Why Ugandans Will Always Remember Jennifer Bamuturaki, Former Uganda Airlines CEO

Jennifer Bamuturaki, Former Uganda Airlines CEO

Uganda is the only peaceful country where everyone is free to trade any baseless accusation without being remorseful after developing any disagreement.

When President Museveni gave a job to Mrs Jennifer Bamuturaki, that was the beginning of murmuring and jealousy from a clique of people who felt they could be more senior than Bamuturaki.

In June 2022, President Museveni wrote a communication letter full of praise for Ms Jennifer Bamuturaki. In that letter, the President directed the Works Ministry to have Bamuturaki appointed CEO of Uganda Airlines Company without competition.

The President was grateful after learning the role Bamuturaki had previously played in helping him understand what had gone wrong at the newly revamped national airline (as of that time, Bamuturaki was serving as the Director of Commercial Services under CEO Cornwell Muleya, who was a Zambian expatriate). Secondly, the President felt obliged to deploy Bamuturaki because of who her father was.

Bamuturaki Senior, her dad, had been one of the opposition MPs who vigorously stood up to the Milton Obote dictatorship of the early 1980s and paid a price for it with his own life. He was assassinated, and his killing greatly helped in publicizing the struggle against the UPC and the Obote II administration.

Ms Jennifer started doing her job to the best of her knowledge; however, in her line of duty, she might have stepped into a hidden “eating room” with the move to make the airline operate well. This might not have gone well with a section of staff within the system who developed a cold war against Bamuturaki and started reporting every small mistake to the “big man” from Rwakitura.

This made the President take interest and start following and receiving reports on several things that had been going wrong at Uganda Airlines Company since July 2022, including the top management’s failure to prevent prohibited liquor from repeatedly being carried into Uganda-friendly countries where it would ordinarily not be permitted, including Somalia.

As CEO of the airline, Bamuturaki does not work alone, but instead the entire board decided to wage war against one person until now the mission has been completed.

Ms Bamuturaki’s situation is not different from what Ms Jennifer Musisi faced when she was the ED of Kampala Capital City Authority. Many people attributed many baseless problems to Ms Musisi until the President relieved her of her job.

Recently, when floods hit Kampala, everyone regretted why they removed Ms Musisi.

This will be the same situation with Jennifer Bamuturaki. Ugandans are good at praising a person after he or she has left, but they do not praise them while they are still in the system.