By Moses Sserwanga
The Observer newspaper
has this week reported that some MPs are not satisfied with the performance of
Kiira Motors hardly six months into the financial year. These same MPs are
also fast-tracking their weird ideas of cutting funding to Kiira Motors a
government owned company that is setting up a car production plant
at the Jinja industrial park and give
the money to an obscure private company called Bakayira.
The debate about Kiira
Motors vs Bakayira is now gaining momentum as a section of MPs for self
interests are engaged in machinations to strip Kiira Motors of its
funding in an effort to promote a private company whose viability in the
automotive sector has not been documented anywhere.
The MPs' strategy is
to divide the 44bn asked for by Kiira Motors in the next financial year
and give it to Bakayira where it can easily be misappropriated . But remember
that it has taken Kiira Motors well over 10 years to prove its
competences and capabilities in order to attract this initial Uganda government
funding of Shs. 15bn out of the 24bn for the development /production
phase of this project the current financial year and another 44bn for the next financial year .
Kiira Motors has deployed these funds to set
up a vehicles production plant at the Jinja Industrial Park. The construction
work which began barely two months ago , is being carried out by the UPDF
Engineering brigade under the National Enterprise Corporation (NEC) - the
business arm of the army headed by an impeccable lawyer Lt. Gen. James Mugira .
Before government agreed to fund the Kiira Motors development/production
phase , the company had to make a detailed business case to prove the
commercial and business viability of the mission to make cars in Uganda while
championing the green mobility technologies (electric cars) .
Kiira Motors
management has over the years, in its pursuit to be funded , made several high
profile presentations to Parliament, Ministry of Finance and even
cabinet. The initial funding to Kira Motors of about 15bn out of the 24 bn budgeted for this
financial year was made after cabinet studied the Kiira Motors business
case and approved it with the support of parliament.
The company has not only made a viable case for the
mission cars made in Uganda but has also tested and proved it's
competencies , capabilities in technological innovations by producing
three electric vehicles ; the Kiira Ev, the Kayoola Solar bus , and the
Kiira EVS also know as "The Beast" . Kiira Motors is the
Pioneer of green mobility technologies in the automotive industry not
only in Uganda , the East African region but the African continent . Kiira
Motors is an award winning technology innovator in Uganda's
automotive industry and this is well documented .
It is bizarre
therefore, that hardly six months after the initial release of funds
for for the development and production phase of this national
project of strategic importance , some Members of Parliament want to sabotage
it even before it gets off the ground . These MPs must be stopped in
their tracks . Politics and self interest should not be promoted at the expense
of national projects of strategic nature .The Kiira Motors project if well
funded and well managed will bring enormous economic opportunities in the
fields of technology innovation, the job market , value addition and
foreign exchange earnings .
And this is not to say
that Bakayira shouldn’t be funded but
their funding should not come from the kiira Motors vote. Let them prepare and
submit a viable proposal to government for approval be funded on merit.
Otherwise, Kiira
Motors needs the support of every Ugandan. Let government fund this project
until it can sustain itself and the business case shows that will break even .
The writer is a Media and Communications Consultant/ trainer and Advocate of the High Court of Uganda.
msserwanga@gmail.com
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