Exclusive: Inside Museveni Meeting with Leaders of Branches of Gov’t

President Museveni last Friday asked leaders of the three branches of government to find solutions to Uganda’s endless problems.

The meeting, which lasted less than two hours, took place at State House Entebbe.

It was attended by Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga and her deputy Jacob Oulanya; Chief Justice Bart Katureebe and his deputy Owiny Dollo.

Also in attendance were NRM Secretary General Justine Kasule Lumumba, Vice President Edward Ssekandi and Prime Minister Dr Ruhakana Rugunda.

An official who attended the meeting but preferred anonymity to speak freely, said Museveni was visibly concerned by the challenges Uganda is facing and requested an input from the senior leaders to resolve them.

One of the president’s concern is that the political elite continues to distort the history of Uganda and misleading young people to take wrong actions.

He said this situation must be addressed to prepare the citizens to achieve common goals.

The second was that the politicians were not actively engaging people especially in rural areas to combat poverty.

He said areas in which he has sensitised people on embracing commercial farming and trade had realized considerable economic progress but a lot remained undone.

Museveni asked the state officials to help him address this matter.

The President went ahead to say the judiciary was not doing enough to help him combat crime.

“The criminals are arrested, prosecuted and then released,” said Museveni as he read from a prepared document, adding, “Then they commit fresh crimes.”

To the President, this has demoralized law enforcement and intelligence bodies whose members spend sleepless nights hunting down  the criminals.

Museveni recently said army deserters who in 2006 robbed a car and killed a person to conceal their crime were discovered, tried and sentenced to death by the Court Martial.

“The civilian court reduced the sentence to only 18 years and, recently, the same civilian system released them,” said Museveni in a recent statement on fighting crime in Uganda. “As a consequence of the actions of those civilian courts rubbishing the work of the guardians of peace, a total number of 4 Ugandans have died needlessly and the freedom fighters had to, again, burn the midnight candle so as to arrest these killers, again. They are now in the Court Martial, again.”

Museveni emphasised that the investment in technology in countering crime required support of the judiciary.

During the State House meeting, Museveni said he wanted the officials’ assistance to prepare Uganda to rise and shine.

After reading the document, the officials advised Museveni that his report needed to be fully studied and recommendations provided to him.

The meeting which had five lawyers (Kadaga, Katureebe, Dollo, Ssekandi and Oulanya) told Museveni that some of his concerns needed to be addressed by constitutional amendments.

“We asked that he gives us time to look at his document and respond accordingly,” said another official who spoke to ChimpReports on Sunday.

The President then gave the top shots two weeks within which to study and provide responses.

Museveni will meet with the top officials as soon they conclude their discussions on the president’s document.

After the meeting, Museveni suggested that they take a photograph before departing from State House.