Uganda Road Fund boss defends move to employ more women

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.

Naimanye made the remarks while appearing before the Committee of Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE), following a question asked by Medard Sseggona (Busiro East) who 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?” However, Naimanye defended the Fund’s policy to recruit mainly men saying there is no law that mandates him to consider gender balance while conducting recruitments at the Road Fund Secretariat, but rather that provision only hold at the Board, which has been achieved.

“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.