COLUMNISTS

 By Andrew M. Mwenda The world tends to hold him to very high, sometimes unrealistic standards Over the last one month, a rebellion has been ragging in eastern DRC against the government of President Joseph Kabila in Kinshasa. As I write this article, over 40 armed groups, some of them …

By Harold E. Acemah Duped Ugandans ignore benefits from dissent within political parties This is in response to a comment titled “Limits of internal dissent” by Dennis Musinguzi, published in issue No. 223 of July 20 – 26 of The Independent magazine. The comment reveals the extent to which many …

By Naomi N. Karekaho Government recognises the challenges in managing petroleum waste and the need to agree on a solution On June 15, The Independent magazine published an article: `Living in fear of oil waste’. The article was rooted in the conservationist ideas usually advanced by NGOs and civil society …

By Andrew M. Mwenda To understand how theft of public resources flourishes, one has to observe how it is fought Last week, court dismissed as “no case to answer” charges of abuse of office and causing financial loss against Maj. Gen. Jim Muhwezi in the Gavi trial. Muhwezi had been …

By Andrew M. Mwenda How the UPDF generals are tackling the new challenge On July 26, I boarded a plane to Mogadishu, Somalia “to visit our troops” as the Americans would say.On the same flight was Lt. Gen. Andrew Gutti, overall commander of the Africa Mission to Somalia (AMISOM). I …

By Charles Onyango-Obbo Recently I was visiting with Andrew Mwenda, the Strategy and Editorial Director of The Independent at his Butabika home when he squeezed me for a favour. He asked that I write about what I thought President Yoweri Museveni was trying to achieve with his “reconciliatory” actions towards …

By Andrew M. Mwenda Doesn’t a country that lost a million people deserve to protect its people against the threat of another genocide? In a space of one week in July, the Netherlands, Germany, UK and USA  announced they would cut their aid to Rwanda over its alleged involvement in …

By Joseph Were Museveni’s schmoozing with Stiglitz bad news for Mutebile When President Yoweri Museveni spoke at this year’s Joseph Memorial lecture in Kampala of the desirability of a “hybrid” economy, he marked a retreat from the current free market regime to his mixed economy days of the 1980s.  Time …

By Dr. Pierre Damien Habumuremyi A lot more still needs to be done to prevent a culture of mediocrity The osition of the government relating to the need to improve customer service in Rwanda is simple.  A lot more still needs to be done. President Paul Kagame summarises the current …

By Esther Dyson Communities can measure the state, health, and activities of their people and institutions, and hopefully improve them. I have written previously about the Quantified Self movement – individuals equipped with the tools (monitoring devices and software) needed to measure their own health and behavior (and, by doing …