The Inspector General of Government, Ms Beti Kamya. PHOTO | DAVID LUBOWA
The Inspector General of Government (IGG) has revealed that an inquest into the goings-on that culminated in the United Kingdom (UK) sanctioning Parliament Speaker Anita Among has commenced.
“I have received the President’s letter and have started compiling the information that the President asked of me,” ombudsman Beti Kamya tersely told this publication on Friday night.
President Museveni, in a May 2 letter, directed the IGG and the Integrity minister to inform him if Speaker Among “declared in her forms of the Leadership Code her owning of a house or houses in the UK.” Any red flag from the investigations could spark impeachment proceedings against the head of the legislative arm of government.
The President, however, downplays the issue of Ms Among having bank accounts in the UK, saying he told Ms Kate Airey, the British High Commissioner to Uganda, that it “may not be a serious issue if [the House Speaker] sent legitimately earned money to support the children who are, legitimately, studying [in the UK].”
On May 4, Ms Among told Parliament that she was not bothered by the sanctions and that she did not own anything in the UK. This was two days after President Museveni wrote the letter addressed to Foreign Affairs minister Jeje Odongo and copied to Ms Among, the Attorney General, Uganda’s ambassador to the UK, the ombudsman, and Integrity minister.
“I am told that I have many assets in the UK and lots of accounts in the UK. Unfortunately, I have only been in the UK once. I don’t even have a pussycat in the UK,” Among said in her first verbal reaction to UK sanctions.
Speaker Among, who was on April 30 sanctioned by British authorities together with ex-ministers Agness Nandutu and Mary Gorretti Kitutu over corruption regarding the controversial Karamoja iron sheets, is the most senior government official under President Museveni’s close to four-decade reign to face such sanctions by a foreign government.
Implications
Although Ms Among has largely downplayed the possible impact of sanctions, saying the only visas she needs are to travel to Bukedea District, where she is the Woman MP and Buyende, where her husband Moses Magogo is the area MP, the intervention of President Museveni could mount pressure on her locally. This is especially so if she is found to have the alleged wealth.
In the letter, President Museveni narrates that he had an “urgent meeting” with the British High Commissioner at the envoy’s request, who appraised him about the sanctions.
President Museveni indicates the meeting with Britain’s top diplomat in the country took place at his residence in Nakasero at 10am on a Tuesday. While the incumbent doesn’t state the specific date, the narrative, however, suggests the meeting happened prior to the public announcement of the sanctions by the British authorities.
“The High Commissioner told me that they intended to sanction the [honourables] Kitutu and Nandutu for their roles in the mabaati issue. I would like, by the copy of this letter, to ask the Attorney-General the legality of this action since this is a purely internal matter for Uganda. The alleged theft was discovered by our agencies and the Uganda courts are handling the case. The accused are not yet convicted. How do other countries come into the matter? Attorney-General advise,” Museveni writes.
At least 22 ministers, including Vice President Jessica Alupo, Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, Speaker Among, 31 legislators, several local government officials, and other private individuals, are believed to have irregularly received the iron sheets meant for the vulnerable people of Karamoja Sub-region. Only Dr Kitutu and Ms Nandutu were fired by President Museveni in the latest Cabinet reshuffle. Mr Amos Lugoloobi, the Minister of State for Finance and Planning, who was also charged and briefly remanded, was retained in cabinet and did not face the sanctions by British authorities.
Speaker of Parliament Anita Among (right) receives the bi-annual performance report from the Inspector General of Government (IGG), Ms Beti Kamya, at Parliament on October 20, 2022. PHOTO/DAVID LUBOWA
Moral, ideological mistake
Mr Museveni further narrates that the UK top envoy to Uganda told him that Speaker Among “has got a house or houses in [the] UK and has got bank accounts from which she pays school fees for her children who are studying there.”
“I told her that the issue of houses would be very interesting if, especially, Anita Among did not declare them in her Leadership Code documents. If she had declared them, then the next issue would be how she got the money to build them. If these two are answered correctly and showing no mistake, the remaining issue would be political, ideological judgement,” President Museveni disclosed.
The seemingly defiant Ms Among, who insists sanctions on her should be treated as an “attack” against Uganda’s sovereignty, has adopted a similar response as one taken following revelations and allegations of abuse of Parliament resources. The House Speaker insists that she is being targeted for her role in the passing of the anti-homosexuality law in 2023.
President Museveni, who has previously defended the corrupt individuals who steal public resources but invest in the country, says it would be “a moral and ideological mistake” for a Ugandan leader to acquire assets abroad.
“Why would a Ugandan leader build or buy houses in [the] UK or anywhere else abroad, when Uganda, the still under-developed country where she would have earned the money, still needs those investments?” he asked in his letter also addressed to Minister Odongo.
“I, therefore, told the High Commissioner that the Uganda Government would demand from the UK Government more information about this. Attorney-General and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to advise on how this can be done and the appropriate authority to go ahead and do it,” he added.
Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka did not respond to our request for comment.
A third force?
On May 8, Mr Magogo called for what he themed as a “third force for the new Uganda.”
“Coercion, propaganda, preaching hate of one against the other and sowing anger among the citizens will only make people more desperate and ungovernable,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “The new ensuing disorder will indiscriminately torment the actual and presumed aggressors and the aggressed.”
“Instead”, the House Speaker’s husband, who was once red-flagged by Fifa—the world football governing body—for a ticketing scandal, added, “as a nation we should take the opportunity of the current calm and order to reflect on the new Uganda and the generations to come by creating a Post President Museveni Charter. This opportunity may never be available when disorder descends.”
He urged Ugandans to work towards making Uganda peaceful, listen to each other, respect divergence in opinion and accept co-existence.
Several top government officials have been publicly sanctioned by authorities in the West, especially the United States of America, the European Union and the United Kingdom. Many other unnamed individuals, including legislators and military officials have been slapped with visa restrictions.
Caught in the crosshairs
While President Museveni’s government has defended the sanctioned officials, the same officials have been cast out of influential positions. Only the Commissioner General of Prisons Johnson Byabashaija, who was sanctioned by the US Department of Treasury over allegations of torture in the country’s correctional facilities, remains in a somewhat influential role.
In August 2020, the US government, through the US Department of Treasury, imposed financial sanctions and visa restrictions on Judges Wilson Masalu Musene and Moses Mukiibi, advocate Dorah Mirembe and her husband, Patrick Ecobu. They were indicted for their alleged involvement in activities that victimised young children in a corrupt adoption scheme.
Judge Musene died last year, while Judge Mukiibi has since gone public about the impact of the sanctions. Both were not deployed in any other role.
Gen Kale Kayihura, who was the Inspector General of Police from 2005 to 2018, is under sanctions by several authorities, including the US and the UK. Elsewhere, the influential former Foreign Affairs minister Sam Kutesa went into retirement after the US indicted him for soliciting and receiving a $500,000 (Shs1.9b) bribe to secure business deals for a Chinese energy firm.
Before he was sanctioned by the US over alleged human rights abuses, Uganda’s then military intelligence chief, Maj Gen Abel Kandiho, was an influential figure. After dropping him from the role, President Museveni tried to send him to South Sudan as the Ugandan Delegate to the South Sudan Peace Monitoring Mechanism but this was promptly rescinded. He nowadays has to make-do with a less influential role in the police where he serves as Chief of Staff.
Regime change?
Meanwhile, Ugandan legislators and other officials responsible for the enactment of the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA), 2023 are likely to face sanctions in a move pushed by a section of British lawmakers. During a debate on Thursday, some members of the House of Lords, the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, went as far as calling for regime change in Kampala.
Lord Richard Benyon, the UK Minister of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, told the British House of Lords that the AHA law has increased violence and discrimination against LGBT+ people.
On April 3, he revealed that the UK Deputy Foreign Secretary, Andrew Mitchell, met with Mr Norbert Mao, Uganda’s Justice minister, and underlined the importance of ensuring that people are free from persecution regardless of sexuality and stressed our concern at this legislation.
During the Thursday proceedings, Lord Michael Maurice Cashman called for targeted sanctions against Ugandan officials.
“I ask the government to mirror the actions taken by the United States, Canada, and the World Bank: targeted sanctions on named individuals and on access to individual assets held in the UK and an immediate pause on development support that could be used by discriminatory actors,” he said.
