It is not the end of Agoa for Uganda, says Ambassador Kakonge

How has it been since you started work as Uganda’s ambassador to Washington?
I hit the ground running. I arrived in Washington at the tail end of the United Nations General Assembly. Although Uganda has a permanent representative at the United Nations, I had to make the trip to New York.

I, indeed, started off in the deep end. I presented my credentials in the Oval Office of the White House hours before the arrival of our President.

It is an incredibly memorable day, standing in the same office where my own father had stood nearly 60 years ago with president JF Kennedy. I am truly honoured and thankful for the opportunity to serve and represent Ugandans and our country.

Next it was time for the US Africa Leaders’ Summit that ran from December 13 to December 15, 2022. So within eight weeks of my arrival, I had to prepare to receive the President.

It was a tight programme for Mzee [Museveni], who made a keynote public health presentation, attended an official dinner at the White House, met Ugandans in the diaspora, and attended sideline meetings with his East African counterparts, and before returning to Uganda, flew to Chicago in the cold December winter to meet with various entrepreneurs whose focus is getting Uganda’s products into the US market. 

Were you handed specific assignments given the strains in relations between the US and Uganda?
There are always key understandings to all the different relationships. Ours has endured for 62 years.

Whereas a few things will come up here and there, each embassy has a five-year development plan which encompasses those relations, consular services, the diaspora, investments, tourism and others.

When one is appointed to head a mission, it is your duty to see what the immediate needs are. I, for example, took up the position at the tail end of the Covid-19 pandemic. Our tourism sector had suffered. We usually engage other arms of government on how to enhance our strategic plans in order to achieve success. I had to do the same in regard to tourism.

What have been your biggest challenges?
The Ebola outbreak which was announced shortly after I took up my posting has perhaps been the most challenging. On October 11, 2022, the US announced that all persons who had been in Uganda in the last 21 days were to present themselves at five airports for health screening. Some of the airports were very far from where some of them had been scheduled to land.

That meant that I had to be there for those who needed me. There was, for example, a team that came to attend a tourism conference in Texas but could not land anywhere near Texas.

I also had to reassure people amid all those travel advisories. It helped that there were no incidences of Ebola. It made people believe in our healthcare systems, especially given that the same people had been screened before leaving Uganda.

What are some of the other challenges that you have had to contend with?
The controversy around the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa). Many Ugandans who were involved had expected it to continue. The reality is Agoa is set to expire in 2025 for all countries.

It is a trade opportunity offered and it came with conditions which at some point the US deemed that Uganda was not fully complying with certain conditions and that is how things for Uganda are at the moment.

READ: President Museveni defiant over removal from US trade pact

How Uganda Agoa ban impacts East Africa investments

The Agoa review process is continuous for all countries, and so this does not mean the end of Agoa for Uganda, and in fact even for the other countries despite the looming 2025 expiration.  There is a proposal by Democratic senator Chris Coons for an Agoa extension of 16 years. Uganda can still trade with the US in the absence of Agoa, but minus the Agoa opportunities.

What is the extent of the loss?
It is not so much about how much we have lost, but the opportunity. The question should perhaps be “How did we utilise the opportunity? Did we maximise this opportunity? What were some of the challenges?”

Do you think we did ourselves justice with Agoa?
Every time you come to an agreement with the US and embark on a journey with them that is a success in itself. Could we have done better with the engagements? Of course. Was there a significant journey in terms of training and were there lessons learnt? Yes.

Are there other opportunities that we have not explored?
I think that we have not fully utilised resources at the US embassy’s education resource centre. It has so much information in terms of scholarships and opportunities at different levels.

Ugandans have also not taken interest in the other US visa options. Everyone seems to apply for either a student or visitor’s visa, but there are other options like the business visitor visa, visas for those with extraordinary abilities in Sciences or education and even for temporary agricultural workers.

We could also do better with exploring opportunities in business, education, and partnerships in countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, and Venezuela where I represent Uganda as the non-resident ambassador. 

ALSO READ: Who is crying for Agoa anyway?

We also need to be more outward looking when it comes to business. America has a population of 400 million people. That means that there are lots of things that one can do. One does not have to capture the whole market. People must look for niches.

How would you describe the relations between Uganda and the US, especially after Uganda passed the Anti-Homosexuality Act?
Engaging. It says a lot if you are still able to engage despite some differences. The US’ investment in Nsambya (Kampala), arguably the largest in the region, says a lot. You do not put-up infrastructure of that nature in a place where you are not vested on a long-term and for a long-term purpose.

Why is the US coming down hard on Uganda and not the other countries that have passed similar laws?
The embassy and government have a responsibility to engage and communicate better. Other narratives crop up in the absence of such engagements. We could do better in terms of messaging. First of all, the name of the Act is misleading because the Act is about family values. It is about protecting children. That is something that people must understand.

Have you already embarked on that?
Yes. We have been engaging at different levels, including the State Department. Of course, we cannot go into details, but we have kept the doors open and continue to ask people to appreciate where we are coming from.

How challenging is it to live apart from your spouse and children?
It is not so much about living apart, but the demands of the work. You can be in Uganda and still not have dinner with them because of work engagements. But one has to find a way of making it up to them because family is a great support system.

I, however, feel honoured to represent Ugandans who I consider true champions. Some of them work three jobs. Some are with their families, but they never get to see them. Those are situations that give you a better appreciation of things. I, therefore, cannot be lamenting about my own situation.

What else comes to mind when you see how hard they work?
Their earnings and remittances and expertise in different fields have got us discussing at different levels, how we can make use of them as a country. Their remittances exceed foreign direct investment so we are engaged in discussion on how they can become our investors or resources.

We also wish Ugandans would begin looking at different ways of investing. You have land and have built, but who are your neighbours and what is the neighbourhood like? Can we start using tools like housing finance, Bank of Uganda bonds and treasury bills? Can we invest in industries?

Don’t you think that failure to move in that direction is because of risks involved?
We are talking of calculated risks and utilisation of tools that were not available to Ugandans 30 years ago. That is the way to go. We are long past petty trading.

How would you rate the output from your work so far?
I have a new team of young and dynamic people. They have within the last six weeks accomplished what we had not done in six months. We have gone digital.

You see we are serving a community that leverages digital. Everything is done online. The last thing they would want is to be unable to access our services online. I am glad that we are catching on superfast.

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There are always key underst-andings to all the different relationships. Ours has endured for 62 years.

Whereas a few things will come up here and there, each embassy has a five-year development plan which encompasses those relations, consular services, the diaspora, investments, tourism and others.