Why homophobic Ugandans are not evil people to hate but ignorant people to pity THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Sometime in 2014, I went with my son, Michael, then a lad of 19 years, to Serena Hotel in Kampala for lunch. I was in Constitutional Court challenging the Anti-Homosexuality Act …

Inside the politics that have led our capital city to move from potholes to giant craters on its streets THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | The road infrastructure in Kampala is in shambles. We can no longer even talk of our city roads being dominated by potholes. In fact, today we …

The quintessential public servant and free market intellectual Uganda will miss THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Tragedies rarely come in a trickle but in a flood. And so it was that on Wednesday last week, I heard of the death of my former lecturer and friend, John Ntambirweki. Then on …

A dynamic intellectual of unsurpassed brilliance, great teacher, loving husband and doting dad dies THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | I was going through my Instagram on Thursday morning when I read that Prof. John Ntambirweki is dead. If someone asked me to describe him, I would say that John …

How political calculations have shaped the destinies of Kampala and Kigali THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | On Sunday April 2nd, I went running in Kigali from Serena Hotel to the airport at Kanombe and back a total of 20km. It was a comfortable and relaxing run. The streets were …

Lessons for Uganda’s policy-makers from the experience of her oil industry THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | I spent this week in Hoima (Kingfisher) and Bulisa-Bugungu visiting construction works on oil rigs and central processing facilities in the Albertine Graben. I was greatly impressed by the work that Petroleum Authority Uganda …

How the new anti-gay law is bad for our country yet good for the long-term tolerance of homosexuality THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | So, Uganda’s parliament once again passed a law to hang homosexuals. This was done in the most democratic manner possible: 399 out of 529 MPs (75% of …

Why I harbor a deep-seated hostility to parliamentary and other investigations into public corruption THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | I promised in this column last week to return to the NSSF saga and shade more light on how public hearings distort facts and purvey bias and prejudice.  ( The Trouble …

How prejudices have eclipsed facts in the NSSF investigation leading to unnecessary confusion THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | When the speaker of parliament, Anita Among, established a Select Committee of Parliament to investigate NSSF, I knew the battle for the truths about the Fund was lost. This is because when …

Why a lot of surmons about economic transformation are a mixture of oversimplification and moralising THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Kishore Mahbubani is a distinguished diplomat from Singapore and twice served as that country’s permanent representative to the United Nations. And he is also a brilliant intellectual and author. His …