Uganda President Yoweri Museveni used ODM leader Raila Odinga’s African Union Commission (AUC) chairmanship bid to express his reservations over Kenya’s move to block sugar from his country.

He also used the occasion to show his displeasure with what he termed as interference by Raila’s party in Uganda’s political affairs.

In a speech punctuated with veiled jibes using Banyankole's relationship with other communities in Uganda, Museveni attacked the entrenchment of tribalism in Kenya. 

As the region's longest-serving Head of State having been at the helm for 38 years, Museveni criticised what he said was Kenya's protectionist trade policies that had triggered disputes between the neighbours over the entry of key agricultural goods from Uganda such as eggs, milk and grains. 

“If you produce goods and services, people from your tribe may not be the ones to buy those services. You may find the people in another tribe buying what you produce because they don’t have what you have,” Museveni said.

“So therefore you people you see; Uganda is more important for you than your tribes. Your tribes can’t bring you prosperity. You can speak agandi or atiriri ni kwega muno, chemgei, mulembe but you may find those who greet you in the same language are not the ones who buy what you produce.”

Museveni said Ugandans realised that tribalism would not economically empower them, and that prosperity would only come from more trading in what others didn't have. 

“That is why in our movement (EAC), ideology number one is patriotism. Because you need Uganda for your own good, whether you like me or not you need me because I buy what you produce, I put money in your pockets,” he said.

"When you buy our products we rise. When you close us like I have heard you have closed sugar, we fall. When you close our eggs, milk, sugar, maize all that blocks us. That is why the second principle of our movement comes in. In order to ensure prosperity in Africa we need patriotism and Pan Africanism. Leadership should be part of social economic medicine to analyze what our society lacks and produce a diagnosis." 

Babu Owino headache

Statistics indicate that as a result of the trade barriers, expenditure on imports from Uganda declined by 9.09 per cent in the first quarter of the year, with the value of goods into Kenya dropping to Sh7.48 billion in the three months to March compared with Sh8.23 billion, according to data released last month.

At the same time, Museveni hit out at Embakasi East MP Babu Owino over his support for his political opponents, claiming that "some characters in the Raila group did not know what they were doing." 

“There are some individuals in Raila's group who think I don’t know what they are doing. I am a consumer of intelligence services. I always see intelligence service reports. There's a character called Babu. I always see Babu dealing with anti-NRM groups in Uganda,” he said.

But the MP maintained that he stood for democracy, maintaining that he would continue advocating for the rights of Ugandans.

“I stand for a democratic society where a child in Kenya will receive proper medication, and education and will equally get a job. Equally, a child in Uganda should receive the same treatment as a child in Kenya,” he posted on X.

Coded message?

ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna and a section of MPs also hit out at Museveni.

“Whatever beef [President] Museveni has with Babu Owino, I strongly object to the manner of his attack on a young Kenyan leader on our own soil,” said Sifuna.

“Kenya is a country ruled by law and if there is any objectionable conduct on the part of Babu, there are diplomatic channels to convey that to Kenyan authorities and let the law take its cause.”

Githunguri MP Gathoni Wamuchomba said: “Why would a foreign president use an international presidential platform to castigate a young Kenyan parliamentarian? I saw leaders giggle as if he was making a ‘good’ joke. This was uncalled for.”

Prof Peter Kagwanja, a policy advisor, interpreted Museveni’s remarks to mean that although he wanted to make peace with Kenya, he had a bone to chew with both Kenya as a State and Raila as a politician.

“What Museveni was saying is simply that he has issues with Kenya’s economic protectionism and telling Raila that he had issues with him because his people were infiltrating his political space in Kenya and probably sought to understand whether they had Raila’s blessings, Museveni could not have come all the way from Uganda to speak about Babu Owino,” he noted.

He said Museveni may have chosen the forum to push for the removal of the trade barriers and caution Raila to stop his allies from interfering with Uganda’s politics as a quid pro quo for the support for his UAC bid. By Ndung’u Gachane, The Standard