Why are politicians stirring up anger in Foreign Service?

When Gen Jeje Odongo was appointed minister of Foreign Affairs in June 2021 replacing long-serving Sam Kutesa, many in the ministry didn’t know what to expect. Almost two years down the road, now they know.

To start with, when the General is in office on Sir Apollo Kaggwa Road, security—of mostly UPDF soldiers—is superfluously beefed up. This could have been easily ignored until it dawned on the ministry’s administrators that they have to take care of the minister’s vast security detail of more than 20 soldiers at work and home. The allowances for security have to be squeezed from several activities.

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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is one of the perennially underfunded government agencies, ministries and departments. For long spells, diplomats have wondered how they are expected to advance the country’s foreign policy on a shoestring budget. Some newly opened missions, such as the one in Luanda, Angola, are yet to be fully operationalised.

The June 2021 changes also saw the replacement of  Philemon Mateke as junior minister for Regional Affairs, with Samia Bugwe County North MP John Mulimba.  President Museveni also tapped a non-career diplomat, Mr Vincent Bagiire, as the ministry’s Permanent Secretary replacing Mr Patrick Mugoya, who replaced Mr James Mugume.

The only constant in the hierarchy is the State Minister for International Relations, Mr Oryem Okello, who has held the docket for almost 20 years now.

The appointments at the top are at the discretion of the appointing authority—the President—as is the appointment of his representatives abroad; ambassadors, who were reshuffled in December 2021. However, to this end, the cloud of tension and apprehension that engulfed the ministry prior to the appointments lingers.

The recurrent fights between loyal cadres and politicians and other employees installed through cronyism, with career diplomats working at the missions, Uganda’s Foreign Service is increasingly bemusing. The fights between career diplomats and political appointees, officials say, are a result of particularly the struggle over control of the meagre finances and ideological mish-mash.

Mr Oryem told Monitor that the endless fights over control of the finances are both “embarrassing and avoidable.” Mr Oryem said: “Sometimes the ambassadors are asking for way too much than is allocated in a given quarter—money for tickets, allowances, and this and that.  Some accounting officers, who are in most cases diplomats, are tasked to plan for the money, so that is the spark of the clashes. In other cases, the accounting officers don’t respect the ambassadors, which is wrong....”

Such endless fights between ambassadors and their subordinates fracture work relations among staff, promote unprincipled rivalry and lower morale at the missions. 

Mr Oryem said there is also a tendency of some ambassadors to feel unnecessarily “unsecure” and yet they are “disrespectful” to their staff.

“Take for instance the issue of London that you wrote about. I can tell you without fear or favour that Ambassador [Leonard] Mugerwa is one of the finest diplomats we have; he is a top-notch diplomat, highly experienced and very professional. It is, therefore, absurd that anyone can accuse him of mobilising for the Opposition,” Mr Oryem said of the tension between Uganda’s High Commissioner to the UK Nimisha Madhvani and her deputy Mr Mugerwa whom she has accused to Kampala as a National Unity Platform sympathiser.

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Ambassador Madhvani was previously stationed at Uganda’s embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark. Before that she was Uganda’s envoy to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates where she was booted by the Emirati government.

Multiple diplomatic sources said she was reassigned to London to placate the Indian community both in Uganda and UK. Incidentally, in 1986, then newly revolutionary National Resistance Army/Movement (NRA/M) regime denounced past regimes for politicising the diplomatic service by posting too many political appointees as ambassadors and heads of mission. The matter was even discussed at a meeting of senior management in 1986 chaired by then minister of Foreign Affairs Ibrahim Mukiibi during which it was agreed that 60 percent of Uganda’s heads of missions should be career diplomats.

“I believe the minister brought the matter to the attention of Cabinet for appropriate action,” reminisced, retired ambassador Harold Acemah, a former deputy head of Uganda’s diplomatic mission in Brussels. “Over the years, the NRM regime made an about-turn as they have done in many sectors. It is unbelievable, but Ugandans are now immune and used to such doublespeak.”

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For instance, there is currently one career ambassador—who has grown through the ranks—who is the head of mission in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Isaac Ssebulime. The second closest is Uganda’s ambassador to the United Nations Adonia Ayebare.

“The morale of career diplomats, especially senior officers is generally low due to the fact that there are virtually no openings for them as heads of mission or deputy heads of mission. I am not surprised a few could be lazy and not performing, but those are exceptions. One cannot deny the fact that Uganda has had some distinguished and outstanding political appointees as ambassadors, such as Dr Ruhakana Rugunda and Ambassador Olara Otunnu, but those are few and rare. Most political appointees are mediocre, inexperienced and unsuitable to represent Uganda as ambassadors and heads of mission,” Mr Acemah noted.

Mr Oryem and two senior ministry officials, however, said the key parameter for defining anyone in that role should be “performance”.

“Whenever we have inductions (after reshuffles of ambassadors), we call on retired ambassadors, whether career or former politicians [to share their experience]. Of course, some pick up lessons they use to do better and others don’t,” Mr Oryem said.

Another key ministry official said diplomacy world over has evolved and one needs not to have studied international relations or political science to make a good ambassador.

“You could have studied law, accounting, medicine, or even journalism and to be fair anyone can qualify. But there are skills needed to succeed; for instance, how analytical are you, how well informed are you?” the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, added. “There is a tendency by careerists to pick on the few bad examples of political appointees to make their case, but we also have career diplomats who can neither express themselves nor write proper English but they are busy throwing around their weight.”

The considerations for appointment as ambassador to where in most cases remain unknown. In some cases, diplomatic sources say, some have performed beyond expectation and others have been disastrous. One constant over the years is the President has been tapping more election losers for the coveted jobs of ambassadors as reward for their loyalty.

During the last ambassadors’ reshuffle, the former Monitor deputy news editor-cum Dokolo North MP Paul Amoru was named high commissioner to Pretoria, South Africa, replacing Barbara Nekesa who was mid-this year tapped as treasurer at the NRM secretariat. Ms Nekesa too had lost the Busia District Woman MP seat.

Ms Nekesa replaced ambassador Julius Moto, who was moved to London in 2016. In South Africa, Mr Moto was credited for having grown Uganda-South Africa trade relations as he did with the UK until the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

“That is to show you that performance in such a role has a lot to do with one’s personality,” Mr Moto told this publication. “Once I received the instruments of power from my line minister—to focus on foreign relations, personnel and trade and commercial diplomacy. As soon as I arrived at any of the missions, [I] studied the available staff and reassigned each of the assignments depending on their corresponding abilities. That is how I was able to perform and managed to score highly. Fights don’t help, they instead set everyone back.”

Another senior official said good performance is not necessarily a parameter for staying on the job, either way. The source cited Mr Moto’s case who was dropped and replaced with Ms Madhvani who “has been trouble” everywhere she goes. 

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Ambassador Richard Kabonero too, under whose tenure until December 2021, Tanzania overtook Kenya as Uganda’s biggest source of imports in the region valued at $149m (Shs544.4b), was dropped and replaced with former Nyabushozi County MP Col (Rtd) Fred Mwesigye.

Other election losers rewarded included former Amolatar Woman MP Doreen Amule, sent to Paris, former MP Moses Kizige, among others.

One of the few cases where hard work paid off was in New York where ambassador Ayebare was retained. He, among others, negotiated the retention of the Regional Services Centre-Entebbe, Uganda hosting the forthcoming Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit, and crusading successful election campaigns for Justice Julia Ssebutinde to retain her seat at the Hague-based International Court of Justice, Justice Margaret Tibulya to the UN Dispute Tribunal, Justice Solome Bossa to the International Criminal Court bench, and most recently, Dr Rose Mwebaza as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) director for Africa.

While nothing usually surprises about such appointments, the tapping of a hitherto unknown Robbie Kakonge as Uganda’s top diplomat in Washington DC, raised eyebrows. 

Ambassador Acemah noted: “Frankly I don’t know what criteria is used to post ambassadors to key missions like London, Washington DC, New York, Tokyo and Beijing. Ideally, the heads of these missions should be experienced and seasoned diplomats. That happened to some extent in 1960s and 1980s. Unfortunately, that is not the case today.”

Uganda’s current ambassador to Japan is former Woman MP Tophas Kaahwa. To Beijing, the President reassigned Ms Oliver Wonekha from Kigali, Rwanda.

“This talk of career versus non-career is misplaced. Foreign Service staffers love it because it makes diplomacy seem like an exclusive club. To me, I think it is entitlement gone bad. Anyone can be a diplomat and for that matter, they should be judged by character and performance. Some politicians have done exceeding well. Some so-called careerists have never even brought an investor to the country,” a senior ministry official noted.