A glance at Museveni’s first 100 days of fifth term

President Museveni receives instruments of power from Chief Justice Bart Katureebe after swearing in at Kololo Independence Grounds on May 12. PHOTO BY ERIC DOMINIC BUKENYA

What you need to know:

100-day mark. President Museveni has dealt with many issues since he took office on May 12. They include reshuffling his Cabinet and brought in new and old faces in a delicate balancing act; facing economic problems, poor social service challenges, increased cases of police brutality and has covertly worked to strengthen relations with other countries, writes Yasiin Mugerwa.

Yesterday (Saturday) President Museveni marked 100 days in office, peaking the first three months of his fifth-elective term, anchored on his ambitious promise of transforming Uganda from a poor nation to a middle-income status by 2020.

In the fading shadows of a contested election; even with the mist of police brutality, poor service delivery on account of corruption, poverty and unemployment, the public rallies to a fifth-term chief executive who came to office riding on a tide of “steady progress” amid pockets of disapproval of his 30-year leadership.

While President Museveni’s adviser on political affairs, Mr Moses Byaruhanga, and other pro-government voices agree that 100 day mark is a meaningless number and arguing that it is too soon to judge the work of the President, government critics such as Peter Walubiri, a lawyer, Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago and others insist that the time is sufficient for any “Hakuna Mchezo leader”- the reference to an experienced no-nonsense president, to deliver on the most important aspects of his or her manifesto.

“In respect of the achievements of the first 100 days, we have never accustomed ourselves as NRM government on that promise of first 100 days I normally see it with the American presidents,” Mr Byaruhanga said.

“Ours is a holistic approach, we have a manifesto for the five years and the manifesto is implemented through the Budget, detailing government priorities such as development/ infrastructure financing taking 56 per cent and the remaining 44 per cent going to recurrent expenditures.”

Harvesting mistakes
Assessing President Museveni’s performance in the first 100 days of his fifth-term, former Housing minister Captain Francis Babu turned to the Biblical teachings about “sowing and reaping” to help him describe what’s happening to a President he said is “on damage control”.

The former member of NRM’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) said: “[President Museveni] is harvesting what he sowed. [The] one man’s show wants to solve all problems….appointing people to lead who are on his whims…. pay as you go Parliament and meeting teachers, health workers, and others.”

Asked whether the President has started delivering on the promises he made to Ugandans in his 2016-2021 manifesto, Capt Babu added, “Until he creates a team of capable people, he cannot run the whole government. [For instance,] the minister of Education [and Sports] has failed with non-teaching staff, now the President wants to meet them. That undermines the minister. Or maybe his ministers are paper tigers! He met health workers… what is minister and permanent secretary’s role?”

One hundred days into office, President Museveni’s approval ratings, however, remain hazy particularly in the eyes of his critics, even as the President proposes new approaches to service delivery in a new term labelled Kisanja Hakuna Mchezo (term of no-playing games).

According to Information and ICT minister Frank Tumwebaze, Mr Museveni in his first 100 days has been up to speed with not only the preliminaries of his constitutional obligations of forming the new government, but “he has also gone beyond and embarked on orientation for his new Cabinet team to ensure that all his delegated officials that do work on his behalf in different sectors fully understand his priority focus for the new term of government.”

Accounting for the President’s 100 days in office, Mr Tumwebaze also explains that he conducted two intensive sessions of an inaugural Cabinet and put his strategic priorities in writing with well-articulated methodologies and implementation timeliness.

In addition to the inaugural Cabinet, the minister says, the President convened a 10-day retreat at National Leadership Institute in Kyankwanzi for the ruling party leaders, ministers and permanent secretaries.

“The rationale of this was to ensure that all stakeholders appreciate and understand the new focus and thinking of the Kisanja Hakuna Mchezo,” Mr Tumwebaze says, adding, “Every minister/ministry now has key well-known tasks to deliver on and to account on. Every quarter, the President will be meeting ministry leaders team by team to account on the implementation progress of the key performance indicators they were given.”

Illuminating on Museveni’s 100 days in office, Mr Tumwebaze and Mr Byaruhanga cite his commitment and focus on investing more funds into infrastructure development (electricity, roads, railway, Internet, etc.), agriculture and defence among other key priorities so as to grow more jobs and businesses.

They also say the President’s stance on fighting corruption and delaying of investments by those mandated to regulate them; fighting impunity and complacency in government offices in the delivery of public services all give the country a good start in this new term.

To stay the same
Although Mr Museveni might have been “up to speed with the preliminaries of his constitutional obligations” as his supporters argue, to his critics as wells as independent political analysts, the first months of his leadership is a cocktail of the good, the bad and the ugly and in many aspects embody the challenges ahead.

Other Opposition leaders such as Mr Mathias Mpuuga (Masaka Municipality) are of the view that with the exception of the recent appointment of “friendly Opposition members” in his new Cabinet, “the more things change, the more they stay the same”.

The NRM secretary general, Ms Justine Kasule Lumumba, however, disagrees with Mr Mpuuga’s analysis and explains that in his first 100 days in office, President Museveni has worked so hard to lay the foundation for the implementation of the NRM manifesto.
Ms Lumumba cites Mr Museveni’s fifth-term Cabinet line-up she calls “a winning team” and the restructuring of some ministries to expand service delivery in the country. She explains that the President embarked on his promise to fight corruption and that the progress is evident, citing the tabling of the Leadership Code (Amendments) Bill, 2016 that seeks to, among others, give teeth to the Inspectorate of Government in the fight against corruption.

Actions since May
President Museveni has dealt with many issues since he took office on May 12. He has reshuffled his Cabinet and brought in new and old faces in a delicate balancing act; faced economic problems, poor social service challenges, including the 68 per cent of the population outside the money economy.

He has also faced increased cases of police brutality that has pitted the Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, and senior police commanders against citizens, and has covertly worked to strengthen relations with other countries although the South Sudan conflict and unresolved Burundi crisis continues to be his headaches in the new term.

Although Mr Museveni’s critics don’t see his feats in the past 100 days in office and doubt his seriousness in uniting the country to confront on the challenges ahead, the deputy NRM secretary general, Richard Todwong talked of a visionary President who has come out strongly than ever before against corruption and deliberately appointed a mixed Cabinet to demonstrate national unity.

Although other regime apologists who talked to Sunday Monitor were proud of the successes, they insisted that more has to be done, adding that political will to fight corruption is the panacea to the difficulties the country is facing today.

Steady progress or retrogress
At a recent Cabinet retreat in Kyankwanzi, the head of Internal Security Organisation (ISO) Brig Ronnie Balya warned that pervasive graft involving bureaucrats coupled with deteriorating public services are a security risk, and could take down President Museveni’s government.

The Inspector General of Government, Ms Irene Mulyagonja, expressed related concerns at the retreat and called for political will and increased funding to the fight against corruption.

In his 50-page document, Brig Balya said: “[The] failure to provide, monitor and evaluate service delivery, could result in undesirable situations; including political dissent, rebellion, demonstrations, attempting violent regime change/coups or any form of instability.”
Giving a snapshot of Mr Museveni’s 100 days in office, Shadow attorney general Wilfred Niwagaba wrote in an email to Sunday Monitor: “In rule of law, we witnessed the siege of Makindye court by goons; In the economy- everyone wants to be bailed out using taxpayers’ money; in social services, we saw strikes of non-teaching staff in public universities and in health sector, the President sacked the poorly paid and poorly motivated Nakawuka Health Centre III medical officers and replaced with UPDF. How about the doctors’ cries including sick health facilities in the various parts of the country?”

With all these and more problems happening in his first 100 days in office, Mr Niwagaba portended that all this suggests that in the months to come, the most useful precedent for Mr Museveni’s presidency may not be his willingness to fight corruption, not even pushing Uganda to a middle-income status, but “poor service delivery to Ugandans and more poverty engulfing citizens” and for this, he said, “It can’t be steady progress but rather steady retrogress.”
The chairperson of NRM Women League, Ms Lydia Wanyoto, who is also a member of NRM’s top organ- the CEC, however, holds a different view of Mr Museveni’s 100 days in office.

“Mzee is still forming government and orienting the teams he believes will deliver the manifesto. He is alive to that fact that he has to build unity which explains Opposition representatives in Cabinet, blend generations, cause reconciliation out of conflicts that were occasioned by elections. I believe that where he is as he marks 100 days of steady progress,” Ms Wanyoto said.

However, according to Mr Okello Oduman, an economist, President Museveni’s 100 days in office were about reviewing what has not worked in the last 30 years of his leadership and setting targets for his Cabinet, informed by the needs of citizens.

“They must tell us how his performance shall be measured in each year; of the means of measuring Cabinet performance, expenditure against budget will be only a minor yardstick. We need progress on socio-economic indicators; voters need money in their pockets generated by themselves - not given to them,” Mr Oduman says.

“While I have no number for the ideal size of Cabinet, a big Cabinet only brings inertia. Examples from high-flying countries and economies can help. You need only four bulls to pull an ox-plough. Sometimes even two do the same job! What do you get if you tie in five?”

Explaining what should be done to surmount the challenges ahead, Mr Walubiri proposes that Mr Museveni’s government “sorts out governance issues first”.

“We need a lean government with restricted powers and which is accountable to the people. There should be two term limits to all elective offices and all senior public offices and people who have served two terms in any public office should not be recycled elsewhere,” Mr Walubiri says

“We need to strengthen institutions and rationalise pay in the public sector. Private prosecution including recovery of stolen assets should be entrenched in our Constitution.”

Changing face of 10-point plan

Old 10-point plan
• Democracy
• Security
• Consolidation of national security and elimination of all forms of sectarianism
• Defending and consolidating national independence
• Building an independent, integrated and self-sustaining national economy
• Restoration and improvement of social services and the rehabilitation of the war-ravaged areas
• Elimination of corruption and misuse of power
• Redressing errors that have resulted in the dislocation of sections of the population and improvement of others
• Co-operation with other African countries in defending human and democratic rights of our brothers in other parts of Africa
• Following an economic strategy of mixed economy.

New 10-point plan
• Fighting ideological disorientation
• Eliminating sectarianism
• Improving education to refine human resource
• Facilitating private sector-led economic growth
• Developing road, rail and electricity infrastructure
• Market expansion through regional integration
• Pursue industrialisation for exports’ value addition
• Develop the service sector to create jobs
• Modernise agriculture to increase household incomes
• Deepen democratic governance

Timeline

May 12
Museveni is sworn-in as US, EU envoys walk out. The representatives walk out of President Museveni’s swearing-in ceremony at Kololo because Sudanese president Omar al Bashir is in attendance and President Museveni bashed the ICC.

May 15
After condemning legislators’ contentious tax deal as “politically and morally incorrect”, President softens his stance on the proposed amendment to income tax law. He promises to talk to “Finance people” about the issue because he too, thinks it’s wrong to tax mileage.

May 19
President Museveni, in an unprecedented attendance to witness the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker, says he did nothing wrong by giving each NRM MP Shs5m ahead of the vote.

May 30

President Museveni hosts South Korean leader Park Geun-Hye and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in successive days. A two-day blockade of Entebbe Road and other city roads leaves Kampala city and neighbouring Entebbe Town in heavy traffic snarl-ups.

June 6
After months of waiting, President Museveni announces his new Cabinet which sees the most senior jobs remain in the same hands, others demoted and at least 35 ministers dropped. He also appoints Opposition figures.

July 26

President Museveni speaks out on the plight of distressed companies. He says only those that sold goods to South Sudan government but were not paid will be bailed out. He also adds that those to be bailed out include those that supplied good to Ugandan ministries.

July 12

Museveni orders the evacuation of all Ugandans trapped in South Sudan following fresh clashes between forces loyal to South Sudan president Salva Kiir and those of his deputy Riek Machar.

July 31
Mr Museveni says government is planning to downsize the civil service to help save money to improve on service delivery. The President tasks former Finance minister Dr Ezra Suruma to lead a study on the bloated public service.

Aug 3
While on a visit to Nakawuka in Busiro, President Museveni orders that health workers at Mpumudde Health Centre III should stop operating from the district after residents complained about them.

Aug 16
Non-teaching staff in government universities call off 17-day strike after President Museveni promises to solve their grievances on salary enhancement and salary arrears in three months.

Reaction

Frank Tumwebaze, Information minister:
“Every minister/ministry now has key well-known tasks to deliver on and to account on. Every quarter, the President will be meeting ministry leaders team by team to account on the implementation progress of the key performance indicators they were given.”

Capt Francis Babu, Former Minister:
“Until he creates a team of capable people, he cannot run the whole government. [For instance,] the minister of Education [and Sports] has failed with non-teaching staff, now the President wants to meet them. That undermines the minister.”

Wilfred Niwagaba, Shadow Attorney General:
“In rule of law, we witnessed the siege of Makindye court by goons; In the economy- everyone wants to be bailed out using taxpayers’ money; in social services, we saw strikes of non-teaching staff in public universities and in health sector, the President sacked the poorly paid and poorly motivated Nakawuka Health Centre III.”