ARTICLES 2008-2015

 By Mubatsi Asinja Habati In the March 22 Parliamentary by-elections in Rukiga County, NRM’s Edson Kakuru defeated three rivals after polling 10,910 votes against his closest opponent – FDC’s Jack Sabiiti with 9,329, Independent candidates Amos Mugisha’s 6,786 votes and Medard Gumusiriza’s 291 votes. The voter turnout was 63% of …

By Andrew M. Mwenda In his book, Weapons of the Weak, James Scott argues that studies of peasant resistance focus a lot on large scale revolts. ‘For the historical and archival records were richest at precisely those moments when the peasantry pose a threat to the state,’ Scott writes, ‘the …

By Patrick Kagenda Namboole Stadium outside Kampala was on March 13 the venue of an election that has become the talk of the country. ‘I have felt, smelt, experienced true democracy,’ screamed Dickson Opul to an excited crowd of about 1,000 people who gathered in the stadium last week for …

By Séverine Koen Following French footprints Its hard to believe Enora Nedelec and Guillaume Combot have been walking for over a year. Smiling, energetic and fresh-faced, one cannot readily fathom that they have been living all this time without the comforts of a home and have more than 4,000 km …

By Jocelyn Edwards On September 10th last year, police stormed the transmission room of the Baganda kingdoms Central Broadcasting Services (CBS) and carried away a link to the transmitter. The station suddenly went off the air.  Its licence had been revoked by the Broadcasting Council for allegedly stirring up tribal …

By Joan Akello Dollar appreciation to blame Fuel pump prices again edged up slightly last week at most stations in Kampala sparking fears of price volatility. The price of petrol rose by Shs 80 per litre over last week from Shs 2,520 to 2,600 at most stations. The petrol price …

By Maya Prabhu Uganda is one of the world’s top banana-growing countries, producing as many as 10 million tonnes of the fruit each year, but the banana market is under-exploited. Its potential to act as a bastion of food-security and create lucrative openings for ambitious entrepreneurs requires innovation in the …

By Harold Acemah In Issue No. 101 of The Independent (March 5 , 11, 2010), Abbey Kibirige in an interesting and otherwise balanced article raised, in my view, a false alarm about ‘Mao’s motives in taking over DP’ and concluded that Mao could have a hidden agenda to use his leadership …

By Patrick Kagenda The Independent’s Patrick Kagenda talked to the new UPC president Ambassador Otunnu about the party’s future. Word around is that you are targeting the national presidency and that if you should fail, then you will return to exile. What is your position? I decided after a long …

By Andrew M. Mwenda I was on a train at New York’s Grand Central Station on March 5 when a friend from my days at Stanford University entered. I was overjoyed yet embarrassed; one part of me wanted to hug her, the other to hide. She is a successful lawyer …