Two months ago, in a move that was aimed to show that he has more allies within the Opposition beyond his party the National Unity Platform (NUP), Mr Mathias Mpuuga, the Nyendo-Mukungwe lawmaker, visited Richard Lumu, who represents Mityana South on a Democratic Party (DP) ticket.
On the face of it, Mr Mpuuga had gone to condole with Mr Lumu who had lost his mother. Yet, as has become a norm in Uganda, the burial quickly turned into a political function. Mr Mpuuga praised Mr Lumu. The immediate past Leader of the Opposition in Parliament (LoP) said Mr Lumu’s mother had raised a steadfast son who could comprehend issues and thus deserves another term.
Mr Mpuuga directed veiled digs at Francis Zaake, the Mityana Municipality lawmaker who is widely seen as the pit bull of Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentumu, alias Bobi Wine. The former LoP said unlike Mr Lumu, Mr Zaake wasn’t effectively representing his constituents in the House.
“Today I’m not here to talk about politics, but I want to thank you for voting for Lumu because those in the neighbouring constituency voted for some one who has an idea what Parliament is all about,” Mr Mpuuga said in July.
From being an ordinary backbencher, Mr Lumu has now become the talk of the nation after House Speaker Anita Among allowed him to introduce a Private Member’s Bill titled The Administration of Parliament Amendment Bill 2024. According to the Mityana South lawmaker, the Bill intends to revise the LoP selection.
Ever since multiparty politics was reinstated in 2006, the LoP has been picked by the President of the Opposition party with the biggest numbers in the House. Mr Lumu wants that changed, claiming that the manner of election of the LoP, as it stands, excludes other Opposition political parties represented in Parliament and yet the LoP superintends over all of them, even cherry-picking their shadow cabinet from among them.
The motives NUP’s reaction has been to accuse Mr Lumu of being a proxy of, first, Mr Mpuuga, who they claim wants to reclaim his powers following Bobi Wine’s decision to replace him with Nakawa West lawmaker Joel Ssenyonyi. The first person to front such an allegation was Mr Patrick Oshabe Nsamba, the Kasanda North lawmaker, who claimed that Mr Mpuuga wanted the LoP office back in a bid to build his political ambitions.
“How will the amendments be helpful?” Mr Nsamba, who himself was at one time interested in the LoP position, wondered.“They are just planning to fail the Leader of the Opposition, Ssenyonyi. That’s all they want.”
Mr Lumu’s decision to come up with the Bill came after some Opposition lawmakers accused Ssenyonyi of not consulting them when he asked the Opposition to stay away from regional parliamentary sittings that commenced in Gulu. LoP Ssenyonyi defended his decision to call for an Opposition boycott, saying it was a waste of taxpayers’ money.
“Unfortunately, some of my colleagues in Parliament have decided to trivialize…