Nandala Mafabi and Musumba accuse Museveni of stealing money from Bank of Uganda

By Henry Gombya, Managing Editor

The leader  of opposition in the Uganda parliament, Mr Nandala Mafabi and the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) deputy leader Mrs Salaamu Musumba have accused Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni ofstealing money from the country’s central bank and using it as a commercial bank from which he can withdraw money at any time without referring to parliament.

In an exclusive interview with The London Evening Post here in London, Mr Mafabi and Mrs Musumba said on several occasions they have watched in horror and utter disgust as the country’s leader helped himself to the coffers of the central bank to pay for the purchase of things without referring such purchases to the scrutiny of parliament. The latest of these, they said, was the recent purchase of six military fighter jets at a cost of US$740million; money that they said President Museveni received by simply approaching the Bank of Uganda and demanding to be given the cash.

The FDC leaders were in London last week along with the President General of the Uganda Conservative Party Mr Ken Lukyamuzi MP, to take part in a convention on the federal system of government which was hosted by the Uganda Federal Confederates (UFC) at the University of East London, Docklands.

Until recently the Chairman of the powerful Uganda parliamentary Finance Committee, Mr Mafabi said Britain and her citizens should be concerned that aid money being given to Uganda was being diverted to less important projects that are the whims of the Ugandan leader. “They should be concerned that the Ugandan leader has used US$740 out of the aid money Britain is sending to Uganda to buy aircraft not necessarily needed in Uganda at this time,” he said.

Mrs Musumba accused the Ugandan leader of stealing public money by treating the Bank of Uganda as a commercial bank. She said the six aircraft that President Museveni bought with the cash he demanded from the central bank cost around $30million dollars each on the Internet. That meant that the six would have cost him $180million. She then wondered what Museveni had done with the rest of the money, a total of $560million. She said corruption had become the way of governance in Uganda and as a result, it was causing trouble not only to Ugandans but also to the country’s neighbours. “It is a threat to stability in the Great Lakes Region and a threat to democracy in Kampala. It is fuelling instability in the whole region.”

Mr Nandala Mafabi MP (RIGHT) listens intently to Henry Gombya's questions during his interview with The London Evening Post in London. (Photo by NOSAMIWO)

Asked to comment on a meeting reported to have taken place in Western Uganda in the 1990s between President Museveni and his closest advisers, family and friends in which it was alleged that the Museveni family had vowed to rule Uganda for 50 years, Mr Nandala Mafabi answered that the plan had indeed been already implemented.  He pointed out the removal of cooperative unions in Uganda as one way in which Museveni had fulfilled the promises made at that meeting. Mrs Musumba added that it was obvious that the plan had indeed been implemented when one looks around and see that almost every viable post in Uganda is held either by a close relative of President Museveni or people who come from Western Uganda. She said the police, the army, the prisons and the Bank of Uganda were only a few of institutions that are led by the Museveni clique.

Mrs Musumba went on to say that all along, Mr Museveni’s plan was for a life presidency. “He has done it in a very calculating and predatory way. His is a life presidency, an imperial presidency and a family dynasty. As you can all see, Museveni’s plan is that of a family dynasty and that is why you see him lining up his wife, lining up his son, lining up every next of kin that he has. So for him it is a dynasty that is at stake. It is not Ugandans at stake. No.  It is beyond the borders of Uganda. He is looking at the East African Federation, which of course is now blown up because of the different suspicions and different worries. It is about the Great Lakes politics, it is about Sudan and many, many other things. It really is about an agenda bigger than Uganda,” Musumba said

 But she warned that it is that very plan that is making Museveni vulnerable. Musumba went on to explain that Museveni remains politically vulnerable because his institutions are all wrong with no safeguards. This, she said, makes the Great Lakes Region politically vulnerable, fragile and unstable. “Because of having served under three Tanzanian presidents who served their full terms and five US presidents, Museveni now remains a political factor not only in that part of Africa but the entire world. And from a political perspective, anybody who has been around for a quarter of a century is a source of worry for the entire world.”

From Left: Henry Gombya, Nandala Mafabi and Mrs Salaamu Musumba during the interview with The London Evening Post (Photo by NOSAMIWO)

Asked whether the FDC has complained at the way its leader has in the recent past been treated by Ugandan security forces, the two FDC leaders said the treatment of Dr Besigye has been a warning from President Museveni to anybody who wants to oppose him that they should watch out. Mrs Musumba said the message that President Museveni is sending out to the opposition is loud and clear. “You won’t mess up with me.” She said Museveni was also sending a message to any other political leaders in Uganda that ‘I am there. Don’t dare’. She added that President Museveni was also telling the public not to follow what the opposition was trying to do telling them to watch their steps. “To the international community he is telling everybody that; ‘don’t mess with me’. The action is loaded with meaning and a thinking that; ‘what can you do?’ Mrs Musumba thanked the people of Kenya for the way they have showed their concern for Ugandans by putting pressure on Museveni concerning his behaviour.

While appreciating the help their party has in the past received from the British Conservative Party, the two leaders pointed out that Britain was failing to note a danger to democracy that the Museveni regime was causing. They said that Britain has always been a second home to many Ugandans but that it was worrying that when their supporters flee from Museveni’s persecution, the doors are closed to them on arrival in the United Kingdom.

Mr Nandala Mafabi said he had no doubt in his mind that President was no longer a credible leader. He joined Mrs Musumba in accusing the international community in subsiding corruption in Uganda. Mr Mafabi mentioned a $30million contract that had been given to a company called ‘Bura’. But because Mr Museveni had allegedly not received anything from Bura, he cancelled the contract and gave it to another one that had been recommended by one of the foreign embassies in Kampala. This resulted in the taxpayer compensating Bura by repaying the $30million to the company.

Mrs Musumba said corruption in Uganda had been used to sustain an illegitimate government in power and sustaining cronyism. She said corruption had not only maintained the longevity of the NRM in power, it was now being used as a transit vehicle for terrorism in the Great Lakes Region. Mrs Musumba said the FDC now believes that the international community has been highly compromised by the way it deals with the Museveni regime. She accused the Germany embassy in Kampala of circumventing the Ugandan parliament by suggesting the President Museveni a company, Marburg that is procuring items not approved by parliament. According to Mrs Musumba, Germany had also promised to bring into Uganda a machine that would help in the counting of votes to ensure they were not stolen. She said the machine was never brought as promised. She said it was clear that the European Union had compromised itself in the eyes of Ugandans by wanting to do business with a dictator regardless of how such a dictator treated his people.  This, she added, was also clear when the EU gave its verdict on the results of the February general elections, a report that Mrs Musumba called ‘a sham’. “We have taken the view that they are not helpful to our country and that we will have to help ourselves.