The AfricaNews articles of emukiibi
Uganda faces deeper crisis as opposition snubs talks
The talks that had been called for May 2 aren't expected to provide a solution to the chaos that has gripped Kampala, Uganda, for the last three weeks because opposition leaders have snubbed them. Opposition politicians involved in the walk-to-work demonstrations say they are in principle not opposed to talks with government but can "only participate in structured talks with a neutral and respectable mediator." - Government has called for talks under the auspices of the donor-sponsored Inter-Party Organisation for Dialogue (IPOD) to reach common ground with its opponents and end the demonstrations that have already claimed at least ten lives and injured hundreds.
But the ca…Uganda: Rare politician who lives off activism
When the government of Uganda planned to destroy part of the country's biggest natural forest to plant cane sugar, they had no idea they were providing fodder for a blossoming political career. But Beatrice Anywar, then the newly elected Woman MP for the northern district of Kitgum, had other ideas. - Also freshly named shadow Environment Minister in what she still thinks was a regional-balancing act by the opposition Forum for Democratic Change, Anywar pounced.
She, along with other politicians and civil society organisations, organised a demonstration against government’s planned act. The walk, in April 2007, started off peacefully but later turned into a bizarre show of pub…Secret oil deals threaten aspirations of Ugandans
James Baguma, motorcycle taxi operator in the capital Kampala, hails from the western Uganda district of Hoima where international companies have been busy prospecting for oil for about two decades now. He dropped out of school immediately his father died 12 years ago. He earns on average $ 5 per day but thinks his fortune can change dramatically. - “If the oil money is well utilized,” he says, “it is enough to provide all Ugandans with decent housing, education, health and good roads.” Baguma can’t elaborate, but estimates put oil revenues at peak at $ 2 billion annually.
Since Uganda’s 2010/11 budget is $3b billion and almost half of it is raised fr…Uganda's opposition leader shot by military
Uganda's leading opposition figure Kizza Besigye was shot in the right hand on the afternoon of April 14 as he participated in a walk-to-work campaign. In a violence-packed day, three opposition leaders spent a night in detention, at least 20 MPs and prominent opposition officials were arrested and at least 50 people were treated of injuries sustained in demonstrations that engulfed the capital Kampala and other major towns. - Besigye, who set off at 6.30am local time to walk to his office about 20 kms away, was responding to a call by the wider opposition dubbed “Activists for Change” (A4C) to walk to work in commiseration with the poor who they say walk to work daily due t…Uganda tense as opposition leaders are arrested
As preparations for the swearing-in of Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni on May 12 gather steam, the country has still to shake off the tenterhooks resulting from the Feb. 18 election. On April 11, the police were once again called into action and by the end of the day they had brought various opposition leaders, including Museveni's stiffest challenger Kizza Besigye, to appear before different courts of law. - The opposition leaders organised a “walk to work” campaign in protest against rising prices of fuel and commodity prices. The Uganda Bureau of Statistics says inflation has leaped from six percent in February to 11 percent presently, against a government target …Kampala on security alert as opposition rejects results
Two hours before the results of the Feb. 18 Ugandan presidential election were declared, the main opposition candidate Dr. Kizza Besigye rejected the final outcome and vowed not to recognise the government President Yoweri Museveni would form on re-election. This followed accusations of rigging, bribery and poor organisation of the electoral process which the opposition says "subverted the will of the people of Uganda." - About a month to the general election, Parliament passed a supplementary budget of about $ 300 million, about $ 50 of which went to State House, the President’s official residence. This was the biggest supplementary budget in Uganda’s history and the s…Ugandans panic as elections draw closer
As Feb. 18, the date for Uganda's presidential and parliamentary elections draws closer; there is growing anxiety that the country could be gripped in election-related violence. Police, under the command of former bush war fighter and President Yoweri Museveni's close aide, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura, has been arming and recruiting massively in anticipation of such violence. - Mounting fears that the opposition could reject the results of the election and plunge the country into chaos are based on the growing suspicion between Museveni and now his three-time challenger for the chair, Col. (RTD) Kizza Besigye.
After the previous two elections, in 2001 and 2006, Besigye challenged…
