By Our Reporters
President Museveni has progressively been giving Lucy Nakyobe Mbonye (State House Comptroller since 2010) more clout. A few months ago, he endorsed Dr. Hillary Musoke’s Skilling the Child project proposal. The piloting phase instantly began targeting modestly educated & unemployed young girls in Kampala. It’s a project in which billions continue to be sunk and it’s like a follow up to the Najjera Model under which Museveni has been photographed dishing out cash to Jua Kali groups in Kampala Divisions. Aimed at obliterating the opposition in Kampala, this intervention is the carrot aspect of the Museveni offensive aimed at diminishing Kizza Besigye’s Kampala vote. Because he was tired of thieving aides that had in the past used such initiatives for self-enrichment, Museveni tasked incorruptible Nakyobe to oversee its implementation. Gratefully as Comptroller she heads both finance & administration at State House. She controls all the money appropriated to State House for which she answers to Parliament. On getting the assignment, Nakyobe hit the ground running and deployed Faridah Mayanja to be the overall coordinator for Skilling Uganda as Dr. Musoke (a former Sejusa PA) handles paper work. Mayanja is a daughter of a former FRONASA collaborator who disguised to be a charcoal dealer in Jinja to do espionage work for Museveni in the 1970s. For years Mayanja’s family grumbling not being remembered until Kirunda Kivejinja and a one Faruk Kirunda linked her to the President after a campaigning event in Busoga. Being put in charge of such a very big initiative aimed at countering mobilization gaps that enabled Kizza Besigye and his FDC floor NRM in Kampala in 2016 elections indicated how determined Museveni was to trust and empower Nakyobe in his current term. She did quite well and Museveni endorsed her good works by regularly being available whenever he was required to preside over an event or to even speak to and inspire the young people under training.
NAKYOBE SHINES;
Nakyobe realized the new assignment meant hard work and less sleep and started coming to office very at 5am to ensure by 10am all the important office work has been attended to. She uses the rest of the day to be in the field to closely interact with the young girls under training and this enabled her to identify gaps and address them on good time. She also delegated the likes of Dr. Hillary Musoke, Faridah Mayanja and others to be in places she was unable to be personally. Museveni started getting feedback that the program was doing well to the extent that elected leaders like Nakawa’s Ronald Balimwezo (Division Mayor) and Mike Kabaziguruka (MP) started struggling not to be left behind for fear of losing out votes. A grateful Museveni got to hear spontaneous testimonies from some of the young people whose lives had positively been impacted upon through the Skilling program. The young people praised her for being approachable and always willing to listen to them. One time Museveni handlers set a trap which confirmed Nakyobe’s incorruptibility. There is a woman, an old NRM mobilizer, who for long had been struggling to have audience with Museveni. She finally got to meet him and the trap-setters ensured she met him through Nakyobe’s team. The woman met the big man and was aided with Shs300m to go solve her financial problems including children’s education and treating terminally-ill relatives. On getting the Shs300m from Nakyobe’s cash office assistants, the woman returned to her Okello House office and offered her a significant fraction saying this was a mere token of appreciation. “I know this money was given to you to address specific problems and it’s not even enough for you as far as I’m concerned. Why are you then giving it to me?” Nakyobe furiously said as she signaled her security to herd the woman away. Apparently this information reached Museveni to whom this illustrated the extent to which Nakyobe despises material things. He reciprocated by adding more money on her Skilling project whose activities, including a recent mass graduation ceremony at Kololo, he has lately been embracing with enthusiasm. Some leaders, including city RCCs like the woman of Kawempe, have been grumbling claiming alienation from the program by Nakyobe’s team. That is how those embarrassing scenes that we recently saw trending on social media came about. These were young people in Kawempe Division reporting to the President how the goodies he delivers are claimed by his State House people as soon as he leaves. It was aimed at humiliating Nakyobe who had previously overcome similar intrigue by the supporters of Minister Nakiwala Kiyingi. Her supporters were saying the Skilling program was an opportunity for the President to empower the youth ministry rather than giving it to Nakyobe. They claimed being the one coordinating the president’s demonstration farms and bottle irrigation initiatives and administrative duties of State House, Nakyobe was already too busy to handle Kampala youth. Museveni ignored and instead made public pronouncements showing how much he trusted Nakyobe. What started as Kampala-based skilling program is to become a countrywide program. Uganda is to be zoned into 17 regions for purposes of Nakyobe-supervised vocational skilling program. 80 districts will be covered each with a special technical institute to which ghetto boys will be sent for training upon psychiatric rehabilitation at Bugolobi (former AGOA center). The Najjera Model and the Skilling program is to be replicated in all major towns of Uganda and some State House influencers are proposing that Museveni posts Gen Henry Tumukunde to become CEO for the entire program to allow Nakyobe concentrate on her State House duties. The demand is high as every MP wants the same in their areas.
BECOMES MORE POWERFUL;
All her positive attributes aside, Nakyobe easily dwarfs her adversaries because she is highly educated with a Masters in Public Administration and many other qualifications. She is also a well published researcher who before joining public service did extensive research and published literally works on sexuality among young Baganda women. Nakyobe, who initially did social sciences and anthropology at Makerere and an administrative law diploma at LDC, likes reading and that’s how she keeps update. She isn’t merely a political appointee. She is a matter of Public Service Commission along with other fellow PSs or accounting officers. She is the one Parliament holds accountable for all the classified billions advanced to the President (the State House vote) to cater for all manner of expenses including donations. Under the Public Service hierarchy, she is actually more powerful than the PPS because as PS/Comptroller, she officially controls the entire bureaucracy around State House. This partly explains why Museveni recently delegated her to be the one renewing State House staff contracts in case he is too busy to personally handle. Only Amelia Kyambadde enjoyed such delegation in her hey days. These days State House employees want to be in Nakyobe’s good books. In the past some were indifferent towards her thinking she was after all about to leave and be replaced by equally powerful Under Secretary Hope Nyakairu. But because of the way the big man has lately been praising her, including saying that her hands-on approach had helped him overcome the reputation of unfulfilled pledges, such adamants have lately concluded Nakyobe isn’t going anywhere. Because she hates intrigue, Nakyobe has lately been telling off staffers taking lugambo to her office trying to deepen the wedge between her and Nyakairu. She is well aware that Nyakairu can potentially succeed her someday but maintains that shouldn’t be reason to be antagonistic to her. Whereas the President can summon her anytime to rush to wherever he is, Nakyobe prefers to operate from Okello House Nakasero where she has her main office as Comptroller. Here she has two messengers, a personal secretary and Mr. Kizito the cashier. Those working directly under her are envied by workmates because their boss is strict but generous when it comes to mentoring. “She is always alert and pays attention to detail. You can’t even confuse her on figures and one thing that has kept her rising is having a sharp memory. She will remember the person she gave money two years ago without reference to the records at office. Her memory is like that of an elephant because she always remembers the full circumstances. She is a listener and will immediately sign off something once she reads through and it makes sense. She has decongested Mzee because people don’t have to look for him for everything. Nakyobe is highly educated and experienced but most importantly she knows how to prudently use discretion,” said a State House employee close to her. “Her religious upbringing has helped her a lot because as a devout Catholic, she despises material accumulation which shields her against corrupt practices.” The humble Muganda lady hails from Gomba but marries Prof Anthony Mbonye from Ibanda. “She is soft and many mistake her for a weakling but Madam is very firm. You won’t intimidate her no matter who you are simply because you met Mzee last night. She has mastered the contempt card approach. You will come and rant but her no will always remain no. One time a cadre came and fumed telling her how Mr. Richard Muhinda was a powerful comptroller but finally left the office. The lady kept asking how many comptrollers have we seen? But Madam just looked at her until security came and carried away the woman.” Overtime Museveni has come to trust Nakyobe’s sense of judgment and often restrains himself not to antagonize her decisions regarding groups coming to demand for money. “She knows what to do and can give financial support to people she considers to be genuinely in need and only notifies Mzee later. If a staff gets some emergency or has a wedding, she gives the financial support and later tell Mzee I financed so and so with so much money. Sometimes its beneficiaries that testify to Mzee how Madam Nakyobe stood with them,” says a long serving State House employee who has seen the times of Nakyobe and those of her predecessors.
LIFE B4 STATE H’SE;
Before becoming State House Comptroller, Nakyobe worked with VP Gilbert Bukenya as Under Secretary in charge of mentoring, logistics, finance and administration in VP’s office. Bukenya found her dependable and hard working. She helped supervise the construction of Katomi Kingdom Resort on her Bukenya’s behalf. The medicine Professor would always be travelling but Nakyobe ensured builders and the contractor didn’t cheat her boss. She is a Muganda lady from Gomba and she doesn’t even know Runyakitara. In the ongoing efforts to neutralize Bobi Wine, the ghetto boys have been mesmerized by Nakyobe’s eloquence in Luganda. The ghetto boys, among whom she has lately been working very frequently trying to put them into groups for the President’s funding and support, thought she was a Munyankole. Nakyobe’s hands-on approach manifested recently when she stopped over at the Nile Bridge on her way to Jinja. She asked her assistants to get the details of the young ghetto boys who are always littering that place selling politicians’ portraits. She gladly was told they had dully registered a SACCO but were capital-constrained. She rang the President who endorsed her proposal to invest in them a revolving fund of Shs50m. The ghetto boys here have never stopped praising her name because of the windfall she delivered to them at such short notice. Nakyobe, who is increasingly learning politics by virtue of operating with Mzee that closely, was heavily involved in delivering the controversial Rukungiri goodies said to have cost the big man Shs5bn. Even when voters rejected the NRM candidate, Nakyobe who assistants describe to be a marathoner when it comes to being relentless, didn’t give up. Convinced that even Rome wasn’t built in one and that good things often come to those who wait, Nakyobe has continued driving to Rukungiri to follow up on what she started. She says this is a battle to economically transform people in that Municipality and that politics is secondary. She insists her primary goal is to leave behind a legacy as a comptroller who helped Mzee economically transform his people. She believes however much critics politicize these interventions, there will in future be people that will transform and testify about how impactful the President’s initiative was. Nakyobe is also a woman of strong family values. She is always careful not to be accused or seen to be using her position to create advantage for her family and relatives. She has a few kids the oldest of whom completed S6 in Gayaza sometime back. She is very fond of her siblings who are as humble as she is. Her visibility in solving community problems (and in efforts to respond to bread & butter issues thought to be selling Bobi) has given what used to be an obscure office a lot of clout. And with her in the Museveni equation, many are now sensitive to the fact that she is beginning to eclipse the PPS office which used to be very powerful, visible and outspoken during Amelia Kyambadde’s days. She is also increasingly becoming very assertive and fearless if what she recently told MPs is anything to go by. As they asked hard questions justifying why they can’t pass the State House supplementary budget calling it wastage, Nakyobe calmly told them: “The President faces a lot of demands including some of the MPs seeking for treatment abroad and that’s how his budget keeps getting depleted.” For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755.
