Chinese angry with Museveni

President Museveni then moved to short-circuit the Energy ministry officials by beefing up their Project Steering Committee (PSC) in July by naming outstanding Electoral Commission chairman, Badru Kiggundu, and John Berry, who worked as General Manager of Uganda’s biggest power dam, Bujagali, as the Deputy Chairperson.

“The cardinal duty of this committee as envisaged under the tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between MEMD, UEGCL and UETCL was to offer timely and strategic guidance to project implementation,” Museveni wrote, “It’s for this very reason that I have decided to strengthen it and beef it up with non-government officials, that is, the Chairperson and the Deputy Chairperson.”

President Museveni said that the committee’s immediate task should be to streamline the projects implementation structure and the communication protocol and, to solve most of the pending technical and contractual challenges on the projects.

UEGCL takes charge

Appointing the Kiggundu team appears to be paying off. The Ministry of Energy has finally handed over supervision of the two dams to UEGCL. And the Oct. 21 meeting had been called by Museveni to discuss added streamline of the supervision.

Museveni reportedly got interested in the matter earlier after it reportedly came up in a cabinet meeting.  He was told in cabinet that MPs were complaining about “being blocked” from investigating the Karuma and Isimba dams and that the financier—China’s Exim bank—was unhappy about being sued together with the other four entities and was threatening to suspend financing the two projects until that case was dealt with.

The case was lodged by one Henry Kyarimpa; a lawyer and procurement specialist on May 9. In the public interest suit, Kyarimpa is suing the Attorney-General of Uganda, the two Chinese construction firms; Sinohydro Corporation Ltd, China Water & Electricity Corporation (CWE), the lender; EXIM Bank, and Uganda Electricity Generation Company Ltd (UEGCL).  Kyarimpa’s case, which stems from the days the project was procured in 2013, is expected to be heard on Dec.6.

But Exim’s threats to cut funding come at the time when Museveni’s government is still dizzy from a blow it suffered in September when the World Bank suspended new lending to Uganda.

Possibly fearing more trouble, Museveni reportedly ordered the government lawyers to move quickly to ensure that Exim Bank is struck off the list of defendants. The Solicitor General’s office immediately petitioned court to strike the Exim Bank off the charge sheet.

On behalf of the Solicitor General, Elisha Balirawala, argued to the court: “In light of the above developments and the fact that the Attorney General is keen at having this case resolved expeditiously, the issue of the propriety of the 4th Defendant (Exim Bank) in relation to the suit need to be determined prior to conducting a scheduling conference. This is therefore to invite Court to invoke its powers under the provisions of Order 5 Rule 1 (2) & (3) of the Civil Procedure Rules to cause the dismissal of the suit against the 4th Defendant (Exim Bank).”

Indeed, court on Oct.21, dismissed the suit against Exim Bank. The bank will, therefore, not be a defendant in the case against the other four set for Dec.6.

But Museveni called the Oct.21 meeting because he had been told that the Attorney General William Byaruhanga and Ministry of Energy officials were using the Kyarimpa case to block investigations by the Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources.

Members of the Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources want ministry of Energy officials investigated over alleged breaches of contractual obligations regarding the Chinese contractors of the two dams and engaging in alleged improper procedures during recruitment of the project engineers. They set up a Select Committee of nine officials for the task. Members of the Committee were reportedly scandalised when, during on-site inspections of the Karuma and Isimba dams, they found unqualified personnel holding sensitive positions, including as site engineers from the Energy Ministry.