By Our Reporters
As if to signal declining trust in his hitherto much favored State House Comptroller, President Museveni recently reversed an HR decision Lucy Nakyobe (who equals Ps elsewhere) had made terminating services of one of the key State House employees. The affected employee is Pauline Nassolo, an influential Buganda Princess that works in State House. She holds the docket of Senior Private Secretary to the President in charge of women affairs. She actually heads the women affairs desk which basically does political mobilization with emphasis on women. Nassolo, whom Museveni values a lot because of her deep connections in Buganda and at Namirembe Cathedral where her mother headed mothers’ union, has for some time been at loggerheads with key people in Lucy Nakyobe’s office whose mandate has lately been expanded to overseeing programs like Skilling the Girl Child and Ghetto youths rehabilitation clearly aimed at neutralizing Bobi Wine. Key among her top rivals is a young lady called Faridah Mayanja. Some time back, the President was given reports that there was witchcraft targeting Nakyobe and that this was being done by people friendly to Nassolo in State House. The H/E instituted an inquiry which exonerated Nassolo but instead implicated some of the employees resentful of her. A driver to one of those people was even fired after being suspected of working with Mzee’s investigators to the extent of taking them to some of the shrines where some employees go to get charms aimed at causing the President to favor them more. The ill-fated driver was summarily expelled and later recalled back after it was realized his movements and espionage would be easier to monitor once he was kept within the system as opposed to expulsion.
NAKIWALA KIYINGI’ ROLE;
Nassolo’s woes were escalated when a group of ministers known to be anti-Nakyobe were confirmed to be her (Nassolo) close associates. One of these was Nakiwala Kiyingi who blames her low output levels as youth minister to interference by Nakyobe’s Skilling the Girl Child and Ghetto programs. Nakiwala believes these fall under her docket and Nakyobe must involve her which the powerful comptroller’s handlers don’t like. When youth groups in Kawempe denounced people in Nakyobe’s office during a rally Museveni had convened to preach wealth creation, Nakyobe sympathizers claimed seeing the invisible hand of Nassolo, Nakiwala and the RCC in charge of Kawempe. The pressure became too much on Nakyobe and Museveni reenergized her by addressing this matter during a cabinet meeting. While there, Museveni hit the roof and told ministers never to dare touch Nakyobe or dare invest in any conspiracies against her. He went as far as telling them she isn’t a poor lady because she has a powerful commercial farm in Kakiri unlike other officials (ministers inclusive) who financially live off the state coffers. This meeting seemingly made Nakyobe feel more powerful and she returned to office with swag. As she went about working, Museveni (said to still be angry about the Rukungiri goodies that backfired) again showed declining trust in her when he dealt with a youth group directly in Kasanda. He sent them Shs40m to organize a public function called the youth medical camp in Mubende/Kasanda and Nakyobe, who is used to being assigned such errands, couldn’t believe the big man could reach the youth group without her involvement. Her people were unhappy. They rang one of the youth leaders in Kasanda accusing them of underhand methods to undermine the Comptroller. The youth directly communicated to the President saying they felt insecure about big people in his office calling to reprimand them. Museveni held a meeting the following day where he rebuked Nakyobe like never before. He said nobody would be tolerated “interfering in the work of these new youth groups of mine” and ordered the Comptroller to add them another Shs40m. This meeting left many in shock because this was the first time the big man was showing distaste for the Comptroller who has lately been becoming very powerful to the extent of even overshadowing Molly Kamukama the PPS. In the days that followed this complex meeting, Nassolo faced it rough. She was given a letter requiring her to clear her desk and not return to office to facilitate investigations into claims that she had reported to the President her discomfort about two powerful colleagues who always come to office very early-sometimes as early as 5am. Directives were given to Nakasero State Lodge security not to let her in and even one of the official vehicles assigned to her office of women desk was withdrawn. But before the directives could be implemented ensuring she is denied access to the office, Museveni somehow got to know and announced revocation of the directive expelling her. Museveni reportedly reasoned that touching Nassolo (a Muganda) at this time of Bobi Wine momentum wouldn’t be good because of her deep connections in Buganda kingdom and the Anglican Church at Namirembe. Besides Mengo and Namirembe, Nassolo has also been critical in mobilizing women groups especially in city markets and has always been grumbling as to why Comptroller refuses to fund the women SACCOs formed by her. She also stands accused of beefing a one Faridah Mayanja who serves as a close assistant to Nakyobe. She is also accused of being responsible for the investigations the big man commissioned recently into the circumstances through which an officials working in the Skilling the Girl child bought three posh houses in Kampala in such a very short time. Each property was valued at Shs400m and it’s something that greatly disturbed the big man and instead of owning up, those implicated officials turned their anger on Princess Nassolo. Several State House officials we spoke to feared being quoted saying “my friend the wrangles of those two ladies are well known and it’s something we all fear to indulge ourselves in.”
NASSOLO SPEAKS OUT;
We spoke to Nassolo, who lives in a palatial residence in Bweyogerere, and she downplayed the temporary expulsion incidence. But she freely discussed the vehicle issue confirming it was withdrawn from her but she has since opted to move on “because we have other vehicles attached to the women desk.” She said the removal of the vehicle, which she said wasn’t a big deal, was justified by Nakyobe’s people on grounds that the vehicle belonged to the entrepreneurship department and not women affairs. She refused to discuss the witch-craft allegations saying that is a very uncomfortable topic for her to discuss “at this time.” She said: “I move on very fast because I’m extremely busy with a lot of work on women and my plate is more than full. We for instance have a program to meet and induct the newly elected women council leaders to get them understand the way [Mzee] wants things done. It’s a lot of work because we have them at national, regional, district and sub county levels all the way to the village,” she said. On working with Nakiwala to undermine Nakyobe, Nassolo said: “That is all not true. Since when did she become my friend to plot such things? I only interacted and sat with her [Nakiwala] at the function of her sister Grace Nambatya because they had invited the President and time failed him. That’s why I was there with her seated and doing Mzee’s work.” It’s said Nassolo resorted to using her private vehicle doing Mzee’s work after the official vehicle was withdrawn from her. She denied all this insisting that “besides the vehicle that was withdrawn, there are other vehicles for the women department.”
