(Posted 03rd February 2025)
When enough is enough and long overdue in any case
President Museveni has finally moved to replace Jenifer Bamuturaki as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Uganda Airlines, following a State House meeting and subsequent investigations launched by the Uganda Criminal Investigation Department (CID), State House’s Anti Corruption Unit and other government bodies.
The decision, which has now been communicated internally to staff, comes as Uganda Police’s Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) and the State House Anti-Corruption Unit intensify investigations into alleged abuse of office, embezzlement of funds and false accounting involving airline officials.
In an internal email circulated to staff this Monday afternoon, Bamuturaki informed employees that the airline’s Board would soon advertise the position of Chief Executive Officer, a clear signal that her tenure is ending.
It is not clear which other senior positions in the airline will be facing the axe too but given the public outrage and chain complaints about certain individuals it is now anyone’s guess who will survive the purge.
Among key arising issues were also the prolonged grounding of an Airbus A330-800 in Lagos, which some pundits say was ‘artificial’ as other airlines flying this type of aircraft had no problems to keep their aircraft flying. Yet. portraying Airbus in a bad light could of course have been one tactical move why the airline wanted to order Boing B787’s instead of following conventional wisdom to enjoy the benefits of a one manufacturer fleet – once the CRJ 900’s are eventually gone and Airbus A320’s and A330’s or A350’s would be the sole backbone of the airline’s fleet.
