Last week, President Museveni was elected for another term. An article by Nick Young in this week’s The East African ponders the extent to which aid from donor countries assisted in the election outcome. After the disastrous reigns of Idi Amin and Milton Abote, Yoweri Museveni was regarded by Westerners as a “good leader” because he was not such a mad despot and did not kill quite so many people.
However, Museveni’s government has a poor record when it comes to the delivery of basic services and infrastructure, and the popular perception is that Uganda has become increasingly enmeshed in corruption. A substantial proportion of government revenues is provided by aid from donor countries in the form of “budget support”. This is viewed as a more efficient and less paternalistic way of providing aid than tying it to particular projects, but it has other disadvantages.
President Museveni is said to have spent $350 million on the recent election campaign, including by means of cash stuffed in envelopes handed to people along the election trail. Curiously, the annual amount of budget support provided to the country by donors is said to be around $360 million. Of course, none of Museveni’s rivals were able to match his campaigning largesse. If foreign aid was taken out of the equation, would Museveni still be president?