When revelations that senior military officers were stealing salaries for Ugandan troops serving in multinational peacekeeping force in Somalia were made public, some members of parliament raised it on the floor of the house.

Member of Parliament Ronald Balimwezo raised the issue of vanishing salaries for Amisom/ Atmis soldiers, citing a contingent dubbed the Uganda Battle Group (Ugabag) 34. The MP cited by the Daily Monitor report of February 6, 2023, which in addition noted that even the previous cohort – Ugabag 33 – had not received pay for the last nine months of their Somalia deployment.

However, we know that Maj-Gen Paul Lokech, a former deputy inspector of police, who earlier commanded a Uganda contingent in Somalia and died on August 21, 2021, was an extremely wealthy man and left behind enormous wealth and properties as soldiers who kept peace in Somalia under his command wallowed in poverty.

What this means is that individual commanders of the Uganda contingent in Somalia, and perhaps their superiors, benefitted heavily from the Amisom funds. Uganda as a country only benefitted from the expenditures and investments of individuals such as Lokech.

Therefore, commanders of African contingents in Somalia hoped that conflict in Somalia continued although publicly they depicted commitment to stamp it out.

But what is the status of Al Shabab in Somalia today? Despite the Presence of Amisom in Somalia for years and billions of dollars invested in it, Al-Shabaab controls large parts of central and southern Somalia. And in recent years, it has stepped up its presence in the north, where it battles fighters affiliated with the self-proclaimed Islamic State for primacy.

Al Shabaab was formed in the mid-2000s as part of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU). It came to prominence during the 2006-2009 Somalia War, during which it presented itself as a vehicle for the waging of armed resistance against Ethiopia.

It spread its violence over large swathes of Somalia following the fall of Barre. It sought and continues to seek to establish an Islamic emirate in eastern – Africa beyond Somalia.  The militarist group has matured to be able to spread terror in the whole of Somalia and was able to spread its terror int Uganda and Kenya some years. Its excesses in Kenya and Uganda are exacerbated by a heavy presence of Somalis in the two countries

The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) records over 630 political violence events and more than 2,200 reported fatalities in Somalia from January 1 to March 17 2023. Most of the violence centred in southern and central Somalia, where government security forces have been conducting a military operation against al-Shabaab since August 2022.

So, Al Shabaab remains very alive. This means that the conventional approach has failed to eliminate the unconventional warfare despite enormous investment in terms of men, money and weapons.

Earlier, Al Shabaab was able to spread its terror to Uganda and Kenya some years. Its excesses in Kenya and Uganda are exacerbated by a heavy presence of Somalis in the two countries.

In Kenya, which shares an international border with Somalia, it is easy for Al Shabaab to penetrate and intermingle with their kind and do anything they want at chosen times. In October 2013, Al–Shabaab staged an attack on Westgate Mall in the capital Nairobi, killing 71 people according to the UN High Commission for refugees (UNHCR). Kenya has suffered attacks for over a decade as retribution for joining the peacekeeping force fighting al-Shabab in Somalia. 

The Islamic State claimed two suicide bombings in the Ugandan capital Kampala. On July 11, 2010, suicide bombings were carried out against crowds watching a 2010 Fifa World Cup match at two restaurants in Kampala. The attacks left 74 dead and 85 injured. Al Shabaab, which has ties with Al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the blasts as retaliation for Uganda’s support for Amisom. However, Uganda continued to provide the largest contingent of soldiers in Somali.

Kenya has the unenviable situation of sharing a boarder with Somalia. Somalis live on both sides of the boarder. There are many Kenyan Somali citizens and some hold big positions in the security organs and in different government institutions. They do not only share genes with Somalis in Somalia but also clans and ethnicity.

According to the 2019 Kenya census, approximately 2,780,502 ethnic Somalis live in Kenya. Among these individuals are a number of ethnically Somali international migrants, around 300,000 of whom inhabit the wider east and south of Kenya. So, if Al Shabaab were to recruit fighters in Kenya it has a big population to recruit from, even from within the police and military.

Uganda, has a high concentration of Somalis in mainly in Kisenyi, Mengo and Nalukolongo suburbs of Kampala, and during the long rule of President Yoweri Tibuhaburwa Museveni, their numbers have spiralled. They tend to be highly ethnocentric and exclusive in the suburbs where they stay.

According to the Daily Monitor of February 2, 2021, there are 14,000 ethnic Somalis in Uganda and they feel somewhat safe despite some xenophobia of indigenous Ugandans and the 2010 killings of Ugandans by Al Shabaab. They have set up internet cafés, supermarkets, restaurants, clinics, petrol stations and even butcheries that sell camel meat.

Many come in as refugees and like other refugees, have received warm reception from the government, which came to power through the rebellion of refugees mainly from Rwanda and Mulenge in present day Democratic Republic of Congo in what was called Luwero Triangle.

They link up easily with their kin and kith in Kanya and Somalia. Ironically, as of February 2023, Somalia itself was host to 35,119 registered refugees and asylum seekers, mainly from Ethiopia and Yemen.

One school of thought asserts that Somali refugees in Uganda have benefitted heavily from President Tibuhaburwa Museveni’s half-brother, Salim Saleh Akandwanaho. According to uganda.uk.com Salim Saleh’s origins cannot be traced anywhere in Uganda.

Reportedly, however, he has Somali blood but shares genes with President Tibuhaburwa Museveni maternally. He wields enormous power – politico – military and economic. He has used it to enhance his wealth and influence. The president has given him the leeway to influence, personally, even without direct political power and in fact trusts him immensely.

His concentration on business matters, entrenchment in the Operation Wealth Creation and kinship ties to President Tibuhaburwa Museveni and first family, as well as membership of the ‘deep state’, have collectively and jointly assured him of vast financial resources through primitive accumulation, uganda.uk.com claims that the general built some of his wealth from gold deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Many poor and needy Ugandans who have been fortunate enough to access him see him as man of charity. Although it is often said blood is thicker than water, it is not yet easy to say to what extent Somali refugees have gained from the vantage position of General Salim Saleh Akandwanaho, personally in the NRM regime, although as pointed out above, many have set up flourishing businesses in Uganda, while those of Ugandans collapse easily.

A lot of research is needed to establish the true facts. However, because of deep-sea of fear that obtains in the academia of Uganda, it is unlikely we could have a critical number of scholars who would venture to research the power relations between Somali refugees, NRM regime and General Salim Saleh Akandwanaho in particular behind the façade of UPDF activities in Somalia.

One thing is true. The future of Amisom is in jeopardy. We cannot say the conflict of Amisom with Al Shabaab is over. The intricate links of Somalia with Kenya and Uganda through the refugee channel, ethnicity and boarder sharing and interchange of peoples, implies that question or problematic of Al Shabaab will stay with us well in the future.

Thus, the future of the Uganda military Contingent and all the other contingents mentioned herein in Somalia remains uncertain. Are they to continue being dispatched to Somalia so long as Al Shabaab continues to spread its terror in Somalia?

Who will continually fund their presence in Somalia? If the dispatched soldiers continue to reap nothing or peanuts as their commanders take it all, might there not be resistance in participating countries, Uganda in particular, since its contingents have persistently remained the biggest?

I speak for God, Uganda and Africa.

• A Tell report / By Oweyegha-Afunaduula, a former lecturer of political science, Makerere University, Uganda