By Agather Atuhaire One villager’s life changed but others still wait in vain Tuwangye Yorokam excitedly tells anyone willing to listen how electricity has made everything exciting in his village of Rutooma in Bwizibwera, Mbarara district in western Uganda. Tuwangye, 42, lives in a village about eight kilometers away from …

By Mubatsi Asinja Habati After the US-based Human Rights Watch published a report on torture, deplorable health conditions and forced labour in Uganda’s prisons, The Independent’s Mubatsi Asinja Habati spoke about it with Uganda Prisons Service Commissioner General, Dr Johnson Byabashaija. A report by an international organization, Human Rights Watch …

By Musaazi Namiti When you look at how death strikes, you realise God doesn’t know when we will die, so he can’t reserve another life for us in heaven when we die. The recent assertion by the eminent British scientist Stephen Hawking that there is no life after death will certainly …

By Stephen Kafeero Nyaburu Merab, a teacher at Bat Valley Primary School, is at crossroads with life. She is torn between staying on her job of miserable pay or leaving it and be jobless. She is now a Grade V teacher, having upgraded from Grade III. But she still earns …

By Rukiya Makuma Post office body lays off 200 workers but some return amidst allegations of corruption James Muganzi was one of 196 workers who were laid off by the Uganda Post Ltd, commonly called Posta Uganda, in May. When the termination benefits were calculated, Muganzi was among the top …

By Mubatsi Asinja Habati Human Rights Watch (HRW) has published a stinging 80-page report listing the deplorable conditions Uganda’s inmates endure in congested in cells; sometimes sleeping hungry, in turns, moreover on bare floor covered with lice-infested blankets. The report details how they must work in the gardens all day …

By Haggai Matsiko Experts divided over the value in trying former LRA commanders locally Hours before the ground-breaking trial of Thomas Kyoyelo started in Gulu on July 11, hundreds had gathered outside the newly established International Crimes Division of the Uganda High Court. They could not find space in the …

By Mubatsi Asinja Habati Heather Grady, the Vice President of the Rockefeller Foundation, an international humanitarian organisation, on July 4 spoke at Makerere University about climate change, food security, and the introduction of agriculture insurance. The Independent’s Mubatsi Asinja Habati interviewed her. Insurance for agriculture is new in Uganda. How …

By Stephen Kafeero But lack of facilities at the Special Care Unit imposes tough choices on them When you arrive at the entrance to the Special Care Unit (SCU) of Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala, the personnel politely ask you to take off your shoes. It is a good …

By Joseph Amon Congestion is over 200%. Some prisoners wait for more than five years to be tried while exposed to deadly diseases. President Museveni’s proposal to eliminate bail for certain nonviolent crimes is a challenge to the constitutional rights of Ugandans. But it also raises an interesting question: Where …