Rebecca Kadaga, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, claimed before a House committee yesterday that Mary Goretti Kitutu, the minister in charge of Karamoja Affairs, had unintentionally drawn her into the issue involving the Karamoja iron sheets.
When Ms. Kadaga met with the Parliament’s Presidential Affairs Committee, she pinned her colleague, who is now the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for East African Community Affairs.
The committee is wrapping up its concurrent investigation into the misuse of aid supplies intended for Karamoja’s most needy residents.
“We were in Cabinet [in October] and then Honourable Kitutu came by me and said “Contact me for iron sheets.” So, I said, “Oh, I think God has answered my prayers,” Ms Kadaga told the committee at her office in Kingdom Plaza, Kampala.
Ms Kadaga said she then notified her assistants to follow up the matter.
“I told them to check with Kitutu. But, nothing happened in November and December. Then, sometime in January (2023), my assistant informed me that they (Kitutu’s team) had rang at my office stating that we can send a car to pick up the iron sheets. So, I sent my lorry,” Ms Kadaga added.
The former Speaker insisted that she was unaware that the iron sheets she was choosing were intended just for the enormous Karamoja Community Empowerment project.
The former Speaker said that she did so because several of her Kamuli District constituents required roofing supplies for various neighborhood projects. Additionally, she continued, the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) had not been able to assist after she had previously written and requested assistance in August 2022.
When the committee’s deputy chairperson Naome Kabasharira (Rushenyi County) questioned Ms. Kadaga about whether she had distributed the iron sheets, Ms. Kadaga responded that they remained in her establishment while the Kamuli neighborhood raised funds to purchase roofing wood.
Following the President’s order of April 3, which required all unintended recipients to either pay for their worth or return the roofing supplies, Mr. Tony Awany (Nwoya County) questioned whether she would return the iron sheets.
Ms Kadaga replied: “I am not going to return them. I will pay for them because I want to do the work for which they were bought. Those children must have their schools and women must have their health centre.”
When the iron sheets story broke, Ms. Kadaga stated in a tweet that she had asked the Office of the Prime Minister for and got 250 iron sheets to help with repairs at Buzaaya Health Center II in Kamuli District.
She also added that OPM had provided 250 iron sheets for the rehabilitation of Buwooya Primary School, which, along with the health center, had also been severely damaged by hail.