UGANDA: MUSEVENI DENIES TAKING BRIBES AS SPEAKER KADAGA APPEALS TO THE CORRUPT TO SUPPORT HOSPITALS

Mr

Mr. Museveni, during ‘Tareeh Sita’ day celebrations, in Kitgum in January 2019.

”I just want to pray that in this country, those who sleep on mattresses of cash that they cannot consume, to release that money for schools, the roads and the hospitals”

“I have seen for the last sixty years how people have been ruining their chances. Do not be corrupt. Don’t agree to take a bribe. Don’t ask for it. I have never taken a bribe or accepted any bribe from anybody”

GULU-UGANDA:On Wednesday, October 9, 2019, Uganda marked its 57th Independent anniversary where Zimbabwean president, Mr. Emmerson Mnangawa was invited as chief guest.

The day before, the Speaker of Uganda’s parliament, Ms. Rebecca Kadaga hosted national leaders including foreign dignitaries to the twenty-first ‘national prayer breakfast’ which precedes Independence Day celebrations. The national prayer breakfast was held at the Pearl of Africa Hotel, Nakasero, under the theme: ‘the power of character in leadership’.

In her prayer, Speaker Kadaga prayed that God should touch the hearts of “those who sleep on mattresses of cash that they cannot consume to release that money for schools, the roads and the hospitals”.

”I just want to pray that in this country, those who sleep on mattresses of cash that they cannot consume, to release that money for schools, the roads and the hospitals”, reads an article published in the Weekly Observer newspaper, quoting Ms. Kadaga.

When it was his turn to speak, President Yoweri Museveni warned leaders against eroding God’s trust by engaging in corruption, which has caused instabilities in the past. He said while the African continent is taking strides in economic growth amidst decline of powerful economies, such growths come with temptations for leaders who could ruin their chances if they don’t avoid corruption. He says he has never taken nor accepted a bribe.

“I have seen for the last sixty years how people have been ruining their chances. Do not be corrupt. Don’t agree to take a bribe. Don’t ask for it. I have never taken a bribe or accepted any bribe from anybody” says Mr. Museveni.

For those who are not familiar with Mr. Museveni’s methods of leadership, which has sustained him in office for the last 33 years, they believe he is an exceptionally brilliant leader. However to those who know him well, he his a damn corrupt ruler has maintained power through his former guerrilla outfit, the National Resistance Army (NRA)–using “shiasa”, which in Kiswahili means deception or propaganda to solicit support.

In December 2018, Chinese business fixer Chi Ping Patrick Ho–former Home Affairs Minister in Hong Kong–was convicted in U.S. federal court of having paid Museveni a $500,000 cash bribe that he flew with to Uganda when he was invited to his swearing-in ceremony after the 2016 elections that many contend was stolen from rightful winner Dr. Kizza Besigye. The bribe money brought to Museveni was wrapped as gifts the U.S. court found.

Ho also was convicted of bribing foreign minister Sam Kutesa $500,000 which was wired to his account in Uganda from a New York bank. Ho has since been sentenced to three years in prison in the U.S. Both Museveni and Kutesa didn’t attend this year’s session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The bribe was on behalf of CEFC China Energy Company, a powerful energy conglomerate in return for oil and other business concessions, and a joint business enterprise with the families of Museveni and Kutesa, the court found.

According to US Attorney, Mr. Geoffrey Bermen, foreign corruption undermines fairness of international markets, erodes the public’s faith in its leaders, and ‘is deeply unfair to the people and businesses that play by the rules.

Another deception strategy which Mr. Museveni is using to dupe Ugandans is the mysteries surrounding how he invests locally raised revenues since all infrastructural developments currently booming are purely on borrowed money, mainly from China, World Bank, African Development Bank and other development partners.

In a press conference he held with Mr. Mnangawa early on Independence day, Mr. Museveni revealed, for the first time, that China is giving Uganda loans for infrastructures where other development partners neglected to invest in, which has enabled Uganda to use local revenue for ‘other things’ despite warning from the Governor of the Central Bank.

Uganda’s total debt is US$ 11 billion which is 42% of Domestic Gross Product (GDP) and is expected to rise to 45.7% in the 2019/2020 financial year, prompting Bank of Uganda Governor, Mr. Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutabile to warn that going for loans to finance infrastructural projects while expecting oil revenue is a precursor for the much dreaded “oil curse”.

If Mr. Museveni is running the country on borrowed money, where does he invest local revenue?

“For the railway, we would have done it ourselves but if there is a loan, then I take advantage of it and then use ‘my own money for other things’”, says Museveni.

Which other things if national leaders like Speaker Ms. Kadaga still cry for investments in basic social services like education and healthcare?

“Why are Ugandans slaves to a migrant they were kind to give settlement to, but have let him make them slaves and foreigners in their own country?” says a commentator on social media, after reading the VOA story published in the Observer.

 

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