Shock as Top Museveni Minister Rejects ‘Chief Advisor Job’

A top Minister in President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni’s government has rejected an advisory role offered to him by an NRM group seeking to have the Constitution changed to allow only MPs to vote for the president. 

In May 2022, this publication reported that the Transformer Cadres Association of Uganda (TCAU) had appointed Dr Chris Baryomunsi, the Kinkizi East MP, and Minister of ICT and National Guidance, as a member of its advisory board.

But it has now emerged that Minister Baryomunsi, who is also the national vice chairman of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) in Western Uganda, has declined the job on the advisory board of the association that brings together 2021 NRM party primary election losers.

According to a petition that TCAU members that are aggrieved with their president Felix Adupa Ongwech wrote to NRM secretary general Richard Todwong, Baryomunsi and other members of the advisory board were not consulted before their appointments were announced.

These disillusioned members of TCAU, an association which is notorious for pushing for constitutional amendments to change the voting system by abolishing universal adult suffrage, also argue that it would be wrong for Adupa to appoint anyone to the TCAU leadership when that person is not a member of the association.

“[Adupa] appointed five people to the advisory board who are not subscribed members of the association; notably Hon. Dr. Chris Baryomunsi and Mr. David Mafabi who have since declined the appointment on account that they were never consulted. This has caused further embarrassment to the Association,” TCAU members wrote to Todwong.

See our previous reporting on this matter Here and There.