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US visa restrictions: Catalyst for change, or recipe for strained relations?
President Museveni (second left) and his US counterpart Joe Biden (second right) with Ugandan First Daughter Natasha Karugire (left) and US First Lady Jill Biden (right) at the White House last year. PHOTO/ FILE
What you need to know:
- While many politicians would want Ugandans to believe that the United States is trying to arm twist Uganda into repealing the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA), the US has for more than four years now been calling out Uganda on its human rights record. But Isaac Mufumba writes that there has been no evidence that Uganda is acting on earlier reports.
On Monday, the United States announced expanded visa and travel restrictions on Ugandan officials that it believes are responsible for undermining democracy and repressing the rights of “marginalised groups”.
“Today, I am announcing the expansion of the visa restriction policy to include current or former Ugandan officials or others who are believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, undermining the democratic process in Uganda or for policies or actions aimed at repressing members of marginalised or vulnerable populations,” secretary of state Antony Blinken said.
The extent of the damage remains unclear. The US, as has always been the case, did not reveal who has been affected. However, a post on Parliament Watch’s X (formerly Twitter) handle suggests that Speaker of Parliament Anita Among and all the 348 legislators who supported the passing of the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 cannot enter the US.
Government’s response to the Mr Blinken’s latest announcement has, as expected, been one of anger, even intransigence.
The narrative, at least going by the comments of Dr Chris Baryomunsi, the minister for ICT and National Guidance, has been that the US is taking it out on Uganda for having passed the anti-homosexuality law.
“As government and as Ugandans, we should remain very firm. We may be poor, but we are not desperate that you just dangle some resources and we abandon our values,” Dr Baryomunsi told Parliament on Wednesday.
The law, which criminalises acts of homosexuality, was first passed by Parliament on March 21. Mr Museveni sent it back to Parliament with “proposals for its improvement”. Parliament passed it again on May 2 and the President signed it into law on May 26.
Mr Henry Oryem Okello, the State minister for Foreign Affairs (International Cooperation), told Sunday Monitor that the restrictions would not work.
“We know where this is coming from, we know the intention, but it will not serve its purpose because first of all it is vindictive, it is in bad faith and unjust,” he said.
Speaker Among chairs plenary recently. Photo/Courtesy of Parliament
Masking the truth
The two ministers would want you to believe that the United States is, in other words, trying to arm twist Uganda into repealing the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA), but that narrative is grossly misleading. The US has for more than four years now been calling out Uganda on its human rights record.
The US started calling out Uganda over its human rights record long before the AHA was signed into law.
In September 2019, the US slapped visa and travel restrictions on the Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, and his immediate family. It also announced that it had frozen his accounts and assets over, among others, engaging in serious abuse of the rights of Ugandans and dabbling in acts of corruption.
On April 16, 2021, secretary of state Blinken imposed visa restrictions on at least 12 Ugandan officials who were accused of having undermined the democratic process before and during the January 2021 elections.
The “2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Uganda”, which was published by the Department of State in March this year painted a subpar image of the elections.
“The (2021) elections fell short of international standards and included allegations of arbitrary killings and disappearances of Opposition supporters, disenfranchisement and voter intimidation, harassment of the Opposition, closure of social media websites, and lack of transparency and independence in the Electoral Commission,” the report read in parts.
Restrictions similar to those that had been slapped on Gen Kayihura and his immediate family were in December 2021 slapped on the then Chief of Military Intelligence, Maj Gen Abel Kandiho, again for alleged involvement in violations of human rights.
The narrative that all sanctions are about the anti-homosexuality law is misleading. The restrictions are as much about abuses as they are about failure by the government to punish errant cadres and officers.
There has been no evidence in the past to suggest that government was willing to take action against those that had been fingered in earlier reports. The “2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Uganda” suggested inertia on the part of government.
“The government was reluctant to investigate, prosecute, or punish officials who committed human rights abuses or engaged in corruption, whether in the security services or elsewhere in government, and impunity, including for serious abuses, was a problem,” the report read in parts.
NUP leader Robert Kyagulanyi (centre) is arrested in the aftermath of the 2021 General Election as he protested over missing supporters who were allegedly abducted by security operatives. PHOTO/ FILE
US not best suited?
Some quarters within the political Opposition have, however, raised questions about whether the US should be the right country to call out Uganda on rights abuses given that it provides the country with quite a lot of money in military assistance and training.
Ms Ellen B. Masi, the public affairs counsellor at the US Embassy, however, defends the US.
“Security assistance is a small fraction of the nearly $1 billion (about Shs3.7 trillion) the US government invests each year in health, agriculture, humanitarian assistance, and economic development aimed at improving the lives of the Ugandan people,” she said in a statement sent to Sunday Monitor.
Some of the officers that have actually been fingered for rights abuses have been beneficiaries of training programmes funded by the US.
Former police chief Gen Kayihura was, for example, one of the 600 officer students that underwent a command and staff course at Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Alabama between 2000 and 2001.
“US security assistance is only provided to units and individuals that have undergone legally mandated human rights vetting and is limited to trainings to improve UPDF members’ knowledge of human rights standards, support peacekeeping, and respond to humanitarian crises,” Ms Masi explains.
Questions
It might look like a case of putting on a brave face, but some Ugandan officials have been laughing off the US’ move as ineffective.
Minister Oryem Okello says no propertied government official is dying to travel to the US or have their children educated there when there are many alternatives.
“Who does (the visa restrictions) really impact? Why would I die to go to the US yet I can go to London, Paris, Shangai, Hong Kong and do the same things I would have done in the US? My children will never study in America. So where is the big deal?” he asked.
The stance has forced the debate on the effectiveness of such visa and travel restrictions to return to the floor.
The political Opposition in Uganda has always felt that the US could do much more than it is doing to cause some changes on the political landscape.
Early in February 2021, former Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) president Kizza Besigye said the US and the rest of the international community were doing nothing to address the increasing human rights violations, including abductions, torture and killings.
It was not possible to talk to the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament for this article, but he told Sunday Monitor in February last year that the US had to do more than issue statements and visa and travel restrictions.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference recently. This week he announced expanded visa and travel restrictions on Ugandan officials. PHOTO/AFP
“What the regime here is doing is what [former Iraqi president] Saddam Hussein and [former Libyan leader Muammar] Gaddafi did to their people. Did they simply write letters? They moved an extra mile to show displeasure. That is what we are talking about,” Mr Mpuuga said during the interview last year.
Gladiator diplomacy
Some Opposition leaders advocate gladiator diplomacy such as was seen in Kenya in the early 1990s when then US ambassador to Kenya, Mr Smith Hempstone, joined the opposition in championing a departure from single party rule. Mr Hempstone often showed up at opposition rallies where he would lampoon the Daniel arap Moi government. He also often hosted the opposition at the US mission. Would such scenario play out in Uganda?
Mr Phillip Kasaija Apuuli, a student of International Relations who teaches in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Makerere University, says a Hempstone style approach is no longer possible.
“That would be direct pressure, but that is not how they play international politics in this time. The alternative would be to impose sanctions, or cut budget support, which they are already doing because of the anti-homosexuality law, but they also realise that sanctions often hurt the wrong people. That is why they are adopting a smart approach via restrictions,” Mr Kasaija argues.
The question is, do they work? Can they be relied upon to cause changes? Ms Masi believes so.
“Visa restrictions prevent those who undermine the democratic process or who repress individuals and violate human rights in Uganda from traveling, studying, or doing business in the United States. Around the world, they have also acted as a deterrent, in concert with other tools, to counter serious human rights abuses and repressive acts,” she says.
However, according to Mr Kasaija, their effectiveness is dependent on many factors.
“If you have no dealings with the US then the sanctions are as useless as they come, but if you have say a bank account, a relative who requires medical attention, which can only be got in the US, or if you are an academic like me who would wish to travel to the US for a conference it would really hurt you, but it can also be stigmatising that you are denied a visa because you are abusing the rights of others,” Mr Kasaija says.
Concession
Ms Masi reiterated in her statement on Wednesday that whereas the US is committed to “using its full range of tools” to “help counter serious human rights abuses and repressive acts across the world”, it is “ultimately up to Ugandan citizens, institutions, and the government to ensure human rights are upheld”.
Whereas Mr Oryem Okello is one of those who has been peddling talk about the restrictions being about the anti-homosexuality law, he at least concedes that the development is a call to action on the part of the Government of Uganda.
“It (Mr Blinken’s announcement) is also a wakeup call to government in other areas. That when it comes to issues of human rights, the issue of freedom of the press, tolerance with civil society and so on and so forth, we have to do better,” he says.
“Those who abuse human rights, those who work against civil society, they should be brought to book, they should be held accountable. Justice should be seen to be done against those who curtail the human rights of others,” he concludes.
Conceding that there is need for government to address itself to these matters is one thing and following it with action is however another.
Will minister Oryem’s concession, albeit one arising out of the latest pressure from the US, result into some changes that will make Uganda better? Or will the US’ move simply sour relations between Uganda and the US? That remains to be seen.
