In late 2020, when Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni faced a fresh challenge to his 35-year rule, a new tool helped to silence his critics: anti-money laundering legislation promoted by the Group of Seven advanced economies.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), established by the G7 to protect the global financial system, had written to Uganda's government eight years earlier telling it to do more to combat money laundering and terrorism financing or risk being placed on a "gray list" of deficient countries, according to a top Ugandan official who described the private letter. Such a move could damage Uganda's ties to foreign banks and investors, which closely follow the FATF's updates.
Within a year, Uganda's parliament passed a new law to criminalize both offenses and established an intelligence unit to enforce it.