Questions continue to swirl around the fate of Dr Lawrence Muganga’s rejected ministerial nomination, with journalist Robert Kayongo alleging that President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni personally influenced both the appointment and withdrawal of the academic’s name from Cabinet consideration.
In a detailed commentary shared on social media, Kayongo argued that the decision was not simply a parliamentary outcome, but a calculated political move at the highest level of government.
“What Lawrence Muganga does not seem to understand is that Yoweri Kaguta Museveni gave him the opportunity with one hand and later took it away with the other,” Kayongo stated.
“No committee member had the power to block a highly intelligent and connected Munyarwanda like Muganga from becoming a minister after he had already been appointed by Museveni himself.”
Muganga’s nomination was recently halted by Parliament’s Appointments Committee following scrutiny over his citizenship status, with lawmakers questioning whether he held dual or multiple citizenships, a matter that could disqualify him from holding certain public offices under Ugandan law.
However, Kayongo dismissed the committee’s role as secondary, suggesting that internal executive dynamics were decisive.
“Thomas Tayebwa musajja wattu, kiiso kyambuzi,” he added, using colloquial phrasing to express skepticism about parliamentary influence.
“Museveni has done this before. He appointed Ssebagala and later personally directed Rt Hon Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga that he should not become a minister.”
Kayongo further claimed that competing interests within the executive may have shaped the outcome.
“The Museveni I know was never going to have both Adonia in Foreign Affairs and Muganga in Internal Affairs at the same time. One of them had to be sacrificed,” he said, without providing official confirmation of such internal decisions.
His remarks also touched on Muganga’s own public defence of himself, particularly a statement posted on X in which the academic acknowledged that he entered the vetting room with a recording device.
“What is even more surprising is Muganga’s own statement on X, where he admitted that he entered the room with a recorder and recorded the proceedings,” Kayongo said.
“If that is true, how can Museveni trust that he would not record cabinet meetings or other confidential government discussions and share them with whoever gave him that recorder?”
He concluded with criticism of Muganga’s pursuit of political office despite his academic standing.
“It is disappointing to see the Vice Chancellor of a chartered university fighting so hard for a deputy ministerial position,” he said. “Not every PhD holder embodies the values that a PhD is supposed to represent.”