The mighty Grapevine has exclusively landed on information showing that there is a clandestine mobilization plan to force embattled Speaker of Parliament Annet Anita Among out of office over sanctions.

Early this month, the United Kingdom announced sanctions against Among, former Karamoja affairs senior minister Marry Goretti Kitutu and her junior Agnes Nandutu over their involvement in corruption practices at the cost of vulnerable Ugandans.

A few days after the UK sanctions, the United Arab Emirates also sanctioned the said individuals. It should be remembered that United States of America was the first to put travel restriction on Speaker Among and she confirmed to parliament that they were witch haunting her for chairing the parliamentary session that passed the Anti-Homosexuality bill which was signed into a law by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

Highly placed sources said that the move to force Among out of office is spearheaded by controversial Lwemiyaga county legislator Theodore Ssekikubo who was also interested in the Speakership position when Jacob Oulanyah died in 2021 but was not given the National Resistance Movement (NRM) ticket.

Ssekikubo confirmed to theGrapevine that it is a shame for Among who holds the third powerful office in the government to be internationally indicted.

Ssekikuubo disclosed that something has to be done to save the country’s image internationally.

He explained that Uganda is a strong member of the Commonwealth, an organisation that unites former British colony and currently as the chairperson of the Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth parliaments, Uganda’s speaker has to participate in the meetings including the one which is expected to take place at the end of this year in London Britain.

Unfortunately she is not going to attend that meeting on behalf of Uganda because she was sanctioned by Britain.

Ssekikubo wants the Attorney General to come out and interpret what that means on Commonwealth laws.

“When our friend Jacob Oulanyah who was the Speaker of Parliament died, the Attorney General come out and interpreted that we cannot bury him before electing the new speaker. Now we want to know will the deputy speaker Thomas Tayebwa represent us in those international meetings because his office is very different from the office of the speaker when it comes to the laws of Uganda,” Ssekikubo said.

He insisted that Among should resign to give the international community confidence that the Ugandan government is very serious when it comes to fighting corruption.

Ssekikubo warned that if she remains in office, many donor countries and organisations including serious investors are going to stop bringing their money into the country fearing that it will be mismanaged.

He added that as an experienced legislator, he expected the sanctions against Among and it is the reason why he tried to save her by bringing to the floor of parliament the issue of the corruption allegation made against parliament leadership through the social media exhibition but instead of listening to him and taking action, the speaker herself rubbished him.

He noted that when donor countries start seeing a speaker who is in the middle of corruption allegations stopping senior legislators like him from discussing these accusation, it means that she is above the law and the only way to tame her is through sanctioning her.

He added that the country also needed a good explanation of how the speaker presided over a meeting where parliamentary commissioners including the former Leader of Opposition Mathius Nsamba awarded themselves billions of funds without proper procedures.

theGrapevine has however established that anti-Among groups know very well that Museveni is likely not to force her to resign in the middle of this term but they will use the sanction as a de-campaigning weapon come 2026.

Charles Rwomushana a former State House operative related that the only thing that will save Museveni’s government from the international community is to sacrifice Among.

“I think Museveni will do what he did to Amama Mbabazi, Sam Kutesa and Gilbert Bukenya when they mismanage the 2007 Ghogm money. He may order for her arrest, charge and imprison her but at the end of the movie she will be exonerated,” he said.

When she won the Speakership race, Among told her enemies that she will be on top of the parliament leadership for 20 years. She was elected as a deputy speaker in 2021, in 2022 she was then elected the speaker of parliament after the death of Oulanyah.

State House sources claim that Museveni was not comfortable with Among’s candidature and he supported Jacob Oboth Oboth the current Defense and Veteran affairs Minister but he was overruled by members of the NRM Central Executive Committee (CEC) and NRM caucus in parliament.

By Sengooba Alirabaki

Maverick four time presidential candidate Dr. Kizza Besigye has narrated how he forced his longtime political opponent President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni to think about his death.

Appearing on Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi’s CBS radio, Besigye boasted that he is not regretting the energy he has invested in to fight against President Museveni’s leadership because it has started yielding fruits and Ugandans should come together and harvest because the man is at his weakest point.

He explained that in 2001, the time he started fighting Museveni, he was very powerful physically and financially to the extent that he had the capacity to buy thousands of motorcycles to compromise his youthful supporters.

He added that Museveni had a lot of love from Ugandans and he used to travel without huge security but currently, because he is very sure that Ugandans are tired of him, he thinks that if he moves with small security they can attack him.

“I saw him exchanging words with traders at Kololo but the Museveni I know, to quarrel with civilians, I realised that the man is no longer in control of this country and Ugandans are just sleeping. They should wake up and throw him out of power” Besigye said.

He said that because Museveni doesn’t have money to spend, he feels that traders protesting the tax burden he placed on them are threatening his stay in power.

Besigye pleaded with Ugandans to wake up and protest against Museveni’s long stay in power claiming that he no longer has those strong fighting weapons he had between 2001-2016.

He explained how in his ongoing countrywide tour, he observed that the anti-riot vehicles that former Inspector General of Police Gen. Edward Kale Kayihura bought when he was still commanding police to fight opposition have been grounded.

He boasted that it was not accidental for Museveni to publically tell the world that very soon he is going to die.

He rallied Ugandans to fight for their country because they are the ones who are still going to stay in it.

“Now traders have started but they cannot fight this war alone, farmers also should join them and stop sending food to Kampala. I’m telling you those soldiers will come out of the barracks and force Museveni out of power so that farmers send food to them to eat,” Besigye said.

He said that the reason why he is carrying out countrywide political tours is because he wants to awaken Ugandans and he is jappy that the public is responding.

Besigye confirmed that he does not regret the energy he spent in FDC which he claims the current party leadership at Najjanankumbi sold to President Museveni because of their personal agenda.

“I left my well-paying job at Nairobi hospital, left my profession as a medical doctor and spend five years in the bush fighting for good governance in Uganda, the situation was harsh in the bush I’m telling you. We spent days without eating, drinking but running. The building of FDC was somehow easy compared to life in the bush,” Besigye said.

He assured Ugandans that elections will not overthrow Museveni because he uses them to divide the forces that fight him by allowing them to win parliament and local government elections so that they are paid at the end of the month, given allowances which makes them feel like they have power.

He explained that such opposition leaders told to fight the sitting government, they feel like the one telling them to do so doesn’t want them to enjoy power they won in their respective offices hence diverting their main mission of fighting Museveni.

By Grapevine Reporter

On several occasions, Dr. Prince Kassim Nakibinge Kakungulu the titular head of Muslims in Uganda has been seen publicly pleading with president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s government to release all political prisoners detained before, during and after the 2021 general elections.

The mighty Grapevine established that the Prince has a reason to make such pleadings from the bottom of his heart because one of his blue eyed boys and a strong financier of the Office of the Supreme Mufti is being held by security forces.

In 2023, security forces arrested several suspects from Kawempe Division after accusing them of being terrorists and among them was Umar Magala a prominent businessman in Kalerwe a Kampala suburb.

Magala is a silent businessman who has a lot of political interests that’s why he heavily facilitates political activities especially those aimed at creating political change in the country.

Others suspects on the charge sheet with Magala include; Abdul Katumba, Abdallah Katumba, Muhamudu Kalyango, Hamidu Ssekidde Sulaiman Male, Wilber Kairugara, Hamidu Muyodi, Issa Makumbi, Rashid Ssebaggala and Salim Ssekabembe.

The accused persons are charged with terrorism offences and security claims that they have evidence pinning them on making improvised explosive devices and engaging in terrorrism activities without regard for the safety of the others.

Sources added that Magala for a long time has been a close friend to National Unity Platform (NUP) President Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) and other party leaders like the Secretary General David Lewis Rubongoya.

He has been on security radar over allegations that he is among the business people in Kampala who facilitated rioters in the deadly November 2020 riots where innocent people were killed.

The source also claims that in the 2021 elections, Magala wanted to contest for NUP ticket for Kawempe North but he decided to withdraw at the last hour because Muhammad Ssegirinya was very popular in the constituency and inside NUP party.

Even though he did not contest, he continued facilitating the party activities and his name was on top on the list of people Bobi Wine planned to give the party ticket come 2026.

Sources said that even though minister Balam Barugahare promised that Museveni assured him that he was going to release NUP political prisoners, those who were involve in burning tires on the roads, facilitating riots, undressing women will not be released.

The same decision will even work on those suspects involved in vendorizing electricity poles around the country, poisoning the president’s cows at his Kisozi farm and attacking police stations to steal guns.

Sources said that recently, the Leader of Opposition in Parliament Joel Ssenyonyi tried to engage the Court Martial leadership to release NUP supporters charged in the military court on court bail but the move flopped because the big man is still very bitter with most of these prisoners.

However, Bobi Wine said that when he visited the NUP prisoners in Kitalya, they told him that they were under pressure to implicate him on terrorism and treason charges as a condition for their release.

By Hadijjah Namagembe