Police Investigate 'Protest Vote' Road Inscriptions in Kiboga

Polluted from Birth: Are Uganda's Newborns Carrying Micro-plastics?

Water Ministry Launches Shs12bn Water Stabilization Project for Kitgum

During the launch at the Kitgum Public Primary School playground, Beatrice Atim Anywar, the State Minister for Water and Environment, emphasized the projects significance. She noted that it will not only provide much-needed water for the residents but also contribute to the municipality's goal of achieving city status. The project includes the construction of a treatment plant in Paibor Central Village, a reservoir at Hilltop in Kitgum Municipality, and four water-borne toilets in the area.

Women behind the lens: 'I envisioned these slaves whose lives were exchanged for indigo'

Stacey Gillian Abe's Indigogo project explores how the dye was used in the slave trade – and how those enslaved people lost their identitiesIn 2018, I ended a 10-year relationship and it left me broken. I became quiet and irritable; I craved isolation and found myself putting up emotional barriers to avoid having to talk to anyone about it. It felt like I'd never recover.Taking long walks has always been one of the ways I've dealt with my emotional and mental state. On one of these walks around my home city, Kampala in Uganda, I discovered an abandoned warehouse. The building was in the heart of the city, among offices and factories, but seemed isolated and forgotten. Continue reading...

I was trying to run for the presidency in Uganda – yet men still found the audacity to call me 'baby, sweetheart, darling' | Yvonne Mpambara

I was bruised by my experience of being kept out of an exclusively male political club – now my focus is on getting women into power in AfricaIt's six weeks since the electoral commission of Uganda announced the eight candidates for the country's 2026 presidential election. The fact that they are all men is an outrage – and entirely unsurprising.Of the 221 people who expressed an interest in running for president, 15 were women; and of those, only three of us gained enough voter support to be considered for nomination. Continue reading...

Liberal politicians outside US hail Zohran Mamdani victory in New York

Opposition figures in India and Uganda and progressives in UK and France applaud Democrat's election as mayorLiberal politicians outside the US have watched Zohran Mamdani's election win as New York mayor with interest, with some saying it offers lessons in how to combat the rise of rightwing populism.News of the 34-year-old's victory rang out around the globe, from his birth country of Uganda, to France and Britain, where anti-immigrant, far-right parties are breaking into mainstream politics, and India, where Mamdani is claimed as a son of the diaspora. Continue reading...

Ugandans view Mamdani's NYC win as a 'beacon of hope' amid democratic struggle

Ugandans react with joy after Kampala-born Mamdani's victory during a trying time for democracy in east AfricaUgandans reacted with joy and hope to the news that Kampala-born Zohran Mamdani had been elected mayor of New York City, amid a stormy democratic and rights environment in east Africa.Mamdani, who was born in Uganda 34 years ago to a family of Indian origin, on Tuesday defeated former governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa to become the city's first Muslim mayor and the first of south Asian heritage. Continue reading...

How Mamdani is defying immigrant expectations by embracing his identity: 'His boldness resonates'

New York City mayor-elect refused to 'be in the shadows' in the face of Islamophobic attacks during his campaignAcross the country, Donald Trump's crackdown on immigrants has shaken neighbourhoods, torn apart families and engendered a sense of panic among communities. But in New York, on Tuesday night, Zohran Mamdani, the first Muslim mayor of New York, and an immigrant from Uganda, chose to underline his identity. "New York will remain a city of immigrants: a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants and, as of tonight, led by an immigrant," he told an ecstatic crowd at the Paramount theater in Brooklyn.The son of a Muslim father and a Hindu mother, he was born in Kampala, raised in New York, and identifies as a democratic socialist. Almost every aspect of Mamdani's identity had been an issue of contention during the election. Earlier this week, the Center for Study of Organized Hate published a report highlighting the surge in Islamophobic comments online between July and October, most of which labelled Mamdani as an extremist or terrorist. Continue reading...

Tanzania's descent into repression is a stark warning of how fast Africa's progress can be eroded | Kenneth Mohammed

When she became president, Samia Suluhu Hassan offered hope. But the country's sudden democratic decay is more than just a national tragedy A renewed sense of hope has taken root across the African continent. It is an optimism resting on solid ground: a booming population expected to surpass 2.5 billion by mid-century; vast reserves of critical minerals, oil and gas; and unprecedented levels of infrastructure investment.The African Development Bank (AfDB) projects that Africa's combined GDP could reach $4tn (£3tn) by 2030, driven by green-energy investments, urbanisation and digital innovation. One of their senior economists told me confidently earlier this year: "The future will be written in Africa." Continue reading...

Mahmood Mamdani on Zohran, Uganda and forced expulsion: 'Who is part of the nation and who is not?'

After being expelled from his homeland in 1972, the academic has grappled with questions of political belonging – a major theme of his son's mayoral campaignThe night before Mahmood Mamdani was expelled from Uganda in 1972, a senior professor from the university where he had been employed as a lowly teaching assistant wandered into his family home, looking for spoils. The rest of the family had already left – for the UK, the US and Tanzania – but 26-year-old Mamdani had decided to remain until the final day of the three-month period that Idi Amin, the Ugandan president, had designated for all Asians to leave the country. Passing over the furniture and other remnants of decades of family life, the professor hit upon a carton of Johnnie Walker Red, which Mamdani invited him to take home. Continue reading...

Slow Poison by Mahmood Mamdani review – can you really rehabilitate Idi Amin?

The anthropologist and father of New York's mayor-elect offers a revisionist view of modern Ugandan historyChildren of Ugandan Indians are having a bit of a moment. Electropop boasts Charlie XCX; statecraft, the Patels: Priti the shadow foreign secretary, Kash the FBI boss. And while the ones who go into politics have tended to be conservative, we now have a counterexample in Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist who clinched the New York mayoralty at the beginning of this month.The anomaly is best explained by the politics of his father, Mahmood Mamdani. The apple, it seems, didnotroll especially far down the postcolonial hillside. Mahmood, professor of government and anthropology at Columbia University, has long styled himself as the left's answer to VS Naipaul. Where the Nobel-winning curmudgeon surveyed postcolonial Africa with disdain, revelling in the wreckage of independence, Mamdani presents a more forgiving view: pathos instead ofpity, paradox instead of despair. If independence didn't live up to the promise, he argues, it was because the colonised had been dealt a losing hand. Continue reading...

Tommy Gee obituary

My friend Tommy Gee, who has died aged 100, was a progressive colonial service administrator during the 1950s and 60s in Uganda, where his sympathies with the local population won him few friends among the expat community.On Uganda's independence in 1962 the prime minister, Milton Obote, asked Tommy to stay on to oversee an expansion in education that led to a doubling in the number of secondary schools from 21 to 42 in three years. Later, back in the UK, he became administrative director of the newly formed Institute of Development Studies at Sussex University, after which he helped to establish the University of the South Pacific in Fiji. Continue reading...

Letter: Rhoda Kalema obituary

Rhoda Kalema, whom I met at the World Women's Congress in Kampala in 2002, was one of a cohort of heroic women who contributed to the recovery of Uganda after years of tyranny and civil war. Among their achievements was to ensure that the new government of President Yoweri Museveni prioritised universal primary education, and the direct election of women to Uganda's parliament – achievements all too little celebrated in our media coverage of Uganda. Continue reading...

Uganda stops granting refugee status for Eritreans, Somalis and Ethiopians

Government once seen as progressive on migration says aid cuts to blame for excluding countries 'not experiencing war'The Ugandan government has stopped granting asylum and refugee status to people from Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia, citing severe funding shortfalls for the significant policy shift.Hillary Onek, Uganda's minister for refugees, announced that the government would no longer grant the status to new arrivals from countries "not experiencing war". Continue reading...

'One bite and he was hooked': from Kenya to Nepal, how parents are battling ultra-processed foods

Five families around the world share their struggles to keep their children away from UPFsParents and young people: share your concerns about ultra-processed foods (UPFs)The scourge of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) is global. While their consumption is particularly high in the west, forming more than half the average diet in the UK and the US, for example, UPFs are replacing fresh food in diets on every continent.This month, the world's largest review on the health threats of UPFs was published in the Lancet. It warned that such foods are exposing millions of people to long-term harm, and called for urgent action. Earlier this year Unicef revealed that more children around the world were obese than underweight for the first time, as junk food overwhelms diets, with the steepest rises in low- and middle-income countries. Continue reading...

PRESIDENT MUSEVENI COMMISSIONS VICTORIA SUGAR LIMITED FACTORY IN LUWERO

His Excellency, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the President of the Republic of Uganda and National Resistance Movement (NRM) Presidential Candidate for the 2026 general elections, today commissioned the Victoria Sugar Limited Factory in Luwero District. The President was accompanied by the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Maama Janet Kataha Museveni. While addressing leaders, workers, and residents, President Museveni commended the management and staff of Victoria Sugar Limited for their contribution to Uganda's industrial growth and wealth creation agenda. He reiterated the government#39;s commitment to addressing workers' welfare, including the issue of the minimum wage, as part of broader

NAKASONGOLA: PRESIDENT MUSEVENI REAFFIRMS NRM'S COMMITMENT TO EQUALITY AND INCLUSIVITY

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) flag bearer for the 2026 general elections, has urged Ugandans to support the NRM, emphasizing the party's long-standing commitment to equality and inclusivity. Accompanied by the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Maama Janet Kataaha Museveni, President Museveni made the remarks today during a campaign rally at Wabinyonyi Playground in Nakasongola. "Please vote for the NRM as you have always done, because the NRM believes in equality," President Museveni said. The President also expressed joy at seeing the growth of the Abaruuli community. "Whenever I come to Nakasongola, I

PRESIDENT MUSEVENI ASSURES BUIKWE ON MINIMUM WAGE, SAYS GOVERNMENT MUST FIRST LOWER COST OF DOING BUSINESS

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has assured Ugandans that the long- awaited minimum wage will be established once the government completes key interventions aimed at enabling investors to operate sustainably and profitably. Speaking on Saturday 3 rd January 2026, during a campaign rally in Lugazi Municipality, Buikwe District, President Museveni said the government is deliberately sequencing reforms to avoid harming businesses and job creation. President Museveni, who is also the National Resistance Movement (NRM) flagbearer for the 2026 general elections, was accompanied by the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Maama Janet Kataaha Museveni, as he addressed thousands of

Diarra the hero as Mali edge Tunisia on penalties to set up Senegal quarter-final clash

Mali and Senegal have booked their places in the quarter-finals of the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Morocco 2025 after dramatic victories on Saturday, setting up a mouth-watering West African showdown in the last eight. At the Mohammed V Stadium in Casablanca, Mali needed penalties to overcome Tunisia after a bruising 1-1 draw […]

Belief and resolve as Sudan face Senegal in AFCON knockout test

Sudan head into their TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Morocco 2025 Round of 16 clash against Senegal carrying belief, national pride and the weight of a historic opportunity. The Falcons of Jediane qualified for the knockout stage for the first time since 2012 after finishing among the best third-placed teams in the group […]