Mr Richard Lumu, the Mityana South Member of Parliament
Two months ago, in a move that was aimed to show that he has more allies within the Opposition beyond his party the National Unity Platform (NUP), Mr Mathias Mpuuga, the Nyendo-Mukungwe lawmaker, visited Richard Lumu, who represents Mityana South on a Democratic Party (DP) ticket.
On the face of it, Mr Mpuuga had gone to condole with Mr Lumu who had lost his mother. Yet, as has become a norm in Uganda, the burial quickly turned into a political function. Mr Mpuuga praised Mr Lumu. The immediate past Leader of the Opposition in Parliament (LoP) said Mr Lumu’s mother had raised a steadfast son who could comprehend issues and thus deserves another term.
Mr Mpuuga directed veiled digs at Francis Zaake, the Mityana Municipality lawmaker who is widely seen as the pit bull of Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentumu, alias Bobi Wine. The former LoP said unlike Mr Lumu, Mr Zaake wasn’t effectively representing his constituents in the House.
“Today I’m not here to talk about politics, but I want to thank you for voting for Lumu because those in the neighbouring constituency voted for some one who has an idea what Parliament is all about,” Mr Mpuuga said in July.
From being an ordinary backbencher, Mr Lumu has now become the talk of the nation after House Speaker Anita Among allowed him to introduce a Private Member’s Bill titled The Administration of Parliament Amendment Bill 2024. According to the Mityana South lawmaker, the Bill intends to revise the LoP selection.
Ever since multiparty politics was reinstated in 2006, the LoP has been picked by the President of the Opposition party with the biggest numbers in the House. Mr Lumu wants that changed, claiming that the manner of election of the LoP, as it stands, excludes other Opposition political parties represented in Parliament and yet the LoP superintends over all of them, even cherry-picking their shadow cabinet from among them.
The motives NUP's reaction has been to accuse Mr Lumu of being a proxy of, first, Mr Mpuuga, who they claim wants to reclaim his powers following Bobi Wine’s decision to replace him with Nakawa West lawmaker Joel Ssenyonyi. The first person to front such an allegation was Mr Patrick Oshabe Nsamba, the Kasanda North lawmaker, who claimed that Mr Mpuuga wanted the LoP office back in a bid to build his political ambitions.
“How will the amendments be helpful?” Mr Nsamba, who himself was at one time interested in the LoP position, wondered.“They are just planning to fail the Leader of the Opposition, Ssenyonyi. That’s all they want.”
Mr Lumu’s decision to come up with the Bill came after some Opposition lawmakers accused Ssenyonyi of not consulting them when he asked the Opposition to stay away from regional parliamentary sittings that commenced in Gulu. LoP Ssenyonyi defended his decision to call for an Opposition boycott, saying it was a waste of taxpayers' money.
“Unfortunately, some of my colleagues in Parliament have decided to trivialize this matter and make it look like a personal issue,” Mr Ssenyonyi said, adding, “We are opposed to the general idea of holding these regional meetings and not just northern Uganda. What do ordinary people in northern Uganda want if you ask them? What they want are services like good roads and medicines in hospitals. When you tell them they are going to spend Shs5 billion just for a meeting, it doesn’t make sense.”
Sidelined
Unlike Mr Mpuuga, who it is claimed was involved in decisions that the parliamentary leadership made, Mr Ssenyonyi has been complaining that he has been locked out of such meetings ever since he assumed the LoP mantle.
"At least in my case, I am not going to keep quiet when things go wrong. I am not going to keep quiet when the Commission is operating like a small clique because the Commission isn’t just these few backbenchers that meet, and distribute money amongst themselves,” Mr Ssenyonyi said back in June, adding of the backbench commissioners, “They meet to approve the recruitment of several people, many of whom we under stand are their relatives. They meet to award contracts in some cases where there is a conflict of interest because some of the companies that are awarded contracts belong to people who sit in some of these small meetings, and maybe that is why they don’t invite some of us for these meetings because we shall ask questions.”
Mr Ssenyonyi also disclosed that the Opposition has no sufficient funds for its accountability committees as the Commission keeps spending money on personal work.
“Let Parliament work as an institution, and not someone’s small kiosk or small property because that is why we have a challenge in this country,” he said, adding,“That is why there are billions of monies running on different accounts for personal work and yet Committees don’t have money to operate.
It is something I am challenging, it is something I am not going to keep quiet about, and I will not allow somebody to intimidate me because I am not here on the invitation of anybody. I was voted for by the people of Nakawa West, nobody in this building invited me.”
The Leader of Opposition, Joel Ssenyonyi making presentation on the floor of Parliament recently. PHOTO/ FILE
Mr Ssenyonyi repeated the same claims recently when he said he had been ignored when the House decided to have regional sittings.
"I did write several letters about the regional sitting of Parliament in Gulu City and didn’t get a response about it," the LoP, who is making his debut in Parliament, said. “When I am speaking about corruption and fighting it, it’s my job. The role of the LoP is to play oversight and keep the government in check."
Independent minded
While Mr Ssenyonyi is making accusations in coming up with the Bill that will ostensibly weaken the power of the leading Opposition party, Mr Lumu has made counter-accusations against Mr Ssenyonyi. The Mityana South lawmaker has indirectly accused the LoP of arrogance that borders on dictatorship.
“No amount of words will inhibit my thinking. Even if someone speaks until his lips become red I will do what I want,” Mr Lumu said this past week, adding that he doesn’t want anybody to think for him.
“One of the reasons why I don’t like Yoweri Museveni, the President of this country,... is his belief that he is the only person who thinks in this country. Now even on this side [in the Opposition] some people want to think for me. Where will I go now? If I go to NRM (National Resistance Movement), they think for me. Even in Opposition, they want to think for me. I can’t stomach that.”
Mr Lumu’s Bill seems to have mobilised some lawmakers within NUP who are disgruntled with the party’s leadership.
Mr Michael Kakembo, the Entebbe Municipality lawmaker, who seconded Mr Lumu’s motion said the issue has exposed the lack of leadership within NUP.
“All leaders, including my president, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, have failed to learn. And when he refuses to learn, he shames our political party. The level at which my president is at, I’m just a call away. I’m his son for that matter. We have been warning him that our president [Kyagulanyi] should be the last to speak because you might embarrass yourself. But he never listens,” Mr Kakembo, who has been singled out as an ally of Mr Mpuuga said.
NUP faulted Mr Kakembo who referred to how during the last term the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) managed to fight a similar Bill that was fronted by Busiro East lawmaker Medard Lubega Sseggona and his Ndorwa East counterpart, Wilfred Nuwagaba. Mr Kakembo said without raising much dust, FDC was able to kill the Bill.
“Just look at how FDC managed the situation and compare it with how NUP has gone about the situation. You would conclude that FDC scored more than NUP,”he said.
Mr Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, the Kira Municipality lawmaker elected on an FDC ticket, said the mistake Bobi Wine made was to choose not to consult Opposition parties when handpicking the LoP. Mr Ssemujju cites former FDC president Mugisha Muntu who consulted Opposition political parties before picking Winifred Kiiza as the LoP in 2016.
“There has been a tendency not to consult. Mpuuga was picked without consulting. Ssenyonyi was picked without consulting. They need to look into this if they are fighting this kind of Bill,” Mr Ssemujju said.
The response from NUP came from Waiswa Mufumbiro, the party’s deputy spokesperson, who assured other Opposition political parties that working with them is at the discretion of his party.
“We are in multiparty dispensation. We aren’t a coalition or merger, and in the absence of a coalition or merger it’s nonsensical for one to believe one can create conditions as if we have a merger,” Mr Mufumbiro said.
The NUP deputy spokesperson advised other Opposition political parties to officially make a coalition with the ruling NRM.
“They have already made a coalition with the NRM. They should be free. They shouldn’t disturb the peace and hegemony of the National Unity Platform in its mandate it was pushed to,” Mr Mufumbiro said.
Mr Lumu, who was among the few non-NUP candidates who survived the NUP wave that swept across Buganda in the 2021 General Elections, has insisted nothing is going to stop them from tabling the Bill.
“They are threatening me that they will target me during the next elections [in 2026]. I’m not going to be a cowed. I have just been in parliament for three years: How have I survived for all things? I’m a lawyer and I can go back and practice law. I also have a coffee plantation. I will go back and take care of my coffee, but I will have to pursue this,”Mr Lumu said.
