CASSAVA REPUBLIC: Besigye Wants All RDCs Fired So That They Can Go Home & Grow Cassava

Opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye wants all Resident District Commissioners (RDCs) and their deputies to be relieved of their duties so that they can go home and grow more cassava. 

The call for the firing of RDCs is part of Besigye’s and People’s Front for Transition (PFT) demands unveiled as the veteran politician started protests against an alleged succession plan from President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni to his son Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba.

According to Dr Besigye, PFT’s central demand is a transition from a military government to a people’s and democratic government. The four-time presidential candidate says that besides this central demand it is not difficult for the Museveni government to offer immediate relief to Ugandans who are suffering due to the high cost of living and a struggling economy.

Besigye wants the number of ministers cut from 82 to 30 and RDCs fired so that they can go home and increase the production of cassava in the country. The money saved by disbanding the office RDCs and cutting the number of minister would be used to save Ugandans, according to the veteran politician.

He says the RDCs should hand over their offices to Chief Administrative Officers (CAOs) who should be able to execute it.

“We now have a cassava republic and a bread republic. We should get this money back so that the cassava republic can get something to eat,” Besigye told reporters at his Kasangati home before his arrest on May 12. “The RDCs should go back home and grow cassava so that there can be enough cassava in the market that can be bought by members of cassava republic.”

Besigye’s insistence on RDCs going home to grow cassava was a veiled attack against President Museveni who weeks ago told Ugandans who cannot find or afford bread to switch to cassava, a statement that saw some citizens compare her to Marie Antoinette. (Read Story Here).

The positions of RDC and deputy RDC remain ‘coveted,’ with some people reportedly bribing officials officials in the line ministries to include them on the list of these representatives of the president in districts.

Following the release of the list of RDCs and their deputies weeks ago, a ruling NRM MP claimed that RDCs who failed to pay a Shs20m bribe to officials in the Presidency Ministry had been removed from the list of those appointed RDCs and deputies. (Read Story Here).

Meanwhile, fired RDCs have formed an association through which they have been demanding to meet President Museveni and begging for jobs in security agencies. The former RDCs insist that they are broke, choking on debts and need help.