A Breakdown: Oil Exploitation, which is so taxing… why are the deals confidential?

Today, the Government of Tanzania have together with the Government of Uganda signed off to a Host Government Agreement (HGA), also together with Total, the supposed builder of the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).

Today, all the years of waiting, stalling and finding measures of taxes pays-off. We can still wonder what is basic fee structure and what is the price of taxation of the extraction of oil exploitation in the Lake Albertine basin. In the same regard, we can wonder is the specific route for the pipeline and what consequences it will have to nature, reserves and national parks. Because, the drill itself is just in the near proximity of Murchinson Fall National Park. Before it will continue or pass through other untouched areas of both Uganda and Tanzania.

There is still not answers or openness about the deals in the regards to the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) and the Tanzania National Oil Company (TNOC), in combination to the ownership and licences of China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) and Total. Therefore, there are plenty of stakeholders and everyone wants to profit on the resources.

With both Republics signing of the HGA agreement and preparing for the Final Investment Decision (FID). The building of the pipeline and the industry can start off. This has also been stopped by taxation and the questionable acquisitions of exploitation licences in Lake Albert. Therefore, the whole Heritage and Tullow taxation case and the costs it had for Total to pay off that. Is still not shown to the public or if the Government of Uganda has forgiven the past company to give way. While Tullow surely wanted profits for their time and the valuable licences they had gotten rights too in earlier rounds.

What is also worrying to me? Well, the deals are not public. The agreements between the Corporations and the Republics are practically unknown and only mere fragments is out. Just like the power-sharing of 60% to Tanzania and 40% to Uganda. Is still not saying much, considering this will be still carved up by Total and CNOOC too, also some sort of deal with UNOC and TNOC. These will not operate on charity, but as a benefactor of the Republic itself.

The public should know this, because it is public resources, state resources and oil exploitation on public land. The companies are using licences and also the same licenses to transport the crude oil in the pipeline from Lake Albert to Port Tanga. Therefore, it is needed to get this knowledge to show the price, the agreements and the possible perks. Because, we don’t if they even have strings or not.

We should wonder why its confidential and kept a secret. The companies should also be displeased, unless they like to exploit without any transparency. Because, these deals and arrangements haven’t been made transparent or with accountability. It has been done in the chambers of Entebbe and in Tanzania. The general public will only see a fraction and not know the full extent.

That is a deliberate action by Presidents and their handlers. The UNOC, TNOC, Total and CNOOC can operate without to much scrutiny and just enjoy the cheers. There is a need to know, but don’t expect it. Since, the GoU and GoT haven’t delivered this in past, neither has the GoU showed anything from the previous deals with Heritage/Tullow. Why should they suddenly change of heart?

I don’t think so… unless there is a sudden miracle. If not … if there is a shady deal and one company feels used and will take it to an international court. Then, we will see some evidence of what went down. However, until then… we only know the bits and pieces. Peace.

A Breakdown: Oil Exploitation, which is so taxing… can start if Tanzania signs a deal too..

Last year in September 2019, the Farm Down Agreement of Tullow Oil was supposed to be traded to Total E&P Uganda. This was a long and prolonged negotiations, as the British Tullow Oil has been in dispute of taxation and payments of fees the Government of Uganda, which was deemed as the “Presidential Handshake”.

What happen yesterday with the Financial Investment Decisions (FID) of Total, as it has taken over the stakes of Tullow Oil. While agreeing on added terms in combination with the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) to drill after petroleum in various of blocks on Lake Albert, also build the petroleum pipeline from Hoima to Port Tanga, Tanzania.

The Port Tanga and Pipeline agreement was sealed in 2017 between the Government of Uganda (GoU) and Government of Tanzania (GoT). That after lots of meetings and consultations between the parties. There was some who even tried to get it Port Lamu in Kenya, but that was ditched. Also, causing a rift between Dodoma and Nairobi.

Now, the next step is that Total and CNOOC is able to get a Host Government Agreement (HGA) for the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project. That was agreed by the parties in Entebbe for the territory of Uganda, but it is not sealed with Tanzania.

Though it should be in the interest to sign an agreement with President Magufuli and the CCM. Now, that they have fixed the first part and the licences to drill on Lake Albert. Total and CNOOC needs the HGA in Tanzania too. That will be beneficial for the Republic there too.

This has been a long time… the first reports of agreements and production licenses to blocks on Lake Albert in early 2000s. This was agreements being made between the government and the Tullow/Heritage and ENI as well. Which later has caused rift between the companies and the Republic, as the Oil Companies wasn’t willing to pay taxes and the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) needed to win a Court Case in 2014 to get taxes owned paid by Tullow, as they had to cover the loss of taxes from their acquisition of Heritage Oil.

So, the news today is big. Maybe, the President got another Presidential Handshake, as the Tullow Oil Taxes case brought a lot of kickbacks. The deals sealed between Museveni and Total is a secret. Therefore, only the agreement of what it does is in public, but not the costs, the tax-grade and the limitations of it. Total and CNOOC can have gotten it for cheap for all we know.

That is something for the time to tell. Now, the Lake Albert Basin, the Lake Albert Blocks for drilling is sealed, which has been in question and awaited a verdict for years. The same has the years of a agreement for a company to build the pipeline and pay the rates for having the operation going.

Now, there is one final agreement that needs to be sealed in Tanzania. By all means, the Republic’s needs also to settle the routes, the land-acquisitions and other arrangements too. While the other HGA is necessary to get started. As the process is now moving. The initial agreements are made, but the companies still needs goodwill elsewhere to make this pop-off. This will be years in the making. As the state of Uganda is scheduling a Oil Refinery in 2023, but that depends on everything else goes as planned at this point.

And in this business, at this point, everything that can be stalled and discontinued can happen. Even, if one of the companies stops seeing the financial viability and lack of profits. Than, they might suspend and try to sell the Producing Licenses Agreement to someone else again.

I wouldn’t be shocked, if Total bails out or something. There been so many companies involved and we are still not starting production. This being in the works since the early 2000s with the modern day deals and new arrangement for petroleum activity in the Lake Albert basin. That is why I am reluctant. Because, at any given moment, someone gives way and it sto

Opinion: Museveni, Meal-Ticket Politicians is your “invention” …

Politics is working for the people, to get them out of poverty and solve their problems, not to escape poverty for your own self” – President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni (10.09.2020)

That someone who has rebuilt and remade the political system, the one who has made the new constitution and signed off laws, which has commercialized politics. This being the price of party nominations and the price to pay for nomination forms to the Electoral Commission. Together with the hefty salaries, allowances and perks in-office. The ability to spend the fortunes comes with the opportunities of getting in office after paying back the fees to stand as a flag-bearer.

The National Resistance Movement (NRM) and all their leaders have made this system. Ever since the Constitution of 1995 and the laws for elections that has been made with deliberate action. The NRM knows this and the President knows this too.

That’s why his a bit delusional when he says this:

The main reason why people are fighting hard to go to Parliament is because MPs increased their salary. They earn more than scientists and many other important people to our country. I tried telling them not to do it but they insisted. Now, people want to leave their other work to go to Parliament and earn much. Yet, their motivation should be to serve their people rather than earn from Parliament” (Museveni, 10.09.2020).

Because, the President knows about the rise of salaries and allowances within the Parliament and for the Representatives. The NRM have promoted this and made it more profitable to become an MP. They are getting suits, cars, salaries and allowances, which are really making people millionaires over night.

The President knows this very well. Museveni have made this all happen. While endorsing it and knowingly that the cronies have gotten the wealth. The men loyal to him would get a pay-off and kick-backs from the state. That is why the ideal to run for office isn’t all about the representation, but getting rich. This is not strange, as the MPs and candidates has to spend massive amount of money to able to get in office. That has to later be repaid … and therefore, the knowledge of the costs and the needs to get covered after the campaigns.

So, initially the President is saying the rights things, but his actions has made this system. That is why I am not so forgiving. He has promoted and built this regime. That has all benefited him and his associates. If it wasn’t so, this wouldn’t be like this. The whole system and policies have been enacted within the reach of this Presidency. This wasn’t relics of previous regimes, but his own.

President Museveni can be right, but is terribly wrong at the same time. If he was against it. Why didn’t he act upon it? Well, he wants loyal allies and the easiest way is to pay them off, instead of giving them credit. The President, if he didn’t want this to become like this. He wouldn’t have supported, helped and built the system up this way.

That’s why these statements made by him is hypocrisy… however, that is his M.O. these days. Sounds correct, but acts a fool. Hoping nobody catches his game. Peace.

NRM Primaries: Mzee’s defence is surreal… Part II

Yesterday, the first defence of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) Primary Elections of 2020 came out. Today, the second edition came out. Now, he has to drop the skulls of the Luweero Triangle to warn people standing in his way. Even if the whole NRM is filled with his vision and his party culture. If it is like it is, it’s because the man has created this monster and he runs it. This is what his liberation party have become too. As the power corrupts and destroys. It even does it to its own.

He defends the lining behind candidates for stopping election rigging, however that hasn’t been the case. The President continues with the village scenario, even if the cattle corridor with the men of power and close association with you are the ones behind the worst violence. You don’t name-drop them, and the open bribery of the big-men. They are not looked after, but only for political brownie-points.

That is why you wrote this:

However, I want, for now, to repeat a few points. By going back to lining behind candidates, the NRM laid a good trap for the cheaters (the riggers). The voting is done and concluded in each village and the scores are witnessed by hundreds of People. It is shallow criminality to think that you can enter false numbers on a piece of paper known as DR form and that that will give you the flag. You will end in prison for forgery and subversion instead of Parliament. An audit of village by village will expose you. The villages have not shifted. They are still there. Even if you bribe the agents of the victim candidate to tell lies, the People who voted are there. They will bring out the facts” (Museveni, 08.09.2020).

The NRM knows this and the President knows this. It wasn’t a trap, it wasn’t a trick, but a cheap way of using old methods of voting. As the school-yard picking captain for a team is the way your picking leaders, lawmakers and MPs. That shows how the lack of secret ballots and voting. Because, the art-of-peer pressure is the thing of the 2020 apparently.

In the age of social distancing, the President calls this a trap for cheaters. They could all stand in line, but the numbers could still be rigged. Who knows how many who stood in line at any given time? There is no proof? Only talk and rumours after the fact? If the ones counting them switched the amount and even miscounted.

That is why its really rich to defend it like that. Use these means… and being proud of re-using methods that the NRM was supposed to stop and ensure more credible elections. Alas, the NRM uses the means of the parties, which it was supposed liberate from. The rigging, bribery and untrustworthy elections is the reason for the existence of the NRA/NRM and the loss of lives in the Luweero Triangle. However, these lives are now used to defend the same tactics and same means as the ones he opposed back-in-the-day.

That is why this defence script part II is surreal. He is defending the same reasons for what brought him to the bush. He is running similar operation to the ones he went to war for. That is why the grievances within his party is even more richer. The use of all means to get ahead. The mentality and the party culture cultivated by this man. The man who was supposed to bring a fundamental change.

That change is apparently more of the same. The same greed, the same addiction of power and misuse of it.

The President can promise the right things, say the right things, but as long as he promotes the wrong ones. It doesn’t make it true or make sense. If he didn’t use these means himself and techniques, he wouldn’t be ahead himself. He isn’t in office because of love, but for the power of the gun. Peace.

Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC): Court Appeal Judgement Overtaken by Events (08.09.2020)

OTT Madness Part II: A Crackdown on Online Publications…

Yesterday, the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) issued a statement that they would need to obtain persons who are operating online and publishing content online. That is not only blogs, but video and media in general. This is if you are on social media or just a blogger. Everyone in the Republic must be authorized and registered as such to be regulated by the UCC.

This is happening in the short span of the Over-The-Top Taxes, the Social Media Tax, the 200 shillings of doom. The state continues their crackdown and wanting to monitor and control the publications, the content online. This is a deliberate effort to know about who is behind the online media and who is posting online content.

That is happening, while the state combined with their institutions are gearing up for a “Scientific” election in 2021. As the campaigns, the electorate and the political operatives must use either online outlets or print media. If not broadcasting either on-air og on television.

So, it’s not shocking that the UCC does this. Just like it did the Sim-Registration drive as well. They are suddenly acting swift in the name of the authorities to ensure they can have access and control of a certain part of the public space.

It is just interesting that they need this now. Just as the Electoral Commission and everyone else is gearing up for the various of flag-bearers and candidates. That they need to access these places, knowing about the news publications on Facebook, the ones dropping teasers on Instagram and the verified accounts on Twitter. Because, that is suddenly important now. So, they can deem your ass fit or not.

They will likely try to crash down on the media houses, the outlets and the publications who are deliberately spreading bad news for the regime. The ones who like TVO style and hurt the pride of Muhoozi and Bosco. That is just life, I suppose and how narrow minded the regime is at this point.

The OTT Tax and Social Media Tax is just a proof of how far the state will go. That is already limiting the space online and the amount of content. With this, the people will be even more limited and the ones who has their own platforms and uses it. Has to register and maybe will be revoked. Even if they have paid a third-party, have agreements and payment-plans for their operations. Still, the UCC can and will stop you from doing so.

The state has pushed for digital and online campaigns, but these sorts of actions speaks another tone. Seemingly, the only one allowed in the end is the “NRM Friendly Press” and “Associates of the Online Brigade”. The NRM SOMA and outreaches of Uganda Media Centre are allowed to operate, the ones like Ashburg and other content creators. While the rest are blocked or lost their privileges by the state. I don’t believe the UCC does this to be kind and keep a registry for “fun”. No, this is not that sort of business and the UCC isn’t a friendly uncle, but a tool for limiting the freedom of expression.

The ones who differs, be your guest, but don’t be shocked if someone loses their livelihoods and their platform. Because, they are voices of dissidents and the opposition. The ones who dares to speak against the President and his Party. They are all under fire by this. The NRM operatives will move along and get even more space. However, the others will be in trouble…

This is a crackdown; we just don’t know to what extent. The UCC will claim and say otherwise, but we all know the drill. Peace.

 

NRM Primaries: Mzee’s defence is surreal…

After the National Resistance Movement (NRM) Primaries was held recently. The President has celebrated the results and he winners. Alas, his been silent and looking over the ones rigging, fixing and bribing themselves to a position in the General Election in 2021. However, that is steady progress in the eyes of NRM.

That the President now promises less violence, rigging and issues within the Primaries is what he does. He condemns on the one hand, but he grows the impunity with the other. He speaks of peace, but sponsors war. That is the sort of fella the President is. It is just like he doesn’t think people knows.

That is why I won’t dwell on the history lesson or his contextualization of the Primaries. As he wants to bring history into the game. While not looking into how his NRA Historicals, the entitlement and the rich NRM high ranking officials and their families who are causing rift. The NRM knows this… the violence and the rigging is made by the ones who are close associated or been high ranking officials. Not just random blokes from the suburbs of Kampala or hooligans from the border towns. No, its been people with money and power. Still, the man never addressed that. Because, that get to close to home.

That’s why I only take this paragraph from his piece of defence of the NRM Primaries:

The NRM elections are village based. They should begin in the village and end in the village. Once the counting is done in the village, the elections are over. The rest is adding. It will, therefore, not help anybody to mis–add because the original village generated numbers are there and the People who are aware of these numbers are many. Any other shallow schemes like moving voters on Lorries from village to village are easy to unearth. Those are all crimes for which the perpetrators will be answerable criminally. This, therefore, maybe the tail end of cheating in the NRM. Even the victims of these schemes should be steady. Just get facts from your village agents (truthful facts); the crooks are wasting their time and ours” (Museveni, 07.09.2020).

Therefore, it is easy defence of the man. He wants to make some men criminalized, but not mention the ones who are behind it all. Because, they didn’t do this election rigging and election violence in a vacuum, but in a fashion that the President knows.

He can act like he can solve all this and resolve the matter easily. Come with some new solutions to iron the things out. However, the reasons why the NRM Primaries are the way they are… is both because of the commercialization of the position and the “winner takes all and eats all”. They are making it a “do or die”.

When you have made system where the victory means so much. As the NRM controls the state, the Electoral Commission and society in general. The NRM knows this and the ones running for knows this too. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t spend, risk and act like they do.

That the President tries to deflect and use this rhetoric isn’t shocking He needs to prove progress, but also say he condemns certain aspects. The NRM is in the image of the President and the way he has envisioned it. They are following him and he cannot run away from it. Even if he tries like he did today. The NRM Primaries wouldn’t be like this, if the big-men and the ones in power wouldn’t benefit from it.

That is just the mere reality. If you didn’t need to bang for you bucks, you wouldn’t bang at all. You would just continue … Museveni knows this, but instead trying to move the goal-post. Instead of fixing the party culture, which he has cultivated and now trying to stop. This a party who is mirrored through him and he cannot deflect that. Even if he tries.

We know, he knows and here we are. The NRM stays the NRM. Peace.

Opinion: Bobi Wine retaliated with swagger against Mzee [and I will look into ‘Point 3. We Kill Our Supporters in Order to Blame Government’]

Today, Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine dropped an articulated response. A 7 point piece not only defending himself, but addressing the matters of responses to the blogging and retorts made by the President. Which has been directed both at fellow cadre Francis Zaake, but also on hot topics. Which I have addressed on my page.

I will today look on a ridiculous claim by the President, which Bobi Wine addresses with sense. He retorts in a manner more people should do. He is going straight to the heart. Not sure, the President is used to this. He should be though, because with age and his history lessons. The man should know that everyone isn’t eating of his hands anymore. Only his paid-off cronies and token friends are doing so. The rest fears the army and the law enforcement. They don’t want to be violated for being civilians and possible dissidents.

So, I will take the vital pieces of the Point 3 from Bobi Wine’s piece and then discuss it underneath. Something I have done several of times with Mzee and now it’s Bobi Wine’s turn.

There are always low moments in every politician’s career, but it is regrettable that the man who presides over our country has no limits on how low he can descend. I wonder how you sleep soundly at night! I wonder how you can extra-judicially kill our people, and then turn up with a straight face blaming their death on the glorious forces of change” (Bobi Wine, 06.09.2020).

This is really showing no remorse and he shouldn’t either. The way he address it is really unleashing a disgust, as the liberator turned tormentor is using the death of oppositions as a tool and dancing on their graves. The President continues to claim he came with fundamental change, but the pattern of actions from the government isn’t so. The government still kill civilians without consequences and this from a government that was supposed to liberate from similar past governments. This is why the usage of them in the manner the President is disgusting and horrific. Instead of getting justice for their lives, he betrays them even in their deaths. Because that saves his cause, which is to stay in power.

Now General Museveni is telling the nation that we have killed all these people in order to put the blame on his regime of blood and national shame! We are told by scripture that God does not sleep nor slumber. The blood of these innocent brothers and sisters cries from the ground. One day, they will get justice. When your friend Omar el-Bashir was butchering the people of Darfur, (the very same way you butchered our people in Northern Uganda, Kasese, etc), he thought of himself as all powerful and invincible. Today, he must be wondering what went wrong. The arm of justice may take so long, but it eventually catches up with those who commit atrocities and think of themselves as too wise and highly exalted. To draw the parallels for your ease of reference, only in April 2015, Omar el-Bashir had organized a sham election, in which his own version of Byabakama awarded him a sweeping 94.05% of the vote. Today, he is in a cold cage, perhaps wishing he had read the signs. I don’t want to remind you of your other friends Gaddafi, Mubarak, Mugabe, Campoare and the rest. Rest assured, you will end up on the dustbin of history, like all those who came before you. The tragedy is that no dictator ever learns from the fate of the other!” (Bobi Wine, 06.09.2020).

This here is a stern warning, a warning that Bobi Wine will say in vein. A person and a ego like Museveni will not listen to him. People warned that he would be a President for Life before the abolishment of Term Limits. Still, the man promised to retire. This man only listens to himself. Even if the warning is poignant and justified. Bobi Wine speaks the voice of the ones the hurt, killed and detained for the cause. He really does here and also shows what has happen to others who has reigned like Museveni did. Their legacy, their reign and their power, when it ends. All their glory, all their bullets and everything will be lost.

Yes, in the moment of power, in the hour of strength, a man like Bobi Wine isn’t dangerous for a man like Museveni. However, when the pendulum turns. The time is up and someone’s else’s turn. Then Museveni has to pray for mercy for his ills. The actions made and the enemies created. He has to beg them for salvation and mercy from his fate. He put through punishment, atrocities and misuse of power. That is all ills he needs to answer for.

That Museveni doesn’t learn from that. Only shows how the power corrupt. This man knows, he knew the ills of the continent and the problems of Africa. Still, he repeats them, uses them and trust upon the same thing towards the ones he is proud to have overthrown like Mobutu and Habyarimana.

Museveni knows all of this, but still uses this rhetoric against People Power and the National Unity Platform. That is the sort of man Museveni. A man who knows, but ignores this knowledge. Because, it isn’t beneficial and keeps him in power. Also, enrich his family and his associates. Bobi Wine is speaking the truth, but it will only be heard by the choir. It will not be approved by the men and woman who needs it the most. The ones who is eating of the plate of the President. Peace.

Opinion: Beatrice Anywar is a lesson on how unforgiving politics can be…

Any minute there is an opportunity, I will go to President Museveni with no regret. He is a great leader because he is tolerant. He is able to listen to some of us,”Beatrice Anywar (December 2017).

At one point in her career. What is sad is that Beatrice Anywar was respected, honoured and feared. She was seen as a person of moral and resilience. A person who would stand up against oppression and for just causes. That was why she was nicknamed “Mama Mabira”, as she fought against illegal landgrabbing of Mabira Forest and using it for sugar-cane plantations.

Alas, that is years ago. Ahead of 2016 her ugly side was shown. As she walked around with Amama Mbabazi and his Go Forward. While, she was still contesting in the Forum for Democratic Change for Kitgum Municipality MP seat. This was after she had nominated Mbabazi, which was seen as a betrayal in the eyes of the FDC. 

In march 2018 she was accepted by the President and she also became a Member of the NRM. That leaving all doubts about her future. As she was spotted everywhere in yellow dresses and defending her change of heart. Beatrice even held a rally introducing Museveni to Kitgum as her guest.

She was appointed in december 2019 to the Cabinet and became a minister. So just mere months later her relevance for the President and party is shown.

Beatrice have left the FDC in 2016 to run as a independent after showing allegiance to Amama instead of Besigye. That is why she shown her self to the public by doing this alone.

Now, she is even more lost. She tried to run in the NRM, but wasn’t even on the ballot. She lost the NRM Primaries without even trying. She’s a NRM Member and a Minister. However, she’s not useful or have a standing anymore. Beatrice is even getting the cold shoulder, as the President doesn’t pick up her calls.

Anywar was once respected. She had it all. Fought the good fight and was behind people. Instead of building on that reputation. Beatrice decided to be selfish and get quick fixes to power. Her decisions now follows her.

Anywar first betrayed the FDC. Than, she has betrayed her opposition fellows totally by leaving her Independent MP stance. She became a yellow and a person behind the President. A President who didn’t care for her or her causes. That is why she wasn’t even there on the ballot. The NRM have used her and can now leave her alone.

Beatrice Anywar have used her platform, her position for selfish gains and now has to live with it. Seen as a Iron-Lady, a Fire-Band MP. Onto a suck-up and praising to the choir. Now, she’s left alone and not even respected by her own party in Kitgum. The one she represented in Cabinet and Parliament until late.

That must hurt her pride. To be ditched and left astray. “Mama Mabira” the one with a fierce tone and standing up against injustice. Are now without a home. Kitgum NRM doesn’t respect her and feels she haven’t deserved it. The NRM haven’t even had her on the ballot. This after publicly supporting the President and his cause.

That’s shows that nothing is permanent in politics. When you gamble and trade, you either win or loose. The deal that gave her a Ministerial Position didn’t give her any other favours. She now has to yet again fight as an Independent. However, everyone knows she can be bought and isn’t an iron-lady. Just another meal-ticket politician, who can be used and forgotten. Peace.

Muwanda & Co. Advocates: Electoral Commission fails, refuses & has ignored my formal request to avail nomination (academic) papers of Mr. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the NRM Nomination Candidate in 2016 Presidential Elections (04.09.2020)