The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has advised President Museveni to fire ministers Elly Tumwine and Jeje Odongo due to their failure to protect Ugandans.
FDC alleges that the Security and Internal Affairs ministers have failed to stop the kidnap and murder of helpless Ugandans yet they received a lot of money in the Financial Year 2019/20.
Their call for firing the two ministers follows the recent murder of Joshua Nteyireho Ruhegyera, 38 and Ms Tumukunde Merina, 37, along the Entebbe Expressway; double murder of a social worker Maria Nagirinya, 28 and her driver Ronald Kitayimbwa, 35 and the triple murder of three people in Lyantonde.
FDC spokesman Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda told journalists during the press briefing at Najjanankumbi that although the ministry of Defence took lion’s share on the current national budget, nothing has changed.
“Last week five Ugandans were murdered and nothing has been done. These five people join a list of others murdered yet the responsible ministers are have taken to blaming the opposition. They should resign,” said Ssemujju.
He added that Museveni has always given excuse after excuse for his government’s failure to stop the murders. These include among others lack of funding.
“These gaps were unattended to until recently, not because they were not known, but because of lack of funding on account of competing demands,” said Museveni during the recent State of National Address in May.
But Ssemujju said; “Budgets of Police, Defence and ISO have dramatically gone up. The Ministry of Defence budget has increased from Shs2 trillion of 2018/19 to Shs6.9 trillion in the 2019/20 budget. The Police budget has increased from Shs666 billion to Shs2 trillion. External Security Budget has increased from Shs43 billion to Shs134 billion and that of ISO is now at Shs87 billion. The above figures include a classified component of Shs2.5 trillion but crimes of gruesome murder are just increasing so who is to blame, for the good of Uganda Museveni has to fire these people.”
He added that cameras have been bought and installed. Local Defence personnel have been recruited, trained and deployed but murders and kidnaps are increasing.
“As FDC we fear that this wave of insecurity might be perpetrated by elements within the security to justify the consumption of trillion of taxpayer’s money that has been allocated to this sector. Remember what happened during the Joseph Kony rebellion in northern Uganda. Executing that war became a business of many senior UPDF officers,” said Ssemujju.
According to FDC, the statement made by Jeje Odongo on Thursday last week offered no solution to the ongoing situations in the country but instead, he blamed the murders on politics and insinuated that National Resistance Movement (NRM) competitors could be behind them.
“Jeje Odongo Justified killings by saying that there is no society free of crime. Any functional government would have relieved people like Gen. Jeje Odongo and Gen. Elly Tumwine of their duties long ago. These should join Gen. Kale Kayihura and Lt. Gen. Henry Tumukunde on katebe,” said Ssemmujju.
Do you have a story in your community or an opinion to share with us: Email us at editorial@watchdoguganda.com
