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PRESIDENT’S SPECIAL MAN! Museveni Sends Special Message Through Amama Mbabazi

Amama Mbabazi with Hassan Sheikh Mohamud at Villa Somalia in Mogadishu.

Despite once falling out with his boss President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni, former Prime Minister John Patrick Amama Mbabazi is still special in the eyes of the Ugandan supremo.

Even when Museveni has appointed ministers such as the one in charge of foreign affairs, Mbabazi, the former secretary general of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), is the president’s special man for special assignments.

Having fallen out with Museveni ahead of the 2016 presidential election, Mbabazi would later challenge the 77-year-old long-serving Ugandan leader but fail miserably. He would then languish in the political cold for years until his appointment as Museveni’s special envoy to South Sudan and Ethiopia.

In February, Museveni and five other African leaders appointed Mbabazi the chairman of the African Global Security Foundation. At a press conference he hosted at his home in Kololo, Kampala, in February 2022.

Mbabazi told reporters that the founding member states of the African Global Security Foundation include Uganda, Togo, Mauritania, Senegal, DR Congo, and Congo Brazaville but added that the foundation he chairs was open for all African nations who believe in its objectives in the areas of international affairs and security, and are willing to participate pursuing them.

Amama Mbabazi in Somalia

On June 10, Mbabazi delivered a special message from President Museveni to the President of Somalia Hassan Sheikh Mohamud at Villa Somalia in Mogadishu. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the founder and current chairman of the Union for Peace and Development Party, was elected Somalia’s president last month.

Mbabazi and his delegation

Uganda has been supporting peace-keeping efforts in Somalia. The details of Museveni’s special message to Sheikh Mohamud remain unknown but it is likely that the issue of the fight against terrorism and securing the country formed part of the message.

CDF Mbadi in Somalia

Museveni’s special envoy was accompanied by Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijj, the minister of Defence and Veteran Affairs, Uganda’s Deputy envoy to Somalia Ambassador Mugisha, Chief of Defence Forces (CDFP) Gen Wilson Mbasu Mbadi, Deputy Chief of Land Forces Maj Gen Okiding, Sector One Commander Brig Gen Katungi, Chief of Staff Air Force Brig Gen Gonyi and the first Secretary at the Uganda Embassy in Somalia Robert Mugimba.

Amama Mbabazi and his team meet President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud at Villa Somalia in Mogadishu.

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Samuel Kamugisha

Samuel Kamugisha is a Ugandan journalist, editor, language instructor, poet, fiction and non-fiction writer. A Makerere University graduate of Journalism and Communication with a decade-long experience in news reporting, writing and editing, Kamugisha is Editor at The Pearl Times. Most of his previous work was published by The Observer. When he is not doing journalism work -- which is rare -- Kamugisha will be reading or writing a short story or a poem, or caught up in the writer's block.