from Judy Miriga

He he heeee…..!!!

What became of Kenya’s Oil and Gas with Triton saga?

They better not touch Willy Mutunga and Nyachae………!!!

It is getting juicy…….Cheers ….!!!

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

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Uganda: Museveni’s Oil Secrets Finally Coming Out
Andrea Bohnstedt
22 October 2011

Stick a hot-pink little umbrella in your drink, lean back and enjoy the show! That’s at least what I felt when I followed the discussions in Uganda’s parliament about the production-sharing agreements (PSA) with the oil firms.

President Museveni’s government has always kept the PSAs carefully guarded. The people can’t, mustn’t know what’s going on with this national resource. Security reasons, of course – ‘It’s like a war’ â-‘ and really, no need to worry your pretty little heads anyway. It’s best left in the hands of the president and his men who will know what to do with all that oil. And the president’s son and his men were guarding it, so really, what’s the worry?

This threw up a bit of an issue when the Ugandan government got into a fight with Heritage Oil over whether the company was liable to pay capital gains tax on the sale of its assets to Tullow Oil. Heritage said ‘Oh no we aren’t!’, GoU said ‘Oh yes you are!’ – and for any outsider, it was difficult to assess because, well, the PSAs were secret.

But things got properly interesting when Uganda’s MPs – pretty much across party lines – decided to ask their speaker to recall parliament to discuss the oil agreements and the overall oil sector, and then also insisted on seeing the PSAs. Parliament was eventually recalled, the request to see the PSAs was also eventually granted. But the restrictions placed on their access were ridiculous: No copies, no note taking, no taking away the documents, no talking about them. Not exactly conducive to analyzing very technical agreements.

And then it got more interesting – and murky: President Museveni was properly outraged that anyone – as suggested in a Wikileaks cable – should think that he’d take bribes. Yes, I laughed, too. But in this specific case, he might actually have had a point: If ENI indeed did pay him, they didn’t get very much in return. So far, at least.

An MP then accused Tullow Oil of bribing various government officials, which Tullow also emphatically denied. The Ugandan Independent just published an interesting back story on Wednesday, describing how they had received documents showing bribes paid by Tullow to Foreign Minister Kutesa and then Energy Minister Hilary Onek. They tried several avenues of investigating the truth of these accusations, but could not find sufficient evidence.

Parliament resolved to investigate Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi, Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa and Internal Affairs Minister (and former Energy Minister) Onek. More aggravation for Kutesa -Museveni’s son’s father in law – who had already been taken to court alongside government chief whip John Nasasira and Minister of State for Labour Mwesigwa Rukutana for their alleged embezzlement of funds for the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

All three have ‘stepped aside to clear their name’, to use a time-honoured Kenyan phrase. And in contrast to fellow accused, former Vice President Gilbert Bukenya, they were not locked up, but let out on bail. Mbabazi and Onek are still clinging on by the seat of their pants: Onek says that he will resign ‘when the parliamentary probe begins’, but may well be forced out by a censure motion.

There are many interesting issues in this whole debate: In contrast to e.g. debates over car loans, MPs appeared less motivated by their own interests and, across party lines, actually pushed a sensible agenda that is of interest to all citizens. This is no doubt an encouraging development, and I wonder if they can keep this momentum.

I doubt that Museveni can afford to sacrifice Kutesa, one of his key backers, and in the past, dragging high-ranking government members to court has hardly ever resulted in any credible prosecutions (undoubtedly a bit of a déjà vu for Kenyans). But there is certainly a whole lot of pressure on the president’s entourage at the same time that support from his own party appears to be falling: NRM MPs joined opposition MPs in pushing for more transparency in the oil sector, and Museveni must be busy pondering how he can bring those unruly NRM kids back in line.

For Uganda’s nascent oil sector, this latest development has been more than overdue: MPs want the legal and regulatory framework for the oil sector completed before any further decisions are made. This is something that Uganda’s government had long, long dragged its feet on, despite a great many offers of support.

For Tullow, trailblazers in development of the country’s oil sector, the news are not so good: at the very least, they face further delays in concluding the farm in of CNOOC and Total, partners that the exploration company needs to bring in both finances and technical expertise on oil production.

Government needs to authorise this deal, but Museveni refused to agree to the stabilisation clause that would protect them from legal and tax changes – a standard agreement without which it is impossible to borrow against assets and, therefore, invest. And this happened even before parliament got involved. They will certainly hope that Uganda doesn’t renege on its contracts with them on a wider scale. And the beginning of oil production will be pushed back yet again.

The writer is an independent country risk analyst and publishes the online business magazine, www.ratio-magazine.com.