“THIS SHOULD BE THE LAST TIME I HEAR ABOUT THIS IRRATIONAL CONDUCT”
President Museveni has piled misery on one of the embattled ‘iron sheets’ minister also finance minister Matia Kasaija; this News site reveals.
The two principals are reading on different pieces of paper especially after Kasaija failed to honor key financial obligations as per the president’s guidance.
Kasaija who’s also the MP for Buyanja county is among the list of ministers facing investigation after they allegedly shared iron sheets meant for the underprivileged people of Karamoja region.
The latest is that, even before the dust on that saga settles, the same minister has rattled the head of state this time by disobeying his orders in relation to payment of Uganda’s Membership dues to various regional organisations including EAC, COMESA, IGAD and above all, the strategic African Union.
So embarrassing the matter is, that Gen. Museveni is said to be one of the key focal persons in the AU reffered to as Champions.
In letter dated January 28 2023 chanced on by our Inspectors addressed to Kasaija, the president has warned ‘Mr. Enkonome’ against appearing to run a disorganized kitchen.
“How can somebody fail to ensure that his kitchen is in order?” The president fumed.
Apparently, according to the letter entitled ‘Payment of Contributions To African Union’, state minister for regional affairs John Mulimba reported to him that Uganda had defaulted on payment of her subscription to the AU.
“This is not acceptable. Pan-Africanism for the sake of our aim of prosperity of our people, by them accessing the big African market, is the cornerstone of our revolution” Museveni started.
He went on ‘How can we not pay our subscription for EAC, COMESA, IGAD and AU? How can somebody fail to put his kitchen in order?’
According to Museveni, Uganda’s exports to EAC, COMESA and Africa in general, are USD3606.14m annually and therefore can’t be played around with.
“This should be the last time I hear about this irrational conduct” he warned Kasaija.
The president copied the letter to Vice President Jessica Alupo, Speaker Anita Among, Chief Justice Alphonse Dollo, Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, Foreign affairs minister JeJe Odongo and John Mulimba, the one who reported Kasaija.
WHY MUSEVENI IS BITTER
We established that for the president to have moved this far against Kasaija, it wasn’t by mistake.
Uganda is actually threatened with sanctions at the African Union with none of its leaders being allowed to attend or participate in any of AU meetings.
For example, of all countries in Africa, Uganda is among the seven defaulters at AU level. Others include Cameroon and Sudan.
Information available indicated that in a recent meeting, the list of seven countries that had paid partial payment were exposed. Our very own Uganda, out of over USD2.8m, has only paid USD933560 (47%) as at between January 2022-December 31 2022. Cameroon out of USD3.56m, it had paid USD3.22m representing 90.55% partial payment.
“Pursuant to the decisions above, as at 31st December 2022, the following seven countries should be considered for placement under sanctions. Countries to be placed under cautionary sanctions are Uganda. Countries to be placed under intermediate sanctions are Mali, Guinea, Lethotho, Central African Republic and Sao Tome and Principe” an inspector explained.
Under that arrangement of Cautionary sanctions, a member state (read Uganda), is deprived of their rights to speak at the meetings of African Union.
The same Executive Council of AU notes with concern the accumulation of arrears by Sudan to the Union’s budget and gave it up to July this year tl agree on the payment plan which should be reported to the council by July.
“As you can see, the president is right. Someone is out there to embarrass him. He’s a big person in the AU and also one of its promoters. What image does this failure to pay give to the country?” Asked an inspector.
We’re yet to find out if Uganda has finally paid but as of last week, things were still the way we have reported them here. Watch this space!
