UGANDA: Why Museveni is panicking over UN pull-out

CHANGE OF GUARDS - The 32 years hold on power by Uganda's military dictator Gen. Museveni has witnessed his military aggression in the Great Lakes region that accounts for much of the political crisis. Consequently, the political crisis have culminated into the worst humanitarian crisises that have drawn the focus of world attention.

It is against that background that in 2010 the UN established its logistical base for DRC's MONUSCO at Entebbe in Uganda. Owing to Uganda's proximity to the conflict zones, that logistical base was later on expanded to a Regional Service Centre for supporting peace keeping operations in Africa.

The UN is currently considering relocating to Nairobi in Kenya. Nairobi is economically strategic owing to its proximity to the sea port of Mombasa that is linked by a world class Standard Gauge Railway, the size of its airport and its national carrier's direct flights to the UN headquarters in New York. On the other hand for the last 32 years, Museveni has only managed to destroy the national carrier, Uganda Airlines, the railway transport system and the size of Entebbe airport remains as it was five decades ago. He has been preoccupied with retaining power and nothing else.

While the presence of the UN Service Centre in Uganda is contributing about US $ 30M per year to the economy, Museveni's vested interest is far from that. He has always thrived on blackmailing the west in particular and the entire donor community with his deployments for peace keeping operations in different locations in the region and Somalia in particular. These deployments have always insulated his domestic military dictatorship.

The presence of the UN Service Centre at Entebbe is of strategic security importance. The centre is located a few metres across the road from his State House. Since the ouster of Libya's Gaddafi by a NATO aided internal uprising, he has been mindful of a similar scenario in Uganda. He has repeatedly brutally suppressed any such attempt by the pro-change Ugandans who have on the other hand never attracted foreign backers. Unfortunately his Foreign Minister Kuteesa has a nasty record at the UN; with Museveni's consent, he solicited for and got a bribe of US $ 500,000 from a Chinese company when he was the President of the UN General Assembly (2014 - 2015). Uganda has been regarded by the west and the UN as a strategic area for its regional operations and interests hence not favouring any form of instability. This coupled by the high influx of refugees from the region, Museveni was confident that he had held the UN and in particular the west hostage.

In January 2004 the then Army Commander, Gen. Aronda while addressing Amuka Militias at Alori Farm in Lira said that the government would never invite the UN peace keepers. He said; "When we took power in 1986 we resolved that we shall never ask for UN troops to come and protect us against any insurgency even if we are in trouble." In November 2012 following accusations of Museveni aiding Congolese rebels by a report by UN Group of Experts, Museveni threatened to withdraw his troops from Somalia, Congo and Central African Republic. The panel had recommended sanctions against individuals implicated but in the face of Museveni's blackmail, the UN went silent.

In May 2013 during Kenya's President Uhuru's swearing in ceremony in Nairobi, Museveni accused the west of using the ICC to cause regime change in Africa. Structurally, the ICC reports to the UN Security Council. During his own swearing in ceremony in May 2016, Museveni who was hosting Sudan's ICC indicted Omar Bashir, described the ICC as "a bunch of useless people" prompting the EU, US and Canada diplomats to walk out in protest.

In January 2018 while meeting the UN team that was probing the killing of 15 peace keepers in DRC, Museveni said that "the UN peace keepers in DRC were responsible for preserving terrorism in DRC." In April 2018 while launching an App for Global Peace Leadership conference due in August this year, he castigated the government of DRC for depending on the UN for its security. He bragged; "......for me to invite the UN into Uganda would be a vote of no confidence in ourselves. Why can we not guarantee our own stability? We will never invite the UN to come and fight our wars."

It is against this background that Museveni is panicking. He has written to the UN Secretary General lamenting like a jealous co-wife over the choice of Kenya. In his protest letter he argues that Kenya is already hosting a number of regional offices for UN agencies. He has appealed to the UN to reverse its decision. He has tasked his Ministry of Foreign Affairs to intensity diplomatic lobbying to have the decision reversed. He has moved his rubberstamp Parliament to pass a resolution urging the UN to reverse its plans. He is also organizing hired people to stage manage demonstrations against the UN in Entebbe.

Therefore, Museveni's panic mood has been triggered more by security interests than economic benefits. However, as he is fond of saying; "You reap what you saw". Kenya's Uhuru Kenyatta sowed good governance, rule of law, respect for human rights, reconciliation, economic development etc. and deserves recognition and honour by the UN. Museveni's Uganda is a SHITHOLE that should not host the UN. Moreover under his Coalition of the Willing and EAC protocol on free movement of people and labour, Ugandans can still go to Nairobi and access UN jobs and contracts. The other day he opportunistically relocated his oil pipeline from Kenya to Tanzania and Kenya took it lightly, but now some hypocrites are even suggesting that Museveni should soothe Kenyatta into rejecting the UN relocation.

Batuviire twesotinge; patriotism is the absence of a repressive government.

INFORMATION IS POWER AND THE PROBLEM OF UGANDA IS MUSEVENISM.