Museveni: We Don’t Need Aid from Anybody

President Museveni has said Africa “has everything” and should “not be intimidated by those threatening to cut off aid.”

Museveni’s remarks come after several western countries threatened to slap economic sanctions on Uganda for passing the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023. 

“We don’t need aid,” said Museveni on Friday while launching Jesus’ Africa, a book authored by his daughter Patience Museveni Rwabwogo at State House Entebbe.

“We have everything here! We don’t need anything from anybody,” he emphasised.

The international community provides Uganda nearly $2 billion a year in development assistance.

Most development assistance mainly funds agriculture, health, education programs and governance and peacebuilding programs.

However, some western countries say the anti-gay law threatens rights of sexual minorities and have threatened to withhold aid to Uganda. 

But Museveni has since pushed back against western criticism, saying the law only criminalises acts of homosexuality and aggravated homosexuality not homosexuals. 

Value addition

Addressing dozens of guests at State House Entebbe, Museveni said “the only problem we have is the Edomite curse of selling our birth right,” giving an example of coffee business where Coffee producing countries mainly in Africa are sharing only 25 billion dollars out of the global value of 460 billion dollars. 

“Because we sell the coffee unprocessed as a raw material, then some people go, roast it, grind it and get more money than we the growers of the coffee, what’s the problem there? The problem of the Edomite curse,”he added.

The function was attended by Ministers and Members of Parliament; Monica Musenero (Science & Technology), Hon Alice Kaboyo (Luwero Triangle), Justice Mike Chibita, URA Commissioner General John Musinguzi, Mr and Mrs Kagina and KCCA ED Mrs Dorothy Kisaka. 

Others were religious leaders such as Bishop Joshua Lwere, Pastor Robert Kayanja, Jackson Sennyonga, Apostle Joseph Sserwadda, Apostle John Mulinde, Pastor Fred Wantante, Bishop Sheldon Mwesigwa from Ankole Diocese.