By Spy Uganda
Kampala: The Minister for Works and Transport Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala has castigated Ugandans who are using social media to attack Uganda Airlines Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jennifer Bamuturaki.
According to Gen. Katumba, the negative comments against Bamuturaki are dragging down the airline business and portraying a bad image and name for Uganda.
“I think there is something which as Ugandans we are missing. Yes, we may look good on the media, castigating an individual, downplaying that person or that individual but what is the far-reaching impact on the airline?” Gen. Katumba questioned.
“As we send these negative social media tweets, do we think about the impact to that industry, as a country, as a Ugandan? Do you? Because this is not about the individual: this airline is not an individual’s airline, it’s a national asset; we want to promote a national asset,” he added.
Gen. Katumba further noted that the airline does not belong to Bamuturaki as an individual but to the entire country therefore Ugandans should focus on promoting it instead of focusing on Bamuturaki who has proved beyond reasonable doubt that she can handle the work she has been given despite the alleged scandals at the national carrier.
“This is not for an individual, it is a national asset, but we spend a lot of energy trying to put people down. We should instead be jealously protecting this young baby, but we are not as Ugandans and it is a shame,” he added.
“But we spend a lot of energies trying to pull people down, dehumanizing people. It doesn’t help. We should instead be jealously protecting this young baby but we are not as Ugandans and it’s a shame. Let’s be proud of our thing. Other people are. Do you think there are no problems in other countries, in other airlines? Why are they collapsing? Are there no other airlines which have collapsed, why don’t they make the headlines on the media? Why should Uganda Airlines be the one to every day, every other day if a mistake is made, then you blow it out of proportion,” Gen. Katumba further noted.
“I think Ugandans we need to refocus ourselves. This is a young industry, we killed our airline long ago. We are just trying to [see how] to bring it back. But we are spending more energy trying to pull it down, what should be the benefit? This is my appeal to you the media people that it doesn’t pay to shoot ourselves in our own foot. That is what you are doing.” he added.
Since last week, Bamuturaki and other officials from Uganda Airlines have been interfacing with members of Parliament on the Public Accounts Committee on Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase).
She is still expected to appear before the same committee again starting this Tuesday for another whole week.
Meanwhile, this site last week put to rest allegations that Bamuturaki has no qualifications to handle the CEO job after we discovered that she has over 15 years of experience in aviation with a bachelor’s degree in Social Work and Social Administration from Makerere University. The degree is backed up by a couple of certificates obtained from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) which makes her a strong CEO for the job.
Bamuturaki is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Public Administration at Makerere University.
