By Semakula Kiwanuka<\/p>\n
The writer is the Minister of State for Investment<\/p>\n
THE Weekly Observer of September 27 carried an article about Olara Otunnu in which he declared that, “NRM can’t take away my citizenship.” He said the NRM had stripped him of his citizenship. In two very long interviews (Weekly Observer, September 22 and 27), Otunnu ranted against President Museveni and spared no dirty epithet in his verbal arsenal.<\/p>\n
As regards his citizenship, here is the truth. From 1996 to 2003, I was Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Uganda to the UN in New York. The then Secretary General, Boutros Boutros Ghali, sought a second term but two big powers were against him though he did not pull out of the race. The new aspirants included Olara Otunnu and Kofi Annan, a Ghanaian who was then the UN Undersecretary General for Peace Keeping Operations. There was Mr. Essay, a Minister in the Ivory Cost government.<\/p>\n
By this time, Otunnu was already masquerading as an Ivorian. But that country preferred to support an authentic son and not Otunnu whose search for their citizenship was obviously bogus. It was clear then that Otunnu had renounced his Ugandan citizenship. Without a country to back him, and despite a spirited campaign by some newspapers in New York and his many claims such as that he was at Oxford with Tony Blair, Otunnu did not win.<\/p>\n
After Kofi Annan had been elected Secretary General, Otunnu was appointed to a number of high-level positions within the UN System. The last was Undersecretary General for Children. In a press release from the UN Secretariat, Otunnu was at first described as a citizen of Uganda. But to our consternation, that press release was immediately withdrawn, obviously at the directive of Otunnu. A new press release described him as a citizen of the Ivory Coast.<\/p>\n
Otunnu should therefore deceive no one that President Museveni or the NRM took away his citizenship. He voluntarily renounced Ugandan citizenship. He now realises that it has not benefited him.<\/p>\n