Yoweri Museveni, in power since 1986, is still holding onWhen Uganda celebrated 50 years of independence on October, its president, Yoweri Museveni, promised to “deepen democratic governance”.Just the opposite took place: as Museveni, 68, delivered his nationwide televised speech, dozens of riot police barred his main political adversary, Kizza Besigye, 56, from leaving his home. On Uganda’s golden jubilee, its opposition leader was effectively under house arrest.The incident illustrates Museveni’s increasing authoritarianism towards his political opposition. After 26 years in power, he is Africa’s fifth longest-ruling president. Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, the International Crisis Group and others document rising…
Mark Schenkel
Thomas Kwoyelo is the first person to face trial in Uganda for crimes he allegedly committed while fighting for the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a nearly 30-year-old rebel group that now operates in the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). A Uganda Supreme Court ruling in April removed legal hurdles for Mr Kwoyelo’s criminal trial to resume, marking an important transition to using a special domestic court instead of relying on an amnesty law to deal with combatants of the rebel outfit led by Joseph Kony. Since the LRA began operating in northern Uganda in 1987,…
Uganda: xenophobia abounds Third and fourth generation Ugandan Indians contribute to the economy but are seen as unwelcome outsiders Indians, says 26-year-old Carol Namutosi, aren’t good people. “They don’t talk to you, they shout at you, and some don’t give you food,” says Namutosi, who worked as a housekeeper for an Indian family in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, in 2014. “The brother of my boss touched me like this,” she adds, putting her hands on her buttocks while bending over, pretending to be washing clothes. “I didn’t feel good.” Namutosi’s account illustrates persistent misgivings among African Ugandans about compatriots of Indian…
Uganda’s battle with malaria To fight malaria: reduce poverty, teach prevention, outlaw fraud by Mark Schenkel One evening in 2005 Vincent Matabaazi noticed that his three-month-old baby had a slight fever. When it worsened suddenly, he took her to the hospital where she was diagnosed with malaria. “They gave Mariam an injection and told us to come back the next day for another one,” recounts Mr Matabaazi, 34, a motorcycle taxi driver in Mukono, a town 20km east of Uganda’s capital, Kampala. But Mariam never returned to the hospital: “That night, she died.” Mariam is among the hundreds of thousands…
Uganda’s universities: privatisation and its pitfalls by Mark Schenkel Bob Atwine, 21, says he is pleased he went to a private university instead of to Makerere University, Uganda’s renowned, government-owned institution of higher education. Originally a technical school founded in 1922 in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, Makerere became one of the most prestigious academic centres in Africa. But over- crowding, poorly paid professors, frequent strikes and crumbling infrastructure have tarnished its once sterling reputation. Students like Mr Atwine are studying elsewhere. “Makerere has deteriorated in recent years,” Mr Atwine says. He is studying information technology and is in his third and…
