The chairperson of ‘Let’s Fight Illiteracy and Ignorance’ and the Uganda Association of the Uneducated Persons, John Bukenya, has urged the opposition members of the parliament to stop politicizing the Uganda Coffee Bill that seeks to rationalize the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) with the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries (MAAIF).
According to Bukenya, the Coffee Bill has come at a bad time for people to be playing politics, revealing that MPs are fighting against the Coffee Bill because they were not briefed well on the bill and some are just playing politics because they are nearing the election time.
“MPs should stop politicizing the bill and focus on developing Uganda. The time is now,” Bukenya said.
While addressing the press on Wednesday, October 30, 2024, at Nankulabye, Bukenya said that some of those agencies and ministries, such as the UCDA, drain the taxpayers money through the payment of salaries with minimal tangible results.
He also encouraged coffee farmers to continue growing coffee because it has nowhere to go and no one will register losses because of dissolving such ministries, stating that being a coffee farmer, the UCDA has done nothing concerning value addition to his coffee.
“I tell my fellow coffee growers, don’t lose hope and continue to grow your coffee. Don’t follow the negative statements by politicians concerning coffee. I don’t have any problem with the merger of UCDA with MAAIF because I am a coffee farmer, but both agencies have done nothing concerning value addition,” Bukenya said.
Concerning the Speaker’s alleged tribal statement, Bukenya said that the Speaker herself should come out and make an official clarification.
According to Bukenya, the speaker was not against Baganda because the coffee is grown by almost every tribe in Uganda, adding that it’s not right to think that she was targeting Baganda.
Last week, Uganda’s Parliament witnessed a heated debate while reading the bill to merge the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) with the mother Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries (MAAIF), where MPs, after an intense debate, voted 159 in favour of the bill and 77 against the bill.
UCDA was established in 1991 under the Uganda Coffee Development Authority Act, Cap. 325, which was repealed and replaced by the National Coffee Act No. 17 of 2021.
The authority’s mandate includes regulating activities within the coffee value chain, promoting coffee quality, supporting research and development, and optimizing earnings for stakeholders in the sector.
