By Our Reporters

Agriculture Minister Hope Ruhindi Mwesigye last night fell on her sword…sorry..on priest's whopper and died'. Gorgeous Mwesigye should be cursing the day she challenged a priest in Kabale, Fr Gaitano Batanyenda to start shafting. The heavily religious constituency couldn’t stand her and pronounced themselves that when you touch religion, you touch a being that has always kept them together. Yellow girls' head prefect was then given a deadly blow in her political life. When campaigns started, Batanyenda went underground and ditched her with his whopper. People in Kabale sent a clear message: “…never joke with a priest’s whopper however dull it would seem to be” As results wheeled out, Mwesigye had lost to little known (what’s her name?)…aah...Radio presenter, Ronah Ninsiima by not less than 1000 votes. It was not only smashing Hope Mwesigye who fell in her agricultural manure, but our dear ethics and integrity minister, James Nsaba Buturo was knocked out, chin down. When results started wheeling out, our resident analyst called it a political massacre.

NSABA BUTURO

When slightly changed the ethics minister’s name could pass for a ‘request for a rest’ in the Luganda dialect. And indeed the voters seem to have understood the former UPC Kampala boss and sent him to political slumber. The soft spoken MP for Bufumbira county East in Kisoro miserably lost and is busy nursing wounds. He was last seen hiding in the church seeking divine intervention. Other senior National Resistance Movement (NRM) ministers hysterically wept after little known cadres whipped them in the party primaries. Although most of them tried to cover up in the name of poorly organised elections, it was evident that they were unpopular. Their underwear could no longer hold as chilling results filed in indicating that they had long reached their sale-by-date.  Although the NRM electoral boss Felista Mogomu was tight lipped about the result, we gathered that over seven ministers were nursing bloody noses while several members of parliament were cursing the day they joined the dirty game of politics.

By Our Reporters

The National Resistance Movement (NRM) entered into self destruction model 999 last night after it emerged the ruling party had failed to successfully conduct internal elections. The party’s primary elections were slated for yesterday but could not take place in most districts due to allegations of vote rigging, bribery and impersonation. It also emerged last night that rigging flows through NRM like blood! Most of the party candidates especially powerful ministers rushed to Nasser Road and printed their own ballot papers which they ferried to upcountry to use them in rigging the polls. However, luck run out for some of these guys and were arrested with sacks of ticked ballot papers. These included Dorothy Hyuha(minister without portfolio and NRM Deputy Secretary General) and Simon Ejau(state for transport). Hyuha was nabbed with ten boxes of ballot papers and it was alleged that two days ago she had in her possession 20,000 ballots. Rigging was cited in the sub-counties of Budumba, Busolwe, Buhumugu and Butaleja town council. In the districts of Iganga, Kamuli, Namutumba, Butaleja elections were postponed. In Masaka, Ssembabule, Lwengo, Bukomansimbi, Kalungu and Mbarara, elections were postponed to September 1 after voting materials arrived late and some were missing and insufficient.

By Our Reporter

Sembabule Woman Member of Parliament (MP) Anifa Kawooya may be arrested for forging academic papers, Red Pepper has been exclusively told. Kawooya who came to parliament last year after a hotly contest by-election with State House Legal Advisor Joy Kafura Kabatsi, was declared by bosses at the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) and National Council for Higher Education (NCHE)to have forged both her ‘O’ and ‘A’ level transcripts to enable her contest for the MP seat. A police source told us last night that interfering with official academic documents is a criminal offence which cannot just be settled out of court. The police source also said that CID officers charged with issues of forgery and forensics have received documents from Kawooya’s opponents and examination verification boards for possible action. It is said Kawooya’s opponents are pressurising Police to have a General Enquiry File (GEF) opened against her which may lead to her arrest. The agitators said they had wanted the police to move swiftly and arrest Kawooya before the NRM elections are held. It also emerged that among those agitating for Kawooya’s arrest include the Presidential Advisor on Political Affairs, Maj. (Rtd) Roland Kakooza Mutale, who has advised the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) to “recall and cancel” Kawooya’s degree in Development Studies attained from Nkumba University. Mutale says he has established that the MP used “forged” certificates to gain admission to Nkumba University for the course. In his August 10, 2010 letter, Mutale asked the NCHE executive director to compel Nkumba University to recall and cancel the degree awarded to Kawooya in 2005. Mutale’s probe into Kawooya was prompted by a petition lodged last December by the controversial Lwemiyaga MP, Theodore Ssekikubo.

By John V Sserwaniko & Stanley NdawulaStanley Ndawula

The woes of Michael Ezra, whom Red Pepper reported on Thursday to be a wanted man after conning Security Minister Amama Mbabazi of Shs430m, escalated last night when a frail old woman added salt to the injury. She claimed that Ezra’s conning habits led to the death of her 42-year-old son in March this year. Her son, Geoffrey Kiryowa, was the owner of a procurement company called MITTICO International Ltd from which Ezra fraudulently obtained US$123,000 under the guise of helping them access a credit facility worth US$10m. Ezra is now battling court cases that arose from this mischief. At the time of Kiryowa’s death, which doctors confirmed was induced by stress, probably caused by Ezra, he was in court pursuing the recovery of his US$123,000. Kiryowa’s procurement company, which Ezra is now perceived and caused to have deliberately brought down, had its headquarters on Spring Road, Bugolobi, having previously operated at Insurance House on Kampala Road.