Uganda: It Was Incumbent On Us to Deploy in Somalia-Mbabazi
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The Monitor (Kampala)
INTERVIEW
November 15, 2006
Posted to the web November 15, 2006
Uganda's Security Minister-Amama Mbabazi says Ugandan troops are in Somalia.
In his first interview since he took the job, he talks about Uganda's
intelligence services and the challenges they face.
" I am a yellow man," laughs Amama Mbabazi when we commented about the
multiple yellow files on his desk just before he sat down to grant us an
interview on his new job as Uganda's Security Minister. We note that even his
hot water flask is yellow but he denies that particular item is deliberate. His
phone is constantly ringing and we had been made to wait at least one hour on a
rainy Thursday afternoon. Once dubbed as the " Super Minister" for balancing
his former job as Minister of Defence with a short stint as Attorney General,
Mbabazi has of late been off the public radar.
This is his first newspaper interview at his new offices, a converted
bungalow on Aki Bua Road in Nakasero. This location like his job is very
discreet. Only after one enters the gates of the building can one tell that an
important man occupies this space. Several military guards meet one at the
gates, and access to the Minister is through a series of aides.
There has been talk that his appointment in a recently up-graded Ministry for
Security (from State to full Cabinet Ministry) was a step down from his
previous "super" status but not everyone thinks so. In his lobby, a young man
who has also been waiting for several hours to meet the Minister, boasts to us
how the big man is now bigger than before.
"Are you from Monitor? Did you hear them saying that Mbabazi has been
demoted? That is lies. Look at his office, which Minister has this much space",
the man asks. He continues to reel off evidence of Mbabazi's improved status;
an increased military escort by five men, a bigger convoy and even an armored
official Toyota Land Cruiser. We didn't ask the Minister about the perks of his
new job, however, we started by asking him, how many security agencies he
oversees.
" Oh, that's a matter of public record. When we took over power the security
agencies were shrouded in mystery but one of the things we did was to legalize
their operations, so that everyone knows who they were, what they did and who
they reported to" he explains. He says the legal reforms were necessary because
security organisations " in the past" had been discredited because they were
part of the state machinery to commit crimes like torture and murder. " We had
to come out to win the public confidence," he said reaching out for a refill of
tea. However, Mbabazi who once run Uganda's external security operations admits
not all agencies are open.
" By the nature of their calling there are some organs whose activities are
kept covert. They need to operate clandestinely for them to be effective"
According to the Minister, Uganda's intelligence services operate broadly
under the Internal Security Organisation and External Security Organisation,
both of who report independently to the Executive in what he describes as an "
intelligence circle".
In this cyclical flow, intelligence organs collect and process information
and pass it on to the Executive which then takes action. That action forms the
basis for the direction of further information gathering. The circle is
repeated everyday. " I am part of that Executive," he answers when we ask where
his new Ministry sits in the rotation. When we inquire about the several
semi-autonomous agencies that are known like the Police Special Branch, the
Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence, the Special Bureau of Investigations of
the military police, Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force, Violent Crime Crack Unit
or even the reputedly omnipresent Presidential Guard Brigade, he says they are
creatures created to respond to specific challenges.
" There is a difference however between agencies that are preventative and
those who respond. For example, Criminal Investigations Department comes in to
investigate the commission of a crime. There are agencies which only gather
information and do not act" Mbabazi explains.
Relevant Links East Africa
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Uganda
He says the most important innovation of his government is that all the
agencies are known, and can therefore be made accountable. At the end of the
day , he says, the multiple layers of organisations are folded into defensive
organs (internal security) and offensive ones (external security). We intervene
and ask how large his Ministry is, considering too, that the security chief
also doubles as the Secretary General of the National Resistance Movement, the
ruling party.
" My ministry has a small staff, enough to protect the integrity of
information" he says and closes the subject. We learn from him however that
executive action on security matters is dependant on a National Security
Council chaired by the President, which in turn is informed by a cabinet level,
National Security Committee to which all Ministers and managers of security
belong. At a lower but operational level, the multiple agencies work under a
Joint Intelligence Committee.
The genius of the system perhaps is that the Executive being the "final
consumer" of information receives information independently from each of the
organs. Thus Gen David Tinyefuza, the Co-coordinator of Intelligence Services,
reports to President Yoweri Museveni. So does, Ssezi Cheeye, the Director of
Economic Affairs at ISO. The structure aside, and two cups of coffee later, we
ask, " so what are the Security challenges faced by Uganda?
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