President Museveni addresses journalists at his country home in Rwakitura, Kiruhura District yesterday. The President said government will not slash the Defence ministry budget in the wake of an impasse over the Budget. MPs have vowed to block the budget unless additional funding for the health sector is found. PHOTO BY ISAAC KASAMANI 

President Museveni yesterday said the government will not slash the Defence ministry budget in the wake of an impasse over additional funding for the health sector.



“Nobody can cut… we cannot agree to the cutting of defence. I cannot agree because Defence is underfunded already,” the president said.
The President suggested they were “many other things” that the government is yet to accomplish in its building of the defence sector.
He added that the government would find a way of meeting the financial demands of the health sector.



For close to three weeks now, the Executive has been locked in a budget disagreement with Parliament over a proposal, by the MPs, to re-allocate money from various ministries, including Defence, to save Shs39.2 billion for the recruitment and welfare of health workers.

The MPs argue that the health sector is in dire need of more funding but government says it can only work on a stop-gap measure - to employ 1,000 midwives - as the sector waits for next financial year.

At the media briefing at his country home in Rwakitura, the President also said while Uganda has not signed any new contracts to acquire additional fighter jets, this does not rule out a future acquisition.

“We have not signed any contracts for new jets but if we get new funds in the future, we will continue building our airforce,” he said. “This, however, doesn’t rule out in the future that we may be buying new jets. Building our army is a continuous process.”
Mr Museveni also said that the government will replace the three Mi-24 attack helicopters which crashed on Mt Kenya on August 12. He said money for use in replacing the aircraft has been saved through “some economies”. The President had earlier denied reports that he has hand-picked a Chinese firm as contractor for the Karuma hydro power project.

egyezaho@ug.nationmdia.com