Uganda Engineering Profession Dominated By Male Staff, COSASE Discovers While Grilling Uganda Road Fund ED Naimanye

The Committee of Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) has tasked Executive Director of Uganda Road Fund, Andrew Naimanye to explain why the road fund industry is mainly dominated by males.

The Committee chairperson also Busiro East Legislator Hon Medard Ssegona asked why amongst the team of officials that appeared to respond to the queries raised in the December 2023 Auditor General’s report, there was no female staff.

“What happened to our daughters, mothers, wives and sisters in the Uganda Road Fund? Did you kill all of them?” asked Sseggona to which Naimanye responded, “Unfortunately, the industry is so male dominated, it is a bit historical, but we are trying to reverse that.” Sseggona added,

 “Do you know the constitutional obligations attached to that?” Ssegona querried.

However, The Executive Director of Uganda Road Fund, Andrew Naimanye has defended the decision to hire mostly women at the Fund, saying the Engineering profession hardly has any women to hire, because the industry is male dominated.

“Incidentally, you require a certificate of gender and equity compliance, so that is our first observation, even without interrogating it, on admission. The law says you are innocent until you plea guilty, so I receive that portion as a plea of guilt, you are convicted on your own plea and you will receive the sentence in our report because it is a constitutional requirement. The industry isn’t male dominated it has some women, but even if it is male dominated, we would still want to see the domination reversed,” said ssegona

“Yeah, on the Board we have a requirement to have two thirds as women and we have achieved that, but there is no such requirement within the secretariat,” added Naimanye.

 Sseggona revealed that Naimanye’s remarks will be taken into consideration at the time the Committee is making its report to Parliament, adding that the engineering profession being male dominated shouldn’t mean that females should be sidelined.