By Our Reporters
Shocking secrets have emerged showing how the political woes bedeviling Wakiso LC5 Chairman Matia Lwanga Bwanika started. Multiple reliable sources Mulengera news website has spoken to are unanimous in saying it had to do with female councilors that ironically happen to be his fellow DP members. As soon as the new Council took office, the first business was constitution of his executive and as well as the election of the district speaker. “Last time in his previous term Bwanika was lucky the council was NRM-dominated but was full of docile councilors who were elderly and not that much educated. Today’s councilors are different. They are opposition mostly but educated, assertive and full of self-esteem. They fearlessly take him on because 2/3 of them are graduates and Council no longer deliberates in Luganda like before,” remarked a long serving technical staff at Wakiso district headquarters.
Our investigations have revealed that Bwanika began facing huge challenges after Gen Salim Saleh indulged himself in the running of the Wakiso district Council as part of his efforts to secure Councilors’ endorsement for sand mining on Lake Victoria. The General who was fronting a Chinese company called Mango Tree was approached by Councilors who cried out saying they were tired of poverty earning mere Shs310,000 per month. They told him things were so bad that the Chairman who is full time barely earns more than Shs2.5m. The vice chairperson Betty Naluyima (representing Kiira Municipality) earns Shs1.5m! Gen Saleh, who had always wanted to antagonize DP’s uncompromising Bwanika and weaken him, took advantage of this to subjectively preach his Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) gospel.
He told the councilors “I’m willing to help you but your chairman is very uncompromising; he is so rigid, conservative and anti-development.” He told them there is no way Councilors who operate a district that collects so little revenue can expect salary increment. “Where do you expect the money to come from?” he asked them during a meeting in his Namunkekera Industrial Complex headquarters in Nakaseke. He claimed Nakaseke was doing very well because of this project.
He also referred to Mukono which gets additional revenue from Namanve Industrial Park. “Your Wakiso is supposed to have an industrial park at Mende but your chairman is not positive yet that industrial park will improve your revenue as a district and create jobs for your voters,” Saleh was quoted as saying. He also told them: “I have my friends the Chinese investors who want to begin manufacturing tiles in Wakiso and it’s a very big project to increase your revenue as a district and to also create jobs for your people but the chairman opposes this. The sand used for those tiles has to be from the Lake and you have to support me overcome your chairman on that.” After the Namunkekera meeting, Gen Saleh organized a training retreat for the Councilors and brought experts who told them it was futile to struggle to preserve Lake Victoria on the Ugandan side when the very commercial sand mining Bwanika is resisting is already legally being done on the Tanzanian side of the Lake.
After too much cajoling, the councilors who admit eating very good food at Saleh’s place and being given Shs400,000 in transport refund, voted to shun Bwanika in his resistance against sand mining. Some told Gen Saleh that their chairman was being inconsistent because “how come he doesn’t resist Sudhir’s flower business in Namulanda near his residence which he used to say was bad for environment?” Some wondered why their chairman wasn’t opposing the same sand mining activity in Kasanje Sub County.
WOMEN USED:
But Saleh, who had always failed to cripple Bwanika, got the entry point when he got information that even when majority councilors are opposition (22 DP & 5 FDC against NRM’s 22) they weren’t unanimously behind Bwanika. They had long standing personal grievances against Bwanika but lacked a spark to start the fight. One of these aggrieved persons was Councilor Prossy Nanozi. Having been Bwanika’s political ally in Wakiso politics for such a long time much experienced Nanozi expected to naturally be appointed vice chairperson in this term. This didn’t happen and instead Bwanika opted for new comer Betty Ethel Naluyima who represents Semujju Nganda’s Kiira Municipality as district councilor. This left Nanozi very aggrieved and yet the worst was yet to come. On losing to Betty Naluyima, Nanozi positioned herself for the post of Deputy Speaker which had to be a female given that Speakership had already been agreed to go to Simon Nsubuga (DP) who represents Wakiso Town Council. She lost this too to Viola Nampijja who is the councilor representing Katabi Sub County. Chairman Bwanika, who also doesn’t have much power as Nanozi seemed to think, consoled her by giving her some unofficial assignments which made fellow councilors to always casually refer to her as “Vice to the Vice Chairperson.” She soon became disgruntled again because this office wasn’t facilitated. No money came with the new assignment. It was just a room and furniture.
SALEH STRIKES:
On getting intelligence that Nanozi was very disgruntled yet she has a lot of influence on especially the 22 DP Councilors, Gen Saleh used someone in the CAO’s office to establish warm relations with her. Nanozi was more than willing because she was already grumbling as to why the Chairman made Betty Naluyima Secretary Finance in the 5 member executive on top of the Vice Chairperson slot she had already been given. Fellow DP Councilor Margaret Gasanyula Nakitende is among those who became very aggrieved with Nanozi’s betrayal. Nakitende, who represents Nsangi/Kyengera, attacked Nanozi who instead took things personal and personal feuds ensued with Nanozi claiming the chairman was biased against her in favor of Nakitende and Naluyima. Insisting battle lines had been drawn, Nanozi declared war and made it clear that whoever is for chairman is against her. She started denouncing fellow councilor Viola Nampijja of Katabi saying she was a mole for the Chairman.
As we talk right now the move to remove Bwanika (impeaching him Lukwago style) is being spearheaded by Nanozi who for many years has been his political ally in the Wakiso battles!! She is even among those plotting to report him to the IGG raising all sorts of wild allegations aimed at impeaching his character as a leader. She has also been working relentlessly to ensure Bwanika and Speaker Simon Nsubuga develop irreconcilable differences. The Nanozi camp members say Bwanika’s candidate for Speakership was Hood Goloba of the NRM. Nsubuga has continuously been told that Bwanika is undermining him because he is afraid he is using the Speaker’s office to bolster his profile and stand against him in 2021. There are also rumors that Simon Nsubuga, a very flamboyant young politician, wants to oust Busiro East MP Medard Segona who is his fellow DP member. Mr. Zziwa Lwanga who is Chairman DP Wakiso district has been trying to reconcile these warring DP factions in vain. Closely working with Entebbe Mayor Depaul Kayanja and Nsangi male Councilor Peter Jjumba, who chairs the Wakiso opposition caucus, Zziwa Lwanga has so far organized two reconciliation meetings but all in vain. One meeting was in Nabweru and another in Pope Paul Memorial Center Ndeeba.
At one of the meetings, Councilors claimed Bwanika had sidelined them to the extent of directing his office Secretary never to let any of them in his office. To prove their point, one of the Councilors asked Kayanja Depaul to ask Bwanika if he has phone numbers of any Councilor. To this councilor this was proof of how far away the chairman isolated himself from councilors. It wasn’t readily clear why councilors would like to sit in the Chairman’s office. Kiira Mayor Julius Mutebi has also been actively trying to mend fences between Bwanika and the Councilors.
To comment on this and other Mulengera news stories, reach us on 0703164755!
