ARTICLES 2008-2015

By Patrick Kagenda The Independents Patrick Kagenda talked to Terry Kahuma, the Executive Director at Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) about the substandard and counterfeit goods on the Ugandan market. What are you doing about the substandard and counterfeit goods flooding the Uganda market? The first thing we try …

By Andrew M. Mwenda & Molly Lister Did minister Onek touch a live wire? Sometime early this year, then minister of state for micro finance, Gen. Salim Saleh, went to meet the Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Keith Muhakazi. He had a couple of documents with him …

By Joe Powell July 23, 2009, 159 years after the world’s first submarine cable was laid, will go down in history as the day East Africa became fully connected to the world’s digital super-highways. Seacom’s cable, 17,000km long and costing $650 million, is now officially ‘live’ with a capacity of …

By Agencies Sale of Heritage Uganda assets to Shell more likely The oil exploration sector is rife with takeovers and speculation at the moment, and traders are currently hearing of another possible bid, Royal Dutch Shell for Heritage Oil. Initially, the value of Heritage shares rose over the news but …

By Andrew M. Mwenda It is difficult to conduct a debate on anything in Africa whose premise is the reality on the ground. Most debate ‘ whether on public policies or political institutions, on democracy or accountability ‘ uses as its reference point, the experience of the Western world. Take …

By Onghwens Kisangala About three weeks ago, President Museveni on a local TV talk show strongly defended the quality of government services as he whipped out the growth of health sector from a few hundred hospitals in the 1980s to thousands of them today. However in an interview with The …

By Melina Platas In my constituency,” says Gilbert Bukenya, “no one listens to Mengo.” It is late Thursday morning and the Vice President has just strolled in to his third floor Parliament office. Wearing a pale yellow shirt and slacks, he looks relaxed as he eases in to his chair, …

By Joseph Were Since President Museveni announced on July 12 while appearing on WBS television that he would never grant Buganda Kingdom the federal system of government, the sense of the Rubicon being crossed has become pervasive. A headline story in the government-run Sunday Vision newspaper the same day did …

By Joseph Were Museveni has not spoken publicly on it, but a common anecdote tells how in February 1993, President Museveni held an Army Council meeting in Gulu and high on the agenda was the proposal to restore kingdoms in Uganda. These   had been abolished by president Milton Apollo …

By Zohran Kwame Mamdani Thirty-seven years ago on August 4, 1972, Ugandan Asians woke up to very grim news: President Idi Amin – allegedly inspired by a dream of ridding the country of exploiters, hoarders and economic saboteurs announced that all Asians must leave the country within the next 90 …