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Uganda: Obama Attacks Tribal Politics

Henry Ochieng & Angelo Izama

12 July 2009

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Kampala — President Barack Obama who late on Saturday made a major speech in Accra, Ghana in which he outlined his administration's view of Africa hinted that he will not be tolerating undemocratic behaviour, a position that has ramifications for Uganda.

"I do want to make the broader point that a government that is stable, that is not engaging in tribal conflicts, that can give people confidence and security that their work will be rewarded," he told journalists at a news conference on Friday after the G8 summit ahead of his Ghana trip.

This will have sounded like music to President Yoweri Museveni's political opponents and other critics who accuse him of presiding over an ethnicity-based strong-arm government in all its nefarious forms.

Ms Salaamu Musumba, vice president of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change told Sunday Monitor yesterday that Mr Obama "made the right choice in focusing on good governance and not just because it makes for a good buzzword for the media".

"President Obama has understood what the problem is in Africa, he is not imposing his views on us; he has presented a 'stimulus package' to Africa's political leadership and it is up to us to respond. He has made what he stands for clear and done so with humility," she said.

Her optimism were, however, tempered by the cold realisation that the continent is led by what she called "tired, haggard old men like [Libya's Mummar] Gadaffi, who unlike Obama, need brutal force to remain in power".

Expounding on President Obama's promise of co-operation in fostering development in Africa, Ms Musumba was again disappointed in noting that the continent has been let down by its leaders who are "allowing us to be re-colonised by the likes of China through the scramble for our resources".

"They are even worse than our grandfathers," she said, "who have had the benefit of hindsight [but are still] making the same mistakes," she said.

President Obama, whose father is from Kenya, had midweek dropped several hints that his speech would be focusing on good governance. He repeated at the news conference that governments that invest in their people succeed "regardless of their history".

President Obama's focus on governance suggests that Washington will have less and not more in common with Uganda during his tenure.

But any tough talk will likely be taken alongside the realities of working in Africa where many of America's allies are countries like Uganda, with political establishments that are largely considered repressive and corrupt -- and yet they still remain of strategic interest to the US either because of the natural resources or geographical location.

Walking the talk deepening democracy and good governance for the Obama administration will therefore have to be taken in light of this reality.

There are also commercial and trade interests to pursue in a continental landscape complicated recently by a new scramble for Africa's vast mineral resources.

Specifically, relations between Kampala (with Uganda having recently discovered considerable deposits of oil) and Washington will still be affected by the view, held at least by the man leading his Africa desk, that Uganda has slipped off the democratic railings and is no longer the potential success story it once was.

Ambassador Johnnie Carson, the new Assistant Secretary of State for Africa has served in Uganda, Kenya and Zimbabwe as US envoy. Today, all three are considered to be at various stages of regression in respect to good governance with Zimbabwe being the extreme.

Mr Carson, now US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, is not well liked. Zimbabwe's Mugabe called him "an idiot" who wanted to dictate what Zimbabwe did [in terms of reforms].

"I hope he was not speaking for Obama" the Zimbabwean strongman was quoted as saying after meeting Carson at the African Union summit in Sirte in Libya this month.

In 2005, three years to Obama's historic election, Carson stirred a storm in Kampala after he wrote a critical article in the Boston Globe newspaper titled "Uganda: A success story past its prime?"

In the article, Mr Carson, while praising President Museveni's achievements in security, the economy and in fighting HIV/Aids, said a new "dark chapter" in Uganda's history would be ushered if Museveni insisted on hanging on to power.

Speaking to an academic audience debating Uganda in Washington, Mr Carson repeated that Uganda's "Uganda's march toward full democracy is on the threshold of becoming unglued".

He also suggested that his continued stay in power was motivated by a desire to protect among others Gen. Salim Saleh, his younger brother from prosecution for corruption.

Sharing the podium with him that day in 2005 was East African scholar, Prof. Joel Barkan and Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, who together with Museveni's political advisor Moses Byaruhanga had flown to Washington to defend the President.

U.S. President Barack Obama (C) and first lady Michelle Obama (R) greet Ghana's President John Atta Mills and his wife Ernestina Naadu Mills (L) upon Obama's arrival in Accra, Ghana on Friday. reuters photo

"After an extended period of political liberalisation... Uganda has slipped back into a period of neo-patrimonial, or 'big man' rule," said Prof. Barkan, a consultant who that year had completed a study for the World Bank which concluded that corruption in Uganda was the oil that fuelled politics of "patronage" in the country.

He noted that it was so bad that the Auditor General's reports read like chapters in "Ali Baba and the forty thieves". The Carson attack and ensuing debate which came in the middle of the Ekisanja or 'Third Term' campaign drew a strong reaction from the President's supporters including from his wife, Janet, who controversially said her husband was on a messianic mission to liberate Uganda.

"Museveni does not need a job. It is Uganda that needs liberation" she wrote in response to Mr Carson. Defending the removal of presidential term limits, Dr Rugunda now Uganda's permanent representative at the United Nations, told the audience that was stuffed with US foreign policy types in Washington, that ultimately voters, through elections, were the most effective limit to one man rule.

"There are those who worry that a dictator like Idi Amin might emerge in the absence of term limitations. First of all, dictators do not follow the rule of law and constitutionalism. So, if a dictator were to emerge, no term limitation would stop him," he said.

Yesterday, Mr Byaruhanga described US-Uganda relations as being "good". Asked what he thought of the past criticism of the Museveni regime by Mr Carson, he said the top diplomat had written them in his personal capacity.

"Am not sure those views were those of the US government," Mr Byaruhanga said adding that Uganda's "vision" for good governance and the fight against corruption was in fact more democracy which he expected will go well with the Obama administration.

"Ensuring that an empowered population can periodically through elections throw out the corrupt is the most important thing. [Regular] elections are the institutionalisation of the fight against corruption. Other capacities like investigations can then come in," he added.

As Obama made his speech little has changed. President Museveni is widely expected to seek a fourth term in office and corruption and abuse of power most observers note is now so widespread.

But it may not matter whether the US administration consider Uganda's leader, once labeled a 'beacon of hope' a less than appropriate force for good governance since he remains an American ally in the Great Lakes Region which Washington's policy must address broadly.

Uganda is central to the response of the US Africa Command in Somalia and also important to the continued stability of Southern Sudan, which holds a referendum in a year's time where the decision to secede or not from Khartoum will be made and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Even if Obama prioritises governance issues, emergencies like the fighting in Somalia, attempts to diffuse the Lord's Resistance Army operating in DRC and ensuring Sudan's neighbours can see it through a referendum on self-rule for the South in 2011 cannot be ignored.

Mr David Mafabi, a political assistant to president, on Friday evening told this paper that he "does not see any particular matter that should cause alarm for the Uganda government with the new US administration".

Emphasising that he was speaking from a Pan-Africanist perspective and not as the government spokesman, Mr Mafabi said, "we value all our allies and the US is an important player that we have related very well with and will continue but at the end of the day we make our decisions."

President Museveni shot his way to power in 1986 after a five-year guerilla war against the elected government of Dr Apollo Milton Obote and short-lived military junta of Gen. Tito Okello.

He promised not just a mere change of guards but a fundamental change in the way government would now conduct business the highlight of which was to propel Uganda into a law abiding country with an integrated, self-sustaining economy.

The early Museveni years also saw a lean and frugal approach being brought to public administration which, however, has today given way to a bloated more than 70-member Cabinet with a support cast of hundreds of political appointees both at the centre and local governments whose combined demands are placing the economy under distressing financial strain.

Against that background, Transparency International ranked Uganda as the third most corrupt country in the world in its 'Corruption Barometer' report released two months ago. Meanwhile, critics and diverse civil society organisations have increasingly denounced the suspected widespread use of taxpayer's money to fund partisan political activity geared towards entrenching the current government.

President Museveni also promised political reforms, which reached their highest point with promulgation of a new Constitution in 1995. That Constitution has, however, since been amended so many times with the most prominent change being the deletion of Article 105(2) that previously limited the holding of presidential office by anyone to two terms. Critics say this cleared the way for President Museveni to realise his dream of life presidency - a charge he vigorously denies though.

In the interim, while elections right from the village level have consistently been held since the late 1980s, credible accusations of rigging and other electoral malpractice as confirmed by various court rulings (not least the Supreme Court declarations in 2001 and 2005 following petitions against Museveni's election) have besmirched whatever claims to democratic intent this government has had.

This has been compounded by the harassment, outright disenfranchisement of the opposition at election time and in extreme cases extrajudicial killing of supporters of political opponents by elements of the security services.

The security services, like most other departments of government have increasingly seen their leadership drawn from western Uganda where the President comes from - a state of affairs that critics says cements the fear that Uganda has fallen victim to the divisive tribal politics of the past.

The sum effect of these blotches have cast a pall over President Museveni's legacy that now appears to retain the accolade of his personal dedication to the fight against HIV/Aids as the main positive thing to say about his presidency.

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