THE LAST WORD

By Andrew M. Mwenda Without arbitration, Uganda has US$ 405m in its treasury. With arbitration, we have a 50 percent risk of losing it. I read with great pain and frustration the Sunday Monitor interview with the western youth Member of Parliament (MP) Gerald Karuhanga about alleged bribes paid to …

By Andrew M. Mwenda The folly and delusions of a nation that has forgotten the concerns of its ordinary citizens And so it was that on Nov. 4, I flew to New York City from London via Amsterdam. Upon landing at JFK International Airport, I entered the longest queue in …

By Andrew M. Mwenda How politicians and civil servants use Museveni as a cover to make payments to claimants from which they earn huge commissions At the height of his power, Marshal Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire appeared as if he was in complete control of the country and its …

By Andrew M. Mwenda The new rules are regressive because they do not seek to get money from the thieves per se, but to tax those thieves who want to invest In July this year, Uganda Revenue Authority introduced new rules on transferring or registering property (cars and houses). Under …

By Andrew M. Mwenda Gaddafi’s pitiful death, the celebration of it, Obama’s speech and the looming tragedy of post “liberation” Libya Fate is a great joker, it always laughs last. And it did last week at former Libyan ruler Muammar El Gaddafi. He suffered a gruesome death at the hands …

By Andrew M. Mwenda The lack of basic values as the basis of politics in Uganda is the source of our country’s constant state of crisis. “It is not easy to stand apart from mass hysteria, to argue against something that everyone – especially the most respected political leaders, academics …

By Andrew M. Mwenda A man who can admit to being a liar should not  make claims and they are taken seriously Former director of cabinet in Rwanda, Theogene Rudasingwa, was a major item on BBC World Service. He claimed that President Paul Kagame boasted to him that it was …

By Andrew M. Mwenda The worst danger for the government in troubled times like these is to adopt a public policy position over matters it has no control over Uganda is in bad times and almost everything seems to be going wrong. The country’s electricity supply is drying out rapidly; …

By Andrew M. Mwenda The assumption behind a lot of literature on democracy is that people would care more about their welfare in elections Africa’s poor performance at delivering public goods and services impersonally to anonymous citizens is often attributed to the continent’s democratic deficit. Democratic theory expects that if …

By Andrew M. Mwenda Since April, Ugandans have sustained protests over many issues including wages, commodity prices and foreign exchange rates Here is widespread discontent in most of Uganda against President Yoweri Museveni and the NRM. The mainstream opposition should, however, not think that this automatically means there is widespread …