State minister in charge of Kampala city and metropolitan Christopher Kabuye Kyofatogabye has narrated how fellow ministers betrayed their comrade David Bahati the State Minister for Trade and Cooperatives when it came to defending his actions of suspending the ongoing trade order without the authorization of President Museveni.
In the last cabinet meeting, minister Bahati sweated as Museveni squeezed him to explain where he received the authorisation to stand on the floor of parliament and with immediate effect suspend the ongoing trade order operations meant to stop vendors from operating from ungazetted places especially by the roadside.
Vice president Jessica Alupo, Prime Minister Robina Nabanja, senior trade minister Francis Mwebesa all denied having discussed the trade orders suspension with the minister which angered the president and he directed all ministers that before making any communication on the floor of parliament, they have to first get authorisation from the Prime Minister because she is the leader of government businesses in parliament.
However, minister Kabuye disclosed that it all started with a meeting which was attended by three ministers, Bahati and Rapheal Magyezi the senior minister in charge of local government.
“Magyezi deceived me about that meeting, because in that very week when Bahati made that announcement in parliament, we also had a public gathering and I was supposed to go with Magyezi. When I made a phone call reminding him that we are setting off, he told me that he will not manage to make it because he was going for an emergency meeting with officials from Rwanda, so I decided to represent him,” he said.
He divulged that he drove to Mpigi to attend the said gathering. However, the next day, he was shocked to0 see Bahati making comments concerning the trade order operations suspension.
When he asked him who told him to make the announcement, he told him that the issue was discussed with other ministers and it was done in good faith to save the image of the government.
“But I told him that he was interfering with my work because I was the one who was assigned by the president to supervise those operations, and for any communication to be made, the president was supposed to be informed,” Minister Kyofa said.
He further disclosed that when he asked the PM Robinah Nabbanja whether she was aware of the order suspending the operations since she was in the meeting when the president giving the said orders and he even directed her to supervise their implementation national wide, she also denied.
He added that when he saw the senior Minister for Information and National Guidance, Dr Chris Baryomunsi sneaking out of parliament building through the backdoor, he asked him why he was using that route, he said that he was hiding away from journalists who wanted to ask him questions about Bahati’s communication.
Minister Kyofa added that he later pressed Bahati to explain to him who directed him to do so because he wanted to brief the President who assigned him the supervisory role of the operation and he had to give him daily briefings.
Bahati told him that they decided to suspend the operations as ministers because of the several complaints they were receiving from religious leaders from western Uganda who were accusing the enforcers of the operation of demolishing churches and targeting individual businesses.
“I told him to prepare his defence in the Monday cabinet, because I was aware that the President was going to be bitter. Ministers should not be overzealous, I know we under pressure because of our cabinet offices,” he said.
Minister Kyofa said that furious a Museveni directed ministers Hajat Minsa Kabanda and Magyezi to hold a press conference and inform the public that trade order operations are still ongoing.
Sources said that the President told cabinet that during his 2026 presidential campaigns, he saw a lot of youths seated in trading centres doing nothing and the said operations was also meant to wake them up so that they get themselves what to do.
Sources said that the matter was also discussed in the recent security council and army high command and they all agreed on the trade order operations.
