ANDREW MWENDA, Author at The Independent Uganda:

Uganda’s myths and realities

March 19, 2018 Andrew Mwenda, COLUMNISTS, In The Magazine, Opinion, THE LAST WORD 21

Why Besigye can only govern using Museveni’s politics of corruption and patronage THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | The discussion of a post President YoweriMuseveni Uganda tends to be programmatic rather than analytical. It is built on false hopes based on textbook theories rather than the actual social …

The fall of Kayihura

March 12, 2018 Andrew Mwenda, COLUMNISTS, In The Magazine, Opinion, THE LAST WORD 15

Why the firing of the IGP has more to do with Kampala-Kigali relations than crime in Uganda THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Finally President Yoweri Museveni has fired the Inspector General of Police, Kale Kayihura. It was a sad ending for a man who more than anyone …

The poverty paradox

March 5, 2018 Andrew Mwenda, COLUMNISTS, In The Magazine, Opinion, THE LAST WORD 21

UGANDA: Why economic development tends to increase social insecurity leading to anger THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | A couple of months ago, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics produced its survey showing that between 2012 and 2017, the number of people living in poverty increased from 19 to 27%. This provided …

The problem with Africa

February 26, 2018 AFRICA, Andrew Mwenda, COLUMNISTS, In The Magazine, Opinion, THE LAST WORD 38

The problem with Africa: If our countries remain poor, it’s because its leaders and elites are too kind to their people to force transformation THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | Last week, President Yoweri Museveni tweeted a picture of himself pushing a bicycle in some village “promoting” an irrigation scheme. …

The challenge of state legitimacy

February 19, 2018 Andrew Mwenda, COLUMNISTS, In The Magazine, Opinion, THE LAST WORD 13

Government can only govern if people comply with its demands, but why do people comply? THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | The German sociologist, Max Weber, argued that if the state is to exist, the dominated must obey the authority claimed by the powers that be. Then he …

Fashionable nonsense

February 12, 2018 Andrew Mwenda, COLUMNISTS, In The Magazine, Opinion, THE LAST WORD 9

How the debate on governance in Africa is a toxic combination of high emotion and little knowledge THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | It is fashionable across our continent to condemn governments for poor delivery of public goods and services. This, it is argued, is caused by corruption, …

Losing my innocence

February 5, 2018 Andrew Mwenda, COLUMNISTS, In The Magazine, Opinion, THE LAST WORD 20

THE LAST WORD: How my hubris to become president of Uganda pulled me from the trees of utopia to the hard rock of reality THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | I want to continue with a line of thought from this column last week i.e. that African countries cannot be governed …

Reconsidering governance in Africa

January 29, 2018 AFRICA, Andrew Mwenda, COLUMNISTS, In The Magazine, Opinion, THE LAST WORD 23

Reconsidering governance in Africa: Why our obsession with copying and pasting western institutions causes more harm than good THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | If you follow debate on Africa anywhere in the world, everyone will tell you that the main problem with our countries is governance. Yet this claim is …

Is America a shithole country?

January 22, 2018 Andrew Mwenda, COLUMNISTS, In The Magazine, Opinion, THE LAST WORD 13

How Trump and his African admirers judge the quality of something based entirely on money THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Just before the outbreak of the Nama-Herero rebellion in modern day Namibia in April 1904, Chief Hendrick Witboi of the Nama tribe penned a letter to the …

The poverty of Africa’s elites

January 15, 2018 AFRICA, Andrew Mwenda, COLUMNISTS, In The Magazine, Opinion, THE LAST WORD 28

THE LAST WORD: Why the tendency of African intellectuals to blame leaders for the failures of our nations is escapism THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | I recently had a Twitter debate with Prof. George Ayittey; the Ghanaian author of `Africa Unchained: the blueprint for development’ (Palgrave/MacMillan, 2004) …