By Andrew Mwenda The fallout between FDC leader, Kizza Besigye, and UPC leader Olara Otunnu, has been as dramatic as it was expected. The major sticking point in the breakup was whether to participate in the forthcoming elections. Otunnu says the opposition should insist on a free and fair election …

By Isaac Mufumba Alex Kamugisha is angry. After losing in the just concluded primaries for the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party flag-bearers’ race for the 2011 general election, he believes the Rujumbura County elections were rigged. Under the NRM constitution, Kamugisha is expected to drop his candidature and support …

By Isaac Mufumba On the morning of September 13, Vice President Gilbert Bukenya walked out of Namboole a lonely and dejected man. His situation was understand able. The elections to the post of Secretary General of the NRM had just left Bukenya with an egg on his face. So emphatic …

By Andrew M. Mwenda The continuing primary elections for the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) provides an important insight into the political health of our country. For more than two weeks now, we have been witnesses to a political party election that is both a sham and a farce. The …

By The Independent Team Disagreed on; Northern and Luwero war Election strategy Will UPC departure boost or weaken IPC? When Olara Otunnu returned to Uganda in December 2009 after 23 years in exile, many political analysts predicted that his entry would boost the opposition interparty cooperation, which was then a …

BY Bonny Rwiyamilira A cloud of allegations is leading Rwanda to renege on earlier commitments to peacekeeping The chorus of denunciations over a leaked United Nations High Commission for Human Rights (UNHCR) report that accuses the Rwandan Army of genocide in the 1990s against Hutus in the Democratic Republic of …

By Andrew M. Mwenda Last week, the Constitutional Court declared the sedition law unconstitutional. The judgment marked a major and symbolic watershed in Uganda’s democratisation process. For almost a century, the law of sedition has been used by successive regimes in Uganda to stifle free speech. Although introduced by the …

By Matthew Stein Century old law scrapped symbolising new day for press and civil freedom. On the morning of Aug 25, 2010 a dozen or so journalists clamoured into the registrar’s dingy basement office at the Court of Appeals on Parliament Avenue in the hope of witnessing history. The registrar, …

By Matthew Stein During a recent press conference organised by the Uganda Journalists Association (UJA) in the wake of the Andrew Mwenda and Eastern Africa Media Institute sedition victory, Mwenda recalled his four days of detainment with pride and fondness.  ‘Going to jail for me was a very important milestone,’ …

By Andrew M. Mwenda It is rare to read an opinion about politics in Uganda in our media whose premise is our reality. Largely because of the hegemonic influence of Western ideas, most commentators begin with an abstract theory of politics based largely on a context other than our own. …