Coffee Bill: Parliament Rejects Claims of Tribal Remarks by Speaker Among

Uganda’s Parliament has denied reports that Speaker Anita Among made tribal remarks against Baganda during Thursday’s heated debate on the contentious National Coffee Amendment Bill 2024.

Parliament described as ‘fake’ and ‘edited’, a video claiming the Speaker was mobilising against the Buganda Caucus MPs who were opposed to the proposed legislation.

‘The Speaker didn’t mention any words like “make sure that those Baganda don’t get the numbers”, her statement was that, ‘make sure that this issue is not tribalised,’” said Parliament in a statement sent to ChimpReports.

“Those who could have followed the proceedings of the house will realize the Rt Hon Speaker gave an opportunity to majority Members most of whom were from Buganda.”

The Bill aims to merge Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) with the Ministry of Agriculture through the Rationalization of Government Agencies and Public Expenditure (RAPEX) policy.

The primary goal of RAPEX is to merge, mainstream, and rationalize various government agencies, commissions, and authorities to reduce redundancy, eliminate duplication, and optimize public expenditure.

However, MPs, majorly from Buganda opposed the scrapping of UCDA, saying that it has over the years outperformed its mother Ministry by helping farmers and increasing the coffee exports.

Several social media enthusiasts later posted a video on C platform claiming Among was against Buganda MPs.

However, Parliament’s officials said the genuine video from yesterday’s proceedings shows Among telling government Chief Whip Denis Obua during the voting session that, “make sure those Baganda don’t tribalise this” – referring to Buganda Caucus.

“The Speaker never mentioned any sectarian words as some people have been trying to portray it. The Speaker was only referring to a statement that had been made earlier on the floor of Parliament by the Member of Parliament representing Kalungu West Constituency, Hon. Joseph Gonzaga Ssewungu who said that Parliament and government had bad intentions of making Baganda poor,” said Parliament.

Parliament added: “The Speaker in her wisdom realised that making this matter a Baganda issue was very dangerous and uncalled for because coffee is not only grown by Baganda but by other people who are non Baganda but living in Buganda so tribalising it was unnecessary and wrong.”

Buganda Kingdom Prime Minister Peter Mayiga earlier today cautioned against dissolving UCDA, saying it would amount to punishing Baganda.

“The Kingdom of Buganda has severally advised against scrapping UCDA since it superintends coffee production, upon which nearly 2 million Ugandan households depend,” said Mayiga in a brief statement on Friday afternoon.

“Apparently, scrapping UCDA is a punishment against Baganda, who contribute nearly 50% of coffee exports, since Speaker Anita Among (and those who support scrapping UCDA) see the Amendment Bill as a victory against Baganda!” he added.

Buganda Kingdom has been spearheading massive coffee growing in the central region under the campaign, ‘Emmwanyi Terimba Initiative’

Mayiga today said, “‘Emmwanyi Terimba Initiative’ will go on unabated… I urge Baganda (and other Ugandans) to continue growing coffee: your livelihood is more important than the motives of present day politicians.”

Members of Parliament from the Buganda and Bugisu regions recently issued stern warnings against any attempt to dissolve UCDA, stating that such a move would have disastrous consequences for Uganda’s coffee industry and affect the livelihoods of over 12.5 million people.

Speaking to NRM MPs recently, President Museveni said returning government agencies into their parent ministries was meant to streamline operations by eliminating the unnecessary ones.

“If you say Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) is so crucial, then let’s remove the ministry and then we have UCDA and I could see the MPs really getting stuck,” said Museveni.

The President further said he did not agree to the argument that ministries are incapable of managing the huge task ahead because their staff are permanent and pensionable, adding that the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) who are also permanent and pensionable are doing well.
Parliament today said, “Coffee is a National Cash crop grown in all parts of this country therefore whoever makes it a Baganda cash crop must be condemned.”

Parliament added: “It is also important to note that before a Bill proceeds to committee stage, the presiding officer is required to ascertain the numbers in order to establish quorum, the rules require that there must be 175 members for a Bill to proceed. Therefore the speaker asked the clerk to establish if we had the numbers of which he replied in the affirmative which enabled the proceedings to continue.”