By Our Reporters
The IGG Lady Irene Mulyagonja has explained her role in the ongoing attempts to force Parliament’s Director of Communications Christopher Obore out of his lucrative job.
In a phone interview with Mulengera news earlier today Wednesday, Mulyagonja admitted conducting an inquiry into the circumstances under which Obore got the job and subsequently writing a report about the same.
“We are not the ones ousting him from his job because our role has strictly been limited to investigating and writing a report to the authorities that asked us to conduct the inquiry. We have duly submitted the report to the leadership of Parliament and what happens next is their business. The final decision is theirs and not ours,” Mulyagonja explained. She said there is nothing private or confidential about the report which is now firmly in the hands of Parliament whose clerk Jane Kibirige officially received the same from the IGG.
CONTEXT
Obore’s woes started sometime back when a whistleblower, said to be acting in the interest of powerful figures at Parliament, petitioned the IGG calling on her to inquire on why and how Obore got the job ahead of other equally formidable contenders like Charles Mpagi, Simon Kasyate and Peter Kibazo. The petition was preceded by another complaint that was anonymously filed with the Office of the Auditor General raising a red flag on a clique of powerful actors who were said to be siphoning colossal sums of money under the guise of procuring tickets for the travel of MPs and other Parliamentary staff.
The OAG probe subsequently confirmed that indeed money was being siphoned through the ticketing fraud. Insiders say that those who were negatively affected by the OAG’s findings never forgave Obore who they suspected of being a winner in the AG exposing the ticketing racket. Plans were made to make life hard for him and the original conspirators easily found allies among long-serving Parliamentary staff who were very uncomfortable with the way Speaker Rebecca Kadaga initially trusted and empowered Obore as Director Communications.
Within no time, efforts were made to antagonize Kadaga with Obore who was falsely accused of having a soft spot for Amama Mbabazi who (for unknown reasons) the Speaker hates and fears very much. For starters, Kadaga is a very good leader with many powerful credentials but her weakness lies in believing reports about people without adequately verifying and hearing them out.
Acting on such reports, she wrote off Obore and started sidelining him. Efforts by an influential female MP from Teso to arbitrate did not yield much as Kadaga concluded she was done with Obore. In the subsequent petition, the whistleblower claimed to the IGG that Obore was recruited without meeting the eligibility criterion which required one to have worked in Public Service (doing similar things) for at least 10 years prior to the appointment. The other critical requirement was a masters degree which the whistleblower claimed Obore lacked and only ratified things by obtaining it later. In her report, the IGG establishes that indeed the excellent journalist from Bukedea lacked these credentials at the time of his appointment.
WAR IN PARLIAMENT
Sources who know say that if Kadaga was around Obore would have been shown faster exit than Clerk Jane Kibirige has been trying to do. Kibirige (who like Kadaga despises Obore) now stands accused by Parliamentary Commissioners for trying to use the IGG report to settle old scores. In her letter, deriving from the IGG findings, Kibirige asks Obore to show cause why he should not be pushed out within 15 days. Vowing to go down defending Obore, the angry Commissioners say that the right procedure would be for Kibirige to bring to their attention the IGG’s report for a common position to be agreed upon regarding what should happen to Obore. This didn’t happen and the Commissioners (who previously thwarted Kadaga’s efforts to oust Obore) are determined to stand up to Kibirige until she retracts her threat to axe Obore.
In the meantime, Obore (who partly got into problems for being very critical to people like Catherine Bamugemereire) has resorted to using courts of law to prolong his stay in the office that gained more clout partly during his time. Some say that in his hey days as a leading city journalist, Obore hurt many people in government who have never forgiven him for the eloquent criticisms against President Museveni and his NRM establishment.
Some are wondering why Kadaga, who was willing to waive some of the requirements at the time of recruitment, all of a sudden made a U-turn and determined to get rid of Obore whose selection was hugely participated in by Wafula Ogutu who then (as LoP) sat on the Parliamentary Commission. For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755.
