The strategy behind President Museveni’s Cabinet appointments has evolved significantly over the past four decades, shifting from an instrument of national reconciliation to a tool for regime longevity.
Following the 1981 to 1986 guerilla war, the initial Cabinet focused heavily on broad-based political integration, bringing together historical fighters, technocrats, and key leaders from traditional Opposition parties to stabilise a fractured nation.
As political Opposition intensified and the country transitioned to multi-party politics in the early 2000s, the Cabinet became a vital mechanism for political survival. Since 1986, women emancipation has been a source of pride for President Museveni’s ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party.
However, his Cabinet of 30 substantive ministers and 10 deputies named in April 1986, suggests that involving women in politics and management came much later in his administration.
At the time, the number of females was insignificant, with all the Cabinet ministers being men, with only Ms Victoria Ssekitoleko and Gertrude Njuba featuring on the list of deputy ministers for Agriculture, and for Relief and Social Rehabilitation, respectively.
President Museveni’s 30-member Cabinet in 1986 was dominated by ministers from the Central region (14), while the Eastern region got seven, Western region held six, in addition to the President, and the Northern region and West Nile only had two.
The Central region’s dominance in the Cabinet was, however, broken when it came to appointing the 10 deputy ministers, with the largest number of appointees coming from the East (six). Ms Njuba was the only appointee from the Central region, while the Western region was dominant.
Fallouts
A review of the 1986 Cabinet reveals that the ministers have since either fallen out with Mr Museveni, passed away or retired from politics. Those who fell out include the late Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere, Mr Jaberi Bidandi Ssali, Col Dr Kizza Besigye, and Ssebaana Kizito.
Maj Gen Kahinda Otafiire, Dr Crispus Kiyonga, and Gen Moses Ali is the only trio of the 1986 Cabinet in politics, having won seats to represent their constituencies in the 12th Parliament.
Dr Kiyonga recaptured the Bukonzo West seat after a decade out of the House, Maj Gen Otafiire was re-elected to the Ruhinda County seat, and Gen Ali won back his Adjumani West seat.
This year, the Cabinet has plateaued at more than 80 members, fully solidifying into a continuity machine where core power remains concentrated within a reliable inner circle while junior roles are used defensively to manage regional demands and balance internal pressure groups. President Museveni yesterday swore-in his Cabinet, which he announced in a May 26 reshuffle.
Despite previously being dropped from Cabinet, Dr Kiyonga has remained loyal to Mr Museveni and the NRM party until his reappointment, and so has Gen Otafiire, who has been appointed minister of Water and Environment, following a transfer from the Internal Affairs docket.
Among the ministers sworn-in yesterday, women hold 41 Cabinet seats out of the total, an increase from 36 in the 2021/2024 Cabinet, and representing a 6 percent rise.
Of the 32 senior positions, including the vice president, prime minister, and Cabinet ministers, women occupy 11 slots, a slight dip from 13 in the 2021/2024 Cabinet.
On the flip side, women now outnumber men among the State ministers, taking 30 out of 51 positions, up from 23 in the previous government.
Buganda emerged as the biggest beneficiary of yesterday’s swearing-in ceremony at State House, Entebbe, taking 21 of the 83 slots, making up 25 percent of the Cabinet.
Of the 30 full ministers named, Buganda got four substantive slots, including Gen Edward Katumba Wamala, who was moved from Works and Transport to Public Service; Ms Minsa Kabanda for Kampala Capital City and Metropolitan Affairs, Ms Judith Nabakooba for Lands, Housing and Urban Development, and Sam Mayanja, formerly State minister for Lands, who was elevated to Attorney General.
The rest of the 17 appointees from Buganda and the wider Central region are ministers of State. New entrants include Desire Muhooza for Agriculture, Robert Migadde for Fisheries, Cissy Mulondo for Finance (General Duties), and Amina Mukalazi for Finance (Privatisation and Investment).
Others are Shartsi Kutesa Musherure for Finance (Microfinance), Justine Nameere for Local Government, Suzan Nakawuki Nsambu for Tourism and Antiquities, Kiryowa Kiwanuka for Defence, and Dr Lawrence Muganga for Internal Affairs.
Buganda’s dominance
Under Mr Museveni, Buganda once held the prime minister’s office through Kintu Musoke, Apollo Nsibambi, and Samson Kisekka, who also served as vice president, alongside Edward Ssekandi and Gilbert Bukenya.
Governance researcher Job Kiija says this 83-member Cabinet represents a ‘severe financial haemorrhage’ on the Ugandan taxpayer and stands as ‘a direct structural betrayal of the government’s own highly-publicised rationalisation policy.’
He says it is impossible to look citizens in the eye and claim the State is merging agencies to curb waste, while simultaneously expanding the political front bench to historic highs.
‘From a governance standpoint, this bloated Executive is not engineered to improve public service delivery; rather, it functions as a state-funded patronage machine that deliberately dilutes institutional accountability,’ he says.
He adds: ‘Every single additional minister demands a luxury fuel-guzzling SUV, police escort, and a lifetime pension package, aggressively siphoning money away from critical public services while national referral hospitals routinely run out of vital cancer drugs.’
Mr Kiija says the current size of the Cabinet ‘does not make sense under any sound governance metric’, and that while the Constitution included a loophole allowing Parliament to approve variations to the ministerial limit, this exception has completely overridden the original rule.
He says while proponents frequently argue that a larger Cabinet is necessary to manage a growing national population, such logic falls apart under administrative scrutiny. Good governance, he says, relies on competent, well-structured technical directorates run by Permanent Secretaries, not ‘an ever-growing layer of political appointees’.
‘The current setup remains a structural distortion that compromises institutional efficiency solely for the sake of political accommodation,’ he says.
Today, however, the taxpayer is saddled with an oversized Parliament of more than 520 Members of Parliament, a staggering departure from the lean legislative body envisioned during the 1995 constitutional making process.
The 1995 Constituent Assembly (CA) explicitly drafted Article 113 and Article 114 to cap the total number of Cabinet and State ministers at 21 each in order to protect both the national treasury and the separation of powers.
Mr Dan Wandera Ogalo, a former CA delegate, says during the Constitution-making process, they limited the size of Cabinet to 21 ministers because an incumbent can use a big Cabinet to award his or her cronies and friends, the cost implication on the economy.
‘A big Cabinet would be expensive, and the incumbent would use the big numbers to overwhelm the Opposition,’ Mr Ogalo said, citing an example of between 1980 and 1985, where he said Parliament had around 126 legislators, including 75 belonging to the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC), and 50 from the Democratic Party (DP).
‘The fear was that with a small margin in Parliament, an incumbent can use it to bolster his party’s numbers and overwhelm the Opposition. Under the multiparty system, you can have a President with a majority in Parliament,’ he added.
Bloated Executive
Associate Prof Sultan Juma Kakuba, a senior lecturer in the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences at Kyambogo University, is concerned that President Museveni’s Cabinet is not only ‘bloated’, but ‘broadens diverse interest, representation and political inclusion’.
‘It has both pros and cons. In Uganda where we have diversity, President Museveni has always used Cabinet appointments to balance regional, ethnic, generational and political interests, which has helped him to consolidate support and manage elite competition,’ Prof Dr Kakuba says.
He adds: ‘However, there are costs of having a big Cabinet; for instance, it increases public expenditure, creates some overlapping mandates, which may complicate coordination, and may weaken accountability as many of these ministers have almost similar responsibilities.’
Dr Kakuba says Cabinet positions have become more about political patronage than an administrative tool to drive service delivery.
‘The constitutional provision for ministers, in my view, adequately, is to have the limit of 21 if we are to effectively demand for efficiency and accountability.”
‘If you observe, moving from 21 to more than 80 ministers, in my opinion, raises the question whether the size of the Cabinet improves service delivery or is it for political convenience? It is imperative to justify the cost of having a huge Cabinet,’ he further explains.