----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Ssemakula <james_ssemak...@yahoo.com>
To: "buganda...@listserv.tamu.edu" <buganda...@listserv.tamu.edu>;
"gandat...@talklist.com" <gandat...@talklist.com>; "uc...@yahoogroups.com"
<uc...@yahoogroups.com>; unaanet <unaa...@yahoogroups.com>; Baana
<baanababugandasouthafr...@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wed, July 6, 2011 5:42:17 PM
Subject: The Umeme Crisis and Stanbic Bank (owned by a Museveni, of course)
"Whoever
thinks they work for a Uganda government is, in effect, working as a servant to
the Museveni family"
"Employees working at Roofings Ltd., owned by
Janet Museveni, openly tell their colleagues about how they have been forwarded
to the company by State House and how it is owned by the Museveni family."
Saturday, 19th December 2009 E-mail article Print article
2009 in review: The Museveni family ownership of Uganda
(look at the size of this parking lot for guests! or click on link below ...)
Museveni family's J&M Hotel at Bwebajja on Entebbe-Kampala road.
By Timothy Kalyegira
On March 11, 2009, the news magazine, the Independent, founded by Andrew
Mwenda,
published a cover story titled "Family rule in Uganda".
The article examined the structure of effective political power in Uganda today
and explained: "Museveni has appointed his wife, Mrs Janet Museveni, as state
minister for Karamoja; his brother, Gen. Salim Saleh, formerly a minister of
state for micro finance, as Senior Presidential Advisor on defence, a job at
the
same rank as a cabinet minister; his brother-in-law, Sam Kutesa, minister of
foreign affairs; his son, Muhozi Keinerugaba, commander of the Special Forces,
his daughter Natasha Karugire, Private Secretary to the president in charge of
Household.
"Museveni has also appointed his nephew, Joseph Ekwau (son of his younger
sister
Violet Kajubiri), Private Secretary to the President in charge of Medical
Services (HIV//AIDS); his sister Miriam Karugaba as Administrator at State
House
(she is semi-literate) and her husband (therefore Museveni's brother-in-law),
Jimmy Karugaba, as Officer in Charge (OC) of the Accounts Department at State
House. Museveni has also appointed his sister-in-law, Jolly Sabune, Executive
Director of Cotton Development Authority, his niece-in-law, Hope Nyakairu,
Undersecretary for Administration and Finance at State House, his cousin Bright
Rwamirama, State Minister for Animal Husbandry, his other cousin, Faith Katana
Mirembe, Assistant Private Secretary in charge of Education and Social Services
and Justus Karuhanga, Private Secretary to the President in charge of Legal
Affairs who is a nephew to Mrs Museveni."
The article later added: "Many observers say that increasing family influence
in
government has gone hand in hand with the informalisation of power. Thus,
although formal authority is vested in official institutions, effective power
is
wielded by this informal clique of family and kin. The official structure
presents a semblance of national ethno-regional and religious diversity to win
the regime legitimacy. The informal but highly powerful structure of the
closest
of the president's family and kin is the "real" government."
That edition of theIndependent became the best-selling edition they have ever
published and it had to do an additional print run to quench the intense public
interest in the story.
The day after the story was published, according to Mwenda, a furious President
Museveni held a meeting of his family members at State House and said he was
going to arrest the Managing Editor, Andrew Mwenda.
However, some of his family urged him not to make that move, as it would give
the story greater publicity than it was already getting.
They settled on the idea of keeping watch on Mwenda and then one day, at the
slightest opportunity, say if he drove past a red traffic light or his car road
license expired, arrest him and claim that this was the real reason for the
arrest.
The story, of course, confirmed in print what many Ugandans knew in fact.
However, it still came as a sensation to thousands of Ugandans who did not
know,
up to that point, the extent to which national power had been concentrated in
the hands of one family, the Museveni family and that there was, in reality, no
Uganda government in existence.
Whoever thinks they work for a Uganda government is, in effect, working as a
servant to the Museveni family.
How, then, did this Museveni family, pretending to be a government, really work?
The Umeme crisis and Stanbic Bank
In the middle of the year, a crisis erupted at the national electricity firm,
Umeme, the successor to the Uganda Electricity Board (U.E.B).
There were all sorts of abuses at the company, the main one being that meters
had been tampered with and Ugandans were paying much higher for their power
than
they should. Also, Umeme, it was said, had been conning the Uganda government
of
millions of shillings in the arrangement by which the Uganda government was
supposed to be subsidizing Umeme each year.
When the crisis turned into a public outcry, President Yoweri Museveni asked
his
half-brother, Gen. Salim Saleh, to set up a committee to investigate the
problem. Computers were seized at Umeme's offices.
"Police anti-fraud squad raided the offices of Umeme, Electricity Regulatory
Authority (ERA), Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL) and
confiscated their computers. Police also raided the home of [Umeme Managing
Director Paul] Mare. They also raided the office of the energy ministry
Permanent Secretary, Fred Kaliisa, and confiscated his computer too," reported
the Independent in its Aug. 11, 2009 edition.
Let us recap. Ugandans were told that the government had sold off U.E.B to the
South African national electricity company Eskom and this new entity was what
later came to be re-named Umeme.
The crisis of 2009 was the most serious Umeme had faced in Uganda so far. But
something odd was noticeable: no single board director or other official of
Eskom, the supposed parent company, flew in from South Africa to Uganda to deal
with the crisis or at least address a press conference to allay public
frustration and anger.
Instead, President Museveni appointed his brother to probe the Umeme crisis.
This should have raised the question of who it is that actually owns Umeme, but
somehow the mainstream media failed to ask the question, at least publicly.
A source told theUganda Record on Saturday Dec. 19, 2009 that "Stanbic Bank…
belongs to the [First] family. They are paid 200million [Uganda shillings] per
month as administration fees…via an escrow account in [South Africa]."
An escrow account is a kind of temporary account awaiting verification of goods
and services.
Sources at Stanbic Bank talk of cheques being signed to pay the Museveni family
"administrative fees" even though they do not have supporting documentation to
justify or explain the payment.
The way the Museveni family is paid royalties, or rent, by escrow accounts for
their ownership of the title deeds of the Stanbic Bank business name in Uganda
(what was once the Uganda Commercial Bank, Uganda's largest banking group) is
the way it is paid for their ownership of other apparently South African or
foreign-owned businesses in Uganda.
These sources say that it is Stanbic Bank that is used to finance businesses
like Roofings Ltd, Speke Resort Munyonyo, the J&M Hotel along the
Kampala-Entebbe highway, businessman Hassan Basajjabalaba's hotel and Kampala
International University, all of which actually belong to the Museevni family.
Information gathered by a team of journalists at the Daily Monitor in June shed
astonishing light on the extent to which the Museveni family has taken control
of Uganda. This information was shared with the Uganda Record.
In 2002, some officials at the African Development Bank (ADB) headquarters in
Tunis, Tunisia, and who had once held President Museveni in high esteem, were
shocked to discover, after some investigation, that the money that built Garden
City shopping complex in Kampala had been from a loan borrowed from the ADB.
However, the ADB officials said that this loan was then used to appear to
finance the construction of Garden City, and yet in reality the money that
built
Garden City had been looted from the Ugandan treasury and the ADB loan was used
by the Museveni family to give the Garden City project the appearance of
legitimacy.
Employees working at Roofings Ltd., owned by Janet Museveni, openly tell their
colleagues about how they have been forwarded to the company by State House and
how it is owned by the Museveni family.
The chairman of Stanbic Bank Uganda, Hannington Karuhanga, is not without
coincidence a cousin to Janet Museveni.
This ownership of Kampala International University is the reason (and there is
no other reason) that explains why Hassan Basajjabalaba is repeatedly given
bailouts by the Bank of Uganda on orders of President Yoweri Museveni.
Sometimes, it almost appears that Museveni is forcing Basajjabalaba to take the
money.
Appearing as a guest on Capital FM's programme Desert Island Discs on Easter
Sunday on April 8, 2007, Museveni was asked by the interviewer Desree barlow
what he planned to do with his life if or when he finally retired as head of
state.
Museveni was categorical. He said he would go into the hotel industry. Those
who
do not know what has been going on in Uganda under Museveni were bound to be
puzzled. Museveni does not seem like a person interested in the hotel and
hospitality industry. Why would he mention hotels as his retirement pursuit?
And since he usually likes to plan his life well in advance, was he going to
start taking interest in hotels when he turned 75 or had he already started
laying the groundwork for that?
If the Independent magazine thought it had reported on First Family rule in
Uganda in its March 11, 2009 edition, it had only touched the tip of the story.
Below is a list of the Museveni family and henchmen's property in Uganda as
compiled by the investigative teams at the Daily Monitor and the Uganda Record.
Notice the number of hotels listed:
Akamwesi --- Salim Saleh and Hope Mwesigye
Aya Hotel --- Yoweri Museveni
J & M Hotel --- Janet Museveni
Greenland Towers --- Janet Museveni
Roofings Ltd --- Janet Museveni
Sameer Dairy Corporation --- Yoweri Museveni
Malaysia Furniture --- Janet Museveni
Nakumatt complex --- Yoweri Museveni
Cham Towers --- Yoweri Museveni
Crested Towers --- Yoweri Museveni
Imperial Royale Hotel --- Yoweri Museveni
Imperial Resort Beach Hotel --- Yoweri Museveni
Bidco factory --- Yoweri Museveni
Umeme --- Muhoozi Kainerugaba
Uganda Telecom --- Muhoozi Kainerugaba
Entebbe International Airport --- Yoweri Museveni
Orient Bank --- Sam Kutesa
Garden City --- Yoweri Museveni
Zain --- Salim Saleh
Warid Telecom --- Amelia Kyambadde
MTN Uganda --- Yoweri Museveni
ARVs drug factory --- Yoweri Museveni
Speke Resort Munyonyo --- Yoweri Museveni
WBS Television --- Yoweri Museveni
The investigating teams at the Daily Monitor, by Dec. 2009, were not yet sure
about the ownership of the Serena Kampala Hotel and the International
Conference
Centre.
Information from the Daily Monitor indicates that there was an arrangement that
if the Aga Khan was to take over, or buy, the former Nile Hotel (now Serena
Hotel) then President Yoweri Museveni would own the Bujagali dam project and if
the Aga Khan wished to own the Bujagali project, then the Serena Hotel would be
owned by Museveni.
The details of this were still under investigation.
In the eastern town of Jinja, residents had been frustrated by the poor
condition of their roads. But when the Bidco factory that produces cooking oil
and other products was established in Jinja, suddenly the road that had lay in
ruins for years was fully renovated from its start to where it ends right at
the
Bidco factory.
It is a well-known secret in Jinja that the Bidco factory there belongs to
Museveni.
Never has greed been so naked, never have the national assets of Uganda been
stripped so completely by a single family.
The story of the looting of Uganda's property and the attempt to take total and
single-handed control of the Ugandan economy is an even more incredible story
than Museveni's guerrilla adventures.
The revelations of how Uganda found itself in 2009 under the control of a
single, as reported by the Independent magazine and investigations by the Daily
Monitor and Uganda Record teams is certainly one of the biggest stories of the
year, if not in Ugandan history.
END
http://www.ugandarecord.co.ug/index.php?issue=40&article=524&seo=2009%20in%20review:%20The%20Museveni%20family%20ownership%20of%20Uganda
James Ssemakula
_______________________________________________
Ugandanet mailing list
Ugandanet@kym.net
http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet
UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
All Archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com/ugandanet@kym.net/
The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including
attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way.
---------------------------------------
