Dr Aminah Zawedde, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry of ICT and National Guidance is simple on the eye.
That is why when some people meet her, they can easily conclude that she can be bullied.
Yet deep down, she is a fighter and unyielding especially when it comes to issues of accountability.
Over the last couple of days, several stories have appeared on some news websites detailing how the ministry, with her approval, is misusing public funds.
One of the sensational stories said she had approved the purchase of a vehicle at a whooping cost of 965 million. When the ministry clarified that it had in fact purchased two vehicles in that amount, the reports persisted.
Another story claimed that Zawedde had been stopped from accessing Shs 6.7 billion collected as Non-Tax Revenue because her intentions for the money were suspicious. It turned out that Zawedde had in fact earlier rooted for non-tax revenues not to be touched by the ministry.
Source of Zawedde’s troubles
We have been told by multiple sources that Zawedde’s strictness in the handling of public finances has brought her into trouble with some people within her ministry and a minister.
Apparently when she took over from Vincent Bagiire in 2022, she instituted strong accounting measures to stop the siphoning of money by officials.
She insisted that any memorandum of understanding between the ministry and any private entity must be cleared (and even signed) by her as an accounting officer.
She also disbanded the questionable arrangement were a private PR firm had been hired to do advertising work for the ministry. She discovered this was a conduit through which some officials were siphoning public resources.
Many of these changes did not please some of the people.
We have been told that some people would come up with fictitious claims and demand to be paid but she would insist on a workplan and evidence. This did not impress some people who started plotting her downfall.
One time, a minister in her ministry wanted to change their car tyres, two weeks after the minister’s car had just been given new tyres.
Zawedde questioned how it could be possible that the new tyres had worn out in two weeks when the car had hardly covered 200 KM within that period. However, the most shocking part is that the minister wanted the ‘tyres’ in cash, which is improper.
She stood her ground and the minister started badmouthing her before the president whenever a chance presented itself.
When this failed, the minister enlisted allies in the media industry and commissioners and directors at the ministry to fight Zawedde.
One of the directors was told by the minister that he would lobby the president to ensure that he replaces Zawedde.
Through political experience, the minister knew that if the volume of negative stories on Zawedde increased, may be the president may be forced to act because it would project a bad image.
“That is why some media houses have joined in the fight,” said one of our sources. “They don’t want to cross check the information they are given because they know the truth will embarrass them.”
We have been told that some media houses, especially the news websites, have been given up to Shs 1 million per negative story on Zawedde.
In fact, from the tone and flow of the stories, one can tell that they are written from a central point and then distributed to the news outlets to publish. The coordinator of the project is a prominent personality in the media.
“It is a well-orchestrated, well-oiled machine,” our source said.
For now, Zawedde, according to our sources has decided to keep quiet and let those who are fighting her take the limelight.
“She knows what she is doing is right. She also knows that she may lose the battle but not the bigger war,” said the source.
Who is Zawedde?
Dr Zawedde has served as the Permanent Secretary of the ICT Ministry since July 15, 2022.
She holds a PhD from Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, an MSc. in Computer Science from Makerere University.
She holds a PGDip in Educational Technologies from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, a PGD in Education from the Islamic University in Uganda, and a BSc. in Statistics and Economics from Makerere University.
