LETTER
THE insanity of mankind will never cease to amaze me! Hon. Betty Nambooze Bakireke, with due respect, I landed on your letter issued on Sunday afternoon and it rubbed me the wrong way.
Your letter was written out of egocentric tendencies, malice and anchored on bias aimed at tainting bad image on His Worship Abubakar Kawalya, newly elected Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) Speaker.
I want to assure you that the determinant of the just concluded elections was mainly internal than external influence. Go and tell your favorite candidate Nyanjura to work on her social skills rather trading blackmail here.
Let me ask, how did you come to know and verify that the 17 councilors who wisely voted for Hon. Kawalya were NRMs? Do you even know how may councilors who subscribe to NRM at City Hall or you thought those reading your lies were fools? Were these ballots marked for post-election verification? Any way, let me leave this one here!
You proceeded to press this huge allegation in your own words: “Your suspected closeness to NRM camp made some people and your long time comrades on our side uncomfortable.” How did you determine the existence of these camps and what was your camp in all this?
I wish to educate you that in this election, KCCA council was a constituency made up of electorates from which the candidates had to campaign in order to win.
Why then would anybody from the opposite camp decide which tactics his/her opponents should use to win? This doesn’t add up to me.
In all this circus, the winner was going to serve the whole house irrespective of our political leanings. Why then would anybody choose to build enemy walls to the people you have lived and worked with for more than four years?
The excitement from NRM camp your talking about are simply born out of your personal ego. It is not the first time for NRM to congratulate the opposition leaders in Uganda and it is not a unique practice across the globe for this to happen.
Just a few years ago, NRM Chairman, who is your good friend and has been footing your medical bills and who happens to be the President of Uganda is on record, congratulating People Power supreme leader Hon. Bobi Wine upon massively winning Kyadondo East by elections. We never read anywhere from you, complaining.
When Hon. Erias Lukwago won Lordmayorship in 2011, I verily remember, he was first congratulated by then President Museveni’s agent in Kampala, Jennifer Ssemakula Musisi. She in fact drove to a certain Wakaliga road Hotel and held a private meeting with him. You knew about this meeting but you chose to keep quiet because you were also a beneficiary.
When he won in 2016, insiders have it that a certain NRM power broker threw a party for him plus donating other gifts. Hon. Nambooze, still you remained mute.
Why then, is it so special in the case of Speaker Kawalya? You’re talking of being opposed to the Lord Mayor, why must everyone agree with him? Hon. Namboze with due respect, who anointed you and your group to be the Referees and Judges to determine who is the “Righteous and who is unrighteous in Opposition”?
You claim Sainthood, you were present when the FDC was gerrymandering the rules in the middle of the game to front a certain candidate without giving any ear to the FDC caucus in KCCA. I didn’t hear any comment from you Madame righteousness.
I have a strong feeling that those who left opposition under unclear circumstances including Hon. Beti Kamya, Hajj Naser Ntege Sebaggala among others, took their own independent decisions as old people and nobody should question why they did what they did.
I may not know whether they consulted anyone of you before joining this struggle or whether they had a life contract with anyone in whatever they were doing in politics. I am yet to learn this from you.
The system of holding people at ransom through blackmail, that whenever they disagree with you, they are associated with NRM and anti-people’s will is expiring sooner than later.
Politics is a game of ideas, shared values and interests. This business of building blocks to separate the citizens of the Great Republic of Uganda is barbaric and must be condemned. We must switch to value based politics of compromise and negotiation as opposed to populism and campism.
I am not an expert in legal matters, I hope you will enlighten me on how you arrived at a legal interpretation of someone who acts as a speaker in captivity. What parameters are you using to arrive at this conclusion?
I thank you for recognizing that this was a maiden session presided over by a Speaker since the inception of this Act. However, your outburst as a senior politician seem to be addressing something that has consistently occur over a long period and yet the special council meeting was the first of its kind. This is a clear definition of HATE and envy!
You have cited the increment in the KCCA budget and included the sources, you went ahead to raise an important issue that the regime is targeting this money for misappropriation ahead of the general elections which is highly likely true.
Thank you so much for that intel, however, you did not provide the measures on how to safeguard this revenue from misappropriation.
Instead, you presented your “Guardian Angel” Erias Lukwago as the only available safeguard that has been available to provide the only safeguard measures.
Are you suggesting that the good leadership of this beautiful city starts and ends with Erias Lukwago? Have we reached the level of entrusting our systems to individual personalities? Really!
You went ahead to claim that the regime replaced him with a person who is easily manipulated. It would be very prudent, if you endeavored to provide tangible evidence to these claims! How do you tell that someone is easily manipulated?
This claim of “Lord Mayor’s uncompromising values” is a sarcasm that require in-depth investigation. Do you claim to know Lukwago than anyone in this city? Your constant claim of the business deals presented by mafias in billions raise eyebrows on how you gather this intelligence.
We are tired of you and your Sainthood claims that has made you the Alphas and Omegas of the opposition. This claim that whoever does not associate with you, must be labeled incompetent and a regime stooge is not only cynical but also pathetic.
We cannot afford to live in your armpits as captives because you made it impossible for anyone to hold a divergent opinion in your cartel called “opposition.”
Looking back at the origin of KCCA Act in 2010, the current Lord Mayor, your “Guardian Angel” was in that parliament when the law was being passed. He contested in 2011 and won and was congratulated by Museveni the same way Kasule Lumumba congratulated Rt. Hon. Kawalya.
He contested well knowing all the contents of this law and of course by being the legal maestro we have in this city. If he went into something that he already knew from the bottom of his heart, why the cry? What was his contribution as the best legislator of his time, when this law was being debated on the flour of parliament? Temutukoya!
Hon. Nambooze, I wish to put it to your knowledge that the meeting your referring to here, that it was rushed was a special council with only one item on order paper.
It came as a result of failure of the Lord Mayor, your Guardian Angel’s refusal to call the meetings which led to delay in the submission of our final budget.
I wish to also remind you that, on the same day of voting, your guardian angel raised a point that we handle this budget but we opted to handle only the elections on consensus.
It is only the ordinary meetings, that the Rt. Hon. Abubakar Kawalya will issue a 14-day notice and the business will be conducted and handled as you wish.
Hon. Nambooze, stop being a bad loser, you claim Sainthood here when you actually the opposite. If you know you are righteous, why was your camp engaged in voter bribery in broad day light. I am not seeing your long letter condemning this corruption act!
Do you want to pretend that you do not know anything about this? Guys stop using Opposition as a safe haven for your evil political dealings. What do you benefit from blackmail and pretense? Madame teacher, you do not have any moral authority to blackmail anyone here. You better seek for redemption and begin a new chapter!
Finally, our just concluded elections was a process that involved a team of 32 family members who have lived together for the last four years.
Irrespective of our political inclination, we know each other as a family, we know each other as siblings and close relatives.
The Writer Happy Nasasira is Lord councilor representing Nakawa Division in KCCA on FDC ticket. She was influential against Lord mayor Lukwago’s Impeachment in 2013. In 2021, she eyes a Parliamentary seat. Reach her on: 0703 232 039
