By KT Reporters
He has been with Dr. Kizza Besigye since the days of Reform Agenda which the Retired Colonel founded and used to challenge Museveni in 2001. In fact, the bonding between the two deepened seven years later in 2008 when Beti Kamya turned into a snake of some sort and began fighting Dr. KB.
This came after the death of FDC founding national chairman Dr. Suleiman Kiggundu. Beti Kamya insisted that he had to be replaced by a Muganda and fronted herself. When she didn’t get the position, the then Rubaga North MP went wild and declared war on FDC. As of that time, Kamya, whose bid to become FDC founding SG had been blunted in 2005 to pave way for Alice Alaso, was serving as the Special Envoy in the office of Dr. KB as Party President.
Kamya raised so much dust that Besigye’s strength in Buganda began to develop some cracks. So, there was need to contradict Kamya by increasing visibility of Baganda in influential FDC positions. Preference was on Muslims too since Kiggundu had been a Muslim. Obed Kamulegeya Lutale (now caged with Dr. KB) was chosen by Besigye to replace Kamya in the Envoy position. This portrayed the close personal chemistry between KB and Obed Kamulegeya Lutale. The national chairman job went to Sam Kalega Njuba.
Using the Envoy position, Obed Kamulegeya Lutale worked hard to keep the relationship between Besigye and the Muslim fraternity especially the Kibuli group to which Kiggundu had been a pillar and kingmaker. Suleiman Kiggundu was a mentor of some sort for Prince Kassim Nakibinge who heads Kibuli. Lutale’s father Mzee Sheikh Obed Kamulegeya (now in his 80s and is also a former Mufti of Uganda) was equally of great influence at Kibuli as of that time.
The son and dad effectively bridged the gap left by the demise of Dr. Suleiman Kiggundu and they ensured that Dr. Besigye remained a darling at Kibuli which as of that time (late 2000s) was clearly hostile to the Museveni central government. You had Nuhu Muzaata and others spitting fire every Friday castigating Gen Museveni and then IGP Kale Kayihura for allegedly shielding Mufti Shaban Mubajje who they accused of selling off Muslim properties and land.
Besigye occasionally weighed in to amplify the Muzaata utterances against the Central government during big events at Kibuli. Abu Mayanja, another Besigye ally, had been influential at Kibuli along with Dr. Suleiman Kiggundu. The dust raised by Kamya took long to settle as public debate raged as to whether Besigye, who was preparing to seek Presidency for the 3rd time in 2011, would treat and appreciate Baganda better than Museveni once he took government.
So Besigye found himself having to be surrounded by more formidable Baganda wherever he went out for public functions in order to counter the Kamya propaganda. And gratefully, Dan Mulika who had just ceased to be Buganda Katikkiro (but was very popular) was very sympathetic to Dr. KB. He had to because KB’s right hand man Dr. Kiggundu is the one along with Abu Mayanja who had convinced the Kabaka to make him Katikkiro.
This desire to keep company with older and more influential figures from Buganda region, in order to be able to neutralise the Kamya propaganda, drove Besigye to become very close to Sheikh Obed Kamulegeya, Lutale’s dad. This was so to the extent that Sheikh Kamulegeya would mobilise large groups of Sheikhs to go to Besigye’s Kasangati home to pray for the Retired Colonel to be able to overcome the adversity Beti Kamya had created.
Kasangati nearly became Mzee Kamulegeya’s second home. He would go to KB’s home very frequently. In the end, Kamya died in her own movie when politically more influential Bagandas like Semujju Nganda, Betty Nambooze, Mathias Mpuuga, Erias Lukwago and Medard Segona (who was then very popular as Kabaka’s information Minister) came together and endorsed KB for 2011.
The momentum even grew when former Katikkiro Mulwanyamuli also came on board and endorsed Dr. KB at a glamorous event at Pope Paul Hotel in Ndeba (it was organised by Joyce Sebugwawo). Under Ssuubi, for which he was the patron, Mulwanyamuli traversed the whole country campaigning for Besigye while dissing Kamya who actually campaigned on a Federo platform. In fact, her political party was called Uganda Federal Alliance (UFA) under which she stood for Presidency in 2011. Her performance was lukewarm as majority Baganda rejected her in favor of Besigye.
This made KB realise that the prayers and Duwas done by Kamulegeya-mobilised Sheikhs worked. Even though he didn’t defeat Museveni in the ballot box, Dr. Kizza Besigye’s influence remained high in Buganda even after Kamya propaganda which lasted almost 5 years. A grateful Besigye one morning summoned his Envoy Lutale and asked him for advice on how to show his gratitude to Mzee Sheikh Obed Kamulegeya for his Duwas and mobilisation among Sheikhs.
On Lutale’s advise, Besigye bought a brand new Super Custom and gave it to Sheikh Kamulegeya. He went ahead to give him a few acres of land off his huge estate in Kasangati. He even ensured all the relevant documentation was executed.
Sheikh Kamulegeya was given his land and even the title was made in his name off the Besigye mother title for the huge land at Kyankima Ku Buyinja in Kasangati town council. This land offer greatly angered Besigye’s wife Eng Winnie Byanyima who demanded to know how the Retired Colonel could make such a decision, giving away so much land, without first consulting her. As of that time, she had moved to Addis and took up the international gender mainstreaming job at AU. That’s how close Kizza Besigye is with Obed Lutale Kamulegeya Jr. Incidentally Lutale is equally loved and accepted by Eng Winnie Byanyima who knows how deeply her husband KB treasures him.
As a person, each time he is around Besigye, Lutale is very cheerful and even would promise to wrestle down those marauding Police officers (like Sam Omala) brutalising KB during walk to work protests. The only criticism for long was that Lutale talks too much in such meetings around KB yet when it’s time for action, he disappears in thin air if he ever shows up at all.
In 2011 campaigns, Dr. KB brought a long fleet of vehicles to facilitate his campaigns and Lutale is the man who did the actual purchase of those vehicles including that famous white Land Cruiser UAN which KB cruised in for a long time. Even that vehicle in which he was attacked at Mulago and tortured during walk to work was procured by him through Lutale who has been his logistics man in all the Presidential elections he took part in.
Lutale lives in Mutundwe and is a wealthy man having inherited a lot from his dad Sheikh Obed Kamulegeya. Mzee Kamulegeya has benefited from each and every government of Uganda because his pragmatism requires that if KB fails to get power for 20 years, you turn to Museveni and make a deal. This exactly is what Mzee Kamulegeya did not very long ago. He gradually cut links with Dr. KB though they remained cordial and once again embraced Museveni who they originally supported along with Suleiman Kiggundu, Abu Mayanja and Prince Badru Kakungulu (he was also for Amin and later on Obote whose two governments he greatly supported).
This must have hurt KB but being a decent person, the man from Rwakabengo ignored and never tried to revoke his offer of several acres of land at Kasangati. Lutale has his deal-making son called Isaac Semanyi who one time served as a bodyguard of some sort to KB especially during walk to work protests.
But it later turned out that Semanyi, who was a peer and contemporary of Doreen Nyanjura and Ibrahim Bagaya at campus, had been on a spy mission having been planted by Gen Kayihura who was the IGP and on whom Museveni was counting to defeat walk to work. Isaac Semanyi was eventually exposed by the Nyanjuras and fled the KB camp.
Like his father Lutale, Semanyi is a very flamboyant young man always cruising in posh cars at Serena Hotel where he rubs shoulders with the likes of Mukasa Mbidde, Joseph Sewava etc. The Semanyi betrayal is something Lutale owned up to and apologised about to Dr KB who easily understood there is no way his long time ally would have had control over the actions of Semanyi who had left their Mutundwe home and was already living him own life as a young adult. In this spying mission, Isaac Semanyi used to work with another young man called Grace Sekweyama who Gen Kayihura eventually introduced to the President as son to late Anthony Sekweyama of DP.
That he kept with Lutale even after such betrayal shows the extent of trust Besigye has towards Mzee Sheikh Kamulegeya’s son. But until recently, perhaps due to frail health and advancing age, Lutale (who is also a close friend to Joyce Sebugwawo) hadn’t been very active in the Besigye politics. He had been greatly offended and hurt on seeing the impunity and deception with which Bobi Wine’s group abused Besigye for the last 4 years preceding 2021 elections. He was hurt and one time predicted that God would one day punish Kyagulanyi for tolerating so many lies and demonisation of Dr. Besigye by foot soldiers who falsely kept claiming he was a Museveni project.
This greatly hurt Lutale and made him shun politics totally as his master KB also took a sabbatical of some sort as COVID ruined the 2021 show. Lutale, who knows the price Besigye has paid since 2001, re-emerged recently on the political scene to embolden KB as he battled the Nandala-POA group which has since managed to oust him and take over FDC which Lutale believes was built on blood of political martyrs like Tom Jurunga whose sacrifice has since been betrayed by the POA-Nandala duo.
The other truth about Lutale is that Dr. KB always involves him in grand things preceding arrival of big sums of money on the eve of a major political season. It will be interesting to know the extent to which the stuff being said about their Nairobi trip by the state are true. It would be surprising if it turns out that Obed Kamulegeya Lutale, who now is clearly an ageing man, would agree to participate in subversive activities which he shunned in his youth days. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
