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Centrist politicians must engage in behavior so costly that a conventional politician would never emulate it COMMENT | DANI RODRIK | At a recent conference I attended, I was seated next to a prominent American trade policy expert. We began to talk about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which …

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 …

COMMENT: Lessons for Museveni from Mugabe, and for Uganda, from Zimbabwe COMMENT | Andrew Mwenda | The fall of President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has been welcomed by many Ugandans with excitement. For many people tired of President Yoweri Museveni’s long rule, Mugabe’s fall gives hope that their nightmare is …

Planning buzzwords like `smart cities’mean little if the theories behind them benefit only a few COMMENT| CHRISTINE AUCLAIR & MAHMOUD AL BURAI | Cities, the American-Canadian author Jane Jacobs once observed, are engines for national prosperity and economic growth. But in their current form, modern cities are also catalysts of inequality and environmental …

The continent’s pension funds could lead institutional investors in committing funds to local infrastructure COMMENT | IBRAHIM ASSANE MAYAKI | As the US Federal Reserve embarks on the “great unwinding” of the stimulus program it began nearly a decade ago, emerging economies are growing anxious that a stronger dollar will adversely …

Publicising violence against journalists will end an era of historically keeping it behind the headlines COMMENT | LEON WILLEMS | Every five days, on average, somewhere in the world, a journalist is murdered for being a journalist. Nine out of ten times, no one is prosecuted, creating an atmosphere of impunity that extends …

Best bet for Museveni to set new record as president who served for long and retired peacefully inside Uganda COMMENT | MORRIS KOMAKECH | The intent to remove Article 102b from the 1995 Constitution to pave way for life-long presidency should be halted for the good of Uganda. There is no excuse for …

Why Kenya’s opposition resistance movement could be important for democracy COMMENT | SEKOU TOURE OTONDI | In his last address at Uhuru Park on the eve of Kenya’s October 26 election re-run, Raila Odinga announced the creation of what he called a National Resistance Movement. In a later interview with CNN, he clarified …

Why the private sector’s hype about the consumer habits of the African middle class isn’t helpful COMMENT | HENNING MELBER | The African middle class is of huge interest to business. This was confirmed again recently by well attended seminars in South Africa’s big cities to discuss “African Lions: groundbreaking study on the …

Why our continent’s faith in foreign direct investment as a solution to our poverty is a pipedream THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Many presidents in Africa believe the development of our nations will come from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). If a “foreign investor” – most especially a white man …