A bus driver’s tale of plying the Kampala-Gulu highway COVER STORY | RONALD MUSOKE | A long-haul bus rolls into Namayiba Bus Terminal in downtown Kampala from the northwesten city of Arua. The driver, who requests anonymity for fear of repercussions from bus companies and authorities, has just completed a grueling …
Read More »Europe’s self-defeating policies
The costs and consequences of isolation by the very continent that globalized the world THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | I have written before that Europe is facing an existential crisis and a creeping irrelevance. It has moved from a strategic dependence on the American security umbrella to a …
Read More »Travel between African countries is still hard
Fresh ideas to get movement flowing ANALYSIS | ALAN HIRSCH & VICTOR AMADI | It remains too difficult for Africans to travel between African countries. Africa-wide reforms have failed. The keynote continental agreement, the African Union’s Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, adopted in 2018, still has only four country ratifications …
Read More »Testing oxygen level in black and white
Uganda’s new Hypoxia Lab takes lead in ensuring patient safety isn’t skin colour dependent HEALTH FEATURE | PATRICIA AKANKWATSA | For decades, the pulse oximeter; a small clip-on device used to measure oxygen levels in the blood has been considered a universal lifesaver. From surgery theatres to neonatal wards, it’s …
Read More »A restoration of cultural identity, memory and dignity
Through a showcase of photographs of recently returned cultural artefacts to Uganda, the exhibition Ethics of Loaning instigates deep conversations on the subject of restitution. ARTS | Dominic Muwanguzi | The act of restitution is not new in Uganda’s cultural history. In 1961 as part of the preparations to gain independence …
Read More »Uganda weighs a radical malaria fix
Scientists are testing genetic modification to collapse mosquito populations. What are the risks? HEALTH FEATURE | KEVIN GITHUKU | Malaria places a crushing burden on Uganda’s health system, as it does in many African countries. The disease accounted for 30-40% of Ugandan outpatient visits in 2023, states the World Health …
Read More »Elderly medical insurance critical but underused
Healthcare infrastructure remains heavily concentrated in urban centres, limiting the utility of medical insurance for those who retire in rural areas BUSINESS FEATURE | ISAAC KHISA | Uganda’s insurance industry is tiptoeing into one of the country’s most neglected frontiers – medical cover for the elderly. The move, long overdue, marks …
Read More »Baba Raila Odinga dies at 80
His sovereign voice shaped a nation and a continent OBITUARY | ALEX ATWEMEREIREHO | In remembering Baba Raila, we are not simply eulogizing a man; we are commemorating a phenomenon, a force that altered the trajectories of Kenya and, by extension, the hopes of Mother Africa. From his birth on …
Read More »Raila Odinga dies at 80
The man with a regional foot-print who changed Kenya without ever ruling it NEWS ANALYSIS | THE INDEPENDENT & AGENCIES | Raila Amollo Odinga, who has died at the age of 80, was something of a paradox in the post-independence politics of Kenya, the East African region, and the African …
Read More »Jacob Kiplimo
Can he be first to run marathon under 2hrs? COVER STORY | BY AGENCIES | Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo, in just his second ever competitive run over 42.195KM, dominated to win the men’s 2025 Bank of America Chicago Marathon in 2:02:23. That win has reawakened a question that Sean Ingle, the …
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