About me.

Andrew M. Mwenda is the founding Managing Editor of The Independent, Uganda’s premier current affairs newsmagazine. One of Foreign Policy magazine 's top 100 Global Thinkers, TED Speaker and Foreign aid Critic



Friday, December 23, 2016

Uganda’s war on corruption



Why do many people believe corruption is out of control despite many prosecutions?

In October, the Anticorruption Court convicted the main culprits in the theft of pension money. The three men were top officials of the ministry of public service; including the permanent secretary and the principle accountants. The story made headlines for two days and died away. Indeed, every day, there is news of public officials in Uganda being arrested, charged, and prosecuted or being convicted of corruption. But they don’t make big news. Yet the media – both traditional and social media – get obsessed with considerably minor stories and cover them for weeks on end.

Friday, December 16, 2016

Lessons for FDC from Gambia

Accusations based on Jammeh’s personality shouldn’t obscure the politics

On December 01 the President of Gambia, Yahya Jammeh, lost an election and went on television and conceded defeat. He also called the victor, Adama Barrow, and congratulated him saying he has no ill will and will be pleased to help him in any way. Having taken power by a military coup and ruled that tiny West African nation for 22 years, no one expected Jammeh to concede gracefully.

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Makerere University in the age of emotion and blackmail


It is now more than a month since President Yoweri Museveni shut down Makerere University in Kampala. The closure was over academic staff abandoning teaching and giving the government an ultimatum: Pay us our unpaid arrears or we will not return to work.

The academic staff members are not striking over salaries – which they had been paid in full. Instead, their strike was over some strange thing called “incentives”; amalgamated allowances for extra work like teaching in the evening or on weekends or having a very large class with many student scripts to mark.

Monday, December 5, 2016

From Obote’s 1966 to Museveni’s 2016



How 50 years have not changed the nature of the confrontation between the central government, traditional authorities

Exactly 50 years since Prime Minister Milton Obote attacked the palace of Sir Edward Mutesa, the King of Buganda, President Yoweri Museveni has attacked the palace of the king of Rwenzururu, Wesley Mumbere. In typical political style, opposition leader Kizza Besigye tweeted his horror at both the attack on the palace and the people killed. I am sure Besigye and many of his supporters think if they were in power they would have handled the situation differently.