By KT Reporter
It’s 3 and half years since Museveni named his current cabinet in July 2021. The following honorable ministers have done their part and their best trying to help their principal, the President, to deliver his campaign manifesto pledges.
The most hardworking ministers who have rendered their all and tried their best to have impact for the ordinary Ugandans include the following;
- Sam Mayanja of lands has done very well even when he is working under hardship of being fought by his senior minister and denial of facilitation to do his official work.
He has staff in his office like Tamale Junior Mirundi and a research assistant called Mukisa. All these earn a monthly salary which Mayanja pays himself because the ministry refused to pay them.
He also uses personal money to fuel the drone which transports his office staff and journalists each time he has to go to the field. And Mayanja is always in the field because he doesn’t want to be an armchair minister. He personally facilitates journalists who cover his tours and its a large group. He believes its important to have journalists because they inform the country and help to publicise his fights against land grabbers and illegal evictions.
Mayanja has been firm and refused to be corrupted and compromised by land grabbers because he is always on the side of the ordinary people-the wanyongez. His interventions and baraza meetings have emboldened ordinary people owning Bibanjas while at the same time making land grabbing and land evictions risky business.
He is the reason cases of violent land evictions which Bukedde TV used to report every evening on Gataliko Nfufu, have reduced which is why even opposition MPs like Joel Senyonyi, Semujju Nganda and others have had to call on him to stand up to land grabbers in their constituencies. Even when he helps people, Mayanja never demands to be rewarded. In fact, he always chases away people who bring him goodies to appreciate after he has helped them.
Mayanja is for open door policy and you don’t need to be connected or speak a certain language to get audience at his office and because of the many people he has helped without demanding for anything, the waiting room of the lands ministry is always full of people seeking help.
Otherwise the number of poor people flocking that same waiting room for help had reduced especially after Aidah Nantaba and Parsis Namuganza got into problems, namely getting sued personally, after they tried to take on land grabbers who tend to be very connected in both security and the court system.
Mayanja, unlike his predecessors of Nantaba and Namuganza, is very knowledgeable on land matters as a lawyer and can’t easily be intimidated. And because he is clean and corruption-free, Mayanja has favor and ear of the President many of whose RDCs closely work with him/Mayanja to protect people against land grabbers and evictions.
Because he is an elected official and doesn’t intend to seek any MP seat, Mayanja can tell the truth without fearing to annoy powerful constituencies like Mengo or even the land-owning religious establishments in Uganda. Sources say that the appointing authority is happy with him and there are high chances that Mayanja will one day be elevated to a bigger position if he maintains that trajectory of high performance and hard work.
- Frank Tumwebaze is another minister known for hardwork. Even when he has had to put up with an indifferent permanent secretary, Tumwebaze has tried to deliver stuff under MAAIF. His relentless work has resulted in noticeable improvements in the dairy, livestock and crop sub sectors.
Tumwebaze knows how to take charge and that exactly is what he has done at MAIIF where technocrats like him for being a team player always prepared to guide and protect them in case anyone attacks them unfairly. Tumwebaze, who is well connected in the first family, has steered the ship so well even through difficult moments such as the processes that preceded the amendment of the coffee laws. He knows how to effectively network with State House, Parliament, fellow ministers, media and development partners.
That’s how he was able to move mountains at ICT which he transformed from a lukewarm government ministry to one that is powerful and hard to ignore. Working with PS Bagiire, Tumwebaze was able to diagnose for the President that the problem was underfunding of entities like UBC which was transformed from a dying parastatal to the revamped corporation it is today.
Even at the gender ministry, where he served for a short time, Tumwebaze was able to have impact. At MAAIF, he has been able to consistently make a case justifying why the agricultural sector deserves to be funded better and the legal reforms of his era paved way for the rationalization of agencies like DDA, NAADs, UCDA and strengthening of others like NAGRC&DB. The need to fund the sector better is something the President now appreciates better than was the case before Tumwebaze was deployed at the Entebbe-based ministry.
- Milly Babalanda is another minister who has done well. She has eloquently made a case to the President demanding for the strengthening of entities like Uganda Aids Commission, UPPC, NALI, the RDCs Secretariat and others falling under the docket of Presidency. She is the person who got the President to agree to invest in the improvement of RDCs’ welfare through availing them new vehicles and better fuel and facilitation packages.
The RDCs today are better facilitated than was the case under Esther Mbayo from whom Babalanda, a reformist from Busoga, took over. The RDCs Secretariat too has been strengthened through the recruitment of Commissioners who are in charge of coordinating a network of RDCs in the different sub regions of Uganda. This has led to improved efficiency in the RDC-level service delivery.
She has also got the president to prioritize recruitment of more Deputy RDCs and their assistants which has had the effect of expanding the presence of government and security in people’s lives.
Babalanda has also demonstrated that no RDC can be untouchable or too big to be touched or transferred when time for that comes.
She demonstrated that on Anderson Burora and even Hudu Hussein who had been an untouchable NRM cadre since the days of his godfather Amama Mbabazi.
She presided over Hudu’s transfer from Kampala to Masaka and other places and the heavens didn’t fall. Under Babalanda, the RDCs have played a more constructive role in reducing land eviction cases and she has also greatly invested in their training and capacity building to empower them to be able to effectively do their work.
The performance of UPPC has also improved by turning it into a corporate entity that competes with other printing entities to do business and thrive on their own just like has been the case with Vision Group; without getting even a penny from government.
The driving permits printing company, called Uganda Security Printing Company USPC is also doing much better under Babalanda’s supervision than was the case before. Closely working with Hajji Yunnus Kakande, Babalanda has also streamlined the presidency and abit of state house and thereby democratising access to the President, unlike before when claims of the rich being made to pay money to monopolise access to him was common place.
- Ruth Nankabirwa as energy minister has also done tremendously well. First of all, she is a team player who managed to reduce on the intrigue at the ministry and also improved coordination with Parliament. Stories of technocrat A fighting technocrat or minister B are rarely heard of from Amber House these days and this is all because of the good leadership of Nankabirwa who is very inclusive and likes everybody to be on board and feel empowered. She wants everyone mandated to be involved in decision-making at the ministry.
She also works very well with her state ministers namely Phiona Nyamutoro and Olupot Okasai hence her ability to crack the whip on the rogue-minded officials at UEDCL and UETCL where the old guard was purged and new leadership ushered in at her instigation. She is also working well with the permanent secretary Irene Batebe and the development partners.
Nankabirwa also has the ear of the President yet she isn’t the type to use such previledged proximity to the HE to engage in dirty deal-making or even extort millions of dollars from investors seeking to make a killing off Uganda’s oil & gas sector or even mining, electricity and other natural resources.
Being free from constituency pressures of Kiboga, where she was woman MP for more than 25 years, has also created for Nankabirwa plenty of time to be able to concentrate on ministry work. She has registered a lot of outputs especially those relating to electricity generation and rural electrification. She has also related well with both Parliament and Cabinet.
Her media relations have equally been excellent too. Nankabirwa (an influential Canon in Church of Uganda) isn’t known to have biff with any fellow cabinet ministers currently save for that little J Alupo bust-up that happened before the mending of fences.
The President is pleased with her and recently drove to her Ndejje home for a thanksgiving function during which he praised her as a very good cadre of the national resistance movement. Her credentials as a national-level mobiliser manifested during the years (2014-2021) she served as the government chief whip in Parliament. Notwithstanding the Rebecca Kadaga challenge as Speaker, Nankabirwa was still able to register glamorous outcomes as GCW. In both politics and church, Nankabirwa has a cultivated a network of allies and like-minded actors.
- Gen Kahinda Otafiire, the internal affairs minister, has done well creating cohesion at the ministry and being able to keep reminding the President about the need to fund agencies like NIRA, the Uganda Police Force, Prisons and DCIC etc better. He has also been good at delegating his deputy David Muhoozi to go and do the work each time he isn’t able to personally attend to the business of the Ugandan people.
Otafiire has also played a role against corruption and bad governance by occasionally publicly calling out fellow government officials who act with impunity and engage in corruption or engage in acts of torture and other forms of human rights abuses. Otafiire has once in a time called out Gen MK and the leadership at Parliament whenever he feels they are going astray. This is something which only him has guts to say or do; his slumbering sessions inside cabinet notwithstanding.
- At the finance ministry, Amos Lugoloobi and Henry Musasizi have done well effectively filling the vacuum Matia Kasaija’s frailty and informality would have created. Musasizi has been good at coordinating with Parliament as Lugoloobi does the rest including coordinating with UBOS leaders Dr. Albert Byamugisha and Chris Mukiza to deliver the 2024 population and housing census, which largely was a successful exercise. Lugoloobi has also worked well with NPA to work on the NDP 4 policy documents and formulation to continue guiding long term planning of this country.
- At the Justice Ministry, even when he has so far failed to deliver the promised electoral reforms and political transition, minister Norbert Mao has caused some transformation.
He created a cabinet committee on human rights and also worked with minister Balaam Barugahara to get the president to pardon NUP political prisoners who had been languishing in prison since the year 2020. Working with attorney general Kiwanuka Kiryowa, Mao has also simplified processes relating to approval of government contracts by the office of solicitor general. These days, contracts from MDAs get approved within two weeks as opposed to before when it could exceed 6 months.
By law, every government contract exceeding 200m requires approval by the solicitor general and Mao’s era has ensured the concerned MDAs gets the approval or relevant feedback within 2 weeks.
Mao has also encouraged open methods of work which has reduced intrigue at the ministry and he has also used the position to be outspoken against state operatives who commit acts of torture and to also incite citizens to assert their rights and demand for accountability.
Mao has also managed to candidly advise both the President and development partners regarding the future of governance in Uganda. He has also inspired his Acholi co-ethnics to feel some sense of inclusiveness regarding Museveni and his NRM government. Closely working with CJ Alfonse Dollo, Mao has managed to make Acholis in government to feel more powerful than had been the case before. And this is good for the political mobilisation of the country.
- Janet Museveni has also done well leveraging her office as first lady to get the President to prioritize funding hitherto ignored education institutions like Makerere University whose campus is now teeming with sprawling infrastructural projects which Barnabas Nawangwe has been able to deliver through her.
The story of the newly reconstructed Ivory Tower would have very differently if she wasn’t both the first lady and education minister at the time it suffered acts of arson! Being first lady, she got Museveni to put pressure on the finance ministry to quickly release the more than 25bn that was required for its rebuilding.
She has also been good at delegating her deputies like JC Muyingo and Joyce M Kaducu to be where she is unable to personally be. At the education ministry, she has managed to get key staff recruited to serve on more permanent basis, as opposed to acting capacit, including the permanent secretary Dr. Kedrace Turyagyenda.
At the education ministry, Janet Kataha has also leveraged her spousal proximity to get Museveni to prioritize better pay for teachers especially those on science subjects. Besides Makerere, Universities like Kyambogo have greatly benefited from her.
She has also empowered entities like UNEB and NCHE to effectively do their work. She has also been very supportive of curriculum reviews and also has the confidence of donors and development partners funding provision of educational services.
- At the health ministry, high performing Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng (who would be doing much better if it was not for the disruption Betty Amongi’s belligerent politics has caused for her back home in Lira City) has done exceptionally well and in the process improved health services delivery, built resilient teams at the ministry headquarters, motivated frontline health workers and won awards of recognition locally and internationally. Through her Uganda has won respect, trust and admiration of the international community when it comes to matters to do with public health.
Aceng, who has managed to maintain good composure even in the face of the Betty Amongin disruption, is a technical minister being a consultant paediatrician and is also an effective communicator always speaking with extreme clarity. It’s this God-given gift of being an eloquent communicator that she leveraged to effectively sensitize Ugandans and get them to collectively participate into Uganda’s national response against COVID19 and later on Ebola.
These were complex public health emergencies but Uganda managed to contain them effectively and ended up with even better outcomes than the developed world had; even when they are better-resourced. Aceng, who peers consider a perfect pick for the WHO Africa regional director job which recently became vacant following the incumbent’s death, was able to rally teams of experts in the country and ensured that Ugandans were safe-from COVID and subsequently Ebola-both nationally in Kampala and in the country side.
She also came off as the most patriotic minister under Museveni’s current term of government because of the courage, resolve and sense of purpose with which she aided the President as he led the country’s pushback against the Coronavirus.
In all that Aceng did and said, Uganda came first as she coordinated the response against the two above referenced public health emergencies. Aceng has also been a very accommodative senior minister; ever delegating her deputies Anifa Kawooya and Margaret Muhanga as opposed to wishing to shine alone. The latest edition of the demographic & health survey report (independently done by UBOS and development partners) quantifies the great transformation Uganda has registered in it’s health sector in the last 3 years of Museveni’s government; notwithstanding resource constraints.
We now have fewer mothers dying while giving birth, better child health indicators and the quality of care Ugandans get at public facilities is greatly inproved compared to what it was say 10 years ago. Even when she is their darling, Aceng has also been good at standing up to development partner representatives whenever she considers any of their actions repugnant and contrary to the interests of the Ugandan people.
She has fearlessly called them for closed door meetings and sessions at Sheraton Hotel from where she has read out the riot Act to them like no other Museveni minister can ever do. Aceng has repeatedly demanded that all health sector donors, including the Americans, submit to the authority of the ministry and even act more accountably regarding how they expend the billions they fundraise globally in the name of supporting the GoU’s health programmes.
- Robinah Nabbanja has also tried coordinating the entire cabinet and execution of government business in Parliament. She has also excelled at chairing cabinet meetings whenever the vice president J Alupo is unable. These two ladies were tasked by Museveni, who doesn’t attend cabinet very often these days, to always fill the vacuum and Rebecca Kadaga, who has also done pretty well at the East African affairs ministry, is the other senior cabinet person who the president tasked to help chair cabinet sessions in case Nabbanja and Alupo are absent.
- At the ministry of investments and privatisation, Evelyn Anite Kajik has done wonders ever luring investors to come and invest in the country. She is part of the reason why the President is opening up a new factory every now and then.
Anite, who is also good at using her social media platforms to clarify on government positions, has been able to do all this industrialisation work in such a way that every part of Uganda is covered with factories via the more than 25 industrial parks which have been operationalized in Museveni’s current term of government.
Anite has also used her position to occasionally speak out against corruption in public offices, something that has sometimes antagonised her with the mighty. Anite has also continued to be visible at her principal Gen Museveni’s wealth creation mobilisation tours and being free from constituency pressures has enabled her to concentrate on complementing the president’s economic transformation agenda. To be continued. Watch out for part 2.
