Why UPDF should hand power to Somalia’s pirates and crooks

I am in Bujumbura attending a conference on, of all places, Somalia. On reflection, however, that should not be a surprise seeing that Burundi and Uganda are the two countries that lived up to their commitment to contribute troops for the African Union peacekeeping force in troubled Somalia.

I didn’t realise how much a sacrifice Burundi had made in Somalia until I got here. Unlike Uganda, or for that matter President Museveni, which has geopolitical interests in the Horn of Africa conflict and whose regime will gain quite some political capital from it all, Burundi really doesn’t have obvious ones.

Also, this is a country that has barely started recovery from years of war (its streets are cleaner and roads less potholed than Kampala’s though), and has a much smaller population than Uganda. It was, therefore, touching to see Somali leaders getting tearful talking about Uganda and Burundi’s peacekeeping efforts. 
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