For all COVID19-related info, click here
By Mulengera Reporters
In 2016, fun-loving Geoffrey Dhamuzungu (then a remarkably poor young man) quit his modest job with Stanbic bank in Kampala and joined the ruling NRM politics. Gratefully, he succeeded in ousting Suleiman Kirunda Balyejusa whose lukewarm performance in the August House had already irked many voters. There was enthusiasm as voters anticipated material benefits and better legislation but today, more than four years into his first term, Dhamuzungu would struggle to show her electors what he has done differently.
Some say because he is hugely debt-stricken (like is the case with many fellow legislators elsewhere in the country), Dhamuzungu can’t marshall out any plausible reelection plan as some of his creditors are influential electors in the same constituency. And some of these debts were contracted during the 2016 campaigns and the honorable legislator has never managed to repay.
The acrimonious circumstances under which he parted with his wife Lydia Nairuba, a banking lawyer with whom he had children and lived in Nansana before becoming MP, have also made him more unlikable among Budiope electors who consider themselves morally upright. The other abomination Dhamuzungu engaged in was getting married to singer Phina Mugerwa with whom he has since parted too; leaving her to struggle to single-handedly bring up the child they sired together. Thereafter he took on Amina Mutesi of Bugweri (trying to run against Racheal Magoola) with whom he curiously no longer lives very closely. This has pushed opinion shapers in Budiope East to conclude they deserve better standards than Dhamuzungu has offered so far. As voters looked around for a perfect replacement, a formidable challenger emerged in Eng Moses Magogo who is also the FUFA President.
Magogo, who previously had a home in Bulenga but hails from Kagulu Sub County in Budiope East Buyende district, came jokingly but has since gradually distinguished himself as very formidable. Within a short time, before even taking office, Magogo has done things which Dhamuzungu would never have delivered even if you gave him 20 solid years of representing Budiope without anyone challenging him.
From interacting with influencers in the Constituency, Mulengera News has established that in less than one year of community mobilization since he went public about his political intentions, Eng Magogo has done and delivered things which have impacted lives of people individually and at community level. Sometime back there was a fundraising event for a women’s SACCO to which big lady Speaker Kadaga was invited. Dhamuzungu, being the incumbent, had thickly been involved in the event but on realizing they wouldn’t gain much from him, because he is a man of limited financial capabilities, some of the organizers sent out a quiet invitation to Magogo who declined personally attending because he doesn’t like confrontation.
Instead Magogo, renowned for his generosity, sent one of his constituency assistants. When the fundraising began, Kadaga made her contribution followed by Dhamuzungu who pledged merely Shs450,000! Moments later, the Magogo representative stepped forward and handed over Shs2m saying it was an offer from the in-coming MP. This put Dhamuzungu to shame and humiliated him before Kadaga who some initially thought wished him to be retained for 2nd term.
Yet that Shs2m contribution was just peanuts when compared to the many other great things that Eng Magogo has done elsewhere in Budiope East. For instance, the country home he has constructed in his village of Kagulu Mumpanga has brought immense pride to area residents and inspired others to begin putting up nice houses to match the high standards the footballing engineer has set for the area (only comparable to those set by the likes of late Kayizi who built their nice houses many years ago). Magogo’s is a well-fenced bungalow from where all campaign operations and the accompanying logistics distribution are coordinated.
Budiope has many religious groups including Muslims, Catholics, Anglicans, Pentecostals and traditionalists who follow and profess the Mama Phina faith (in fact the village name Kagulu Mumpanga symbolizes something to do with traditional religious practices near Kagulu Hills). Magogo has generously donated charity to each of these religious groups.
He has actively been bringing friends, some of them incumbent MPs, to generously contribute millions in cash (unlike Dhamuzungu’s small pledges) each time these faith groups have fundraising sessions. He has bought iron sheets, bricks and cement to build, renovate or even expand Churches and Mosques in Budiope East. This sort of transformative generosity is something majority residents confess not to have seen in Budiope East before.
Magogo has equally supported community schools and individual clerics including a Catholic priest whose trip to Rome and Vatican he sponsored sometime back. The priest, who had never been to Entebbe Airport let alone ever being anywhere near a plane, has never stopped reminding his parishioners how Magogo is indeed god-sent for Budiope East. The priest returned with thousands of rosaries, all bought for him by Magogo, which he keeps telling everyone were specifically blessed by Pope Francis.The priest himself has since become popular with even fellow priests because of the hillarious stories he keeps sharing about his Magogo-sponsored trip to Rome/Vatican.
Engineer Magogo, whose vast finances Dhamuzungu can only fantasize about, has also been implementing a program of buying brand new motorcycles for all priests and reverends in Budiope East. For the catechists and LC1 chairpersons, he has bought bicycles for each one of them. These are things the incumbent Dhamuzungu can’t have guts to even promise.
Yet that isn’t all. Magogo has also delivered so far two brand new real ambulances (not just remodeled taxis) and designated one for Budiope East and the other for MP Robert Musoke’s Budiope West to ensure the entire Buyende district (whose woman MP is Veronica Babirye Kadogo) is covered with adequate ambulance services. Magogo has assured Kadogo not to worry because he has no interest in using his deep wallet to front a candidate against her come 2021.
But for Budiope West’s Robert Musoke things aren’t very good because his predecessor JB Mubito (who studied phsychology at Makerere) is back in the trenches. Every weekend, Mr. Mubiito drives from his Kawuku home near Kisubi along Entebbe Road to go and campaign. And yet Mubiito isn’t the only challenger Musoke must he sleepless about.
There is also Ibrahim Kyoto, a procurement official at Ministry of Water, who equally wants the same MP Seat. And unlike Mubiito, Kyoto (a very huge man) is wealthy and his money generosity is almost like that of Magogo in nearby Budiope East. Kyoto’s other advantage is hailing from Kidera Sub County which has never produced an MP for Budiope West. His generosity has endeared him to many potential voters and not being very eloquent remains his only challenge thus far.
BACK TO MAGOGO
The engineer from Kagulu Mumpanga has also made senior area leaders like Rebecca Kadaga to anticipate better things for poverty-stricken electors in nearby Buyende/Budiope East which actually is a district that was curved from Kamuli some years ago. Being deeply involved in football, Magogo is also leveraging on the fact that he has over the years been helping talented youth to get conneced to better footballing opportunities in Kampala and beyond.
And these will be at hand to testify about his genuiness because he started helping and linking them up long before he even considered ever standing for the MP position. In comparison with cantankerous Dhamuzungu, who likes his drink and clubbing on top of benefiting from political violence sometimes directed at his opponents, Magogo is also widely perceived as disciplined, mature and capable of acting with maximum restraint even amidst extreme provocation. This is what he has exhibited twice on being physically attacked by the Dhamuzungu supporters who actually pelted his car with stones as he drove by (ostensibly to create an impression he isn’t wanted in Budiope East). Despite being armed, Magogo (whose car windscreens have twice been smashed) has always restrained his bodyguards not to fight back and this has generated lots of sympathy vote for him.
The Magogo camp has also paid school fees and bought mattresses for many bright but financially vulnerable children of Budiope East. One of his outstanding contributions was lobbying scholarships for all Budiope East children (who scored first grade in the 2018 and 2019 PLE results by UNEB) to get quality education at Woman MP Anita Among’s secondary school in Bukedea district.
Yet there is much more that Magogo has done to decisively overwhelm Dhamuzungu who was recently unsuccesfully advised to accept Shs400m and bow out so that the indomitable Moses Magogo sails through unopposed. The Magogo camp has bought high-breed goats to facilitate commercial livestock farming among all (financially struggling) single mothers in Budiope East. Magogo handlers compiled a register capturing all single mothers for whom life (financially) has never been easy and Magogo’s goats have gradually brought them into the money economy (just like President Museveni desires to see in order to diminish the number of people living hand to mouth).
Magogo has also heavily invested in Gomesis with all women getting at least 5 pieces throughout Budiope East. Magogo has also supported COVID19 response operations not just in Budiope East but the entire Buyende district. Each home has been given a box of soap containing 20 bars.
And on top of that, the Magogo campaign has also donated 20,000 additional boxes of soap for distribution in Robert Musoke’s Budiope West which constitutes the other part of Buyende. All this was recently handed over to the Buyende district COVID19 taskforce. To the same district taskforce, the Magogo campaign also donated Shs5m to boost anti-COVID19 operations.
The engineer from Kagulu Mumpanga has also heavily invested in expansion and training for Women’s SACCOS’ operations in Budiope East. At the end of the day, Magogo (who doesn’t have to front proxy candidates for LC5, Buyende Woman MP and Budiope West MP Seat) is certain that by the time he takes oath as people’s representative in the 11th Parliament in May 2021 (God willing), he will be the undisputed leader for the political delegation from Buyende. And exhibiting such clout is of extreme importance as it increases his chances at becoming a Minister in his very first term as MP and thereby making history as the first Museveni political Minister from Buyende district that was first created about 12 years ago (off Rebecca Kadaga’s Kamuli district).
(For comments on this story, call, text or whatsapp us on 0705579994, 0779411734, 0200900416 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).