Kabuleta: UCDA Bill is meant to keep Ugandans poor
He attributed the move to Museveni's alleged desire to maintain a poor population, which Kabuleta claims is easier to govern.
Kampala: In a scathing critique, the National Economic Empowerment Dialogue (NEED), President Joseph Kiiza Kabuleta accused President Yoweri Museveni of intentionally keeping Ugandans impoverished, specifically through policies targeting the coffee industry.
Kabuleta who was addressing the media on Monday in Kampala argued that the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) merger with the Ministry of Agriculture is a strategic attempt to control Uganda’s profitable coffee sector and restrict financial benefits to farmers, keeping rural communities financially dependent.
He attributed the move to Museveni’s alleged desire to maintain a poor population, which Kabuleta claims is easier to govern.
Highlighting the growth in Uganda’s coffee earnings from $846 million in 2022/2023 to $1.14 billion in 2023/2024 Kabuleta suggested that Museveni is alarmed by the growing wealth of rural coffee farmers.
Kabuleta asserted that many coffee export companies are foreign-owned, which, combined with a complex hierarchy of middlemen, restricts profits reaching the farmers.
Kabuleta compared the UCDA merger to past interventions that he believes damaged various agricultural sectors, including fish, vanilla, cotton, and tea. He cited the collapse of Uganda’s fishing industry as a result of foreign dominance and government policies that limited local fishermen’s direct access to European markets. He claimed that similar policies have hurt other agricultural markets, undermining farmers’ earnings.
Kabuleta also criticized Museveni’s stance on value addition in Uganda’s textile industry, which once thrived with local cotton production and processing but declined due to regulations he attributes to the Museveni administration. He warned that if the UCDA merger proceeds, farmers will see their profits diminish further as new layers of bureaucracy and middlemen siphon off revenue.
Calling Museveni’s policies a “Make Them Poor” strategy, Kabuleta emphasized that the merger is an effort to maintain control over rural Ugandans ahead of the 2026 elections, alleging that financial dependency impacts their electoral choices.
He concluded with a call for change, asserting that ending Museveni’s administration would usher in unprecedented economic prosperity for Uganda.
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