Among Wants A Fight, So Will Kadaga Fold Her Sleeves or Train a Fighter Instead?

Speaker of Parliament Anita Among has declared intentions to take the NRM National Vice Chairperson seat from her predecessor and nemesis Rebecca Kadaga but will the Kamuli Woman MP and Busoga's political lynchpin accept the invite a political brawl?

 

NATIONAL | They say to kill a snake, you must crush its head. Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga is certainly not to be likened to the dreaded reptile, but there is no denying that Anita Annet Among holds her in as much dread.

2024 has certainly been an eventful one for the Speaker of Parliament. So uptight has it been for Ms. Among that if she said that of all the things that gave her so much headache over the year—sanctions, foreign assets, corruption allegations, social media exposé, mabaati scandal—Ms. Kadaga was none of it, then you could as well award her the record for the most uncomfortable lie.

At some point, it was like Kamuli Woman MP and Busoga political lynchpin Kadaga lived rent-free in Ms. Among's head. She raved about the "old woman from Kamuli," she moaned about someone wanting to reclaim her seat, and she openly sought the approval of Basoga as their political mother.

Ms. Kadaga, for the most part, has been eerily quiet. And such quiet unsettles. It is like those years of Amama Mbabazi ignoring all sorts of loud noise when a scandal hit his name. Or that time Paul Kagame of Rwanda enjoyed watching as Ugandans toyed with the dust faceless blogger Tom Voltaire Okwalinga spewed that he was dead.

Hours before Ms. Among declared she would contest for the ruling party National Resistance Movement (NRM) national vice-chairperson for women, bloggers faintly suggested Ms. Kadaga was set to retire from elective politics at the end of this political cycle.

It sounded so real. You see, Ms. Kadaga is now frail and has adopted a less authoritative approach to leadership—except when championing Nyege Nyege Festival. You would bet a kidney she will not be coming back.

But then comes Ms. Among's decisiveness in seeking the CEC position.

"I'm not standing for the position of vice-chairperson, Eastern region. I'm going to stand for national vice-chairperson, Female. It is the one I'm standing for; I'm for the whole country, not only for the eastern region," she declared.

It was more like a declaration of war. This is a position Ms. Kadaga has held since 2005. Without her lurking around, there would be no need for Ms. Among's strong declaration. That she appeared to nearly do a Ssemakadde—bang the table—is more or less a confirmation that the incumbent has no intention of stepping aside.

The NRM National Vice Chairperson-Women position is the ruling party's third most powerful political office after that of the Chairman (Museveni) and his deputy Moses Kigongo.

In 2005, Minister Zoe Bakoku Bakoru and Christine Aporu stood down to let Ms. Kadaga take the seat unopposed. But in 2020, the Kamuli strongwoman was facing political pressure from all sides and within her own kitchen of Busoga.

A couple of should-have-been allies from Busoga, such as Persis Namuganza and Kasule Lumumba, had jumped onto a boat oared by Coxswain Jacob Oulanyah, with Ms. Among holding the ballast.

Ms. Namuganza dared Ms. Kadaga's stronghold in the NRM vote but lost to her—6,776 votes against 4,943.

After staking her all against Kadaga in favor of Ms. Among and the late Oulanyah, Ms. Namuganza was humiliated and humbled when she was censured by Parliament in January 2023 for "attacking the institution of Parliament and the person of the Speaker."

In June, First Deputy Prime Minister Kadaga and State Minister for Urban Development Namuganza hugged during an event in Busoga and stood side-by-side all through like a mother and daughter.

It was an event that warmed Busoga after the two had fallen out when Ms. Kadaga installed a parallel head of the Nkono chiefdom in Namutumba against one loyal to Ms. Namuganza nearly a decade ago.

With the two Busoga political figureheads and Ms. Lumumba appearing to walk back into Bugiri elections, the last thing anyone who sees Kadaga as a threat who must be crushed would want is their unity.

When in March Ms. Among railed about "the people who are fighting me" and that "there are people who are saying that they want to reclaim their seat as Speakers," it all sounded like some reverie.

But there could only be one person in that vein, and Ms. Among came out more explicitly a day after the Bukedea speech, this time telling her in-laws in Buyende that "somebody was a Speaker for 20 years; what did she do for you people?

"It is high time we chase away those old women. Send away those old women because they want to cause us problems. They want us here to remain poor, whereas for them in Kamuli, they get developed."

A group calling itself NRM members in Kamuli would later carry placards around to denounce Ms. Kadaga as having done so little for Kamuli and that Ms. Among was the bona fide Mama Busoga.

The noise they attempted to raise did not earn its desired decibel. Ms. Kadaga's deafening silence couldn't have helped the matter.

Then came a group of clan elders from Bugweri who pleaded with Ms. Among to forgive Waiswa Mufumbiro, the deputy spokesperson of the National Unity Platform, following his strong criticism of the Speaker during a funeral in the district.

Their move did not last on the table as the chief swiftly distanced his office from their intentions. It was like a decisive settlement of a matter involving two warring factions.

And now, in declaring her intention to take the last political seat away from Ms. Kadaga, the Speaker is declaring her intention to crush her once and for all. If she took that, the rumors that Ms. Kadaga could still muster enough votes from MPs to take back the House seat would also die.

And there would be some relief in Bukedea.

Who wants to believe that Ms. Kadaga would still vie for that office again, though? With Ms. Among enjoying the aegis of the NRM and President Museveni, that is a far cry.

But you cannot rule out the possibility of Mama Busoga pulling out one last decisive trick from her wigs. Like propping up and backing a challenger to take down Ms. Among.

It would be a tall order. In Speaker Among, President Museveni and the NRM have just about the right person to lead the Legislature and keep the MPs in check.

Picking from Museveni's patronage tricks, Ms. Among has virtually doctored the minds of the entire Eleventh Parliament, and they feed on her palm. The manner in which they tore into Ms. Namuganza's flesh told as much.

In a time of rife talks of succession in the top executive office and Justice Minister Norbert Mao's Constitution Amendment Bill, 2024, seeking a change in the electoral laws to allow Parliament to elect the President rather than the current adult suffrage, the NRM would want a Speaker who has the control of the House.

Ms. Among's handling of the National Coffee Amendment Bill was a mark in that side, with the hot mic moment and manhandling of MPs that followed all playing to the Executive's desire.

And if, as Speaker, Anita Annet Among wants to expand her reach and do more for the party by claiming the women's wing at the high table of the Central Executive Committee, then it would look like a given.

So what will Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga do?

Across the borders, a man hounded into a corner and told to jump because there is nowhere to run refused to jump. He ended up walking backward from the plush office he was determined to hold onto, going straight to the courts of law set up by his tormentors.

The result was more of the same; Rigathi Gachagua is probably wondering how much respect he would have earned by resigning from a government that no longer saw the need for his glib tongue.

Ms. Kadaga does not need to jump. She just can let whoever wants a fight with her fight with the shadows. That can only be by not accepting an invite to the fight.