Zadock Amanyisa | Tayari News
Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba and veteran journalist, Andrew Mwenda, have sent stunning responses to United States (U.S) Senator Jim Risch(Representative of Idaho State), and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, over his threats on Uganda.
Senator Risch last week issued a statement regarding Uganda’s recently held Presidential Election in which President Yoweri Museveni emerged as the winner with 71.65%, as “a hollow exercise staged to legitimise the regime.”
“Uganda’s elections – like the recent elections in Tanzania – were a hollow exercise, staged to legitimise President Yoweri Museveni’s seventh term and four decades in power.” Senator Risch stated
Acknowledging Uganda as a key regional security partner to the United States. Risch accused the ruling regime of prioritising domestic control through political violence, abductions, imprisonment, intimidation of opponents, and the misuse of state resources to maintain its grip on power.
He added that “Uganda is also linked to destabilising regional activities, including in South Sudan, making the regime an increasingly problematic exporter of instability.”
The Senator further alleged that Tanzania and Uganda are “moving along similar paths, raising serious concerns about what this portends for other countries with upcoming elections, including Ethiopia and Kenya.”
He recommended that the Trump administration reassess the U.S. security relationship with Uganda, beginning with a review of whether sanctions are warranted under existing authorities against specific actors, including General Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
In their response to Risch’s accusations and recommendations, the Uganda People’s Defence Forces(UPDF) army commander and Andrew Mwenda have slammed the comments, saying the calls for sanctions are misplaced.
According to Mwenda, the US has no legal or moral authority to raise the statements, arguing that Uganda is “a much more responsible state in respecting the rights of its citizens” than Risch’s country.
“The USA is a county that just recently kidnapped a head of state of a sovereign country without justification under international law; is threatening to invade and annex another county (Greenland) which is a territory of a fellow ally in NATO, and is conducting mass arrests to her own citizens and deporting them on allegations that they are illegal immigrants just because of the color of their skins of the accent in their language.” Mwenda reacted via the social media platform, X.
More than this, the USA, with only 4% of the world population, has 26% of all prisoners in the world. And although black people form 10% of the USA population, they form 46% of this country’s prison inmates. Basically, the criminal justice system is not one for seeking justice but is used as an instrument of racial domination of black people.
All this is not to mention that a black man is killed by police every 28 hours just because of the colour of their skin,” he added.
Mwenda also wondered how “an apartheid-prison-state like this claim moral authority to comment on Uganda’s internal politics and even threaten sanctions?” explaining that it is not about human rights and the rule of law, but about power, raw power.
“America is saying that just because they are rich and powerful, they have a right and duty to dictate who governs Uganda and how it is governed.” He rebutted
Welcoming the threats of sanctions on Gen. Muhoozi, Mwenda said the US was attempting to see a spec in other people’s eyes.
“The attempt to see a spec in other people’s eyes while having a log in its own has been a practice of USA foreign policy for the last 85 years. This use and abuse of its power and international institutions and laws was recently well articulated by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the recently concluded Davos meeting. America is threatening to annexe Canada, perhaps the reason Carney is speaking out after decades of his country’s silence and complicity in America’s crimes.” Mwenda reminded the senator, adding that American interference in Uganda’s politics is unacceptable, unwelcome and unhelpful.
He advised Risch to focus on protecting the rights of his own citizens: native Americans, black and Hispanic people and poor white people, and stop diverting attention from the appalling domestic problems in the USA.
Gen. Muhoozi, via his X feed on Sunday, 25th, also threatened to sanction the “spoilers.”
“If some spoilers in the USA sanction me or Uganda for anything, we shall respond by sanctioning them too,” he responded.
Uganda’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Adonia Ayebare, comforted the CDF, saying, “No spoiler can impose sanctions on you(Muhoozi). Our relationship with the US is strong and mutually beneficial.”