Uganda’s foreign minister Sam Kutesa
[Open Letter]
Date: 15th April, 2014
To: Hon. Ban Ki-Moon
The Secretary General of the United Nations
To: Members of the UN General Assembly
Ugandans against Sam Kutesa’s nomination as President of the United Nations General Assembly
Uganda’s Foreign Affairs Minister Hon. Sam Kahamba Kutesa has been nominated as the sole candidate to represent Africa and become the only candidate to be the next President of the UN General Assembly.
We Ugandans and sound minded Africans have a problem with Mr. Kutesa and we alert the world that the man is not of a character fit to be President General of the United Nations General Assembly for reasons bellow:
On 4th March 1999, the Uganda non-partisan parliament censured Sam Kahamba Kutesa on five counts of corruption, abuse of office, threatening death to people working against his will, influence peddling and misconduct in a public office.
But thanks to his relationship with President Museveni, Sam Kutesa never resigned and the President never dropped him from cabinet. Since then, he has risen from the then lower Minister of State for Finance, Planning and Economic Development to now the powerful Minister of Foreign Affairs, a position he has held since 2005.
The President was right because since Sam Kutesa’s censure by the Ugandan parliament, he and the President have set up a partnership that is now believed to be at the summit of political corruption in Africa. This relationship has turned Sam Kutesa into one of the wealthiest men in Uganda and the Ugandan President among the most wealth leaders in Africa.
Sam Kutesa is the centre and fulcrum around which Uganda’s wheel of official corruption rotates, turning Uganda into one of the most corrupt countries in the world, according to rankings by Transparency International.
Sam Kutesa is a senior minister in a government that, according to World Bank estimates, is losing Uganda over $200 million dollars a year mainly through dealings of corrupt government officials like Sam Kutesa.
Sam Kutesa’s misdeeds are not limited to self financial gain. He is also active in suppressing the voices of democracy in Uganda. His radio station ( Radio Mbabule FM) in his local constituency is a no-go area for his political opponents and has on many occasions sanctioned use of violence against his opponents using state machinery. This is in spite of the law in Uganda which states that political views from all angles must be aired regardless of ownership of the radio station.
Sam Kutesa is at the heart of the Kleptocracy of President Yoweri Museveni. His daughter Charlotte Kutesa is married to General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the son of the President and Commander of the elite Presidential Force Group. This is an army within the Ugandan army with the sole purpose of protecting the ill gotten wealth of the ruling family. Over 40 known members of their family are employed in the central government.
The marriage of the president’s daughter is only part of a ring of family members of the Museveni’s that is now controlling almost all aspects of power, governance and political corruption in Uganda.
It is against this background that we sound minded Ugandans alert the Secretary General of the United Nations, the General Assembly of the United Nations and the minding members of the United Nations not to endorse the nomination of Sam Kutesa as President General of the UN General Assembly.
We advise that his sole candidacy has a hidden agenda other than serving the interests of the United Nations and her members. Sam Kutesa has failed to work in the interests of Uganda in the 20 plus years he has been a Minister, how is he going to work for the interests of the wider world?
We believe that his sole candidacy is not of good intention but as a result of a wide aim of spreading the wings of corruption shown in the personal character of Sam Kutesa.
We believe that once appointed, Sam Kutesa will not work in a different way to the way he is operating in Uganda i.e. working for more power and influence to benefit himself rather than the community that gives him the responsibility.
We also believe that Africa is a wide continent of 54 member states, any of which can provide a candidate with more fitting credentials than Sam Kutesa.
We do not see how rewarding the misdeeds of Sam Kutesa will make the world a better place, or prevent others like him from following in his footsteps in Africa.
Concerned Ugandans and Africans.
