traditional East Africa ANALYSIS | THE INDEPENDENT & AGENCIES  | As stipulated in the Tanzanian constitution, Vice President Samia Hassan Suluhu was on March 18 sworn in as the country’s 6th President following the death of John Pombe Magufuli on March 17. …

John Pombe Magufuli, the son of a peasant farmer who became Tanzania’s president in 2015, has died aged 61. Once praised for his no-nonsense approach, he went on to become a controversial leader, especially over his response to the coronavirus pandemic. ANALYSIS | BBC.COM | He was elected for a …

Tororo, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Prime Ministers of cultural institutions from the Bukedi and Bugisu sub-region have called on Government to create a ministry to help check growing poverty in the areas they represent in Eastern Uganda. In a joint memorandum to President Yoweri Museveni, they also called for …

  OBITUARY | BY RAILA ODINGA- The Citizen Tanzania | When rumours started going around about the health and whereabouts of my friend President John Pombe Magufuli, I placed several calls to him. Later, I sent him a text message. Both went unanswered. I then resigned to expect the worst …

Suluhu first woman President in traditional East Africa Dar es Salaam, Tanzania | THE INDEPENDENT | As stipulated in the Tanzanian constitution, Vice President Samia Hassan Suluhu has today been sworn in as the country’s 6th President following the death of John Pombe Magufuli this week. She is the country’s first woman President. …