COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama |The Daily Monitor newspaper has carved out a prestigious place in the president’s heart as ‘the bad paper.’ High praise coming from the fountain of honour who regularly takes umbrage with the newspaper’s ‘Truth Everyday.’ The July 9 Daily Monitor article on the ICT report titled, ‘Report shows Ugandans very …
Read More »Anite’s fight against corruption and the mirrors NRM refuses to use
COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama | Corruption in Uganda has a thriving soft life despite the endless haranguing by President Yoweri Museveni. Museveni and his audience have lost count of the number of times he has promised to do something about corruption. He has talked about corruption (even walked about it), …
Read More »Kinyamatama: Newest poster child of SUSU – Steal from Ugandans, Share with Ugandans
COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama | The member of parliament (MP) position is so exalted and privileged that elected MPs automatically earn the title of ‘Honourable’ before proving their capacity for honour. Over the past week, Rakai District Woman MP Honorable Juliet Kinyamatama has faced a baptism of fire and brimstone owing …
Read More »State of the Nation Address and the preacher who successfully preached nothing
COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama | Years ago, probably after the sun-kissed year of 1986, I heard a story that tickled me. Dear reader, I present to you an embellished version of the story. One Sunday, a preacher stood at the church pulpit, looking back at the expectant congregation. Unbeknownst to the …
Read More »Prime Minister Nabbanja has the best idea for improving service delivery
COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama | Prime Minister Robbinah Nabbanja is onto something. A brilliant idea to lift Uganda’s dysfunctional service delivery off the floor where it resides in chronic malaise. The crux of Nabbanja’s idea entails that for service delivery to improve, civil servants should be direct beneficiaries of that service. …
Read More »Impunity 101: Lessons from the Media Council, UHRC and MUK
COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama | A worrying trend is upon us. Flammable snowflake leaders have made a mockery of shame. Shame no longer lives here. Instead, brazen impunity parades its wares. Consider these three exhibits. Exhibit 1: The Uganda Media Council is responsible for regulating media as mandated by the Press and …
Read More »Sam Mugumya: Unbowed in dissent
COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama | “I think of you as the freest person I know…Then everyone you know is a slave.”This haunting line is from the Ayi Kwei Armah’s classic book, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, on the failure of post- independence African leaders. Enter Sam Mugumya. In 2014, …
Read More »We are not ‘the gays’, we are okay
COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama | Lately, homosexuality in a hostile takeover has grabbed our social media feeds and news headlines. The news headlines must be grateful for the break. Now we do not have to hear about corruption, unbridled ineptitude, and torture nio nio nio. We Ugandans of upright standing and …
Read More »Which Ugandans, which humans, whose rights does UHRC serve?
COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama | The headline that Thursday morning was equivalent to ‘Man Bites Dog.’ Trending across multiple news feeds was the brutal arrest of torture survivors outside the offices of the national human rights institution. On February 9, five members of the Torture Survivors Movement Uganda attempted to deliver …
Read More »Did we imagine Kakwenza’s mutilated back?
COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama | It is now a year since a firestorm erupted in the wake of writer Kakwenza Rukirabashaija’s torture ordeal in state custody. In December 2021, state agents broke into Kakwenza’s home, abducting him. In early January 2022, court ordered police to release Kakwenza – the police did …
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