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The ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party Caucus has agreed to review impugned provisions of the coffee deal following concerns raised by Members of Parliament.
The agreement signed by Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka, and Finance minister Matia Kasaija gave the Enrica Pinetti-owned Uganda Vinci Coffee Company (UVCC) a decade-long tax waiver and market monopoly.
Buganda kingdom and Robert Kabushenga, the former chief executive of the largely state-owned Vision Group, and local coffee processors spoke out against the deal calling it unfair.
Worse, MPs investigating the agreement found out that Pinetti mortgaged free 25 acres of land in Namanve Industrial Park valued at $2m (Shs7.3b) to acquire a bank loan for setting up the coffee processing plant.
President Museveni, who is the NRM national chairman, told the Caucus for a sitting at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds on Tuesday, that the coffee contract was essential to undergird his government’s long-held policy of value-addition and pursuing an independent and integrated economy, conceived even before he captured power in 1986.
Museveni cautioned people who debate serious matters with insufficient information and without caring to seek the correct information.
He informed the caucus members that NRM fought for socio-economic transformation of the people of Uganda and shall crush any obstacle that hinders it from achieving this objective.
The President reportedly asked MPs to support the deal, but following significant pushback by the people’s representatives, he tasked AG Kiryowa to address the objections.
On escalating commodity prices, the President said the government would not intervene in the rising food crisis because it would be ‘fake’ economics.
On Lubowa hospital project, he said he would investigate the cause of the delay of the Lubowa specialized hospital.
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