NEWS ANALYSIS

Why it would be a miracle if the recent round of talks yielded the inclusive, sustainable peace the country needs COMMENT | CARINE N. KANEZA | Burundi has been gripped by unrest since April 2015; triggered by President Pierre Nkurunziza’s pursuit of a third term. The crisis has led to protests, …

Vienna, Austria | AFP |  “Whizz-kid”, “Basti Fantasti” and “Messiah” are just some of the monikers given to new Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, 31, as of Monday the world’s youngest leader. His conservative People’s Party (OeVP), revamped by Kurz as a more hardline “movement”, agreed late on Friday a coalition …

Justice Kasule’s decent proposal on presidential election petitions Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | Two weeks after Kenya’s repeat election held on Oct.26, Justice Remmy Kasule of Uganda’s Constitution Court, bounced a novel idea off another distinguished legal brain in the region— Dr. Willy Mutunga, former chief justice of Kenya. Justice …

African elites are victims of their own delusions about distorted history of developed countries THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | On Dec.01, I attended the Joseph Mubiru Memorial Lecture hosted by Bank of Uganda and featuring Prof. Ha Joon Chang of the University of Cambridge. A brilliant economist lecturer, …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s ANC party, the celebrated political force that led the struggle against apartheid rule and ushered in democracy, has begun electing a new leader — but it faces a perilous future. The risk of losing power at the 2019 general elections has loomed …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | Seven candidates are battling to succeed President Jacob Zuma as the leader of the African National Congress at the party’s conference starting Saturday. Vice President Cyril Ramaphosa and ex-African Union chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma are the frontrunners in a divisive race. Here are portraits of five …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a front-runner in the race for South Africa’s ruling party leadership, faces difficulty distancing herself from her tarnished ex-husband President Jacob Zuma. Dlamini-Zuma is an African National Congress (ANC) veteran and an experienced technocrat who has served as a minister under every …

How failure to share family cultural history endangers symbols that represent common ancestral origin COMMENT | NATHAN KIWERE | Writing on page 137 of his book, ‘The Baganda’ (Macmillan and Co., 1911), John Roscoe, a British colonial historian, states that when animals were becoming scarce, Kintu, with the general consent of …

It is important to recognise that data alone are not enough, common sense matters COMMENT | KAUSHIK BASU | After years of stressing the importance of evidence-based policymaking, economists have clearly had some influence on politicians. What economists now need to do is to impress upon those same politicians that citing …

Weighing economic, political ties and future relationships that could prove decisive for Africa COMMENT | HANNAH RYDER | Ask anyone with a basic knowledge of Africa which country is more poised for success – Zimbabwe or Kenya – and he or she will undoubtedly answer “Kenya.” Events of the last week …