Kira municipality MP Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda and his quarrel with premier Robinah Nabbanja has been received with high volume within the camp of finance minister Matia Kashaija; this online news site can reveal. This is so because Kashaija’s close pals say he also tried it but ended up a miserable man during his days as UPM activist in Bunyoro politics.
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Finance minister Matia Kashaija had a quarrel with one of his MP aspirants. The minister at the time was an accomplished graduate with a Bcom. Sadly, his competitor and namesake Matia Kisembo was a semi-ilitrate with a mere diploma in education. However, Kisembo was a strong UPC man and had the ear of the regime’s strongmen like Paulo Muwanga, David Oyite Ojok among others. As for Kashaija, he was a member of Yoweri Museveni’s UPM. Kashaija was the UPM secretary for mobilization at UPM headquarters but he also stood for Hoima south MP position. He contested with Kisembo.
Inspectors in UPM told us that Kashaija not only lost the election to Kisembo but also became a rotten egg among his tribesmen because of his alleged undermining of his opponents on grounds that they never saw many blackboards like him.
“Kashaija never got any vote and we (UPM) lost that MP seat on very weak grounds. It was because of his character and use of his tongue. He kept bragging about his Bcom little did he know that this annoyed the people. He said his namesake wasn’t educated yet for him he was a graduate. He was going to win had he tried to use appropriate language” a senior member of UPM revealed to this news site.
“He performed well and UPC ensured Kashaija never come to parliament under their regime. Therefore, when we see Ssemujju trying to underrate Nabbanja given her new role, he is missing the point. He might end up badly. Whether he speaks good English or has more books than her, he should respect her. You can’t underrate someone like that. He was also being gender insensitive. How can you say that Nabbanja is not even fit to run a garbage collection company? This was too much a statement” a top UPM member said adding that since then, Kashaija suffered terribly until in 1985 when NRA rebel leader Museveni appointed him a Special District Administrator (SDA).
It so happened that Museveni appointed SDAs in what was regarded as liberated areas and this is when Kashaija managed to have a role to play in government. Other SDAs included Ruhakana Rugunda, Mawombe Mukhwana and Raphael Bitamazire, Benon Biraaro, Phenhas Katirima, Tom Butime, James Kateregga among others. All these would later become senior army officers and ministers under Museveni.
An angry Nabbanja a few days ago came out and demanded Ssemujju to explain whether she had any personal issue with her to deserve such a statement. Several netizens came out and castigated Ssemujju.
“You can’t blame this lady who’s selfmade. She has no one to refer to as her godfather in government. She has fought for herself to reach where she is. She’s not like other people who are pushed. Why fight her? This is a sign of arrogance and I don’t think he will win it” Ambrose Kasawuli said.
It is not clear whether the two are about to sit for peace talks but by the look of things, Nabbanja feels underrated and not willing to stomach it. Others claimed Ssemujju could be simply fighting a proxy battle against the premier given the fact that many wanted to be appointed to that position only for the president to surprise the with Nabbanja. Watch the space!
