The Namuganza bird knew full well she was flying into the eye of the storm. Brave or foolhardy. Optimist or delusional. Never mind the collective worries and warnings. Her mind was made up.
Premature in her soaring ambition or sensing her moment, she was hell-bent on treading where lions fear to tread.
But like the saying goes; anybody can bully a caged lion but only a fool can do so when the bars are gone. Was Namuganza swallowing more than what she could chew? This is the question that still lingers in many people’s minds.
“Notice that it is a full house whenever Parliament debates ‘disciplinary’ action against Madam Anita Among’s critics. But the MPs will be ‘busy’ elsewhere when Parliament is debating critical issues. Trust Among to raise a mob when she wants some mob justice against her ‘enemies’,” National Unity Platfporm (NUP) principal said in a tweet.
Come that hot afternoon on January, 23 in the hallowed environs of Parliament, we could only watch and warm to the bravery Namuganza brought to challenging the wrecking ball of 11th Parliament and Iron Lady from Bukedea.
Despite the inevitable end, one could still stand to salute and marvel at the resilience and indomitable will of Namuganza, a woman of steel with a penchant for wars. From standing up against then strong Speaker Rebecca Kadaga to now fighting her successor Among, we are yet to see whether the fiery Namuganza will survive the claws of Bukedea’s strong lady.
“I am still a State minister for Lands. I can only just laugh to those that censured me in Parliament. Is it them who appointed me? It is only President Museveni who can fire me,” Namuganza recently said, while speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the Liberation Day in Kakumiro district.
The hidden suggestion here is that what the legislators did was a waste of time and that they had not fully acquainted themselves with the hard-hitting princess from Busoga.
Namuganza’z censure, however, sent shock waves throughout Busoga sub-region where many have failed to recorgnize the princess from Namutumba as one of the authentic lords of the region’s murky politics.
“I am only shocked at how the Busoga MPs behaved in unison not only in rejecting their own, but also importantly in joining hands in such unprecedented mob action to guillotine her in her political career,” said former Kigulu North MP, Edward Baliddawa Kafufu.
Journalist Simon Muyanga Lutaaya while on a live show sarcastically lashed out at Parliament for mobilizing itself to cause the censure of the Busoga minister as though it was the most pressing issue at hand.
“I want to thank Parliament for censuring Namuganza. Uganda’s problems are finally solved by this censure. Hospitals will have drugs, our roads will be okay, the youths will get jobs and Uganda Cranes will qualify for Afcon now that Namuganza is gone,” Lutaaya remarked,” Lutaaya remarked, and for such motor-mouthing, he was suspended from his job on Baba TV.
Iganga district chairperson Ezra Gabula said the behavior of the Busoga MPs towards their fellow legislator from Busoga is sacrilegious.
“The enmity of a brother or sister is felt on the skin and not in the bone marrow,” Gabula said in reference to Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.
He said the Busoga legislators ought to have used the relevant platforms in Busoga sub-region to bring Namuganza to order instead of throwing her to the wolves.
“We have the Busoga Consortium and other platforms that they should have used before throwing everything to the blast,” Gabula said, while appealing to President Yoweri Museveni to spearhead reconciliation and restore Busoga’s ministerial post.
How her troubles began
Ms Namuganza, the erstwhile junior Lands minister who doubles as Bukono County legislator, has in recent months been at loggerheads with her fellow members in the House. She was accused of being indisciplined and undermining the integrity of the House after she raised what was referred to as obnoxious, reckless and insufferable statements against the person of the Speaker of Parliament, in which she alleged that her marriage to Budiope East MP Moses Magogo was a fraud.
The marriage was in August last year annulled by Geoffrey Rwakabale—in his capacity as Makindye Division Town Clerk at the time. Mr Rwakabale is Ms Namuganza’s husband.
Namuganza in a past interview claimed her husband was receiving threatening messages and alleged that Speaker Among knew about the said messages.
Namuganza, perhaps in support of her husband, decided to take the fight to the Speaker but like Ikarus in Greek mythology – the Namuganza bird was brought crashing down when she flew too close to the sun thereby burning her wings.
