Somalia became a key element in Museveni’s calculations for political survival when a heavy deployment of Uganda’s army in Congo could no longer be justified, especially in light of the atrocities it had committed there and the plundering of mineral resources it was engaged in. At the time, Museveni envisioned Somalia as a tool that would alternatively or simultaneously serve as a shield against international scrutiny for his crimes and a vehicle for self-enrichment and entrenchment in power.

Dictator Museveni forced himself to act as the only leader in the region whose army would combat the then flourishing terrorism, but those who followed closely argued that he did so for three reasons, one being that inept Museveni did not “want thousands of soldiers hanging around in barracks with time on their hands;” Museveni’s population had shrunken massively prompting regular extra-judicial killings and he wanted to go to Somalia for self-enrichment purposes. 

It is no surprise that for all these reasons and more, Museveni had repeatedly sabotaged efforts to find sustainable solutions for Somalia, which would render Uganda’s presence in that country and Museveni’s utility to donors obsolete. The longer he stays the more damages he causes. 

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