Uganda denies minister was bribed by former Hong Kong home affairs secretary Patrick Ho
US Department of Justice claims Ho considered setting up yuan exchange centre in Uganda with the family of foreign minister Sam Kutesa
Uganda on Friday rejected US accusations that its foreign minister curried favour with a Chinese energy firm in return for US$500,000 in bribes from Patrick Ho Chi-ping, Hong Kong’s former home affairs secretary now under arrest in the US on corruption charges.
According to the Department of Justice in the United States, Ho was contemplating last year setting up Africa’s first yuan exchange centre in Uganda by collaborating with the family of foreign minister Sam Kutesa.
It did not name the company in question, but Ho was at the time secretary general of an NGO funded by CEFC China Energy, the biggest non-state Chinese energy firm.
Hong Kong ex-minister Patrick Ho ‘staying strong’ as he prepares to plead not guilty to US bribe charge
He is accused of bribing Kutesa in the name of donations to the re-election campaign of President Yoweri Museveni, who is the foreign minister’s brother-in-law and has been in power since 1986.
Ho, 68, was arrested in the United States last Saturday for allegedly funnelling a total of US$2.9 million in bribes to Kutesa, Chad’s President Idriss Deby and former Senegalese foreign minister Cheikh Gadio in return for oil rights for the energy firm.
According to a claim by Washington, which was rejected by the Ugandan government, Ho started the bribery scheme in the halls of the United Nations when Kutesa was president of the United Nations General Assembly in 2014.
“It is … erroneous to insinuate or infer that Kutesa, from references made to him and CEFC in the [media stories], is linked to the bribery allegations,” a Ugandan foreign ministry spokesman said.
