Museveni congratulates new UK PM Liz Truss

UGANDA | UK | MUSEVENI 

President Yoweri Museveni has congratulated the new United Kingdom Prime Minister, Liz Truss. 

“This is to congratulate the Rt. Hon. Liz Truss for being appointed as the new Prime Minister of the UK." "After decolonization, we have always had good working relations with the UK and, by extension, the Commonwealth,” Museveni said on September 7 in a tweet. 

On Monday, Boris Johnson stepped down as UK Prime Minister, paving the way for the new leader of the Conservative Party, Liz Truss, to take over the coveted office. 

“The Rt. Hon. Boris Johnson has been encouraging investments in Uganda and other Commonwealth countries. The big airport at Kabaale near Hoima, built with British funds, is one such example. We, therefore, look forward to working closely with Rt. Hon. Liz Truss on the issues of Trade, Investment, Tourism, and anti-terrorism. By coincidence, I had the honor to sit next to and engage with the new Prime Minister whenever her predecessor walked out for side meetings. Congratulations, again, the Rt. Hon. Liz Truss,” Museveni said. 

On September 10, Museveni is expected to deliver a keynote address at the 12th United Kingdom (UK)-Uganda trade and investment summit, which kicks off this coming weekend in London. 

According to the UK Prime Minister’s trade envoy to Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Rwanda, Lord Dolar Popat, during the trade and investment summit, Museveni will unveil key projects that the UK and Uganda will jointly execute. 

The key projects include the £100m (about Sh441.7b) Kitgum-Kidepo road project, the £1.5b (about Sh4.4 trillion) construction of the Standard Gauge Railway project, and the £270m electricity export transmission line to DRC under the power interconnection grid-works project. 

The trade and investment summit comes two years after the former UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, hosted the first-ever UK-Africa investment summit in January 2020, which experts said facilitated investment agreements worth £15 billion between the UK and Africa. 

The UK-Uganda summit, which will take place at Park Plaza in London, is expected to attract prominent business people, investors, private sector leaders, and political leaders from the UK, Uganda, and East Africa.