The family of the Kayunga district National Resistance Movement (NRM) chairperson Moses Kariisa Kalangwa is panicking after learning that he has sold a piece of their land on Kalangala Island to get money to facilitate his campaign and that of his daughter Jacqueline Birungi.
Sources close to Kalangwa’s family disclosed that the land was bought by one of the city moneylenders in Kampala who paid him money in billions.
He said that Kalangwa decided to sell his land after his godfather Gen Salim Saleh, the brother to president Museveni and also the coordinator Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) abandoned him and ignored his phone calls even though he promised to facilitate his campaigns.
Karangwa is competing with Micro-finance Minister Haruna Kasolo, former Minister Godfrey Kiwanda Suubi and others who are all competing to represent Buganda on NRM’s top organ the Central Executive Committee (CEC).
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In the race, both minister Kasolo who is also one of the richest Buganda ministers in Museveni’s government is competing with Kalangwa on who has better financial muscle and are spending billions of cash as their other competitors are crying.
“When we give people one hundred thousand shillings (100,000) they just abuse us because they know that we have money but we only don’t want to give them as other candidates are doing,” Kiwanda said.
When he was campaigning in Kampala, the delegates abused Kiwanda together with minister Dr Chris Baryomunsi who is competing for the position of the national vice chairperson in charge of Western Uganda and Lydia Wanyoto who is competing for the position of women league.
The trio were accused of being mean and failing to give them money even though they are fighting to go to CEC to get money.
Kiwanda and friends faced the same challenge in greater Mubende where after pocketing their one hundred thousand, some delegates immediately phoned Kalangwa who dished over three hundred thousand to each delegate and delegates were happy with him.
“The real competition is between minister Kasolo and Kalangwa. Kiwanda has nothing to tell us. He has been in government for years, why doesn’t he keep some money for campaigns,” one of the delegates in Kampala said.
In 2020, Kiwanda survived and defeated Kalangwa after president Museveni compromised his war comrade Hajji Abdul Naduli to pull out of the race.
Apart from looking for money for his campaigns, he is also looking for money to facilitate his daughter who is competing for the position of Kayunga district women Member of Parliament through the NRM flag.
She is set to compete against the incumbent Aidah Nantaba who defeated her in 2021 and Agatha Nalubwama who is a relative to works senior minister Gen Edward Katumba Wamala.
“These campaigns might be very expensive. Karangwa may lose 20% of his empire becasue he owns a big chunk of land in Jinja, Mukono, Buikwe, Lugazi, Kayunga, Kalangala and is extremely rich. But some think that he is just a worker, the owners of the properties are big people in government,” one of the voters in Kayunga said.
This website made repeated phone calls to Kalangwa before publishing this story to comment on the allegation of selling his properties to get money for campaigns but he did not pick our calls.
However, Mukono Municipality legislator Betty Nambooze confirmed that she overheard land dealers talking about the billions of money Kalangwa pocketed after selling the land where he was planning to establish a beach and residential accommodation for tourists.
