Kenya's Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta (L, back row), Cabinet Secretary Francis Muthaura (2nd L, front row), and former police chief Hussein Ali appear (2nd R, front row) at the International Crimin…

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni (L) talk during the African Union (AU) Summit in Uganda's capital Kampala July 27, 2010. (Benedicte Desrus/Courtesy Reuters) One …

Recently, Ugandan civil society organizations warned about the likelihood of increasing political violence leading up to the country’s 2021 general elections. Disturbing incidents of opposition figures like Bobi Wine being arrested and beaten, journalists being punished for covering those who challenge the state, and people associated with the new political opposition, like Michael Kalinda, being abducted, tortured, and even killed certainly support the case for sounding the alarm. 

In many African states, food insecurity is a serious problem getting worse by the day. This week, international experts sounded the alarm about acute food shortages affecting some 135 million people, more than half of them Africans. The coronavirus crisis, with its effect on livelihoods, productivity, and agricultural supply chains, could nearly double that already staggering number of people threatened with starvation.