Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja is set to meet with the Minister for Disaster Preparedness, Hillary Onek, to resolve their fallout.
The meeting, according to sources, will be overseen by Vice President Jessica Alupo, who has been instructed by President Museveni to make sure the two reach an understanding to work together.
The development follows a letter dated October 29, 2021 from Minister Onek who threatened to resign over Nabbanja’s ‘misconduct.’
https://nilepost.co.ug/2021/11/02/minister-threatens-to-resign-over-nabbanjas-conduct/
In the letter seen by Nile Post, Onek said that ever since Nabbanja was appointed, she has been ‘usurping’ powers of his office, by undertaking duties and projects meant to be handled by the Disaster Preparedness office.
Onek urged Nabbanja to stop undermining him and his line ministers or else he will tender in his resignation and let Nabbanja take over.
Nabbanja in response said that Onek is lazy, and that a character like his will not be allowed to fail government programmes.
“I told you from the onset of my term of office that we shall not allow laziness, we are changing the mode of work,” Nabbanja told journalists.
Nile Post understands that the conflict between Ministers Onek and Prime Minister Nabbanja started when the Prime Minister diverted Shs. 5 billion from the Shs. 15 billion allocated to the Ministry of Relief, Disaster Preparedness, and Refugees earlier this year.
The issue escalated and it was brought to Parliament for investigation.
MPs on the budget committee asked Nabbanja why she had diverted the funds and yet it is the Ministry for Disaster Preparedness that is charged with responding to disaster issues.
In her reply, the Prime Minister said that she needed the money to execute her plans to manage disaster-related issues.
Since then, Onek and Nabbanja have been in conflict up to October 29, 2021, when the disaster minister decided to put his discontent in writing.
