By Mulengera Reporters
When he missed out being on the Cabinet list last May, many supporters of the Older Person’s MP Ofwono Opondo felt hurt but were convinced that he wouldn’t miss out on the list of chairpersons for one of the ruling party-controlled Committees of Parliament.
Time for this came also and still Opondo walked away empty-handed. His supporters were convinced he would end up big having spent more than three decades loyally serving Gen YK Museveni at New Vision as a journalist, at the Movement Secretariat and also in government as a spokesperson.
Opondo, whose last government position before joining Parliament last January was that of being government spokesperson and also Executive Director of the Uganda Media Centre, is a very senior eloquent legislator who many pundits believed would walk away with something right from the dawn of his first term as MP. He is also a leading ideologue of the National Resistance Movement, having participated in the training of young and new cadres at Kyankwanzi and other places.
Some power brokers within the top echelons of government also tried to get Opondo to be deployed to head the Ugandan chapter delegation to the IPU (which in full is Inter-Parliamentary Union). This was believed to be a perfect deployment for him given his seniority, eloquence and deep understanding of statecraft in Uganda.
This too never happened, which is why many senior Parliament watchers now believe there is reason for Opondo, who last weekend wrote a stinger in support of Gen Kahinda Otafiire during the Water Minister’s stand off with Gen MK’s PLU, to be vigorously disgruntled right now. There are also claims that his current relegation is something the President desires to see continue to happen because he considers his cadre Ofwono Opondo assertive, too independent and unpredictable.
Opondo’s supporters now feel that the current leadership and people within the decision-making universe are sidelining him deliberately because they are scared and envious of his seniority, charisma, name recognition and eloquence. That OO has been sidelined in favour of less prolific members of the NRM caucus in Parliament because some of the people involved in making decisions are afraid of the fact that an appropriately deployed Ofwono Opondo will shine and overshadow many of them.
Similar marginalization is being referenced by supporters of Sheema Municipality MP Dickson Kateshumbwa and Otuke County MP Paul Omara. When he secured his re-election last January, there was widespread excitement in Lango that Paul Omara, who considers himself more intelligent and more sophisticated than many Musevenists both in Parliament and Cabinet, was headed for a Ministerial position.
This never happened and when the big man from Rwakitura overlooked him in favour of other children of Lango such as Sam Engola, Santa Okot and Jane Ruth Aceng; Paul Omara’s supporters got convinced that the forceful and belligerent economist from Otuke was going to be made Chairperson for the Budget Committee given the depth of his grasp of the figures and finance matters.
There was widespread conviction that either Paul Omara or Dickson Kateshumbwa was going to be made the Budget Committee Chairman while being deputized by the other. But being Museveni, the President who is also NRM Chairman bypassed both of them and he doesn’t have to explain himself to anyone. Kateshumbwa, a former Commissioner Customs at URA, is equally high profile and his supporters are equally disenchanted with his consistent rejection as is the case with Paul Omara’s supporters.
The supporters now want the two men to become very much disgruntled and at an opportune moment begin fraternizing with pro-opposition causes and go on to do something that will politically demonstrate their unhappiness and disgruntlement to Gen YK Museveni and other party leaders he serves with both in government and NRM party.
Some of the supporters of Paul Omara and those of Kateshumbwa are now wondering why the NRM party strategists would overlook such colossus brains and go for anyone else while making decisions relating to the different Committees’ leaderships and membership. There is a feeling that the ruling party these days lacks appetite to appreciate such brainy politicians.
There is a huge possibility that should they opt to become actively disgruntled and gang up with the opposition’s more than 70 MPs in the current 12th Parliament, the trio of Ofwono Opondo, Paul Omara and Dickson Kateshumbwa will move Mountains when it comes to antagonizing the interests of the mainstream political Movement headed by Gen YK Museveni. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
