On Thursday, May 30th, 2024, the United States sanctioned five senior Ugandan officials and their spouses over accusations of being involved in corruption and human rights abuses.

This comes hardly a month after the United Kingdom government imposed sanctions on three of the five officials, including Speaker of Parliament Anita Annet Among, two former Ministers for Karamoja, Mary Goretti Kitutu, and Agnes Nandutu.

The decision has sparked mixed reactions from both local politicians and international relations experts.

When the UK announced sanctions against the officials, former presidential candidate Joseph Kabuleta criticized the decision, saying it was unfair and prematurely conceived.

“Maybe Uganda should also slap sanctions on someone from the UK (perhaps their health minister) for knowingly giving us fake vaccines that cause blood clots,” Kabuleta said.

In April 2024, the UK pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca admitted its COVID vaccine can cause rare side effects in court documents for the first time.

Uganda vaccinated her citizens with the vaccine, and several death cases linked to blood clots have been recorded.

Dr. David Nyekorach Matsanga, a UK-based Ugandan international relations expert, lawyer, political scientist, and pan-African, criticized the US sanction on the officials, saying it will affect the masses, not just the individual officials.

“Sanctions punish the masses; they don’t punish individuals. If you sanction the speaker of the national assembly, which has over 600 members, it means the speaker will not go and meet people to exchange views for our country,” Dr. Matsanga said.

He said Uganda should wake up and raise this issue with the International Court of Justice, adding that sanctions, whether targeted or overall, affect our country.

“American and British sanctions are very dangerous; once they start like this, they will go to another one. They have now told us that they have a long list. The President and foreign ministers must work to make sure they avail themselves of this list,” Dr. Matsanga added.

Dr. Matsanga, the former Spokesperson of the defunct rebel group Lord’s Resistance Army, said Uganda can seek justice from the International Court of Law since some of the sanctioned officials have ongoing cases in court.

“What is it that Americans and British have seen that we don’t see? The common wealth law is very clear: until you are proved guilty by a competent court, you cannot be punished half-way. Some of the people that have been sanctioned are in court; we don’t know whether or not they are guilty now that you have convicted them. What about tomorrow, when they come and say they are cleared? Who is to laugh here?” Matsanga said.

Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, the opposition leader of the National Unity Platform, welcomed the sanction and urged the UK and US governments to consider further decisions in the fight against corruption and human rights abuses in Uganda.

The US sanction comes hardly a month after the United Kingdom government sanctioned the Speaker of Parliament, who said she was being targeted over the anti-homosexuality law.