Uganda: Letter Faulting IMF Over Funding Regime Accused Of Crimes Against Humanity At ICC.

7 min readJun 25, 2021

Demonstrations Held At multiple IMF Offices Over Funding Ugandan Regime Despite Entrenched Corruption And Diversion Of Funds Into Repression And Gross Human Rights Violations.

The letter signed by global and diverse friends of uganda as well as human rights campaigners is replicated in full below. Verbatim.

IMF Executive Board

International Monetary Fund

700 19th Street, N.W.,

Washington, D.C. 20431

To: ieo@imf.org; investigations@imf.org; ngoliaison@imf.org; media@imf.org; eastafritac@imf.org; secministerialmeetings@imf.org; publications@imf.org; publicaffairs@imf.org; imffa@imf.org; kgeorgieva@imf.org; tzhang@imf.org

Dear Mrs Georgieva and members of the Executive Board of the IMF,

We write to you to express our concern about the $900 million loan you plan to provide to the Ugandan government under the Extended Credit Facility. There is a Covid-19 crisis in Uganda and the Ugandan people do need help, but this loan will put us further into misery.

Our concerns can be summarized as follows.

The loan will go to a government committing grave human rights violations and the money will be used to continue committing such violations.

This argument is the most important, but since it has been explained very well by Agnes N. Kaziba of Kan Legal Advocates in her letter of 22 June 2021 we will not elaborate.

In recent years, and particularly during the recent election season, thousands of opposition supporters, including legislators, have been kidnapped, tortured, raped & killed. The BBC documentary ‘Three Killings in Kampala’ shows that security forces committed massacres directly targeting unarmed, innocent civilians with full impunity

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7d2AvLEPyA). The hundreds of victims killed or injured that day were not hit by stray bullets as the regime has claimed.

The New York City Bar Association urged the World Bank to investigate whether a May 2020 $300 million loan was used to militarize the election and commit atrocities as described above, but this has not been done.

In a well-detailed letter the New York City Bar writes: (full letter:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/documents.nycbar.org/files/2020812-UgandaWorldBank.pdf)

the United States has a responsibility to ensure that foreign assistance does not abet repression and is used in ways that are consistent with America’s commitment to the promotion of human rights and democracy

There is no sign that this new IMF will be better audited than the World Bank's loan was. There is every sign that the latter was diverted to security forces and the President's Office, where it likely filled the pockets of the Museveni family.

As the above mentioned letter by Agnes Kaziba explains, a new loan to Uganda should only be provided once a full audit of the $300 million 2020 World Bank loan has been conducted.

The IMF has not done proper due diligence since they have not gone to Uganda (‘scientific loan’) and (apparently) not talked to critical voices.

The Ugandan government is notorious for manipulation, particularly of research, and for deceiving Western interlocutors.

The loan is unconstitutional in Uganda since in all likelihood, Museveni didn’t actually win the January 2021 election.

The reputable African factcheck organisation Pesacheck recently published an article stating that none of the Ugandan elections of the last 30 years were free and transparent.

(https://pesacheck.org/is-it-true-that-uganda-has-not-held-a-fair-and-transparent-election-inover-30-years-5d8548d42059)

A 222-page report by Dr. Nico Schoonderwoerd concludes that the 2021 elections were rigged and cites a scientific independent survey suggesting Bobi Wine likely won with approximately 60% of the votes. (https://uvote.nup-uganda.com/rigged/Rigged.pdf )

When we look at the Ugandan constitution it clearly states that:

1.1 All power belongs to the people and

2.2 If any other law or custom is inconsistent with any of the provisions of this constitution that other (..) shall be void. (see screenshot below)

Given the grave uncertainties surrounding the January 2021 election, any loan loan agreement becomes null and void.

6. The loan will likely not be paid back.

President Museveni is almost 80 years old, and has reportedly designated his son, commander of the deadly Special Forces Command, as his successor. In order for this to happen, more investments into security forces (& human rights abuses) will be necessary. When a democratic government comes to power they cannot be morally required to pay back a loan that was used to buy the bullets to kill the people of Uganda and impose a tyrannical government.

A neutrally formulated survey by the NUP twitter account showed that the support among Ugandans for the loan is very small. This lack of support exists under NUP, FDC and even under NRM members.

7. The loan is supposed to be paid back by the revenues of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline.

After years of destruction (see also item 8) , the economy of Uganda is in such bad shape that government income is highly dependent on donor money and remittances from Ugandans in the diaspora. Tourism is small and given the security situation and with its dependence on airplane travel, not likely to recover soon.

The main resource for paying back the loan is the revenues of the East African Crude Oil

Pipeline (EACOP) that will be exploited by Total Energy and other companies. Total, as a French company, and Uganda, as a Paris agreement signatory, will be forced to take measures to reduce CO2 emissions, so any business plan based on EACOP seems highly risky.

Given that the IMF has also expressed concerns about climate change, it seems highly irresponsible to provide any loan dependent on the emissions of huge amounts of CO2.

8. The loan does not meet the conditions for the Extended Credit Facility.

On its website, IMF explains the Purpose, Eligibility, Duration and Access to the ECF.

At this moment Uganda is in a very unstable macroeconomic position, and remains, according to the IMFs own data, one of the twenty poorest countries in the world, with per capita income less than $1000. 35 years of dictatorship have destroyed its institutions, commercial projects are assigned to family and friends of the president and those of non-Museveni loyalists targeted for destruction. If you build a successful business, a government official will soon come to claim his share, or the entire thing. Internet connections are poor and subject to regime surveillance and periodic shutdowns.

The country’s balance of payments is especially distorted because of the huge expenditures for security forces. The government has no interest in bringing the balance back; its only interest is to stay in power.

Given the current situation it’s fair to say that even in a post-Covid era, this government will not be able to repay the loan to the IMF and it is hard to see why the IMF board considers this a good investment.

To show that these objections are shared by many Ugandans and friends of Uganda, across all opposition parties, this letter has been co-signed by the leaders of the two major opposition parties.

Regards

* a number of people on this list are anonymous for security reasons.

Robert Kyagulanyi (NUP)

Winner of the 2021 Ugandan elections.

dr. Kizza Besigye (FDC)

Winner of the 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016 Ugandan elections.

dr. Lina Zedriga

Women activist, NUP vice-president

Nubian Li

Musical Partner of Bobi Wine. Tortured in Kitalya prison, built with an IMF loan.

Kakwenza Rukirabashaija

Journalist & writer describing his torture in