By Mulengera Reporters
Diana Mutasingwa is the Buikwe Woman MP in greater Kyagwe or Mukono and that is on the NRM ticket.
You have to be powerful and extraordinary (not a usual person) to pull off such a feat because Buikwe is located in an area where the NUP wave has always been potent and very effective. In 2021, her first time to become an MP, Mutasingwa floored two powerful opposition babes namely Faridah Nabatanzi (NUP) and Resty Nakapachu (FDC), a popular radio personality in the area.
The pain of loss was too much to the extent that Nakapachu bowed out and said she would never run again for as long as Diana is on the ballot. She lost narrowly but she became so much scared to the extent that she resisted all manner of pressure to challenge Mutasingwa in Court by way of filing an election petition.
In 2026, only Nabatanzi returned and Mutasingwa once again gave her her food and sent her to the political Taiwan. The pain of loss for the NUP babe was too profound to the extent that some of her own campaigners advised her to go through Yusuf Nsibambi and make a deal with Gen Museveni. She was repeatedly told that would be the only way to increase her chances against Diana in 2031.
But away from the political trenches of Buikwe, Diana Mutasingwa (who is also related to Moses Karangwa) still wields a lot of power and influence. And to appreciate this well, one simply has to understand who the Kampala-based powerful actors are in her universe.
She works under the Vice President Jessica Alupo who has allowed her to do her thing the way she wants and shine as opposed to suffocating her. Mutasingwa has her own modest budget of not less than Shs2bn, which Office of the President Secretary Hajji Yunnus Kakande ensures is available at all times. Kakande, who is also a mentor of some sort to Mutasingwa, has ensured that no one encroaches on Diana’s Shs2bn.
Ordinarily, Shs2bn sounds small and almost peanuts but its a lot of money for a Minister who doesn’t have to deliver any services as her docket is simply under the office of Vice President whose current occupant Jessica Alupo is assured of her daily imprest of Shs80m.
Mutasingwa doesn’t have to personally appear anywhere in Parliament before any Committee to defend or explain herself on anything because all that is the business of Hajji Kakande as the accounting officer for the vote and occasionally Milly Babalanda, the Presidency Minister.
Mutasingwa is also a close ally of PSST Ramathan Goobi who has the last word on all the trillions contained in the GoU annual budget. Goobi isn’t a mere head treasury but he is also very close to key first family members especially Gen Salim Saleh who single-handedly influenced his elevation from a mere economics class room lecturer at Mubs to the big bureaucrat he is today.
In the Diana Mutasingwa universe is also a powerful UPDF General who is also powerfully serving in Cabinet. All these combine to shield and make the youthful State Minister Diana Mutasingwa actually more powerful than even some of the full Cabinet Ministers. There are many other powerful people in the government universe with whom Mutasingwa has very good working relationships including Speaker Anita Among. All these combine to make her unassailable in the politics of Buikwe. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
