The leader of National Unity Platform (NUP), Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine has said that it’s unfortunate that President Museveni has always castigated Idi Amin for ruling by decree as opposed to the rule of law yet he also continues to exhibit equal disregard for the law.
His remarks came shortly after the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Enterprise Corporation (NEC), the commercial arm of the UPDF with the objective of building the latter’s capacity to undertake road construction and maintenance projects.
According to the MoU, NEC will also undertake civil works for the rehabilitation of Olwiyo – Pakwach Road (62km) and mechanized maintenance of 124km unpaved roads in the central region including Ngoma – Kyankanzi (15km), Ngoma – Kasozi – Kyamukanda (42km), Luku – Kalangala (31km), and Kalangala – Mbalabana (35km).
"Gen. Museveni can no longer recognise his former self. In yet another show of dictatorship, Mr. Museveni has ordered his wife and other government Ministers to henceforth award contracts for the government construction projects to the Army "to avoid delays due to lengthy procurement processes," said Kyagulanyi in a statement.
According to Kyagulanyi, in a country governed by the law, even if president Museveni wanted to take this step, it must be processed through the law, and not a presidential directive.
"It gets clearer why Museveni wanted a lame duck parliamentary leadership... before long all these laws will be repealed so that he is given power to do as he pleases. This is not the first time Mr. Museveni is expressing such contemptuous disregard for the PPDA Act, and other procurement laws. He recently dismissed the public procurement policies as "neo-colonial" while attempting to justify his wasteful Covid-19 expenditure for the financial year 2019/2020," he noted.
Increasingly, Kyagulanyi explained, Museveni is deploying the army to pursue selfish interests that our laws would ordinarily not support adding that the prosecution of his political opponents in the court martial which works on his direct orders, is one example.
"The deployment of his relatives in the military to head lucrative government projects such as OWC is another. Museveni thinks that militarising every sector of public life will give him the political survival and illicit enrichment that he craves for. While that strategy may work in the short term, it will ultimately end in tears,"he stated.
