Uganda’s electricity distribution is changing hands – what’s at stake: Uganda’s electricity sector is at a turning point, as Umeme Limited’s 20-year concession draws to a close. Umeme was the first private distribution operator in anglophone Africa. For nearly two decades, the listed company was the dominant distributor of electricity to the country’s 2.3 million …
Men still dominate Uganda’s party politics – women’s participation is mostly cosmetic: Electoral gender quotas in Uganda – first introduced in 1989 – have increased women’s numbers in Uganda’s parliament to 34%. Today there are 189 women out of 557 members of parliament. But women politicians in Uganda continue to be restricted to minority representation. …
Uganda’s tax system isn’t bringing in enough revenue but is targeting small business the answer?: Uganda, with a fiscal deficit of 5.6% in 2023, has increasingly turned to local resources to make up for its revenue shortfall since the World Bank suspended its funding on 8 August 2023 over the country’s anti-homosexuality law. In early …
Black November: remembering Uganda’s massacre of the opposition three years on: November marks a sombre anniversary in Uganda’s recent political history. In 2020, the east African country’s leading opposition politician, Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, was arrested. He was on the campaign trail ahead of the 2021 presidential elections. Mass demonstrations demanding the release of …
Uganda’s anti-homosexuality law is a patriarchal backlash against progress: Activists protest outside the Ugandan Embassy in Washington DC on April 25, 2023. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni assented to the anti-homosexuality bill on 29 May 2023. The new law legislates, among other things, a five-year jail term for “promoting homosexuality”, a seven-year jail …
Uganda’s anti-homosexuality bill wants to ‘rehabilitate’ LGBTIQ+ people – African psychologists warn of its dangers: Sukhomoy Sen/Eyepix Group/Future Publishing via Getty Images Mental health professionals from across Africa, including Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon, Nigeria and South Africa, have signed a declaration against conversion practices that are used to forcibly change the sexual orientation, gender identity or …
Uganda’s new anti-LGBTQ+ law could lead to death penalty for same-sex ‘offences’: People in same-sex relationships in Uganda now face the possibility of life in prison after the country’s parliament unanimously passed its 2023 anti-homosexuality bill. The legislation, which Amnesty International has called “appalling”, “ambiguous” and “vaguely worded”, establishes a range of harsh penalties for …
Ebola: Uganda’s schools were closed for two years during COVID, now they face more closures — something must change: Extended school closures during the pandemic set Ugandan children far behind their peers. BADRU KATUMBA/AFP via Getty Images Children in Uganda missed out on more school because of the COVID pandemic than their peers anywhere else …
Uganda’s fuel smugglers: are the Opec Boys (anti-)heroes of the marginalised?: Boureima Hama/AFP via Getty Images Smuggling in the Ugandan border region of West Nile has a long and chequered history. It straddles the fine line between legitimacy and legality. Governance and conflict researcher Kristof Titeca has studied smuggling in the border region since 2003. …
Uganda’s Owen Falls dam: a colonial legacy that still stings, 67 years later: The sluice gates open at the Owen Falls dam across the White Nile in Uganda on 14 October 1962. McCabe/Express/Hulton Archive via Getty Images Uganda’s Owen Falls hydropower plant has a rich history that predates the country’s independence in 1962. The plant …
Uganda’s efforts to address vitamin A deficiency miss the mark: Matooke has been the subject for vitamin A biofortification. Robin Nieuwenkamp/Shutterstock Vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of preventable childhood blindness. It also increases the risk of death from common childhood illnesses such as diarrhoea. There are several ways to fight this public health …
Idi Amin’s ‘economic war’ victimised Uganda’s Africans and Asians alike: Ugandan President Idi Amin gestures during a speech in 1973. Keystone/HultonArchive/Getty Images Fifty years ago – in early August 1972 – President Idi Amin summarily decreed the expulsion of Uganda’s “Asian” (that is, Indian and Pakistani) community. Over 50,000 people were given a scant three …
Uganda’s new ‘parish’ model tries development from the grassroots: Supporters celebrate President Museveni's win after the recent presidential polls. On Feb 26, President Museveni launched the bottom-up 'parish development model'. Luke Dray/ Getty Images Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, who captured power in 1986, has set himself an ambitious development target. Through the Parish Development Model …
COVID shutdowns exposed flaws in Uganda’s transport system: how to fix them: Motorcyclists at a traffic light in Kampala, Uganda. Photo by Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images Uganda has lifted the last remaining COVID-19 restrictions on economic activity. This allowed boda-bodas (motorcycle taxis) to fully operate again beyond their 6pm curfew. The past two years …
Why merging Uganda’s electricity sector agencies is a bad idea: When multiple electricity companies compete for consumers, there is pressure to keep costs low and to improve service quality. GettyImages Early in 2021, the government of Uganda approved a two-year plan to streamline state-run agencies for greater efficiency. The first phase of the merger targeted …
From Chad’s elephants to Uganda’s shoebills: planning a trip to support tourism recovery in Africa: Lydia Balidawa poses for a photo with a rehabilitated grey crowned crane at Uganda’s Pian Upe Game Reserve. Alex Braczkowski Since the start of the COVID pandemic, reductions in travel to Africa have wiped an estimated US$ 170-253 billion from …
Five ways Uganda’s health teams provided HIV care in lockdown: COVID-19 lockdowns have increased the need for ARV delivery in communities. Jean-Marc Giboux/Getty Images Uganda is currently in a partial country-wide lockdown. The “second wave” of coronavirus infections has been especially unforgiving. There is no household in Uganda I know of that has not been …
South Africa in the news: How Uganda’s fintechs can attract funding: PHOTO/Eronie Kamukama Uganda attracts the least funding for fintechs in venture capital, with Rwanda, Kenya, Egypt, and South Africa and Nigeria being the leaders in hedge funds, Paul Murungi writes.: “South Africa” – BingNews Delays persist in South Africa’s automated biometric identification project completion: …