COVER: Museveni beaten or tired?

No UPDF retreat

But the UPDF spokesperson, Brig. Richard Karemire, dismisses talk that Uganda has been retreating from regional wars.

“UPDF never retreats,” Brig. Karemire said, “We only disengaged from CAR because we had successfully completed our mission, which was to neutralize the LRA,” he told The Independent.

He said the UPDF is still in Somalia until a review is conducted of AMISON in 2018.

On the fact that Uganda trails peers in military spending, Karemire said countries have different defence strategies, which determine the means they use to defend themselves.

“We are using what we have,” he said, “we live within our means and we are able to defend our country with what we are allocated.”

On his part, , Simon Mulongo, a security expert and former member of the Defence Committee of parliament told The Independent that since 2004, Uganda has done a lot of capitalization of its army both in terms of acquisition of hardware and training.

“There is no need to over capitalize again,” he said, “UPDF is respected in the whole region as the most organised, trained and disciplined force.”

He added that having sorted out that and given that there is no serious security threat, Uganda is now focusing on other priorities like infrastructure to foster economic growth, the dividend of which will then be ploughed back to further fortify security.

Gilbert Olanya, the Shadow cabinet Minister for Defence, who also sits on the Defence Committee, said that as a committee they are playing their part to ensure Uganda’s Defence spending remains adequate.

“That is why as a community, we accessed and passed their (Defence Ministry) budget as they presented it,” Olanya said, “Because of the investment in Defence, we face no serious security threat like LRA as a country and that is a good thing.”

He also added that the committee was trying to address the other challenges that Defence officials have been grappling with.

“Those who have been paying our soldiers have been taking so much time without paying,” Olanya said, “That is why we are visiting Somalia to see what is on the ground. We also plan to talk to donors and see how we can improve the situation.”

Museveni’s lowest point

The lowest moment for Museveni’s regional ventures was when the UPDF lost three choppers that crashed in Mt. Kenya en route to Somalia. AMISOM funders declined to compensate Uganda for the loss because, insiders say, it was not their contractual obligation.

Away from the choppers, Simon Mulongo, told The Independent that part of the problem Uganda has had with AMISOM is the rate and timeliness of payment to Ugandan soldiers.

He says a cut by the European Union, which is the biggest funder of the mission, appears to have worsened these challenges.

Created in 2007, AMISOM has largely depended on EU’s $640 million injection to cover a range of costs including salaries.

However, last year, the EU downsized its funding to AMISOM by 20 percent. And as a result, the African forces, who were reportedly receiving a monthly allowance of over $800, suffered a cut of about $165 a month each. This has not been the only issue, increasingly, peacekeepers in Somalia go for months without pay.

This has demoralised many but Mulongo insisted that it would not make Uganda pull out.

Uganda, he argues, continues to be interested in playing a pivotal role in the geopolitics of the region in the spirit of Pan Africanism and also aims at facilitating regional cooperation. He said that thanks to Uganda’s security efforts, integration and cooperation with parts of DR Congo and Somalia, which are now pacified, is now possible.

Whatever the explanation is, SIPRI’s latest data shows that Uganda is now being outspent on defence by its neighbors.

Last year Uganda spent just US$398million. Kenya spent $933 million, twice as much as Uganda, Tanzania $544 million and DRC $ 469 million.

Kenya has always outspent Uganda on defense but Uganda has always outspent Tanzania and DR Congo.