Muhwezi attacks top US official over Museveni

Information and national guidance minister, Maj. Gen. Jim Muhwezi, has hit back at the United States' Permanent Representative to the UN, Samantha Power, over her remarks about President Yoweri Museveni.

The minister, who is also the outgoing Rujumbura County MP, said although Power was entitled to her opinion, she should allow her opinion to be informed by the facts on the ground.

"She should also throw more light on what should be done than finding fault with everything like the armchair critic. I never hear these people make positive remarks when we make great progress like build the first car, hold peaceful elections, allow multiparty politics. They only seem to see the negative....with every presiding African Government," Muhwezi said.

He was on Wednesday speaking to New Vision in his office in Kampala.

While discussing the Great Lakes region early last week, Power told the UN Security Council that "President Museveni's actions contravene the rule of law and jeopardise Uganda's democratic progress, threatening Uganda's future stability and prosperity".

Samantha Power, the US representative to the UN. AFP Photo

"There is nothing which President Museveni has done which is outside the laws of Uganda. The President is following the Constitution of Uganda, the laws that have been enacted under that Constitution and there is therefore no basis whatever for anybody to make those wild allegations. 

And who is the arbiter to decide whether the President has not acted legally? It's Supreme Court and no one else," Muhwezi said.

The minister also asked where their detractors were when the country was being liberated from the fangs of dictatorship.

"Where were they when we were fighting? When Uganda was under dictators and murderers? Didn't Ugandans pickup arms and liberate this country? There is no policeman for the world. We are guided by our Constitution to govern ourselves and laws of Uganda are supreme," he said.