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. …
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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 …
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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, …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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) …
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How events in Zimbabwe expose the false assumptions that inform explanations of developments on this continent THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | There is a widespread assumption that presidents in Africa who rule for long do so out of personal greed for power. This accusation has been made against Robert …
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TODAY NOVEMBER 19, IN UGANDA HISTORY: FDC presidential candidate for life, Kizza Besigye, first declared his intention to run for president for the first time on October 28, 2000. On November 19, only three weeks later, ANDREW MWENDA wrote this article for The Monitor. Kampala, November 19, 2000 | Daily …
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Why Museveni is not the cause of the problems of Uganda but rather their product and reflection THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Last week, I accepted to join a whatsapp chat group of Ugandan “intellectuals”. The administrator told me that it discusses “serious issues.” I therefore …
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The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
