Dictator Museveni with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. “Do we have a deal?” Photo: Waligorahim/Wikimedia Commons.
Gen. Museveni was quite dilatory at his last “swearing-in” on May 12 this year.
With cowardly bellicosity, he revealed himself as an emperor so naked that he failed to dress his mouth with due decorum as he labeled the Western powers who have financed, propped, aided and abetted his regime “idiots”.
His uncouth language is nothing new, however.
We recall how he called past leaders “swine” and thus prompted Ugandans to invite each other for to go eat some “past leaders” whenever they went to places like Wandegeya for a few skewers of roasted pork. Beyond Gen. Museveni’s foul language, however, lies the true nature of his foreign and domestic policy.
Since the United States, which has bankrolled his dictatorship to the tune of $1 billion annually, is now demanding more than a modicum of human rights observance, Gen. Museveni seems to be looking towards China to underwrite his life-time presidency.
By this token, Gen. Museveni has mortgaged Uganda’s future at the altar of his unbridled lust for power. We have all heard of a shadowy “sovereignty clause” which comes with contracts between the Chinese and African states. In fact, a few years ago, Uganda’s auditor-general report stated that the country’s public debt from June 2017 to 2018 had increased from $9.1 billion to $11.1 billion, thereby creating conditions in which Uganda’s sovereign assets could be seized by our creditors.
The report stated that China’s Exim Bank had funded about 85% of two major Ugandan power projects — Karuma and Isimba dams. The same bank also financed and built Kampala’s $476 million Entebbe Express Highway to the airport.
The money used to in these projects has not been repaid.
Again, the potential seizure of Uganda’s sovereign assets should not be underestimated in light of a leaked report which stated that the Kenya government had offered China parts of Mombasa Port as collateral for financing the $3 billion railway it built from the port to Nairobi, the capital.
In Uganda, Chinese imperialism is more pervasive. To buttress the relationship, Gen. Museveni’s regime, a militocracy, even built an ordnance factory in Nakasongola barracks. This “bullet factory” is a subsidiary of the National Enterprise Corporation (NEC) and it is called Luwero Industries Ltd (LIL).
This factory was jerrybuilt–it’s in a state of disrepair–by China North Industries Group Corporation Limited, officially abbreviated as Norinco. In August 2003, the U.S., under George W. Bush, imposed sanctions on Norinco for allegedly selling missile-related goods to Iran.
However what is worrying about Gen. Museveni’s collusion with Norinco is that the latter also deals in petroleum & mineral resources development. Its foothold in Nakasongola thus places it within spitting distance of the Bunyoro sub-region.
This region is where Uganda’s oil is found, along with gemstones: tourmaline, ruby, red and green garnet, titanium, tin, gold and iron along with plenty of other minerals.
If Gen. Museveni is relying on China to stave off western demands for democracy, he is likely to hand over Uganda’s sovereignty to China in a “condominium arrangement” (his words, used in 2011) that secures his rule and Uganda’s serfdom.
In the manner in which some corrupt West African rulers collaborated with the Portuguese, French and British in the enslavement of Africans, 21sr century sell-out Gen. Museveni is about to barter Uganda to China.
This is not farfetched and wouldn’t be the first time that the dictator has sold out Uganda.
In 2010, Dr. Kizza Besigye, candidate in past presidential elections–whom many believe defeated Gen. Museveni–was accused by the Museveni’s National Resistance Movement (NRM) junta of having fake academic papers. Besigye’s wife Winnie Byanyima publicly warned the dictator that she had “documentary evidence” which would expose how Museveni has betrayed his “family and country”. After Winnie’s warning, the matter of Besigye’s “fake” documents was quietly dropped.
Clearly, Gen. Museveni began betraying his country long ago.
Selling Uganda to Chinese financial imperialism will be the ultimate betrayal.
