Compared to the other countries US President George Bush is visiting in Africa, Uganda is a political and economic lightweight with few democratic credentials.
Bush, however, has other reasons for making a four-hour stop on Friday in Uganda.
When it comes to security and trade, America’s and Uganda’s policies may as well be tailored for each other. And with Bush highlighting the fight against HIV on his tour of Africa, Uganda has waged one of the world’s most successful battles against the disease.
The country is seen by American officials as a dependable ally in a region fraught with uncertainty — terrorism, civil wars and failed states.
The November al-Qaeda attack on a Kenyan hotel that killed 15 people, including 3 Israelis, and a recent string of US and British terrorism warnings for eastern Africa, mainly centred around neighbouring Kenya, have kept terrorism at the top of the
US agenda in the region.
But US officials worry that Kenya’s security apparatus is prone to leaks that make capturing suspects difficult, said a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Similar concerns surround other regional allies, the official said.
Ugandan security, on the other hand, is considered relatively leak-free, making it an attractive country to operate from, said the official, who would not elaborate.
Uganda was also one of four African countries that openly supported the US invasion of Iraq. And the US is providing unspecified military assistance to the Ugandans in their fight against Lord’s Resistance Army rebels, who have ravaged northern Uganda for 17 years and are on the US terrorism list, the US official said.
Uganda’s role in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) civil war, however, has not pleased the United States. Uganda is accused of plundering the DRC’s vast resources and stirring up tribal rivalries that have killed thousands.
Bush and Uganda President Yoweri Museveni find common ground on free trade.
After meeting with Bush in Washington last month, Museveni called for ”passionate trade” between the United States and Africa as ”the best way to stimulate growth in Africa”.
Bush has touted the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, or Agoa, an initiative that liberalised trading rules with the world’s richest market, as the solution.
Despite Museveni’s relatively liberal economic polices and a 50% jump in African imports, excluding oil, to the United States since Agoa was enacted three years ago, Uganda has benefited little.
The country has only two apparel factories, Africa’s main Agoa export, and the high cost of shipping from the landlocked country keeps investment away, said Velupillai Kananathan, the owner of Apparels Tristar in Kampala.
Bush will also get a firsthand glimpse of Uganda’s efforts to stem the spread of HIV, a rare African success story.
In the late 1980s, with the HIV infection rate spiraling out of control, the Ugandan government launched a massive public awareness campaign.
The results have been dramatic.
The HIV infection rate today hovers just over five percent. Condom use is widespread. The age of first sexual contact has gone from 14 to 16. The average
number of sexual partners has dropped from more than three to around one.
And the government is still pushing awareness. Its latest campaign touts the ”A,B,C, and D” of HIV — Ugandans need to ”abstain,” change their ”behaviour,” use ”condoms, or they will ”die”, said Sam Okware, a health ministry official.
Prevention is affordable but the drugs needed to treat those already infected are not. They cost about $26 a month. Uganda spends about $3,50 on health care for each citizen a year.
Of the one million Ugandans infected, about 10 000 are currently getting drugs, either by paying themselves or through the support of international aid groups, like Doctors Without Borders. Joy Tumuheirwe is not one of them.
If she met Bush, the 29-year-old said, ”I would tell him if he wanted to really help us, he should bring these drugs. Not having them ”is our main problem.” – Sapa-AP