The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | LOUIS JADWONG & URN | Like the Coffee Marketing Board (CMB) before it, the lifespan of the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) has come to an abrupt end.
When the Managing Director and his board members hand over office, plus car keys today, it will be a formality. The dissolution of UCDA actually took effect on December 20, 2024 when President Yoweri Museveni assented to several amended Acts from parliament.
The law sent to the President by Parliament, states that on the commencement of the Act, the agencies shall be dissolved.
A transparent process to decide which core staff to retain will also start, an official told The Independent. Terminal benefits will be provided for those that will not be retained. (CLICK TO READ COFFEE BILL)
The implementation of the National Coffee Amendment Bill alone is estimated to cost sh3.4bilion in form of terminal benefits for about 47 staff to be laid off, but government is expected to make a saving of sh82 billion in the next financial year.
The policy behind the Bill is to give effect to the Government Policy for Rationalization of Government Agencies and Public Expenditure (RAPEX) which was adopted by Cabinet on February 22, 2021.
The winding up of UCDA brings to an end a year long debate on the way forward for the booming coffee sector. The rationalization policy is affecting several agencies, including the roads authority UNRA, but the biggest battle against the decision came from the coffee sector.
Government argued among many things that the high cost of administering the agencies has drained the national treasury at the expense of effective service delivery. The President argued that government is overstretched since the salary structures of the agencies created salary disparities between employees of the agencies and public officers.
The end of UCDA clearly marks another policy victory for the Executive in government.
It did not help that UCDA went on a massive publicity drive to defend their turf. UCDA will now not even have the 3-year “life support” it had been promised.
The President led the fightback against UCDA.
“We are going to have a showdown; they are liars and criminals playing with fire. They will not like the counterattack,” President Yoweri Museveni told Members of Parliament who belong to his ruling National Resistance Movement at his Kisozi farm in November.
“To be condemned, are those who I hear try to bring in the nonsensical tribalism. When Katikkiro Mayiga joined us in promoting coffee, we welcomed him. However, as OWC demonstrated, we were already moving…It is, therefore, sheer dishonesty, to bring up tribalism where the NRM is involved. The massive industries the NRM has built, are mainly in Buganda-Namanve, Mukono, Kapeeka, Matugga- Gombe area, Luwero Industries in Nakasongola, Kisozi, etc. These have direct benefit to nearby populations if they are well guided to take advantage of them,” Museveni said.
Earlier, Museveni vigorously defended in writing, his government’s decision to collapse the Uganda Coffee Development Authority-UCDA. He downplayed the role it has played over the years in coffee development.
In a seven-page response to the opposition against rationalizing UCDA, Museveni said Operation Wealth Creation-OWC which is under his brother Gen. Salim Saleh and himself have done more than what UCDA has done in improving coffee productivity and marketability.
“If UCDA and NAADS were successful, why were 68% of the homesteads still outside the money economy by 2013? OWC did much more work than NAADS and UCDA and CDO combined. In the Masaka area, Col. Nsamba, has distributed 1,000,074, coffee seedlings and caused the planting of 38,666.6 acres of coffee. OWC also gave out other planting and breeding materials: tea, fruits, pigs, cassava, etc., etc. That is how, for the first time in the history of Uganda, the number of the households in the money economy, is now 67% and those outside the money economy are 33%,” Museveni said.
He added that it is fraudulent for NAADS, UCDA, UDA among others to claim that the big boost in agricultural production is because of their efforts and that if they are not there, production will suffer. “I am the one who promoted the massive dairy production in the cattle corridor – all the way from Bukanga (Isingiro) to Karuma in Kiryandongo district. My dairy cattle evangelism would have reached the Karamoja border if leaders were humble enough to learn new things. I have been bringing delegations from all over Uganda to learn from the success in the cattle corridor to Rwakyitura, Kisozi, Nyakaana, Mrs. Kizza of Masaka etc. It is only Speaker Anita Among who promptly copied my example of cattle rearing when she visited me at Kisozi. She has now more than 1000 cattle,” Museveni said.
The President also castigated what he called tribalism that has characterized, the debate on coffee.
There has been stiff opposition from MPs from Buganda over the rationalizing of UCDA.
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