From Shillings 3,400 to Shillings 6,900: Is the ‘Normalised’ Fuel Price Ever Coming Back Down? COMMENT | MORRISON RWAKAKAMBA | When global crude oil prices skyrocket, prices at Ugandan fuel pumps shoot up overnight. When global crude prices plunge, local pump prices barely budge. They settle instead on a …
Read More »Pearl Sweet: What’s in a Name?
COMMENT | ALI SSEKATAWA | The online furore that followed President Yoweri Museveni’s unveiling of Uganda’s crude oil trading name, “Pearl Sweet”, reminded me of Shakespeare’s timeless question in Romeo and Juliet: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” …
Read More »The logic of Museveni’s forty years of addition
COMMENT | CRISPIN KAHERU | By the time President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni took oath of office on 29 January 1986, the young guerrilla had already made his most consequential political decision. He would not govern alone. Of the forty-eight ministers he swore in during those first weeks, nearly half came …
Read More »First oil countdown
Despite global shipping disruptions, the bulk of the materials required for First Oil are already in the country, with only a limited amount still in transit—mainly from Asia. COMMENT | ALI SSEKATAWA | As every second, minute, hour, day, and month winds down, Uganda edges closer to its promise—the dawn of oil …
Read More »Why govt is launching a comprehensive digital land registry
COMMENT | DAVID MUWONGE | Land has historically symbolized wealth and power. In the past, kingdoms expanded their influence by acquiring new territories. This pursuit continued into the colonial era, spanning the 15th to the 20th centuries, with European powers scrambling for control over Africa. They were driven by a desire …
Read More »China plans, America reacts
While China has a strategic planning process, America has neither a plan nor a strategy COMMENT | STEPHEN S. ROACH | China’s leaders are hard at work putting the finishing touches on the country’s 15th Five-Year Plan. Meanwhile, since the beginning of his second term, U.S. President Donald Trump has issued a …
Read More »When men take their wife’s surname
Why a Constitutional Court judgment seeking to promote gender equality has upset traditional leaders COMMENT | ANTHONY DIALA | A unanimous Constitutional Court ruling has sparked fierce controversy by affirming the right of South African men to adopt their wives’ surnames if they wish to. It emerged from a lawsuit against the …
Read More »Is the end nigh for the AGOA trade legislation?
Without AGOA and other traditional instruments of soft power, the United States will increase its isolation from Africa COMMENT | WITNEY SCHNEIDMAN | The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), legislation that has been the cornerstone of the U.S.-African commercial relationship for the last 25 years, is set to …
Read More »When Namibia stunned me
An African country without a strong leader that has managed to avoid the pitfalls of its contemporaries THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | The Batooro have a saying: akaana katabuunga katekereza ngu nyinako nuwe acumba ebinura (a child who has not travelled thinks the mother is the best …
Read More »Africa universities must return to serving society
Achieving the continent’s vision will not be secured by policies alone, but by the purposeful engagement of its institutions COMMENT | PROF USHOTANEFE USEH | As the continent looks to Agenda 2063; the blueprint of the African Union (AU) for a prosperous, integrated and peaceful Africa, and the United Nations (UN) …
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