By Mulengera Reporters
Speaking at DP offices on Tuesday, Norbert Mao praised himself for being the David of Uganda’s politics who led the war that eventually brought down a giant/Goliath. The former Speaker Anita Among is the giant he bragged to have single-handedly ferried to the ground. See full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaLwUWFNtfg&t=1096s.
Even though he didn’t become the Speaker himself, Mao seemed proud of the fact that manipulator Anita Among isn’t Uganda’s number three anymore. Mao told reporters he is proud of that legacy being the man who belled the cat at the time everybody else feared calling out Among who was renowned for being vicious when it comes to destroying whoever stood in her way.
Mao said Among (who he contemptuously referred to as Jezebel) had become so powerful to the extent that no media house dared report anything bad about her; even when many scandals were almost public knowledge. That whereas many feared and censored themselves when required to report Anita Among’s scandals, several powerful media houses took her money in return for favorable publicity.
Mao said that is how his experience at Kyankwanzi, where he says NRM MPs showed him a lot of support, was misreported.
He said many media houses, whose journalist he branded corrupt and being synonymous with “pay as you go,” reported in a way that deceptively exaggerated Anita Among’s support while portraying him as an inconsequential figure at the Kyankwanzi retreat.
He said that MPs cheered him each time he took to the microphone yet the TV stations never broadcast that. Instead, they exaggerated Anita Among’s support among MPs at Kyankwanzi because Mama Rolls Royce (as he contemptuously calls her) had become synonymous with “pay as you go.”
Mao specifically mocked NBS TV some of whose managers, editors and reporters he asserted were the former Speaker’s very good friends but opportunistically pivoted the moment her problems began. He wondered why the NBS crew members are these days so ashamed of Anita Among to the extent they can’t even go to her Nakasero home and interview her.
He said doing that would demonstrate that NBS is an ally anyone can count on to be there both in good and bad times. He added that the same will help clarify on speculation as to whether she is grievously ill and also under house arrest or not.
A journalist had asked Mao about Anita Among’s current state which he said he wasn’t very sure about and demanded to know why NBS doesn’t do one more heroic act by storming her Nakasero residence and broadcast a live interview with her.
COMPROMISING THE EC:
In the same media statement, Mao singled out Justice Simon Byabakama’s Electoral Commission in a bid to demonstrate the extent to which Among had compromised key state institutions.
He said Anita Among had weaponized the EC to the extent that she would be consulted on whose victory should be maintained, declared or altered. That if she said don’t declare so and so, the EC would comply regardless of whether that preferred candidate of hers had the votes or not.
Mao’s claims come at a time when there are widespread claims that some of the January 2026 election losers who have since withdrawn their election petitions have done so because they can no longer count on Anita Among’s influence to secure favorable court rulings from High Court judges, many of whom Andrew Mwenda claims were her enablers.
Mao said that even in his own case the man he defeated and was number three in the Laroo Pece race had gone to Court because he was counting on Anita Among to use Court judges to turn water into wine. He said Ugandans must thank God that the bad mannered lady Anita Among is gone and gone forever.
His view is that she will never rise to become politically very powerful again. He didn’t cite examples of people who Byabakama’s EC favored or disadvantaged at the instigation of Anita Among.
The same EC remains condemned over the circumstances under which Anita Among retained the Bukedea Woman MP Seat unopposed twice in 2021 and 2026 after the Commission had controversially declared all her opponents’ ineligible.
In fact, some Bukedea residents last May went as far as demanding that Gen MK investigates the Electoral Commission bosses too, as part of the broader Anita Among investigations.
