Western world using ICC to undermine Africa, says Uganda President Yoweri Museveni

Monday, December 2nd 2013, By Biketi Kikechi Kampala,

Uganda: Uganda President Yoweri Museveni claims western countries are using the two Kenyan cases at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, to undermine Africa’s sovereignty. Speaking at the 15th East African Heads of State Summit in Kampala, Museveni slammed the West for showing contempt for African leaders and cited the ICC cases against President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto as an example. “It is dharau and hatari (contempt and danger). That is what they are doing to our leaders and African countries,” said Museveni at the Speke Hotel in Munyonyo, Kampala, where President Kenyatta took over as chairperson of the five countries that make up the East African Community (EAC) trading bloc. Present at the Press conference were presidents Kenyatta, Jakaya Kikwete (Tanzania), Pierre Nkurunziza (Burundi) and Paul Kagame (Rwanda).

The five leaders kept delegates waiting from 10am, when they were scheduled to arrive at Victoria Hall, to 4pm, when they arrived and hurriedly ran the revised programme. It was not immediately clear what led to the delay as delegates waited anxiously, among them young boys brought to sing the East African anthem. Informal meeting The earlier programme listed among other things an informal meeting between the presidents. Until this week, President Kikwete had given the EAC meetings a wide berth since June when Kenyatta, Museveni and Kagame signed three bilateral agreements in Mombasa, Kampala and Kigali. The body language of the three presidents appeared to be far from cordial, although Kenyatta caused laughter when he asked people to stop spreading rumours. “The EAC remains strong and your leaders commitment to it is unwavering. Let us all put an end to unnecessary rumour mongering,” Uhuru said.

Museveni sat on the far left with Uhuru next, followed by fellow leaders Kikwete, Nkurunziza and Kagame on the far right. Apart from Kenyatta getting the EAC chair prematurely after Rwanda declined to take it up, Tanzania was also given the position of rapporteur, which should have gone to Burundi. The EAC job now gives Kenyatta a busy docket making it increasingly difficult for him to make frequent appearances at the ICC as earlier demanded by ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. Speaking before handing over the EAC chairmanship to Uhuru, Museveni blamed western countries for making difficult for the continent to deal with problems. “They could not allow African heads of state to land in Libya and you know what has happened in that country since that time,” said Museveni.

He then saluted Kenyans for launching a renewed resistance movement against imperialism citing the way they voted in defiance against external interference in their internal affairs of African states. “The way the people of Kenya voted was the second but peaceful Mau Mau resistance,” said Museveni to a thunderous round of applause in the packed hall. He expressed confidence that what happened in Kenya was an answer to those showing “dharau and hatari” demands to the leaders and African countries. But he called for a coordinated response to achieve the East African political federation. “The East African Community also needs a political federation to deal with political turmoil in the region and on the continent,” said Museveni. He warned against the continued delay in its establishment and suggested the federation could have dealt with political violence in Kenya and other parts of the region. Museveni said a bigger market is better for entrepreneurship, but all will depend on marshaling appropriate technology and financial capital in the region.

 Bigger market.

This would create a bigger market, infrastructure to link the region adequate facilities to encourage trade and security and guarantee local and global interests. The East African Community Secretary General Richard Ssesebera presented what has been achieved towards the realisation of the East African currency dream. He said the monetary union protocol which the five leaders signed on Saturday aims to achieve a single currency for the EAC. “It will launch the region into an irrevocable journey towards a single currency and will also usher an era of heightened peaceful and financial integration,” he said. That he asserted will allow east Africans to conduct their business in local currency across the region. The Council of Ministers has already signed the framework document for as single customs territory that is expected to come into effect in 2014.

The single customs territory will complete the institutional work on a customs union, remove barriers for goods and cement East Africa as a single trading bloc. “We will also agree on and internationalise a new generation East Africa passport and determine the date of its launch,” said Ssesebera. It also emerged that the use of national identity cards for movement in the region will start next year in Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda. It was not clear why Tanzania was been exempted from the use of identity cards for free movement of citizens. Common market “That is an important signal that East Africa is committed to the implementation of the freedom of movement of East Africans as envisaged in the common market protocol,” said Ssesebera.

Next year, the Council of Ministers will complete work on the single visa as well and work permits. All the leaders expressed satisfaction on how the perennial barriers that hampered trade and raised the cost of doing business across the region had been dealt with. “We truly appreciate the removal of road blocks, rationalisation of weigh bridges, increased efficiency at border posts and at the port of Mombasa,” said Ssesebera. In her briefing, Phyllis Kandie, the chairperson of the East African Community Council of Ministers said an agreement to link all the customs computers of the EAC member states was finalized and adopted by the ministers. She said talks for a partnership between the EAC and European Union were at an advanced stage. The same, she said, had been achieved on talks for a working partnership to create a Comesa, EAC, and SADEC free trade area. Uganda Deputy Central bank Governor Louis Kasekende Austin told The Standard that the five countries EAC had already agreed to the free movement of people, capital and trade between them. “The monetary union only comes in to facilitate the process,” said Ms Kasekende.