Is Uganda Airlines headed for a nose-dive crash?

Idi Amin’s era ruled by decree but the government in its wisdom and reorganisation of the government statute book redesignated all decrees as Acts of Parliament. Other EAC successor entities established by decree, include the Uganda Posts and Telecommunications Corporation. Decrees under Amin were approved through a quasi-legislative process by the Military Council and the Cabinet.  When Uganda Posts and Telecommunications Corporation was dissolved and broken up into successor entities, the pertinent legislative acts were done again through an Act of Parliament. UPTC was legally dismembered into three successor entities, the Uganda Communications Commission assumed the regulatory role, Post Bank Limited replaced the Post Office Savings Bank and Uganda Telecom Limited was created as a wholly owned government national telecommunications operator.

The East African Postal and Telecommunications Corporation was transformed into the Uganda Institute of Communications Technology. In the emergency and national ambition to create the new Uganda Airlines, all the legacy assets, especially the name were appropriated to the new entity. There is a connection between lack of a national carrier and the limited prospects of Uganda’s tourism industry. There is even a more coherent connection between huge government expenses on foreign travel for its officials, Uganda is still officially a “beggar” country, or Least Developed Country that relies on managing an array of external stakeholders.

These reasons innocently or otherwise featured prominently in the justification of Uganda Airlines, and in 2019 after MTN settled its national operator licence renewal fee, the first birds emblazoned with Uganda Airlines hit the air. It was great pictures and atmospherics seeing the President and First Lady board the national carrier. Works minister and others traveled abroad to receive the Airbus. Uganda paid cash for all these aircraft and even though full operational competencies were yet to be established, it was bad politics to say anything remotely critical of this new Uganda Airlines.

 If you are reading either NUP or FDC’s 2021 manifesto, it may be difficult to find a single mention of this issue. Fast forward, Covid-19, airlines steer from profitability to bankruptcy. In any event, national carriers in the region, Kenya Airways and Rwanda Air, one mismanaged and looted; and the other stocked with obsolete equipment all register the same poor financial performance.  Uganda and Tanzania both urgently place their birds in the sky. Social media activists happily posted pictures of themselves eating “katogo” or “ekyenkya” on the national carrier.

In 2022, this seems to be coming down as a pack of cards, wishful thinking and the normal menu of politics in the palace. Like other airlines, Uganda Airlines, deprived of the lucrative ground handling business until this week, operated on even worse financial terms than its competitors. Air travel in Uganda remains weak, recovering more slowly than our neighbours. When you visit Entebbe International Airport for drop-off and pick up traffic is light even at peak hours from 7 pm to midnight.  International Transit for example Brussels-Bujumbura-Entebbe is dominated by passengers disembarking and boarding in Bujumbura.

Government travel in Uganda is down majorly due to budgetary constraints. The airport is only busy when sending off our new export, young girls wearing hijab to work as domestic workers in the Middle East. In these circumstances, Jennifer Bamuturaki is only a symptom not the cause. She has owners; the shareholders who appointed her to that position, determined her salary etc. She is not even subject to Government Standing Orders or other procedures in the Uganda Public Service elaborated in the Public Service Act.

Mr Muruli Mukasa, the government HR officer, cannot speak to her qualifications or competencies or even more importantly her fat paycheck. It is expected this is a typical Ugandan story. What Cosase has done is to rile the anger of the entire Tooro Parliamentary delegation forgetting that 70 percent of taxes are collected elsewhere. How dare they ask for her degree certificates and transcripts? Her job as CEO is to manage stakeholders and shareholders, neither of whom accompanied her to Parliament.

Mr Ssemogerere is an Attorney-At-Law and an Advocate. [email protected]