JUST ASKING: Is Oboth-Oboth The PLU Candidate General MK Referred to?

By Mulengera Reporters

In a series of tweets Monday morning, Gen MK addressed himself to the Speakership race and his utterances left many social media users convinced that the incumbent Speaker Anita Among’s job retention chances have greatly been diminished. The General’s tweets excited many people, naturally including Norbert Mao and his battle-hardened wife Beatrice who spent much of the day retweeting and amplifying related content online.

Beatrice also enumerated other institutions like KCCA whose inefficiency and corruption-related cleansing she suggested the CDF ought to equally prioritize, besides the legislature whose workers the General demanded must serve the material needs of the people of Uganda and not themselves.

Gen MK spoke disapprovingly of brazen corruptions acts at Parliament and also sarcastically denounced the circumstances under which Anita Among’s Shs3.4bn Rolls Royce was procured and shipped into the country. He veiledly denounced the apparent insensitivity and opulence while making it clear that even himself who has been the son of great YK Museveni for the last 52 years has even never had the privilege to sit in such a posh vehicle, leave a lone owning one. He said the same of his dad Gen YK Museveni.

Gen MK’s assertions emboldened Ugandans to take to social media to celebrate what many construed to be the impending fall of Anita Among. Many, including those renowned for being his sharp critics, for once had something complementary to say about Gen MK. They retreat his posts and there was visible unanimity as thousands celebrated the General’s stand on alleged corruption at Parliament. Many anticipated a new dawn in the way public office occupation is approached, with many Genzs demanding that MK immediately becomes their President and roll out Paul Kagame-like reforms.

In the subsequent tweets, Gen MK trivialized the so-called CEC of the ruling NRM making it clear that PLU-affiliated legislators, claimed to be over 300 in the 12^th Parliament, won’t be bound by whatever position the ruling party apex organ takes on who becomes Speaker. He was unequivocal in stating that PLU MPs will be more than prepared to rally behind and endorse whoever Gen Museveni chooses for Speakership, as opposed to being bound by the so-called CEC position.

He also made reference to a potential PLU candidate, and thereby creating an impression that this could be someone else and not necessarily Norbert Mao or Anita Among who Ugandans had come to accept as the front runners so far for the lucrative slot. He said that Mao’s only problem is being DP, and not NRM.

Some Ugandans speculated this could be in reference to Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa who people in the MK universe are very much fond of to the extent that a few weeks ago he even represented the CDF as chief runner as the MK birthday run at Kololo ceremonial grounds. The General was absent as his big day was being celebrated and choose Tayebwa, a renowned protégé of his mother Janet Museveni, to run in his place.

However, dependable sources indicate that, even when it’s now the post-shame era in Uganda, Gen Museveni is still sensitive to the sentiments and feelings of Ugandans from other regions-and as such, he isn’t comfortable having a Speaker of Parliament come from his native region of Western Uganda which is already home to him as head of the executive and CJ Flavian Zeija, the head of the judiciary arm of government.

This diminishes chances for Tayebwa to immediately become Speaker however much key power brokers like Andrew Mwenda perceive and consider him to be much more suitable for the slot than Anita Among.

Since it clearly can’t be Tayebwa, multiple sources from within the MK universe have indicated that the PLU candidate the First son was referencing in his Monday morning tweets is none other than Defense Minister Jacobs Oboth-Oboth, who actually is a self-professed member of PLU.

Knowledgeable insiders say that Oboth-Oboth, who is one of the senior MPs from Tororo district, is agreeable to all key decision makers in contemporary Uganda including Gen Salim Saleh, YK Museveni and MK himself too, having closely worked with him at the Mbuya-based defense Ministry. In fact, immediately after Jacob Oulanyah’s death in March 2022, Oboth-Oboth is the man Generals Museveni and Saleh preferred to take charge.

The H.E only reluctantly backed off after he realized majority CEC members were in favor of Anita Among for several reasons and let them have their way since a new Speaker had to be found within limited time and he also didn’t want to antagonize fellow big men in CEC.

Oboth-Oboth, who powerful regime insiders had instigated to express interest and declare his bid, was abandoned and asked to let go and was consoled with the fat job of being defense Minister. Previously he had been state minister before being elevated to replace Justin Namere’s dad Vincent Bamulangaki Sempijja.

Oboth-Oboth’s selling points are many including being a seasoned lawyer who knows Parliamentary rules, procedure and practice. He previously chaired the all-powerful Legal & Parliamentary Affairs Committee of Parliament and did very well and in the process impressing Gen YK Museveni, including processing the amendments that resulted into removal of age limits from the Constitution, according to which Museveni ought to have exited the Presidency in 2021 on the account of age (75 years). He is a loyal NRM cadre with a clean public service record since his days at the ODPP where he used to work as a senior prosecutor before 2011 when he first became an MP.

He hails from the Eastern part of Uganda, where Anita Among comes from too and his elevation would be Bukedi sub region’s first time to hold such a powerful position in the last 40 years since the big man from Rwakitura assumed the Presidency. He is also someone respectable, respectful of others, mature and good listener in who Norbert Mao and his growing support base members would be easily cajoled to accept as a consensus candidate.

He is someone in whose favour it would be easier to convince Mao to bow out of the race than in the case of Anita Among against whom the Laroo-Pece MP has put off his gloves and gone bare knuckles. People in the Mao universe would easily find Oboth-Oboth an ally who potentially shares their aspiration and desire to immunize and shield the 12^th Parliament from becoming a corruption-riddled institution.

MK has demanded significant reduction of the money being allocated to Parliament (more than Shs1.3trn) so that more resources can be redirected to solve the wider populace’s bread and butter issues-and Oboth-Oboth would be the natural ally to selflessly make that an achievable ideal since he too despises material things and opulent conduct, just like the CDF. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).