Mabaati aside, here is why Museveni removed Kitutu, Nandutu from ‘dining table’

There are a number of reasons why President Museveni recently removed Hon Mary Goretti Kitutu and Agnes Nandutu from the Ministerial ‘dinning table’ putting aside the the mabaati saga, and below I will delve straight away into what I believe could have impeded the duo’s return to the cabinet.

Poor etiquette during the dining;- How you hold the folk matters a lot during such high profile functions,and eating “food “meant for voters in this case the karachunas is an agrrevated crime in itself with no defences to disentangle one from punishment. Recall the voters will be monitoring for the leftovers and other related spillovers. As they say that what killed the chameleon was nothing but camouflage changing colours unaware that it was being monitored.

 Important to emphasize again, that Hon Nandutu had roughly served for less than 900 days as a State Minister for Karamoja Affairs. Other core reasons for rejection from the cabinet include the following;

Lack of solid home support;-Both ministers are not politically solid on the ground or across the region, their popularity among Bamasaaba is in doubt, whereas ministers like Hon Lugoloobi who is also facing similar charges relating to mismanagement of public office in regard to the mabaati scandal managed to mobilize the whole of Kayunga were masses told president not to touch their son and Mr Museveni appears to have listened and yielded. Politics is just like business, numbers matter a lot, and both Kitutu and Nandutu failed to mobilize Bamasaaba to their cause

For example, recently when some fingers  were pointed bieng towards the speaker of Parliament Anita Among for mismanaging Parliamentary cash, she mobilized the whole of Teso and invited the president to open the hospital she had constructed and the president was very impressed with the turn-up of thousands of mwanainchi and the projects on ground .

The speaker reported to the President how many people she is employing hundreds of people and how she raised the money to construct the hospital. Both Nandutu and Kitutu had nothing on ground to hoodwink the president to disentangle them from the mess they were in.

Secondly, Hon Nandutu during the ineguration ceremony of Umukuka III in early October last year, flatly refused to kneel while greeting the cultural leader, while the likes of Hon Namuwenge Ritah (Emyooga coordinator) and Hon Lydia Wanyoto (now Senior Presidential Advisor and CEC member) where rolling freely in the mud with joy when Government gazetted the cultural leader and welcoming their Cultural leader. Hon Nandutu could have none of this, the Bamasaaba cultures and customs encourage respect for elders, and many elders were disturbed by this level of behaviour, and many culturalist predicted the current outcome. In Buganda, if one won’t kneel for the kabaka he should know he has lost an election in advance .

Hon Kitutu did not ask for requests from  the president to pardon her for having mismanaged the mabaati scandal, but she was instead seen rather trouting villages to village and telling her voters and relatives in Namisindwa on NTV Uganda that the president couldn’t sack her. A president can sack even the most harding minister, appointment is discretionary while termination of political service is equally discretionary as he needs no permission from anyone to do so.

The Karamoja-Bugisu rivalry over theft of bugisu cows by Karamojongs;- The other reason is that there was a lot of pressure from the karachuna ( karamoja warriors) who have anatural mistrust with their neither Bamasaaba. Recall that Karamojongs have been labelled as thieves of cattle by Bamasaaba conversely, the Karamojongs were pushing the president to remove the two ministers to let the world know that Bamasaaba also have thieves among them.

Many of the iron sheets that were stolen by the ministers were not put into charitable works like what others had done. In criminal law, there is stealing with a good motive, the one who steals to feed say 100 orphaned children may not be punished like the one who steals to sell and go and drink.

Hon Kitutu through her agents was said to have been seen selling the iron sheets through the agents  in an open market while Hon Nandutu is said to have used them to roof her sty on her piggery farm in Wakiso. The arrested agents appeared to have given in and that the brother of Kitutu is still inside. Politics is about numbers and not family.

Crimes on theft ultra vires the penal code sections 253, 254 and the Anti Corruption Act 2009  sections 2 up to section 6 and once convicted can  attract avery severe punishment.

Howver many pundits fault the office of prime minister for not guiding some of these ministers for example, Hon Nandutu as a TV presenter had limited knowledge on public disposal of public assets ,while Kitutu who is very erudite with Ph.D. qualifications should have known the disposal procedures/ allocation procedure of public items than anyone else, notwithstanding the prime minister Nabanja claims that PHD holders are difficult to supervise .

In politics numbers and the voice of Mwanainchi matter a lot. A story is told of how General Amin who was about to ‘finish’ off a prominent Mukiga from Rukungiri and the bakiga came in lorryfuls and pleaded with him and he had no option but to pardon the said person. Metaphorically there were no millions from Bugisu pleading with the president to spare their daughters and there is no noise against their being removed from the ministry of Karamoja from Bamasaaba.

Mao tsetung  the famous Chinese leader once said that he is protected by the masses. Politicians need masses if they are  to breath politically for along time.