- TELLS OFF CRITICS THAT SHE’S NOT AN ORDINARY PERSON
By John Taylor Imumet
Karamoja affairs minister Maria Goreti Kitutu is back with a bang, telling off her critics that she’s not an ordinary person as they think.
The minister to prove her closeness to the head of state even raided her neighbouring district of Namisindwa where she was received by locals in a thunderous mood and she handed over a mega envelope assuring locals that she speaks with the president.
Speaking in Lumasaaba, the dark-skinned minister even assured the locals that the president recently wrote to her a letter asking her to go to Karamoja sub-region.
In a rather combative tone similar to that of president Vladimir Putin while responding to US’ decision to supply (now destroyed) Patriot Missile Air Defense Systems to Ukraine, Kitutu fumed thus:
“First of all, those spreading doom that I have come to Namisindwa to bribe with Karamoja iron sheets money are liars” she started, adding that ‘as a minister I have a budget for donations and therefore, I work and I am not an ordinary person’
To prove that she’s properly loaded, the minister even told the women that she had come to the area to give them some money for water.
As she said this, she indeed waved around a Khaki envelope full of cash and handed it to the enthusiastic crowd of women.
“I come here with greetings from my boss the President. Don’t listen to those going around with propaganda against me that I am not a minister. I confirm to you that the President recently wrote to me to go to Karamoja and am still a minister” she said, before throwing a verbal artillery that ‘For those spreading propaganda that am not minister how come I have come here with my ministerial security guards protecting me and my official ministerial car? Can’t you see them surrounding me as a minister?’
Queen Kitutu said that she was baptised in Magale and confirmed at Situmi and therefore asked the people of Namisindwa who believe in the Holy Bible to watch the space as her detractors will continue to sink.
“If you people of Namisindwa believe in the same God as I do, the bible says that those who dig a hole for others will first fall in that hole before their victims. I therefore, can tell you that those who have dug and continue to dig that hole for my destruction will fall in that hole themselves and some my have already fallen in this” she prophesized.
Kitutu spoke in parables but those who have followed her political career understand that she had running battles with then all-powerful Permanent Secretary Keith Muhakanizi right from her days as minister for Energy and Mineral Development. The duo until recently, were still nursing their alleged biff and was fueled more by the recent Karamoja iron sheets saga which has since engulfed almost the entire cabinet.
The same minister is said to have had an icy relationship with her junior Agnes Nandutu who gave evidence against her to the Parliamentary committee on presidential affairs which probed the Mabaati Saga.
In a dramatic turn of events as she said, Nandutu is already committed for trial in the High Court while Kitutu remains in the lower court of Chief Magistrate after the junior minister was allegedly caught with 2000 pieces of Iron sheets.Like other ministers named in the saga, Nandutu told the committee that it was important for minister Kitutu to accept to carry her cross since she was the sector minister.
Back in Bugisu politics, Kitutu and Namisindwa woman MP Kayagi Netelesire continue to nurse a bitter rivalry which started when Museveni’s gal (Kitutu) dislodged her as Manafwa woman MP in 2016. Even when the district was chopped onto two with Kitutu coming as Manafwa woman MP and Kayagi as Namisindwa woman MP, the duo are said to be still battling each other like grasshoppers in the same bottle. Their alleged war has been fueled by rumors that some forces in Bugisu want Kayagi to replace Kitutu as minister in a line up that sees other contenders like UK-based barrister Peter Magomu Mashate, Bulambuli woman MP Eng. Irene Muloni and Lydia Wanyoto. Both Kitutu and Nandutu are out on bail but in separate court zone with Nandutu facing criminal charges in High Court while Kitutu faces Abuse of office in Anti-corruption court.
The iron sheets totaling 100000 were part of the government’s efforts to socioeconomically transform the karachunas but were allegedly stolen by ministers leading to their arrest. Gen. Museveni has since asked security agencies to investigate and cause arrest and prosecution of the culprits describing their action as treasonous in nature. We wait to hear Netelesire’s rebuttal now that Maria Goreti Kitutu has launched a serious offensive in her backyard!
