On external funding, if it’s good for government, it’s good for CSOs too

Mr. President, on this Friday, 26^th July 2024, I am chatting with you about the #MarchToParliament Demonstrations. In particular, your long dispatch that was posted on your X TL @KagutaMuseveni yesterday, 25^th July 2024, from 1:30 to 1:34 p.m., in three posts. In that dispatch, you began by congratulating “the Armed Forces, the Security Forces and the Wanainchi, for foiling” what you characterised as “bad demonstrations.”

Mr. President, let me first acknowledge that your dispatch posted on X is being viewed and is generating debate. As of this morning, your dispatch as described above, had received over two million views. Demonstrating the power of social media as a tool for engagement between leaders and the led. Perhaps, this could be a reality check for you to re-think and end the Facebook blockade.

Mr. President, anyway, back to the point. For my chat with you today, I will focus on discussing your rebuke of foreigners and foreign aid that you allege was given to the organisers of the “bad demonstrations.” You wrote:

“Element no.1, was funding from foreign sources that are always meddling in the internal affairs of Africa for the last 600 years ─ slave trade, colonialism, neo-colonialism, genocide, economic exploitation, etc. All those involved, should know that Uganda is not a neo-colony where those shallow schemes can be deployed … Those being funded by foreigners, should stop and report to the Minister of State for Ethics, those that have been funding them. We shall not arrest them. Our interest is to immunize Uganda against the schemes of the imperialists and their agents.” Yoweri K. Museveni (Gen rtd), PRESIDENT, Ssaabalwanyi

Mr. President, contextualized within the big picture of the Government’s fight against corruption, your rebuke of funding from foreign sources, reads incoherent messaging. Let me explain. According to the “Prevalence of Corruption in Uganda 2022/20223 Report” published in November 2023 by the Directorate of Ethics and Integrity, “inadequate funds for operational activities” is the number one challenge impeding anti-corruption agencies. For instance:

Office of the Inspectorate of Government – inadequate allocations for recurrent expenses
Office of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions – inadequate funding
Office of the Auditor General – budget constraints
Directorate of Criminal Investigations of the Uganda Police Force – grapples with insufficient budgetary allocations
The Leadership Code Tribunal – insufficient funding for implementation of leadership code

Mr. President, it is within this context of insufficient funding for anti-corruption agencies that those Government agencies are reliant on and are appreciative of exogenous funding sources. Now, for me, of course I do not know exactly which “foreign sources” and “foreigners” you referred to that are funding “bad demonstrations.”

Mr. President, however, it is feasible that they are the same foreign sources which in the past, according to the Directorate of Ethics and Integrity, have “provided support in the fight against corruption” to Government anti-corruption agencies as follows:

Europeans – European Union provided budget support to the Accountability Sector through the Justice and Accountability Sector Reform Contract 2017/18-2019/20, which among other things supported the operationalization of the Leadership Code Tribunal.
Germans – Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) supports accountability programmes of the Inspectorate of Government, Attorney General and Directorate of Ethics and Integrity.
British – Department of International Development through Strengthening Uganda’s Anti-Corruption Response (SUGAR) Technical Advisory Facility supported programmes to strengthen governance and accountability.

Mr. President, there is a saying that “if it is good for the goose, it is good for the gander.” As in, it is hard for you to convince us and the world out there that when funding comes from foreign sources and from foreigners to Government agencies, it is good; but when the same foreign sources channel funding directly to Ugandan civil society it is for Machiavellian purposes – neocolonialism and imperialism.

Mr. President, the actions of the State in practice and your X posts present you and the State as incoherent in your messaging to us the citizens, as well as to the outside world. What is it? Are we a totally independent and self-reliant country that is able to fund our own in-country anti-corruption fight? Or, as it were, we are heavily dependent on foreign sources for funding to do so.

Mr. President, there is also the fact that as at the beginning of this financial year, our nation’s public debt was 93.9 trillion, much higher than our annual national budget for 2024/2025, which, as read on 13^th June 2024, was 72.1 trillion. Logic follows that we need help paying off our debt and or getting some of it forgiven. We likely need debt forgiveness from those “foreigners” you rebuke. What about the 1.6 trillion in external grants included in this year’s national budget, where is it coming from?

A contractor likely colluded with the administrators to build a stone filled water tank base, without the requisite gravel and cement to hold it together. And when the rain water was harvested and the tank filled up, the base crumbled.

Mr. President, fact is corruption is prevalent in Uganda, perceived and or otherwise. The image of Uganda as a corruption tolerant country is what we most of us are working to shake and truly change. For the 99 percent of us we feel the pain it causes us; we are in pain. This is the context within which you should handle the #MarchToParliament demonstrations and demonstrators, many are urging.

Mr. President, I take this opportunity to remind you of my post “Letter to President Museveni,” of 2016, but which all remains relevant today. I particularly want to draw your attention to the part where I wrote:

“Mr. President, you and your administration are succeeding in giving fuel to the single story of Dr. Besigye as the innocent victim of your dictatorship. No need to explain, you know how you are fuelling that single story. Just read or watch the stories in the press – the ‘cleverly’ written and edited media reports of the actions of the Uganda Police towards Dr. Besigye and his supporters; and also towards journalists.”

Mr. President, the handling of the demonstrators on Tuesday, has similarly fuelled that single story of you as did your handling of Dr. Besigye. And, moreover, it was totally avoidable.

Until next Friday, Mr. President.