Wava in the nick of time

City Tycoon Gordon Wavamunno, who seems to have lost out on the lucrative contract to supply VIP transportation to expected Chogm delegates, has not only joined the long list of Uganda’s donors but he has saved this country some serious embarrassment as it moves closer to hosting the Chogm summit.

Recently Mr Wavamunno donated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs hundreds of books printed by his Wavah Books company that show the diplomatic lists of Uganda’s missions abroad and the resident ones.

Some books detail diplomatic guidelines, especially on issues to do with protocol. Many visitors to Uganda have been at a loss as to where to find such vital information about Uganda’s missions abroad.

The Foreign Affairs PS, Ambassador Mugume, who thanked the tycoon for his generosity and love for his country, received the donation.

‘Happiness’ greets MP’s lock-up
This is strange but true. You would have expected members of the 8th Parliament to move up and down to try to save their colleague James Kakooza (Kabula) from being jailed over an alleged failure to pay his debts.

Instead, several MPs, both in the opposition and the ruling National Resistance Movement party were overhead in the corridors speaking in terms that suggested that Hon. Kakooza had it coming. “Let him go and spread his fourth term gospel for President Museveni in Luzira,� one MP was overhead telling a colleague.

Two months ago, Kakooza said that his constituents had “instructed� him to campaign for President Museveni’s fourth term, which mission he had started. He claimed that so far, more than 80 MPs had embraced the suggestion and that he was persuading even more to join the cause.

Kakooza, a commissioner of Parliament, spent the weekend in the cooler. He is, however, still adamant. When he reported to Parliament on Tuesday he told whoever had the time to listen that come rain or sunshine, he would not be dissuaded from pursuing his various political goals, including campaigning for Museveni’s fourth term.
Whether his three-day incarceration did not dent Kakooza’s credibility is another debate.
Our MPs!

Lukyamuzi vehicles grounded
At this rate, Ken “The Man� Lukyamuzi’s small compound at Wankulukuku will soon take on the semblance of a mechanical workshop. This is so because two of his former vehicles are grounded in this compound. These include his former official Hyundai and a minibus, which he had offered to his constituents in Rubaga South to work as an ambulance.

It is not yet known whether Ken (left) has left the two vehicles to rot completely or he is planning to secure funds from Conservative Party faithful or any other such individuals to take them for patching up. These days Ken drives himself in a dark Toyota Carib and was recently reported to have participated in a motor rally.

Family feud over the President
There is a saying that blood is thicker than water but to some people, politics is stronger than blood relationship. This is what has happened to two brothers now living in the UK. One is a journalist, the other a lawyer.

One would have expected these two fellows to be reasonable enough not to fight but wapi! We are talking about M/s Jesse Natooli Mashate and Peter Magomu Mashate. The two are half brothers. Natooli is the third child in Mzee Eriaza Mashate's family while Peter Magomu Mashate is the fourth in Mzee Mashate's line of children.

They are now engaged in a serious fight in those far away lands of the white man. Grapevine has learnt that the bone of contention is President Yoweri Museveni’s case in which Jesse Natooli sued the president demanding Shs60 billion in compensation for alleged appropriation of his publishing business, The Weekend Digest in 1986.

Now Peter Magomu, a barrister-at-law joined the team of lawyers representing President Museveni that appears to have for now thwarted the billion shilling thrust.
This has sparked off a war of words between the brothers with Jesse doing all it takes to smear Magomu with dirt.

It is most likely that Mzee Eriaza Mashate, who is a brother of Prof. Dani Nabudere must be unhappy wherever he is now that his sons are drawing swords at each other. A full-fledged family spat appears to be in the works.

Mzee Eriaza himself, the first independence leader of Bugisu, joined the Uganda People’s Movement (UPM) in 1980 after he refused reconciliation with the late Apolo Milton Obote when he was a secretary general of Bugisu Co-operative Union. His later closeness to the National Resistance Movement, which grew out of the UPM, saw him travel to Denmark with NRM bigwig Amama Mbabazi to convince Prof. Nabudere to return home.
Although Nabudere used to host Mzee Museveni in his house in Dar-es-salaam University, the professor is now a serious critic of the President.

Meanwhile, Grapevine is advised that Peter Magomu’s actions that include having sat on the defence team of the President during Dr Kizza Besigye 2006 presidential election petition, have not sat very well with certain unnamed family members.

Mugabe misses Museveni
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe must have left Malaysia last week a disappointed man. This is because a meeting he was slated to have with the Ugandan leader, Yoweri Museveni, flopped at the last minute.

President Mugabe had wanted to meet Gen. Museveni, the incoming chairman of the Commonwealth after November this year to brief him on the situation in his troubled country. But as Mr Mugabe waited in the hotel lobby he was told by protocol officials that Mr Museveni had other pressing engagements.

One wonders whether this had anything to do with the fact that Mr Mugabe is essentially a pariah in the international community as a consequence of his less than noble actions in respect of abusing human rights principles, flouting all known norms of democratic governance and generally bringing his country to its knees.

State House man on the ropes
As political wrangles continue to rock Kampala City, Grapevine has established that the IGG's office has been notified that a male presidential aide is one of several people who must be investigated.

The aide is said to have a vast interest in the leasing of the contested Lugogo playgrounds and Kisekka Market to tycoons he personally identifies with. The aide is said to meet these tycoons in certain posh hotels we shall not name for now where he promises them political backing.

The reports have been given credence by the presidential aide’s fear of using State House drivers. He opts to drive himself to such meetings possibly in order to sabotage attempts by those with large ears and big eyes from getting onto him. We are not at liberty to name this aide but when the time and circumstances are acceptable, we shall take no prisoners.

Mbabazi gridlocked
Last Saturday evening must have been a bad one for the Security Minister and Secretary General of NRM, Amama Mbabazi, and his wife Jacqueline. They were trapped in one of the city’s notorious traffic jams for the better of half an hour around the Clock Tower as his impressive convoy headed for Kampala Road.

One could see a visibly annoyed Mbabazi as he contemplated the way forward. To ease the pressure, the super minister chose one of the more rational options and that was to bury himself in the day’s papers.