By Mulengera Reporters
Former President Idi Amin’s very outspoken son Hussein Lumumba has castigated old man Moses Ali arguing that the Deputy Premier didn’t use his seniority and decades’ long experience to guide debate recently as MPs considered mismanagement of properties falling under Custodian Board.
Lumumba says there is a lot many in Parliament and the country don’t know regarding the circumstances under which his father acted while expelling Asians as part of his dramatic economic war in 1972. He says as someone who was an influential Minister in the Amin government, Moses Ali was duty-bound to use that session to disclose clarificational information to the legislature.
Lumumba says, for instance, whereas many condemn his father for the negative impact the economy suffered as a result of the expulsion, the late President was a hero ought to be saluted even when he died long time ago. He says the expulsion was a decision the EAC Summit reached in 1968, four years before Amin became President via the 1971 coup.
He says whereas Nyerere and Kenyatta immediately implemented the EAC Summit resolution by expelling the very exploitative Asians, Obote opportunistically reneged on the commitment and preferred to oust Asians in a phased manner.
Lumumba says Obote’s ill-fated approached created immense economic problems which Amin inherited. In fact, he says the economic problems justifying Amin’s coup in 1971 were as a result of Obote’s slow-witted approach on Asians. That on being notified they had to gradually leave; Asians resorted to economic sabotage whereby they sat in shops selling out things without restocking yet all the money would be repatriated abroad.
He says the British brought the Asians in the first place to consolidate the colonial economy to total exclusion of natives. That on the eve of the 1972 expulsion, Amin paid Asians compensation through the British government and that only those who opted to stay and take up Ugandan citizenship missed that compensation. He gives Mukwano as an example of those who chose to stay.
He hopes the Munyagwa inquiry will shine a torch of scrutiny on the fraud the British Asians committed on Amin and the subsequent Ugandan governments. Lumumba says since they were adequately compensated by his father, the Asians don’t merit any other compensation or even repossession of the properties as was the case in the early 1980s. in fact, he disputes the need to have the Departed Asians Custodian Board. He says these are Ugandan and not Asian properties because they were compensated.
Lumumba, whose experience could vastly enrich the Parliamentary inquiry should Munyagwa call upon him to testify, is hopeful a lot of hitherto hidden dirt around this issue will be subjected to scrutiny.
Commenting on one of the Parliamentary whatsapp forums where Lumumba’s missive was being debated, Kampala Minister Beti Kamya (no doubt one of the intellectual and very insightful Museveni ministers) commended Lumumba for the courage to especially expose the British fraud.
This is how Kamya made her point: “We need this story authenticated. We need to know how much money President Amin actually paid to the British government to pass on to the departing Asians. How it was sent and what happened to it thereafter? Thank you Lumumba for reopening this box.” (For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).
