Kyankwanzi retreat was on service delivery not age limit talk- Opondo

The executive director of Uganda Media Centre, Mr Ofwono Opondo has rubbished claims that the cabinet retreat that ended in Kyankwanzi last night discussed removal of term limits to enable President Museveni another run at the presidency.

During a talk show on NBS television with city lawyer Asuman Basalirwa on Monday, an agitated Opondo labeled the age limit talk “stupid, superfluous and redundant.”

“NRM has not officially taken the proposal on lifting the age limit into consideration, at least for now. Unless you are stupid, I have said it before and I will say it again, lifting age limit never came up in Kyankwanzi,” Mr Opondo said.

Mr Basalirwa however poured cold water on Opondo’s deliberations, saying the age limit talk was real and it will happen.
“Age limits will be removed. Mr Museveni will stand in 2021. Nobody in Parliament has capacity to stop that,” Mr Basalirwa said.

“Opondo is agitated by questions on plans of lifting the age limit but we saw same before removal of term limits. In Uganda, what often metamorphoses into serious talk starts as small talk. Age limit no different,” he added.

However, Mr Opondo claims that the mostly- closed- door retreat was focused on improving service delivery and working relations between ministers and permanent secretaries.

“This time around, there was no discussion on the person of Mr Museveni or the age limit. The Kyankwanzi woman MP who wants age limit lifted wanted to come for the retreat but wasn’t allowed,” he said.
“Quality of service delivery is still an issue and the retreat focused on finding solutions. It also brought together ministers and their permanent secretaries to discuss ways forward on efficiency. We discussed poor working relationships for instance poor coordination between some ministers and state ministers,” Mr Opondo added.

The week-long Kyankwanzi retreat was attended by ministers, permanent secretaries and NRM’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) to pave way forward on Mr Museveni’s dream of taking Uganda to a middle-income status.

The retreat, organised through the NRM secretariat and in conjunction with the Office of the Prime Minister, was under the theme: Sustaining steady progress: Cabinet cohesion, efficiency and effectiveness for enhanced service delivery and job creation. But Asuman Basalirwa claims “the removal of the presidential age limit is far more important to Museveni than the middle-income status vision.”