By Our Reporters
In a bid to set standards and decorum in his operating space, President Museveni is giving serious thought to the possibility of getting his once very powerful PPS Amelia Kyambadde replace Presidency Minister Ester Mbayo. It’s also true some of his own staff, advisors and delegations of elders have made this suggestion to him on grounds there is need for such a strong personality to re-sanitize the Presidency and all those other things that go with it. The pro-people lady from Mpigi quit in 2010 to campaign for Mawokota North MP Seat (ousting Peter Mutuluza) and since that time there has been decline in the standards with which business is conducted in the high office. On becoming MP, Amelia was made Minister of Trade, a position in which she hasn’t been very happy given the higher clout she had been synonymous with before. “Her departure created cracks in the [President’s] private office because even those who replaced her [people like Grace Akello, Kintu Nyago, Mary Amajo etc] failed to fit into her shoes and that is how gaps emerged. And it’s those gaps that the likes of Lucy Nakyobe exploited to get power shift from the private officer to that of Comptroller,” says an insider. “There was never mediocrity in this place and people paying for appointments to meet Mzee was unheard of. She made sure staff were materially comfortable. She did this by contributing towards their rent payment and even engaged some medical insurance providers to cover up staff. This reduced financial burdens off people’s shoulders and it was easier to resist temptations to make people pay for meetings. People respected the wanainchi and Mzee’s old friends unlike today,” said a source adding that in the Amelia era staffers never used courts of law to fraudulently make money. “Nowadays State House employees hang around courts to see which cases are going on and then see how to make money. Those for whom things aren’t going well [especially in election petitions] are asked for something falsely promising to call and intimidate the judge claiming that the high office has interest in the matter.” The knowledgeable insider added that whereas current PPS Molly Kamukama has tried, she joined the office too late long after things had deteriorated during Nyago, Akello and Amajo’s days. The trio’s lack of assertiveness and laid back character created vacuum that was occupied by actors that were inept. “However well-intentioned and capable Molly can be, she can only do so much because it has to be gradual. You can’t expect the mediocrity that consolidated for more than 10 years to just go away all of a sudden,” said a source adding that uneaseness towards the once very powerful State House Comptroller Lucy Nakyobe has diminished Kamukama’s impact in revitalizing the private office. “Nakyobe had become used to the vacuum in the private office and her influence grew far beyond her own office and adjusting hasn’t been easy even after the more efficient Molly became PPS. This naturally has led the two ladies to be uncomfortable with each other. Nakyobe’s team had become used to playing some of the PPS roles because of the vacuum Amajo’s character had created,” the source says. To increase her capabilities and suitability to shoulder growing responsibilities in the pre-Molly era, to her credit Nakyobe enrolled for MBA ostensibly to grow her management prowess.
RECENT HAPPENINGS;
But also recent happenings have only increased the need for a powerful person like Amelia to bounce back in the high office. And once she becomes Presidency Minister, Amelia will have the opportunity to harness Mzee’s efforts to enforce decorum in his private office. Politically, the posting will also empower and re-energize previously disgruntled Amelia to strengthen political mobilization aimed at preventing the opposition from capturing Mpigi and nearby Butambala. What has lately happened is as follows: The ganging up against Nakyobe has escalated with Princess Pauline Nassolo leading a group of staff that despise her (Nakyobe) credentials for the office she occupies. She recently called a heads of sections & departments for a meeting and things didn’t go very well. At some point she got provoked and told them some of the favors and enablers they are getting are because of her mercy and not that they are entitled. She gave the example of the monthly fuel they each get saying it’s because of her magnanimity otherwise her office can’t be compelled to give it to them. In the end, a meeting Comptroller had called to discuss and caution departmental heads against fuel misuse ended in chaos as many were already grumbling by the time the meeting ended. Some have since accused the plain-speaking Comptroller of being discourteous to colleagues. Those continuing to associate with Nassolo are partly emboldened by the not so very good attitude Mzee has lately developed towards Comptroller including asking hard questions regarding delivery of goodies previously dished out to boost political mobilization in places like Rukungiri. In the past, Comptroller had become the Alpha & Omega of Mzee’s mobilization activities but these days the big man seems to be out to diminish her influence. For instance he has created many networks of young mobilizers who report to him directly as they marshal out strategies to counter and neutralize Mr. Wine. Previously Nakyobe would have the last word on how much they each get and when. Not anymore. Whereas her programs like Skilling the Girl Child are continuing, the big man has clearly created new mobilization structures to which she has no access nor control. To ensure maximum secrecy, the day such cadres visit Entebbe to brief him, Museveni ensures someone in SFC (not members of the protocol team) is specifically assigned to coordinate their clearance at the entrance. He facilitates them personally and sometime back, an employee of the Comptroller department got wind of the info and rang one of the young men accusing him of undermining Nakyobe. The big man got this info and furiously responded telling Nakyobe to prevail on her staffers “never to mess up with my young people again.” What has since made things even worse are rumors that some people have been urging Comptroller to upstage the H/E by offering to resign. Some of her supporters now see Mzee’s new clandestine mobilization youth groups as working to counter Nakyobe’s work, something that has created more uncertainty. “Mzee has lately changed for reasons we don’t understand. He can hold those clandestine meetings discussing 2021 election strategies with his new teams of young people without the PPS or even Comptroller being aware-and we all don’t know where this is going to end,” said a knowledgeable State House insider.
