By JULIUS BARIGABA

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Uganda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has backed a move by retired diplomats who have stepped forward to fix the country’s diplomacy, advise on foreign policy engagements and negotiations, at a time when Kampala’s image has hit a low among western powers due to recent laws and policies that the East African nation has enacted, which are seen as anti-progressive and by human rights activists.

Retired Foreign Service officers told The EastAfrican that Uganda risks playing into the frame that western powers have attached to the country, and whether real or assumed, it could be used to deny Uganda aid to support infrastructure, development projects and social services, but also impact new investments and tourism.

The diplomats cite the Japanese-funded multimillion dollar infrastructure projects in Uganda – the $200 million Kampala Flyover Project, several city roads and the $100 million soft loan for the Nile Bridge in Jinja – among the deals former ambassadors wrested from relations that had collapsed.

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“I was sent to Japan to mend relations that had collapsed after Tokyo mistakenly felt that Uganda had shunned its quest to lobby other nations to support Japanese national to head Unesco,” says James Baba, Uganda’s former ambassador to Japan, and now a legislator.

In 1999, Japan sent a high powered delegation of state officials and cabinet ministers to Kampala to meet President Yoweri Museveni and lobby his government’s support for Japanese national Koïchiro Matsuura to become director-general of Unesco.

However, the appointment with the Ugandan leader fell through and the Japanese delegation returned home without the assurance of Uganda’s vote for their candidate.

Thereafter, Tokyo wrote to Uganda’s then Foreign Affairs Minister Eriya Kategaya to prepare to close the mission in Japan, prompting Kampala to dispatch Ambassador Baba in 2001 to negotiate and salvage Uganda’s image in the Far East Asian nation.

“By the time I got there, there was imminent closure of the embassy of Japan on the grounds that our president’s failure to meet their delegation showed we did not value them,” Ambassador Baba told The EastAfrican.

“I explained all this with the dexterity of a diplomat, and relations, which were on the verge of collapse were restored due to their perception of our government," says Ambassador Baba.

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Diplomatic sources reveal that Japan moved to close Uganda’s mission in Tokyo after its delegation felt slighted by President Museveni’s failure to meet them, which they also interpreted as no support their candidate. However, Kampala voted for the Japanese national, who went on to become head of Unesco.

“I explained all this with the dexterity of a diplomat, and relations, which were on the verge of collapse due to their perception of our government, were restored,” says Ambassador Baba.

“That’s when I started to negotiate for all these five-year development projects cycles. A diplomat’s job is to open ways, build bridges and get rid of roadblocks. That’s what I did until I came back.”

Uganda’s former Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Mull Katende, also corroborates this, saying his colleague turned around Uganda’s image in Tokyo and “negotiated all these infrastructure developments you see in Uganda including the soon to be commissioned Kampala Flyover project.”

Last week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Vincent Bagiire presided at the launch of the Association of Uganda Retired Foreign Service Officers (AURFSO), noting that the association will become the ministry’s knowledge base.

“This association is valuable to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Uganda is one of only few countries without a Foreign Service institute. I want to say that you shall be that institute, to help us in breeding a new crop of Foreign Service officers,” said Mr Bagiire.

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But former diplomats argue that under President Museveni, Uganda’s foreign policy has become fused with the president’s office and his own outlook to resolving disagreements between countries, a departure from all previous regimes, including that of dictator Idi Amin which favoured and nurtured diplomacy.

For instance, Uganda currently deploys politicians as ambassadors, while President Museveni favours military Generals and relatives as special envoys who are not schooled in diplomacy, to handle foreign policy assignments, negotiate complex international relations matters and run diplomatic missions.

In early 2022, First Son Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba became the face of the rapprochement efforts between Uganda and Rwanda after three years of a diplomatic spat that saw Kigali close the border, which left career diplomats and Foreign Service officers asking questions.

Last week, President Museveni dispatched his son-in-law Odrek Rwabwogo to Washington DC, to meet the Biden administration officials and negotiate the lifting of Uganda’s suspension from the US trade regime Agoa, which after Uganda passed the controversial anti-homosexuality law this year.

Only one of Uganda’s current 37 embassies and permanent missions is run by a career diplomat while all the others are political appointees, who would require initial diplomatic training before they take up their stations.

“I think the [ruling party] NRM has not given diplomacy the top priority it deserves,” says retired Ambassador Bernadette Olowo-Freers, who was the first-ever female diplomat accredited to the Vatican where she was posted in 1973 by Idi Amin.

She adds: “We realise that we don’t have a school of diplomacy, so that’s a gap we can fill. It’s not easy to fit if you a diplomat and haven’t studied diplomacy. Amin preserved diplomacy training and then it collapsed. You need that training and those skills to negotiate for your country.”