Joel Kamadhi was recently in Busoga, after he ‘landed an invitation to be home’ during President Yoweri Museveni’s tour of the eastern region that involved inspecting the massive wetland of River Mpologoma along the Mbale-Tirinyi road.

Kamadhi was still upbeat, telling members of the Mutungo Malwa Group that those who planned for the President’s visit ‘were kind enough to recognize my contribution to Ugandan society’.

“You see, I told you young men that I am important. I have served Uganda for over 40 years and people in my area recognize that,” Kamadhi said.

However, Hitler Eregu and Yorokamu Bwambale challenged Kamadhi as to why those in charge of the President’s protocol hadn’t introduced him to the ‘Big Man’. “I watched the whole programme on TV, how come I did not see them introducing you to the Big Man? You were even nowhere near the venue,” Bwambale, the Mukonzo colleague who last week was the victim of Kamadhi’s acerbic tongue, charged.

But Kamadhi is no push-over. “My friends, ndi mu kintu”! Kamadhi said, adding: “I met those who met those who met those who planned for that visit and told them the message to be forwarded to the Big Man.”

Eregu, the reformed former rebel from Teso (who incidentally claims patent rights over Malwa issues) and Bwambale, the less-combative Mukonzo who these days seems laid back after the attack on his King’s palace in Kasese, had no option but to give up the challenge, leaving Kamadhi with beaming a wide grin of triumph.

Kamadhi then went on an unrestricted rant, seeing that he had overcome Bwambale’s attempt at distracting him.

“It was during my interaction with the chain of representatives of the Big Man that I raised the issue of our Busoga Princesses who are involved in various battles of political supremacy. I told them to tell the Big Man about Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga fighting with National Resistance Movement (NRM) Secretary General Justine Kasule Lumumba and, Bukono Princess and MP Persis Namuganza, who is also the State Minister of Lands, fighting with the ICT State Minister Aidah Nantaba Erios, a politician in the not-so-distant Kayunga district.

According to Kamadhi, Lumumba recently went on a land-buying spree in four different districts of the greater Busoga region, allegedly to ‘spread her wings’ in the region in an effort to wrest the Busoga women leadership from Kadaga. Kamadhi said information he gathered indicated that Lumumba apparently used a dubious fellow, an alleged land-grabber, to acquire the said land. “The said man is allegedly connected to some bigwig in the police but I don’t know how that will help him when issues of land grabbing arise,” Kamadhi quoted one of the aides as telling him.

Kamadhi then briefly took the group members through the Namuganza-Nantaba fight: “Munna, you see these Busoga Princesses are no joke, Namuganza has even managed to silence Nantaba, a woman known for openly defying Museveni and still maintain a position in Cabinet!” Kamadhi said with a fake sense of pride.

He added: “You know it is our princess who replaced the Kayunga Iron Lady at the lands ministry and Namuganza is keen on showing her what Basoga women are made of!”

But Bwambale, as if recovering from slumber, shot back: “You seem to only know about the Busoga fights, yet you claim to be conversant with what goes on in the whole of Uganda. Havent you heard about other fights or your knowledge is limited to Busoga?”

Hahaha, Kamadhi chidingly laughed before replying: “Well, I was still narrating; it was after the detailed accounts of the Busoga women leaders’ battles that the Big Man’s aides also tasked me to update them with information on all the NRM women involved in different quarrels and scandals over the past three years.

According to Kamadhi, his brain went racing back to 2013, and zeroed on a few of them including the recent one of Investment State Minister Evelyn Anite squaring it off with her boss Matia Kasaija; then there was KCCA Executive Director Jennifer Musisi Semakula fighting Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago, a battle lately joined by Kampala minister Beti Olive Kamya; the ‘cold war’ between Kamya and Musisi over who calls the shots in the city; Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng and Dr Diana Atwiine battles with former health PS Dr Asuman Lukwago.

Then there were also the battles involving NRM SG Justine Kasule Lumumba fighting Dr Tanga Odoi, the party’s Electoral Commission boss, over salary disparities of staff at the NRM Secretariat and the party EC; Trade Minister Amelia Kyambadde’s battle with Parliamentarians led by Kampala Woman MP Nabillah Naggayi Ssempala over the issue of Chinese petty traders in Kampala; Uganda National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UNCCI) chairperson Olive Kigongo fight with enterpreneur Andrew Rugasira and Amina Hersi’s involvement in the ‘tripartite battle’; and last but not least, Kamadhi talked about the scandal that he said, has tainted the image of Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) Executive Director Allen Kagina, who signed documents authorizing dubious payments to a Chinese company, leading to a probable loss of about Shs32 billion.

“For Kagina, the aides told me the Big Man has not taken her calls for over four months now; and that she even reportedly resorted to using ‘third parties’ but Museveni is not budging; after all he said this is kisanja hakuna mchezo and he is fighting hard to ensure he doesn’t appear before Ugandans as a joker,” Kamadhi said.

Then he started enumerating some of the other stand-offs involving NRM women leaders, insisting however, on telling us the story of State Minister of Finance in charge of Investments Evelyn Anite and her boss, finance minister Matia Kasaija.

“Young men, I won’t go home before telling you this,” he started off, adding: “some of these youthful politicians are so powerful and are giving the veteran NRM fellows a run for their age.”

“Do you know that it is Anite who brought former Prime Minister and Museveni confidant Amama Mbabazi’s political career to an inglorious end after she knelt down while in Kyankwanzi and begged the Big Man to ‘rule for ever’ at a time Mbabazi thought he was next in the NRM queue? Do you know that recently she also almost brought the career of another NRM veteran politician Kasaija to an end after the two, in their capacities as ministers in the supervising ministry, appointed different people to chair the board of the Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited? Do you know that she was even on maternity leave when she made her appointment? Do you know that she announced the appointment of Eng. Proscovia Njuki three days after getting the Minister’s letter appointing Eng. Frank Katusiime? Do you know that Kasaija has since recoiled and Anite’s choice, Eng. Njuki, is the UEGCL board chairman?” Kamadhi asked.

Well, after the raft of questions he posed that heralded no answers, Kamadhi announced he was retiring for the night, and promising to return with ‘even more scintillating stories’.

We all dispersed, leaving the ‘brewer’ Hellen to gather her implements.

This is a burlesque column that will be running every Friday.

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From time to time government reviews its information dissemination capacities with a view to improving service delivery responses as carried out in various sectors. Against this background, the Government Citizen Interaction Centre (GCIC), has been iniatiated to strengthen the coordination of information with a view to capturing citizen participation and, in the process, delivering on outcomes.

The EagleOnline interviewed Morrison Rwakakamba, the newly appointed Director of the GCIC, and below are excerpts. 

I suppose congratulations are in order; a ‘Christmas Gift’ come early of sorts?

Thank you. Thank you so much. You see, I don’t look at this position as a ‘gift’ but rather as an opportunity that comes along with service offering to bring citizens and government in direct contact – and thus expand transparency and openness in government and put citizens at the center of monitoring how government services are doing. It will therefore, be a busy Christmas – besides family and faith obligations, I will be putting teams together, figuring out stuff – and consulting with and listening to citizens on effective ways to engage government and making things happen. Thanks again for best wishes.

Is your new appointment a promotion or demotion, given that you have been a Presidential Assistant, appointed by the Big Man himself? Anyway, is your new job station an appointment by the President?

I consider myself a public-spirited person. I am therefore comfortable with any opportunity availed to serve the public good. I am usually not bothered by kilograms that particular positions weigh. I therefore don’t look at this in terms of promotion or demotion. It’s just a call to public service. But for purposes of clarity, the President seconded me to head GCIC as an additional role to the work I have been doing in his office. I am therefore, holding the GCIC position on secondment of the President of the Republic of Uganda.

Is this job provided for under the normal Public Service structures; is it a cross transfer from one government institution to the other?

GCIC is in interim running as a program superintended over by the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance. GCIC’s mandate and functionality supports communication structures of government and is not in contradiction with relevant Public Service regulations and standard operating procedures.

What does the job entail; i.e. scope of work, when to carry out the work and how to carry out the work?

Certainly, we all agree that, timely, cost-effective and data driven communication between Government and Citizens is a critical aspect in service delivery, ideas generation, innovations and citizens participating in their governance. How then will GCIC deliver on this? Pointedly, GCIC will primarily aggregate data from MDAs and transform it into crisp, simplified, visualized and analyzed information – and channel it to responsible dissemination/ communication centers of government. GCIC shall have a dedicated team of data miners to specifically deal with breakdown of for example budget allocations and releases up to sub county level. We want people to follow their money, know and monitor what’s going on. We strongly believe this will result into effectiveness of public policy performance by enhancing monitoring of service delivery and provision of real time channel for feedback, suggestions and action from citizens. Therefore, our scope is broad and only supportive. We believe it’s surmountable – and we shall measure our success on verifiable indicators that show that citizens are enjoying better and efficient services from government. It is as bold as that.

 So, is there any relationship between your job and that of the Government’s Media Centre?

There will be a strong complementary relationship with Government Media Center. In fact, besides the President and Minister of ICT& National Guidance, the Executive Director of the Government Media Center was part of the GCIC Conceptualization. GCIC is well located within ecosystem of Government data and outreach function. GCIC shall provide analyzed and visualized data to all MDA’s spokespersons, government communication agencies like Media Center and myriad Internet based platforms. GCIC’s analyzed and packaged data will feed web portals of MDA’s and other media platforms (blogs, social media sites etc.). To effectively execute this function, GCIC shall primarily work closely with Office of the President, Office of Prime Minister, Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MFPED), Uganda National Bureau of Statistics and other Agencies of Government.

The issue of streamlining government communications seems to be an evolving problem; won’t your appointment further complicate the situation by causing multiple duplications arising out of different ‘reporting centres’?

Need to streamline Government Communications is partly why GCIC was created. It was out of realization that there was no centralized place to aggregate government performance data and transform it into messages that feed government and other platforms to keep citizens updated about what’s going on. Even when Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA’s) websites were built, most of them largely remain with limited updated information communicating government messages. GCIC will supportively work with Government Communication staffers to change this.

Second, there was no central and direct platform for citizens to constantly share their views about what they want and need, what they like and dislike, and their overall expectation from Government. Listening to the people by Government will therefore yield better and effective delivery of services to citizens, tweaking of policies to comply with needs of citizenry and will create more transparency and accountability.

Therefore, in order to harmonize government communication and increase contact with citizens, H.E the President directed the Hon. Minister for ICT and National Guidance to set up a Government Call Centre and other information technology (IT) propelled facilities that have capability to harness data and information to promote citizen’s communications with Government. This again, is why the Government Citizen Interaction Centre (GCIC) was initiated.

Anyhow, has the government abandoned the idea of Barazas, which involves the interaction between communities and the various public servants with varying degrees of internalizing and interpreting the themes of debate, and instead settled for the centralization of the function under only one man and his ‘small’ team? 

Government never abandoned Barazas. At Sub county level, Braraza’s are happening. The office of the Prime Minister is keen on Barazas and continues to support them. You may recall that, in his inaugural dialogue with stakeholders, the Minister of ICT & National Guidance, Hon. Frank Tumwebaze articulated that the Ministry shall conduct syndicated open government sessions featuring Ministry-by-Ministry to engage the media aimed at securing citizen buy-in in policy formulation, execution and monitoring. This is expected to expand compliance in regard to service delivery targets by agencies of government. People will hear quite often what the government is doing. GCIC will be backstopping these processes and actions to reach and get more citizens engaged.

What are the probable budgetary implications that might arise as a result of your new appointment?

Budgets and set up of requisite technology are handled by Ministry of ICT through its agency NITA-U. I am focused on putting together a team to get things done.

What are some of the urgent roles you plan to handle immediately?

Building a team from ground up and letting citizens know services that GCIC shall be offering.

 Will this position also handle patriotism given that our values as a Ugandans are at not the best today?

Government is keen on nurturing a population that is patriotic. GCIC will be reaching out to citizens with information that raise awareness about Uganda and common values that connect us and make us a proud nation. That’s perhaps the only considered way that GCIC shall contribute to patriotism. It’s indeed a duty of everybody to be patriotic and to promote patriotism – and broadly image of Uganda. It’s the only Country we have.

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