MP Kafuuzi’s ministerial approval hangs in balance

The Attorney General chambers is destined for a leadership vacuum for some time after Parliament deferred the approval of presidential nominee for Deputy Attorney General’s (AG) role, Mr Jackson Kafuuzi, the Kyaka South MP.
Mr Kafuuzi was last month designated to replace Mr Mwesigwa Rukutana, as deputy attorney general, when President Museveni announced a mini-reshuffle of Cabinet. Mr Rukutana is now the State Minister for Labour.
Sunday Monitor has learnt that Mr Kafuuzi’s appointment has been temporarily halted by Parliament’s Appointments Committee pending proof of his record as a successful High Court advocate.
Sources within the Appointments Committee, chaired by the Speaker of Parliament, Ms Rebecca Kadaga, which vetted nine newly appointed ministers, revealed to Sunday Monitor that the MPs were not convinced that Mr Kafuuzi has got the experience to hold the office of Deputy AG.
“All were approved save for Mr Kafuuzi. He failed to adduce sufficient evidence that he has the competence and experience to serve as the Deputy AG,” one source said.
Another source added: “Honorable Kafuuzi had the unquestionable academic qualifications and answered our questions related to the job very well.”
But, his trouble was lack of proof of competence in arguing high profile cases in the High Court, Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.”
The sources said Mr Kafuuzi was not rejected in “totality” but the committee directed the Clerk to Parliament, Ms Jane Kibirige, to write to the High Court to provide record as an advocate of the deputy AG designate.
But when Mr Kafuzi walked out of the South Committee Room of Parliament where the vetting was conducted, he told journalists that he had a friendly interaction with fellow MPs on the committee.
He outlined some of the key issues he would work on when he takes over office as deputy of Attorney General William Byaruhanga.

Mr Kafuzi promised to convince government to recruit more lawyers to serve in the Attorney General chambers to reduce the burden of losing cases; improving presence of Attorney General’s office in the House on all legal matters during plenary; and, improving the negotiations of contracts to ensure government does not lose out when they go bad.
Mr Kafuuzi holds a Bachelor of Laws Degree from Makerere University and Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Development Centre (LDC). Before being elected to Parliament, he served as an advocate at Rwakafuuzi & Company Advocates

Ministers approved

Meanwhile, sources that attended the vetting committee meeting revealed that the rest of the ministers were approved much as some of them found it hard to answer questions related to their integrity.
Those approved included Mr Raphael Magyezi (Local Government), Ms Molly Kamukama (Economic Monitoring), Ms Judith Nabakooba (Information and ICT), Ms Robinah Nabbanja (Health General Duties), Ms Beatrice Anywar ( Environment), Mr Denis Hamson Obua (Sports), Mr Peter Ogwang (ICT), and Ms Hellen Adoa (Fisheries).