Why Ssemujju talks about Museveni’s family

KAMPALA, UGANDA | THE INDEPENDENT | Kira Municipality Member of Parliament Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda has said if President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, his son Muhoozi Kainerugaba, his wife Janet Museveni and brother Gen. Salim Saleh don’t want to be talked about then they should retire from public life.

Speaking to Uganda Radio Network in an exclusive interview, Ssemujju said nothing is going to stop him from talking about the four for as long as they are still managing the affairs of the country.

Last week, Ssemujju was singled out by Patriotic League of Uganda-PLU supporters who demonstrated in Kampala against attacks by some MPs against their leader Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba.

Demonstrators held placards and banners with Ssemujju and Ssekikubo’s photographs and names warning them to back off from Muhoozi. Even Muhoozi himself had for days used his social media pages to threaten to violently deal with Ssemujju whom he said had been attacking him for the last 20 years.

Ssemujju said as a former journalist, he has a lot of information which is not available to many Ugandans about how Muhoozi was recruited illegally into the military and his progression in military ranks. He said, unlike other people who attack Muhoozi for simply being Museveni’s son, his criticism is based on his [Muhoozi] as a public official.

Ssemujju said unlike many other Ugandans who have been frightened to speak about Muhoozi and his excesses, for him he will continue speaking about these abuses as keeping quiet is akin to being an accomplice.

“What the Muhoozi group has managed to do is to frighten everybody because the beating of Kakwenza (Rukirabashaija) was administered by the Muhoozi group. So, it’s risky to criticize them, but we have no option. For me I want to speak about Museveni as president, Muhoozi as the CDF and Janet Museveni as a minister of Education, Salim Saleh as someone who is in charge of making people wealthy. We talk about them because of the offices they occupy.

If Museveni doesn’t want to talk about him the best way is to leave public life. I have never talked about Museveni’s father and mother; I knew they existed. I have not talked about his numerous relatives. Imagine if you are a member of parliament and you can’t ask the Ministry of Defence to account for more than Shs 5trillion we appropriate to them, you can’t speak about the irregular recruitment and deployment of the military then you are not fit to be a member of parliament,” Ssemujju said.

He added that everyone should also talk about the Minister of Education because her ministry concerns almost everybody in the country. It also receives more than one trillion shillings in budgetary allocations every year.   “Many people are dying internally; they do not dare to talk about Museveni and his family’s abuse. We might not stop this abuse but we will reduce it,” Ssemujju said.

The former Chief opposition whip also noted that these days, the photographs of President Museveni and Muhoozi are becoming symbols of impunity. He notes that a vehicle that doesn’t have qualifications to be on the road or an illegal makeshift market displays Museveni and Muhoozi’s posters and nobody can touch them.

Ssemujju also noted that for the last many years, Museveni and his family have micromanaged the country so much so that everyone has to run to them to solve any problems. He said people like that ought to be always put to task to be accountable.

****

URN