How Kadaga talked her way into trouble

Ahead of the unpleasantly loud fight for the Speaker’s seat with eventual winner Jacob Oulanyah, Ms Kadaga had met with members of the Busoga Parliamentary Caucus in Kampala and reportedly reaffirmed her unshakeable decision to stay the course of the race for the No. 3 seat.

“Those who are proposing that I become the Vice President, let that position be given to others. Being a Vice President, you deputise another person. Here, I head an arm of government. That is the difference,” Ms Kadaga then said.

Put another way, Ms Kadaga saw herself as sharing power with President Museveni. The first rule of the game is that power cannot be shared. In the politics that Mr Museveni espouses, he can only share the crumbs, not the real edifice in the power he holds.

“She became very drunk on power, no wonder she had started thinking she is as powerful as Museveni,” said Agather Atuhaire, an independent journalist and lawyer.

Margaret Muhanga, the MP for Fort Portal North, like Atuhaire as well as former State minister Isaac Musumba, all cite Ms Kadaga’s suggestion that the President was only in power because of her deeds as one of the comments they found scandalous about one feted as the Fountain of Honour.

“She said ‘how come there’s no gentleman’s agreement on the presidency, we always bring the same person,’” Ms Muhanga quoted Ms Kadaga as having said. “She had grown to challenge the President and those around him at every opportunity.”

Ms Muhanga intimates that the former Speaker often picked up fights with First Lady Janet Museveni, who has also been in the Cabinet, in the House. “She would demand her presence even when she would delegate her deputy… she really wanted to humble the First Lady at any given opportunity.”

Isaac Musumba, a former-ally-turned bitter foe of Ms Kadaga in Kamuli District politics, also cites the former Speaker’s suggestion that she could possibly determine Museveni’s fate or partake in “his victory” as one bound to stoke ire.

“That it was her who was responsible for lifting the Age Limit [clause from the Constitution],” Musumba said.

Last week, before the NRM Central Executive Committee (CEC) at State House Entebbe, Ms Kadaga once more patted herself on the back: “I facilitated the amendment of the Constitution under Article 102 to enable continuity of the NRM ideology, but most importantly our national chairperson to continue leading the country after the end of the present term.”

In 2017, 317 MPs mainly from NRM voted to amend the Constitution to allow President Museveni to contest for his 6th elective term past the age of 75. Article 102(b) previously barred anyone from contesting for the presidency unless they were between 35 and 75 years of age.

The process of amending the Constitution was so contested that members of the Special Force Command invaded Parliament and beat up MPs who had in the past foiled a debate on the amendment.

It was also one of the most painful political moments in the recent history of the country, with at least 169 of the MPs who voted for the removal of the age limit losing the January 14 election.

Yet Ms Kadaga has never shied away from thumping her chest and claiming the lion’s share of the credit. But it is just as well that the old saying cites the lion and not the leopard’s share because the spotted animal would never share a kill except with its kin.

While Mr Museveni might let Ms Kadaga shoot herself in the foot by claiming credit for the thankless task, the political veteran in him would still have frowned upon her utterances.

“I said it would be undemocratic for CEC to sit five years early and say in five years’ time so and so will be our Speaker. Why don’t we do that for the President? Every five years he comes and says there is an election. Even in Kamuli, they cannot determine that [in five years so and so will be MP],”Kadaga told CEC on May 20.

“So you can’t come and say for us [CEC] we decided on the Speakership five years ago. Are you deciding for us like the way cattle are herded?”

Here, the Queen on Museveni’s chessboard had boldly asked all the other pieces to see her powers in the same way they see and protect the King from a checkmate.

In 2016, Kadaga beseeched the NRM to let her run Parliament for at least one more term. But not without taking an unwarranted attack on the person of her deputy.

Daily Monitor columnist Nicholas Sengoba has not forgotten Kadaga’s words in the now viral NTV clip.

“He is just a greedy man; he is just greedy and arrogant. For me, I waited for [Edward Kiwanuka] Ssekandi to work for 10 years before I came,” Kadaga said of Oulanyah’s 2016 bid for Speakership. Ms Atuhaire notes: “When she was campaigning in 2016, she kept saying, ‘why don’t they want me to finish my 10 years…’ as if it was written anywhere that everyone must be Speaker for 10 years.”

Five years later, Ms Kadaga returned for the same seat and again went for Oulanyah bare knuckles.

“For those who were in Parliament, you saw how tense things were during the Age Limit debate. I was in America and then passed through London… my deputy called me saying there was something he couldn’t handle. I came straight to the fire. Chairs were flying. My deputy runs away, out of the country,” she said.

Arrogant or bold?

But long before Ms Kadaga clashed with her deputy, who had joined the floor to defend himself after an illegal motion had been moved against his decision to return the controversial Shs20m MPs had appropriated themselves from the Covid-19 coffers, Ms Kadaga had shown what she saw herself as being in Parliament.

“One of her comments that stuck in my mind is the time she retorted, rather brusquely, to Winnie Kiiza’s obviously legitimate point of order about there being no quorum in the House: ‘Are you questioning the power of the Speaker?’” recalls Andrew Karamagi, a human rights lawyer.

“She shut her down and proceeded with business, with a quorum clearly lacking. If my memory serves, this was during the heated Togikwatako sessions. I think this was thoroughly improper because quorum is a non-negotiable component of the parliamentary system we run in Uganda. It constituted a major arrogation of the Rules of Procedure -- all the more outrageous because the House was handling a major issue,” he adds.

On August 20, 2016, NTV tweeted a newsbyte of Kadaga telling off the public for venting against the dishing out of Shs150m to buy new cars for MPs.

“If the public is against the 150m cars for MPs, let the government buy new ones at 450m,” she said.

Ms Kadaga, Atuhaire noted, employed patronage and ran her office like she owned the lives of the MPs under her. She was always out to defend them when it came to such spending, including the worst moment during that controversial Shs20m Covid-19 money despite the timing when millions of Ugandans were wallowing under lockdown without basic necessities.

“Why don’t they want us [MPs] to be visible? We are elected leaders,” Ms Kadaga said in defence of the Shs20m to each MP during a clash with the Executive that wanted the Legislature to stick only to Covid-19 legislation.

On Besigye, sectarianism

In November 2012, Ms Kadaga criticised Dr Kizza Besigye, suggesting that then FDC president was to blame for the brutal way the Ugandan police treated him. Speaking to Ugandans living in Canada, Ms Kadaga said Besigye’s actions had brought suffering to the business community.

“Besigye needs to cooperate with the police. This is the only way we can reduce the current political polarisation. For sure, if Besigye asks for clearance from the police, we would avoid these problems; but the man wants to go to markets and crush people’s tomatoes. We cannot allow that to go on, because the tomatoes that are being crushed are a source of livelihood for the traders who are selling them. The police have to protect them,” she said.

Ms Kadaga knew Besigye at the time did not hold rallies from markets, and had his movement restricted beyond his home gate. But she was still a politician who knew which pond the frog in her had to croak. Whether it was Besigye or former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi, she just had to be poked at the right time.

One such “right time” came in 2015 when she declared her home area of Busoga to be off limits to politicians from “other tribes.” She used sandpaper to scrub off Mr Mbabazi from the face of Busoga in a diatribe that she remained unapologetic about.

“You, a Musoga from here in Kidera, you will not go to Mbarara and tell those people that vote [for] so and so; they will chase you, they will actually beat you,” she said.

“Mbabazi has gone there [Kamuli] several times in the night. Have you ever seen me in Kanungu [Mbabazi’s home district] telling people not to elect either Mbabazi or [Chris] Baryomunsi...? People who are not residents, they are not our clansmen; they are not landowners in Busoga, why should they determine who comes to Parliament from Busoga?”

Reminded that her comments could be construed as being sectarian, she said; “No, but why should a Mukiga decide for us or a Munyankore for that matter? Have we Basoga gone to Acholi to decide leaders there? The only time a Musoga [Ngoma Ngime] tried to win a seat in Mbarara, they threw him out. They refused to give him votes because he was a Musoga. It’s not sectarianism.”

That was Ms Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga, the iron lady, who talked her way into trouble and suffered a mighty fall on Sunday, May 23, and now faces threats of a disciplinary committee of ruling NRM party.