KAMPALA: A fight almost broke out as Lwemiyaga county legislator Theodore Ssekikubo narrated how fellow Kira Municipality legislator Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda sealed a deal with president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni to weaken parliament and turn it into a clearing house for dealers.
A furious Ssekikubo while appearing on CBS FM revealed that in 2021, he reached out to Ssemujju and pleaded with him not to allow to be compromised by writing his name in the book of people who are being used by president Museveni to weaken parliament.
Ssekikubo told Semujju that without a strong parliament, the country’s democracy, Rule of Law and governance will be threatened; but he did not listen to him.
Ssekikubo a senior legislator disclosed that it is unfortunate that Ssemujju was among the legislators Museveni used to fight Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga because he was very sure that he cannot deliver his son Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba to the office of the presidency when there is a strong speaker of parliament who will ask tough questions of why a serving military officer was participating in a partisan politics.
He revealed that Museveni was very aware that the former Speaker of parliament Jacob Oulanyah was sick and even if he was voted Speaker of parliament, his health was going to fail him but he had no option because he was the best candidate to counter Kadaga.
“President Museveni lied to us that he was not aware that Oulanyah was sick. He was aware because he was receiving intelligence briefing whenever Oulanyah flew out of the country for treatment abroad. Even when he received medication here in the country, he knew but he wanted to use him to defeat Kadaga,” Ssekikubo alleged.
However, it should be remembered that Museveni told mourners at Kololo airstrip that if he was aware that Oulanyah was sick, he would have advised him not to contest for the speakership slot where he defeated Kadaga.
Ssekikubo claims that Oulanyah’s illness weakened him because of the serious campaigns for the office of the speaker and by the time he was rushed to the hospital, it was too late.
Appearing on Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi’s CBS radio, Ssekikubo claimed that Museveni saw the voting of Annet Anita Among as the speaker of parliament as a gift because he was very sure that she will not challenge him by standing on the independence of parliament like Kadaga did.
He boasted that he showed it earlier and pleaded to Ssemujju not to de-campaign Kadaga to the extent of publicly humiliating her.
“I openly tell Ssemujju that it was Kadaga who stood her ground and defied Museveni and former Prime Minister John Patrick Amama Mbabazi who was also the Secretary General of the NRM party to allow us stay in parliament even though our party had issued a resolution to remove us from the parliament as legislators. Kadaga created a special seat where me, my friends Muhammad Nsereko and Winfred Nuwagaba sat during the plenary. By now, Ssemujju would also be out of parliament because if Kadaga allowed the precedence to be set, it would be easier now for the FDC to remove him from parliament. Nobert Mao also wanted to do the same to DP legislators who were challenging his party leadership,” Ssekikubo said.
He added that he looked at Ssemujju when he was celebrating Among’s win and inside him, his heart was bleeding because he was very sure that Ssemujju, a legislator with a bright future, had joined the group that weakened parliament.
He noted that Ssemujju should be among the legislators responsible for the embarrassment that parliament is going through.
Ssekikubo wondered how former Leader Of Opposition in Parliament Mathias Mpuuga Nsamba, a good friend to Ssemujju is going to look when his political party the National Unity Platform (NUP) recalls him from the Office of the parliamentary Commissioner and he refuses.
He pleaded with legislators in opposition to check what president Museveni’s government is doing instead of siding with his people when it comes to eating taxpayers’ money.
However, in response to the allegation, a furious Ssemujju blasted Ssekikubo noting that he has no reputation to place him and other members of the parliamentary leadership in bad light because he has been severally cited in corruption scandals in parliament.
Ssemujju narrated that when he was still practicing journalism in 2005, Ssekikuubo was the first to reveal the news that legislators were given Shs5m to lift term limits from the constitution after legislators Anifah Kawooya and Hope Mwesigye refused to give him money which the legislators picked from Al-Hajji Moses Kigongo’s Mosa Courts.
He wondered how Ssekikubo is praising Kadaga when she was the one who ordered SFC Commandos to fight them out of parliament because they were protesting the move by parliament to lift the Age Limit from the constitution.
“For me I was forced out of parliament and lifted by male commandos but Ssekikubo was lifted by mean looking female commandos and when they threw him inside the vehicle they even sat on him, imagine that humiliation when a young girl sits on top of the head of a respected legislator! Ssekikubo has nothing to tell us,” Ssemujju said.
Ssemujju is among the legislators who have been exposed by the ongoing social media parliament exhibition that he was paid tax payers money on questionable travels.
He is also a close friend to Speaker Among since their hustling days in FDC before Among joined NRM.
She even tried to save him when Nathan Nandala Mafabi the FDC Secretary General mooted a move to remove him from the Office of the FDC Chief Whip in parliament after the party’s top organ woted to remove Ssemujju from the office of Chief Whip and replaced him with Mawokota South’s Yusuf Nsibambi.
Credit: Grapevine
