By Hanning Mbabazi
Kampala: The President of Uganda Gen. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni will tomorrow Thursday afternoon give the State of the nation address on the current situation and developments in the country.
The address that is to be aired live on all TV and radio stations and on twitter at hashtag #SoNA19, is slated to take place at the Kampala Serena Conference Centre starting 2:00Pm to mark the beginning of the next session for parliament. However sources reveal that the president is expected to comment on his recent countrywide operation wealth creation drives, and how they have grown as well as the revival of the national airline that had been grounded for over 20 years. The mudslide tragedy in Bududa district is also likely not to miss in Museveni’s State of the nation address.
The sour relations of once brother countries of Uganda and Rwanda that erupted earlier this year when Rwanda chose to close its borders, thereby denying citizens of both countries from crossing boundaries, is also expected to be in the address. The recent manifestation of the cold relations was a May 24 awful incident at Hamisavu trading centre, Kisekye parish, Kamwezi sub -county in Rukiga district inside the Ugandan territory, when a Ugandan and Rwandan national were shot dead by the Rwandan army. Rwanda has for long accused Uganda of arresting and detaining a number of their citizens while in Kampala and also supporting dissidents fighting the Kigali establishment.
However, the Ugandan government has denied the allegations, saying they can never be traitors to support rebels against their neighbors. Recent increasing criminality that involved armed robberies for example the incident at Cheap General Hardware in Nansana where Six armed gunmen stole money worth millions and shot four people dead, is also expected to be on the agenda. The President is expected to comment about the robberies by security officers such as a recent attempt to rob Fang Fang Restaurant, in which three UPDF soldiers were arrested by ISO operatives and the remedies by security including the recently recruited Local Defense Unit personnel to complement police efforts in fighting crime. Some say, the State of the Nation Address is more than a President’s speech but rather his political accountability duty that he has to perform satisfactorily. However, Article 101 (1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda provides that “The President shall, at the beginning of each session of Parliament, deliver to Parliament an address on the state of the nation.”
