The final Cabinet meeting chaired by Yoweri Museveni has revealed a definitive line under a government term that will be remembered less for its official claims of economic progress and more for the corruption scandals, weak oversight and contested performance that defined its most powerful offices.
At the farewell luncheon held at State House, Entebbe yesterday, Museveni praised the team in measured terms, thanking them for what he described as dedicated service and crediting them with steering Uganda toward middle-income status, but the statement stood in stark contrast to the public record of a Cabinet that exits office after one of the most widely exposed corruption episodes in recent years.
“Today, I chaired the final Cabinet meeting of the outgoing government and later hosted members to a luncheon in appreciation of their dedicated service to our country. This is the Cabinet that ushered Uganda into middle-income status,” Museveni said, before wishing them good luck.
Museveni’s remarks have been interpreted within political circles as a sign that several ministers may not return.
At the centre of the Cabinet’s troubled legacy is the Office of the Prime Minister under Nabbanja, which became the administrative hub of the Karamoja iron sheets scandal.
The programme was designed to provide roofing materials to vulnerable households in Karamoja, but investigations established that thousands of iron sheets were instead distributed to ministers, legislators, and senior officials. The breakdown in control within the Prime Minister’s office exposed serious gaps in supervision and accountability, raising direct questions about how such a diversion of public resources could occur at the highest level of government coordination.
Within the Ministry for Karamoja Affairs, the scandal translated into direct legal consequences. Mary Goretti Kitutu, who headed the ministry, was removed from Cabinet after investigations linked her office to the source of the diverted materials. Her junior minister, Agnes Nandutu, was prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to prison after the court found that she had taken iron sheets meant for vulnerable communities and kept them for personal use, making her the most prominent casualty of the scandal and one of the few senior officials to face full criminal accountability.
The scandal spread across the government, drawing in senior leaders, including Jessica Alupo, Anita Among, and Matia Kasaija, all of whom were named among those who received iron sheets. Several returned the materials after public exposure, but the limited prosecutions that followed left a lingering perception of selective accountability, with the scale of implication far outweighing the scale of punishment.
At the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Betty Amongi leaves office under sustained criticism over the implementation of social protection programmes. Despite overseeing key interventions targeting vulnerable groups, her tenure has been questioned over slow rollout, administrative bottlenecks, and limited visible transformation on the ground, raising concerns about the effectiveness of policy delivery within one of the government’s most socially sensitive dockets.
At the Ministry of State for Industry, David Bahati has been part of a sector central to Uganda’s economic ambitions, yet progress in industrialisation has remained uneven. Government has continued to promote industrial growth as a driver of jobs and exports, but internal assessments and economic data have pointed to slow expansion in manufacturing capacity and limited structural transformation, placing the performance of the sector under increasing scrutiny.
Throughout this term, Museveni has repeatedly warned about corruption in both government and Parliament, often using public platforms to caution leaders against misusing public resources and undermining service delivery. His calls for discipline, accountability, and patriotism have been consistent. Still, the persistence of scandals such as the iron sheets saga has highlighted the gap between those warnings and actual enforcement within state institutions.
Even as some ministers face possible exit, a group of long-serving figures remains central to Museveni’s political structure. Moses Ali, Rebecca Kadaga, Kahinda Otafiire, and Matia Kasaija continue to represent continuity within government, while ministers such as Frank Tumwebaze in Agriculture, Jane Ruth Aceng in Health, Norbert Mao in Justice, Jim Muhwezi in Security, Edward Katumba Wamala in Works and Transport and Judith Nabakooba in Lands remain part of the government’s operational core.
At the same time, political pressure from emerging actors is building. Shartsi Musherure is highly viewed as a strong contender for Cabinet entry, with her political grounding linked to her father, Sam Kutesa. She might be named as the minister while Daudi Kabanda is gaining influence through mobilisation networks that are increasingly shaping internal political dynamics under the new political group Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU), led by CDF Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
The growing prominence of Muhoozi Kainerugaba has further added to the shifting balance of power, as political actors position themselves closer to emerging centers of influence.
However, it might be hard for Chris Baryomunsi to return to the position as Minister of ICT and national guidance and be demoted to a lower post following his clash with CDF Muhoozi over social media posts. The clash led to Baryomunsi saying that Gen Muhoozi’s tweets were making his work as a government spokesperson difficult. Later, Muhoozi directed Baryomunsi to make peace with him or else will not be a minister again, which Baryomunsi declined.
As ministers hand over to permanent secretaries, the outgoing Cabinet leaves behind a record that is difficult to defend in simple terms. It is a government that completed its full term and maintained political stability, but one that is deeply marked by a corruption scandal that directly targeted resources meant for the poorest citizens, exposed institutional weaknesses, and raised unresolved questions about accountability at the highest levels.
Museveni’s closing words were calm and appreciative, but the weight of events tells a more decisive story. This Cabinet does not exist on its achievements alone. It exists carrying the burden of a scandal that defined it and a record that will continue to shape how its legacy is judged long after the final meeting at the State House.
However, as other ministers like Jane Ruth Acen, who the majority of Ugandans consider a star performer among the outgoing lot, and Edward Katumba Wamala are assured of their return to cabinet, others like Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, State Minister for Trade David Bahati, Gender Minister, Betty Amongi, among a host of others, are uncertain about their return to cabinet as some were rejected by their voters while others, their time is up as the appointing authority shifts focus on other individuals for deployment.
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