Another case of high-level corruption in Uganda

Uganda’s Prime Minister, Amama Mbabazi, whose office is affected by the corruption scandal
Photo credit: MICHELE SIBILONI/AFP/Getty Images

Recently Ugandans had one small cause to celebrate. The World Bank announced that their country had moved up in the rankings in its annual ease of doing business survey. And not only did Uganda move up — it also overtook regional rival Kenya, which had long enjoyed a much better rating in this area. The ratings are important, of course, because foreign investors quite understandably prefer to put their money into places where there are fewer obstacles to business.

But that little bit of good news was quickly supplanted by a more ominous story. Ugandan social media have been avidly following this week’s revelation that Ireland has suspended aid to the Ugandan government after an audit showed that over 4 million Euros ($5.2 million) had ended up in the unauthorized account of the prime minister.

According to the Irish Independent newspaper, 16 million Euros ($21 million) given directly to the Uganda government for aid purposes has been suspended. The paper adds that aid given to non-governmental organizations will continue.

Read more: Transitions