Video: MoH MESSAGE ON CHILDREN & MATERNAL HEALTH
By Mulengera Reporters
Recently as he celebrated his first 100 days as Leader of Opposition, Mathias Mpuuga expressed his wish for the Parliamentary Commission to allocate him more financial resources so that he can recruit more staff to improve on the quality of opposition he can spearhead against the NRM using Parliament as a platform. Mpuuga said he and his shadow Ministers are constrained having to counter more than 80 well facilitated Ministers in the Central government when they don’t have enough personnel resources to prepare their responses.
Since becoming LoP, the Nyendo-Mukungwe MP has helped create job opportunities for a number of young men and women some of whom are said to be cronies, friends and relatives of big people in the NUP leadership both in Kamwokya and Parliament. As more and more veterans of the anti-Museveni struggle battle to get some of their preferred proxies in, so as to enable them access some groceries too, much is being said about the list of the more than 30 employees the LoP has taken up so far.
Prominent names on the list include Sunday Apollo (a former PA to Gen Mugisha Muntu) who has been taken up for the position of Policy Analyst. He worked in the same office before under Winnie Kiiza etc. On exiting FDC along with his boss Gregory Mugisha Muntu, Sunday Apollo briefly sheltered under ANT which he abandoned for NUP whose flag he carried for the Bughendera County MP Seat in Buundibugyo. With the seat going to NRM-leaning independent Moses Kiiza Acrobert (13,897 votes), Sunday Apollo trailed with mere 1,571 votes. The others in the race were NRM’s Christopher Kibazanga (13,462) and Ezra Mumbere (38). As Policy Analyst, Sunday Apollo is entitled to a monthly net pay of Shs8.7m per month after taxes.
There is also Moses Kyaligonza working as Principal Policy Analyst and earning net pay of SShs12m per month after taxes. Even when many always doubted his commitment to the opposition cause, Kyaligonza (originally very close to State Finance Minister David Bahati) has always worked in the LoP office since the days of Wafula Oguttu, Nandala Mafabi and Winnie Kiiza. Betty Aol, Mpuuga’s immediate predecessor, had ousted him (having been told he was hostile to the defiance politics) only to be called back to serve under the new LoP. A strong policy person, the controversial Kyaligonza is originally a graduate of Environmental Sciences.
All staff at the rank of Administrative Assistant are ranked PC4 and they each earn Shs8.7m per month after taxes. Administrative Secretaries, who serve as liaison officers for each of the opposition parties in Parliament, also earn Shs8.7m per month. Some of the Assistant Secretaries now include DP-recommended Sylvia Bugembe, FDC’s Joweria Nakidde, UPC’s Akanyi Barbara and others. These are merely nominated by the respective parties and their work is to coordinate communication between the LoP office and their respective party headquarters. Because these are well remunerated positions, they are each made to go through ceremonial interview processes to ensure that the Public Service requirements are complied with.
Others designated as “Research Assistants” are the lowest paid with each earning Shs2m per month after taxes. Their inclusion in the LoP hierarchy is enabled by a financial contribution that comes from DGF/EU. But even when it seems a modestly remunerated position, it’s good for being a stepping stone others have used before to eventually get engaged on more lucrative terms. It’s casually considered to be a “waiting lounge” position through which the likes of Gloria Paga and Onghwens Kisangala (both of FDC) came to be employed as Policy Assistants which they held up to the end of Aol’s tenure.
There is also Maria Natabi who serves as the NUP youth coordinator for the entire Eastern Uganda. She has been recruited to serve as one of the Policy Analysts which entitles her to earn Shs8.7m per month as net pay. In the January elections, she stood for Butembe County MP Seat which she (polling 2,502) lost to David Livingstone Zijjan (5,818 votes) an NRM candidate; the other candidate in the race was FDC’s Grace Kiirya Wanzala who scored 5,719 votes narrowly losing to NRM-leaning Zijjan. Natabi completed University in mid 2010s and this is her first time to land such a nice job. The logistics (Shs8.7m per month and more) coming with this deployment by Mpuuga should enable her to mobilize and market NUP better in the next 5 years.
The other is Gonzaga Mitimbo Kagumba (Senior Personal Assistant) whose posting has left some in Masaka grumbling that a one Joseph Kasirye (who has stood with LoP through thick and thin) would have been more suitable though Mpuuga, as LoP, has the prerogative to choose who to work with. Being a senior position (ranked PC3), this posting entitles Kagumba to earning a net salary of Shs10m (gross pay is Shs14m) per month after taxes. Having taken up the position of Senior Public Relations Officer under the LoP office, veteran journalist Sadab Kitatta Kaaya will equally be bagging a net pay of Shs10m per month (after statutory deductions).
There is also Arthur Mugabi, a veteran of the anti-Museveni struggle from Kyaggwe, who has been hired to serve as Policy Analyst which earns him a cool Shs8.7m as net pay per month after tax deductions. Abubaker Sekanjako, a lawyer by training, is another policy analyst (earning Shs8.7m per month) whose recruitment has intrigued some.
Eunice Nambeshe, linked to opposition chief whip JB Nambeshe, is equally employed as Assistant Secretary fetching her a cool net pay of Shs4m per month after taxes. Faziirah Nabadda, who previously worked with FDC whip Ibrahim Semujju Nganda, has equally fallen into things landing herself the job of Office Assistant. She is just one of the many Office Assistants and is destined to earn a net pay of Shs4m per month after taxes and her position is ranked PC8.
Yet that isn’t all. Gevinah Nyangoma, closely associated with Fire Base Crew officials in Kamwokya, will be eating under the designation of Administrative Assistant-and taking home Shs8.7m per month. Max Nuwamanya, who is deeply rooted in the Kyagulanyi house hold, has been taken on as Research Assistant and will be earning big (Shs4m) the Parliamentary Commission being one of the most lucrative employers in this town.
“With more recruitment opportunities being negotiated, there are other influential actors at Kamwokya who, because they are inadequately qualified and therefore unfit for recruitment themselves, have insisted on recommending people who will allow sharing their monthly salaries with them,” said a knowledgeable source who also appreciated the LoP for being open to the idea of having as many struggle comrades benefit from the festive mood resulting from NUP’s impressive performance during the January elections as possible.
The idea is to financially empower as many struggle diehards and NUP individual leaders’ loyalists as possible accessing groceries that are available by virtue of NUP being the leading opposition party.
And to his credit, Mpuuga has been liberal enough to ensure that during his reign as LoP, the sharing of the available few eating opportunities is diversified as possible. That is why you have NUP cadres like Lydia Namayengo (used to bad mouth Mukono king maker Betty Nambooze) being gainfully taken on as Senior Policy Analyst. Besides earning her a net pay of Shs10m per month (after taxes), the Senior Policy Analyst rank places her in a supervisory position of having to oversee others as they go about studying policy and produce well researched content to amplify Mr. Mathias Mpuuga’s alternative legislative agenda. See more in the list of contemporary staff at the LoP office.
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