KAMPALA – Opposition Chief Whip and FDC party spokesperson Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda has accused President Museveni of allowing ‘mafias’ to thrive in his government, moments after Investment minister Evelyn Anite said an organized crime syndicate is after her life.
On Monday, Minister Anite told journalists that there was a plan to remove her from the Uganda Telecom (UTL) battle and to end her life.
And Mr Ssemujju said the ruling government has a history of hobnobbing with mafias.
“This is not the first time and first minister to say there are mafias in this government. The very first person to say so was former Vice President Gilbert Bukenya,” he said in an interview at Parliament.
Prof Bukenya once said there was a mafia in government out to finish him off by falsely accusing him of meeting Emmanuel Cardinal Wamala and mobilising Catholics across the country to build a power-base and overthrow President Museveni.
According to Mr Ssemujju, the government should Ms Anite’s claims seriously and launch an investigation.
“There’s no way you will take a statement from a person in government saying there are mafias running the state unseriously. Some of us believed so,” he said.
“I don’t know why the President enjoys this. This matter of two ministers fighting over UTL should have been resolved a while ago. Maybe the government disintegrated a while ago and we don’t want to believe it happened,” he added.
In May, the Speaker of Parliament, Ms Rebecca Kadaga, expressed outrage over what she termed as impunity by “mafias in government” and lack of punishment for their alleged transgression.
In a no-holds-barred address to representatives of Commonwealth anti-graft agencies currently meeting in Kampala, Ms Kadaga spoke of “the mafia [in government], working in cahoots with dodgy officials” with “glaring impunity.”
The Speaker narrated how the mafias connive with officials in roads construction chain and Finance ministry to steal public resources yet anti-corruption agencies do nothing about the haemorrhage.
