KAMPALA: President Yoweri Museveni is fond of deploying yellow girls in various positions of the party and government in a bid to emancipate women.
Despite their rise being smooth, most of them have not found it rosy at the apex, creating enmity and leading to their unforeseen descent into silence and the back of the curtain.
In this article, we look at various individuals who indeed made it to the top, with unlimited time to interact with the President, only to become mute due to various reasons.
Persis Namuganza
Persis Namuganza, the state minister for lands, housing and urban development, has been one of the latest Museveni girls to face the wrath what she called jealous, backstabbing and enmity for hard work.
The Member of Parliament for Bukono County in Namutumba district was censured in January by Parliament over what they termed misconduct.
A Hon. Mwine Mpaka led Committee formed under Rule 109 of the Rules of Procedure to establish whether a prima facie case has been established against Namuganza returned in the affirmative.
The committee unanimously found her to be in violation of her oath, and that her conduct satisfied the grounds in Article 118 of the Constitution.
“…the matters raised in the interview [which Hon Namuganza gave to various media houses] was obnoxious, reckless, insufferable, beyond the pale and in per incuriam,” said Mwine Mpaka.
He added that, ’it was an attack on the person of the Speaker and the Parliament without due regard to the Rules of Procedure, the protected status, the procedure of redress, the applicability of privilege and decorum of the House,” read the committee’s findings in part.”
The minister declined to appear and defend herself in both the committee and in the House, choosing to instead say the matter is before court and therefore sub-judice, a view repeated by her lawyers who sought to halt the proceedings on the same ground.
Out of 356 votes, 348 voted to have the minister censured.
However, the next step was for the President to dismiss Namuganza, which he has not done.
To date Namuganza does not boast of the energy she had before the censure move, leaving her mute and dormant.
How did she rise?
Namuganza started off as an employee of the Anti-Corruption Coalition before serving as the chairperson Busoga Youth Forum from 2010 to 2011. She was later to catch the eye of the President who appointed as a deputy Resident District Commissioner (RDC) for Luweero District until 2015 when she contested in Bukono on NRM ticket and joined Parliament.
Museveni immediately appointed her state minister for lands, a position she holds up to date.
Ida Nantaba
The Kayunga Woman Member of Parliament mostly shot to fame when she called Museveni during a public rally, knelt down and petitioned him that his people were hungry.
Since then Nantaba became a subject of controversy in the midst of fighting rampant land grabbing in central Uganda.
Nantaba joined politics in a shock move in 2010, ousting the then District Representative Florence Naiga.
At the next cabinet reshuffle, Museveni appointed her state minister for lands, replacing Sarah Opendi. While lands state minister, Nantaba stepped on various strong toes, receiving death threats from different corners.
She was then given SFC escorts. At times the legislator would appear in public donning the SFC military fatigue.
Right from her nomination to the position of state minister, controversy erupted over her academic qualifications. However, after some pushing and pulling, Nantaba was okayed by the Parliamentary vetting committee.
Along the way Nantaba continued creating controversial scenes, quitting the NRM party in 2015 following cases of vote rigging during primaries. In 2016, she was won her seat again in a landslide victory with a more than 60,000 margin of votes.
Although she was still appointed minister of state for ICT, her public appearance and energy had started fading.
The climax came with the fatal incident when a one Ronald Ssebulime was shot dead in 2019. Ssebulime was wrongly though to be an assassin who was following Nantaba, prompting the police officers to arrest him, cuff him and shoot him.
In 2020, Nantaba contested again for the district Woman MP and won controversially, resulting in a court petition.
In a March 2023 ruling, High Court dismissed the petition against Nantaba and she continues serving as Kayunga Woman MP, albeit ‘silently’.
Molly Kamukama
Molly Nuwe Kamukama sprung to limelight after being appointed Principal Private Secretary to the President in 2016, following a successful general election.
Before replacing PPS Mary Amajo, Kamukama worked at Museveni’s private mobilization office together with Don Wanyama now Vision Group Chief Executive Officer.
Kamukama was hailed by the President for her mobilision skills and commitment to serve the people.
However, during her time as PPS, Kamukama was criticized for blocking many people from accessing the President, leading to her departure from the same office in 2019.
Kamukama was replaced by Dr Kenneth Omona who was then Deputy National Treasurer at the Party Secretariat. She was appointed state minister for economic monitoring under the President’s office.
The budding politician unsuccessfully contested for the seat of District Woman Member of Parliament for Kazo, losing to Jenifer Abaho Muheesi (NRM). Subsequently, Kamukama was also replaced as state minister for economic monitoring in June 2021.
In Parts 2 and 3, we look at the rising and fading of Amelia Kyambadde, Syda Bbumba, Janat Mukwaya and Moureen Kyalya. We shall also look at Mary Karooro, Catherine Kusasira, Full Figure etc.
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