Column

OPINION | OFWONO OPONDO | Uganda’s mainstream media houses with nearly 100 journalists accredited to cover Parliament all couldn’t sniff the stench from what appears to be fictitious expenses payouts until volunteer digital warriors exposed it in the ongoing #UgandaParliamentExhibition. Out of embarrassment they’re now diverting debate to the little …

COMMENT | JIM SPIRE SSENTONGO | Andrew Mwenda’s article about the #UgandaParliamentExhibition (Inside parliamentary corruption)  that is making rounds is interesting and makes some insightful macro political connections. However, it mainly falls short in its implicit glorification of political cynicism and concentration on analysing how the animal is chewing us …

COMMENT | REED GALEN | Donald Trump was the unlikeliest of American presidents. When he launched his campaign in 2016, the closest he had come to executive authority was pretending to fire contestants on a business-themed reality show. As ridiculous as it seemed, the image of Trump sitting behind a …

How Ugandan commentators are missing the story behind speaker Among’s loot of public funds THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | The hashtag parliamentary exhibition has caused a storm on social media. The speaker of our parliament, Hon. Anita Among, and her apparatchik have been caught with their fingers deep inside the …

COMMENT | NICHOLAS REED LANGEN | Day by day, week by week, courts are increasingly becoming the front line in the struggle to preserve democracy from populists and authoritarians. In the United States, the Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments on a decision by Colorado’s highest court that Donald Trump is …

COMMENT | IAN BURUMA | On January 17, 2021, when Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny boarded a plane to Moscow from Berlin, where he had been treated after being poisoned in Russia with the nerve agent Novichok, he said he was pleased to be going home. But he knew the risks …

COMMENT | CRISPIN KAHERU |  When you think of Ambassador Fukuzawa, it is hard not to think of a unique blend of humility and humor. He is the master of defusing tense situations with a well-timed, pokerfaced joke. If you have had the privilege of meeting out-going Japanese Ambassador to Uganda, …

    COMMENT | ROBERT SKIDELSKY |   This week, PS talks with Robert Skidelsky, a member of the British House of Lords and Professor Emeritus of Political Economy at Warwick University. Robert Skidelsky Says More… Project Syndicate: Last year, you lamented the reversion of contemporary policy discussions to “the age-old standoff …

Why the deployment of international forces without addressing internal problems will achieve nothing. THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | There is “fresh” fighting in the eastern Democratic DRC between government forces and the predominantly Tutsi rebel group, M23. I put fresh in inverted comas because DRC has been at war almost …

COMMENT | BY JAMES MUBIRU | The new year is a few months in. You’ve probably looked up and down your resolution list and aren’t happy with yourself. You feel incompetent. You feel cheated! 60 days are gone, and those abs are not here yet; and you have no contribution …