Onek could be sacrificed like Bukenya
By Bernard Ddumba
17th Oct 2011: What a week it was! Even some of us who are thousands of miles away from Uganda’s parliament felt as though we were in the public gallery as the powerful men of our land fought for their political lives following allegations that they had “eaten big time” from our oil which, as it happens, has not yet even filled the tank of a single boda-boda.
I am not a big fun of Museveni’s regime. But I have to say that I was moved by the way the Ministers were humiliated. The all powerful Sam Kutesa, restlessly twiddling his hands in and out of his coat jacket, looked every bit like a petrified chicken thief who had been caught red-handed in his rural Mawokota constituency.
A friend of mine swore to me that the oil scandal is the beginning of the “Museveni succession war”. If he was right, I asked, did he think that Internal Affairs Minister Hilary Onek was also in the race to replace President Museveni?
“…No, no, no! Don’t be silly. How? Onek has absolutely no chance of becoming President under the NRM ticket even if he wanted. He is an outsider who can never stand a chance against Mbabazi, Kutesa, or even Museveni’s wife Janet; and he knows it. In fact, if he is not careful, he may be sacrificed like Bukenya”, my friend warned.
My friend also said although he believes that the documents are forgeries, the fact of the matter is that they [the documents – Ed] have already achieved the purpose for which they were dramatically made public; which was to publicly humiliate and damage Kutesa and Mbabazi, the men with real wealth and power!
“…Poor old Hilary Onek is merely collateral damage in what is essentially a power struggle between the Westerners who fought under the NRA to bring Museveni to power”, my friend said. I truly believe the people like Onek from outside Western Uganda know their place within Museveni’s NRM government.
They know that they are there for nothing but kyeyo and they could be thrown out in the blink of an eye. So, sad as this may sound, I agree with my friend that Onek could be sacrificed in the current oil bribery scandal. After all, when Museveni addressed a press conference last week, he literally dismissed all Karuhanga’s allegations against Kutesa and Mbabazi.
When it came to Onek however, Museveni said, “…we are still investigating that one”. I say watch this space! END. Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
