THE LAST WORD

By Andrew M. Mwenda Why Zimbabwe’s ageing president won an election he should have lost and lessons for the opposition in Uganda So at 89 years, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe won a seventh term of office to remain president of his troubled country. Having been in power for 33 years, Mugabe, …

By Andrew M. Mwenda You cannot choose whom you were born to but you can choose which person you want to be Every time I read a book about Rwanda or experience its daily life as a regular visitor attending official and informal gatherings, or by travelling to the countryside …

By Andrew M. Mwenda Why Uganda’s large cabinet, numerous presidential advisors and new districts are politically lucrative And so it was that inside the New Vision of Monday July 22 was a printed list of our ministers – a 78-strong cabinet – up from 71. The biggest “ministry” is the …

By Andrew M. Mwenda A teenager is killed. The killer is acquitted. The country is USA. The teenager was black. Sounds familiar? Yes! Here is why. Preamble from the Huffington Post: In March 2013, 16-year old unarmed Kimani Gray was shot seven times, including three times in his back by …

By Andrew M. Mwenda Why the U.S. should reflect on its historical experience and let the secularists and Islamists forge their own path Events in Egypt over the last week have been both disappointing and illuminating. Disappointing because a democratically elected government was overthrown by the military supported by a …

By Andrew Mwenda How the US war on terror threatens to undermine the cause of individual liberty In 1948, George Orwell published his novel, 1984, a classic statement of the danger to individual liberty paused by increasing technological sophistication, especially in the hands of the state. The novel is set …

By Andrew M. Mwenda How economic performance indexes contradict assumptions about the corruption and ineptness of our government Sometime in 2001, former Costa Rican President Jose Maria Figueres visited Uganda. At that time he was Managing Director of the World Economic Forum. At a conference also attended by President Yoweri …

By Andrew M. Mwenda How the selection process in our politics tends to produce low caliber leaders I am inclined to believe countries get leaders they deserve. I am also inclined to believe that countries don’t get leaders they deserve. How does one reconcile this apparent paradox? Well, each statement …

By Andrew M. Mwenda Museveni’s opponents have employed the same tactics as their adversary – and Ugandans no longer see a difference In the 1990s, the enemy of the government of Uganda was the government of Sudan in Khartoum. The Monitor newspaper I worked for was moderately critical of the …

By Andrew M. Mwenda The closure and reopening of Daily Monitor and Red Pepper exposed the weaknesses, not the strength, of the state Finally, the government re-opened Daily Monitor and its affiliate radio stations KFM and Dembe on the one hand and the Red Pepper and her sister newspapers Kamunye …