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Citizen Posts
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President Museveni’s cabinet came up with decisions to rationalize several government agencies and push them to their mother ministries as departments to minimize on the huge cash it spends in paying employees of these agencies.
The first victim of this process was the Rural Electrification Agency whose duties were pushed back to the ministry of energy and two years later, several others like the Diary Development Authority, Uganda National Roads Authority, Uganda road fund among others have all been pushed back to their mother ministries.
The Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) captured the attention of many Ugandans majority being coffee farmers who claimed it’s a wrong move to push UCDA back to the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) which they say has failed on several projects.
During the bill’s first reading where the speaker Anita Among was even heard saying now the famous line DON’T ALLOW THOSE BAGANDA’s TO GET THE NUMBERS, many MPs including NRM were opposed to the move to rationalize UCDA because it had surely done well in the coffee boom in the country.
Not only politicians but even other leaders like Katikiro Charles Peter Mayiga were opposed to the move to eliminate UCDA. Mayiga said UCDA had distributed over 10 million coffee seedlings in Buganda alone which boasted the Kingdom’s Emwanyi Telimba campaign hence improved quality and quantity of coffee. He said Buganda alone produces 50% of the coffee sold on the markets.
President Museveni would later come out to warn those opposed to the move of eliminating UCDA and threatened to crash them. He attributed the coffee boom to Operation Wealth Creation headed by his brother Gen Salim Saleh but not on UCDA as many Ugandans said.
Museveni would later summon his NRM Mps to his Kisozi farm in Gomba district and they came back with another mind to support the abolishment of UCDA amidst several threats from Museveni to crash those against the move.
However on Wednesday this week during a heated parliamentary session where MP Zaake was punched by fellow MP Anthony Akol, parliament quietly passed the National Coffee Bill which eliminated UCDA. This happened after unknown men in suits stormed parliament and dragged out several MPS majority being opposition. The men in suits also reportedly beat up journalists who were stopped from covering the scuffles.
It’s now clear, despite very loud voices from Ugandans urging government to keep UCDA but give it more financing and research, Uganda Coffee Development Authority was abolished and Ugandans await what the Ministry of Agriculture has in plan to keep and improve the coffee boom.
As every Ugandan was coming to terms with the rationalization/ elimination of UCDA, president Museveni has revealed the real reason behind the move. According to what the president said, it was not only about saving money given to the UCDA employees but he says the agency was doing something behind his back.
While making some address, Museveni who now refers to UCDA officials as thieves and parasites, he says the agency was giving opposition members of parliament coffee seedlings and denying the NRM legislators and it’s the reason opposition was against it’s abolishment.
Video Credit: UBC
Museveni’s revelation has however elicited mixed reactions with some questioning whether it’s only NRM people who pay taxes to deserve benefiting from government programs. The same voices of only considering NRM people for government programs have always been heard in Operation Wealth Creation and even the Parish Development Model where those opposed to NRM are not considered.
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