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 …
Read More »COMESA watchdog steps up oversight with tougher action on mergers
The agency has reviewed more than 480 mergers and acquisitions, 50 restrictive business practices, and 60 consumer protection cases Nairobi, Kenya | Julius Businge | The COMESA Competition Commission (CCC) has reaffirmed its position as the regional watchdog for fair competition and consumer protection, releasing data that points to an …
Read More »HIV rise among older Africans
But care and research overlook this group – lessons for Uganda from South Africa and Kenya NEWS ANALYSIS | Francesc Xavier Gomez-Olive Casas & Luicer Anne Ingasia Olubayo | For decades, public health efforts across sub-Saharan Africa have focused on HIV prevention, testing and treatment campaigns on children, and women …
Read More »Uganda targets late-2029 start for flagship Hoima refinery project
The refinery will also serve regional markets, exporting refined products to Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda’s long-awaited oil refinery is expected to begin operations in late 2029 or early 2030, marking a major milestone in the country’s ambitions to develop …
Read More »Closing the safety gap in Uganda’s operating rooms
Lifebox and Smile Train bring critical anesthesia monitors to Ugandan hospitals Kampala, Uganda | PATRICIA AKANKWATSA | In a quiet operating room at CoRSU Rehabilitation Hospital, a small monitor flickers with waveforms that trace each breath of a patient under anaesthesia. To most, it looks unremarkable. To anaesthesiologists, it’s a …
Read More »The art of Trump’s Israel-Hamas deal
From ‘dead cat diplomacy’ to a ‘strangle contract’ COVER STORY | THE INDEPENDENT & AGENCIES | When Donald Trump called Benjamin Netanyahu on October 4 to tell him that Hamas had agreed to at least some of his 20-point ceasefire plan, the Israeli prime minister’s equivocal response was he saw …
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