Prime
Regime’s inner circle must pay for the plunder in DRC
Author, Musaazi Namiti. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- $65m can provide running water and flushing toilets for thousands of homes.
Ugandans have been ruled by men who proudly talk of restoring democratic rule, but there is plenty of evidence to suggest that this talk is an irritating empty boast.
No country boasts of democratic rule yet it subjects its own people to physical and mental torture because they criticise individuals wielding state power which, for all practical purposes, they get and keep by organising electoral charades called elections.
No country boasts of democratic rule yet it keeps political opponents in illegal detention and accuses them of committing capital offences, but it cannot produce incontrovertible evidence of their wrongdoing.
No country boasts of democratic rule yet its parliament is controlled by the executive that, even when it requires parliamentary approval to do something, can side step parliament and do as it wishes.
This brings me to the story which dominated headlines in the local and international media last week. The
International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Uganda had violated international norms when its army occupied eastern Congo between 1998 and 2003.
The UN court ordered Uganda to pay $325m (Shs1.4 trillion) to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for its role in the conflict there. When our troops invaded the DRC, they not only looted the country’s mineral wealth and timber but they also caused the deaths of 10 to 15,000 people in the eastern Ituri region.
For engaging in this military adventure from which ordinary Ugandans gained absolutely nothing, taxpayers are going to pay five annual instalments of $65m (Shs227 billion) between 2022 and 2026, with the first instalment due in September.
The ICJ has no means of enforcing its verdict, and some may say that Uganda will not pay for its excesses, but the DRC will not sit back and relax. It will use all possible means to get the compensation.
Given a host of problems our country is facing, ranging from poor social service delivery to poverty, which steals lives in all sorts of ways, it is grossly unfair that the money that we should use to fix some of these problems will instead be used for reparations.
This week a 32-year-old engineer named Steven Anguyo working for Kayunga District lost his life because he was squatting on a pit-latrine slab that gave way, sending him to the bottom of the pit-latrine, which was 40 feet deep. Poverty, not the pit-latrine, killed the engineer.
His life could not be saved because emergency services in Uganda do not work, although tear gas trucks and anything that can be used to quell protests over rotten leadership works.
Sixty-five million dollars can provide running water and flushing toilets for thousands of homes, but we cannot use this money because it has to go to the DRC.
The regime is still using guns and money to buy support and hog power, but let me be clear: Everything with a beginning — the exception is death — has an end. One day the regime will be gone — much to the delight of peace-loving Ugandans.
The new government, assuming it will restore sanity, must ensure that all individuals who belonged to the regime’s inner circle and were in one way or another involved in the DRC adventure reimburse Ugandans.
The culprits should pay for the excesses the army they controlled committed. The new government can seize their property and sell them. It can also jail the Congo adventure masterminds.
Ugandans who earn an honest livelihood through hard work, grit and determination should not pay for the reckless actions of power-hungry rulers. It is unacceptable.
Mr Namiti is a journalist and former Al Jazeera digital editor in charge of the Africa desk
[email protected] @kazbuk
