Minister of State for Youth and Children Balaam Barugahara Ateenyi has ordered the committee behind the recently concluded Coffee Marathon to apologize for wasting taxpayers’ money.
Diamond Platnumz was allegedly flown into the country by a private jet. Upon landing, he was given a helicopter to take him to Ntungamo for rehearsals and then back to a hotel in Kampala for rest. Additionally, he was allegedly paid Ugx 750 million for his performance, which Balaam disagreed with.
Instead of lavish spending, Balaam believes that the money would have been put to good use by buying farmers more seeds, manure, or sponsoring activities that benefit them.
“We should learn to value the Taxpayer’s money because the factory responsible for the event is funded by the government. Instead of getting that money to develop the coffee farmers, we wasted all the money on Diamond. I hope the event’s owner, Nelson Tugume, will come forward and apologize for his actions. They gave him the money and he was free to use it for the event but let us stop the wastage of taxpayer’s money.
Balaam further revealed that bringing in Diamond Platnumz to the Coffee Marathon was unnecessary because he didn’t add anything to the event and the subject it was set up for. He vouched for local artists like Mariam Tindatiine, Omega 256, Ray G Nandor Love, among others, saying they would have done a better job.
As an events promoter, Balaam has hired Tanzanian artists before, including Ray G. However, he says he brought them into Uganda by bus and had them checked in at Munyonyo without any complaints. He feels the costs spent on having Diamond were extreme and disrespectful.
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“There is nothing special about Diamond. What did he add to our product? He didn’t promote anything apart from pissing off Bebe Cool and Eddy Kenzo. But I blame the organizer. He chose a private jet over our Ugandan airlines. The roads going to Mbarara are the best. It was wrong because all the artists would have traveled by a Global bus. We don’t hate Diamond, but we shouldn’t have held him high like that,” he told BBS TV.
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