The debate by Uganda’s Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) leaders regarding the position of Leader of the Opposition in Parliament has triggered some questions in my mind. Too lazy to read the Constitution and the laws that govern parliament, I seek guidance from my learned friends. First let us go back to February 19, 2016, the […]
African solution to Africa’s democratization problem
With his arrest last week, Dr. Kizza Besigye joined a growing list of African politicians incarcerated because they declared themselves the duly elected presidents of their countries. Nigeria’s Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola declared himself president in 1994 after Gen. Ibrahim Babangida had annulled the results of the 1993 elections. Abiola was incarcerated for four years […]
My hoe is all I have
Kampala is burning!
Stella Nyanzi’s nudity and the hypocrisy of the morality police
The nude protest by Dr. Stella Nyanzi, a research fellow at the Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR), in response to the closure of her office by Dr. Mahmood Mamdani, her boss, has triggered an understandable public uproar. Yet she was not the first woman to use her nakedness as a protest against a “system” she […]
On the Mamdani-Nyanzi Standoff
The events at the Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR) are of great concern to me as an alumnus of the great university. I confess to being possessed of limitless pride in Makerere, both because I am a lucky beneficiary of that university and the memory of people who have come before us. My generation holds […]
Museveni-Besigye contest: how I saw it 16 years ago
From the Daily Monitor Archives: November 6, 2000 (Background: Dr. Kizza Besigye wrote a landmark critique of the NRM in late 1999. He was threatened with court-martial. He was spared after intervention by elders from Rukungiri. Plans were afoot to arrest him in late 2000. Although Besigye had had no interest in being president, and […]
State-of-the-art health services an affordable necessity
My wife and I spent the whole of January 2012 in Kigezi, falling in love all over again with my homeland and her adopted home in Uganda. Most of our stay was very pleasant, the hospitality a sweet reminder of what we missed most about our country. However, three heartrending images are indelibly seared onto […]
Rift Valley Fever in Kabale, Kigezi contained
Key words and abbreviations: Zoonosis: a disease that normally occurs in animals but can be transmitted to humans. CDC: Centers for Disease Control RVF: Rift Valley Fever RVFV: Rift Valley Fever Virus WHO: World Health Organization A multidisciplinary team, led by Dr. Patrick Tusiime, the District Health Officer, has done an outstanding job of containing […]
