By John V Sserwaniko
Worrying reports have reached this news website confirming existence of deeply entrenched differences between Uganda’s UN Permanent Representative (PR) Adonia Ayebare and Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa (aka SK) who is supposed to be his supervisor. Impeccable sources have revealed that for some time two antagonistic camps have existed at Foreign Affairs with respective loyalty to the two men. Kutesa loyalists are currently perturbed that, despite heading one of the most pivotal multilateral Missions, Ayebare hasn’t done enough to help shield his boss Kutesa against alleged bribery acts said to have happened when he was President General Assembly (PGA). Some fear that Ayebare, who has always considered himself a threat and rival to Kutesa in terms of relevance to the President, must in fact be excited that SK is for once facing very serious trouble with the Americans to whom Museveni listens more than any other power. Reliable sources say this Kutesa-Ayebare dilemma is one of the most complicated feuds in Museveni’s government since they both have deep connections and powerful backers in Uganda and other centers of power globally yet they always perceive each other with suspicion. Confirming that meetings continue to be held and resources mobilized to effectively counter whatever mischief Ayebare might be up to regarding the bribe allegations, multiple sources told this news website that the row between them started way back when Francis Butagira was Uganda’s Permanent Representative at the UN/New York. Ayebare deputized him at this very busy Mission that is very crucial because of the intensive lobbying and other engagements associated with New York which houses the UN headquarters. A former Speaker in Obote II, Butagira is elderly and would as such be frail and sickly. Museveni expected that the more energetic Deputy (DPR) should be able to back him up for the Mission to deliver to his (M7’s) expectations. This never happened as Ayebare absented himself quite often-sometimes for as long as 3 months. Whereas courtesy would require that he informs Butagira in advance, these would be unauthorized absences from the station. Fearing to let down Museveni because of too much work, Butagira one time reported to Kutesa as their overall supervisor. “This gentleman is always away and I’m told he is doing special assignments from you people in Kampala,” Butagira reportedly told Kutesa who denied being responsible for Ayebare’s absence. Being the strict supervisor he is, never tolerating mediocrity, Kutesa furiously protested to Ayebare and demanded that he explains himself in writing.
AYEBARE TAKES IT PERSONAL:
Ayebare not only took it personal with Butagira for reporting him but also felt that SK was being biased against him in favor of his fellow elder Butagira. In the weeks and months that followed, Ayebare’s friends started spreading rumors that SK was insecure because of the trust the young man Ayebare was gaining with the President who would be giving him those other clandestine assignments especially on the pacification of the Great Lakes region (mostly Sudan, DRC and Burundi). SK started getting reports that Ayebare was actually undermining and bad mouthing him in some high level meetings questioning his sense of judgment as a political leader. What even made matters worse was that Ayebare’s supporters in the diplomatic circles went around bragging that much as SK was foreign affairs minister and considered powerful back home in Uganda; he was lame duck when it comes to supervising Ayebare. Ayebare’s problems, it appears, are way beyond SK because even career diplomats have always envied the fact that he jumped many service ranks to become Ambassador largely because of the trust his pioneer godfathers Amama Mbabazi and James Wapakabulo had in him as an efficient officer when it comes to executing assignments. Reliable sources say that his current deputy (DPR) Philip Odida is among those career diplomats who have never understood and appreciated why Ayebare was fast tracked so much.
THE KIGALI DEBACLE:
Prior to undertaking tour of duty in New York initially as DPR many years ago, Ayebare was posted in Kigali as Ambassador but didn’t serve there long as President Kagame one time protested to Museveni saying “your ambassador here is a very nice person but the problem he is rarely available when we need him.” Diplomatic sources say Museveni took this very seriously and removed Ayebare and replaced him with Richard Kabonero, a career diplomat who Kagame eventually found more likeable than his predecessor. Ironically Kabonero and Ayebare are related through marriage and the former is very close to SK. This too fermented Ayebare’s hatred towards SK thinking it was him who undermined him in favor of Kabonero. Ayebare was then sent to New York deputizing Butagira but as fate would have it, he found himself frequenting the Rwandan capital to allegedly do Museveni’s assignments on Burundi that badly needed pacification. Kabonero supporters, and those of SK, misunderstood him and took this in bad faith. Ayebare was seen as trying to portray Kabonero as inefficient because, being in Kigali, one would ideally expect him (Kabonero) to be the one to oversee Burundi as well. While in NY deputizing Butagira, Ayebare found himself accused of all sorts of things in briefs Butagira would send to the Minister in Kampala. These accusations included sometimes departing from instructions regarding what had to be presented as Uganda’s position on contentious matters during the UN General Assembly sessions. He was also accused of treating the Minister SK disrespectfully by being reluctant to give him briefs on arrival each time he visited New York for UN work. He would always defy the Minister often telling him in the face “but my instructions are different.” He would never explain the source of such contrary instructions creating the impression that the H/E would sometimes sideline the Minister and deal with Ayebare directly. This naturally created bad blood between Ayebare and the Minister. Butagira one time reported an incident to SK to the effect that one time Uganda missed representation during a crucial UNGA session because Ayebare, whose name was in the letter sent to the UN Secretary General profiling Uganda’s delegation for that session, was nowhere to be seen. This infuriated SK very much and made worse an already very complicated situation. This was at a time (late 2000s) Museveni had just instructed SK to make sure Uganda wins a slot on the UN Security Council (UNSC) meaning there was a lot of work that had to be done to deliver to Museveni’s expectations. This explains why Ayebare’s ineptness on that specific matter was perceived as deliberate attempt at humiliating SK and portraying him to Museveni as a failure.
LOSING TO RUGUNDA:
Uganda finally succeeded getting the UNSC slot and Ayebare’s supporters, led by people like Andrew Mwenda, went in overdrive in Kampala lobbying Museveni that it was high time a more energetic younger man like Ayebare replaces Butagira who was clearly on his way out. They even brought in influential US lobbyists whom they considered well trusted by Museveni. The lobbyists told the man from Rwakitura how Uganda’s interests on the UNSC would be best served if Ayebare was elevated to replace Butagira as full Permanent Representative at the UN. Mwenda even wrote pieces in his then very influential Independent magazine making the case for his old friend and professional colleague Adonia Ayebare. However, Museveni surprised everybody when he bypassed Ayebare and went for Ruhakana Rugunda. Ill-fated Ayebare couldn’t even stay in New York as Deputy (DPR). He was instead contacted by SK, the man he greatly resented, ordering him to move to Addis Ababa which is another multilateral Mission that Museveni values very much besides New York. Ayebare became very bitter and his supporters started to openly criticize the President for conniving with SK to sacrifice the younger man’s professional career in favor of fellow old men like Rugunda. Efforts were made to get Rugunda include Ayebare as a consultant in his delegation for the time he served on the UNSC but Ndugu refused saying he didn’t want to offend SK who was his Minister and boss regarding this UN assignment. In the UNSC assignment, Rugunda was deputized by the much despised Patrick Mugoya (now MOFA PS) who was backed by SK, to the great chagrin of Ayebare and his supporters who told a lot to the President regarding Mugoya’s unsuitability. Ayebare’s lobbyists tried to lobby Museveni to send him to Washington arguing he would do much better than Edith Sempala who was there at that time. “The President doesn’t like such things; sending US lobbyists to go push him around. It makes him think this man being marketed would serve foreign interests and Ugandan ones would be secondary,” said one of the knowledgeable diplomatic sources we spoke to for this article. Ayebare became more frustrated and Amama Mbabazi, who was still very powerful, advised him to take it easy arguing that being sent to Addis wasn’t a demotion as such. In the end, Ayebare never went to Addis, a thing that made SK feel very much disrespected. Instead Ayebare took up a job for two years with the International Peace Institute (IPI) still based in New York City. He kept telling friends “I’m leaving IPI because while there I’m not feeling challenged enough.” But there was also a story that was published by Daily Monitor when SK was PGA (President of the General Assembly) fallaciously showing there was a lot of nepotism and favoritism in the staff SK was maintaining in NY as PGA. It showed that SK’s squad was full of relatives, friends and cronies from Sembabule. It turned out untrue as John Mugerwa (young brother to Herman Sentongo) was the only one from Sembabule and served as Deputy Chief of Staff for SK. Inaccurate as the story was, SK’s supporters put the blame on the Ayebare camp trying to get back to their man.
RETURNS TO NY:
Somehow Ayebare, whose lobbyists and supporters have always had Museveni’s ear, despite strong opposition from SK, got back to New York as DPR (Deputy Permanent Representative). Rugunda and Mugoya had by now finished their tour of duty and returned to Uganda. Ayebare was for sometime DPR without a boss making him hold the position in the capacity of charge d’affaires ad interim (means the deputy heads the Mission as the boss’ post remains vacant). After sometime, former Minister Richard Nduhura was sent in as the PR, a thing that greatly angered Ayebare’s supporters who believed it was now a done deal. Many of them cursed SK for stampeding the much less suited Nduhura onto Museveni making him overlook Ayebare. For some time, Nduhura had it rough as Ayebare’s supporters felt he was here to fight SK’s proxy wars. Each time SK complained as to why Ayebare was talking ill of him in official foras (sometimes contradicting his earlier stated positions), Ayebare’s supporters accused Nduhura of being the one feeding SK on “false reports.” Eventually Ayebare’s dream came to pass (as recent as last year) when he was made full Permanent Representative with the much disgraced Kintu Nyago temporarily staying as his deputy. Reliable sources say that, fearing to be antagonized, SK fought tooth and nail to frustrate this but Museveni ignored him and went for Ayebare, a thing that renewed debate in the MOFA circles as to why Museveni always overlooks SK’s advice and goes for political appointees as opposed to career diplomats. Notwithstanding the efficiency with which he has performed the UN Permanent Representative (PR) job so far, the fact remains that Ayebare was appointed politically as opposed to being a career diplomat-and this was because of the existent to which Mbabazi and Wapa appreciated his prowess. Reliable State House sources say SK’s candidate for NY was Mull Katende who at that time was Uganda’s Ambassador to the multilateral Mission of Addis Ababa (AU business). “On losing the bid to block Ayebare’s rise to PR in New York, SK put forward his best lobbying skills to ensure his man Mull Katende was posted in Washington to counterbalance the clout Ayebare was expected to assume in New York,” said a knowledgeable source close to the President adding that without Katende holding forte in Washington (to counter Ayebare’s alleged hostile activities in NY), SK would by now be history given the magnitude of the bribery allegations. “Katende is these days more restless than before lobbying all the guys who matter in Washington to ensure that the SK bribery allegations don’t escalate to turn him [SK] into a lame duck minister that Ayebare’s supporters are working day and night to turn him into,” said a source adding that gratefully Museveni trusts Katende and believes in his capabilities. We are reliably informed that as SK works up the phone contacting and lobbying whoever he can in Washington, friendly businesspersons (led by Amina Hersi Moghe) are doing their best to raise all the resources it requires for Katende to do his job. They are also mobilizing in whatever way they can to ensure that Parliament doesn’t revisit the matter. One of our sources also disclosed to us why both Museveni and SK trust elderly Mull Katende (Ambassador since 1970s): “He is the man who helped Museveni to diffuse tensions and make peace with Bashir. It was a very serious conflict since the two countries were for decades engaged in proxy wars but Katende was posted to Khartoum as an Ambassador twice and the H/E believes he did a good job.” In fact the same source adds that “Katende had begged to retire after tour of duty in Addis but the H/E and Kutesa begged him to stay on and help re-organize Washington which had gone to the dogs and become a problem Mission during Oliver Woneka’s time as Ambassador there.”
NOT VERY SUBMISSIVE:
We are told that Ayebare, who was first recruited in the Foreign Service by James Wapakabulo and his Deputy Amama Mbabazi in the late 1990s, has always been a difficult guy to supervise. “He takes himself to be a super diplomat who is superior to everybody and his biggest problem is this bullish attitude that I’m only answerable to the President,” a knowledgeable source told Mulengera news website. In the late 1990s, Uganda faced deep problems with its neighbor DRC, a country that was mired in long running conflict. As a seasoned journalist with Monitor (having previously worked with Weekly Topic), Adonia Ayebare extensively covered the Great Lakes region and became an authority. This is something for which both Mbabazi and Wapa admired him. The duo worked with him on a couple of assignments using his journalistic skills and connections and he turned out very helpful in the service of his country Uganda. “Each time we get a challenge we call on him to help us. I think its high time we regularize things and take on to become our staff in Foreign Affairs because that will be cheaper,” sources quoted Mbabazi as telling Wapa who instantly accepted the proposal. Because of the nature of the high level missions and assignments he would do for the political leadership in Kampala, Adonia Ayebare continued reporting directly to the President through the duo and even when he was regularized into the service he insisted to be supervised that way. He resisted calls on him to adjust and accept his new supervisors to whom he would be reporting as opposing to reaching Museveni, Wapa or JPAM directly. Because of their political background, all the subsequent ministers (Otafiire, Isaac Musumba & Tom Butiime) allowed things to continue that way creating an impression that Adonia Ayebare was a super diplomat and not ordinary like the rest of the colleagues including those way more senior than him.
DEMANDS NEW YORK:
On being regularized, Adonia Ayebare repeatedly demanded to be posted in New York (UN) where we have one of our most important multilateral missions as a country. His supervisors reluctantly posted him there as 3rd Secretary and Semakula Kiwanuka was his boss there. The two equally have inflated ego and had very belligerent relationship. Semakula Kiwanuka always protested Adonia Ayebare’s unauthorized absence sometimes lasting for as long as 3 months. This greatly hurt work. Each time Semakula Kiwanuka raised questions he would instantly be told “Adonia is away doing the president’s confidential assignments back home in the Great Lakes region.” This greatly irked Kiwanuka, the old history professor renowned for his flamboyant character. Each time Kiwanuka wondered why the 3rd Secretary is always absent from the mission, he would be told “those other guys the staff members are too fake to fit Adonia’s standards; that is why he doesn’t find company with them.” To comment on this and other Mulengera news stories, call/text us on 0703164755
