The First Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for East African Affairs, Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga has demanded that Pastor Robert Kayanja makes a public apology for allegedly distorting the legacy of parliament.
Kadaga, the former speaker of parliament took offence after Pastor Kayanja said that the 10th parliament which she chaired ‘let us down as a country”.
“There was a chance to work hard and appropriate money to construct the country's oil refinery, but [Parliament] did not,” Pastor Kayanja was quoted in the New Vision.
However, Kadaga refutes the claims, saying there was never such a chance and therefore Pastor Kayanja should come clear and make an apology for alluding so.
“Pastor Kayanja, you owe an apology to the people of Uganda and the 10th Parliament whose legacy you are distorting. No Budget for a refinery was presented or rejected, please substantiate, which meeting, which sitting and which session this happened,” she tweeted.
The National Oil and Gas Policy for Uganda 2008 recommends refining the discovered oil in-country to supply the national and regional petroleum product demand before consideration of exportation.
In order to facilitate the achievement of this policy objective, the Petroleum (Refining, Conversion, Transmission and Midstream Storage) Act 2013 was enacted by Parliament in February 2013 and became effective in July 2013 following Presidential assent.
This Act provides among others, the legal foundation for the development of a refinery in Uganda and other midstream infrastructures like pipelines and storage facilities.
Speaking to the media in March this year, the minister for Energy Ruth Nankabirwa said the oil refinery will start operations in 2027.
The refinery according to Nankabirwa will produce 60,000 barrels of oil per day.