Seya, Kamba papers OK for cabinet
Jun 12, 2011
THE National Council for Higher Education has maintained that MP Saleh Kamba and former Kampala mayor Nasser Ssebaggala have qualifications equivalent to advanced level, which is required for ministerial appointment.
By HENRY MUKASA
and ANDREW SSENYONGA
THE National Council for Higher Education has maintained that MP Saleh Kamba and former Kampala mayor Nasser Ssebaggala have qualifications equivalent to advanced level, which is required for ministerial appointment.
The council’s assistant executive director, Phenny Birungi, observed that Sebaggala and Kamba’s academic qualifications case was disposed of in 2006.
“In 2006, we cleared Sebaggala and Saleh Kamba. We stand by what we did,†Birungi stated.
The official explained that in 2006 when a red flag was raised over Ssebaggala and Kamba’s papers, their probe found that they tallied to the required A’level.
In Kamba’s case, he added, the High Court sitting in Mbale agreed with the council when it dismissed a case challenging the Kibuku MP’s academic qualifications. The case had been filed by the former MP, Rainer Kafiire.
The council, as a statutory agency, is a watchdog for quality and relevant higher education established under The Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Act, 2001.
Among other functions, the council determines the equivalence of academic qualifications obtained elsewhere with those awarded by Ugandan higher education institutions.
Birungi dismissed as “un-true†reports that President Yoweri Museveni had asked the council for an official report on the academic papers of the four ministerial nominees that the appointments committee had rejected.
The two others are Kabula MP James Kakooza and Bukoto South MP Muhammad Muyanja Mbabali.
Sources had intimated that the President wanted the council’s verification before he refers the four to the whole House.
The vetting committee of Parliament, chaired by the Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, rejected the four reportedly because they lacked the required academic qualifications.
According to the law, the President can appoint to Cabinet a person fit to become an MP. The electoral laws stipulate that a person qualifies to stand as MP if he or she has an A’level certificate†or its equivalent.
Ironically, for Sebaggala and Kamba, the MPs on the appointments committee also raised issues of morality and integrity.
Ssebaggala, who MPs reportedly described as “undeservingâ€, was in 1998 convicted of money laundering by a Boston court in the US.
Kamba was also quizzed over his involvement in the Kalangala Action Plan, a para-military group founded by presidential adviser Maj. Roland Kakooza Mutale. The group was accused of instigating electoral violence in the 2006 polls.
Yesterday, Sebaggala was in high spirits and still optimistic to land his ministerial position or something bigger in the Government.
“I am a survival (sic). Nothing can shake me. I hear people saying that, ‘Sebaggala was rejected from a ministerial post’, but I want to assure that I am a strong man who has tasted different waves of life,†Sebaggala said.
“There are many opportunities Allah has prepared for us. If one door is closed, be rest assured (sic) that another one will open soon. I know with no time you will see me in a better position,†he added.
Sebaggala was speaking during Dhuwa (prayers) in honour of his father, the late Al hajji Shaban Sebaggala at the family home in Kisasi, a Kampala suburb.
Sebaggala, a former opposition figure and DP stalwart, recently formed his political party, the Liberal Democrats Party, before joining the NRM campaign in the run-up to the February 2011 presidential elections.
Kakooza, the former primary healthcare minister, was reportedly asked by the committee to submit “authentic documents†if he was to regain his ministerial post, while the vetting team faulted Mbabali’s ‘O’ and ‘A’ level papers as having “inconsistencies.â€
Sebaggala was designated for the post of minister without portfolio, while Kamba was destined to become Bunyoro affairs minister.
Mbabali was nominated as state minister for investment, while Kakooza was set to return as primary healthcare state minister.
and ANDREW SSENYONGA
THE National Council for Higher Education has maintained that MP Saleh Kamba and former Kampala mayor Nasser Ssebaggala have qualifications equivalent to advanced level, which is required for ministerial appointment.
The council’s assistant executive director, Phenny Birungi, observed that Sebaggala and Kamba’s academic qualifications case was disposed of in 2006.
“In 2006, we cleared Sebaggala and Saleh Kamba. We stand by what we did,†Birungi stated.
The official explained that in 2006 when a red flag was raised over Ssebaggala and Kamba’s papers, their probe found that they tallied to the required A’level.
In Kamba’s case, he added, the High Court sitting in Mbale agreed with the council when it dismissed a case challenging the Kibuku MP’s academic qualifications. The case had been filed by the former MP, Rainer Kafiire.
The council, as a statutory agency, is a watchdog for quality and relevant higher education established under The Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Act, 2001.
Among other functions, the council determines the equivalence of academic qualifications obtained elsewhere with those awarded by Ugandan higher education institutions.
Birungi dismissed as “un-true†reports that President Yoweri Museveni had asked the council for an official report on the academic papers of the four ministerial nominees that the appointments committee had rejected.
The two others are Kabula MP James Kakooza and Bukoto South MP Muhammad Muyanja Mbabali.
Sources had intimated that the President wanted the council’s verification before he refers the four to the whole House.
The vetting committee of Parliament, chaired by the Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, rejected the four reportedly because they lacked the required academic qualifications.
According to the law, the President can appoint to Cabinet a person fit to become an MP. The electoral laws stipulate that a person qualifies to stand as MP if he or she has an A’level certificate†or its equivalent.
Ironically, for Sebaggala and Kamba, the MPs on the appointments committee also raised issues of morality and integrity.
Ssebaggala, who MPs reportedly described as “undeservingâ€, was in 1998 convicted of money laundering by a Boston court in the US.
Kamba was also quizzed over his involvement in the Kalangala Action Plan, a para-military group founded by presidential adviser Maj. Roland Kakooza Mutale. The group was accused of instigating electoral violence in the 2006 polls.
Yesterday, Sebaggala was in high spirits and still optimistic to land his ministerial position or something bigger in the Government.
“I am a survival (sic). Nothing can shake me. I hear people saying that, ‘Sebaggala was rejected from a ministerial post’, but I want to assure that I am a strong man who has tasted different waves of life,†Sebaggala said.
“There are many opportunities Allah has prepared for us. If one door is closed, be rest assured (sic) that another one will open soon. I know with no time you will see me in a better position,†he added.
Sebaggala was speaking during Dhuwa (prayers) in honour of his father, the late Al hajji Shaban Sebaggala at the family home in Kisasi, a Kampala suburb.
Sebaggala, a former opposition figure and DP stalwart, recently formed his political party, the Liberal Democrats Party, before joining the NRM campaign in the run-up to the February 2011 presidential elections.
Kakooza, the former primary healthcare minister, was reportedly asked by the committee to submit “authentic documents†if he was to regain his ministerial post, while the vetting team faulted Mbabali’s ‘O’ and ‘A’ level papers as having “inconsistencies.â€
Sebaggala was designated for the post of minister without portfolio, while Kamba was destined to become Bunyoro affairs minister.
Mbabali was nominated as state minister for investment, while Kakooza was set to return as primary healthcare state minister.