Philadelphia, United States | AFP | President Barack Obama on Wednesday urged Democrats to carry onetime rival Hillary Clinton to victory in November as America’s first woman president, while savaging her Republican opponent Donald Trump for fueling hate and division. The two-term president rallied his party’s faithful at their national …
Read More »My heart will Gabon: Dion helps young African singer go viral
Libreville, Gabon | AFP | An aspiring young Gabonese singer said Wednesday he was “overwhelmed” after Canadian superstar Celine Dion shared a homemade video of him performing one of his hits with her millions of social media followers. Samuel, aged just 17, was filmed performing a haunting rendition of Dion’s …
Read More »Mugabe fights back after Zimbabwe protests
Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday launched a blistering attack on anti-government activists, foreign embassies and disaffected war veterans as he sought to assert his grip on power following recent protests. Mugabe addressed thousands of supporters outside the headquarters of the ruling ZANU-PF party, issuing …
Read More »Congo opposition chief comes home as crisis looms
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Congo’s veteran opposition chief Etienne Tshisekedi returned home after a two-year absence to a warm welcome from large crowds Wednesday as the mineral-rich African nation heads into fresh turbulence. Thousands of supporters sporting Tshisekedi T-shirts and waving party flags who had gathered at the …
Read More »URA collects record 11.2 trillion, sh400bn short of target
Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) collected sh11.23 trillion, 400 billion less than targeted for the fiscal year 2015/16. Despite the shortfall on the target, the tax figures represented a growth of 15.60% (sh1.5 trillion) from the previous year’s figure of sh9.7 trillion collected in revenue. URA has now been taxed to …
Read More »Jumia rebranding jitters
Reorganisation of major player sparks interest in e-commerce deals Big is better. That seems to be the thinking behind Africa Internet Group’s decision to pool all its franchises, mainly online marketing offerings, under one brand name. And what that brand name would be seemed pretty obvious. Although AIG had seven …
Read More »Museveni: Exporters to S.Sudan will be considered for bailout
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has said companies that sold goods to the government of South Sudan and have not been paid will be considered for a bailout. Museveni told Uganda’s Political Leadership Retreat at the National Leadership Institute (NALI), Kyankwanzi that these companies require government intervention because they are exporting …
Read More »Simple art for simple minds
How limited exposure limits producers of culture When artist Maria Kizito of the Makerere art school returned to Uganda in 2005 from Ireland with a PhD in studio practice, he sought to overturn the prevailing mundane formal techniques of art expressions that he found boring, untenable and simply antiquated. But …
Read More »No hawking. No trading. Lagos bans street selling
Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Every morning, Mama Biliki prepares small bags of popcorn outside her ramshackle house in Ajegunle, one of Lagos’ poorest neighbourhoods, to sell by the roadside for 50 naira each. On a good day, she reckons she can earn about 5,000 naira ($16, 15 euros) hawking …
Read More »Bill Clinton makes case for history-making Hillary
Philadelphia, United States | AFP | Hillary Clinton made history Tuesday by becoming the first woman to win a major US political party’s White House nomination, earning the backing of convention Democrats and prime-time praise from a presidential superstar: her husband Bill. The 68-year-old former first lady, senator and secretary …
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The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price