Through calling-in and sending both text and WhatsApp messages, listeners of Kkiriza oba Gaana, a popular talk show on Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi’s CBS radio blasted defeated Mityana South Member of Parliament (MP) Richard Lumu who was struggling to defend the lavish lifestyle of the outgoing Speaker of Parliament Annet Anita Among.
In his submission, Lumu wondered how people in Uganda including elites can spend two weeks discussing a Shs3.4bn Rolls-Royce car which was even a donation to his former boss Among.
He divulged that the Shs3.4bn car is a small issue which Ugandans shouldn’t waste time on yet the country is facing serious pressing issues like poverty, corruption and bad governance which are threatening the country’s future.
“I was shocked to see people spending so much time discussing a small issue of a car which the speaker bought, and I’m told it was even a gift. People should respect politicians, we also have life which we need to enjoy and we have worked for it, we even have money to buy any kind of car we wish to drive like any other person in the world,” Lumu said.
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He claimed that Ugandans discussing speaker’s Rolls-Royce are exposing their primitivity.
He gave the example of the politicians of our neighbours Kenya who even buy Eurocopters to transport them yet no one is complaining.
He added that he knows many Ugandans who own powerful and expensive cars than that of Among even though for them they hide them from the public and only drive them at night while a few with eurocopters hide them in Kenya.
He boasted that he is also planning to buy one given that he has the capacity to do so because he is a coffee and banana farmer in Mityana.
He defended Among that she also has other private business like schools, hotels, real estate where she gets money to buy such a car.
However, Lameck Kalule, the talk show host told him that his listeners are not happy with his submissions and he sampled to him a number of messages which declared him a corrupt leader while others were thanking the people of Mityana South for voting him out of parliament.
Callers like Makolo Kavuma, Luba Kyoya also blasted him and wondered why he has not officially declared his support for the NRM noting that it is wrong for an opposition person like Lumu to support Among who has been cited in different corruption scandals in parliament for living a lavish life when taxpayers’ businesses are collapsing day to day because of heavy taxes.
It should be remembered that in 2024, Lumu brought a motion in parliament to have the Leader of Opposition voted by all opposition legislators not the leadership of a political party with majority opposition legislators in parliament.
Opposition strongman Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) the principal of the National Unity Platform (NUP) said that Lumu was being used by speaker Among to fight Joel Ssenyonyi the then Leader of Opposition in Parliament because he was exposing corruption involving both opposition and ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) legislators.
Lumu a former Democratic Party (DP) member also blasted Bobi Wine and NUP leaders for condemning and advising former Leader of Opposition Mathius Mpuuga Nsamba to resign from the office of the Commissioner of Parliament because of the evidence showing that he fraudulently received Shs500m Service Award from Among for being a cooperative opposition leader in parliament.
Lumu a struggling city lawyer disclosed that since he is out of parliament, he is going to be practising law and do commercial given that he has enough land which he bought and also inherited from his parents.
