AS SECURITY WARNS CIC MUSEVENI ON DISUNITY IN OPM TAINTS GOV’T IMAGE!
Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja and her perceived nemesis also general duties minister Justine Kasule Lumumba are not beginning their feud today; this news site reveals! It is actually, a situation that according to Inspectors has been on; right from the day the commander in chief Gen. Yoweri Museveni posted them to that lucrative OPM office with Nabbanja as it’s head. The premier last week went bare knuckles with Lumumba cautioning the lady from Bugiri against ferrying what she called ‘her intrigue’ from Kyaddondo NRM headquarters to the Office she presides over. Arising from that outburst, security picked interest in establishing the facts behind these two ladies’ feud and hereunder, our Inspectors briefed us!
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When Gen. Museveni named his cabinet, all sacked ministers were supposed to handover their offices to new office bearers. As former Prime Minister Dr. David Livingstone Ruhakana Rugunda alias Ndugu was making his handover to Rt. Hon. Robinah Nabbanja alias Majegere, even other ministers were receiving their offices. But according to an intelligence report on Office of the Prime Minister headed by Nabbanja, something bizzare allegedly occurred. One of the newly appointed ministers Justine Kasule Lumumba was allegedly nowhere to be seen to get her office from her predecessor Mary Karooro Okurut. We are told according to intelligence Karooro made frantic calls to the former NRM Secretary General yearning to handover office to her but the lady from Bugiri wasn’t forthcoming.
Somehow, one of the ministers who also waited to handover her office [since she had been transferred to another sector], confided that Lumumba had been crestfallen having ‘missed’ out on the prestigious post of prime minister. Apparently, Lumumba had accepted to be PM; her name having missed out on being appointed Vice President since the Catholic Church had fronted her alongside Dr. JC Muyingo as the possible appointees for Vice President. The Anglicans also forwarded Ruth Nankabirwa and Amelia Kyambadde as their favorite for the same position of Vice President although Gen. Museveni had a different option they never knew in the names of Rtd. Maj. Jessica Alupo!
“Karooro kept making frantic calls until one of the ministers opened her eyes telling her that the former SG was yet to come to terms with her new role in government. She by all means expected something not less than that of a Prime Minister” Explained an inspector knowledgeable on the OPM intelligence report to H.E the president.
Inspectors told us that this rumor immediately reached Nabbanja and when Lumumba finally sat in her office as minister for general duties in OPM, suspicions began resulting into the emergence of two factions.
Among the OPM staff, are two factions one allegedly loyal Lumumba and another to Nabbanja. The Lumumba faction is referred to as ‘Kyaddondo’ while that of Nabbanja is referred to as ‘fisher woman].
“The staff now use coded language when referring to the two principals to avoid detection. When someone says Kyaddondo, that means Lumumba and Fisher, means Nabbanja. That’s the informal way of gossiping about the two principals” explained an inspector, adding that a decision by PM Nabbanja to recruit many of her personnel knifing those of Ndugu also worked in favor of Lumumba who won hearts of many staffs that remained behind.MORE CHAOS
When Sociology professor, Tarsis Bazana Kabwegyere was minister for General Duties before he was sacked and replaced by Karooro Okurut, he allegedly had similar rifts with Gen. Moses Ali; the deputy leader of government business in parliament. Their alleged feud a level where Kabwegyere braked on including Moses Ali among the list of people his official correspondences went to. So infuriated, the dark-skinned General from Adjumani in West Nile took the matters on the floor of cabinet.
Apparently, Ali complained in one of the cabinet meetings chaired by Gen. Museveni that the general duties minister Kabwegyere was undermining his authority in OPM. Inspectors revealed that in his submission, Ali alluded to the fact that every time Prof. Kabwegyere wrote a letter, he copied in every other relevant minister but he never copied him in.
“I want to ask whether I am in government officially or I am simply occupying a position which doesn’t hold any meaning to some of my colleagues. The Hon. Kabwegyere knows it well that I am the second in command at OPM, but whenever he writes letters, he never copies me in! Why doesn’t he recognize my office?” an inspector knowledgeable on OPM squabbles’ report explained.
When Gen. Ali made this submission, Museveni rolled his eyes several times staring at the two gentlemen but in the subsequent cabinet alignment, he knifed Kabwegyere and replaced him with Karooro Okurut while Moses Ali remained to date! Inspectors revealed that this alleged Kabwegyere-Ali friction is now back in style in the OPM with Nabbanja and Lumumba in the picture.
It is claimed that the minister for General duties thinks he or she heads the Office of the Prime Minister as an independent vote while the Prime Minister is the overall supervisor/coordinator of all government work across all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs). This is why Kabwegyere thought he was allegedly the minister for OPM as opposed to Ali who was deputy to Apollo Ñsibambi (RIP) and or Amama Mbabazi and Ruhakana Rugunda. This same thinking according to Inspectors is back to haunt both Nabbanja and Lumumba thinking one of them is encroaching on the other’s work!
Besides this alleged battle for roles between both principals, is also an allegation that the title of ‘Rt. Honorable’. Apparently, Lumumba continues to sign off her correspondences as ‘Rt. Honorable’, a title she got during her tenure as NRM SG.
This is said to be causing confusion between the two short-haired ladies!
We are told the ‘Fisher’ camp is allegedly not comfortable with ‘Kyaddondo’ over her continued sign-off as Rt. Honorable, a title she feels is illegally being used and is causing confusion.
“This title is making Fisher camp to think that Kyaddondo maybe out there posing as Rt. Hon. Prime Minister. It is a source of contention between them especially after one of them thinks that her position was taken away from her. It’s creating suspicion and keeps raising tempers in the corridors of OPM. Therefore, the office bearer, also feels uncomfortable seeing her perceived opponent using the same title to confuse the public” explained an inspector.
In fact, inspectors said in most of the Top Management Meetings at OPM chaired by Nabbanja otherwise refered to as ‘Majegere’, the Kyaddondo camp usually shuns them or if they do attend, getting meaningful minutes is as hard as asking FDC’s Nathan Nandala Mafabi to surrender the position of Secretary General to Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda.
“Every time both principals attend the TMM, it usually ends in arguments and counter arguments. One of them must absent herself to have constructive minutes” explained an inspector, adding that this explains why Nabbanja last week blasted Lumumba for reneging on minutes of TMM which decided that whereas she [Lumumba] went to UN in July over Social Development Goals, this time round, it was her [Nabbanja] whom the TMM had elected to go to UN. Lumumba however, ‘defied’ the minutes according to Majegere and travelled to UN without her permission. She said the general duties minister ‘gatecrashed’ the UN meeting.
ENTER TROUBLESOME SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGs)
On top of fighting over the ‘Rt. Honorable’ title, here comes another office regarding SDGs! Nabbanja calls herself National Coordinator of SDGs while Lumumba refers to herself as ‘National Focal Person’ of SDGs. True, according to inspectors, this SDGs office has existed even during Ruhakana Rugunda’s tenure as Prime Minister! In fact, there was a mega launch of this office and Karooro Okurut [then minister for General Duties] was selected by PM as SDG Focal Person, a title she held until she was knifed and replaced with Rt. Hon. Kasule Lumumba. We are told among the issues she handed over was also a report on this office of Focal Person-SDGs. But inspectors revealed that during her tenure, Karooro would attend important meetings at international level on SDGs and did her work independently. She however, kept the premier [Rugunda] in the know of what she was doing by way of submitting report[s] to him.
“This office is not new at all. Karooro had the smoothest tenure as pioneer focal person on SDGs and she never collided with her boss Rugunda. Rugunda also respected her work, the reason there were no such fights like we see in the current OPM where both the PM and focal person are fighting over trips regarding the same office” explained an inspector. It should be recalled that Nabbanja blasted Lumumba for ‘gatecrashing’ a UN meeting on SDGs purporting to represent Uganda when she knew that her boss [Nabbanja] had been invited as the overall National Coordinator of SDGs.
“Lumumba invited herself to that meeting and I will not pay her. She knew that I allowed her to travel in July and this time round, the TMM decided that me [her boss] should travel but she reneged on our minutes. I never authorized her travel and she will not be paid any allowances” Nabbanja said although Lumumba has chosen to play it cool for now.
WHAT’S BEFORE MUSEVENI IN THE REPORT
According to inspectors security is recommending a restructuring of OPM at political level. Comparing the past leaders with the current leaders, inspectors said there is a growing concern that the image of the country is being affected as a result of the infighting among OPM officials.
“It started with Hillary Onek accusing the PM Nabbanja of intruding into his work. It was a nasty fight until the president asked Onek to calm down and concentrate on his work and that of energy he does for him. Onek listened and has largely appeared to be a gentleman following mediation of the two by Vice President Alupo. Now, we are seeing this new fight. It portrays the president in bad light and the entire executive. You can’t have top ministers washing their dirty linen in the public” explained an inspector.
In the past leadership under Rugunda, Museveni appointed six men to OPM including Rugunda, Moses Ali [DLGB], Musa Ecweru and Hillary Onek [Disaster ministers], Moses Kizige and John Byabagambi [Karamoja ministers]. He also had Ruth Nankabirwa [Chief Whip], Karooro Okurut [General Duties], Ernest Kiiza [Bunyoro affairs], Akiror Egunyu [Teso affairs] and Grace Freedom Kwiyukwinyi [Northern Uganda] . However, in the reigning cabinet, he posted only Moses Ali, Onek and Thomas Tayebwa /Hamson Obua [Chief Whip] to OPM and the rest of the seats were filled with ladies. These include Robinah Nabbanja [PM], Kasule Lumumba, Anyakun Esther, Alice Kaboyo, Maria Gorreti Kitutu and Agnes Nandutu among others. The ministers have however, besides engaging in bitter fights, caused a national shame after they were named in stealing iron sheets meant for underprivileged people of Karamoja. Only Lumumba, Onek, Kaboyo and Ongalo Obote weren’t named in this shoddy act, which angered the president terming it as economic sabotage and treason.
And with Moses Ali appearing weak as a result of advanced age, his absence in OPM is said to have created a leadership vacum with no formidable male person to sit in between the two ‘Rt. Honorable’ giants. Ali is known among his cabinet colleagues for mediating warring ministers the last he handled being that of Aidah Nantaba vs Percis Namuganza.
Security also recalls the days of Rugunda when his team led by Karooro Okurut worked very hard to champion the national cause against the COVID-19 pandemic. Karooro did wonders for this country when she led the National COVID response task force. Her team mobilized the population to make donations of any kind to assist government deliver services to the needy communities including food, relief, vehicles among others. She is currently on Katebe/undeployed. The president appointed her as an SPA in charge of media public relations but we’re told her job is being blockaded by lack of tools and resources even as Gen. Museveni badly needs a formidable communication strategy!
This latest revelation on the confusion in OPM comes after Museveni said he wants to take his MPs and Ministers to Kyankwanzi for a retreat themed ‘HOW TO LEAD’! Watch the space!!
