Controversial Mukono Municipality legislator Betty Nambooze has admitted that she advised the newly elected Kawempe North Legislator Erias Luyimbazi Nalukoola on how to overcome the frequent cash demands from his supporters who helped him to win the violent by election early this month.
Nambooze revealed that Nalukoola secretly reached out to her as a long serving opposition Member of Parliament for advice on how to deal with the painful situation he is going through after winning the by-election where a number of his supporters were imprisoned while others went injured and lost properties because of him.
David Lewis Rubongoya the National Unity Platform(NUP) Secretary General claims that a number of Nalukoola’s campaign managers and agents were arrested and detained when their captors forced them to sign statements implicating Nalukoola on fueling violence in the by election which resulted into NRM’s candidate Faridah Nambi’s defeat.
“ I told my young brother Nalukoola that there is nothing he can pay those foot soldiers who put their life on the line because of his win. In this political struggle, I advised him not to stress himself because of those people because he has nothing to pay them that amounts to what they did for him because they were also fighting for political change in the country which they yearn for,” Nambooze said.
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She alleges to have advised Nalukoola to remain true to the cause of the struggle and not to betray the sweat of the foot soldiers.
She notes that she feels sorry and sad whenever politicians sell the political struggle for a boul of soup and are paid millions by president Museveni’s government.
She warns that the young people will never forgive such politicians even if they try to rebrand themselves.
“I came to parliament through a by election. I contested against Bakaluba Mukasa who was standing on the NRM ticket, young people who were my supporters were badly beaten and some got permanent injuries on their bodies. So, whenever I look at them and what they went through, I continue to fight heard for change in our country so that I can repay those people,” Nambooze said.
She added that when Nalukoola was confirmed by the electoral commission that he was going to contest for the said by election on the NUP ticket, she together with her husband booked a room in one of the hotels in Kampala and they camped there for the entire campaign paying for it without thinking about their children back home in Mukono and whatever they was to help Nalukoola win.
“Even me, my back was broken, do you know what it means for a woman’s back to be broken? Do you know what my husband is thinking about me? Put yourself in his shoes if you have a wife with a broken back. Now tell me how much you can pay me to compensate for my back? Nalukoola should concentrate on fuelling political change in our country, not listening to those asking him money,” Nambooze added.
Nambooze made the comments after a number of people pressured Nalukoola not use the Shs300m given to him by parliament to buy a new car but instead spend it on solving problems affecting his voters as the late Muhammad Ssegirinya did after 2021 elections.
However, Nalukoola told them that currently he doesn’t have a car to use because the one he had was taken by police and it still parked at Kawempe police station while the second one was damaged and is still in the garage.
Highly placed sources close to Nalukoola confirmed that he is in the financial crisis because he used a lot of money in the campaign and sold some of his properties including a plot of land at Garuga in Wakiso district.
A number of NUP legislators are no longer going to their party headquarters because they are scared of the foot soldiers who are demanding money from them and asking them to solve their personal problems yet they are also indebted and facing multiple problems.
However, NUP principal Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) insists that his party legislators and elected leaders should respect foot soldiers because they are the ones who helped them to win the positions they held currently and have put their live on line because of their win.
