By Mulengera Reporters
DP President Norbert Mao, also President Museveni’s Minister of Justice, has explained why he thinks the just-ended induction retreat for MPs from the ruling NRM greatly bolstered his Speakership bid.
To many of his supporters, his mere inclusion, at the invitation of the President who designated his special guest of the NRM national chairman, was a win and big boost to his bid.
During the DP news conference on Tuesday, Mao said that the absence of any resolutions declaring people sole candidates and ring-fencing the slot of Speaker in favour of the incumbent Anita Among was a very big win for him. He said his opponent Anita Among invested heavily and looked forward to the retreat with anticipation and expected nothing less of a caucus resolution declaring her the sole candidate for the job.
Mao told reporters that for that reason alone, the NRM retreat was such bad news for his chief opponent Anita Among. He thanked the President for ensuring there was no such a resolution, implying that the Speakership was open and all NRM MPs are free to either vie for it or vote for whoever they consider to be the best.
Declaring people sole candidates and ring-fencing positions would have unlevelled the ground in favour of Anita Among, Mao explained.
The other win he bragged to reporters about was the fact that the President insisted on using the retreat to address the elephant in the room, which is corruption. He thanked Gen Museveni for clearly flagging corruption and obscurantism at Parliament as the biggest adui/enemy of the mighty NRM party as the country counts down to the commencement of the President’s new term of government (2026-2031).
Mao said that by framing the retreat as one aimed at appropriately profiling Parliamentary corruption for what it has been for the last five years, Gen Museveni helped to greatly level the ground in favour of less monied Speakership contenders like himself.
He referred to the moment when Gen Museveni singled out Lwengo Woman MP Cissy Namujju (who Mao contemptuously referred to as one of the flag bearers of corruption at Parliament) and used her to demonstrate the extent to which the vice had eaten away at the core of the 11th Parliament.
Mao explained to reporters how Museveni told MPs at the retreat how he personally sanctioned the arrest of his own cadre Cissy Namujju who was arraigned, charged and locked up at Luzira for allegedly indulging into corruption dealings. Mao quoted Museveni to have thanked Namujju on the microphone for securing or saving herself of permanent hatred from him when she cooperated and accepted to give him the details of all the dirty dealings “of the other fellow thieves” she had been stealing with.
“That was a big indictment and a clear vote of no confidence by the President because we all know who that Cissy Namujju is campaign manager for in this race,” Mao said insisting that the just-ended retreat in many ways did signal the pedigree of the Speaker Gen Museveni desires to see lead the 12th Parliament.
Mao urged critics like his Deputy President Mukasa Mbidde and DP Secretary General Gerald Siranda to open their eyes widely and jump ship before it gets too late because the writing is clearly on the wall. He also responded to the stinging criticism Ofwono Opondo unleashed on him over the weekend in his newspaper column.
Mao said he has known Opondo for such a long time and always considered him to genuinely and fearlessly be anti-corruption until the ongoing Speakership race dawned and got all his pretenses exposed like never before.
He added that he had painfully established that his long-time friend is a mere ‘jukebox’ and not the fearless anti-corruption crusader he always construed him to be. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
