How Museveni got coffee bill passed into law

In April, lawmakers blocked the rationalisation and merging of several government agencies, key among them the UCDA, the National Agricultural Advisory Services (Naads), the Dairy Development Authority (DDA), Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA), among others. This marked the first public defiance to calls by President Museveni to support the process.

The Rationalisation of Government Agencies and Public Expenditure (Rapex) was first mooted in 2018, with estimations it would save the country Shs1 trillion and birth efficiency in government ministries.

President Museveni, the main proponent of the policy, and his cabinet had long ago agreed to rationalisation, and only needed the legislature to adjust the different legal regime accordingly. But the April open defiance would mark the start of a war that climaxed with the November 6 passing of the National Coffee Amendment Bill, 2024.

The Bill tabled on March 27 became particularly contentious in its pursuit to return the activities of the UCDA to Maaif. Having noticed the resistance to the Bill, Mr Museveni went on the offensive. Consequently, he launched multiple tactics to drive his agenda that in the past month or so have drawn leaders and stakeholders to extremes. This eventually degenerated into a war of words until President Museveni got his way on November 6.

Museveni makes his move

To drive his agenda, President Museveni moved to isolate his majority NRM lawmakers who had disagreed with his position from the rest of the Opposition and Independent lawmakers. Between April and yesterday, Mr Museveni met with the NRM lawmakers who make up the majority in the House . Matters of rationalisation came up for discussion at least four times. Two of these meetings, one on September 6, and another on November 1, were centred around the Coffee Bill.

In the September 6 meeting at State House Entebbe, President Museveni, his press unit reported, managed to convince NRM lawmakers that Maaif would be empowered to handle Uganda’s major cash crop. A key point of resisting the merger by the majority of lawmakers was that Maaif lacked the capacity and drive to maintain the good work hitherto done by the UCDA. Coffee is currently Uganda's biggest export.

"Because you people say that the civil servants are not active, they don’t respond, okay I know them myself but when we get the army worm, who fights it? These sleepy people come up and fight the army worm. When we get the locusts like when they came, who fought the locusts? It was the army and these sleepy people, if you wake them up, they can do some work," the Presidential Press Unit (PPU) quoted Museveni.

"Having exhaustively discussed the keynote address of HE the President and National Chairperson of the NRM, do hereby resolve as follows: To support the presentation and passing into law by Parliament, all the Bills on the Rationalisation of Government Agencies and Public Expenditure (Rapex) providing for a three year transitional period for Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) and National Information Technology Authority, Uganda (NITA-U)," the PPU quoted the government chief whip Obua Denis Hamson.

Earlier, on September 2, he had met with members of the House Committee on the National Economy, Agriculture and Finance at the State House. Mr Museveni had made a breakthrough with the NRM lawmakers but the hurdles were still stiff.

Fighting back

On October 24, another attempt to process the Coffee Bill failed following dramatic scenes that forced Speaker Anita Among to suspend the House. Mr Joel Ssenyonyi, the Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LoP), led the team opposed to the merger and put up a spirited fight, questioning procedures and process in the processing of the Bill.

LoP Ssenyonyi and lawmakers from coffee producing areas like Buganda and Bugisu were able to block the debate. But the events of this sitting widened the rifts between the proponents of the Bill on one hand as well as the Opposition in Parliament, the Buganda parliamentary caucus and cultural institutions like the Buganda Kingdom on another hand.

Speaker Among was accused of introducing tribal lines in the debate after a clip of her utterances in the House went viral. A statement the House put out flatly denied the innuendos inferred.

After October 24, the parties opposed to the merging of UCDA vowed to deploy any tactic at their disposal to block the Bill. With this, President Museveni went into overdrive, deploying tactics that some have said were doused with intimidation. Among them was addressing Ugandans and stakeholders through back-to-back missives shared on his X handle across three days.

In an October 26 letter, Mr Museveni accused those opposed to the merger of tribalising the issue. Describing their submissions as dishonest, the president also downplayed the role of UCDA.

"If UCDA and Naads were successful, why were 68 percent of the homesteads still outside the money economy by 2013? OWC (Operation Wealth Creation) did much more work than Naads, UCDA and CDO (Cotton Development Organisation) combined," Mr Museveni said.

In a seven-page letter the next day on October 27, he accused unnamed "parasitic elite groups" of backing UCDA. The president also explained the role of quality control and regulation. He further revealed that the sector would continue to be carried out by a designated office in the ministry or government.

One final push

Mr Museveni issued the last epistle "in order to conclude the debate on the rationalisation of parasitic agencies and authorities" on October 28, saying "in order to achieve the NRM target of social economic transformation, we insist on the mass line as opposed to the parasitic elite line of colonialism and Neo-colonialism."

He added: "It is clear that groups like Naads, UCDA, DDA, etc are incapable of understanding the mass-line of prosperity for all. That is why they failed…"

His message generally indicated the agency—UCDA—has not been effective yet the government was spending a lot more money there than in Maaif. At the back of his mind, he kept alive the resolutions by the opposing parties to block the Bill. This prompted Mr Museveni to summon his lawmaker, again, this time at his Kisozi farm in Gomba District. The meeting on November 1, sources said, was aimed at drawing a strategy to counter and subdue those who were opposed to the rationalisation by any means necessary. Sources say it resolved that the Bill would be passed, and those against it would not be given a chance to derail the process as was the case on October 24.

"We are going to have a showdown; they are liars and criminals playing with fire," Mr Museveni reportedly said, signalling a showdown.

Gloves off

As the D-day dawned on November 6, the roads leading to the House were blocked and teeming with security personnel from the police, the military, and others in plain clothes.

In the chambers, for the sitting that started at 10am, Mr Museveni also deployed his biggest guns in Cabinet, including Vice President Jessica Alupo, who only usually attends particular or special sittings. Also present was Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja.

No sooner had the sitting started than lawmakers led by LoP Ssenyonyi raised concerns about the Bill. Soon, the House would degenerate into chaos. Blows were swapped. Literally and metaphorically.

Unlike the last time when she suspended debate on the Bill, Speaker Among was determined to have the Bill passed. She instead opted to suspend a section of legislators, who had been fingered for misbehaviour. This was after the suspension of House proceedings. At 1.39pm, the Bill was passed after members of the Opposition resigned to boycott the sitting. This followed earlier scenes where some of their colleagues were forcefully removed from the House under a blackout of lights and the media. This left the House with NRM legislators who voted "aye."

After the passing of the Bill, LoP Ssenyonyi accused President Museveni of intimidating members of the NRM who had stood with them. The Nakawa West lawmaker also accused Speaker Among of dancing to the tune of her party chairperson as opposed to following the law.

"Gen Museveni has been calling bunches of MPs. we are told, […] intimidating them. I don’t know what else he’s given them," the LoP whined, adding, "It’s unfortunate that Gen Museveni roughshod over Parliament as he wishes. That is why you see the Speaker failing to, in my opinion, even reason logically, because if you cannot follow the law, follow logic. But she was not interested in following logic because she had instructions."

LoP Ssenyonyi rallied stakeholders in the coffee sector to continue fighting for their livelihood. "The war regarding coffee has not ended. Yes, they have tried to politicise it… this is an economic issue for our people. So you might think that you have numbers on the other side as the NRM, but the people of Uganda, the millions who are involved in the coffee value chain, are a lot more."

The Take
Gen Museveni has been calling bunches of MPs. we are told, […] intimidating them. I don’t know what else he’s given them. It’s unfortunate that Gen Museveni roughshod over Parliament as he wishes. That is why you see the Speaker failing to, in my opinion, even reason logically, because if you cannot follow the law, follow logic. But she was not interested in following logic because she had instructions. LOP Joel Ssenyonyi

If UCDA and Naads were successful, why were 68 percent of the homesteads still outside the money economy by 2013? OWC (Operation Wealth Creation) did much more work than Naads, UCDA and CDO (Cotton Development Organisation) combined – President Museveni’s letter

Having exhaustively discussed the keynote address of HE the President and National Chairperson of the NRM, do hereby resolve as follows: To support the presentation and passing into law... all the Bills on the Rationalisation of Government Agencies and Public Expenditure (Rapex).” — Government Chief Whip Denis Hamson Obua.