Uganda’s ambassador to Burundi, Maj Gen (rtd) Matayo Kyaligonza has said that speaker of parliament Rebecca Kadaga holds a grudge against him.
The general, currently under fire for slapping a traffic policewoman, claimed that Kadaga’s grudge spilled into public view during the ruling party’s recent Central Executive Committee meeting.
Both Kadaga and Kyaligonza are NRM vice chairpersons representing the party’s east and western Uganda supporters, respectively. After Kyaligonza and his two bodyguards last month assaulted Sgt Esther Namaganda and a UBC journalist, Kadaga joined calls for his removal and also asked the police chief to promote Namaganda.
Although condemnation for the assault has been widespread, drawing in religious leaders, civil society, women rights activists and the general public, Kyaligonza focused on the speaker at a recent private function.
“I have no time to waste on Kadaga. She should mind her business. I know she got annoyed with the recent CEC meeting where I was introduced as His Excellency and Justine Lumumba, NRM secretary general, as Right Honourable,” Kyaligonza reportedly told visitors at his Kampala residence last Saturday.
Promising to leave Uganda on Sunday, Kyaligonza told his guests that after they were thus introduced, Kadaga said those were titles reserved for the president, vice president and speaker, respectively.
“I told Kadaga to go and hang because we were not in parliament where she can dictate titles for different officials,” sources quote the general as saying.
“This was a different occasion outside her mandate save for being a party vice chairman of NRM in eastern region. I suspect those could be the reasons she is revenging on me.”
Kyaligonza said he is not bothered with the ongoing police investigation but only awaits his appointing authority, the president, to take any action he deems fit after getting correct facts.
“If the decision is to recall me, then so be it. I would not be the first person to lose a post in Bunyoro. Kajura left, I and Matia Kasaija were the only two politicians remaining on the national cake from Bunyoro and yet Kasaija’s position (minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development) is overshadowed by his deputy [David Bahati],” Kyaligonza said.
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