By Daniel Kawuma
Ugandans have got accustomed to Museveni branding himself as a nationalist and Pan-Africanist. In public he puts on an act attacking the United States and Europeans for interfering in the internal affairs of African nations while behind closed doors he is mortgaging the country to win their hearts and minds in exchange for legitimacy and financial support.
It has become routine that governments that torture, kill and violate the human rights of their citizens are the ones hiring highly paid white people for image-making. The Uganda government bankrolls lobbyists, law firms and public relations companies to protect its image and secure US military contracts and financial aid. Rather than rely on career diplomats abroad to do the bidding, the regime has aggressively recruited outsiders to shape the narrative of Museveni as a regional stabilising force to counter the unrelenting opposition voices and cries of human rights advocates.
According to the United States Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), lobbyists are required to file reports with the Department of Justice every six months.
The financial disclosure forms of foreign lobbyists list Uganda as one of the countries paying top dollar for these services.
This comes at a time when our country has a record high public debt of over US $21 billion and spends 16 per cent of the national budget repaying and servicing debt. Instead of using the limited revenue to serve the needs of Ugandans, the Museveni regime rather spends billions of Uganda shillings per year in Washington DC alone to clean its image.
The Whitaker Group was one of the first prominent firms tasked with sanitising Uganda’s troubled image abroad at $350,000 per year, led by Rosa Whitaker, a former top official for African affairs from the Bush and Clinton administrations.
In 2015, Uganda secured the services of Joseph Szlavik of Scribe Strategies and Advisors, Inc. at $250,000 per year. This registrant has recently terminated his contract and is demanding $141,000 from Uganda tax payers in outstanding fees, according to the FARA disclosure report filed in September of 2022.
Uganda government also retained at $600,000 per year the services of George Tucker a British public relations consultant working for Washington lobby firm Mercury Public Affairs LLC, a subcontractor to London- based Mercury International UK Ltd in April of 2021, which lobbies the United States State Department, Senate Foreign Relations Committee and other stakeholders.
Under this contract, the regime also employed the services of Q-Cyber technologies, a foreign cyber-intelligence firm.
In June of 2021, the Museveni regime retained Robert Leverett Smith II, a government relations consultant, to lobby the United States federal government and other entities.
The listed lobbyists only represent a fraction of the activities taking place in Washington DC illustrating the extent to which Museveni goes to buy influence. If you consider the lobbying happening in Europe and beyond, it sheds light on the waste and abuse of taxpayers money by the government.These are resources that could be invested in our hospitals, schools, infrastructure and improve the quality of social services.
Lobbyists buy influence on behalf of the Uganda government by financially sponsoring the political campaigns of American leaders among other financial favours.
In return the NRM government gets a clean bill of health and no consequences for slaughtering Ugandans while being rewarded with military contracts from the US Department of defence.
The spirit of Pan-Africanism re-affirms the worth of black people, the struggle for rights and equality, fulfilling the promise of independence and the desire for opportunity to prosper as a people. The Museveni regime does not stand for those values and has instead planted the seeds of tyranny across the country.
The writer is in Washington DC.NUP Diaspora Leader USA.
Do you want to share a story, comment or opinion regarding this story or others, Email us at newsdayuganda@gmail.com Tel/WhatsApp........0726054858
By Daniel Kawuma
Ugandans have got accustomed to Museveni branding himself as a nationalist and Pan-Africanist. In public he puts on an act attacking the United States and Europeans for interfering in the internal affairs of African nations while behind closed doors he is mortgaging the country to win their hearts and minds in exchange for legitimacy and financial support.
It has become routine that governments that torture, kill and violate the human rights of their citizens are the ones hiring highly paid white people for image-making. The Uganda government bankrolls lobbyists, law firms and public relations companies to protect its image and secure US military contracts and financial aid. Rather than rely on career diplomats abroad to do the bidding, the regime has aggressively recruited outsiders to shape the narrative of Museveni as a regional stabilising force to counter the unrelenting opposition voices and cries of human rights advocates.
According to the United States Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), lobbyists are required to file reports with the Department of Justice every six months.
The financial disclosure forms of foreign lobbyists list Uganda as one of the countries paying top dollar for these services.
This comes at a time when our country has a record high public debt of over US $21 billion and spends 16 per cent of the national budget repaying and servicing debt. Instead of using the limited revenue to serve the needs of Ugandans, the Museveni regime rather spends billions of Uganda shillings per year in Washington DC alone to clean its image.
The Whitaker Group was one of the first prominent firms tasked with sanitising Uganda’s troubled image abroad at $350,000 per year, led by Rosa Whitaker, a former top official for African affairs from the Bush and Clinton administrations.
In 2015, Uganda secured the services of Joseph Szlavik of Scribe Strategies and Advisors, Inc. at $250,000 per year. This registrant has recently terminated his contract and is demanding $141,000 from Uganda tax payers in outstanding fees, according to the FARA disclosure report filed in September of 2022.
Uganda government also retained at $600,000 per year the services of George Tucker a British public relations consultant working for Washington lobby firm Mercury Public Affairs LLC, a subcontractor to London- based Mercury International UK Ltd in April of 2021, which lobbies the United States State Department, Senate Foreign Relations Committee and other stakeholders.
Under this contract, the regime also employed the services of Q-Cyber technologies, a foreign cyber-intelligence firm.
In June of 2021, the Museveni regime retained Robert Leverett Smith II, a government relations consultant, to lobby the United States federal government and other entities.
The listed lobbyists only represent a fraction of the activities taking place in Washington DC illustrating the extent to which Museveni goes to buy influence. If you consider the lobbying happening in Europe and beyond, it sheds light on the waste and abuse of taxpayers money by the government.These are resources that could be invested in our hospitals, schools, infrastructure and improve the quality of social services.
Lobbyists buy influence on behalf of the Uganda government by financially sponsoring the political campaigns of American leaders among other financial favours.
In return the NRM government gets a clean bill of health and no consequences for slaughtering Ugandans while being rewarded with military contracts from the US Department of defence.
The spirit of Pan-Africanism re-affirms the worth of black people, the struggle for rights and equality, fulfilling the promise of independence and the desire for opportunity to prosper as a people. The Museveni regime does not stand for those values and has instead planted the seeds of tyranny across the country.
The writer is in Washington DC.NUP Diaspora Leader USA.
Do you want to share a story, comment or opinion regarding this story or others, Email us at newsdayuganda@gmail.com Tel/WhatsApp........0726054858
Do you want to share a story, comment or opinion regarding this story or others, Email us at newsdayuganda@gmail.com Tel/WhatsApp........0726054858