The Prime Minister of Uganda, Rt Hon Robinah Nabbanja, on Monday clarified that her remarks on supervision of ministers were quoted out of context by the media.
Last week while interacting with Parliament’s Presidential Affairs Committee investigating the Karamoja iron sheets infamy, Nabbanja was quoted by the media to have said that the ministers are highly educated people to the extent that she can’t monitor or supervise their works.
“Some of these Ministers are highly educated. When you look at Hon Kitutu, she is highly educated, she is a Doctor – I don’t know a doctor in which field, but by the time you attain that status, you are highly educated. So I don’t know how you expect me to monitor a highly educated person of her caliber.”
She has since received condemnation from members of the public who say the remarks are an indictment on herself that she is not fit to lead, monitor and supervise her juniors.
However, in an interview with BaBa Television on Monday morning during the popular Gangamuka Show, Nabbanja said what she explained that what she said is being misreported by the media, affirming that her remarks were actually anchored in the assumption that learned people need not much supervision to deliver results.
How can they (those who quoted her as saying she can’t supervise highly educated Ministers) talk like that? I meant that using their high level of education – some PhD holders, the expectation is that they can tell what is wrong and what is right,” Nabbanja explained.
She said the President appoints the Ministers basing on their competencies and specialties with the expectation that they will use them to execute their duties deligently with minimal supervision.
“That is why the President picks them by the way. It is because of their qualifications so that they can do some work on their own with minimal supervision and by the way, the Ministers are supposed to advise the President, the Vice President and the Prime Minister when it comes to policy matters,” the Prime Minister explained.
She said her statement was in black and white, wondering why the media would deliberately choose to misrepresent what she meant. “There was nothing very significant in that, I am wondering why you people of the Press are making it a big issue.”
She did not have any kind words for some media practitioners whom she accused of always twisting what their guests or interviewees say for a sole purpose of making news.
“That is why some people don’t want to interact with the media. Some journalists frame or even misquote what we say and end up misinforming the public. For example, on this particular issue, my sentence was cut short, it was not completed, they didn’t report as I said, of course for their own interests,” Nabbanja said.
“There is a way you (Journalists) interpret your own things – you look for what is irrelevant, capitalize on it and give it unnecessary significance,” she added.
In meeting with the Presidential Affairs Committee, Nabbanja said all beneficiaries of the Karamoja iron sheets should return them, and today when asked how that is progressing, she said: “Some have returned them by the way and others are returning.”
Asked how much of a damage the scandal has caused to the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), Nabbanja wondered whether the question was not asked with sinister motives.
“Now you want me to quantify? Are you now looking for something else to put on social media?” asked the Prime Minister, and when reminded that the matter was a point of interest by many given that it even dominated Easter sermons across the country, she opted not to respond.
“I will not answer that one”.
Background
Last week, the Minister for Karamoja, Goretti Kitutu was remanded to Luzira prison for causing a loss of public property, corruption, and conspiracy to defraud the government.
Kitutu allegedly caused a loss of public property between June 2022 and January 2023 by diverting 14,500 pre-painted iron sheets intended for the Karamoja Community Empowerment Program to her own benefit and that of third parties.
Other officials implicated include; State Minister for Primary Education Joyce Moriku Kaducu, East African Affairs Minister Rebecca Kadaga, Speaker of Parliament Anita Among, Henry Musasizi Ariganyira, State for Finance, State Minister for Defense Jacob Oboth-Oboth, Finance Minister Matia Kasaija, his deputies, Amos Lugoloobi, the Third Deputy Premier Rukia Nakadama, Government Chief Whip Dennis Hamson Obua and Fred Bwiino Kyakulaga, the State Minister for Agriculture, among others.