President Yoweri Museveni has once again come out to lambast Ugandans who have been using social media to project the country’s public sector as being dominated by people from Western Uganda.
The debate on westerners taking the lion’s share of the government jobs including the armed forces was rekindled in July by a comic group “Bizonto” who were arrested and briefly detained by Police.
In a follow up statement about the debate, President Museveni today sought to disprove the claims, noting that Ministry of Public Service and the Public Service Commission are both headed by people from other parts of the country.
Besides, the president pointed out, public sector jobs take up a small fraction of the available jobs, most of which are in private sector and agriculture.
“Jobs and wealth do not come from just being employees in the Public Service. Today, the majority of the jobs are from the Private Sector: • Industry – 700,000 • Services – 1,300,000 • ICT – 170,000 • Agriculture – 11,965,200,” Museveni said.
“Therefore, even if the Public service was dominated by the Banyankore, it may not help that community to be any better than the others. Besides, the claim that the Banyankore or the Westerners are monopolizing the 480,000 Public service jobs cannot be true.”
He added, “Why and how would those Banyankore dominate the Public Service where the Public Service Commission was last held by a Westerner, the late Mzee Bikangaga from 1979 to 1990.
“Since that time, the Public service Commission has been headed by Zikusooka, a Musoga, Muzaale, a Musoga, Ralph Ochan, an Acholi, and the membership is always balanced. The Education Service Commission was headed by Waggwa Lubega for a long time. The current chairperson of the Education Service Commission is Sam Luboga, a Musoga. The Chairperson of the Health Service Commission is Dr. Pius Okong, a “munyankore” from Teso.”
If these leaders have continuously appointed more people from western Uganda, Museveni said the westerners must be more qualified for those jobs.
Meanwhile, the president once again cautioned against drawing the Armed Forces, into the tribalism debate, something he said is criminal and dangerous.
“My advice to all of you, is that leave your Army out of that nonsense. The NRA, the UPDF are Armies of sacrifice, all the time for no pay or low pay. They (we) put their lives on the line. Therefore, leave UPDF out of the circus of sectarianism,” he said.
“If you are not working for the enemy, you cannot go on the social-media and demand that we publish the names of the personnel of UPDF, their ranks, and their jobs. The only thing we can say and what you know is that recruitment into the Police and UPDF is by quota.
“Beyond that, leave our Army alone and I mean, leave our Army alone. Also preaching sectarianism on the media (social and otherwise) should stop. Although I am always ready to explain, also remember that such false allegations, carelessly or maliciously made, are criminal.”
