{President Museveni last Thursday held back-to-back meetings with head of the European Union (EU) delegation to Uganda Kristian Schmidt and US Ambassador Deborah Malac on elections, recent political developments and government’s measured proposal to withdraw troops from Somalia.}
According to both official accounts and sources in State House, the meetings were requested by the two envoys.
The President’s Press Secretary, Ms Linda Nabusayi, confirmed to Daily Monitor that Mr Museveni “and the two leaders met and held bilateral meetings” but added there was nothing strange about the meeting nor the timing.
Meeting confirmed
“The President regularly meets foreign diplomats as our development partners,” Ms Nabusayi said, adding that “the deliberations of their meetings are not for public discussion.”
Last Thursday, Mr Museveni first met with the EU envoy, Mr Schmidt. EU press and information officer Emmanuel Gyezaho confirmed the meeting and said “the two also discussed EU-Uganda relations and regional issues of mutual interest, including the Somalia mission.”
The envoy, according to sources, raised issues about the just concluded controversial presidential elections and also presented the final report of the European Union Election Observation Mission which was released last month.
The 42-page report, which is a detailed account of the preliminary report of findings the Mission issued on the eve of the presidential elections results announcement on February 20, notes that the 2016 elections took place in a challenging political environment, exposing significant division between the state apparatus and large parts of the population.
President Museveni and Mr Schmidt also discussed the UPDF involvement in the African Union Mission in Somalia, which the government said last week, was “considering to withdraw.”
The envoy, sources said, in the meeting expressed reservation on the UPDF pulling out now when the Somali government is in the process of building capacity to stand on its own. However, Mr Museveni is said to have maintained that Uganda was not withdrawing its troops but rather conducting a review of its deployment.
Museveni meets US envoy
President Museveni later in the afternoon held talks with Ms Malac, who had been touring projects funded by her government in West Nile sub-region but cut short the trip to return to Kampala.
Sources, citing her swift return to Kampala, had indicated she had been summoned but Ms Nabusayi and US embassy spokesman Christopher Brown denied the claim.
“When we learned of the time of the meeting with President Museveni, we had to return to Kampala earlier than scheduled,” Mr Brown told this newspaper in an email. “The altered schedule meant we unfortunately had to cancel and attend the meeting we had requested with the President.”
Uganda is America’s close military ally in the Great Lakes Region but the recent open rebuke likely signalled that Washington is not afraid anymore to re-set relations with the country’s leader who it has consistently supported.
President Museveni, while speaking at his victory party held at Kololo ceremonial grounds on April 9, told off donor countries: “I don’t like foreigners giving me orders on Uganda. Uganda is ours.”
Sources described Thursday’s meeting as cordial but noted there were some points of dissent between the two parties on political developments in the country.
Mr Brown, who personally attended the meeting was, however, non-committal on what the two agreed or disagreed on, saying: “I will not discuss the details or contents of our diplomatic engagements, but Ambassador Malac and President Museveni held a frank discussion and exchange of views on multiple topics.”
The public will be keen on whether the two envoys will attend Thursday’s swearing in ceremony.
Already, there is no official indication the EU and US governments have congratulated President Museveni since the elections, and especially after the Supreme Court on March 31 dismissed the petition by third runner up Amama Mbabazi, seeking to annul the result.
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