Museveni never got big jobs for me - Byanyima

Kampala. The executive director of Oxfam International, Ms Winnie Byanyima, has described claims in some political circles and social media that President Museveni and his government have over the years helped her to get international jobs, as the “biggest lie”.

Ms Byanyima, who is also the wife of Opposition leader Kizza Besigye, said she did not require government’s endorsement prior to taking up juicy international jobs.

She, however, said she would formally seek government endorsement if she in future were to apply to serve as United Nations under-secretary general because a candidate for that office requires approval by the home government.
Ms Byanyima has in the last 13 years glided through senior jobs at the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN) before ending up as head of the UK-based Oxfam International.

Between 2004 and October 2006, she worked as the director for Women, Gender and Development at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from where she in November 2006, joined the United Nations Development Programme as its director for Gender. She became the executive director of Oxfam International in January 2013.
The big ticket jobs have raised speculation that she may secretly be benefitting from the magnanimity of President Museveni whom her husband opposes. Those claims gained currency on social media after this newspaper published an interview with her last weekend in which she, among other things, said that ordinary Ugandans are largely disempowered yet now is the time to act to remove President Museveni from power after 31 years.

In a comment on the story addressed to Ms Byanyima, a one Junior Emmanuel Mugisha wrote: “I can’t believe you are the one saying that when (President) Museveni is the one who recommended you for that job that you are having.”
Another Facebooker, Karishma Okeke, in a rejoinder added: “I have a feeling you (Byanyima) and your husband (Dr Besigye) are [on an] invisible mission; don’t deny that you [are] an NRM mole ...”

Speaking to this newspaper earlier at her home in Kasangati, Wakiso District last week, Ms Byanyima said she has got all international jobs on merit and never even discussed her plan 13 years ago to seek the AU job.
“With the AU, I was in South Africa when I applied for it. I was invited for interviews. Nobody in this country knew, not even my husband knew. It was after I was given the job that I told my husband. Nobody knew about it,” she said.
Ms Byanyima had prior to working for international institutions served as a Constituent Assembly delegate for Mbarara Municipality, before representing the constituency in Parliament until 2004.

Museveni influence
Citing former vice president Specioza Kazibwe’s 2016 failed bid with government backing, for the African Union Commission chairperson job, Mr Byanyima claimed President Museveni’s support for her could likely have turned counter-productive.

“There is some kind of interference at the top level in the AU, but President Museveni is not the most popular person there. I don’t even think even if he wants them to give you a job he can get it for you,” she said.
A candidate Uganda fronted this year for the post of AU commissioner also lost.

In the case of the UN job, Ms Byanyima said she had been called up and asked whether she would be interested in taking up the job. She said she did the interviews on phone from her Mbarara home town.
She said she highly doubts that Mr Kemal Dervis, who was the head of UNDP at the time, was personally known to President Museveni. In the circumstances, she argues, it was not possible for him to have been influenced by the Ugandan leader or anyone in his government to offer her a job.

Ms Byanyima also revealed that some people in government had tried to have her ejected from her jobs at both the AU and the UN, but hastened to add that she does not believe that the actions were sanctioned by the President or the ruling NRM party.

While serving at the AU, a committee of the continental bloc questioned her over allegations that she had interfered with Uganda’s 2006 elections. She left to join UNDP before the investigations were concluded, where she faced questioning over separate set of allegations. She was, however, cleared.
It was a smear campaign, she said, by some operatives she said she believed “thought they would be helping their boss by scandalising me or getting me removed”.

Ms Byanyima in a reflection on her tenure at the UN said she believes she served Uganda well. She said she all through had a good working relationship with Foreign Affairs minister Sam Kutesa and met President Museveni whenever he would be in New York for the annual UN General Assemblies.
“But they didn’t get me the job. No way. And they didn’t confirm the job and even if they had said that they did not want me, they would not have removed me. I was there professionally, but I have to say that they didn’t try as a government to fight me. No! They didn’t, but they also didn’t get me a job. No! Never! Never!” she said.

When govt failed Otunnu
Ms Byanyima’s situation contrasts that of people such as Mr Olara Otunnu, whose bid for UN secretary-general slot collapsed after the Uganda government declined to endorse him.
In 2012, Ms Anne Mugisha, a former special presidential envoy for the Opposition Forum for Democratic Change party which Dr Besigye led, was forced to secure a nod from President Museveni as a pre-condition to take up the public information officer job with the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS) job she had got on merit.

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