UGANDA: Museveni is cornered, panicky over Chinese bribery scandal

MUSEVENI IS CORNERED AND PANICKY OVER THE CHINESE BRIBERY SCANDAL

CHANGE OF GUARDS - Former Hong Kong Home Affairs minister Patrick Ho Chi-ping has been found guilty by the federal court in USA for offering a $500,000 bribe to Uganda President Yoweri Museveni, $500,000 to Uganda Foreign Affairs minister Sam Kutesa. The total $1m bribe to Museveni and Kutesa was in a bid to secure business dealings in railway services, infrastructure construction, fishing, hydro-energy, banking and finance as well as tourism for the Chinese conglomerate CEFC China Energy Co. CEFC also offered profit-sharing through a partnership with the Museveni and Kutesa family businesses.

Museveni's $500,000 bribe termed as "campaign donation" was delivered in May 2016 ahead of Museveni's swearing in.  Before leaving for Uganda and delivering Museveni's bribe, Ho asked Kutesa for help with the customs officials in regards to Museveni's bribe that was delivered in gift boxes, court heard.  Ho stated in an email also copied Kutesa's wife Edith, "As we are about to board the plan[e] to Uganda, we are preparing to bring with us some very 'nice' gifts to your President and to [the Ugandan Foreign minister] to celebrate the occasion. We shall require special assistance with your customs procedure. Please assist in whatever way you can otherwise we will have to make other plans."

Kutesa’s $500,000 bribe was paid via a wire transfer from HSBC bank in Hong Kong (China) through an intermediary HSBC bank (USA) to Stannic bank in Uganda on May 6, 2016.  Court heard that so successful was Ho’s meeting with President Museveni, that he wrote to CEFC chairman Ye (who also worked as a special advisor to Kutesa during his time at UN) that Museveni was willing to undo already completed bids in oil blocks in order to award the concessions to CEFC.

In a desperate effort to save himself and his in-law, Museveni has reacted thus;
“Kutesa came to see me and I asked him. He told me that that money was for a charity. Because obviously it is a crime to get money from a foreign company, What for? What were they paying you for? That would be a bribe and he would be answerable. But he says it was for a charity. This is a question of fact. So, I have told him to be in touch with our Attorney General to cross check. Was this money for the charity as he is saying or was it for him. If it was for the charity, was it delivered to the charity?
What happened in New York is in New York. We are going to investigate ourselves."

Earlier, when the matter first appeared in the media, as usual the regime was very quick to rubbish it off.  The  Permanent Secretary Ambassador Patrick Mugoya said that by virtue of Kutesa’s role at the helm of the UN General Assembly, in order to implement the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which were adopted in his term of service, Kutesa had to partner with organizations that enjoyed a consultative status with the U.N and that one such organization happened to be CEFC.

   “It is erroneous to insinuate or infer that Hon. Sam Kutesa, from references made to him and CEFC in the said media stories, is linked to the bribery allegations."

Some sections of  Parliamentarians were pushing for Kutesa to step aside but the Speaker ordered that the Attorney General avails an interim report on the inquiry to the House before close of business on December 20.  This is a serious matter involving international money laundering. The best agencies to handle such should be INTERPOL, IGG, CID and FIA.  By ignoring all those agencies and instead opting for the Attorney General to be the one to inquire into the matter, Museveni is attempting a coverup and to minimize publicity.

Unfortunately, it is too late as investigations into the matter were concluded and the giver of the said bribe was convicted.  The case was investigated by the FBI and IRS-CI. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the Department of Justice, Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs provided assistance.

The next step is for the U.S Justice Department to go for those who received the bribes.  That is when Museveni will be expected to demonstrate his cooperation in the fight against corruption and international money laundering.  Museveni's Attorney General can only help in backdating the registration of the said charity organusation but if not done prudently, it will cause more harm than good.

However, some institutions and individuals in Uganda will fall victim to Museveni's desperation.  Parliament and Speaker Kadaga stand warned; the Emperor is naked.

INFORMATION IS POWER AND THE PROBLEM OF UGANDA IS MUSEVENISM