By Mulengera Reporters
President Museveni has, while inaugurating his new Cabinet this Monday afternoon, explained why he thinks the East African Community Affairs Ministry which he assigned to Rebecca Kadaga is a very important docket regarding the future of this country.
Museveni said all his efforts aimed at industrializing Uganda while increasing industrial production are reliant on regional integration to ensure access to adequate market which will only be available once the EAC countries fully integrate. That the industrial goods being manufactured currently are the future of job creation which can only be realized once there is access to adequate market under a fully integrated EAC.
Museveni said Kadaga, who he called “my young sisster,” should be able to succeed in helping him deepen and accelerate regional integration because Mzee Magude Ikuya, who last week was supported with a wheel chair as he came for Parliamentary vetting, will be deputizing her and he is a very hard working and deeply knowledgeable veteran having been part of the Fronasa struggles of the 1970s.
In the same speech, Gen Museveni vowed to crush Ministers who fail to resist corruption and bribes from investors and other givers. Saying he is always getting information about Ministers who use their offices to solicit and obtain bribes, Museveni promised to facilitate some citizens with recording gadgets to get for him irrefutable proof of his Ministers soliciting or negotiating kickbacks. That he only regrets that investors rarely have the guts to record Ministers who harrass them while demanding for bribes. 
He also vowed to sort out the Uganda Police Force some of whose bosses are negligent and lack patriotism. He wondered why the Police leadership would chase away highly-skilled personel whose skills would be essential in tracking down assailants who targeted Katumba Wamala. He wondered why people with rare skills can be sidelined and forced out of the Police Force without being adequately replaced for all these years.
Museveni also asserted that his cabinet should be in position to amplify his economic transformation crusade which he has been on since 2013. He referenced on the diversity of his cabinet whereby it has people of all ages and backgrounds. He signalled the elderly Magude Ikuya and youthful Diana Mutasingwa to stand up to illistrate this point on age diversity.
He also explained why Jessica Alupo was the best for the VP slot and Robina Nabanja for Prime Minister. That Alupo is hard working and a honest politician with a lot of background in the Catholic Church. He recalled working with her to popularize commercial fruit growing in Teso. That her family also deserved recognition because her father, George William Epel, is a hero who was killed by a land mine planted by the LRA rebels as he went about his service delivery duties. He was a head teacher for a government primary school and met his death as he rode his bicycle to deliver UNEB examination scripts for his PLE candidates.
Gen Museveni caused laughter when he also made reference to Alupo’s bad side which is being a quarrelsome politician sometimes. He said one of the political feuds she was involved in related to Kasule Lumumba but didn’t disclose what the two babes were quarelling over. “I stepped in and mediated though she never paid my mediation fees,” said Museveni adding that he one time considered deploying Alupo to the frontline in Somalia so that her political anger reduces. He was grateful that the Katakwi Woman MP has since grown into a restrained lady who he is confident will excel serving the country as Vice President.
As for Nabanja, Gen Museveni said she is excellent because she is a people person, a mobilizer and anti-corruption. He revealed how she one time reported to him deeply entrenched corruption in the Parliamentary Commission where she used to serve as one of the Commissioners representing the NRM party.
That on corroborating Nabanja’s information, he discovered there was plenty of corruption in the Parliamentary Commission. Asserting that it’s also true Bunyoro has politically been marginalized since the days of British colonial rule, Museveni said he was proud of having a Prime Minister in Robina Nabanja who is truthful and open-minded.
Judith Nabakooba, Evelyn Anite, Rebecca Kadaga, Margaret Muhanga and Okello Oryem are some of the Ministers who were conspiceuously absent at the oath-taking ceremony which will be followed by the first cabinet session which Gen Museveni will be chairing on Monday. (For comments on this story, call, text or whatsapp us on 0705579994, 0779411734, 0200900416 or email us at [email protected]). 
