KAMPALA - A simmering dispute between two government ministries has escalated into a formal standoff, with the ICT and National Guidance Minister, Justine Kasule Lumumba, giving her finance counterpart, Henry Musasizi, a 30-day ultimatum to address the conduct of the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) executive director, Chris Mukiza.
A Public Challenge to a New Strategy
The friction stems from an extraordinary public statement issued by Mukiza on October 21, 2026, in which he described the newly launched National Data Strategy as an existential threat to the UBOS Act of 1998. In the statement, the statistics chief branded the strategy illegal, irregular, redundant and of no value to the National Statistical System.
The remarks landed barely a day after the ICT state minister, Joyce Ssebugwawo, had officially unveiled the strategy at Mestil Hotel in Kampala, turning what was meant to be a celebratory launch into the centre of a bureaucratic storm.
Lumumba Calls for a Meeting
Speaking in Luganda on Tuesday, November 3, Lumumba confirmed she had formally raised the matter with the finance ministry, which oversees UBOS.
"I wrote to the minister of finance to look into this matter of the executive director of UBOS writing opposing what had been done by the ICT ministry and to convene a meeting that will also be attended by the Attorney General," she said.
The minister's intervention signals growing concern within government over a senior public official publicly contradicting a policy rolled out by another ministry. By bringing the Attorney General into the conversation, Lumumba appears to be seeking a legal interpretation of the boundaries between the two institutions and the proper channels for airing such disagreements.
Why It Matters
The National Data Strategy is intended to guide how Uganda collects, manages and uses data across sectors, a priority for a government pushing digital transformation and evidence-based planning. A public rift between the ministry that champions the strategy and the agency responsible for national statistics could complicate its rollout and raise questions about coordination at the highest levels of government.
The 30-day window now puts the finance ministry under pressure to mediate, clarify the legal position and restore order between two key players in Uganda's data governance landscape.
For now, all eyes are on whether the two ministries can reconcile their positions, or whether the dispute will deepen into a broader institutional confrontation.
