By Mulengera Reporters
They have always been very strong political allies but the relationship is no more. We are talking about Sembabule Woman MP Anifa Kawooya (who has served since 1994) and Mawogola area kingmaker Sam Kutesa who has been MP (for 40 years) since 1980.
Kutesa, who is vastly networked at the national level, has always counted on Kawooya to take care of his interests locally in Sembabule where he rarely comes. In return, Kawooya has been leveraging on that to paint herself very powerfully ever devouring her own political foes with much ease. Perennial rival Joy Kabatsi and her erstwhile camp members Theodore Sekikubo, Herman Sentongo, Isha Ntumwa and others have always suffered her wrath.
The Kutesa connection ensured Kawooya got to closely connect with equally powerful figures in NRM including Amama Mbabazi and President Yoweri Museveni himself. Kawooya always shut up her adversaries by telling them her three brothers (Museveni, Kutesa and JPAM) are the most powerful people in Uganda meaning no one can overcome her in the ballot box. Such was the solid relationship nobody expected a day would come and she can’t talk to Kutesa anymore.
THINGS FALL APART
Multiple impeccable sources close to both Kutesa and Kawooya have intimated to Mulengera News that they don’t talk anymore. The last public sighting was in Masaka and Lyantonde last week where they both actively participated in President Museveni’s tours. Kawooya was there in her capacity as one of greater Masaka’s most senior politicians and Kutesa in his capacity as the Patron for James Kakooza-led Buganda caucus which spearheaded mobilization for the tours.
A source that keenly looked out for confirmation of their fallout reports the two never came close. Neither did they greet each other. They actually sat in two different tents-Kawooya in the one for the MPs and SK in the one for Ministers. “Kawooya seemed tense and kept nervously glancing at Kutesa from a distance. They avoided eye contact and never came close to each other throughout the President’s ceremonies,” says the dependable source.
Gratefully, Museveni (who avoided Sembabule in his tours) was already aware of their feuding and here is how he got to know. Over the last few months, Kawooya (who doesn’t need Kutesa to get a meeting having been around long enough) has twice met and briefed him accusing Kutesa of many things. On one occasion she told Museveni she is dying of too much mobilization work because currently she is the only one standing up for NRM in Sembabule where its facing growing combined opposition of FDC and People Power.
She told him: “I’m a mere MP. My two colleagues are Ministers [SK and Kabatsi] but they have left the work to me alone. I’m committed to keep mobilizing but I’m not even facilitated.” Museveni was told Kutesa is no doubt powerful and influential in Sembabule but he is always away and never available to counter propaganda by PP.
Even when he shows up, he is too entangled in local political intrigues and camps to be effective in any mobilization “yet he can’t work with effective mobilizers like Anifa Kawooya anymore.” So, the President needs to intervene directly since Sembabule was fast becoming a bastion for opposition largely because Rwebitakuri and Matete Sub Counties which have 75% of the district population are near Masaka and therefore tending towards opposition.
On another occasion, Museveni was told how SK’s wife Edith Gasana was increasingly becoming influential in Sembabule largely using the women groups and Mbabule FM. Kawooya told Museveni she was increasingly feeling uncomfortable Edith wants to oust her in 2021. She also faulted SK for not doing anything to restrain his wife and daughter Shartis K Musherure; one of whom must be a candidate for woman MP Seat in 2021.
Being who he is (vastly connected), Kutesa got to know everything and concluded he was done with Anifa Kawooya.
“He was very angry and felt very betrayed as an elder. Reporting him to the President is bad enough but accusing him falsely is even worse. He couldn’t believe Kawooya would falsely drag his dear wife into the politics of Sembabule,” a well-informed source says of how SK felt.
“He never confronted Hajjat [Kawooya] directly but she is aware he got wind of everything. She has since kept her distance and I can’t imagine what would happen if the two were to meet anywhere and come face to face.” There is no more communication either through phone or emissaries. Nothing and they clearly now belong to different camps.
There is a slight background to all this; years back, Edith opened up to Joy Kabatsi, something Kawooya didn’t like. This was in the runner up to 2016 elections. Kabatsi was allowed access to Mbabule FM to propagate her campaign messages targeted at wining the woman MP Seat Kawooya was holding. Then later on, actors friendly to Edith began telling SK to benchmark on JPAM, who unexpectedly challenged Museveni for Presidency, to realize how treacherous the Bakiga (like Anifa Kawooya Bangirana) can be in politics.
Kawooya was uncomfortable with this and expected Edith to help her dissuade SK not to believe such things but she didn’t. SK was told how Bangirana Kawooya was still friendly to JPAM through her fellow yellow girl Hope Mwesigye. “If Mbabazi can do such a thing to the President, then Kawooya too can turn against you some day,” SK was continuously told by those who wanted him to keep his distance from Kawooya. Then more recently, Kawooya tried to found her own radio station but was denied a license and she was disappointed SK didn’t ring UCC’s Godfrey Mutabazi to exert pressure.
But prior to the relocation of Musherure from abroad to camp in Sembabule and become active in the community, SK had casually suggested to Kawooya that “we need to retire and leave the stage for the younger ones to run Sembabule.” He suggested this should apply to him and the Sekikubo camp-meaning SK, Kawooya, Sekikubo and Kabatsi shouldn’t vie for positions in 2021. SK argued this was good if Sembabule is to reunite. He offered to speak to Sekikubo and Kabatsi who these days is closer to him being a fellow Minister. Kawooya reluctantly said “ok sir let me go think about it.”
In the weeks that followed, Kawooya (who is always away representing in AU Parliament) was astonished getting reports that young people were moving everywhere demanding that Musherure contests and becomes their new woman MP in 2021. Kawooya was disturbed but feared to directly confront her master SK. Instead she eased out by beginning to campaign for Mawogola South (comprising Matete and Rwebitakuri Sub Counties) where the incumbent is Joseph Sekabito, a Kutesa protégé. SK didn’t like this either because he still wanted his man Sekabito. Kawooya never looked back. It was time for gloves to go off.
She called meetings and declared she won’t seek reelection as woman MP. This encouraged the youth and women groups that were already marketing Musherure. With Kabatsi relocating to Rwemiyaga to oust Sekikubo, the woman MP vacuum also attracted Mary Begumisa, a Kampala-based pastor with a church in Kanyanya. She is wealthy with apartments on Entebbe road and a tour/travel business managed by her husband. They both hail from Rwebitakuri.
People Power Sembabule coordinator Faisal Muyiga Kisiki visits Bobi Wine at Magere. His mobilization have unsettled some NRM cadres in Sembabule
In her recent meetings with Museveni, Kawooya broke down and shed tears telling the big man the following words: “Sir I have always survived because I leaned on three brothers of mine. Yourself, Mbabazi and Kutesa. I have clearly lost the other two and Mzee you are now the only brother I have. Kindly help and be there for me for this 2021 battle as I try my best also.”
State House sources say she suggested a way forward which Museveni promised to think about. She proposed as he nodded in approval that since Mawogola South has 75% of the Sembabule population, it can be split with a Municipality or even be made a district if not a constituency so that she can remain in Parliament without totally obliterating Kutesa’s man Sekabito. Museveni said he would ponder and get back to her but stressed “I still wanted you to remain woman MP.” Unfortunately, she already announced not retaining it. (For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).
