Features catergory

By Aloysious Kasoma Born deformed and abandoned by the State and NGOs, a helpless woman dreams on At 29 years, Veronica Namawejje has the usual dreams of womanhood; finding Mr. Right, marrying, and starting a family. “I want a husband who will not cheat on me and bear children out …

By Haggai Matsiko Foreign big-money investment frenzy in Tullow’s backyard It’s Sunday, but this town’s Main Street is beehive of activity. Nothing unusual; this is Hoima, Uganda’s oil boom town. Builders, masons, and painters can be seen everywhere hanging on wobbly wooden scaffoldings in a frenzy of construction activity. The …

By Mo Yaxye Dreams from my mother confront reality in the home I didn’t know Somalia, Somali or Waryaa (as my Kenyan brothers/sisters would say) has been the identity I have been carrying for more than 30 years – an identity that I have come to accept but never understood. …

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. …