The US-Africa Leaders’ Summit will be an opportunity for the United States to re-engage with Africa and prioritize their national interests, especially as China and Russia’s influence in Africa continues to grow. It also comes at a time when the U.S. just launched a new strategy towards Sub Saharan Africa in August. However, the invitation of autocratic leaders, including President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, whose regime has engaged in gross human rights violations, epitomizes betrayal. His invitation also starkly contradicts President Biden’s supposed commitment towards democracy and human rights.
The cast of autocrats attending this week’s summit sets a bad precedent, but it is not surprising since Museveni has positioned himself over the decades as a stabilizing force in East Africa – despite the fact that his military has been a force of reckless destabilization, both at home and in the wider region. Museveni’s military regime has fingerprints on every conflict that has occurred in the region, including in South Sudan, Rwanda, and the DR Congo. Museveni is an arsonist who is reaping credit for putting out fires, some of which he started, and plays into the western prejudice that a volatile Great Lakes region requires strongman leadership.
It is undeniable that the United States government is aware that Uganda is under a dictatorship and has evidence of atrocities committed by the Museveni regime. One only has to read the annual U.S. State Department’s human rights reports to glean this fact. And thanks to the work of brave Ugandan activists, civil society and human rights organizations, the acceptance of this reality has become widespread.
Sanctions have been imposed by the United States, targeting individuals in Museveni’s regime such as Maj. Gen Abel Kandiho in December 2021 and former police chief Kale Kayihura in 2019. The US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in March 2022 also demanded further sanctions of senior officials implicated in gross human rights violations in Uganda.
Occasional statements of concern and sanctions imposed by the United States government are a slap on the wrist and have not been enough to deter behavior. Serious human rights abuses continue to this day in Uganda, including mass abductions and torture of opposition political activists. The Museveni regime's strategy of suggesting that such violations are committed by ‘a few bad apples is misleading and denies the victims the justice they deserve.
The transformation of Africa must be driven by Africans, especially the younger generation, but the United States and others in the west continue to stand in the way of that progress by enabling, funding, and sheltering ruthless and horribly unaccountable authoritarian regimes like Museveni under the guise of short-term regional stability.
On the surface, the presence of Museveni at the leadership summit will be framed as seeking additional trade and investment opportunities that align with American ambitions to have deeper commercial relations across Africa. It is a business summit designed to amplify the economic interests of the United States while keeping the demands for democracy and human rights rooted in the chairs of civil society -- those who will be seated on the sidelines.
A guest list with autocrats like Museveni is a betrayal of Ugandans and other Africans who are struggling for meaningful change in their countries – oftentimes, putting their lives and livelihoods on the line to do so. The future of Africa does not, and simply cannot, rely on strongmen. It is long past time for the U.S. Government to come to terms with this reality.
Daniel Kawuma is a human rights activist based in the Washington, DC area. He is the USA Diaspora Leader of the National Unity Platform (NUP), Uganda’s largest political opposition movement. Follow him on Twitter: @Kawuma
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of Vanguard Africa, the Vanguard Africa Foundation, or its staff.