Top Ugandan officials have been boxed into a corner of bother after lenders in China rejected their request to re-negotiate 'toxic clauses' in the $200m (Shs713b) loan picked six years ago to expand Entebbe International Airport. Some of the unfavourable provisions in the loan agreement that Uganda signed with the Export-Import (Exim) Bank of China on March 31, 2015, if not amended, expose Uganda's sovereign assets to attachments and take-over upon arbitration awards in Beijing.
Our investigations found out that any proceedings against Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) assets by the lender would not be protected by sovereign immunity since Uganda government, in the 2015 deal, waived the immunity on airport assets.
Highly-placed sources said the risk presented by the Financing Agreement on March 7, 2019, prompted Uganda to send an 11-member delegation to Beijing to plead with Exim Bank to renegotiate the clauses now impugned by Kampala.
