By John V Sserwaniko
All isn’t well for Mityana woman MP Judith Nabakooba who is increasingly finding herself isolated by fellow NRM leaders in the district. Whereas Minister Godfrey Kiwanda (also Mityana North MP) is indifferent and minding his own business, the leaders of Mityana LC5 Council have clearly declared war on her. And unfortunately they are NRM just like Nabakooba herself. Led by LC5 Chairman Joseph Luzige and councilor Livingstone Byekwaso, the leaders have resorted to originating recordings/whatsapp voice messages with words that describe Nabakooba as intellectually unfit for the office of woman MP. Byekwaso, who is also a member of the district executive for works, maintains that the Mityana voters are so unlucky to be represented by a woman so unsophisticated. Trouble for Nabakooba started a few days ago when she went around the district mobilizing residents to resist paying property tax which she says is unjust and exploitative.
She says property owners are being unfairly assessed for purposes of this property tax and wonders why a man or woman who owns a small house capable of generating monthly rent of as low as Shs7,000 is being made to pay property tax. She is also opposed to landlords being made to pay property tax even for houses that don’t have tenants. She also says landlords in rural parts of Mityana shouldn’t be subjected to this tax. To make matters worse, Nabakooba says the Luzige-led district administration hasn’t been accountable with the taxes collected as there is hardly any services they are offering to the people in return for their taxes. She dares Luzige to show any roads or bore holes that have been constructed. While maintaining residents shouldn’t pay this tax, which actually is one major sources of local revenue for Mityana, Nabakooba says that the President should intervene and come to the rescue of her residents. Luzige, Byekwaso and other local council leaders (at Sub County and district levels) say Nabakooba is taking this stance in a bid to revitalize herself and regain some popularity after being rejected by voters protesting the way she voted for Togikwatako December last year. It will be recalled Nabakooba was among the 317 “heroic” MPs who voted YES, leaving sections of their voters angry and frustrated. Her critics imply that voters felt betrayed and have never forgiven her.
Luzige says that since that December Parliamentary vote, Nabakooba has become so unpopular and thinks that attacking the district administration will regain her some legitimacy. “First of all I want to apologize to the people of Mityana for the mediocrity the woman MP has exhibited. It’s a shame to all of us that she can’t comprehend even the most basic things. She doesn’t understand how the tax system operates yet its parliament, where she sits, that legislated this tax into existence.
She is being lazy and failing to appreciate her power and mandate as an MP. Why call the president into this when it’s a matter parliament can resolve? She has become so unpopular in the district. There are many places she can’t go to because voters are very unhappy with her. She has issues with them which she must address rather than scapegoating on the district. She thinks criticizing this tax and inciting people will make her popular which is not going to work. She calls herself Mama Mityana which is a shame given her level of understanding. How can you be Mama Mityana yet you can’t comprehend even basic things?” Luzige rants.
He says Nabakooba is a Member of Parliament whose PAC has always audited and found nothing wrong with Mityana’s accountability. “Even when you go to the IGG we don’t have any problem and my CAO the other day emerged among the very best in the country which proves we have no accountability problems as Mityana district.” Luzige says Nabakooba should appreciate the difficulties under which the local governments operate including LC3 Councilors earning less than Shs50,000 per sitting. Himself as LC5 Chairman earns Shs1.5m per month as salary and compares this with the Shs30m Nabakooba earns as MP. “You earn Shs30m per month and you have Shs6m in fuel every month to move around the district. That is my salary for 4 months. She is paid a lot of money and yet people are dissatisfied with her representation as the woman MP. If the tax is problematic she should go to parliament and amend the law. It would be okay to say so and so hasn’t been fairly assessed. That can be looked into because mistakes can be made but it’s unacceptable for an MP to incite people on a tax that was legislated by the very parliament where she works,” says Luzige who in another whatsapp voice message is being character-assassinated by a one Matilda who is the PA for Nabakooba.
GOING TO COURT;
Matilda, who Luzige has vowed to sue along with her boss Nabakooba for defamation, says in her own audio that people warned Nabakooba in the campaigns that Luzige was a fraudster, mufere and land grabber something “we have now confirmed.” She claims many voters in places like Maanyi, Bulera, Kalangalo and Kikandwa have been reporting Luzige-orchestrated land problems to MP Nabakooba.
She dares Luzige to move around those places and she if he won’t be lynched by Nabakooba’s supporters. She claims Luzige had been rejected by voters from day one but only won because Nabakooba endorsed him and had joint campaigns with him. She says voters had even rejected Luzige’s campaign posters but only accepted them after Nabakooba urged them to. She claims that Luzige wants to stand for MP for either Kiwanda’s Mityana or Lukyamuzi Kalwaga’s Busujju county but warns that “too bad for you because people won’t elect you.” She says the property tax has made Luzige so unpopular he can’t even move around the district and he is now envious of Nabakooba’s increasing popularity resulting from her opposition to that same tax. Matilda says having fallen out with a one Ssimbwa who campaigned for him in 2016, Luzige can’t get elected anymore in Mityana. “You have surrounded yourself with sycophants; these are your final years in leadership,” Matilda says in an audio clearly meant for Luzige.
BYEKWASO COMESTO LUZIGE’S RESCUE;
In another audio, Councilor Livingstone Byekwaso attacks Matilda saying association with such low caliber people is indicative of the low standards and the mediocrity Nabakooba stands for as a leader. “You are an MP sent to Parliament but we are surprised having failed to talk in Parliament, you are now here talking on media,” Byekwaso says directing his audio to Nabakooba whose 2016 election victory remains disputed by her archrival Joyce Bagala, a news editor at NBS TV. Byekwaso says Nabakooba should distinguish between her personal battles with Luzige and the entire Mityana district leadership. She faults Nabakooba for belittling the entire district leadership in order to paint her nemesis Joseph Luzige negatively.
He maintains Nabakooba is a political failure who never speaks in Parliament, an inadequacy she is trying to cover up by fighting the district leadership. Byekwaso maintains the war theater to which Mityana voters sent Nabakooba to fight from is in Kampala Parliament where they desire to see her shine as opposed to the villages where she has lately been speaking from. Byekwaso warns: “You are seeking cheap popularity but you are going to lose more because when the people you are inciting get into problems for tax defaulting, they will hate you even more because these taxes are legal and you are just misleading people.” Mulengera news may not know where this hullabaloo will end but one thing is clear; this political antagonism, if not diffused on good time, is going to weaken NRM further and increase opposition strength in Mityana which is increasingly urbanizing and therefore turning into an opposition stronghold especially DP. The DP forces are led by Mukwambwe Lukonge, Wamala Balunaba, Joyce Bagala, Richard Lumu and others. For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755!
