MP Ssekikubo asks army to probe Brig Katirima over LC elections

Kampala-The Lwemiyaga County Member of Parliament has petitioned the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), Gen David Muhoozi, to rein in on one of his senior officers for allegedly engaging in partisan politics in the just concluded local council elections.

In a July 19 complaint to Gen Muhoozi, Mr Theodore Ssekikubo states that on July 7, Brig Phinehas Katirima, while being driven in a UPDF vehicle, went to Lwemiyaga Sub-county headquarters in Sembabule District where village members of the NRM party had gathered.

Mr Ssekikubo claims Brig Katirima went with a purported list of NRM party flag bearers and gave Shs100,000 to each contestant, Shs150,000 for those at the parish and Shs300,000 to those at sub-county.

“When I heard of what was happening, I immediately went to Lwemiyaga Sub-county headquarters and indeed found Brig Katirima reading out names and giving out Shs100,000, Shs150,000 and Shs300,000 respectively,” MP Ssekikubo stated in his petition to CDF.

“As the area MP and NRM chairperson, I inquired from him to know what the general was up to, more so since he was a serving and senior UPDF officer. He told me to go away (saying) he was executing an assignment and that it was none of my business,” he added.

When contacted last evening, Brig Katirima accused Mr Ssekikubo of mudslinging others, adding that there is nothing wrong he did.

“I was on special duty. I was escorted by 10 policemen and four soldiers and I executed my duty, but he is always in the habit of mudslinging others. If I were committing a crime, would I have committed it in front of the district police commander and soldiers?” he asked. The MP also accused Brig Katirima of attending a meeting at the Electoral Commission (EC) headquarters in which 11 new villages in Nabitanga Sub-county were being queried ahead of the LC1 polls.

However, Brig Katirima said Mr Ssekikubo wanted to cause the cancellation of the villages, one of which was his (Bugasha).
The senior army official also said he attended the meeting after he had been allowed in as an elder to give advice on what was happening in his area.

“We went to the EC since we were battling over villages which Mr Ssekikubo wanted to cancel. Those villages had been established by government and gazzetted. He went to a local minister and managed to convince him that those villages do not exist in fact and law. One of those villages is mine. So, what is partisan about fighting for a village which is being fought by an MP who is in habit of mudslinging others?” Brig Katirima asked.

MP Ssekikubo now wants Gen Muhoozi to explain how Brig Katirima was assigned by his office to participate in the elections.
He also wants the CDF to explain the source of the money that he claims he saw Brig Katirima was dishing out to voters.

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