By Mulengera Reporters
Mathias Mpuuga, Commissioner of Parliament, says he has been through a lot and endured a lot of haranguing since falling out with the NUP top leadership and more so the person of Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu. He says he has been abused and verbally assaulted for more than 2 years now on social media and the same maltreatment hasn’t spared his wife and children.
He told reporters at Parliament on Wednesday that the fact that his children haven’t stopped going to school and his family members haven’t missed food is proof that being targeted by the Kyagulanyi group and social media army of foot soldiers isn’t as crippling as many fellow leaders’ fear. He said instead it’s Kyagulanyi’s family that has stagnated adding that the only benefit Kyagulanyi has reaped is being able to make a lot of money and make himself richer.
Mpuuga said there are a lot of opposition leaders who are intrigued and appalled over the inappropriate leadership Kyagulanyi is currently offering to the broader opposition cause and are very uncomfortable about the same except that they are too terrified to speak out. The ex-LoP adds that the way Kyagulanyi has led the opposition so far has been diversionary and only weakened as opposed to strengthening the opposition cause. That it’s now abundantly clear to even ordinary opposition supporters and members that the task at hand, namely effectively leading the opposition, is too big for Kyagulanyi.
Mpuuga illustrated the extent to which Kyagulanyi has become diversionary to deliberately shield and benefit Gen Museveni and his son Gen MK by referring to the NUP boss’ failure to mount direct pressure on the CDF while demanding release of his own bodyguard Eddie Mutwe and also on his failure to lead the country into focusing on the manner NRM internal elections are being conducted.
He believes the Tuesday media event at Kavule should have been dedicated to pressurizing the Ugandan state for the release of Eddie Mutwe as opposed to the Principal turning him into a topic as Gen Museveni and his son MK find breathing space. Mpuuga asserted this could be deliberate because from what he knows, Mr. Kyagulanyi is a project of the deep state.
Mpuuga cautioned the NUP foot soldiers, to whom Mutwe is a peer, to realize that Kyagulanyi can sacrifice any of them in order to go after big political stars like himself in order to extend his ‘political shelf’ life. He described Kyagulanyi as a troubled man whose political brand is rapidly approaching its sale-by date (implying expiry).
He said Kyagulanyi had received plenty of good will from among change-seeking Ugandans but the events at the Tuesday news conference had demonstrated the extent to which he is fatally unfit to lead the broader opposition front and why he badly needs help. He likened him to a drunken villager incapable of delivering any coherent address to any gathering anywhere. That for the years he was in NUP, as Deputy President, he tried his best to help Kyagulanyi become a better leader only to realize the man is incurably defective and incompetent.
He described Kyagulanyi as a political amateur who isn’t capable of thinking properly. He said he was feeling sorry for the millions of foot soldiers and other senior leaders being led by such a person. Mpuuga fell short of publicly registering his regret to have ever addressed such a man as “my President.” For much of his media event, Mpuuga merely addressed him as “Mr. Kyagulanyi.” He said the NUP boss is on the cliff and will soon be drowning into the ‘political idiocy’ which he said currently has a permanent address at NUP headquarters.
Mpuuga wondered why Kyagulanyi squandered such a platform he had on Tuesday on character-assassinating him as opposed to publicizing the broader cause against Gen MK and other perpetrators of Eddie Mutwe-like torture in Uganda. He was angry that Mr. Wine used the event to claim that he (Mpuuga) connived with the state to occasion mayhem that saw dozens of Greater Masaka residents macheted to death some four years ago in order to create justification for the arrest, torture and eventual death of Kawempe North MP Mohammed Segirinya.
Makindye West MP Allan Sewanyana, who was jailed for more than 2 years with Segirinya, was at the event and Kyagulanyi signalled him to come to the microphone to corroborating claims that the ex-LoP connived to have them jailed. Kyagulanyi claimed that each time he visited Kigo prison, Segirinya told him, in presence of Ssewanyana, that NUP Deputy President Mpuuga was involved in framing them up and having them arrested.
Ssewanyana mutedly corroborated this claim as the large crowd of NUP foot soldiers ululated. Mpuuga says he forgives Ssewanyana because he was merely stampeded into saying those things because he feared being attacked and assaulted by the crowd at Kavule. That Ssewanyana also risked losing his MP Seat if he had contradicted Kyagulanyi on the microphone. He said the coercive approach Ssewanyana faced at Kavule is similar to the vicious and crude blackmail MPs faced as Kyagulanyi personally forced and intimidated them into signing onto the Theodore Ssekikubo censure motion that sought to force him out of the Commission job last year.
Indeed, with exception of some few like Semujju Nganda, Medard Segona, Joyce Bagala, Entebbe’s Micheal Kakembo, Abed Bwanika, Juliet Kakande etc who stood their ground and remained unrepentant, many opposition MPs signed up to have Mpuuga hanged. And each one of them currently is being fought by Kavule in their respective constituencies. The ex-LoP says many of those signatures resulted from the crude blackmail Kyagulanyi unleashed on MPs.
Mpuuga said he is convinced Kyagulanyi fears him a lot because he knows for as long as he is alive and politically active, he will never succeed in his assignment to destroy all credible political opposition leaders in Buganda. He claimed Kyagulanyi had been specifically assigned this task but he has already failed and will continue failing-though he never disclosed who assigned him this. He said political pettiness of not knowing which issues to address on which occasion clearly demonstrates Kyagulanyi’s ineptness and unfitness to lead serious men and women in opposition.
He said the Magere man’s ineptness is glaring and that this is something many fellow big-name opposition actors already see and are aware of except that they fear to contradict him publicly. Mpuuga implied that his innocence is well known to many fellow senior opposition leaders but they only whisper about it (as opposed to coming out to defend him publicly) fearing retribution from foot soldiers on social media.
Mpuuga called on fellow opposition leaders within and outside of Parliament to stop being cowards. He wondered why many such leaders fearlessly criticize Gen Museveni yet they are too afraid to call out Kyagulanyi who he described as too weak because he doesn’t possess any gun power as yet. He said today Kyagulanyi is using what he has which is the foot soldiers and anonymity which social media permits and enables. He predicted the day he has guns like Museveni does, many of his opponents will be six feet under.
The Nyendo-Mukungwe legislator advised fellow leaders to overcome their fear and join him in fearlessly calling out Kyagulanyi before it gets too late. He said the Kyagulanyi squad (he called them his ilk) won’t spare anyone however much other leaders try to be courteous and respectful towards the NUP leader.
He cited Kabaka of Buganda, his brother David Wasajja, the Nabagereka and Katikkiro as some of the key leaders who have had to be targeted and abused for years by Kyagulanyi’s people on social media without any provocation. Mpuuga said going after the Kabaka (who he repeatedly called my King) is indicative that the Kyagulanyi group will stop at nothing unless stopped-and on good time. “They have equally targeted and abused the Archbishops of both Rubaga and Namirembe-and clearly, they won’t spare anyone. This is why fellow leaders must overcome fear and join us in calling out Mr. Kyagulanyi and his cabal members.”
Mpuuga, who was flanked by Masaka City Woman MP Juliet Kakande and missed out on Abed Bwanika who had to respond to an emergency, believes that when leaders overcome their fear and join him and other DA colleagues in fearlessly pushing back and calling out Mr. Kyagulanyi, the genuine opposition supporters will gradually get to know who he is, who he works for and how he is Gen Museveni’s project here to weaken the opposition while creating breathing space for Gen MK and other perpetrators of human rights.
Mpuuga said he is the living proof that mere abuses and online insults by Kyagulanyi’s group can’t diminish any serious opposition leader or their public reputation in any way. He said he is here growing stronger even after enduring insults for two years and instead it’s the Kyagulanyi family members whose public standing is rapidly diminishing and not his. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
