By Mulengera Reporters
Kawempe North MP Mohammed Ssegirinya has denied ever getting involved in any deal-making with the government of President Museveni prior to his controversial release from prison. Speaking during the Friday radio CBS interview, Ssegirinya specifically singled out Dr. Abed Bwanika who he said doesn’t seem to wish him or his fellow jail-mate Allan Ssewanyana anything good.
He demanded to know why Bwanika, who never visited them in prison nor establish any contact with them during their two years’ ordeal, could suddenly go spreading fake news claiming that their release resulted from some deal-making between them and Gen Museveni’s State House.
“He has no moral authority to say anything about our predicament because he never paid us even a single visit. Neither was he ever in touch with us directly or indirectly,” said Ssegirinya adding that their entire NUP caucus exhibited high levels of indifference to their plight, something that has continued to intrigue him up to this day. He said he remains bitter and disappointed that there are many things which fellow NUP MPs could have done to amplify their cause or shorten their stay in prison while pressurizing government for their release but they chose compliance.
“I’m aware that CBS, through the Kaliisoliiso program, took a decision to agitate for our release every morning and they never kept quiet but imagine if that large number of [NUP] MPs did the same thing. We shouldn’t have rotted in jail for two years. They chose compliance and kept quiet instead of mounting pressure and creating chaos at Parliament. Imagine if they had decided to each bring a small drum and make some noise every day demanding for our release, it would have been different.” Ssegirinya said he was fully aware he must have been betrayed by some NUP colleagues who gave the state fake intelligence and this was all because they envied his visibility and high performance as a first term MP.
“I set a very high standard because of the many great things I was doing in my constituency and nationally. I would see many colleagues were very uncomfortable. They would ask me how do you manage to put up a hospital, buy an ambulance and do all these things. Where do you keep getting all this money from? This was inciting voters in their areas to demand more from them and they didn’t like me.”
He said he has learnt many things including minding his own business because he has realized colleagues he took to be well-wishers of his, actually don’t wish him well at all. “Because I know some of them can even poison me, I can never eat anything with or from those fellow MPs because this prison experience taught me that they are actually not my friends.”
Senior journalist Alex Nsubuga, who conducted the interview, asked about what he says to fellow NUP MPs who these days say they fear him and Ssewanyana. And this is how Ssegirinya responded: “I actually fear them more and I have clear reason to be fearful of such people because of the way they turned their back on me yet I naturally expected much solidarity from them.”
He said he had learnt many bitter lessons and that he will be exposing traitors in the NUP Caucus who never wanted them to be freed again. Ssegirinya bragged that the things he did during his two months of freedom as newly elected Kawempe North MP can never be done by MPs who have been free even if you gave them an entire five years. “In fact, I’m lobbying to find a way to be included in the Guinness book of records for accomplishing my 5 year Manifesto in just two months and yet this is something that hurts many [NUP] colleagues in that Parliament.”
Ssegirinya also downplayed the absence of Bobi Wine and other big-name NUP leaders at their news conference this week at Kamwokya. “There is nothing wrong or big about that. My President didn’t have to be there because we are MPs and adults who can talk for ourselves and we indeed talked. It was not necessary for him to personally be there. We were permitted to use the Party headquarters and we didn’t force our way there. We didn’t break in. the party delegated Alex Waisswa Mufumbiro, who is not a small person, to be with us and that’s what happened,” Ssegirinya said adding that he likes his party for practicing ‘specialization and division of labor.’
He asserted: “In politics, we have something called division of labor or specialization. Joel Ssenyonyi was in COSASE, the Secretary General was in court martial and the President had gone to Gomba to sympathize with parents who lost their children in that school accident. Waisswa Mufumbiro was the relevant person to be with us because this was a press conference and he is the deputy spokesperson. It’s therefore not true that we have been shunned by our President and other party leaders. It’s only the MPs doing that trying to shun us but the party is solidly behind us.” (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [whatsapp line], 0779411734 & 0200900416 or email us at [email protected]).
