Bank of Uganda Governor and IGP contract terms in balance
By Correspondent
Parliament’s Appointments Committee is winding up its exploits of the last session and one of these exploits is to second the contract extension of the “head/boss of money in Uganda,” the Governor of Bank of Uganda.
The committee in parliament responsible for this task is chaired by the Speaker Rebecca Kadaga. Today the committee is expected to vet Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile as Governor Bank of Uganda (BoU) and Martin Okoth Ochola for another term as the Inspector General of Police (IGP).
Mutebile’s contract ended on 14th January, serving for 20 years as Governor of BoU. During his tenure, he presided over dubious activities which tainted the image of the Bank. In January, Museveni extended Mutebile’s term in office for another five years.
It should be recalled that in February 2018 Tumusiime-Mutebile made staff changes where he replaced former executive director of supervision Justine Bagyenda with Dr. Tumubweine Twinemanzi.
President Yoweri Museveni later appointed a committee to investigate staff changes. Later it was established that Tumusiime-Mutebile made some transfers and appointed Twinemanzi without consulting other members of the BoU board, a decision they said was wrong as the governor had no powers to make changes single handedly.
Reports say most of the staff head picked by the governor did not meet the qualifications and experience required for the jobs. For instance, Dr. Tumubweine does not have any experience in commercial banking.
The Inspector General of Police (IGP) Martin Okoth Ochola recently refuted reports that police were targeting journalists covering elections that were allegedly marred by violence, arguing that security personnel used reasonable force to retrain the press for their own safety.
“We have heard complaints that security is targeting the media. On the contrary, it is the media targeting security. It is portraying security as brutal and siding with government. When we tell a journalist, don’t go there and you insist on going where there is danger, we shall beat you for your own safety. I have no apology. We shall not apologize but we shall continue helping you not to go where there is danger,” IGP Ochola told journalists during a security briefing in Kampala.