Ugandans should learn to appreciate someone’s contribution while he or she is still alive so that they can enjoy that recognition, instead of blackmailing them and only praising them after they are gone.
I am a bit disturbed by the comments from people who seem excited about former URA and UNRA Executive Director Ms Allen Kagina being summoned to explain the developments surrounding the alleged road scandal on the Busega–Mpigi Expressway. Sometimes we do not need to celebrate so much because there is a clique of people calling themselves whistleblowers working within the Ministry of Works who are generating false allegations against officials who previously served under UNRA.
This group of people in the Ministry of Works is trying its best to soil the image of the former URA and UNRA Executive Director, together with her entire team who later moved to the Ministry of Works.
The fabricated allegations that led to the dismissal of six senior Ministry of Works officials, including Ronald Olaki, Eng. Stephen K. Kitonsa, Rogers Kisambira, and now the summoning of their former boss, Allen Kagina, are a calculated move to tarnish the image of a hardworking woman and her team, whose efforts made many people appreciate the achievements of President Museveni.
Right now, you cannot talk about good roads in Karamoja without giving credit to Ms Kagina and her entire team, including Eng. Ronald Olaki, who made it possible for road infrastructure to improve in the region.
We have learnt that the so-called whistleblower has so far started pressuring the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Works to replace the dismissed officials with a list of his own relatives.
In my next article, I will provide details on why this whistleblower should instead be dismissed and arrested.
Above all, we need to applaud the hard work of Ms Kagina during her tenure as Executive Director of URA and Executive Director of UNRA. Ugandans are today seeing the results of her hard work.
That is why I still appeal to the President of the Republic of Uganda, H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, to spare some time and meet these dismissed officials so that he can give them a fair hearing. Mr President, you would miss a lot—and the truth about what is going on in the Ministry of Works—if you do not meet and interact with those officials.
The writer is a senior veteran journalist.
