Bickering may cost NRM Bujenje seat

May 22, 2010

THE ruling NRM party risks losing the Bujenje County parliamentary seat following a bitter row that has erupted between incumbent Matsiko Kabakumba and aspiring candidate Lt. Patrick Kasumba.<br>

By Chris Kiwawulo

THE ruling NRM party risks losing the Bujenje County parliamentary seat following a bitter row that has erupted between incumbent Matsiko Kabakumba and aspiring candidate Lt. Patrick Kasumba.

The feud has forced over 1,300 NRM supporters in Bujenje to petition the party leadership requesting that Kasumba, the legal adviser of the External Security Organisation, be retired from the UPDF to allow him engage in active politics.

The petitioners allege that Kabakumba, who is also the information and national guidance minister, is using her political office and influence to block Kasumba’s retirement from military service. Kasumba is an NRA kadogo.

“If she is powerful and capable of winning a free and fair election, why does she block Kasumba’s retirement?” asked Christopher Mugisa, one of the petitioners from Ikoba village.

The petitioners want the army leadership to explain to them why their unrelenting request to have Kasumba discharged from military service has been ignored.

The petitioners, who addressed their letter to the NRM Secretary General, Amama Mbabazi, threatened to give a sympathy vote to the opposition come 2011 should Kasumba be stopped from retiring and contesting in the party primaries. They have also petitioned the Masindi District leadership, army leadership and the commander-in-chief, President Yoweri Museveni over the same matter.

Quoting the Constitution and the Parliamentary Elections Act of 2005, the Attorney General, Kiddhu Makubuya, in his February 20, 2010 legal opinion, said under the multiparty political system, government employees who wish to stand in a general election as MPs shall resign their offices at least 90 days before the nomination day.

The persons affected are public officers, persons employed in any government department or agency, employees of the local government or those employed in any body in which the Government has controlling interest.

Sources in the army confirmed that Kasumba is on the list of about 29 army officers who applied for retirement, but his application has been resisted by some members of the retirement board. “We highly suspect that the minister (Kabakumba) has influenced the bigshots in the army to stop our son (Kasumba) from retiring,” stated William Kimuli, another petitioner.

The petitioners also noted that Kabakumba had vowed to use her political influence to block anyone who would be a serious contender. They argued that sabotaging a candidate of their choice meant that the NRM was imposing on them a leader whom they do not like.

“We would rather vote for the opposition than someone who has lost grip of the constituency. She has failed to deliver, she is arrogant and appears very busy in other areas,” argued Phillips Katabarwa.

He said Kabakumba could be powerful as a minister, but not at the grassroots. He requested the NRM leadership to carry out an independent survey to verify their claims if they have any doubts.

In their petition, they accused Kabakumba of neglecting them and threatening to evict 754 households from a square mile of land located at Bujenje estate, which she purchased from the Government. The residents say they have stayed on the land since the 1950s and “cannot be evicted just because the minister bought the land”. The land in question belonged to the departed Asians and was under the custodian board.

According to Estone Nyakoojo, the petitioners’ co-ordinating committee chairperson, Kabakumba bought the land covering three villages of Ikoba, Kityedo and Bihanga after the Government advertised it in the press.

Nyakoojo, also Ikoba’s LCI chairperson, petitioned the district leadership, lands ministry and the Speaker of Parliament over the threats to evict them. Bujenje, which lies in the heart of Bunyoro within Masindi District, borders Buluri, Bulisa and Hoima districts. It has about 30,000 voters.

The petitioners also accused Kabakumba of masterminding Kasumba’s arrest in July 2009 as he was presenting a paper on land rights at a conference attended by over 500 elders and opinion leaders in Masindi.

They argued that since Kabakumba was threatening locals with eviction, she viewed Kasumba’s presentation as an eye opener to them. But army spokesperson Lt. Col. Felix Kulayigye was quoted as saying: “Kasumba was arrested for addressing the public without permission from his superiors.”

Kasumba could not be reached for a comment, but his political aide, Roy Robert, said Kabakumba had openly said she would sabotage Kasumba’s retirement from the army.

Kabakumba denied sabotaging Kasumba’s application to retire from the army. “I do not sit on the army high command or medical board. How can I sabotage his retirement?” she asked.

Kabakumba, who was speaking from her constituency when Sunday Vision called her on Friday, said she was ready to contest with Kasumba in the NRM primaries, adding: “I will defeat him.”

She said she has the support of the NRM members in Bujenje and dismissed reports that she was too busy for them: “I am here to renew my mandate.”

On the residents’ petition over threats to evict them from Bujenje estate, Kabakumba, who has been an MP since 1996, described the reports as untrue and mere politicking.

“The problem is that some of the residents have joined the political bandwagon. There is no single person that I have threatened to evict. Those rumours have been around since 2006. I bought that land from the custodian board and my intention was to redeem those people,” she explained.

Kabakumba said she was aware of the squatters when she bought the land and is ready to compensate them.

“In fact I have compensated some of them and they have left,” she said.

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