By Mulengera Reporters
NRM Director for Communications, Emmanuel Ddombo has cautioned NRM MPs (numbering more than 300 in the 11th Parliament) to be reflective and farsighted as they vote for the amendments in the UPDF Act.
There are more than 80 clauses contained in the proposed amendments but the four touching on trial of civilians in court martial have turned out to be the most controversial.
It’s the reason the public is up in arms against the bill which is continuing to be processed by the relevant Committees of Parliament.
Ddombo suggested that, as they form their opinions on how to vote, NRM MPs need to be very thoughtful and follow their hearts while listening to their inner man.
He suggested it’s important to follow their conscience as opposed to succumbing to peer pressure and influence.
He suggested that each MP needs to read and internalize the bill while reflecting on past experiences that befell their predecessors like Amama Mbabazi who Semujju Nganda had referred to in an earlier submission during the Saturday Capital Gang program where they both appeared to discuss major events of the week.
Semujju referred to then IGP Gen Kale Kayihura and his then blue-eyed boy Andrew Felix Kaweesi using POMA, the very law whose enactment Mbabazi had spearheaded as the Prime Minister and the head of government business in Parliament, to justify his arrest and detention at the Jinja bridge as he drove to Jinja City to launch his Presidential campaigns for 2016.
Ddombo said that Semujju Nganda had a point, which is why NRM MPs need to take some lessons and act responsibly while forming their opinion on how to vote on the amendment bill.
Saying that Uganda’s political history is full of many such stories, Ddombo referred to Dr. Bulamu of Luuka in Busoga who was his fellow MP in the 7th Parliament.
Ddombo reminisced how the well-educated Dr. Bulamu vehemently supported the enactment of the law that imposed restrictions on those who didn’t have straight academic qualifications from the Ugandan education system and required the equivalency certification by the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE).
Ddombo explained that it turned out that some of Dr. Bulamu’s very academic qualifications required certification by NCHE before the Electoral Commission could nominate him to campaign for reelection.
“He had Russian qualifications which required certification by NCHE. He didn’t act on good time and woke up on the last day only to be told he could only be nominated after NCHE has certified his qualifications,” Ddombo reminisced.
Ddombo, who was MP for many years until 2016 when he lost elections in Bunyole County and had to live quietly at his home in Kireka until when Gen Museveni deployed him at Kyadondo at the instigation of then NRM Secretary General Kasule Lumumba, concluded that he was heartbroken having to miss the company of his good friend Dr. Bulamu whose reelection was frustrated using the law he had supported so passionately. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
