Andrew Mwenda

Andrew Mwenda is a Ugandan journalist. He attended Busoga College Mwiri in eastern Uganda before attending Makerere University. He was arrested and released on bail by the Ugandan government for "being in possession of seditious material and of publishing inflammatory articles". [ [http://allafrica.com/stories/200804301016.html AllAfrica.com] , retrieved 2008-5-1] He earned a master's degree in the UK. He was previously the political editor of "The Monitor" newspaper and presenter of "Andrew Mwenda Live" on the KFM radio station. In 2005, he was among sixteen senior journalists invited by the British government to meet prime minister Tony Blair to discuss the forthcoming report of the Commission for Africa.

In August 2005 he was charged with sedition for broadcasting a discussion of the cause of death of Sudanese vice-president John Garang. Garang was killed when the Ugandan presidential helicopter crashed in a storm over a rebel area, on the way back from talks in Uganda. During his radio programme, the journalist accused the Ugandan government of "incompetence" and said they had put Garang on "a junk helicopter...at night...in poor weather...over an insecure area". [ [http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/6cb37fc81cf72de8211d21482b12a47d.htm AlertNet.Org] , retrieved 2008-5-1] He also criticized President Yoweri Museveni, calling him a failure, a coward and a "villager", and said the president's days were numbered if he "goes on a collision course with me". [ [http://za.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-08-19T094432Z_01_ALL935021_RTRIDST_0_OZATP-UGANDA-RADIO-20050819.XML Reuters] , retrieved 2008-5-1]

In July 2006, Mwenda appeared before the British House of Commons committee on Global Poverty to testify against aid to Africa. He has written widely on the effects of aid on the development process in Africa and been published in such prestigious newspapers as the "International Herald Tribune" and "Der Spiegel" and done radio and television documentaries for the BBC on this subject. Mr. Mwenda has also been widely quoted in international media - BBC, CNN, "New York Times", "Washington Post", "The Times", "The Economist", and many other newspapers, radio and television networks in Europe and North America.

He has assiduously criticised many activities of multinational corporations in Africa, and also criticises aid agencies and charities for what he says is their self-interest and collusion with corruption. He believes that western aid has been largely unhelpful for African development, since it fuels corrupt states and sustains wars. He argues that aid goes to the least deserving states, those that have failed their people, rather than those that have reformed. In June 2007, he gave a speech at the TED conference in Arusha, Tanzania. Bono attended the conference, and attracted headlines [ [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c86d4410-1a5f-11dc-8bf0-000b5df10621.html TED Conference page] , retrieved on 2008-5-1] with his foul-mouthed heckling of his speech.

Mr. Mwenda was on a year-long John S. Knight fellowship at Stanford University in the United States. In December 2007, he launched the newspaper "The Independent" in Kampala.

Press articles

* [http://www.monitor.co.ug/sunday/news/news08141.php Mwenda denied bond, faces 5 years in prison] , Charles Mwanguhya Mpagi, "Sunday Monitor", 14 August 2005
* [http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/12/450276 Mwenda detained] , Alfred Wasike, "New Vision", 14 August 2005
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4148998.stm Ugandan police charge journalist] , BBC News, 13 August 2005
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4144502.stm Uganda's radio closure condemned] , BBC News, 12 August 2005
* [http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/68693/ Press freedom groups raise concerns] , IFEX, 17 August 2005
* [http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=14741 Radio KFM back on the air but one of its journalists to be tried for sedition] , Reporters sans frontières, 19 August 2005
* [http://www.gelfmagazine.com/mt/archives/fighting_for_press_freedom_in_uganda.html Mwenda tells Gelf Magazine why he won't stay quiet] , Gelf Magazine, 1 September 2005
* [http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/africa/article684563.ece 'Aid only feeds Africa's corruption'] The Times, 8 July 2006
* [http://www.cato.org/pubs/fpbriefs/fpb88.pdf Foreign Aid and the Weakening of Democratic Accountability in Uganda] The Cato Institute
* [http://www.weltwoche.ch/artikel/?AssetID=15091&CategoryID=82 Sehnsucht nach der Kolonialzeit] , Die Weltwoche, 12 October 2006
* [http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL1351460.html New paper says Uganda presidency blocks first edition] , Reuters Africa, Thurs 13 Dec 2007
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7368954.stm Uganda journalists held in raid] , BBC, Saturday 26 April 2008

Video

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfobLjsj230 Andrew Mwenda: Let's take a new look at African aid]

Latest Journals

*2007: Investieren Geht uber Schmieren, Entwicklungspolitik, December 2007, Nr. 12 62 Jahr.
*2007: Personalizing power in Uganda, Journal for Democracy, July 2007, Volume 18, Number 3
*2006: “Sustaining Growth and Achieving Deep Reductions in Poverty: How Uganda Recovered from Conflict”; in Attacking Africa’s Poverty: Experience from the Ground Edited by Louise Fox and Bob Liebenthal, World Bank, Washington DC.
*2006: Foreign aid the Weakening of Democratic Accountability in Uganda (a policy briefing paper for the Cato Institute, a think tank in Washington DC.
*2006: With Roger Tangri: ‘Politics, Donors, and the Ineffectiveness of Anti-Corruption Institutions in Uganda’, Journal of Modern African Studies, 44, 1 (2006)
*2005: With Roger Tangri: ‘Patronage Politics, Donor Reforms, and Regime Consolidation in Uganda’, African Affairs, 104, 416 (2005), 449-67.
*2003: With Roger Tangri: “Military Corruption and Ugandan Politics since the late 1990s.” in the Review of African Political Economy No. 98, 2003.
*2001: With Prof. Roger Tangri, Corruption and Cronyism in Uganda’s Privatisation in the 1990s, Africa Affairs 100-398 (2001) 87-103

References