Foreign Affairs Minister Odongo Wants Parliament to Back Off UNAFRI Land Probe Over Diplomatic Grounds
Minister Jeje Odongo (R) accompanied by his technical team during the meeting with the committee
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gen. Jeje Odongo, has asked MPs to halt an ongoing probe into the circumstances in which the United Nations African Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (UNAFRI) leased out part of its land to commercial interests.
The land in question was donated to UNAFRI by government, as part of its contribution to the international Police training body, but MPs have learnt that officials there have leased part of the land to, among others Yuasa, a Kampala-based car business.
“You should worry to what extent that oversight is looking at the internal management of organizations of this nature; I think we are now faced with a challenge of managing the integrity of government as a reliable host of international organizations,” said Jeje Odongo, who led top ministry and Police officials to Parliament’s Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs.
The minister asked MPs to drop the probe and instead channel the issues through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “in order not to jeopardize our country’s chances of hosting other international organizations in the future”.
Committee vice-chairperson for the day, Hon. Donozio Kahonda, said MPs are taking on the probe to find out why private interests have been given space on the 16 acre land, saying UNAFRI officials’ argument that they sub-leased part of the land to generate income to meet their bills is unconscionable.
“… [we found out that] the Naguru Police land is being occupied by individual organizations and business persons carrying out their activities on public land,” he said.
Kahonda said the leasing of the land is despite government’s generous contribution to UNAFRI, together with the United Nation’s US$0.2 million annually given to the organization.
MP Abdallah Kiwanuka (NUP, Mukono County North) said the giveaway of the land happened without the consent of UNAFRI’S board in which government is represented.
He called for the lifting of the entity’s diplomatic immunity for prosecution of culpable officials.
“Where are the minutes detailing the resolutions of the board in which the sub leasing of the land was discussed?” he said.
Minister Jeje Odongo stuck to his guns, insisting that the issues concerning the land should be raised to his ministry, which will in turn raise it with the organization, instead of hatching a diplomatic crisis out of the standoff, which he said will dent Uganda’s international image, because diplomatic territories are inviolable and extraterritorial.
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