COMMENT | JAN-WERNER MUELLER | Here in the Albanian capital Tirana, the hotel receptionists go out of their way to stress that the ongoing protests outside are entirely peaceful. Apparently, there have been quite a few room cancellations since mass demonstrations began in the spring. But ask them directly, and they …
Read More »Political families, Republican virtue, and the search for legitimacy
“Nobody can rule guiltlessly” — Louis Antoine de Saint-Just COMMENT | ANDREW PI BESI | y their very design, modern families are intriguing institutions. They are repositories of affection, obligation and ambition. At their best, they cultivate decency, continuity and purpose. At their worst, they are theatres of rivalry, …
Read More »Six years of defiance: the rise and test of NUP
The young party has learned that opposition politics in Uganda follows a familiar script: arrest, denial, detention, court, bail and another wait for justice COVER STORY | IAN KATUSIIME | Few political parties in Uganda’s post-independence history have evolved as dramatically as the National Unity Platform (NUP). …
Read More »Why Uganda must guide its democracy
COMMENT | CRISPIN KAHERU | Come to think of it, the problem is not democracy. The problem is the bureaucracy of democracy. It is the forms, the noise, the elbowing, and the sudden appearance of all manner of candidates who discover public service only when a chair is about to …
Read More »Memes, shutdowns and Museveni’s seventh term
Uganda’s digital public sphere and the 2026 election SPECIAL REPORT | RONALD MUSOKE | As President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, 81, was sworn in on May 12 for a seventh straight term in office, Uganda marked another formal milestone in a presidency that has now spanned nearly four decades. …
Read More »Museveni VII
The long running show adds another season COVER STORY | IAN KATUSIIME | At exactly 11:50am, beneath Kampala’s unforgiving midday sun, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni took the oath of office at the Kololo Independence Grounds for another term as a 21-gun salute cracked across the capital, announcing not so …
Read More »Botswana’s Ex-President Festus Mogae, who tackled H.I.V., Dies at 86
The democrat was considered the architect of the Southern African country’s economic rise and a pioneer in the fight against AIDS Gaborone, Botswana | AGENCIES | The political career of Botswana’s ex-President Festus Gontebanye Mogae can be summarized under one heading: “good governance.” During his time in office from 1998 …
Read More »Data, democracy, and Uganda’s 2026 elections
Unwanted Witness report exposes personal data misuse in the past election cycle COVER STORY | RONALD MUSOKE | On May 12, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, 81, will take the oath of office once again, extending a presidency that has shaped Uganda’s political landscape for four straight decades. His victory in …
Read More »Tragedy is reborn as hope
COMMENT | CHIARA CORDELLI | We live in a world of senseless suffering and impending catastrophe, where it would seem the idea of moral progress has become unintelligible. Two epochal crises afflict contemporary society: the rise of anti-democratic forces and climate change. But what if today’s tragedies turn out to …
Read More »The nature of the American State
US troops before leaving Afghanistan. One of many countries American presidents have invaded to achieve their war plans How the war against Iran is not a Trump creation but a deep-seated American way of doing things THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | US President Donald Trump campaigned on …
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The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price