The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
COMMENT | OBED K KATUREEBE | Across Africa, informed senior citizens know that President Yoweri Museveni is passionate about integrating the continent if we are to survive in this crudely competitive capitalist world order. In his view, the USA developed into a super-industrial country because it integrated that big market called the United States of America.
To him, political and economic integration are existential and historical necessities for Africa. He argues that a united continent is required to guarantee long-term prosperity, strategic security, and global competitiveness against major powers like China, the US, Russia, and India
He has equally argued that Europeans have moved faster by integrating and forming the EU. As a result, Europe benefits from the world’s largest single market, enabling free movement of goods, services, and people; a shared euro currency used across 21 countries; border-free travel; and strong collective global trade power.
To achieve that, President Museveni has pledged to spare no effort as he fights for the integration of the African continent. To achieve this, he has argued that regional blocs on the African continent like the EAC, SADC, ECOWAS, and the Maghreb Union must first integrate. That is the very reason he has embarked on the integration of the East African countries through economic cooperation.
Therefore, on August 6, 2026, Uganda and Tanzania signed a landmark memorandum of understanding in Dar es Salaam to jointly develop the Tanga Regional Energy Hub. President Yoweri Museveni and President Samia Suluhu Hassan witnessed the deal, which involves the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC), the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC), and global energy trader Vitol Bahrain E.C.
More memorandums of understanding were signed for bilateral energy cooperation beyond the ongoing East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) into petroleum refining, bulk storage, logistics, and a bidirectional multiproduct pipeline linking Tanga and Uganda. These projects are projected to attract over $20 billion in total integrated energy infrastructure investments.
Not so long ago, the government of Uganda, through Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC), acquired a 20.15% strategic stake in Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) for 9 Kenyan shillings per share. This acquisition was finalized during KPC’s initial public offering and subsequent listing on the National Securities Exchange. Such joint investments and partnerships are the only sure way of integrating the region. This is because countries begin sharing visions, opportunities, employment, skills, and common markets.
Economic integration such as free trade areas, customs unions, and common markets guarantees regional security through democratic peace theory, interdependence, and institutional binding, making the cost of conflict higher than cooperation by intertwining national economies and creating shared security stakes.
President Museveni has championed not only economic integration in the East African region but also security cooperation. The East African Standby Force is one product of this effort. Its main achievements include establishing a 5,000-strong ready force, conducting continuous readiness and verification exercises, and strengthening regional disaster and humanitarian response frameworks.
Uganda and DR Congo are jointly pursuing the terrorists of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in the Eastern DR Congo. Because of the great work the UPDF is doing to stabilize eastern DR Congo, the DR Congo government, a few days ago, donated brand-new pickup trucks to the UPDF to ease their movements while guaranteeing peace for their citizens. This gesture further shows how appreciative the government in Kinshasa is of Uganda’s magnanimity in securing their people.
In equal measure, Uganda has deployed the Uganda Peoples’ Defense Force (UPDF) in South Sudan and Somalia to nurture those young regimes as they consolidate their security and stand on their own.
East African countries are sharing economic and security intelligence across their borders. As a result, this has curtailed the proliferation of terrorist groups that were coming up in the past years. Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and Kampala were devastatingly attacked by the Al Shabaab terrorists in 1998 and 2010, respectively.
As a result, President Museveni has put forward his theory of African Strategic Security. In this, he has argued that it is the ultimate capacity of a nation or continent to safeguard its survival, defend itself against all external and internal threats across land, air, sea, and space, and protect its long-term socio-economic prosperity.
Therefore, as President Museveni pushes into his 7th term in office, it is not speculative that finally the integration of East Africa is being realized in this Kisanja. One reason Museveni has stayed a little longer in office is to achieve East African integration. It is no wonder, therefore, that these landmark economic and security partnerships championed by President Museveni among regional members are being achieved.
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The writer works with Uganda Media Centre
