Who’s threatening Premier Nabbanja?  

Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja has become the second high ranking official after former Vice President, Prof Gilbert Bukenya, to allude to the existence of a powerful corrupt mafia in government that would dare issue threats to those that threaten their interests.

Speaking to the media on Friday, Ms Nabbanja, who is also the Leader of Government Business in Parliament, told journalists that someone who had studied with her brother, Ivan Lwanyaga, the town clerk of Kakumiro District, had braved the 193km-journey from Kampala to her home district of Kakumiro to deliver an ominous message.

Without giving details, she said the unnamed person had sought to know what it was that she wanted and warned her to go slow.

“They have started threatening [me] and my family. A man drove from Kampala to Kakumiro [193km-journey] and when he reached there, he asked my brother ‘what does your sister want?’ My brother told him ‘she wants service delivery.’ That is it,” Ms Nabbanja said.

The prime minister indicated that the threats point to a wider problem, adding that she is not taking them lightly.
“If somebody can drive from Kampala up to my home area to look for my brother, who is a town clerk in the village, to ask him such a question, it seems something is wrong.  So I don’t take that lightly…. I will inform my boss [Mr Museveni], the Head of State…” Ms Nabbanja said.

The revelation comes days after Ms Nabbanja sent out signs that she would be paying more than lip service to the fight against corruption at the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM).

On Tuesday, the prime minister was in Kasese to assess the extent of damage that was caused when the River Nyamwamba recently burst its banks and flooded some areas in the district and to coordinate a quick government response to cries for help from the people and their leaders. 

The prime minister was later meant to handover relief items, including bed nets, beans and blankets, but she rejected them and ordered they be transported back to Kampala for replacement after they were found to be of poor quality.

“I have rejected the beans, the bed nets and the blankets. They are substandard and they must be returned to Kampala. You should bring better quality for the people of Kasese. This business of embarrassing government must stop. Kasese is not a dumping ground,” Ms Nabbanja told the Kasese residents as they applauded.

On that working visit to Kasese, Ms Nabbanja, who promised to purchase land to resettle the flood victims, also queried the number of people living in the internally displaced people’ (IDP) Camp in Muhokya. 

She promised to deploy operatives of the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) and other teams to ascertain the number.  

“I can ably tell you that the number they have put in the documents is not the number I have seen here, they are fewer. We are going to send other teams from ISO and everywhere so that we ascertain the number of affected people,” Ms Nabbanja assured the residents.

“You shouldn’t add numbers because you heard that the government is going to help you. This is not right.”
“They [OPM officials] gave me a report yesterday [Thursday] and I was not satisfied. So I asked for further investigation in the matter. That is where we are...” Ms Nabbanja said.

At the inauguration of his new Cabinet of “fishermen”, President Museveni warned against corruption, and lack of patriotism. He tasked the new ministers led by Ms Nabbanja and Vice President Jessica Alupo to be the guiding light in the battle against corruption and ensure cohesion, service delivery, regional and continental integration. If her handling of issues around the Kasese flood victims is anything to go by, Ms Nabbanja is taking her assignment seriously.

It is not clear whether the threats were linked to her handling of matters around the Kasese relief items, but the premier, popularly known as Majegere (bulldozer) in Cabinet, indicated that she is not about to bow down.

“There is nothing else I want from them [the mafia] apart from ensuring there is service delivery. I, therefore, want to convene a meeting at the OPM and ensure things are normalised. I am not after anyone, I want accountability and service delivery so that our people benefit,” she added.

She said she had in line with that desire told her brother to tell the messenger of death that all she is interested in is ensuring quality service, accountability, transparency and value for money.

“When I came back [from Kasese], I didn’t take this lightly [because] we cannot continue like this. As the prime minister, I have some powers that are given to me by the Constitution. So I wrote to the permanent secretary directing him to [investigate] the following; One, I wanted to know who were the contractors? I want the report. Two; which officers were responsible for the purchase of such substandard items? Three; how much was it?” Ms Nabbanja said.

Nabbanja’s brother speaks out 
Mr Lwanyaga confirmed the prime minister’s narrative but declined to divulge more details, saying security agencies, which he did not name, had interested themselves in the matter.
“We are handling the matter as a family. It has already been circulated in security circles,” Mr Lwanyaga told Sunday Monitor.

Ms Nabbanja’s comments on Friday are a reminder of similar comments that were made by Prof Gilbert Bukenya way back in 2005, when he claimed a corrupt mafia group in government had been feeding Mr Museveni with wrong information about him. 
Prof Bukenya was to a few days later convene a press conference at which he retracted his earlier comments.

“What I meant was that competition in the government procurement process sometimes gets so stiff that some bidders are tempted to resort to underhand methods. And this was in reference to the Iris case in the national IDs bid process,” Prof Bukenya said at the press conference.

Ms Nabbanja, just like Prof Bukenya, has not named those who have issued the death threats, but in the case of Prof Bukenya, it was apparent who the big wigs he was talking about were. But who in this case is Ms Nabbanja talking about? Who is threatening her?

Previous scandals at the OPM
August 2012
PRDP funds theft
The Auditor General’s report reveals that $12.7 million in donor funds meant for rebuilding the war ravaged northern Uganda and the Karamoja region under the Peace, Recovery and Development Programme (PRDP) and the crisis management in Karamoja programme had been stolen by officials in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM). Money was funneled into personal accounts of officers.

Some funds were found to have been remitted to the OPM without the approval of Parliament, while billions more were stolen using accounts of projects that had closed. The European Union (EU), United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, and Norway suspended aid to Uganda.

February 2018
Refugee funds
The OPM is hit by a scandal of abuse of funds for refugees. The matter is first raised by Ms Rosa Malango, the UN Country Representative, who queries the management of the refugee situation. She raises questions about the number of refugees, abuse of funds and suspected trafficking of girls and women refugees.

There had been reports that only 7,000 out of more than 26,000 refugees, who were purportedly receiving provisions in Kampala, turned up when a head count was carried out. That signified that 19,000 were ghost refugees.

April 2020

Covid-19 relief food
Four OPM officials, including Permanent Secretary Christine Guwatudde, Accounting Officer Joel Wanjala, Assistant Commissioner of Procurement Fred Lutimba, and Commissioner of Disaster Management Martin Owor are arrested amid reports that they have rejected prequalified suppliers who were offering lower prices for maize and beans meant for distribution to vulnerable people during the first lockdown which was imposed as a measure to curb the spread of Covid-19, and instead awarded contracts to companies that accepted the inflated figures.

They are alleged to have caused government a financial loss of more than Shs2b off the purchase of more than 9 million kgs of maize and 635,000kgs of beans.