The $45 Million Question: Who’s Cashing in on Uganda’s Mission to Protect Kiir?

A quiet military operation has been unfolding across Uganda’s northern border — one that insiders say is costing millions each month, yet remains largely hidden from public scrutiny.

Confidential sources tell this publication that an estimated 5,000 Ugandan soldiers are currently stationed in South Sudan, tasked with protecting President Salva Kiir and securing key installations in Juba amid renewed fears of instability.

The arrangement, which insiders describe as a “special presidential security partnership,” reportedly places the value of each deployed soldier at around $9,000 per month.

On paper, that adds up to roughly $45 million every month, a staggering figure in a country where defence spending already consumes a large share of the national budget.

But questions are mounting about where that money actually goes.

Multiple sources within Uganda’s defence establishment, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, allege that a significant portion of the funds never reaches the troops on the ground.

Instead, they claim, payments are filtered through layers of bureaucracy and end up in accounts linked to senior figures connected to the deployment.

“These soldiers are risking their lives outside our borders, but most of them are barely receiving field allowances,” said one source familiar with the operation. “There’s a huge difference between what’s being claimed on paper and what’s being paid out.”

Attempts to verify these claims independently remain difficult, given the secrecy surrounding regional military operations and the absence of public disclosures on Uganda’s foreign deployments.

Both governments have maintained silence on the financial details, and official figures for troop numbers or compensation have never been made public.

Uganda has long been one of the region’s most active peacekeeping contributors, from Somalia to the Democratic Republic of Congo. But its missions have repeatedly drawn scrutiny over accountability and oversight.

For now, the money trail remains buried under classified budgets and silence from officials. But the whispers inside the military suggest that the real story behind Uganda’s South Sudan mission could be far less about protection, and far more about profit.