Lands Minister Beti Kamya, who abandoned her own Federal Alliance Party and jumped in bed with wealthier NRM party, says President Museveni has never been politically stronger and with more political legitimacy to government Uganda than today. She claims that Gen Museveni’s approval ratings have gone up because of the decisiveness with which he has led his people in responding to the Coronavirus pandemic. Speaking on Dunstan Busulwa’s Top Radio show over the weekend, Kamya said Ugandans must be proud of the fact that the rest of the world these days looks at Uganda for positive inspiration than they have ever done at any one point since 1986.
She was responding to the question by one of the callers who claimed that President Museveni was fearing being defeated by the opposition at next elections and was looking forward to using the Coronavirus pandemic as justification to postpone elections to 2023. “The President Museveni I know can’t be scared of elections at this point in time because more people now spontaneously love him than ever before. He is more credible with more legitimacy than even he had in 1986 when he had just taken power. I have been in politics for 20 years and I can say without fear of contradiction that he is more popular and more legitimate to lead this country today than ever before. He has led the COVID response very prudently and he too knows that more people love him now than before implying there is no way he can fear anything about going into elections,” said Kamya who years ago famously vowed to ensure Gen Museveni wins 80% of the Kampala vote in 2021.
“It’s in his interest that elections are held soonest and there is no way it can ever be postponed even if that’s what he wanted himself because to do so, you must amend the Constitution and do many other things which we don’t have time for.” Kamya also bragged being part of the renewed NRM whose grass root leaders in Rubaga North she thanked for unanimously permitting her to carry their flag in 2021 against Kasibante Moses who he said too hateful of President Museveni to bring any development to Rubaga. She enumerated the roads that have been worked on because she was able to lobby using his Ministerial positions including the one in Lungujja where she has stayed living on sorry state murram road since she was a child of 5 years.
Claiming to personally now be more powerful politically than at any other time in her 20 years of political practice, Kamya vowed to use her current position to clean up the land management systems in ways that will appease the populace, especially Bibanja holders, who will respond by loving Gen Museveni even more. Kamya, who accepted commendations from callers who falsely claimed she is the one who sorted out the Abid Alam madness in Simeo Nsubuga’s Kasanda, revealed she was ready to cancel all special titles issued in the last three years because many of these issuances were based on fraud involving staffers in the land ministry.
“The only big man I know in this country is the President and maybe the Vice President, the Prime Minister and his deputies. I have their clearance to effect these cancellations and nobody is going to stop me as long as I’m following what the law says. There are many big people who have special titles well knowing it’s illegal to have multiple land titles relating to one piece of land. You create an impression that the original title is missing, can’t be found and base on that to issue a special title and in the process deprive many legitimate owners. I’m going to cancel all of them and it won’t matter whether you are General so and so. Who can be more powerful than Abid Alam who we have finally overcome?” Kamya said with herself as lands minister, nobody is going to be tolerated hiding behind the name of the President or State House to orchestrate land injustices depriving the poor Bibanja holders.
OBBO AGREES
Her views on Museveni’s COVID-related political capital are corroborated by respected columnist and political pundit Onyango-Obbo who in his latest “Ear to the Ground” column in the Daily Monitor admitted that Gen Museveni was looking better and politically more strengthened going by the prudence with which he has tackled COVID response when compared to his peers elsewhere in the region. This is how Obbo makes his point: “The COVID19 pandemic has provided the crisis in which Museveni thrives and he has covered himself in some glory despite the brutality of Police and LDUs which he has criticized.”
The legendary Onyango-Obbo adds that now is the best time for Gen Museveni to ride on his newly found popularity and political legitimacy to very clearly indicate to the country his exit strategy as opposed to waiting to be forced out in very disgraceful circumstances. In the same article, Obbo denounces the Kampala regime for criminalizing dissenters who use the pen to express their political views like Dr. Stella Nyanzi and more recently Kakwenza Rukirabashaija whose incarceration he predicts will only inspire more other creative writers to emerge and take on Museveni while trivializing his legacy rather than cowing them.
Credit: mulengeranews.com
