Controversial Mityana South legislator Richard Kizito Lumu is stranded waiting for feedback from the leadership of the National Unity Platform (NUP) over his prayer to meet them to get their view concerning his proposal to amend the Parliament’s Administration Bill 2024.

Lumu was told by the Speaker Annet Anita Among to proceed with his amendments and he was given leave to draft and table the bill where he is seeking to amend Parliament’s Administration Act  which among others seeks to change the method of choosing the Leader of Opposition in Parliament.

Lumu wants the LOP to be voted by the entire opposition MPs and not the leader of the leading opposition party in the country.

Lumu also wants the Deputy Speaker of parliament to be elected from members of opposition and the number of opposition parliamentary commissioners to be increased from one to two among others.

Lumu confirmed that he notified all opposition political parties which have legislators in parliament in writing seeking for their audience to collect their views on his proposals before he presents it on the floor of parliament for the first reading.

Last week, Lumu met the leadership of UPC.

He added that this week, he is going to meet other opposition political parties even though the leadership of NUP declined to reply him.

He adds that he doesn’t know whether to meet their leadership at their party headquarters at Makerere Kavule in Kawempe Division or at the home of their party president Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine).

However, Alex Mufumbiro the NUP deputy spokesperson noted that they don’t have time for Lumu given that they have a lot of issues to deal with especially liberating Ugandans from president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s alleged bad leadership.

He explained that if Lumu really wants their input in his controversial bill, he would have first met them before presenting it to parliament.

Recently, theGrapevine reported that Bobi Wine claimed that Lumu is being used by President Museveni and speaker Among to weaken the opposition and deny Ugandans right to elect their president.

He predicted that after the passing the Lumu bill on electing the LOP, his next assignment will be to produce a bill giving parliament powers to elect the president.

By Hadijjah Namagembe

Kampala city traders associations members under their umbrella body the Federation of Uganda Traders Association (FUTA) have tasked their controversial chairperson John Kabanda to give them accountability for the funds they contributed to run federation activities.

Isaac Kauma, a member of Kampala Traders Association, exclusively revealed to theGrapevine that Kabanda turned furious and started spreading malicious propaganda against a section of traders who are demanding for accountability of their money which they have been contributing since last year.

Kauma narrated that when President Museveni confirmed that he was going meet them again on 18^th July, 2024 at Kololo Airstrip ground to further discuss their grievances over the controversial Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing Solution (EFRIS), Kabanda and other FUTA leaders approached traders and asked them to contribute money which they were going to use to transport traders from all corners of the country to fill the entire venue to show the president that they have the numbers and the capacity.

He added that Kabanda confirmed to them that they need numbers to out compete members of the Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA) who wanted to show the president that they are the ones controlling traders after accusing KACITA leadership of betraying them and by being in bed with Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) which was imposing EFRIS on them.

Kauma asserted that more than 1000 traders around Kampala city contributed between Shs10,000-Shs20,000 but the meeting didn’t take place because the venue was under renovation and the president promised to meet them on another date.

He said that State House made the said announcement after Kabanda and other traders’ leaders met Museveni at State House Entebbe and they were told that Kabanda and his deputy chairperson Godfrey Katongole asked the president for a private meeting with him which the president accepted.

Kauma added that they later learnt that Kabanda and Katongole asked the President to give them Shs3bn to mobilize traders to accept EFRIS a proposal the president declined to accept.

The President told them that he doesn’t the money they were asking for but promised to put Shs300m in their SACCO.

“From that day, Kabanda’s behavior is questionable, he always doesn’t want to be asked questions on why the president is not meeting us and turns furious when asked to give us accountability for the money we contributed for the function which didn’t take place,” Kauma said.

He revealed that the accountability issue has weakened the federation thus causing a sharp fight between Kabanda and Katongole.

Other traders allege that Kabanda has fired Katongole from being his vice chairperson and removed him from their WhatsApp group and replaced him with Moses Lwegaba the chairperson of Katukazane Shoe Dealers Association.

Sources claim that Katongole supporters are now threatening to take action against Kabanda for firing the man who has done everything in the struggle to fight for traders and replaced him with a newcomer.

Insiders are now alleging that the two leaders are fighting over a bribe they received during the EFRIS strike when traders closed their shops.

There is another allegation that Katongole was given money to go to the Eastern part of the country and mobilize traders to join the strike but he refused to go and decided to hide in Kampala.

When he was put under pressure to provide evidence that he traveled upcountry and had none, he was shown the exit.

When contacted, Kabanda confirmed the infighting, explaining that it is aimed at weakening his FUTA leadership and the trust that the traders have placed in them.

He revealed that even though he is receiving threatening messages, his resolve is still strong and he is ready to fight for all traders.

He denied allegations of mismanaging traders’ money.

By Timothy Nyanzi

The Inspector General of Government (IGG) Beti Namisango Kamya has kicked off investigation into allegation that top city tycoons connived with Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL) to benefit from Shs28.8bn illegal compensation from President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s government.

The development resulted from a requested letter from Dr Sam Mayanja the State Minister for Lands in the Ministry of Lands Housing and Urban Development claiming that the land where government compensated the tycoons is public land hence they fraudulently obtained the land titles they used to secure the deal.

Mayanja revealed to the IGG that he has done preliminary investigation into the allegations and establish that the tycoons secured the land titles registered on: LRV 4143 Folio 2 Plot 14, LRV 4143 Folio 3 Plot 16, KCCA 3741, Folio 19 Plot 12A, LRV 4144 Folio 7 Plot 28-40,  LRV 4139 Folio 13, Plot 8, LRV 4130 Folio 14, Plot 41, Volume KCCA 232 Folio 21, Plot 1-4. 5-7, and 8-11 and LRV 4149 Folio 15 Plots 18-26 and 10-12 fraudulently after learning that the government was going to pass the Namanve-Luzira 132 KV transmission through that land.

Mayanja further claim that the accused tycoons include: Flavia Muntuyera, Asuman Irunga, Delmas Apartments Limited, Prestigious Apartments Limited, Aisha Mulungi, Irene Kwera and to his surprise, Muntuyera and Irunga had been listed twice which means they had benefited twice.

Mayanja also revealed that he has established that the said tycoons didn’t pay stamp duty when the land titles were made in their respective names.

In the letter to the IGG, Mayanja said that he has instructed the Commissioner Land Registration to put a caveat on the said land titles in question until the investigations are complete.

He pleaded with her to also take legal action against all the culprits for causing financial loss to the government.

However, theGrapevine established that the multibillion transaction resulted from a court suit where the tycoons sued the Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka, UETCL which was represented by K&K Advocates, a law firm where Kiwanuka is a founding partner and the Commissioner Land Registration and all parties entered a settlement to resolve the matter out of court.

It was agreed that all the plaintiffs agreed to be compensated with Shs28.852bn being full and final settlement on all the claims they had on the land and highly placed sources in the Ministry of Lands confirmed to theGrapevine that the said amount of money was paid to the beneficiaries.

However, in September 2023, Attorney General Kiwanuka wrote a legal opinion advising that the government should not compensate any land title in a wetland and his advice was directly going to the people who claim that they were affected during the construction of the electricity transmission line along Namanve-Luzira.

“Section 44 of the Land Act guides us on how we should deal with this land and provides for the control of the environmentally sensitive areas. Therefore, we are of the considered opinion that titles issued in wetlands, including those in lakes after the Land Act Cap 227, are contrary to the law and illegal,” the Attorney General stated.

theGrapevine has established that the Commission of Inquiry into land matters, Justice Catherine Bamugemereire who was the chairperson of the commission recommended that people who obtained private land titles in Namanve and Luzira wetlands including those in the lake should not be compensated by the government.

By Sengooba Alirabaki