Museveni rejects Otafiire plea to retain UTL boss
President Museveni has rejected Justice Minister Kahinda’s Otafiire’s call to renew the contract of Uganda Telecom administrator Mr Twebaze Bemanya and ordered that he be replaced.
The decision comes nearly three weeks after the President ordered the Minister of Finance Matia Kasaija not to renew Bemanya’s contract as the Administrator of Uganda Telecom Limited (UTL).
On November 9, Mr Museveni wrote to Mr Otafiire informing him that Mr Bemanya must be replaced. He was responding to Otafiire’s earlier letter on November 6 requesting the President to extend Bemanya’s contract.
Mr Museveni told Otafiire that appointment of a new Administrator would bring cohesion in the government’s efforts to revamp UTL since Mr Bemanya has had a sour relationship with the State Minister for Privatisation and Investment Ms Evelyn Anite whom the President praised as one of the active bazukuru (grandchildren) the country has.
“I have received your letter of November 6, 2019, about the Administrator of Uganda Telecom Limited (UTL), whose time is expiring but you want to renew the contract. Mr Bemanya is always in conflict with Minister Anite. Anite is one of our very active Baijukuru (grandchildren, in the local Runyankore translation),” Mr Museveni told Otafiire.
The President noted that the endless friction between Bemanya and Ministry of Finance is not good for the management of the state corporation.
The President has since reportedly declined to meet with Mr Bemanya to discuss his fate as UTL Administrator.
“In the interests of cohesion, get another Administrator. It is easier that way. Going on with endless tension is not good management,” the President wrote to Otafiire.
Sources privy to the matter said Kasaija and Ms Anite clashed with Mr Keith Muhakanizi, the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, over the renewal of Bemanya’s contract during a meeting with the President this month. Mr Bemanya’s contract expires this Friday.
According to the sources, Mr Muhakanizi had held his ground to convince the President to renew Mr Bemanya’s contract but Kasaija and Anite refused, saying the renewal would spell doom for UTL.
The decision was taken at the Extraordinary General meeting of UTL on November 8. It was resolved that a new administrator be recruited to oversee the extension of the Administration of UTL for another year to identify potential investors into the national corporation.
The Office of the Auditor General is currently doing an audit of UTL following a court order. Before the court order to audit UTL was secured by Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) which is one of the creditors, issues of the telecom company in which the government only controlled 31 percent shares at the time it went into Administration in 2017, had pitted Ms Anite and Kasaija on one side against the Deputy Attorney General Mr Mwesigwa Rukutana, Mr Otafiire, and Mr Muhakanizi on the other.
Mr Bemanya remains the Registrar General of Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) following Minister Otafiire’s renewal of his contract in July at least nine months before its expiry date.
