Blog entries

Prime Minister’s chopper crash is an eye opener

indipadmin009 — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:04:40 +0100

Government issued a statement on the March 8 helicopter mishap which nearly killed Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi and six others.

Prof. Nsibambi, the Permanent Secretary in his office, Pius Bigirimana and three aides Rose Oyella, Apollo Munghinda, Peter Isabirye and the pilots Emmanuel Busuulwa and Elijah Matovu were injured in the crash.

Cabinet ministers who supervised projects as part of the November 2007 Chogm should not be allowed to travel abroad until they have accounted for their actions, MPs investigating the matter said yesterday.

Concerned that government’s proposed electoral rRead More...

What Uganda must do to benefit from the economic integration

indipadmin009 — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:59:24 +0100

Uganda is a strategic central trade hub for the East African Community (EAC). For example, the country has managed to present itself as a link necessary to leverage trading benefits in the resurgent lucrative markets in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and the Southern Sudan.

The Customs Union protocol came into force in 2005 and bRead More...

Opinion: Why is Mao getting more media coverage than Kabaka?

indipadmin009 — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:36:34 +0100

I've become more and more upset and discouraged by the blatant, biased journalism surrounding pre 2011 elections in Uganda. Some parts of the media in Uganda seem hell bent in helping president Museveni win the elections by covering him about anything and also promoting some divisive candidates among the opposition.

The media has been pRead More...

Women's day message: Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities, Progress for All

indipadmin009 — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:15:11 +0100

March 8 is International Women’s Day. This year, it also marks the 15th anniversary of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing. Fifteen years ago, 189 countries signed on to a Platform for Action that affirmed the need to work for women’s equality in access to education, healthcare, jobs, credit, and more. It stressed the need to have women participate fully in the economic and political life of thRead More...

Newspaper Round Up March, Wednesday 3rd, 2010

katende Bob Roberts — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:46:02 +0100

Eighty people were confirmed dead while at least 350 were reported missing after a landslide struck Bududa District on Monday night.

High Court has fined Tingey MP Herbert Sabila Shs4 million after he was convicted last week of giving a bribe of Shs700, 000.

Women are shying away from cervical cancer scRead More...

Newspaper Round Up Tuesday March 2nd, 2010

katende Bob Roberts — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:24:11 +0100

About 500 academics at Makerere University are to lose their jobs in the ongoing restructuring, the university announced yesterday.

Fear gripped the National Forestry Authority headquarters in Bugolobi in Kampala yesterday when fetishes were discovered iRead More...

Sekandi receives petition against anti Homosexuality Bill

katende Bob Roberts — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:00:58 +0100

The speaker of parliament Edward Sekandi has today received a petition from a group of people that comprise AIDS service providers, spiritual mentors and counselors calling for the rejection and withdrawal of the Anti Homosexuality Bill, 2009 from parliament.

The group, which includes prominent AIDS activists like Canon Gideon Byamugisha and Rtd Maj Rubaramira Ruranga, said “We’ll lose what we’ve achieved in the AIDS fight.” Pressed to show howRead More...

Opinion: Why Ugandans should not vote for Mao in 2011

indipadmin009 — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 11:49:51 +0100

I was watching a film titled ‘Schindlers’s List’ with my wife last week and she ended up crying at the end of it. The movie is about the horrors of living in a Nazi or Hitler dictatorship and the way the Jews were humiliated and killed. It portrays a kindness of the human condition that many people, today, are not that happy with. It is indeed a depressing film though I would recommend it to anyone. After watching this fRead More...

Opinion: Helmets save lives but do not prevent accidents!

katende Bob Roberts — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:42:54 +0100

The current policy craze is the crackdown on motor cycle (bodaboda) riders without helmets. The helmet rule was also to apply to their fares. The aim of the policy-if you can call it that-is to minimise accidents and serious head injuries.

On the surface, this shows the government cares for the safety of its citizens. Unfortunately, the regRead More...

Newspaper Round Up Friday February 26th, 2010

indipadmin009 — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:14:14 +0100

MP Herbert Sabila will have to quit his Tingey County seat and in addition will be banned from elective office for 10 years, said the acting Inspector General of Government.

The parliamentary budget committee yesterday threw out the over sh300b supplemenRead More...

Karamoja to receive $7 million worth of food items from US government

indipadmin009 — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:49:55 +0100

The United States Government is providing food items worth $7 million to the drought-affected region of Karamoja. The assistance is expected to feed over 266,000 people. In a press release, the US mission to Uganda said; “the contribution will be delivered through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to support the United Nations World Food Program’s (WFP) emergency appeal.”

On the 21st March 1960 South African police opened fire on a crowd of black protesters, killing 69 people, in what would become known around the world as 'The Sharpeville Massacre'.

On that occasion while the African National Congress (ANC) was inRead More...

Newspaper Round Up February, Wednesday 24th,2010

katende Bob Roberts — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:13:41 +0100

The new DP president, Norbert Mao, wants to be the opposition’s joint presidential candidate if his party agrees to join the Inter-Party Co-operation (IPC).

City mayor and former contestant for the DP presidency, Nasser Sebaggala, has announced that he hRead More...

Prof. Mukiibi dismisses Ssebana from DP

katende Bob Roberts — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:18:02 +0100

The bickering in Uganda’s oldest party, Democratic Party gets interesting every other day. Yesterday Court threw out a petition filed by one of the party supporters Peter Ochieng who had petitioned it to put an injunction on the party’s delegates’ conference scheduled for tomorrow at Mbale.

Today, a party faction led by Prof. Joseph Mukiibi has dismissed party president Ssebana Kizito, MathiasRead More...

Hearing of CBS case adjourned to April

indipadmin009 — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:46:40 +0100

The hearing of the case in which workers of the Central Broadcasting Service radio station sued the government for unlawful closure and loss of employment failed to take off in the High Court on February 17.

The presiding High Court judge Vincent Zehurikize adjourned the hearing to April 20 after the plaintiffs’ (petitioners) lawyers said they were not prepared. The lawyers said the governmeRead More...

Would NRM concede defeat in other elections?

katende Bob Roberts — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:32:13 +0100

For the first in the last 24 years of NRM’s stay in power, it has publicly conceded defeat in the Mbale Municipality bye-elections. In a press statement issued by the party at their Communications Bureau in Kamwokya, NRM spokesperson Karoro Okurut lamented how “it donated the seat to FDC on silver platter mainly due to poor handling of the primaries during which the losers particularly Dr Mutende …..remained dissatisfied,” rRead More...

Opinion: Four Ways Brain Drain out of Africa is a good thing

indipadmin009 — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:06:15 +0100

Conventional wisdom frets that the exodus of skilled workers—the brain drain—is bad for African countries. The share of Africans with college degrees who live outside their home countries is certainly high: nearly half of Ghanaians, about 40 percent of Kenyans, and about one-third of Ugandans.

The metaphor of the term itself implies that brain drain is a waste; as if all Africa’s most promising minds were being sucked down some global sink, leaving behind a parcheRead More...

Newspaper Round Up February Wednesday 17th, 2010

katende Bob Roberts — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:08:25 +0100

Forum for Democratic Change candidate Jack Wamanga Wamai was last night declared the new Mbale Municipality MP after humiliating six other candidates in a contest punctuated by gunshots.

The Member of Parliament for Rubanda West, Mr Henry Banyenzaki, is lobbying fellow legislators to block the approval of the Shs286 billion suppleRead More...

Zimbabwe's unity Government at one year

indipadmin009 — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:25:12 +0100

The International Crisis Group (ICG) reports about the changes in Zimbabwe one after the opposition, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) agreed to join the coalition government of Robert Gabriel Mugabe.

To sideline those blocking democratic change in Zimbabwe, the world should embrace the unity government.

One year ago, Zimbabwe's opposition Read More...