One of the Elders associated with Nation Media Group (NMG) is extremely well-travelled and from all over the world he soaks in several lessons about media. His knowledge of the media business can be disarming. In one meeting, he reflected on what he considered the “unfortunate” tendency that has invaded African media too, of filling […]
December 13, 2012
Short URL fashion, Kampala, miniskirts, music, Nairobi, Nation Media Group, political index, record sales, Uganda, Uganda National Liberation Front, Yoweri Museveni Guns & Roses, Political Barometre
There was a dramatic rush in the Kenyan capital Nairobi last Tuesday (December 4, 2012) to beat the deadline for registering coalitions for the March 4, 2013 General Election.When the dust settled, the rest of East Africa, which had been worrying itself to death about Kenya having another violent election as it did in 2007/2008 thus […]
December 9, 2012
Short URL AMISOM, CORD coaltion, East Africa, East African Community, Eritrea, Ethiopia, International Criminal Court, Issaias Afeworki, Jakaya Kikwete, Jubilee coalition, Kampala, Kenya, Kenya election violence, Martha Karua, Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, Mwai Kibaki, Paul Kagame, Peter Kenneth, Raphael Tuju, Somalia, Uhuru, Uhuru Kenyatta, William Ruto, Yoweri Museveni Diplomatic Shenanigans, Heroes & Villains
First published in The East African, Sept. 1-7, 2012 NAIROBI: Somalia’s long transition ended on August 20, with its war-battered capital Mogadishu more peaceful than it has been in 20 years. However, the African Union peacekeeping mission, Amisom, which can claim credit for the change in Somalia, is not holding a victory parade yet. In often […]
September 2, 2012
Short URL Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, Ahlu-Sunna Walijamaa, Ahmed Abdi Godane, Al Shabaab, Alpha Group, AMISOM, Ban ki-Moon, Ethiopia, Galgala militia, Hiran region, Jubba, Kampala, Kenya, Kenya Defence Forces, Kismayu, Mogadishu, President Sheik Shariff, Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, Puntland, Ras Kamboni, Richard Rouget, Somalia National Security Agency (NSA), Somaliland, Time Magazine, Uganda, UN Security Council, UN Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group (SEMG), Yoweri Museveni Diplomatic Shenanigans, Guns & Roses
Recently I was visiting with Andrew Mwenda, the Strategy and Editorial Director of the Uganda current affairs magazine The Independent at his Butabika home, in Kampala’s suburbs, when he squeezed me for a favour. He asked that I write about what I thought President Yoweri Museveni was trying to achieve with his “reconciliatory” actions towards several […]
August 5, 2012
Short URL AMISOM, Andrew Mwenda, Bakuli, Benon Tumukunde, Bombo Road, Boniface Byanyima, Bwaise, Bwebajja, Chefe Ali, Chris Rwakasisi, Congo, dictator, FRONASA, Front for National Salvation, Gayaza hill, General Maarwa, General Mayunga, Idi Amin, Ivan Koreta, Jet Mwebaze, Kabulasoke, Kampala, Kanoni, Kashillingi, Kisangani, Kisubi, Lubiri, Makerere, Miria Obote, Mozambique, Mwalimu Nyerere, Nansana, National Resistance Army, Ndeeba, Peter Kerim, Salim Saleh, Samson David Sejusa Tinyefuza, Sese Seko Mobutu, Sowing the Mustard Seed, Tanzania People’s Defence Forces, TPDF, UNLA, UPDF, Wandegeya, Yoweri Museveni, Zaire, Zana Rogue Stuff, War & Peace
There are many other roads in Uganda that are worse than the Tororo-Mbale one that I just endured a few days ago. I saw a report on one of the Ugandan TVs in April on such roads. Still, I would recommend the Tororo-Mbale road to the courts. Instead of sentencing someone to life imprisonment, the […]
June 13, 2012
Short URL Andrew Mwenda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Fort Portal, Kampala, Mbale, Mbarara, Mobutu Sese Seko, rapper Keko, Soroti, Tirinyi, Tororo, Uganda, West Nile Arts Ne Culture, Rogue Stuff
‘Perhaps Kony 2012’s appeal comes from its “superficiality”, because that way it is able to serve up emotion. Maybe young people connect more to the emotion of stories, not their complexity. And, contrary to what we grown ups think, the kids sometimes need something more than Angry Birds and Grand Theft Auto—they would like to […]
March 17, 2012
Short URL Africa, child soldiers, Democratic Republic of Congo, IDPs, Invisible Children, Joseph Kony, josephkony, Kampala, Kony, Kony 2012, Kony 2012 video, Lord’s Resistance Army, LRA, Museveni, Uganda, Yoweri Museveni Naked Chiefs & Emperors, Robbers & Barons, Rogue Stuff
“Joseph Kony, a former altar boy subscribing to the same mchuzi mix of traditional-ne-fundamentalist Catholicism as Lakwena, and who also dabbled in the occult, had been lurking in the shadows in the last days of the Holy Spirit movement, recruiting former soldiers to his cause” This is the third part of the well-known and little-known […]
March 15, 2012
Short URL Anyanyas, Buganda king Mutesa, child soldiers, ensolo, hatred of northerners, Holy Spirit movement, Invisible Children, Isaac Newton Ojok, Jinja, Joseph Kony, kadogos, Kakira sugar plantations, Kampala, Kony 2012 video, Lakwena, Luwero Triangle, Milton Obote, Museveni, NRA, shea oil, Uganda Freedom Movement (UFM) Naked Chiefs & Emperors, Robbers & Barons, Rogue Stuff
I ran into Museveni on the late afternoon of, if I remember accurately, February 4, 1981. He was wearing a short sleeve beige shirt untucked, and khaki trousers, and ambling along in his trademark wobbly walk. He had pistol in a holster to his right side, and another one stuck into his belt to the […]
March 14, 2012
Short URL 1.4 million to 1.6 million IDPs, attack, Basilio Okello, British colonialism, Chango Machyo, divide-and-rule, election theft, Gen. Idi Yusuf Lule, Godfrey Binaisa, guerrilla war, Gulu, Invisible Children, Juba talks, July 1985 coup, Kabamba army barracks, Kampala, Kenya-Uganda Railway, King Freddie Mutebi, Kony 2012 video, largest camps for internally displaced people in world, LRA, Military Commission, milk-drinking-banana-eating weaklings, Milton Obote, Museveni, Museveni sworn in, Nairobi PeacenTalks, northerners, southerners, Tito Okello, Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF), Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM), Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), Weekly Topic Naked Chiefs & Emperors, Robbers & Barons, Rogue Stuff
This afternoon I drove through what’s called “Kisekka Market”, the energetic, manically overcrowded and gridlocked artisan hustlers’ hub in downtown Kampala, Uganda’s capital. Despite the madness, it was heartening to see the hunger and drive. “Kisekka Market” is like River Road or Kirinyaga Street in Nairobi. I have seen similar creative hustling in downtown Accra, […]
December 24, 2011
Short URL Accra, Africa, Bill Clinton, Brazil, Kampala, Kirinyanga Street, Lee Kuan Yew, Mahathir Mohamad, mitumba, River Road Nairobi, Uganda Politically Incorrect
