Why Museveni fired Isabalija

Throughout these processes, Kaliisa had groomed most of the officials at the energy ministry, sent them abroad to study, appointed them and promoted them. That Isabalija, a neophyte in the sector ousted Kabagambe was surprising. That he was not succeeded by any of the highly qualified careerists in the ministry was doubly confounding. What was the appointing authority, President Yoweri Museveni, up to?

Isabalija had impressed Museveni as a reformer as he had spent at least the previous 10 months tearing into the bureaucrats and their political heads at Amber House and punching holes into their work methods. It all started with one meeting in March 2016 when Isabalija had an upclose meeting with Museveni for the first time. It was at the presidential lodge in Kyankwazi on the sidelines of the 10—days meeting of the newly elected ruling party legislators.

Isabalija shocked Museveni with a report on shoddy works on the Karuma and Isimba dams. A month later, a furious Museveni fired three top officials overseeing the dams; Paul Mubiru, the director Energy Resources, Henry Bidasala Igaga, the project coordinator, Karuma and Cecilia Menya, the project coordinator, Isimba.

By July, Isabalija had become Museveni’s consultant on all energy matters. For instance, in July President Museveni called a meeting to address a crisis over the sale of a stake in the 250 MW Bujagali hydro power dam. Although, all players plus Finance Minister, Matia Kasaija, and URA’s Dorothy Akol were present, Museveni halted the meeting because Isabalija was not attending. He immediately asked his private secretary Edith Nakelema to call Isabalija and ask him to come to the meeting right away.

When he arrived, Isabalija did not disappoint. Once again, he dazzled Museveni by exposing information about the deal that the President had not been briefed on by the others. Museveni was shocked and angry. He turned and asked the other officials; “Did you know this?”

There was silence. Kasaijja said he didn’t. Kaliisa just looked on sheepishly.

By this time, the tension between Kaliisa and Isabalija had reached uncontrollable levels. After a meeting at State House Entebbe, the two men exchanged words.

“I know you want my job,” Kaliisa shouted at Isabalija, “You will not manage.”

Just a few months later, Isabalija had managed. Kaliisa became the fourth official at the Energy Ministry to be fired as a result of Isabalija’s pushing. By November when Isabalija was appointed PS, he was seen as the most influential official in the energy sector.

However, Isabalija had got rid of Kabagambe, but equally formidable power-centres like Minister Irene Muloni remained. She has spent 15 years at Amber House, seven of them as Minister and formed powerful alliances. Muloni’s deputy, Simon D’Ujanga had been there even longer; from 1994 and was Muloni’s boss in the defunct Uganda Electricity Board. He has been a minister of State for Energy for 11 years. Both were electrical engineers while Isabalija is an accountant with an MBA. Technically, Isabalija was swimming with sharks. Although he previously headed the board of power generator UEGCL, which is a major player in the sector, he was still being seen as an outsider with very little experience in energy matters and none at all in civil service.

From Nov. 09 when he was appointed, insiders say, Isabalija should have known that his every move would be scrutinised by insiders who saw him as an outsider out to disrupt the status quo. He would be fought. And he would fight back. Who would win? On Aug.23 the verdict was out. Isabalija had lost.

Chinese fight back

Isabalija got himself into trouble in several fights. But two of them appeared to have been his major undoing. In both of them, Isabalija imagined he could defeat the Chinese who are the main investors in Museveni’s infrastructure projects and officials at the Energy Ministry led by his boss Eng. Irene Muloni and the powerful commission agents and lobbyists of these Chinese investors.

One of the fights was over the $ 4 billion refinery and the other over the 295MW Kiba dam proposed to be built on the River Nile in Nwoya for US$ 700 million.

On July 03, Isabalija unilaterally cancelled an MoU the government had entered with the powerful China Africa Investment and Development Company (CAIDC).

As a result, Isabalija found himself confronted by the electricity regulator, the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA), the Solicitor General, Francis Atooke, acting on behalf of the Attorney General and even President Museveni.