Kivumbi, Ssenyonyi Left Red-Faced: Cabinet UCDA Merger U-Turn Exposes Lack of Strategy

Yesterday’s dramatic U-turn by the President Museveni-led cabinet on the President’s earlier decision to merge the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) with the Ministry of Agriculture, has left the blabbering Butambala MP who chairs Buganda MPs’ caucus Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi, and the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament (LOP) Joel Ssenyonyi, scrambling to regroup.

The initial plan, which included a three-year transitional period, was scrapped, and the government now wants the rationalization process to start immediately after the merger is approved by Parliament, during a plenary sitting scheduled for tomorrow.

“The Cabinet of The Republic of Uganda chaired by His Excellency The President has reconsidered and resolved that THE NATIONAL COFFEE(AMENDMENT) BILL 2024 be supported and passed into Law WITHOUT the Three(3) year transitional period,” Hamsson Obua, the Government Chief Whip communicated to NRM MPs yesterday.

He added, “The above is therefore the new position of the NRM Government, and all Members are hereby urged to support it.”

The cabinet’s sudden reversal has exposed the opposition’s lack of strategy, as they had banked on using the coffee debate only to revive their dwindling political fortunes.

With the government pushing ahead with the fast-tracked merger, the opposition is now faced with the daunting task of reorganizing their efforts and devising a new plan to counter the Cabinet’s unexpected move.

The National Coffee (Amendment) Bill, 2024, which seeks to mainstream UCDA into the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries, has been met with fierce resistance from various stakeholders, including Buganda Kingdom, Bunyoro Kingdom, and Bugisu

Earlier on, Kimanya-Kabonera MP Abed Bwanika had strategically convinced President Museveni to delay the implementation of the UCDA rationalization plan during a meeting with the parliamentary committees including the one on Agriculture.

Coffee Industry Breathes A Sigh Of Relief: Bwanika Convinces Museveni To Postpone UCDA Merger

On realizing that Museveni wanted the merger to be effected as soon as yesterday, Bwanika urged that the Agriculture ministry in its current state, have no capacity to handle the coffee sub-sector hence interesting Museveni to consider a phased rationalization of UCDA over at least three years, if merging with the Ministry of Agriculture was unavoidable.

Following a deferment of the debate on the contentious bill now on the committee stage by speaker Anita Among, president Museveni has been issuing statements after statements on top of holding two meetings with NRM MPs at his Kisozi farm, and the Ministers during a cabinet meeting yesterday.

In one of those unending engagements, a determined Museveni promised a “showdown” with those opposed to the Bill, and the cabinet’s sudden reversal may be one of the ingredients in the showdown plan.

The Bill’s objective is to restructure UCDA, eliminating “bloated structures and functional ambiguities” in government agencies, according to Minister of State for Agriculture Bright Rwamirama.

The controversy surrounding the Bill has sparked intense debate, with some MPs arguing that UCDA should remain independent due to its significant revenue contributions. Others, like Abed Bwanika, caution against replicating the failures of neighboring countries that rationalized their coffee boards.

On Thursday last week, the Speaker Among, subjected the Bill to a headcount vote, which resulted in 159 MPs voting in support and 77 against. The outcome has left many wondering what triggered the Cabinet’s change of position.

As the UCDA merger debate rages on, one thing is clear: the government’s determination to push through with rationalization has left opposition leaders reeling.

At the time of writing this story, the opposition was still locked in a caucus meeting aimed at drawing a new strategy to counter the cabinet’s new ‘effective immediately” resolution.