By KT Reporter
In his latest public comments, general Salim Saleh raised his concerns about some of the beneficiaries of the emyooga money failing or refusing to pay back the money as they are supposed to do. Emyooga money was meant for different specialities and groups such as wielders, boda boda riders, musicians, hair dressers, taxi drivers etc etc.
In his speech that was carried live on NBS TV, general Salim Saleh responded to an earlier speaker who had doubted boda boda riders’ ability to pay back as opposed to defaulting.
Salim Saleh said in his view and from his experience as the boss of OWC, boda riders are more reliable than those from the perfoming arts such as musicians, music promoters and events organisers.
He said if the riders are being accused of eating all the food and not accounting to anyone, then in their case, borrowers from the perfoming arts must have eaten all the food and the saucepans too.
It was clear the president’s brother has more belief in boda riders when it comes to acting responsibly on borrowed money than in players in the perfoming arts cluster. The Ugandan president’s brother also recalled being told about journalists taking out some of the emyooga money too.
Making it clear he wasn’t sure the money had been eaten, because these are mere allegations he was coming across, general Salim Saleh said it will be very bad news for the country’s economy if it turns out that the emyooga money had been eaten under such circumstances.
He said he would be surprised if it turns out that even borrowers from the media industry simply ate the emyooga money too as opposed to paying it back.
Salim Saleh’s cautious and well calculated comments have since been seized upon by a group of wannabe cadres of the NRM working day and night to ensure that Hajji Hakim Kyeswa, an assistant inside the ONC offices in Kyambogo, becomes the next NRM Chairman for the central region of Uganda.
Kyeswa is among those vying for the job others being ex-minister Godfrey Kiwanda, the incumbent; Kayunga businessman Moses Kariisa Kalangwa and minister Haruna Kasolo who is in charge of microfinance where the emyooga falls.
With Kiwanda standing no chance, Kasolo remains the front runner for the CEC position and this has made him a target for a lot of amatuerish propaganda.
The Hakim Kyeswa group saw chance in Salim Saleh’s comments and used exactly that to try and make Kasolo seem to be the person the president’s brother was complaining about whereas not.
Kyeswa, being a media person at ONC, has a large network of bloggers who were facilitated and unleashed to amplify the false narrative parroting the distorted version of what general Salim Saleh said.
Kasolo is already envied because of his good first family connections as there is no one else in central Uganda who general Muhoozi Kainerugaba MK, the CDF and prssident Museven’s son, trusts more than Haruna Kasolo.
He believes he is a good mobiliser and a fearless one who can fearlessly stand up to opposition propagandists any time, any day anywhere. Kasolo is both in NRM and PLU where he leads the Buganda squad.
He is popular with many MPs from Buganda, NRM district chairpersons, the RDCs, the clergy, opinion leaders and people in the security/intelligence aparatus. All these factors have combined to make him a clear front runner for the position of NRM chairperson central region.
Hakim Kyeswa, for whom the race is a do or die, naturally must be feeling very threatened by such a formidable opponent. In his little deluded mind, Kyeswa must be convinced that its only Haruna Kasolo standing in his way to becoming the CEC member for central region hence all the online propaganda.
The idea is to portray Haruna Kasolo as unwanted by key members of the president’s family in the hope that such can diminish his electability at the upcoming ruling party delegates conference.
The bitter truth is that general Salim Saleh never lambasted Haruna Kasolo anywhere in his speech. In any case, the things he complained about are the very things minister Kasolo has been very outspoken about wherever and whenever he goes in the field to inspect the emyoga perfomance across the country.
He has always demanded that those who borrowed the money must be pressurised to pay back the money for the benefit of others since this is meant to be a revolving fund. So, what Salim Saleh said was only amplifying Haruna Kasolo’s message and didn’t contradict him in any way.
Kasolo, who is just the line minister and not an employee of the MSC which is charged with managing the emyooga funds, has been so uncompromising in demanding recovery of the money, as opposed to the same being squandered, to the extent that even senior politicians, who happen to be his friends, have had their properties advertized and sold off for failing to pay back the emyooga money.
Instead of weighing in to help his friends, Haruna Kasolo has preferred that the full process of foreclosure and the like fully plays out. This is how many big people, including those thought to be his own friends, have had their property attached and sold off to recover government back to the emyooga pool.
So, for all intents and purposes, there is no way anyone can get him implicated or make him synonymous with the stuff general Salim Saleh was complaining about. If anything, Haruna Kasolo must have felt vindicated and motivated by the president’s brother’s utterances. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
