Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni announced the long awaited cabinet reshuffle overnight, which saw the dropping of his brother Salim saleh and appointing of his wife Janet Museveni.
In the shake-up, Museveni dropped seven ministers and state ministers including the finance minister Ezra Suruma, who last week received the Finance Minister of the Year 2008 for Africa award from The Banker magazine published by the Britain-based Financial Times.
Salim Saleh, Museveni's brother and state minister for micro- finance, was dropped as the First Lady Janet Museveni was appointed the state minister for Karamoja.
Other ministerial officials dropped included ICT minister Ham Muliira, state minister for youth James Kinobe, state minister for lands Atwooki Kasirivu, state minister for investment Semakula Kiwanuka and state minister for economic monitoring Kagimu Kiwanuka.
Saleh, along with Suruma, Muliira and Kasirivu were named for senior presidential advisors while Kinobe and Kiwanuka were appointed as ambassador to Moscow, Russia, and Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, respectively.
Veteran minister Syda Bbumba, a banker who first served in energy before moving to gender, made history when she became Uganda's first woman finance minister.