By Mulengera Reporters
For many, it always seemed fait accompli that Thomas Tayebwa would, without much effort and having to put up much fight, secure 2nd term as Deputy Speaker of Parliament.
Yet for the privileged few who are privy to the goings-on in the corridors of power, it became clear as early as March that his retention chances had cracked. A meeting was one evening (4-7pm) convened at State House Nakasero where Anita Among’s transgressions were discussed at length.
First Lady Janet Museveni, who has always been Tayebwa’s guarantor in the corridors of power, was at that meeting, during which a litany of well corroborated accusations against Anita Among were discussed and reflected upon. About five people, including Janet, attended that meeting.
FUFA CEO Edgar Watson’s conduct, when he usurped the line Ministry’s power and controversially appeared before a Parliamentary Committee to popularize a Shs75bn supplementary budget, was one of the things that were discussed as well as FUFA President Moses Magogo’s growing defiance antics towards his supposed superiors at the Education Minister.
The MoES officials at the meeting, including PS Dr. Kedrace Turyagyenda, wondered and demanded to know why Edgar Watson would on his own appear before Parliament and attempt to justify the Shs75bn supplementary without notifying or going through the MoES under whose banner all sector budget requests are supposed to be consolidated.
Also questioned were the circumstances under which a provision had been introduced attempting to ring fence money allocated for football-related activities with the overall objective being to arm-twist the PS Turyagyenda to the extent of not being able to alter or reallocate anything. This, specifically, is something about which Janet was very furious and demanded to know why the leadership at Parliament was conniving with FUFA officials to undermine her powers.
During that same meeting, Janet Museveni learnt of many other terrible offensive things that were going on at the Anita Among-led Parliament. Sources at the meeting say that the graceful Minister Ntungamo was in total shock and wondered why all that rot could be happening at Parliament without her blue-eyed boy Thomas Tayebwa, supposed to be her eyes and ears at that building, confiding in her about any of it.
[It’s suspected Tayebwa, who wasn’t implicated in any wrongdoing or any connivance acts, was merely fearful of potentially being harmed by people in the Anita Among universe in case he reported things and his Principal got to learn of such reporting]
The President’s wife expressed so much dismay at Tayebwa’s lack of courage and appetite to report many of these things to the extent that people at the meeting got convinced that Janet’s personal support, and by extension that of other powerful influencers at State House, could no longer be counted on to guarantee Tayebwa’s continued staying on as Deputy Speaker.
Indeed, this explains why when Gen MK (whol on Tuesday proclaimed Tayebwa’s rescue and offer of 2nd chance) recently tweeted and indicated that both Tayebwa and Among had to go and that the Deputy Speaker was now going to be a woman, such knowledgeable sources weren’t shocked about Tayebwa’s plummeting fortunes because they had seen it coming from as early as that March meeting at State House Nakasero.
At that same evening meeting, the fate of Anita Among (from whom Magogo was deriving guts to disregard Janet and other officials at her Ministry) was discussed and positions taken as will be elaborated in our subsequent reporting.
In fact, Anita Among was subsequently personally summoned at two subsequent meetings at the same venue and she too started getting premonition that her days in the high office weren’t going to be many. At some point, she owned up and offered to apologize but it clearly was already too late as the train had long left the station as will be illustrated in our subsequent reporting. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
