MUSEVENI: This was a “tremendous” cabinet

The current Cabinet brought our country to near middle status

President Yoweri Museveni on Wednesday held a special luncheon for the outgoing Cabinet, describing it as ‘tremendous’ and one, which almost took Uganda to a middle income status.

According to a report from State House, Museveni hosted the ministers to a luncheon shortly after chairing a cabinet meeting. Using proverbs and powerful anecdotes congratulated the outgoing cabinet for pushing Uganda to its present status.

The Banyankole have a proverb, “Owa yekuba ekikungu a shana na kyo,” (When you sit near the red anthill, you will also get the colour of the anthill), the President said, emphasizing that when the NRM came from the bush, they preached the philosophy of unity and oneness. “You don’t think about religion you don’t think about tribes,” he told his cabinet colleagues at State House Entebbe.

Museveni drew on another example of unity in diversity of a religious kinyankole song Ruhanga Isiitwe (God our father) which is sang by all various religious denominations including Catholics and Protestants. He said the Catholics of Bukalango in Wakiso who prayed for him shortly before he kicked off the just concluded campaign season also sang the same song.

Using another proverb to drive his point home, Museveni said despite the challenges, Uganda has progressed tremendously.

“Omugwerera akatweka enyanja ati ano bwoba atahire abaraguruka. (A mad man set fire to the wet grass near the lake but it did not burn properly and he said even if you have all not burnt, at least you have felt the fire),” he said, describing Uganda problems as many and that even if not all of them have been fully resolved, many have felt the pressure of NRM.

Museveni said that when the National Resistance Movement (NRM) came into power Uganda had so many problems but majority have since then been resolved. He added that the next term will be much easier, as Uganda will have started exploring its oil.

“We have finished the issue of the pipeline and are going to start exploring our oil. By 2019, we shall start earning money from the oil,” he said.

The President hailed the Cabinet “that has taken Uganda to near middle income status.”