Keep the Army out of your tribalism nonsense – Museveni
By Faith Amongin
President Museveni has sternly warned propagators of the tribalism narrative to keep the army out of their 'nonsensical’ talk.
The President who took to his social media platforms to address the issue of tribalism that has since kicked up a storm in the past months, as he has on several occasions been accused of only appointing his tribesmen to occupy the high offices.
“My advice to all of you, is that leave your Army out of that nonsense. The NRA, the UPDF are Armies of sacrifice, all the time for no pay or low pay. They (we) put their lives on the line. Therefore, leave UPDF out of the circus of sectarianism. Fighters, real fighters, never have interests in tribes or religious sectarianism; but in comrade-in-arms,” the President said on Thursday.
In the same missive, the President also downplayed claims that the Public Service is dominated by people from the Western region stating that these are simply diversionary talks brought about to shift people’s attention to real developments.
“Even if the Public service was dominated by the Banyankore, it may not help that community to be any better than the others,” he said, adding tha: “The claim that the Banyankore or the Westerners are monopolizing the 480,000 Public service jobs cannot be true although, of course, I have not yet studied that diversion from addressing the four sectors of wealth and jobs that I always tell you about: commercial agriculture, industry, services and ICT,” he said.
While mentioning some examples of non-western individuals that have held high offices in the public service, the President said that such jobs are got on merit.
“If they recruit only Banyankore, those Banyankore must be exceptionally gifted. We shall get to the bottom of this nonsense. In any case, being recruited into the civil service, teaching service, judicial service (this is the only Commission headed by Kabiito from Western Uganda) or Health Service is by both written and oral examinations,” Mr Museveni said.
