Throughout the week, social media has been awash with news about the existing bad blood between Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja and the Minister for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, Eng. Hilary Onek.
It all started with Minister Onek’s letter which made rounds on social media.In the letter, Onek said “From the time of your appointment, have been observing with total displeasure the fact that my role and that of my deputy as the Ministers in charge of refugees and disaster and the lead policymakers on matters of refugee and disaster management have been totally usurped by your office. On 29th October 2021, you called for a meeting with the local leadership of Bududa without involving my office or even the area MPs which may lead to decisions being made that contradicts earlier and official cabinet position.”
Reacting to the Minister’s letter, Nabbanja noted, “I want members to appreciate that we are changing the modes of how we operate; I have worked with very many ministers. How have I usurped their powers? He must know that I’m a leader of government and I’m mandated by article 108 to coordinate government business.”
The battle was escalating until the Vice President Maj (Rtd) Jessica Alupo intervened on Thursday. After a closed door meeting, Alupo informed the public that the two had agreed to work together for the betterment of Uganda.
However, a section of Ugandans have since appreciated Nabbanja’s style because she was meeting the end-user of taxpayers’ money.
According to Executive Director Alliance for Finance Monitoring (ACFIM), Henry Muguzi, Mr Onek has been disaster Minister for long and his way of work has been to sit in the comfort of an airconditioned office and boardroom, and then wait to receive paper accountability from the technocrats. However, to Nabbanja its a different story;she is always on the ground no matter the cost.
“If Hon. Nabbanja had not moved out of the office to personally witness the quality of beans, blankets and mosquito nets delivered to the flood victims in Kasese, the country would never have known about the substandard blankets and mosquito nets. The scale of corruption and underperformance in the docket of disaster preparedness requires a level of vibrancy which Hon. Onek seems to be uncomfortable with it. The role of the Prime Minister in Uganda is to monitor the performance of ministries and lead government business. And Hon. Nabbanja is simply trying her level best to take the government to the people. This is one thing that Hon. Onek has failed to do during the last two terms he has been in office.”
Ali Kaketo, one of the dealers that have always attained tenders from the Ministry of Disaster preparedness to supply goods to areas affected by calamities told this website that before Nabbanja’s interventions they used to pay a lot of kickbacks and the emphasis on standards was very low.
“We have always wanted to ensure standards but we used to pay a lot of kickbacks to ensure tenders to pass through. However when Nabbanja started to directly contact us, work is going on smoothly, in fact even though they agreed to work together we are not going to struggle like before.”
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