Today, 18th March 2015, the Appointments Committee of Parliament which is chaired by the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga has vetted the newly appointed ministers, the Chief Justice Bart Katureebe and his deputy.

However it was not an all-smooth sailing process as Opposition Members of Parliament stormed out of the Appointments Committee to protest the appointment of Justice Steven Kavuma as the new Deputy Chief Justice.

Kavuma’s appointment to the 2nd highest office in the judiciary has been marred in controversy as this comes two days after a petition to block his appointment was thrown out of court.

The opposition MPs who included the leader of opposition Wafula Ogutu, Betty Amongi and Richard Sebuliba protested Justice Kavuma’s appointment on the basis that Kavuma did not apply to the judicial service commission for the job.

Despite the protests, Kavuma was approved as the Deputy Chief Justice by the committee anyway.

On the other hand, the Chief justice Bart Katurebe upon being approved by the committee pledged to make the judiciary more independent than before.

The ministers who appeared before the committee include Jim Muhwezi the new Minister for Information and National Guidance, Evelyn Anite, Minister of state for Youth, Vicent Sempija, Minister of state for Agriculture, Philimon Mateke, Minister of state for Regional cooperation, David Bahati, Minister of state for Planning,   Dr. Chris Baryomunsi Minister of state for Health and Taboa Tekodiri  as Minister of state for Higher Education.

Bahati said that he is going to make sure that money borrowed will be used for that purpose and not misused.

Evelyn Anite promised to focus on youth unemployment and protection of children using the child protection unit.

“If approved I will focus on protection of children using the child protection unit” said Anite minutes before facing the Appointments committee