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JINJA - The Jinja city northern division has had its area land committee (ALC) swear in again amidst drama.

The ceremony which was presided over by the Jinja grade one magistrate Lindah Nakalema at the Jinja city Mayor’s Garden saw one of the committee members include her marital status along with her official names.

Whereas the file bore Rose Mukama, this member added 'Namwandu' which literally means a widow.

This prompted First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the East African Community Affairs Rebecca Kadaga who was the chief guest to ask the master of ceremonies Bernard Mbayo to instruct Mukama repeat her oath.

Kadaga, who is a lawyer by profession, said such titles were not entertained during swearing-in.

Meanwhile, Mbayo, the speaker of Jinja city council who is also pursuing law added that Mukama’s oath was null and void.

Accordingly, she had to repeat taking the oath with only her two names on the file.
After this dramatic series, the audience was entertained by Irene Nabirye with her broken English during her turn of swearing in.

Whereas Jinja City Council spokesperson Rajab Kitto laboured to read as she repeated after him, still, Nabirye kept pronouncing her own words.

This left Kadaga and the audience in the cold wondering if she was the one capable of representing Budondo.

It was later revealed that Nabirye’s tenure at the then Budondo sub-county before it was incorporated into the then Jinja Municipal Council to form a wider Jinja City Council had not yet expired.

However, Kitto was quick to defend Nabirye saying if it was a Chinese speaking broken English, Africans would sympathize with them wondering why Ugandans kept laughing at others whenever they spoke broken English.

“Why should we laugh because someone has failed to express themselves in English, this is not good,” Kitto said.

Other members of the ALC who were sworn in included Musa Kamegi, Joseph Kabanda and Wilfred Muyingo as its chairperson.