Many of the NRM youthful activists renowned for their close relationship with late Gen Aronda Nyakayirima have found themselves falling on hard times. We can reliably reveal that before his death, amiable Aronda used whatever position he was given in both government and military to bring young people close and get them employment opportunities. That is how he generously supported Benjamin Katana when he became Minister of internal affairs and Pamela Ankunda when he still served as CDF. They respectively served as communications officers at Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and Uganda Media Center. Ankunda in fact later followed him at Internal Affairs ministry where she oversaw the communications docket for the ID project.
Others he supported from joblessness to gainful employment include Eriab Naturinda, Davis Akampulira, Robert Rutaro, Duncan Abigaba and others. Since Aronda’s death a few years ago, life has gradually deteriorated from bad to worse for some of these young children of the Museveni NRM revolution-as they like calling themselves. “His absence greatly hurt their employability and career progression,” a knowledgeable insider told mulengera news. Katana was nearing becoming overall PRO for the MIA at the time of his mentor Aronda’s death. Months after, the eloquent KIU-bred young lawyer lost his slot at Jinja road-based MIA and was relegated to a more obscure posting at Entebbe Airport where he was being supervised under the broader Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) mandate. This made him bitter as manifested in his recent decision to contest in Igara by-elections where he antagonized the NRM candidates-Micheal Mawanda and Andrew Martial. He also remains vehemently opposed to the life presidency project which he has been criticizing on social media while encouraging others to do the same. When Aronda still lived, Katana’s other plan was to join the EALA in Arusha but that too didn’t materialize due to lack of adequate support from big men in Museveni’s government. Pamela Ankunda found the situation at MIA unusually crippling after Aronda’s death and unceremoniously quit for a more rewarding career at UCC. During Aronda’s time, she belonged to MIA as she did many PR assignments for the then nascent ID project which has since metamorphosed into NIRA.
As for Davis Akampulira, Aronda onetime helped him get a job in the defense ministry headquarters at Mbuya and the same applied to ex-Makerere guild President Robert Rutaro who was fired with collosal sums of money in salary arrears the moment his godfather Aronda Nyakayirima the former CDF) was no more. Eriab Naturinda too had been placed under the NGO Board when Gen. Aronda still called shots at MIA but has since been sidelined into obscurity and, in absence of Aronda, it appears there is no one left to plead his case. The last we had about Naturinda, who is a vocal social media commentator, was when he had consoled himself by teaming up with excellent media personality John Njoroge to oversee the communication needs of the upcoming 26th celebration to mark the NRM 33rd anniversary. Beyond that, the man is yet to be engaged in any serious government-related formal employment. As for Duncan Abigaba, the very eloquent young man from Bushenyi, he has lately been very critical of the system including openly de-campaigning the scrapping of age limits in the Constitution. Originally mentored by ill-fated Andrew Martial, Abigaba got a juicy posting/job in the office of the president when his other mentor Frank Tumwebaze was still Minister there. He deputized the well-polished Morrison Rwakakamba as head of research desk and it was widely expected he would become the overall boss the moment Rwakakamba returned from his Harvard studies and resigned from the Presidency.
Far from it, Duncan Abigaba became more sidelined as new Presidency Minister Esther Mbayo acted very vindictively purging many of the staffers of the Frank Tumwebaze era. She was fearful that the remnants of the Tumwebaze era might seek to undermine her to prove a point that her predecessor was after all the only one capable of steering the very juicy docket of Presidency. Without waiting to be expressly fired and disgraced, Abigaba kept his distance as Mbayo (also the woman MP Luuka district) moved to strengthen her grip on the office. At some point, he was very close to Aronda that used to be easily accessible to the young people and it’s widely believed that if the well networked General from Rukungiri was still alive, his blue eyed boy Abigaba would by now have found something better to carry on with his career as an intelligent young man. As we write, he remains much immobilized while deploying his eloquence to critique the Museveni system on social media.
There is also Nahwera Mackline, the former guild president Kyambogo University, who remains sidelined and undeployed. Besides doing well paid errands on the ID project, Nahwera was also helped by Aronda to link up with then ISO boss Ronnie Balya. This earned her additional perks to make ends meet in this otherwise very difficult city of ours. During Aronda’s days, this babe from Bushenyi enjoyed life and always didn’t have to struggle to access groceries-eating opportunities in government. This isn’t the case anymore and many are wondering whether Mackline and all these young people are being punished or made to reflect on the fact that their mentor Aronda wasn’t meant to last forever. Mackline, who at some had a soft spot for Amama and Jacqueline Mbabazi, is these days on her own running a boutique business in Ntinda.
We couldn’t readily establish how much came of efforts by concerned friends to connect her to Museveni’s PPS Molly Kamukama. There is also Amanda Magambo, the bubbly babe from Karegyeya in Ntungamo. She used to be heavily facilitated to do Aronda’s errands related to the Northern corridor projects but has since sunk into obscurity following the death of her godfather. Aronda took her on as a way of diverting her from Ruhaama where she used to antagonize then MP Janet Museveni at election time. This worked because she never contested for the period she was kept busy working with Aronda who was like a foster father to many of these children of the NRM revolution. The late Andrew Felix Kawesi, whose death shook this nation to the core, is another child of the revolution Aronda identified and mentored in public service.
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