NAIROBI, Kenya – A bloody and controversial election season in Uganda, in which dozens of people have been killed and the main opposition candidate placed under de facto house arrest, recently gave ally to President Yoweri Museveni, a staunch US military, a sixth five-year term.
But now the US State Department says it is considering a series of actions against Mr. Museveni, who has been one of the leading beneficiaries of American support in Africa since its adoption in 1986, has taken in billions of dollars, even though he has his iron grip on the nation.
Mr. Museveni, 76, has been suppressing opposing votes for years, often by force, and the campaign leading up to this month’s election has been marred by the intimidation of opposition candidates and their staff, most notably Bobi Wine, a pop star lawmaker. became the president’s toughest challenger. Violence has gripped the country during the campaign, with election observers and opposition figures claiming that election fraud contributed to the re-election of Mr. Museveni.
“We are significantly concerned about the recent election in Uganda,” a State Department spokesman told The New York Times. “The United States has made it clear that we will consider a range of targeted options, including the introduction of visa restrictions, for Ugandan individuals to be responsible for electoral violence or undermining the democratic process.”
The “behavior of the Ugandan authorities during those elections,” the statement said, “is a factor that will be considered when we determine future US aid.”
Other nations also expressed concern about how the post-election period in Uganda went. A European Union spokesman said the bloc was “seriously concerned about the continuing harassment of political actors and sections of civil society” and continued to “remain vigilant about the situation on the ground”.
Mr. Museveni het apparently meets with foreign diplomats the past few days, as concerns have been raised about the effect of the vote, and many Western and African partners have yet to formally congratulate him. The Kenyan presidency has removed a Facebook entry that congratulated him after it was widely criticized and Facebook mistakenly contained it as “false” information.
Before, during and after the vote, some of the journalists and independent observers were not kept close to the proceedings, and the government did not deny accreditation to most observers that the US mission in Uganda intended to implement. not. A nationwide internet shutdown has restricted the flow of information.
While the result of the election penetrated, the authorities seized the house of Mr. Wine surrounded, refused to let him out and even prevented the U.S. ambassador from visiting him. Security officials withdrew from his home after a court ruling this week, but they still hold roadblocks in the area, and they surround his party’s headquarters. Mr. Wine, 38, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, claims that the election in favor of Mr. Museveni was violated and plans to testify in court on Monday.
Museveni received decades of financial and diplomatic support from the United States and other Western countries. And he promoted his regime as a guarantee of stability, not only in Uganda – torn apart by coups and violence before coming to power – but also in the surrounding regions of East and Central Africa.
Yet Uganda has repeatedly sent troops across its borders to take sides in conflict in neighboring countries. And although Mr. Museveni welcomed many refugees from South Sudan, independent researchers reported that his government provided goodwill weapons used to fuel the war there that cost the lives of nearly 400,000 people.
“He’s been the region’s pyromaniac since he came to power, whether we’re talking about Sudan, South Sudan or Rwanda or the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” said Helen Epstein, author of “Another Fine Mess: America,” Uganda and the War on “said. Terror. “His army intervened everywhere, to the detriment of peace.”
Each year, the United States alone provides more than $ 970 million to Uganda, which supports the military, education and agriculture sectors, and antiretroviral treatment for nearly one million Ugandan HIV-positive people.
Uganda, in turn, has partnered with the United States to suppress terrorism and has deployed more than 6,200 troops to the African Union mission in Somalia, which is fighting Qaida al-Shabab. Thousands of Ugandans serve as guards at US bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. And Uganda has been praised as one of the best places to be a refugee, with those seeking asylum, land and the ability to work and move around.
But while Mr. Museveni continued to gain favor with the West and receive support from financial institutions such as the World Bank, his government ‘utilized these resources and positive images to undermine the interests it praised for the protection and pursuit of its own . instead, ”said Michael Mutyaba, an independent researcher on Ugandan politics.
At home, Mr. Museveni was criticized for fighting the opposition, introducing anti-gay legislation and unleashing the security forces on civilians. Scandal waves also showed how officials embezzled millions of dollars in government funds, along with reports of developing aid to the military.
If this is the case, it will be the view that Mr. Museveni cultivated as an older statesman in East Africa undermined, said Angelo Izama, a political analyst from Uganda.
“If he continues to take this push to his reputation,” he said. Izama said, ‘I think he is not only going to lose his position in the region, but also gradually lose the Western powers that are increasingly determined to them about how they handle Uganda. ”
But Ken O. Opalo, an assistant professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Services, said that while donor relations with Uganda may change, it remains to be seen whether these changes will be significant.
According to him, Western countries have almost always erred in maintaining their relations with Mr. Museveni’s government instead of pressuring him to bring in much-needed reforms.
“Museveni knows this fickleness and has masterfully utilized it over the years,” said Mr. Opalo said.
And although the ‘Biden government will say the right things’, Mr. Opalo said he was “less optimistic about what he could do, and whether such actions would necessarily lead to a better change in Uganda.”