29 Facts About Andrew Mwenda

Andrew Mwenda was born on 1972 and is a Ugandan print, radio and television journalist, and the founder and owner of The Independent, a current affairs newsmagazine.

Andrew Mwenda was previously the political editor of The Daily Monitor, a Ugandan daily newspaper, and was the presenter of Andrew Mwenda Live on KFM Radio in Kampala, Uganda's capital city.

Andrew Mwenda's father is Mzee Phillip Muhanga of Fort Portal.

Andrew Mwenda is a younger brother to Lieutenant General Kayanja Muhanga, a senior UPDF military officer.

Andrew Mwenda was then admitted to Busoga College Mwiri in the Eastern Region of Uganda for his A-Level education.

Andrew Mwenda graduated with a High School Diploma from Mwiri.

Andrew Mwenda was admitted to Makerere University, Uganda's oldest and largest public university, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.

Andrew Mwenda was a visiting fellow at Yale University, in 2010.

Andrew Mwenda studied as a fellow at Said Business School at the University of Oxford in 2009.

Andrew Mwenda was a John Knight Fellow at Stanford University between 2006 and 2007.

Andrew Mwenda was a visiting lecturer at the University of Florida, Gainesville, in 2005, and a visiting fellow at the Africa Study Centre of the University of Leiden, in the Netherlands in 2003.

In 2011, Andrew Mwenda helped negotiate a truce between President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Kagame of Rwanda, bringing the two leaders together and helping end their intractable conflicts between them and their two countries.

Andrew Mwenda is the managing director of Independent Publications Limited, the publishers of The Independent, a current affairs newsmagazine.

Andrew Mwenda is a recognised African voice in the global debate on the failures of foreign aid to Africa and the need for investment and trade as drivers of growth.

Andrew Mwenda worked as a political editor of the Daily Monitor and general manager of its affiliate on FM radio, KFM, before establishing The Independent in 2007.

Andrew Mwenda has worked as a consultant for the World Bank, the World Resources Institute, and Transparency International.

Andrew Mwenda has written for international news media like Der Spiegel, the International Herald Tribune, The New York Times, and Foreign Policy.

Andrew Mwenda has produced documentaries for BBC World television and radio.

Andrew Mwenda has authored and co-authored articles for international academic journals like Africa Affairs, the Journal of Modern African Studies, the Review of African Political Economy, the Journal of Commonwealth Studies, the Journal for Contemporary African Studies, and the Journal of Democracy on top of publishing chapters in several books.

In July 2006, Andrew Mwenda appeared before the British House of Commons committee on Global Poverty to testify against aid to Africa.

Andrew Mwenda 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 Andrew Mwenda has been widely quoted in international media, including the BBC, CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Times, The Economist, and many other newspapers, radio and television networks in Europe and North America.

Andrew Mwenda has criticised aid agencies and charities for what he says is their ineffectiveness and collusion with corruption.

Andrew Mwenda believes that western aid has been largely unhelpful for African development, since it encourages dependency, sustains wars and fuels corrupt states.

Andrew Mwenda argues that aid goes to the least deserving states, those that have failed their people, rather than those that have reformed.

In 2014, Andrew Mwenda was among the petitioners for annulling The Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014.

On 3 February 2019, Andrew Mwenda launched the Uganda National Peoples' Democratic Revolutionary Front in the bushes of Kanyandahi in western Uganda with six men and five sticks.

Andrew Mwenda declared himself supreme shogun of the UNPDRF and Charles Onyango Obbo its chief ideologue.

Andrew Mwenda won the CPJ International Press Freedom Awards in 2008 sponsored by the Committee to Protect Journalists, "in tribute to his commitment to a free press in Uganda and the whole world".