50 Ugandans hit by sanctions named

Former Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura was sanctioned by the US on September 13, 2019. PHOTO | FILE

What you need to know:

  • So far, in Uganda, two senior judges and other officials in the Judiciary, plus two army generals, have been targeted with the new sanctions regime by the US government. 

Close to 50 Ugandan companies and individuals have faced or are facing a regime of targeted international sanctions and the list is growing as the measure gains prominence among major powers and international agencies.

The United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and international agencies such as the World Bank and the African Development Bank all have sanctions regimes in place.

Some of the sanctions, mainly from the US, target human rights-related issues, while others are in fraud and other related crimes.  

A number of governments have adopted sanctions regimes as a weapon to protect human rights.

So far, in Uganda, two senior judges and other officials in the Judiciary plus two army generals have been targeted with the new sanctions regime by the US government.

On December 7, the US Treasury Department imposed financial sanctions on Maj Gen Abel Kandiho, the Chief of Military Intelligence (CMI), over alleged human rights abuses committed on his watch.

Maj Gen Kandiho’s sanctions bring close to 10 the number of Ugandans the US government has officially sanctioned in less than three years, with many, including the key masterminds of the Kasese killings in 2016, reportedly under some form of travel or financial restrictions.

The US government, through its Treasury Department, on Friday, September 13, 2019,   imposed sanctions on the former Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, for reportedly engaging in corruption and human rights abuses. 

Police officers rough up a man in Jinja District shortly after the arrest of National Unity Platform party presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, during presidential campaigns in Luuka District on November 18 last year. PHOTO | ABUBAKER LUBOWA

The US government claimed, for example, that Gen Kayihura directly supervised the torture of prisoners at the Nalufenya Police Special Investigations facility in Jinja.

In August last year, the US imposed financial sanctions and visa restrictions on two judges and two lawyers over their role in an international adoption scam.

Judges Moses Mukiibi and Wilson Musalu Musene, and lawyers Dorah Mirembe and Patrick Ecobu, were sanctioned for alleged involvement in a racket deceiving Ugandan families to give up their children for adoption to US families. More than 30 children were involved.

The US State Department alleged that the four and their American partners, who were charged in court, engaged in corruption to arrange the adoptions “by unwitting parents in the United States”.

Other Ugandans who have been sanctioned under the US’ Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which only started being implemented in 2017, are not well known public figures. They include Amigo Kibirige, Elias Segujja, Muhammed Lumisa, Amisi Kasadha, Muhammad Kayiira and James Nyakuni. All have several aliases.  

Uganda Commercial Impex (UCI) was sanctioned for dealing in conflict gold in the DR Congo in breach of the arms embargo of resolutions.  

The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act allows the US government to sanction foreign government officials implicated in human rights abuses anywhere in the world.

Saturday Monitor, with data from the German-based OpenSanctions, an international database of persons and companies of political, criminal, or economic interest, has profiled all the Ugandans who have faced international sanctions in the past two decades.

 While some of the individuals on the Ugandan list such as Paul Malong Awan, a former top South Sudan military and government official, who served, among other roles as the Chief of Staff of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), are not Ugandan, they were sanctioned because of activities linked to the country.  In Malong’s case, he holds a Ugandan passport (DA025963) and property in Kampala. He also holds several other passports of South Sudan and Sudan, plus properties in Nairobi, Kenya, and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Sanctions against Francois Bozize, a former president of the Central African Republic (CAR), are also linked to Uganda where he has several addresses.

Although he is Congolese, the sanctions against Sultani Makenga, the military leader of the Mouvement du 23 Mars (M23), relate to Uganda. The group is famous for its military activities in the DRC. A 2012 UN report accused both Rwanda and Uganda of arming the M23 rebels.

Apart from UCI, other Ugandan companies, which have been sanctioned or continue to be under sanctions include Nico Insurance Uganda Ltd, which was placed under a sanctions regime by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) for “unethical practices and obstruction”.

The Ugandan branch of Sinotec Co. Ltd was sanctioned by the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank. The company’s sanctions are due to end in 2023.

Others such as Mr Gurdyal Singh of P.O. Box 9062, Kampala, Uganda, will have their sanctions for engaging in fraud, corruption lifted by entities such as the World Bank in 2999.

New frontiers

Given the trend of the United States Global Magnitsky Human Rights sanctions regime in Uganda, and the people it has netted in the short time, it is clear that in the coming months, more violators may be caught up in other sanctions regimes that are yet to bite. 

Among these is the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime (EUGHRSR) adopted by the Council of the European Union (EU Council) on December 7, 2020. 

Uganda has been flagged, for among others, the shrinking civic space by both local and international groups.

The EU sanctions regime prohibits listed individuals from entering or transiting through the region, prohibits funding to listed individuals or entities, and freezes funds and assets of the same. 

The United Kingdom also has its own Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations 2020. 

Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony, his deputies Ali Kony and Salim Saleh Kony are among the Ugandans already sanctioned in that regime.

In a paper published in March, Tonny Raymond Kirabira, a PhD law researcher at the University of Portsmouth, focusing on transitional justice and international criminal law, argues that targeted sanctions against Uganda can make human rights compliance and implementation more achievable if, as countries such as the US have done, they target specific individuals, not the State.

“The high poverty rates, economic disparities and post-war transitions in the Ugandan context, in particular, make a disincentive such as EU economic sanctions infeasible for the future of human rights compliance in the country. Therefore, individual sanctions, if carefully crafted and assessed through human rights lenses, would be more effective than economic sanctions,” he argues.

More of those sanctioned

Jamil Mukulu

Believed to have been born between 1964 and 1965.

Reasons: Provided leadership and material support to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebel group.  Mukulu has also allegedly continued to exercise influence over the policies, financing, direct command and control of the activities of ADF forces in the field, including overseeing links with international terrorist networks.

Authorities: Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) of Switzerland, EU’s European External Action Service, UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Japan’s Ministry of Finance, US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), US Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals (SDN), State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine (SCFM), United Nations Security Council (UN SC). 

Patrick Ecobu 

Reasons: He materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of corruption, including the misappropriation of state assets, the expropriation of private assets for personal gain, corruption related to government contracts or the extraction of natural resources, or bribery.

Authorities: Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), US Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals (SDN).

Gen Kale Kayihura 

Born on December 26, 1955

Reasons: Leader of an entity engaged in or whose members have engaged in serious human rights abuse and being a current or former government official who is responsible for or complicit in, or has directly or indirectly engaged in, corruption. Gen Kayihura led individuals from the Uganda Police Force’s Flying Squad Unit, which has engaged in inhumane treatment of detainees at Nalufenya Special Investigations Centre (NSIC).  Gen Kayihura has engaged in numerous acts of corruption, including using bribery to strengthen his political position within the Government of Uganda, stealing funds intended for official Ugandan government business, and using another government employee to smuggle illicit goods, including drugs, gold, and wildlife, out of Uganda.

Authorities: Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), US Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals (SDN).

Machanga Ltd

Directors: Mr Rajendra Kumar Vaya and Mr Hirendra M. Vaya

Reason: Machanga bought gold through a regular commercial relationship with traders in the DRC tightly linked to militias. This constitutes ‘provision of assistance’ to illegal armed groups in breach of the arms embargo of resolutions 1493 (2003) and 1596 (2005)

Authorities: Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) of Switzerland, EU’s European External Action Service, UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Japan’s Ministry of Finance, US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), US Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals (SDN), State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine (SCFM), United Nations Security Council (UN SC). 

François Yangouvonda Bozizé

Born either on October 14, 1946 or December 16, 1948. The former ruler of Central African Republic has listed addresses in Uganda and is suspected to have plotted or executed some of the things he is alleged to have done from Uganda.

Reasons: Engaging in or providing support for acts that undermine the peace, stability or security of CAR: Since the coup d’état on March 24, 2013, Bozizé provided financial and material support to militiamen who were working to destabilise the ongoing transition and to bring him back to power.

Authorities: Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) of Switzerland, EU’s European External Action Service, UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Japan’s Ministry of Finance, US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), US Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals (SDN), State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine (SCFM), United Nations Security Council (UN SC). 

James Nyakuni

No details available about his date of birth .

Reasons: Trade partnership with Jérôme Kakwavu, particularly smuggling across the DRC/Uganda border, including suspected smuggling of weapons and military material in unchecked trucks. Violation of the arms embargo and provision of assistance to armed groups and militia referred to in paragraph 20 of Res. 1493 (2003), including financial support that allows them to operate militarily.

Authorities: Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) of Switzerland, EU’s European External Action Service, UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Japan’s Ministry of Finance, State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine (SCFM), 

Kawa Panga Mandro

Born August 20, 1973

Placed in prison in Bunia in April 2005 for sabotage of the Ituri peace process. Arrested by Congolese authorities in October 2005, acquitted by the Court of Appeal in Kisangani, subsequently transferred to the judicial authorities in Kinshasa on new charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes, murder, aggravated assault and battery. 

In August 2014, a DRC military court in Kisangani convicted him of war crimes and crimes against humanity, sentenced him to nine years in prison, and ordered him to pay approximately $85,000 (about Shs300.1m) to his victims. He served his sentence and resides in Uganda as of May 2016

Authorities: Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) of Switzerland, EU’s European External Action Service, UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Japan’s Ministry of Finance, US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), US Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals (SDN), State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine (SCFM), United Nations Security Council (UN SC). 

Sultani Makenga

Military leader of the Mouvement du 23 Mars (M23) group operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). 

Reasons: As leader of M23 (also known as the Congolese Revolutionary Army), Sultani Makenga has committed and is responsible for serious violations of international law involving the targeting of women and children in situations of armed conflict, including killing and maiming, sexual violence, abduction, and forced displacement. He has also been responsible for violations of international law related to M23’s actions in recruiting or using children in armed conflict in the DRC. 

Authorities: Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) of Switzerland, EU’s European External Action Service, UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Japan’s Ministry of Finance, US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), US Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals (SDN), State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine (SCFM), United Nations Security Council (UN SC). 

East African countries’ stand

The number of sanctions across East Africa is not so different from Uganda, with the exception of South Sudan.  

South Sudan, which only became an independent state on July, 9 2011, following years of armed struggle and a referendum, tops the list of sanctions in East Africa, with at least 327 sanctions.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which is expected to join the East African Community (EAC) very soon, has at least 118 individuals and companies under some form of sanction regime. 

Uganda has 49 sanctioned entities and individuals. 

Kenya, East Africa’s largest economy, has 42, Rwanda has 27, while Tanzania has 53 individuals and companies under sanction. 

With only four, Burundi has the fewest of all the EAC partner states.

Only Kenya (1), Tanzania (1) and South Sudan (17) have individuals sanctioned for terrorism, an ongoing challenge in the region.

Background

US concerns

●  Suppression of freedom of expression and muzzling the media; censorship; 

●  Arresting without warrants; 

●  Detention of suspects beyond the mandatory 48 hours allowed by the Constitution; 

●  denial of fair public trials; 

●  Arresting suspected sympathisers of the Opposition on trumped up charges and; 

●  Arbitrary interference with privacy.

●  Torture and degrading treatment

●  Extrajudicial killings

●   Undermining the democratic process

●  Pathetic conditions in detention centres

Sanctioned individuals/companies

Lukwang, Okot

Mukiibi, Moses

Abel Kandiho

Elias Segujja

Musene, Wilson Masalu

Lumisa, Muhammed

Amigo Kibirige

Amisi Kasadha

Kayiira Muhammad

Odessa Air

Uganda Commercial Impex (Uci) Ltd

Innocent

Dorah Mirembe

Jamil Mukulu

Ecobu, Patrick

Kayihura, Kale

Machanga Ltd

François Yangouvonda Bozizé

James Nyakuni

Kawa Panga Mandro

Sultani Makenga

Allied Democratic Forces

Joseph Kony

Lord’s Resistance Army

Paul Malong Awan Anei

Seka

Ozia Mazio

Jerome Kakwavu Bukande

Eugene Ngakosset

Jean-Marie Lugerero Runiga

Aroun Gaye

Sinotec Co. Limited (Uganda Branch Office

Pioneer Construction Ltd.

Mabiro, Edmund

Liberty Construction Company Limited

Dhema Agencies Limited

Gurdyal Singh

Ayemo Investments Limited

Alex Opua

Eastern Builders and Engineers Limited

Charles Kyenkya

Broadway Engineering Services Limited

John B. Katende

On-Track Technical Services Limited

Emmyways Engineering/Construction Ltd

Vital Supplies and Logistics Ltd

Emmanuel Nkubana

John Bakonza

Nico Insurance Uganda Ltd.