PREVIEW
The Ugandan opposition leader’s flight across Africa to land in the US embarrasses both Museveni and the Trump administration
Landing in the United States after two months on the run, Uganda’s opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine wants the Trump administration and the European Union to slap sanctions on President Yoweri Museveni’s government which he accuses of grand corruption, deepening political repression and gargantuan voter malfeasance in January’s election. He also claimed that Museveni’s son and army commander General Muhoozi Kainerugaba had ordered soldiers to apprehend and kill him.
Working with Wine in the US are veteran lawyer Robert Amsterdam and Washington lobbyist Jeffrey Smith who seem to have struck a chord with Jim Risch, the Republican chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee who described the January elections as a ‘hollow exercise’ and proposed reviewing the US security relations with Uganda, mulling the possibility of sanctions on senior figures in the government in Kampala.
Pictures of Wine, the leader of Uganda’s National Unity Platform, surfaced on social media in the week ending 21 March, showing him standing in front of the US Capitol, in a suit and holding a laptop.
But Africa Confidential has seen memos suggesting that the US ambassador to Uganda, William W. Popp, brokered an agreement with Museveni that would allow Wine’s safe return home and for his NUP to be recognised as a legitimate political party.
A leaked paper from US officials describes this as a ‘notable de-escalatory step and suggests a pathway toward limited political normalisation.’
Popp’s agreement, if borne out, would be a neat solution for the US but require a climbdown by Museveni’s son Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who has said Wine was ‘wanted dead or alive’ (AC Vol 67 No 6, The heir presumptive goes on the offensive). Wine says that he is not intending to seek asylum and has met with members of the US Congress and senior staff.
Few dispute the violence and rigging used by the Ugandan security forces and Museveni’s National Resistance Movement in January’s elections, which saw Museveni obtain a seventh term with 72% of the vote, but there has been little international challenge to the results (AC Vol 67 No 2, How Museveni won in Buganda).
Washington insiders say the US administration would prefer Wine to leave quickly, with the memo warning that ‘while the election outcome is not in dispute among the United States or key allies, the continued emphasis on Bobi Wine risks elevating his profile unnecessarily.’
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