Confusion mars start of AU Summit

Complaints about facilities and services yesterday forced a five-hour suspension of proceedings at the ongoing African Union Summit at Commonwealth Speke Resort Munyonyo as some drama played out on the sidelines of the conference.

In one incident, suspected plain-clothed security personnel were seen tearing down a poster of Libyan leader, Col. Muammar Gadaffi in the media room at Munyonyo.

One of the men was overheard telling a colleague, “... all we were told is that only utl (the telecommunications company) was authorised to place its posters here, now I do not know how this one entered the room.”

Already, Col. Gadaffi is said to have invited hundreds of African traditional leaders to the summit and booked prime hotel space, reportedly placing organisers in an awkward situation.

Daily Monitor understands that summit organisers were overwhelmed by the close to 7,000 delegates who have turned up for the 15th AU Summit. Resources were stretched. Delegates complained of a host of inconveniences ranging from no accommodation, lack of transportation to unavailability of internet services.

It was initially calm when the conference opened about 9am. with Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa and AU Chairman Jean Ping delivering opening remarks. But the subsequent closed session turned stormy as several delegates reportedly complained bitterly about unfair treatment.

Uganda was reportedly accused of failing to honour a promise of at least five rooms per delegation at Munyonyo, and allowing other countries to book up to 20 rooms there for themselves.

“Imagine there have been bomb blasts in this city but these people want us to sleep in unclassified hotels in the suburbs of Kampala, which we are not sure have adequate security,” one of the foreign delegates, who preferred not to be named, told Daily Monitor.

Others were annoyed that they could not access Internet at Munyonyo, and that they had to buy their own food for $30 plus taxes (about Shs86,000). Others still said the heavy traffic and very strict security checks were irritating.

A delegate from West Africa said they had been assured that there was accommodation. “It’s a pity. How could this happen?” he asked.
Officials from the ministries of Foreign Affairs, ICT and Tourism were seen holding several meetings, dashing about and making repeated trips to the city centre.

Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary, Ambassador James Mugume, later told Daily Monitor that all the delegates needed was information.
Ambassador Mull Katende, Uganda’s permanent representative to the AU in Addis Ababa, also explained what was being done to make everyone comfortable when the session resumed in the afternoon, according to Chief Logistics Officer Moses Kizige.

Mr Kizige told Daily Monitor that Uganda offered to pay for two rooms for each delegation: a presidential suite and an extra room for the member-states’ foreign ministers.

“On top of the two rooms we have fully paid for the delegations, we informed them that we would keep each of the members an extra three rooms at Munyonyo, but they would pay for them,” Mr Kizige said.

“The problem was that most of them did not bother to confirm that they needed the three extra rooms, beyond the deadlines, which we first set as May 30, and we kept extending up to July 15. So the hotel decided to sell them to other delegates who were ready to pay,” he said.

Mr Kizige said they were able to withdraw nine rooms that had been reserved for Uganda officials to accommodate some delegates. For transport, government said it would only afford transporting the 140 members of the AU Secretariat in Kampala.