Museveni made the remarks while commissioning the new warehouse and office complex for NMS at Kajjansi, Wakiso district today Thursday, November 13. In tow was the minister of Health Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, the general manager of NMS Moses Kamabare, NMS board members, US ambassador to Uganda Natalie E. Brown and other officials. The facility is less than 2kms from the Kajjansi tolling gate along the Kampala-Entebbe expressway. 

 
Museveni noted that while the facility is magnificent because it will increase the agency’s storage capacity four times from the current one at Entebbe, it was built in a wetland.
 
“You have built in a bad place…Kamabare told me a long story that this was a quarry of clay by Kajjansi Tile Makers. But that is proof that this was a swamp…but you don’t have to worry. We have told people who have built structures like these and factories…we have given them ten years to migrate out of the wetlands at their own cost.”
 
Museveni asked Kamabare about how much it could have cost to reclaim the ten acres where the facility sits, adding that it must have taken several truckloads of soil and rock to fill up and drain the swamp to lay the complex foundation.
 
But Kamabare said all activities carried out were within the Shs 69.8 billion provided for the project. Museveni concluded by saying, “So I congratulate everybody and the structure is commissioned and approved with all the comments made above.”
 
However, Jotham Musinguzi, the chairman board of directors for NMS says the board, management and ministry of Health officials will engage the president over the issue of vacating Kajjansi.
 
“But this facility is not in a wetland. The president has seen a wetland in the neighbourhood but for us, we got land (23 acres) in a raised place.”
 
Dr Diana Atwine, the permanent secretary of the ministry of Health, said, “let us wait for the ten years and we shall discuss whether or not NMS will vacate this place.”
 
Dr Charles Ayume, the Koboko Municipality MP and also chairperson of the parliamentary committee on health, says that the president is warning people against setting up structures and factories in wetlands.
 
“I’m now using common sense. I don’t think we are going to remove a Shs 69 billion facility. I think it’s more of a hyperbole…I think National Environment Management Authority {NEMA] is one of the most sleepy government institutions. Why did NEMA approve the environment impact assessment for this project and yet it is in a wetland? NEMA must wake up and I am proud of my president for saying that we must protect mother nature,” said Ayume.
 
The facility was constructed by China National Complete Plant Import and Export Corporation Ltd and Wada, a Ugandan subcontractor. Currently, the NMS uses the warehouse in Entebbe.
 
The funds were provided by the government which contributed Shs 41 billion while the rest came from the Global Fund and Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).
 
Kamabare recently said that they expect to generate over Shs 100 billion from the new warehouse, up from the Shs 50 billion it currently generates from the warehouse in Entebbe.
 
He noted that the project was expected to be completed in 2020. But it was delayed due to the COVID-19 disruptions which resulted in several Chinese workers involved in the project failing to travel back to Uganda during the first lockdown and also last year when team leader for the Chinese company succumbed to COVID-19.
 
Nonetheless, the project has now been completed and NMS will shift its head office from Entebbe to Kajjansi on January 1, 2023. Minister Aceng says the warehouse at Entebbe with a storage space of 8,000 pallets will be used as a search and emergency centre.
 
She called on the United Nations (UN) to utilize this warehouse to store medicines and vaccines for Africa. The new warehouse has a storage space of 30,000 pallets, four times the space in Entebbe. 
 
Kamabare adds that the cold chain unit at the new warehouse will also be five times bigger than the one at Entebbe. The unit is where vaccines for COVID-19, polio, HPV and Ebola are stored.
 
The Kajjansi facility also has an office complex for 300 staff, a gym, a creche for babies under two years and an oxygen plant where 100 cylinders will be filled daily for government facilities in need and will sell liquid oxygen to private facilities.
 
Dr Seth Franklin Berkley, the chief executive officer of GAVI and Andrew Musoke, the chairman of the country coordinating team for Global Fund commended NMS, the government and development partners for ensuring the completion of the facility, which they say is the largest pharmaceutical warehouse in East Africa.
 
inarticle} inarticle}