By Mulengera Reporters
In a blockbuster interview with YouTuber John Bosco Kisitu, PLU Secretary General and Kasambya County MP David Kabanda went at length to explain his well-publicized fallout with the disgraced former Speaker Anita Among.
He used the opportunity to portray how for a long time, Anita Among (formerly his very good friend) didn’t mean well for Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba (who happens to be the CDF, PLU Chairman and President Museveni’s son). He implied that Anita Among was among those who initially underestimated and despised Gen MK.
He likened the situation to many senior Ugandan citizens who as of the 1980 greatly despised Museveni and did not see much great future for his NRA war only to end up being employed to serve as Ministers and in other roles in his post-1986 government. Kabanda said that Anita Among one time had to hide in room no 7 of Joyce Hotel in Mubende just to avoid being seen anywhere in public with or near Gen MK.
On that day, Kabanda defied pressure to make Anita Among guest of honor at his constituency function and chose MK serve as such. Among, doubtful that MK was coming, had travelled to Mubende anticipating to be the guest of honor. Kabanda says when she confirmed MK was already in the area, Among (who the fortune-hunting legislators had endeavored to make think that she was politically bigger than MK) developed cold feet.
Kabanda said Anita Among was among those people inside the Movement who for months had deceived themselves that Gen MK and his father Museveni had fallen out and had become such bitter rivals or enemies inside the ruling establishment. Kabanda says Anita Among therefore dreaded being seen anywhere near Gen MK who she never believed would rapidly grow into a colossus with capacity to determine her own fate as early as May 2026.
Kabaka corroborated his claim further by referencing on some of the influential actors in Anita Among’s universe, to demonstrate the extent to which the anti-MK sentiments had become widespread among the former Speaker’s loyalists. He referred to the warning he received from Sheema Municipality MP Dickson Kateshumbwa moments after MK had been dropped by the CiC from the office of Commander Land Forces.
Kabanda said he posted several solidarity messages on social media showing readiness to stand in solidarity with the First Son. Each time he tweeted something, Kabanda would retweet it and declare support. He says Kateshumbwa privately reached out and cautioned him to keep away from Gen MK if he didn’t want to invite the wrath of the President to himself. That he told him there was something fundamentally wrong and that the fired Land Forces Commander was soon going to be arrested and Court-martialed.
“I assured him I wasn’t going to denounce or distance myself from Gen MK who I had known for such a long time simply because of Anita Among who I had just known after becoming an MP in 2021, a position I achieved because of Gen MK who I had known and closely worked with since the year 2014,” said Kabanda who last month nearly made a nervous Kateshumbwa cry in public after he accused him on social media of being among those who had previously demonized and belittled PLU while sheltering under Anita Among’s wings.
Kateshumbwa, fearing he would be trimmed by the military the way it had happened to those who previously antagonized Kabanda like Justine Nameere, pleaded for mercy on X. Kabanda rejected his efforts at de-escalation and made it clear Kateshumbwa didn’t qualify to be his comrade.
Kabanda also spoke about Anita Among’s efforts to drive a wedge between Gen Museveni and his son Gen MK when she allegedly told the President how the PLU Secretary General had asked to receive Shs3bn for and on behalf of Gen MK in return for her to be allowed to have 2nd term as Speaker of Parliament.
Saying this was all untrue and merely fabricated to amplify the anti-MK agenda, Kabanda said during the Kisitu interview that he directly confronted Anita Among who allegedly owned up to the same and sought for forgiveness, except that it was now too late as the train had long left the station. These are all very serious allegations which Kabanda corroborated by displaying text message exchanges between him and Among. He claimed Anita Among even confessed before the President to have told falsehoods about him and Gen MK regarding the alleged facilitation of Shs3bn.
In some of the messages he displayed, Anita Among allegedly spoke about a one Dan and indicated readiness to mobilize up to Shs3bn as requested except that she asked for time to mobilize the funds. That she indicated to Kabanda she would raise an initial installment of Shs2.5bn as soon as the schools holiday ended and her school re-opened for her to be able to leverage on the school fees returning students would have paid.
Kabanda maintained he never asked for such money and that Anita Among, cunning and mischievous as always, was only trying to set him up by luring him into texting back on that conversation of the proposed sweeteners of Shs3bn so as to get evidence to be able to corroborate the anti-MK claims she had already made to the President.
Claiming that Anita Among had equally lied to the President how the Deputy CDF Okiding had planned for her assassination only to own up and apologize to the President in a subsequent meeting where Okiding was in attendance, Kabanda insisted there was nothing like the Shs3bn bribe solicitation at all and that Anita Among had deliberately lied to the President in order to disrepute him and Gen MK.
Kabanda added that he rejected the contents of Anita Among’s subsequent reconciliatory and fences-mending WhatsApp messages in which she purported him to be her ‘beloved son’ who she would ‘love forever.’ He says he made it clear to her ‘you can’t go falsely accusing me to the President about the Shs3bn bribe and at the same time claim to love me.’ Kabanda says that Anita Among is hurt about the never-anticipated political oblivion she is stuck in right now to the extent that she would have had him assassinated by now if she still had even a fraction of the power she used to wield until weeks ago.
He said that having painfully acknowledged that such power had irreversibly deserted her, Anita Among eventually realized that the only tools of destruction she still had at her disposal was hiring reputational hitmen in the form of Kampala bloggers into whom he says she invested a lot of money to attack and demonize him and Gen MK on social media. He claimed that the veteran broadcaster Basajjamivule was among those a desperate Anita Among unleashed to destroy him and the PLU Chairman.
That he was dismayed that the Mivule man he had helped years ago by taking him to the President, had accepted to be used that way to destroy him. He said the same of Kisa Kyamukama who he claimed to have lifted and raised from the dust by personally bringing him to Kampala and paying his house rent. That it was Hon Nakato Kyabangi of Gomba who introduced to him Kisa Kyamukama who has since evolved into a powerful and heavily-guarded advisor to the President.
Kabanda says this bloggers move by the former Speaker caused him to feel entitled to mobilizing to fight back in self-defense. He also claimed that Anita Among, who he described as reckless and provocative, had to be made to find out the consequences after daring Gen MK by engaging in underhand methods to undermine Jacob Oboth-Oboth even after it became clear that he was the man the powerful CDF had endorsed for the position of speakership. He claimed that time came and Anita Among stopped using her known phone lines to make calls. That she got a line registered in the names of Masindi Municipality MP Rogers Byamukama which she used to call several MPs to decampaign Oboth while asking them not to dare attend his thanksgiving in Mukono.
That because he knew that Byamukama was naïve being a new MP, he felt sympathetic and reached out to Anita Among’s husband Moses Magogo imploring him to warn her not to cause problems for Rogers Byamukama. Kabanda said that mobilizing against Oboth’s function amounted to crossing a red line, something for which the Bukedea woman MP had to face consequences as it amounted to disputing Gen MK’s authority.
He also denied claims that he imposed himself on Among from the very beginning because he was on a spying mission, saying his original choice was Jacob Oulanyah and Thomas Tayebwa. Kabanda says it was always Among pleading and inviting him to her homes and office. That there was no time when he ever invited himself to any of her premises. Besides demanding to know why Anita Among’s maids he is supposed to have made pregnant weren’t giving birth to babies after all this time, Kabanda also denied claims of being a traitor.
Saying Anita Among wasn’t the first powerful person in the Movement he had stood up to in defense of Museveni and MK’s long term political interests, Kabanda made proud reference to his record of being among those who spearheaded the fight against ex-IGP Kale Kayihura, Amama Mbabazi and Rebecca Kadaga. He said Anita Among, who he clearly doesn’t need anymore, has no moral authority to call him a traitor because her record of treachery and betraying those who were ever there for her, was legendary and well known.
He said the first person Anita Among heartlessly betrayed was Dr. Kizza Besigye after whom her beloved son David Baguma Besigye was named. That Among personally told him how Dr. KB had continued materially supporting and paying school fees for her son David even after she had become MP and started making good money from Museveni.
“But she heartlessly betrayed him originally in favor of the Mugisha Muntu camp and later on by joining President Museveni’s side. Rebecca Kadaga was her person. She even trusted her to be the one to have the last word on her meals and she is even the one chosen to be the next of kin to escort her and be by her side when she fell sick and had to be hospitalized. Anita Among used to sleep on the hospital floor attending to her. This shows how close she was to Kadaga but she betrayed all these people.”
Kabanda said his was a case of loyalty and having to loyally do what he had been instigated to do when he drove to PLU headquarters Naguru and proclaimed the withdrawal of Gen MK’s support from Anita Among. He said there is no way he would side with Among and defy Gen MK who helped him become MP in 2021 and is a friend he had known, served and worked under since the year 2014.
He also reiterated his earlier claims that a fresh Woman MP election process in Bukedea, stripping Anita Among of her MP seat, would be in order and justified ‘because there was simply no election in that part of the world during the January general elections.’ Although he was generally complementary and reconciliatory towards the newly appointed State Minister for Local Government, Kabanda maintained that Justin Namere was among those the former Speaker had instigated to try and contradict Gen MK’s declared wish to have Oboth-Oboth become the new Parliamentary Speaker.
He also asserted that he has never been a self-seeker who props up and supports people to become Speakers or Deputy Speaker in order for them to use the position to reward him. “That’s why I never went to Oulanyah asking for anything even when I oversaw his victory over Kadaga. I haven’t gone to Oboth-Oboth’s office to ask for anything since he became Speaker.” He also explained why he had all along accepted being referred to as my ‘son’ by Anita Among. Kabanda, who ran through the story of his miserable childhood, revealed that his mother is called Annet and he is David, just like Anita Among’s son (David Baguma Besigye).
He also praised Katikkiro Peter Mayiga’s leadership style; making it clear that there is no leader in the whole world who inspires him like the Catholic lawyer from Masaka. He detailed his reasons why he considers Mayiga to be the greatest leader of our time. The other role model he spoke of is Kenya’s William Ruto. He also explained the MK personality saying the man jokes a lot, which is why he many times has ended up being misunderstood for what he isn’t. He said he likes MK because he is loyal and never throws friends under the bus.
Secondly, the President’s son is a humble listener who even in meetings hears out colleagues and only talks when it’s extremely necessary. He also said MK hates liars because he too doesn’t lie to anyone. He asserted there is no way anyone can successfully lie to Gen MK about anyone because he is Uganda’s second recipient of intelligence after Gen YK Museveni. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
