In an interview with this news website, NRM Secretary General Kasule Lumumba vehemently denied acting very rebelliously towards the President (who was trying to reconciling her with Minister Namuganza) after the Wednesday political rally for Bugiri candidate Francis Oketcho. Officials in the VIP tent had told us a number of things casting Lumumba in bad light. Briefly this is what the officials who sat near the President claimed to have witnessed; that after the rally as the big man prepared to leave driving back to Kampala, Lumumba confronted him protesting why as party chairman he was permitting NRM officials who don’t hail from Bugiri to keep behind. She was quoted as telling the President whoever wants to remain and participate in vote protection must submit to the authority of the local NRM leadership in Bugiri and accept to be properly accredited as opposed to being self-deployed. Parcis Namuganza, who Oketcho called upon claiming he had been shunned by other NRM top leaders, was among those whose presence the SG was reportedly uncomfortable with. Immediately after the rally, Museveni got hold of the two ladies, held their hands and led them in the direction of his waiting convoy. Eyewitnesses say as they moved, Museveni asked Lumumba to look at the bigger picture of things and welcome the presence of everybody that was capable of morale boosting the campaign. Sources say that Lumumba acted furiously and pulled herself from the President’s hand when the man from Rwakitura was still talking to the two Busoga politicians urging them to reconcile. Sources in his entourage say that Museveni gave up and reacted very apprehensively to this act by the SG. “It’s unusual for him to move to his car and open the door by himself. He did on this occasion which shows how disappointed he was with the Secretary General,” said a source in Museveni’s entourage adding the man from Rwakitura showed extreme anger throughout the journey back home.
LUMUMBA SPEAKS OUT;
“All those are not true. How can I do such a thing to the President? Those are concoctions by the very myopic people we have in NRM leadership positions,” Lumumba told this news website. “But besides that, why would there be any problem with one being required to cooperate with the local party leadership in the district you have come to? I’m the Secretary General of the NRM but wherever I go, I first submit myself to the authority of the leaders in the district. I inform them I will be in your area for the following program and there is nothing unique about Bugiri. Why would anyone be hostile to the idea of having your presence known by the party leadership in the district so that you are properly assigned?”
OTHER POINTS;
Lumumba also reacted to other allegations including being hostile to the idea of cheerfully receiving FDC youth league bosses in Bugiri who defected and joined NRM that very evening. Our sources had said that even after being prompted by Lydia Wanyoto and LC5 Chairman Malijan Azalwa, Lumumba refused to leave her seat to go and publicly receive the defectors and the President had to do it himself after his speech. Sources cited the refusal by the NRM Secretariat leadership to avail T-shirts to cloth the defectors as indicative of hostility towards the new converts. “I had spent the whole day dancing the Kadoodi so I was really tired and that is why I remained seated and never went to receive the defectors. It wasn’t because I was hostile to them coming to NRM. This is why I say some people in my party are myopic. They clearly suffer from political myopia and they won’t determine the way I do my things as SG,” Lumumba explained. Lumumba, who spoke to us before the polling results of Basalirwa winning the vote were known, also addressed the rumor that some Museveni ministers are disgruntled and want her out of cabinet where she has been sitting as ex-officio since becoming NRM SG. Some even want her to stop referring to herself as “The Rt. Honorable Secretary General” on grounds the law preserves such a title the Prime Minister and never the SG of any party. This is how she specifically responded: “Why are they being sleepless over trivial things? I sit in that cabinet not because I’m Justine Kasule Lumumba. No. It’s because I’m the SG and whoever becomes SG after me will sit in cabinet and there shouldn’t be any mistake about that. This is why I’m saying some of these people are just myopic. You say I insisted sitting in cabinet? That wasn’t my decision and it’s something that will apply to whoever occupies the office of SG in the NRM.” She also laughed off claims that she became very saddened and wept in the tent after the President got into his car and angrily left the venue after the rally protesting the way she resisted his efforts to reconcile her with Minister Namuganza. “That is another fake story they are giving you. How could I end the day crying when I had such a jolly day dancing while mobilizing for my NRM candidate?”wondered Lumumba whose candidate Oketcho eventually lost the poll having been vanquished by JEEMA’s Asuman Basalirwa. For comments, call/text or whatsapp us on 0703164755.
