UGANDA | AIRLINES | BAMUTURAKI 

KAMPALA - The newly appointed Uganda Airlines Chief Executive Officer, Jennipher Bamuturaki, on Wednesday, July 6 2022 outlined her vision for the company. 

Key among them were ensuring self-handling at the Entebbe International Airport, expansion of the Uganda Airlines routes, cutting down costs and ensuring proper management and accountability.

Bamuturaki spoke in the wake of an announcement by the Minister for Works and Transport Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala in a letter dated July 5, 2022, to the Board of Directors of Uganda Airlines clearing her way to be appointed as the new substantive Chief Executive Officer of the Uganda Airlines.

Gen. Katumba in his letter which was in response to a directive by President Yoweri Museveni concerning the appointment of Bamuturaki said; “reference is made to the letter of Ref: no. PO/28 dated April 24, 2022 from HE the President of the Republic of Uganda in respect of the subject matter above. The purpose of this letter is to bring to your attention for implementation,” Katumba noted in his letter copied to the Minister for Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Minister for State for Works, Minister for Transport and the Permanent Secretary in the same Ministry.

Bamuturaki who was surprised by the leaked appointment letter in an exclusive interview with the New Vision assured the country of accountable service.

When New Vision called her at around 3:20 pm Bamuturaki said, “do you know where I am right now. I am in a very noisy place preparing for self-handling and that is my first mandate. We must be handling ourselves by August 1, 2022. 

By end of July, the contract of the current handlers will be ending and by August 1, all of us must be handling ourselves at the Airport,” Bamuturaki said.

Her second mission as the new CEO of Uganda Airlines is to ensure Uganda has an Approved Maintenance Organisation (AMO) certification. “What was holding us was the Accountable manager but now that is going to be resolved. We are now going to move with its process because it’s a five-stage process as well and that was the main thing that has been holding the process because we have been purchasing the equipment that we need, the tooling that we need and we already got our approvals from the Public Procurement of Disposal of Public Assets, the Attorney General on how we can procure them,” Bamuturaki added.

Bamuturaki outlined her third mission as ensuring the expansion of the airbus route. 

“We must get the airbus in the air. A number of these expansions were held down by procedural matters. In some areas, they want your account manager but I have been acting and now that that is resolved, we are going to see the airline moving,” she stated.

She noted that they had been doing feasibility studies and they had concluded, West Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lagos, Accra, Mumbai and right now they had another team that was in Khartoum, among other places.

“We have done feasibility studies on eight routes. With these feasibilities ending, we are working with a team of four Ministries, Departments and Agencies which include the Ministry of Works and Transport, Civil Aviation Authority and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to discuss and track our destinations. Once our destinations are concluded, Uganda Airlines can now start doing the planning for operating and flying,” Bamuturaki said.

She also noted that cutting down the operation costs was her main objective as new Uganda Airlines CEO. 

“We have a very high operation cost and to be able to manage our operations, we must work on our costs and improve on our revenues. We must try and manage our operations,” Bamuturaki added.

Bamuturaki’s appointment comes in the wake of a massive shake-up in the management of Uganda Airlines and the arrest and prosecution of some of its bosses.

In April, the Government terminated the contract of the former Uganda Airlines CEO Cornwell Muleya and other top managers.

The permanent secretary of the Ministry of Works and Transport, Waiswa Bageya, said the decision was taken on April 21, 2021, on the orders of President Museveni to pave the way for investigations into allegations of financial mismanagement, collusion, and nepotism in staff recruitment among other issues. 

The other affected top managers included finance director Paul Turacayisenga, Rogers Wamara the director commercial and procurement manager Moses Wangalwa. 

Others are; sales and marketing officer Deo Nyanzi, Andrew Tumusiime (senior administration manager), Harvey Kalama (ground operational manager), Bruno Oringi (safety manager), Michael Kaliisa (quality manager), crew training manager Juliet Otage Odur and first officers Kenneth Kiyemba and Alex Kakooza.

Muleya was formally charged before Buganda Road Court with Disobedience to orders of the Inspectorate of Government on June 22, 2022. He had been arrested on June 21, by the Inspectorate of Government for disobeying orders to divulge information, contrary to section 35 (a) of the Inspectorate of Government Act, 2002. She however revealed that she would be different.

“What really matters is to make sure that our governance issues and processes are well streamlined. What really bothers us as Accounting Officers is how we do our procurement. I have had my challenges as well. Most of us are coming from the private sector and it is something we do quickly and move faster but in Government the processes are so lengthy and even a small move you have made a mistake and it's so troublesome. What we need to learn first is to make sure we have our procurement processes streamlined because that is where the first challenge begins,” Bamuturaki said.

She also noted that what matters was to have the right profile in the right places. “Once we have that and with the right skills set, we shall not have the challenges because we have the right people who know what they should be doing.