The Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) has decried the recent cabinet reshuffle as a deliberate move to militarize the cabinet.
While addressing the press on March 27, 2024, at the party headquarters in Bukoto, Gerald Karuhanga, the ANT party spokesperson, said that President Museveni has continued to appoint serving military officers in Cabinet, adding that the cabinet will soon be full of military officers.
“We are really concerned about the militarization of government; the cabinet is full of generals like Gen. Muhoozi, Gen. Muwhezi, Gen. Otafiire, Gen. Katumba, Gen. Odongo, now Gen. Mbadi, and others,” Karuhanga said.
He added that some military officers are already running different entities, and others are permanent secretaries.
“We have Operation Wealth Creation headed by generals; the UPDF engineering brigade is now constructing roads in Kampala and building stadiums; all this is militarization of public service,” Karuhanga added.
The former MP for Arua Municipality and member of ANT, Kasiano Wadri, warned about increased government expenditure by the government as the recent reshuffle saw President Museveni increase the number of presidential advisors.
“On the cabinet reshuffle, some ministers were relieved of their duties but were appointed as presidential advisors. The fact that the president made some of them senior presidential advisors at the time the government wanted to merge agencies and save tax payers money was surprising since we expected the cabinet reshuffle to come with a reduced cabinet to save money, but here we have over 83 ministers,” Wadri said.
Wadri also compared Uganda to neighboring countries like Tanzania, which have fewer ministers but are fast-developing.
“Take the example of Tanzania with 29 ministers, more resources, a bigger population, and a larger size compared to Uganda. Look at the amount of money facilitating the ministers with fuel, salaries, accommodation, and health insurance,“ Wadri added.
ANT has joined the many opposition parties that have called for the reduction of the number of ministers to save on expenses and taxpayer money.
Early in February, the Ministry of Public Service requested the Parliament of Uganda authorize the allocation of over Ugx 79 billion to help merge different agencies and ministries.
