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How Museveni’s ‘clan’ runs the government

In his inaugural address as professor of history at Makerere University on June 18, 1986, the highly respected Ugandan historian, Samwiri Karugire, spelt out the problems of Africa. In a lecture titled “Wind of Change or Merely Change in the Wind? African Polities since Independence,” Karugire said the biggest ills of our continent are “numbing corruption and nepotism.”

“It is because of these gross malfeasances,” Karugire reasoned, “that our rulers become insecure in their sumptuous offices and therefore they must surround themselves with their own relatives with whom, of course, they loot the national treasury.”

Quoting journalist David Lamb, Karugire said: “The slain President William Tolbert of Liberia, when he was president of that country, made his brother Frank, president of the senate; another brother Stephen minister of finance; his sister Lucia was appointed mayor of the city of Bentol; one of his sons Ambassador at Large, his daughter Wilhemina presidential physician; his niece Tula, presidential dietician; his three nephews respectively, assistant minister for presidential affairs, agricultural attaché in Rome and vice governor of the national bank; his four sons in-law respectively, minister of defence, deputy minister of works, commissioner for immigration and board member for Air Liberia. One brother-in-law was appointed to the senate, another as ambassador to Guinea and yet another as mayor of the capital city, Monrovia.”

Tolbert was behaving like African despots of his time like Marshal Mobutu Sese Seko of then Zaire, Daniel arap Moi of Kenya, Omar Bongo of Gabon, Gnasingbe Eyadema of Togo, Obiang Ngwena of Equatorial Guinea, etc. So has Uganda gone through a wind of change or a mere change in the wind in regard to these African political practices? If he were still alive today, what would Karugire say about President Yoweri Museveni’s Uganda especially given that his son, Edwin Karugire, is married to first daughter, Natasha?

Anatomy of family rule

Previously a critic of political patrimony, there is growing concern even among those closest to him that Museveni is treading the long trodden path that Karugire condemned 23 years ago. For example, 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.

There is no doubt that people like Saleh and Kutesa merit their positions. Saleh is a war hero who distinguished himself as a brilliant and brave rebel commander while Kutesa is one of the veteran politicians on Uganda’s political scene. But equally Uganda has many competent people who can perform their roles. If the president sought to avoid being accused of nepotism, there was enough talent to choose from to make public appointments.

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.

Replicating Africa’s curse

Apparently, this reflects the shift of attention from the promise of “fundamental change” to the slogan of “no change” that has become the rallying cry of regime functionaries. The informalisation of power in Uganda echoes other African countries. One example is Donor Cruise O’Brien’s 1975 book on politics in Senegal: Saints and Politicians. According to O’Brien, politics in Senegal is organised through factions, otherwise called “clans.” But the clan in Senegalese politics is not defined by kinship although that may exist and help reinforce political solidarity within a given political group.

Instead, O’Brien writes, “the clan” is basically a “political faction operating within the institutions of the state and the governing party; it exists above all to promote the interests of its members through political competition, and its first unifying principle is the prospect of material rewards of political success. Political office and the spoils of office are the very definition of success: loot is the clanic totem.” Sounds like Uganda today?

In his 1979 article The Administration of Underdevelopment, David Gould revealed a similar practice in Mobutu’s Zaire. He argued that power was organised at the very top around a “presidential clique.” This was composed mainly of about 50 of the president’s “closest kinsmen” whom Mobutu trusted. They occupied the most sensitive and lucrative positions of state like “head of the Judiciary Council, Secret Police, Interior Ministry, President’s Office and so on.” In his last days, Mobutu’s son Nzanga was a presidential advisor while another, Kongolo, was commander of the dreaded Special Presidential Division (DSP).

Next to the kinsmen/women, Gould revealed, was the “presidential brotherhood”! Though not from the president’s ethnic group, their positions depended on their personal ties with Mobutu and his clique. Is Uganda’s power structure moving towards Mobutu’s Zaire? It already has; our equivalent of the brotherhood would include people like Security Minister, Amama Mbabazi. So much is the level of patrimony in Museveni’s presidency that many Ugandans wonder how a man who publicly despised Mobutu and that generation of African dictators could have so easily gone the same way; the way none of his predecessors Milton Obote or Idi Amin can be accused of having gone.