A power rift is likely to form a crack in the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party as the two top women in the party are seeking to control the Busoga region.
EagleOline has established that the two are the Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga and the NRM Secretary General, Justine Kasule Lumumba.
Having been appointed NRM SG, Ms Lumumba assumed the clout of who is who in the Busoga region and coming from Bugiri, formerly part of Iganga, Lumumba who is reportedly in the Kirunda Kivijinja camp, started asserting herself as a power to reckon with. However, what could have given her a blow was that she wasn’t assuming her ministerial seat and MP seat representing Bugiri like she earlier did.
This reportedly reduced her clout because by that time the NRM party hadn’t bought her the V8 Toyota Landcrusier, a sign of power that would equate her to the then Leader of Opposition Wafula Oguttu who hails from Bugiri and Ms. Kadaga.
However, with 2016 elections approaching, the party leadership fulfilled her dreams by purchasing her a brand new Land Crusier and also deployed two security vehicles to clear her way. This elevated Lumumba’s status and could have equalled her to Wafula Oguttu, who locals in Bugiri had resorted to addressing as the ‘President of Bugiri’. Wafula Oguttu was later to pay by losing his Bugiri Central seat to a ‘Lumumbist’.
But that was not all; with Lumumba’s acquisition of a convoy, the game plan in Bugiri and the greater Busoga region reportedly changed. She would reportedly arrive late for some functions but would be the one to deliver the President’s messages. And, as she did some of these things in attendance would be Speaker Kadaga and other national leaders.
However, the latest is that with 2016 election past and with the party Secretariat ‘inactive’, Ms. Lumumba was recently seconded as an ex-official of Cabinet to represent the party’s interest. But sources say she has started missing the August House and so the Political Grapevine has reliably learnt that the lady from Bugiri is reportedly engaged in a land buying spree, ostensibly to spread her wings and ‘influence’ in the greater Busoga region.
According to a source that spoke to EagleOnline on condition of anonymity, Ms Lumumba, in the company of a land dealer who has been cited in various dubious land deals in Kayunga, and is on loggerheads with Minister Idah Nantaba, a vocal anti-land grabbing campaigner in Kayunga District, has reportedly bought land in Kiige village, Iganga Parish of Balawooli Sub County and Kalogoloi village, Iringa parish of Nkondo Sub County in Kamuli District. In Buyende Sub County, Ms Lumumba bought land in Butemawa village, Idorwa Parish of Buyende Sub County. She also reportedly bought another piece of land in Namasagali.
So, by Ms. Lumumba buying land in Kamuli and Buyende which was curved out of the greater Kamuli, is she preparing to wrest control from Ms Kadaga or is her’s an ‘expansionist policy’ to be in charge of Busoga affairs?
This Website could not get a comment from Ms Lumumba as her phone was switched off.
