Why Bukedea poll probe troubles Speaker Among

On June 27, Mr Mike Mukula, the National Resistance Movement’s (NRM) vice chairperson for eastern Uganda fired off a tweet, bragging how he had received Sam Oita and Stephen Omagor into the ruling party.

Mr Oita, who belonged to the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party, had contested in the Bukedea by-election in which the NRM’s Mary Akol is said to have benefitted from unprecedented violence and shocking electoral thuggery perpetrated by henchmen in the police and other security organs.

Mr Omagor, who had also wanted to run for the seat following the death of Moses Olemukan last year, did not make it to the ballot.

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Mr Mukula (an ally of Ms Among) declared that their defection and Akol’s ‘victory’ were an indication that Bukedea—home district of the Speaker Among—“remains solidly behind NRM.”  Yet a day before he announced these purported defections, his party chair, President Museveni wrote to Brig Henry Isoke, the head of the State House Anti-Corruption Unit (SHACU), asking him to investigate the mess which was the Bukedea by-election.

Mr Museveni said he was initially delighted with the reported 91 percent return attributed to Ms Akol, but that he had since been receiving disturbing news from government officials.

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The officials, he said, informed him of how on the night of nomination, armed men wearing police uniform and other thugs invaded Omagor’s house, beat him up, confiscated his academic papers, and stole Shs163 million in a bid to stop him from getting nominated.

“… Even when he went for the nomination he was attacked at the gate of the Electoral Commission,” the President wrote.

As if that was not enough, he added, government officials raided polling stations and voted on behalf of the voters.

“ .. I want to be sure that Uganda doesn’t go back to the crime of 1980, with [Paulo] Muwanga’s elections that forced us to go to the bush … This sounds like a film,” he added.

Power struggle?

Now, the question being asked is what is special about Bukedea? Why the sudden interest from the State House?

Knowledgeable wonks hazard that this is State House getting a subtle message through to Plot 16-18 Parliamentary Avenue. The Speaker is reportedly the subject of interest here.

The rumblings of disquiet first emerged as MPs, egged on by higher office, passed a vote of censure against Ms Persis Namuganza, the junior Lands minister. Ms Namuganza had not done herself any favours by, among other misconduct, insulting Speaker Among and disparaging Parliament on public radio.

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With the House firmly in Ms Among’s grip, it was easy: Of 356 MPs who attended that plenary session, 348 voted to censure the minister who had also allegedly asserted that the Speaker went through a phoney marriage with Mr Moses Magogo, the Budiope East MP. 

Under Article 118 of the Constitution, a minister who is censured either resigns or the appointing authority, in this case the President, takes appropriate action. But nothing has happened and it is many months since January when the vote was taken.

If anything, the only sign that things have changed is that the junior minister has shrunk into a shadow of her former buoyant self, skulking around the shadows in Parliamentary buildings, hardly saying a word.

Ms Namuganza’s rumblings with Ms Among are reminiscent of similarly dirty fights she provoked with current first deputy prime minister and East African Affairs minister, the formidable Ms Rebecca Kadaga, Speaker emeritus. It was believed then that there was a power behind Ms Namuganza that gave her such courage as to take on the all-powerful Speaker Kadaga.

And so, her notoriety as a power-play pawn became part of the House legend. She had the temerity to challenge the Kamuli District Woman MP for the Speakership, questioning Ms Kadaga’s faithfulness to the NRM and loyalty to its chairperson, Mr Museveni. Her evidence? That on several occasions, Ms Kadaga took sides with the Opposition in Parliament to bring motions that cast the ruling party and government in a poor light.

As this drama played out, with Ms Kadaga placing the junior minister firmly in the employ of a mafia of powerful individuals inside the government, the President kept publicly mum.  Although Ms Kadaga eventually won by a landslide, the fact that Ms Namuganza (a recent entrant into the party and small fish by any estimation), had dared to mount a leadership challenge unrebuked, spoke volumes.

It would later turn out to be a clarion call about how far apart the then Speaker had drifted away from the party chairperson. At the heart of that estrangement was Ms Kadaga’s purported ambition, the belief inside State House that she harboured dark designs on the ultimate seat of power.

In repeat mode

Political pundits say things may not be as extreme in Ms Among’s case. However, there is the feeling that like her predecessor, the current Speaker is spreading her wings of influence a little too far.

A sign of the times emerged early this year in the Serere County by-election to replace Mr Patrick Okabe, who had died in a road accident. The NRM presented Mr Phillip Oucor yet Mr Emmanuel Omoding, Okabe’s son, was denied the party ticket, forcing him to run as a popular independent. Whilst Ms Among stayed away, since as Speaker she is supposed to retain a neutral posture, sources say she threw her weight behind Mr Omoding.

Evidence of Ms Among’s alleged complicity is mainly circumstantial—being largely based on the fact that her lieutenants;  Kasilo MP Elijah Okupa and the Soroti City lawmakers Jonathan Ebwalu and Ariko were deeply involved in Omoding’s campaign.

On the election eve or thereabouts, Mr Okupa was briefly detained in Ocaapa Town Council, where he was conducting training for Omoding’s polling agents. Police falsely claimed that he was bribing voters. It is telling that his police guards who were drafted from among the House’s security detail did nothing to stop his brief detention.

While Omoding had a strong team, Oucor was thin on the ground with Ms Harriet Nakamya, the Serere Resident District Commissioner, illegally providing the main counterweight. The law prohibits civil servants like herself from engaging in partisan politics. Other relative lightweights were from the secretariat led by Ms Rosemary Nansubuga Seninde, NRM’s director for mobilisation, training and cadre development who was hardly known in Serere.

Junior Fisheries minister Hellen Adoa an influential player in Serere politics, kept away. She only showed up when President Museveni came to the campaign. It has long been suspected that Ms Adoa enjoys a beautiful relationship with the Speaker so her conduct was rather eloquent.

Before long, a nasty spat broke out between Mr Tanga Odoi, the NRM’s electoral boss, and Mr Mukula as it became apparent that the ruling party was going to lose Serere. Mr Odoi accused NRM leaders in Teso of abandoning the party’s candidate.

“This election showed division within NRM to the extent that the whole vice chairperson eastern (Mukula) didn’t come to receive the President because of A or B,” Odoi said cryptically.

Insiders suspect that the abrasive Mr Odoi may have been making an oblique reference to the divided house of NRM in Teso where politicians loyal to the Speaker stick together against those known to be in bed with Vice President Jessica Alupo.

Mr Mukula responded by calling Mr Odoi’s criticism ‘hogwash.’

“This is absolute nonsense,” he said. “You don’t make unsubstantiated statements as a leader. You must think before you talk as a leader.”

Right from the outset, Parliament’s position was clear when Mr Thomas Tayebwa, the deputy Speaker and close associate of the Speaker, asked Mr Mukula during Okabe’s burial to bless Omoding as the party’s choice.

Museveni bitter

In the end these divisions consigned NRM to defeat, losing its first by-election this term. President Museveni was reportedly incensed, especially since he had long been cultivating Teso as part of his perceived ‘Greater North political alliance’ against an increasingly rebellious Central Uganda.

Though Among, a former FDC member, presents herself as a kingmaker in Teso’s politics, it’s Mr Museveni who placed her on that pedestal.

She has forged a relationship with him, having the President launch Bukedea Comprehensive School which was later renamed Yoweri Museveni. Even when she was still posturing as an independent MP, rumours made the rounds that Ms Among was quietly helping Mr Museveni soften up Opposition politicians he wanted to recruit.

For instance, in 2016 when the President wanted to meet the majority FDC MPs from Kasese District, who were seething with anger over the bloody military raid on their cultural institution’s palace, arrest and utter humiliation of their king, Omusinga Charles Wesley Mumbere’s, it was Among who persuaded them to meet him. She personally conveyed them to his farm in Kisozi, Gomba District.

With Ms Among acting as Museveni‘s fixer, it was easy for her to navigate the intricate corridors of power. But as Ms Kadaga found out, it doesn’t always end well.  

During her tenure as both deputy Speaker and Speaker of Parliament, Ms Among has been careful to remain on the good books of the State House.

Ensuring quick passage of matters that are dear to Museveni’s aspirations such as the East African Crude Oil Pipeline. That relationship was tested by the stand-off over Atiak Sugar’s mysterious billions – a pet project at State House.

In May, the President accused Parliament of starving the Atiak Sugar factory, found in Acholi Sub-region, northern Uganda, of a much-needed cash injection.

“Atiak Sugar is paralysed by Parliament. I wanted to support them, I made a proposal on how to support them but they were blocked by Parliament. I have not had time to go to Parliament because I’m still busy with Karimojong raiders, but I will get space and sort out that issue,” he said.

A year earlier, Ms Among had asked the Auditor General to audit Atiak Sugar and Roko Construction companies on grounds that they had both swallowed a lot of taxpayers’ money with little to show for it.

Then last month, MPs suddenly threw in the towel after one or two party caucuses addressed by the first citizen and passed a supplementary budget that included Shs274 billion for Atiak Sugar.

With the mischief in Bukedea now being investigated by Brig Isoke, wiser sages think it may probably be time for the Speaker to start reading the tea leave. Whereas Speaker Among’s publicists denied her direct or indirect involvement in the Bukedea election fraud when contacted by Saturday Monitor, Brig Isoke’s unit has since arrested a number of people, including Wilberforce Tukei, the Bukedea Resident District Commissioner and Charles Okot, the district police commander.     

Thuggery

It’s not the first time that elections in Teso are riddled with rigging. Last year the Soroti East Municipality election, which was controversially won by NRM’s Herbert Ariko, having questionably defeated FDC‘s Moses Attan Okia, was a classic study in state-inspired poll thuggery.

Security operatives broke into the home of Soroti District Woman MP Anna Ebaju Adeke, who was leading Attan’s campaign. In the process, they arrested FDC party president Patrick Oboi Amuriat.

“The District Internal Security Officer of Soroti had sent [local councillors] within the town and entire constituency to write down the names of guests of every facility. That’s how they were able to know who was sleeping where. They went to over 17 hotels and lodges and picked up over 100 people putting our campaign into disarray,” Ms Adeke, who is FDC’s deputy president for eastern Uganda, said.

By morning, the evidence of blatant vote rigging was being streamed online in social media.

Owolo polling station had no ballot papers by midday, yet several people were queueing up to vote. There were allegations of ballot box-stuffing at Omarela polling station after FDC agents were chased away. Such scenes were reported across the municipality.

By evening, the EC declared Mr Ariko victor with a margin of 636 votes. He was handed 9,407 votes against Mr Attan’s 8,771. But the public opinion verdict was already out there—this was another election theft in the long and growing list of poll malpractice by the ruling party.

“They arrest polling agents, they arrest supervisors … Everybody who complains about ballot paper-stuffing, they arrest them immediately and detain them. Then in the evening after they have done the rigging they release them,” said Mr David Lewis Rubongoya, the secretary general of the opposition National Unity Platform party.