Patrick Onyango

When we took over Government in 1986, we entrusted administration to technocrats. However, it took a Kenyan Senator to alert me that Uganda was buying petroleum products through middlemen in Kenya. Unbelievable! After intervention, Diesel has come down from USD118 to USD83 per metric tonne, Petrol from USD97.5 to USD61.5 and Aviation fuel from USD114.25 to USD79.25. Today, I broke ground for the 320-million-litre Kampala Storage Terminal in Mpigi. As we develop our petroleum resources, we must strengthen our strategic reserves. I am also happy that H.E. Samia Suluhu Hassan sent a delegation as we work with Tanzania and the rest of East Africa to strengthen our petroleum security.

I met a delegation from Nonda Coffee Park led by Mr. Tonny Miiro Kibuuka, who briefed me on their plans to establish a coffee processing and value addition facility. I welcome this investment because it is exactly what we have always been advocating for. Uganda should not continue exporting raw coffee. We must add value before export so that we create jobs, increase household incomes and earn more foreign exchange. The government will support this initiative and mobilise our coffee farmers to produce more in preparation for the increased demand. I congratulate them and wish them good luck.

This morning, I joined the people of West Nile and the entire nation to mourn Gen. Moses Ali , and laid a wreath on his coffin at Parliament. He made an important contribution to Uganda’s history. He rejected the brutality of Idi Amin’s regime, worked with us in the struggle for freedom, promoted peace and remained committed to the development of West Nile. Gen. Ali understood that peace and development go together. I therefore appeal to the leaders in West Nile and the whole country that they should continue working hard to raise household incomes and achieve prosperity. I thank him for his service to Uganda and pray that his soul rests in eternal peace.

This morning at Kisozi Farm, I bid farewell to H.E. Frederieke Quispel, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Uganda, who has concluded her tour of duty. I thanked her for her contribution to strengthening Uganda-Netherlands relations, particularly the shift from traditional aid to trade and investment. I also encouraged her to continue mobilising more investors from the Netherlands and the European Union to take advantage of Uganda’s many opportunities. I wish her good luck & God’s blessings in her future endeavours.

From Omugurusi Ampa to Maama Giinga.   Today, the 24th of June is Maama’s birthday having arrived on Earth on this very day 78 years ago. The family and myself thank God for having given us Maama, kept her safe in the years of orphanhood having lost her Father, Mzee Edward Kataaha, in 1955 and prospering her in the subsequent years up to today.   In Particular, I thank God for the miraculous re-connection with her on Christmas day, 1972, outside the Inter-Continental Hotel in Nairobi. Although we were from the same area of Ntungamo and had studied at Kyamate together in 1958, we had got disconnected by the troubled history of Uganda.   Since January, 1971, we had been operating from Tanzania fighting Idi Amin. I had, indeed, been involved in the disastrous battle of the 17th of September, 1972 in Mbarara where out of 330 People that attacked on that axis, on account of not being trained, by evening I had managed to take back only 46 including an Obote fighter known as Ageta, a good but chaotic fighter.

I warmly welcome His Excellency Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé, President of the Republic of Togo, who is here on a working visit as part of the AU–EAC–SADC Panel of Facilitators on the DRC peace process. This panel comprises, H.E. Olusegun Obasanjo, H.E. Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, H.E. Sahle-Work Zewde, H.E. Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi, and H.E. Catherine Samba-Panza. Our region remains committed to dialogue and lasting peace.