Owor Kipenji <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Is this another case of the stick and carrots politics at play???Kipenji
Museveni hints at Cabinet reshuffle
By Mwanguhya Charles Mpagi, Richard Mutumba & Emma Mutaizibwa
Aug 20, 2004
KAMPALA � President Yoweri Museveni has sent shivers running through the Cabinet after he hinted on a new line up. Sources say the President made the comment after a long Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. The first one this week was on Monday.
�The President said the matter we were discussing would be discussed by this Cabinet and the next Cabinet. We all heard it but he did not add anything. I think it was a slip of the tongue,� a Cabinet minister said yesterday.
The Monitor has learnt that the Cabinet sat on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the new trade zoning policy where the country would be zoned and each zone assigned specific products.
A source says the President did not pursue the matter further. The proposal is part of the President�s pet plan for the transformation of the country into an industrialised economy.
Another Cabinet source said the President warned his executives not to feel abandoned if they are left out of the new Cabinet. He reportedly told the ministers that they should continue to serve and support the Movement programmes whether they are in or outside the Cabinet.
Another Cabinet source confirmed the comments. �Certainly the President hinted that most of the remaining business would be handled by a new Cabinet,� the source said. The President�s hint comes amid weeks of intense speculation over when the next reshuffle would be announced.
Without directly commenting on the Cabinet meeting, the Attorney General, Mr Amama Mbabazi, told The Monitor in a separate interview yesterday: �The reason I was appointed AG is because there is an imminent reshuffle in Cabinet.�
Mbabazi, who is also the Minister for Defence, was reacting to concerns raised by MPs that his appointment as AG was irregular since he was not subjected to Parliament scrutiny. Asked if he would keep the two portfolios after the reshuffle, Mbabazi told The Monitor at Parliament yesterday: �If the President deems me fit, I will remain AG.�
Speculation about a new Cabinet has mainly been based on the many vacant posts, following the death of the Attorney General, Mr Francis Ayume, and the Second Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr James Wapakhabulo.
Recently, the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Kisamba Mugerwa, left to take up a job at the World Food Programme. The Minister of Finance, Mr Gerald Ssendaula, has also asked to retire from politics.
Sources say Museveni wants to ensure that the next Cabinet remains solid in the push to amend Article 105 (2) on presidential term limits.
�Of course if he is making any reshuffle, he would have 2006 in mind,� a minister said.Sources say the President hinted at the need for a �winning team�.
It is not clear what the new Cabinet line up would be, but sources say the President is conscious not to �offload� some ministers that might prove politically costly.The last major reshuffle was in May 2003 where most of the dropped ministers came out strongly to challenge the President�s third term �bid�.
Mr Eriya Kategaya, until then a defacto number two, former Ethics Minister Ms Miria Matembe, the former State Minister for Internal Affairs Ms Sarah Kiyingi, all immediately joined Pafo, which recently merged with Reform Agenda and National Democrats Forum to form the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party challenging Museveni�s leadership.
� 2004 The Monitor Publications
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