Rubondo’s PAU exit closes with a delayed send-off

What the report says

Uganda Business News reported that the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU) held a belated farewell for Ernest Rubondo, the agency’s first executive director, at the Sheraton Kampala Hotel in Kampala. Rubondo stepped down on 31 August after completing two five-year terms, which the law setting up the regulator allows. The event took place nearly a month later and was attended by Energy Minister Monica Musenero, other government officials, oil industry executives and PAU board and management representatives.

According to the report, Rubondo was one of the early government-trained petro-scientists and joined the petroleum unit in 1984 before later becoming the first head of the regulator, which was created under Uganda’s 2013 petroleum law to oversee the sector from exploration through distribution. Speakers at the send-off praised his role in building PAU from the ground up. The article also noted that some senior PAU staff were absent, and that the delayed farewell followed ministerial intervention to organize it.

The story places the ceremony against a wider leadership transition at the regulator. PAU had already announced Fred Kabanda as the next executive director, while Michael Otonga-Ochan was serving as acting head after Rubondo’s departure. Uganda Business News said the handover and appointment process had been affected by internal discussions, including salary negotiations, and that uncertainty around the succession remained at PAU headquarters in Entebbe. The development matters because PAU is central to Uganda’s oil-sector governance as the country moves closer to commercial production.