By KT Reporter
On Saturday capital gang, Ofwono Opondo tried his best to defend former speaker Anita Among and criticized PLU for vulgarizing the fight against corruption by violating Triple A’s rights and liberties-but he faced stiff resistance from journalist Raymond Mujuni and Ivan Rugambwa Ninsiima of patriotic league of Uganda.
He demanded to know why a whole speaker’s home could be raided without first notifying her and also wondered why soldiers, who aren’t mandated to do such investigations, sidelined police and took center stage during the raid at Anita Among’s home.
He said the raiders even had no search warrant which is a legal requirement and feared that breaches like these could turn the whole Tripple A investigation into a circus. He also accused members of the MK online army of sustaining negative media campaign against Anita Among who he said was a victim of false reporting.
He said he sneaked into her Nakasero home on Thursday and chatted with her for 2 hours and she told him everything, including the fact that the president never notified her about the raid yet they had been in constant communication.
Opondo also claimed that the PLU-instigated army men had demanded that Anita Among gets out of her house and gets flog marched through the streets of Kampalka like a chicken thief. Opondo claimed that Museveni learnt of this and ordered them to stop it immediately as it would amount to humiliating Among who remains number 3 in the NRM hierarchy.
He said they had demanded that Among moves with them as they move to search her different houses. He thanked Museveni for guiding this was unnecessary as long she had arranged and allowed them unlimited access at any of her residences.
He repeated Andrew Mwenda’s claims that all Among’s riches had been enabled by Museveni himself who he claimed gave her 2bn to start her Bukedea comprehensive school, money to start her hospital and the football stadium in Bukedea.
He claimed Among was very entrepreneurial unlike sleepy bosses in NRM, to the extent that she multiplied the president’s 200 cow’s donation to 2,000 cows in such a short time. He claimed the Nakasero house and one at Kigo were all brought for Among by Museveni.
He predicted that PLU enthusiasts will die in their movie because Museveni is a very forgiving leader who will pardon and let Among go scot free the way he did with Gilbert Bukenya, Kale Kayihura, Mike Mukula and others. Opondo said even Among will be forgiven because Museveni is a patient man who allows young leaders to learn from their mistakes.
Ivan Rugambwa, who is from PLU, was in the studio and accused Opondo of telling lies and being envious of PLU. Rugambwa, supported by NTV’s Raymond Mujuni, revealed that the times had changed and Gen Muhoozi as CDF was now here to make sure Museveni stops those things of forgiving corrupt people. Mujuni and Rugambwa said there are clear mistakes justifying the crackdown on Anita Among and that those things of forgiving corrupt officials had made the NRM lose public support, a mistake PLU can’t tolerate.
They said she had failed to complete the new building at parliament whose price they said had been inflated to more than 190bn yet Gen Muhoozi had built the new army headquarters in a very short time and at much less cost of 170bn.
They made it clear to Opondo that no amount of spinning would reduce or do away with the momentum and public support Muhoozi’s fight against corruption had generated in the population. They told Opondo not to underestimate the level of hate the public has for his boss Among because of her impunity.
Rugambwa stated that Opondo risked alienating himself from the ordinary persons if he doesn’t stop defending the indefensible. The two also told Opondo about the February top army organ meeting in State House Entebbe where Museveni was told soldiers were becoming disgruntled seeing public officials like Among swimming in luxury when they can’t feed their families. That the army leaders asked Museveni to explain what special work MPs do for him to pamper them like that.
Opondo got annoyed and called Mujuni a rumor monger. He demanded to know if Mujuni was in that meeting, prompting Rugambwa to remind him of the many top government meetings he had quoted earlier on the same radio program yet he was personally not present in them.
Opondo got annoyed and said young boys like Rugambwa are full of self-importance because he had realized over the years while working for Museveni that many Banyankore youths like Rugambwa consider themselves to be more important than cadres from other parts of the country “because they think being in NRM is their birth right because they are Banyankores.”
Opondo’s decision to go tribal didn’t cow Rugambwa who went on to assure him PLU was here to stay and the earlier older cadres like him realize this and prepare for their exit from juicy government positions, the better. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com.
