President Museveni’s brother Gen Salim Saleh has put the leadership of Parliament on notice that he intends to sue the institution for maliciously portraying him in bad light. He says Parliament last week falsely portrayed him as a defiant outlaw who doesn’t respect institutions of government. Gen Saleh’s anger stems from the last week’s widely publicized comments the MPs on the Natural Resources committee made accusing him of contempt of Parliament. Insisting that as a contemnor, Gen Saleh shouldn’t get away with it, the MPs said they were going to write to the Speaker seeking her guidance on how to forcefully secure Saleh’s appearance before the committee. They wanted him to defend himself against claims by Wakiso LC5 chairman Matia Lwanga Bwanika that he was hiding behind OWC to destroy the environment by backing the Chinese investors who have illegally been mining sand on Lake Victoria. The MPs wanted Saleh to also explain why he can do such a thing even when after NEMA, which is a statutory body, has given its professional technical opinion backing Bwanika on the matter.
The MPs, whose duty it is to ensure environmental conservation, also wanted Saleh to defend himself against claims that he is using money to manipulate Wakiso district councilors to vote for the environmental degradation of the Lake by what they called sham Chinese investors. The councilors, including those from his own DP, have lately turned against Bwanika who blames all this intrigue on Gen Saleh who he says has a hidden agenda to destroy the Lake. They say Bwanika is anti-development and they have threatened to censure him for sabotaging investors. So the MPs had expected Saleh to come and shed light on all this but he never turned up.
SALEH TURNS TABLES:
In what many have likened to turning tables on Parliament, Gen Saleh has through his new PA (socialite) Sylivia Owor registered his protestations against the leadership of the committee. He says he is entitled to a remedy or even financial compensation for being accused falsely. For much of this week, Owor has been camped at Parliament demanding on the General’s behalf that a public apology be issued. “You can’t dare accuse General of such a thing because he is a law abiding citizen. He can’t defy appearing before the committee but the problem is you are now accusing him of defying summons that were never served unto him in the first place,” Owor was quoted as fuming to the clerks concerned with the Natural resources committee.
“You must produce proof that you served him that invitation and that he turned it down. We don’t have anything like that on our side and the burden is now on you to prove that you effectively summoned him.” To Saleh and Sylivia Owor’s credit, on verification Thursday afternoon it turned out the letter inviting him was never delivered. It was lying somewhere in the committee’s office and this has emboldened Saleh to insist on a written apology by Parliament short of which he sues the institution.
“He has tasked a team of lawyers to write for him a legal opinion advising him on all the available remedies because he feels he has always meant well only for his name to be maliciously destroyed by politicians,” said a source close to Gen Saleh. We rang Sylivia Owor who confirmed our version of events but declined to discuss the matter further advising that we ring Gen Charles Angina who deputizes Gen Saleh in Operation Wealth Creation (OWC). She cited want of authority to speak on the General’s behalf. We rang Angina but he never took our calls. Neither did he reply our whatsapp messages.
