Ministers Dr Ruth Nakabirwa Ssentamu, Rapheal Magyezi and David Bahati dominated Monday’s cabinet meeting as they tried to convince President Museveni and fellow ministers to support their arguments concerning their respective ministries.
Highly placed cabinet sources told Ono Bwino that the meeting was tense from the onset because President Museveni’s demeanor was scary and he looked angry as if he had a lot on his mind.
He started by placing minister Bahati on spot to explain where he got the authority to suspend the ongoing trade order operation against errant traders in cities and town councils around the country.
The president was very bitter and asked his Vice President Jessica Alupo and Robina Nabbanja to tell the public whether they were involved in Bahati’s decision of suspending the operations which they all denied.
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Before leaving the meeting to go and handle other sensitive national issues, the President told cabinet that the on-going trade order operation is a security issue.
He wondered why minister Bahati did not first bring the matter to cabinet for guidance before misleading the public on the floor of parliament.
The President further wondered why there is no coordination between his cabinet.
He immediately directed that any government communication on the floor of parliament should be made through the Vice President or Prime Minister who is the leader of government business.
Highly placed sources said that trade order operations were discussed in the recent security council and army high command and the President promised to communicate the resolutions to his cabinet but our source was not sure whether it was communicated or not.
In his communication to parliament, Minister Bahati alleged that the decision to suspend the trade order operations was made in cabinet after receiving several petitions from religious leaders and other opinion leaders noting that another announcement concerning the said issue will be communicated in June after President Museveni swearing-in ceremony.
Sources further said that because of the president’s bitterness over the matter, Kampala city and metropolitan senior minister Hajat Minsa Kabanda and his counterpart in the ministry of local government held a press conference at the media centre and announced the resurrection of the trade order operations.
They pleaded with public not to intervene with the enforcement officers.
However, before leaving the cabinet meeting, the President directed the Vice President and Prime Minister to make sure that the public is sensitized on the good of the operations and mobilized to trade from within the gazetted places especially markets built by government not on the road side.
Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA) national chairperson supported cabinet directive on the trade order noting that sanity has returned in the city.
However, he warned the president to be careful with people who enforce the directive claiming that some are using it to incite the public against the government by demolishing people’s properties beyond the roadsides.
The President also greenlighted Minister Magyezi’s proposal of holding local council elections immediately after his swearing-in in May 2026.
Minister Magyezi told Ono Bwino that local council elections will be held before July 2026 adding that the current leadership is legally holding the said offices based on the extension issued and gazette.
The fuel crisis was also discussed in the cabinet and the line minister Nakabirwa was given the opportunity to present her paper where she insisted that Uganda is not facing a fuel crisis as it has been reported in the media.
She explained that the only problem the country is facing is the fuel companies who have started hiding fuel to create a crisis while others are smuggling it out of the country and selling it to neighbouring countries especially Kenya, South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo which are going through a fuel crisis.
Nankabirwa promised that she was going to engage the leaders of these fuel companies and personally warn them against sabotaging the country’s fuel business.
