Mutebile, the passing of a giant

THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M MWENDA | At exactly 5.30am on Sunday morning January 23rd 2022, the governor of the Bank of Uganda, Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile, breathed his last in a Nairobi hospital. He had been battling illness for several years. While Mutebile’s body has died, his deeds will continue to live in the memory of those he impacted and in the consequences of his decisions and actions. This is because at the end of our lives, a question stands: what did you do with your life? For many, a good and fulfilling life is service to themselves and their families. For others, a life well lived is a balance between the personal and the community. Mutebeli balanced the two very well.

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On 36 years of Museveni

Why his stabilising the political dispensation and sustaining economic growth is important

THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | On January 26, President Yoweri Museveni and NRM will mark 36 years in power. His is third longest serving presidency in Africa today, and one of the longest in the post-World War Two world. What is his legacy?

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Africa’s politics of fiction

It is incredible how politics in our part of the world is far removed from reality

THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | What determines the governance strategies elites employ in any given country? The philosopher, Karl Marx, argued that the way people organise themselves to solve their basic economic challenges (how to clothe, house and feed themselves) requires a “superstructure” of non economic activity and thought (governance). The superstructure cannot be picked randomly. It must reflect the foundation on which it is raised.   For Marx, therefore, no hunting community could evolve or use the legal framework of an industrial society and similarly, no industrial society could use the conception of law and government of a primitive hunting village.

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UPDF, the DRC and the ADF war

Why it’s about hearts and minds; not bullets

COVER STORY | ANDREW M MWENDA | Kambi ya Yua is an eight-acre hill site in the middle of a jungle that runs for over 100km from Uganda deep into inside of the DR Congo. It has no neighbouring human settlement, no access road, no open space. It is one of the places still eluding civilization and it is inconceivable that human beings would live and survive there. Flying by helicopter from Fort Portal to Kambi ya Yua takes only 30 minutes; from Semuliki Bridge (a UPDF forward operating base inside DRC) to the place takes only about ten minutes.

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Utopian dreams of Ugandan elites

Why the goal to eliminate corruption is delusional, self-deceptive, and downright hypocrisy

THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M MWENDA | In 2002, Kenyans voted into power an opposition presidential candidate, thus ending President Daniel arap Moi’s 24 years rule which was seen by many as one of the most corrupt in Africa. The opposition campaigned on ending endemic corruption.

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Our anti-corruption pretense

How poor countries indulge in rituals of fighting corruption even when it is the glue that holds things together

THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | December 09 was anti-corruption day. Elites in media, academia, “civil society” and government were grandstanding in self-righteous indignation, condemning the government for doing little or nothing about it. Many were steeped in simplistic moral posturing that is routine and banal. Their arguments contribute little to our understanding of the challenge we face.

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Uganda’s Congo adventure

What Kampala needs to think about regarding our latest military adventure into the DRC

THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | Uganda has returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for military operations. Only this time we have some developmental agenda as well – to build some roads and electricity transmission lines. The roads will be important for giving our manufacturers access to the large Congolese market and, if built, will give a serious kick to our manufacturing sector. And that is if we develop a policy on how to support local manufacturers gain a foothold in that vast country. The transmission lines will allow Uganda to export excess electricity to DRC.

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