By Mulengera Reporters
The proceedings at today Monday Cabinet session had gone very well with Minister Musa Ecweru making a hilarious submission in response to a paper the Minister of Health had just presented regarding what the country must do to amplify Covid19 vaccines take up in the face of the 3rd wave which the Wandegeya-based Ministry says is already underway.
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Some of the things that were up for discussion included how school-going children, of the appropriate age, can be vaccinated with full approval of their parents so as to mitigate against severe disease cases under the 3rd wave. General reluctancy and vaccine fatigue among the elderly was equally discussed prompting Ecweru to make his humor-packed and hilarious submission.
The State Minister for Works observed that in his constituency many old people are Covid19 vaccine-phobic because of claims that taking up the vaccine can compromise their manhood and make them impotent. He comically made reference to Matia Kasaija and other elderly Ministers who he challenged to tell Cabinet if they shared similar fears.
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After Ecweru‘s submission, VP Jessica Alupo who was chairing the meeting in absence of Gen Museveni, signaled Premier Robinah Nabanja (who had been itching to talk) to say something. Crude and rudimentary as always, the flamboyant Kakumiro Woman MP squarely put the blame on Jane Ruth Aceng, who used to be her very strict boss at the Health Ministry where she served before elevation to the Premiership. 
Nabanja, as always talking on top of her voice, said the Country had failed to make adequate progress on Covid19 vaccination because of the ineptness of the Health Ministry. She asserted that many citizens had stopped on one jab and were reluctant to take their 2nd one because the Ministry failed to adequately invest in publicity for vaccination. She also said she had heard that once people take up the booster dose, they more less become immune to new Covid19 infections. She then wondered why this wasn’t being popularized. In her view, the blame still goes to the Health Ministry because the vaccines are there just like the money to do the publicity.
Aceng, who many consider to be one of the toughest and most combative Ministers in that Cabinet, predictably shot back demanding to know why Nabanja, who chairs the National Covid19 taskforce, wasn’t giving leadership and had resorted to merely lamenting. 
She revealed how her Health Ministry wrote to Nabanja as Chairperson of the national taskforce imploring her to resume convening meetings but up to this day, none has ever been convened. Aceng added that Nabanja hadn’t only failed to convene meetings but also came off as such a very poor communicator. She wondered why Nabanja took up to June this very year to reply the letter the MoH wrote to her in January.
OTAFIIRE SWINGS:
Gen Kahinda Otafiire put up his hand and Alupo chose him to say something. He politely faulted the Prime Minister for being impatient and unfairly expecting or demanding for too much from officers at Aceng‘s Health Ministry. He said Covid19 was a new thing which everyone, including the best scientists in the developed world, was learning more about every passing day. He suggested that Nabanja calms down and stops the blame game targeting the Health Ministry as if she isn’t part of government herself. 
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Nabanja took this as being disrespectful and provocation. She immediately shot back demanding to know what Otafiire exactly wants from her. “Hon Gen Otafiire you are taking it personal. Why go attacking me everywhere? The other day you were with some people trying to fight me in my constituency and now here. What did I do to you? Be on record today and tell this meeting what is it that you want from me and I determine if I can give it to you?” Nabanja roared.
Otafiire didn’t even allow her to finish what she was saying. He raised his voice and said Nabanja was too insignificant for him to want anything from her. “Who are you by the way? I don’t even know you and you don’t even exist in my mind. You aren’t one of the things I ever think about because to me, its like you don’t exist,” Otafiire exploded banging tables and talking on top of his voice, prompting a nervous Nabanja to begin wailing. One Minister had to surrender her handkerchief for Nabanja to wipe off tears that kept flowing down her cheeks as Otafiire roared like a wounded lion.
“Who is she by the way? I don’t even know her name. I respect people who earn my respect but not this one. Respect is earned and she is one fellow who has never earned my respect,” Otafiire told off some elderly Ministers who were imploring him not to quarrel with a woman in public.
Speaking in Kiswahil as fellow Ministers unanimously cheered him on (truth is many of them hate Nabanja as if she is a leaper), Otafiire said (in Kiswahil): “And by the way, that woman doesn’t know anything and will never know anything.” He likened her to the character Bobi Wine sang about (in his Mr. Katala song) saying that the one who doesn’t know and knows that she or he doesn’t know, is a clever person who only needs help unlike one who doesn’t know that he or she doesn’t know. 
There was growing chaos inside the Cabinet meeting and it took Alupo more than 30 minutes to call back the meeting to order. Cabinet Ministers said Otafiire spoke in Kiswahil to exhibit or demonstrate the extent to which he was angry with Nabanja‘s provocation. As he went about spitting fire in a thunderous voice, some Ministers were seen reaching out to colleagues who know the same language to interpret for them to be able to understand and follow what the General from Mitooma was saying.
“He was so angry, we feared he would shoot someone in case riffles had been allowed into the meeting. Forget about the Otafiire who cracks jokes. The one of today was real furious and many of us feared he was going to beat up Nabanja or some of those who were trying to calm him down,” said one of the Ministers at the Monday session.
The unanimous cheers and standing ovation Gen Otafiire received inside the meeting room and in the parking as members departed State House after picking their phones (they are never allowed into Cabinet room with them) proved the extent to which Nabanja, under whom Cabinet level chaos has continued to reign, is a hated figure among fellow Ministers. At the OPM, where she is proud to be the Alpha & Omega, Minister colleagues aren’t enthusiastic towards her meetings anymore because they consider her bossy and too belligerent even without provocation. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [whatsapp line], 0779411734 & 0200900416 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
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