Features

By Stephen Kafeero A girl’s dreams illuminate the struggle of families coping with loss and injustice Wakuma Frank had promised his daughter a bike for her 6th birthday. She never got it. Exactly a month before that anticipated celebration, on 14th July, 2010, he was buried. A devastating bomb blast …

By Stephen Kafeero Their labour thrives on weak laws, poverty, ignorance Joseph Nsereko is blessed with a big, boyish smile; which is a good thing because the job this 14-year old does is anything but boyish. He is a brick maker, one of many children around the country involved in …

By Haggai Matsiko Expectations of oil cash give way to anxiety as oil waste regulations delay The presence of billions of barrels of oil – the black gold- would ordinarily arouse great expectations in the minds of people everywhere. Not so in the Albertan Graben. Increasingly, a voice of communities …

By Eriasa Mukiibi Sserunjogi It’s almost as if he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth The year 198 seems to have been a wrong time to start a business in Uganda. Starting in 1966 or earlier, the economy took a plunge. Many Ugandans, especially professionals, had fled …

By Mubatsi Asinja Habati The legend of the national anthem courts controversy even in death Fifty years ago Prof. George Kakoma composed a song that was adopted as Uganda’s national anthem at independence. Kakoma has not lived to hear his creative piece of music played on October 9, 2012 as …

By Mubatsi Asinja Habati Ugandan farmers fail to adjust to changing weather as counterparts surge ahead Forty-four year-old Regina Mbambu, a single mother of six, farms coffee inter-planted with spinach, mangoes, avocados, bananas, beans and maize on her one acre patch in Kasese district in western Uganda.  Last year, most …

By Julius Mucunguzi Shaka Ssali and Andrew Mwenda: My two mentors On Sept.20, while in Washington DC for the annual meetings of Commonwealth finance ministers, I met two men who have been my professional mentors: Dr Shaka Ssali of Voice of America, and Andrew Mujuni Mwenda of The Independent Magazine. …

By Stephen Kafeero But lack of facilities at the Special Care Unit imposes tough choices on them When you arrive at the entrance to the Special Care Unit (SCU) of Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala, the personnel politely ask you to take off your shoes. It is a good …

By Julius Businge Bank of Uganda to introduce consumer protection mechanism What would make you borrow Shs 500,000 from a money lender at an interest rate between 15% and 30% per month? Many reasons but at the heart of each is on common feature; desperation – you want money badly. …

By Mubatsi Asinja Habati Moses Lotyong, 19, is in P.3 at Panyangara Primary School in the remote district of Kotido in the drought- prone Karamoja. At Lotyong’s age many Ugandans from other parts of the country are in university. His 11-year-old sister is in P.5 at the same school. Lotyong …