By Our Reporters
Even when top technocrats’ continue to be uneasy towards each other regarding disagreements on how the payouts for the deprived Ugandan South Sudan firms would be handled, for once there is at least something to be unanimously excited about at the Finance Ministry. And this is the news that long-serving PSST Keith Muhakanizi (who has been unwell for a while) is now much better having undergone successful surgical operation in one of the Turkish cities.
Muhakanizi has been unwell after some prostate cancer cells (common occurrence in older men) reemerged in his body. This new development occurred five years after undergoing successful operation in India when the same was first diagnosed in him. “The good thing it was detected early and it was a much minor problem compared to what he endured the first time he was diagnosed with the same condition 5 years ago,” a knowledgeable source says of the sticking rich technocrat.
He was referred to the Turkish medical teams by his relative Prof William Bazeyo (the Makerere University DVC) who learnt a lot about the best treatment places as he was thickly involved in his wife’s prolonged but unsuccessful battle against cancer.
Bazeyo’s wife (who was Muhakanizi’s aunt) died a few months ago and family sources say it was Bazeyo who insisted that Muhakanizi goes to Turkey this time round and the beautiful results have vindicated the humble Makerere medicine professor.
“He [Keith Muhakanizi] was recently in Turkey for one of his final follow up medications and will soon be back in full swing. The doctors say he is clearly out of danger and this news has relieved many at the Ministry where his services are clearly still needed,” said a source adding that the news of this sufficient recovery has surprisingly excited even some officials who were unhappy with the way he intervened in the Sudan payments.
What is also more remarkable is the fact that Muhakanizi, upon equally wealthy Bazeyo’s advice, declined government funding as he went for his treatment in Turkey. He has had to pay everything for himself as well as getting voluntary contributions from close friends and family members. “The family considered it risky for him to subject himself to the government clearance procedures which take such a long time to be concluded. It was decided he uses his own means because time wasn’t on our side,” a family source says of the Turkish medication that has cost the PSST a huge fortune.
LIKED TECHNOCRAT
Especially lower level staff cadres at the Finance Ministry are very fond of Muhakanizi because of his humility and the simplicity with which he approaches life. He is always the first person in the office at level 7 of the Finance Ministry Building where he always arrives before 7am yet he never forces his subordinates to observe the same schedule.
At break time, he walks out of the building to sit at the staff canteen where he patiently lines up to serve himself from the serving tables. He will struggle and find where to sit without ever bothering the less prolific employees to give way for him. He prefers sitting and mingling with the lowest ranked staff who always see this as an opportunity to chat one on one with their boss and mentor. After having his snack, Muhakanizi then pays his bills and walks back to office.
Considering him to be a very powerful man capable of being easily targeted by rogue elements, the security establishment of this country has many times insisted on Muhakanizi moving in a big convoy with sharp shooters (similar to what clearly less significant legislators have) but the humble technocrat from Kigezi has consistently said no preferring his simple life.
He looks such lavishness as being wasteful of the tax payers’ money. He actually always move unescorted and the nearest person next to him always is a one Tom who serves as an assistant in his office. In conspicuous contrast, accounting officers (like Musisi, Allen Kagina etc) who actually rely on him to fund their MDAs have always pompously moved in long convoys, something Muhakanizi privately despises.
This is how a longtime acquaintance describes his simplicity: “Keith hasn’t just changed. That has always been his style. We have always known him for despising material things. They seldom fascinate him.” Muhakanizi will go to places like Parliament (he is often summoned there) walking on foot since it’s even so near his office. He carries his own paper work and always promptly keeps time.
He always speaks with rare innocence that sometimes makes him utter critical things some in the high political circles consider crossing the red line but Keith is too free-spirited to reflect on the consequences of annoying political superiors provided he is convinced that this is his honest technical opinion. He is also a networker who personally deals with many journalists and CSOs persons once he considers one helpful and relevant to interact with.
In Parliament, MPs have had to get used to his free style of ever telling it to them as it is. He speaks to their faces and wait to deal with the consequences. Sometimes he becomes so irritated and will feely bang tables in case MPs refuse or fail to comprehend what he considers basic things. He never panics and being one in charge of the national treasury, it’s possible the Parliamentary leadership knows way much better than annoying him.
A number of reforms he has ushered into the public finance management sphere can only be occasioned by one who is as thick-skinned as he is. There have been many such reforms following the OPM scandal of several years ago. These have saved lots of government cash and the powerful actors who used to take advantage of the loopholes to beat the system have never forgiven him. Some say even the collapse of Sudhir’s Crane Bank partly resulted from the firmness with which Muhakanizi has been acting as PSST.
He decentralized much of the finance management decisions, a thing that left local governments and the relevant CAOs powerless and unable to cut deals with any commercial bank. Sudhir’s very revolutionary bank was having a lion’s share of the banking deals in the district local governments upcountry and it’s expensively-built branches in upcountry towns became deprived of business the moment the PSST decentralized things.
CBL would make a killing handling many such lucrative transactions for the local governments without which its operations were significantly crippled. And you had to be a Keith Muhakanizi to walk away with it after causing so much deprivation to the powerful man Sudhir Ruparelia of those days had become.
Even before the President, the donor-favored Muhakanizi won’t easily be intimidated from speaking his mind as a knowledgeable technocrat. Newly appointed Ministers, who used to be full of excitement, had to adjust and get used to Muhakanizi questioning some of the unworkable directives from State House requiring him to prioritize funding things he considered unviable in their respective dockets. Having been around loyally working for Museveni for such a long time, Muhakanizi isn’t one that can be easily intimidated or blackmailed before the President because he has adequate mechanisms to fight back and clear his name. (For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).
