By Mulengera Reporters
City lawyer Nkunyingi Muwadda has advised Minister Aida Nantaba to eat a humble pie and find herself a very good lawyer and prepare to submit herself to the authority of the Mukono Chief Magistrates Court where his client Sylvia Nakayita has filed a criminal case against her.
Nakayita is protesting the 24th March murder of her brother Ronald Sebulime who policeman David Ssali shot dead after Nantaba demanded his annihilation on grounds he was on mission to bump her off. The incident took place at Nagojje trading center Mukono district but it later turned out Sebulime was an innocent man merely on his way to St. Andrews High School Kabimbiri for the visitation of his children.
Muwadda, whose relentless efforts Thursday afternoon got the Mukono Chief Magistrate to issue summons requiring Nantaba to personally appear before court on Monday 15th July at 9am, says Nantaba ought to realize that being Minister doesn’t accord her any immunity from prosecution adding that she can run today from the long arm of justice but will never hide forever.
Muwadda says this means the best the elusive Nantaba can do is to subject herself to the authority of court and seek to go through the legal process and exonerate herself if she is indeed innocent. He says there is no other way to establish her innocent apart from subjecting herself to court process.
In her complaint on oath (supporting her private prosecution case registered as Criminal Case No. 605 of 2019), Nakayita wants Nantaba prosecuted and sent to rot or even die in jail for committing offences (of murder and giving false information to police) under Sections 188, 189 and 115 of the Penal Code Act.
She argues that having failed to get justice through the IGP and DPP Mike Chibita who the family met recently, the natural thing to do is to involve the Court which is well vested with powers to investigate, summon and cause the arrest of any person. She insists that being a minister doesn’t accord Nantaba any immunity from prosecution.
Nakayita, in her complaint on oath, extensively quotes police to impute ill motives on Nantaba who she says is on record admitting directing her body guard Tugume to shoot Sebulime and only resorted to directing policemen to do the same after Tugume rightly declined. She says her brother was killed in cold blood as police has since established and says he shouldn’t die in vain.
She adds the fact that a loaf of bread and bottle of soda were recovered from his bag is all corroborative proof that Sebulime wasn’t after killing Nantaba as the politically troubled Kayunga woman MP is claiming. She adds the fact that she left her driver home and was driving herself that day is all proof that Nantaba set out to accomplish a mission that Sunday the result of which was the killing of her brother.
Muwadda maintains that Nantaba ought to learn from many of the mighty figures that have previously fallen and remind herself of the consequences of trying to use one’s current political office in the hope that such will shield her from prosecution forever. It remains to be seen if Nantaba, who previously claimed Presidential backing as justification for her refusal to answer police summons, will honor the Mukono Court and show up on 15th July.
Defying court summons could escalate into an arrest warrant being issued against the once very popular female politician who in Kayunga is increasingly becoming a loner and isolated. Her unrepentant approach to the circumstances of the Sebulime murder has alienated her from many people including her own voters.
PARANOID MINISTER
It’s understood this isolation has made the once very powerful politician very paranoid to the extent of fearing her own shadow. Days earlier her close relative and domestic helper Brenda Nanseko claimed that last Friday strange people sneaked into the Minister’s Namugongo home and sedated her bodyguard Tugume into unconsciousness. That phones, TV sets and clothes were stolen in the process as the escort lay unconsciously. That the Minister who was upstairs innocently came down the house only to find her escort unconscious and the gun was intact besides him.
But Nantaba’s own voters have rejected this narrative claiming it doesn’t add up. On Wednesday evening, Bukedde TV aired a story showing a suspicious parcel had been abandoned outside Bombo barracks with contents showing a list of high-profile personalities to be bumped off Nantaba being one of them. Cynics have dismissed all this as mere fabrication aimed at cultivating political sympathy for the cracking Kayunga woman MP and get her the attention of the President who is the only person who can reverse DIGP Mzee Sabiiti’s directive to diminish the long intimidating convoy Nantaba had at some point in time.
This was at the peak of her popularity as Mama Kayunga but ladies who stood against the 3rd term-seeking Nantaba in 2016 claim those escorts were used to thump their own supporters in Sub Counties where Nantaba’s popularity was at its lowest.
Even some of her own supporters are fearful that unless the President intervenes and re-instates her long security entourage, campaigning for reelection isn’t going to be easy for Nantaba whose political appeal back home is now at an all time low.
Not only has she fallen out with former diehards, she also doesn’t see eye to eye with many influential actors in her own SDA church in Kayunga. Her adversaries claim that once she is perceived as endangered, the President might become sympathetic and re-instate Nantaba’s long security entourage and thereby recreating the political clout she badly needs to cow political foes who are growing every passing day in Kayunga Town and rural Sub Counties. (For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).
