Friday, May 9, 2025
NEWSDAY
  • News
  • Politics
  • Lifestyle
  • World
  • In pictures
  • Luganda
  • In History
  • Sports
  • Perspective
  • Business
No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Politics
  • Lifestyle
  • World
  • In pictures
  • Luganda
  • In History
  • Sports
  • Perspective
  • Business
No Result
View All Result
NEWSDAY
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Uganda govt paying lobbyists in US to clean up its image

The US financial disclosure forms of foreign lobbyists list Uganda as one of the countries paying top dollar for these services. 

by www.newsday.co.ug
January 29, 2023
in News
127 4

Bobi Wine takes a look at Kakwenza's body on February 6 2022.

3.3k
VIEWS

Related articles

Police raid home of ex-journalist turned opposition sympathizer, Katongole

Police raid home of ex-journalist turned opposition sympathizer, Katongole

May 8, 2023

Torture Victim confession row escalates between Bobi Wine and UPDF

March 2, 2023

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.

Post Views: 94

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 on info@newsday.co.ug or ,Tel/WhatsApp........0702451828
Share170Tweet107SendShare
Next Post
UWA launches first media awards for best wildlife reporters

UWA launches first media awards for best wildlife reporters

Discussion about this post

  • What caused a mysterious death of Former Elite High School Student

    What caused a mysterious death of Former Elite High School Student

    453 shares
    Share 181 Tweet 113
  • Profile: Who is Hajjat Uzeiye Hadijah Namyalo

    1037 shares
    Share 415 Tweet 259
  • Sex video appearing to show a look alike of BBS’s Diana Nabatanzi in bed with man concerns her fans

    1666 shares
    Share 666 Tweet 417
  • Lawyer Ssemakadde: Uganda’s Judiciary Has Gone to the Dogs, needs radical Surgery 

    628 shares
    Share 251 Tweet 157
  • Child Awaiting DNA Test Dies Mysteriously , Police Arrests Mother

    410 shares
    Share 164 Tweet 103
NEWSDAY

Your source of the most critical on spot breaking news from www.newsday.co.ug. Newsday Uganda is recognized by audiences around the world as a trusted supplier of news.

info@newsday.co.ug
+256702451828

Categories

  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • In History
  • In Luganda
  • in pictures
  • Lifestyle
  • News
  • Perspective
  • Politics
  • Sport
  • World

Recent Posts

  • All You Need To Know About The American Robert Francis Prevost , The New Pope
  • New Pope Elections Begins In Vatican

© 2021 NEWSDAY.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Politics
  • Lifestyle
  • World
  • In pictures
  • Luganda
  • In History
  • Sports
  • Perspective
  • Business

© 2021 NEWSDAY.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In