KAMPALA – The Presidential Assistant in charge of media management, Mr. Farouk Kirunda, has asked security agencies to investigate the December 19 accident involving State House comptroller Lucy Nakyobe, arguing it was an assassination attempt on her life.
In the accident, which occurred on Kayunga-Jinja road, a tipper rammed into the lead car of Nakyobe’s convoy, killing one of her guards.
But Mr. Kirunda said that the circumstances in which the accident occurred all point to an assassination plot.
He said Ms. Nakyobe is a target of the mafia within the government whom she has frustrated by blocking their corrupt deals.
“Her lead car was rammed by a tipper lorry. The impact was great and Nakyobe wouldn’t have survived if it wasn’t the experience of her driver since it was her side targeted. One of her guards did not make it,” Mr. Kirunda says.
“Other reports say that another car coming from the back almost hit the vehicle in which Nakyobe was riding from the back but was intercepted,” he adds.
He wonders how the truck could not hear the siren from Nakyobe’s convoy.
“About the lead car, who on earth fails to detect one, with its blaring siren which is meant to alert road users of urgent passengers in transit? One either has to be up to something ominous or unqualified to be on the road. Did the lead car siren alert bad elements to the approach of their target, having had prior knowledge of the trip?” Kirunda says.
As a result, he says the accident qualifies as a special case due to the nature of her job and previous revelations that have been unearthed pointing to threats to her life.
“One time, presidential advisor, Mr. Tamale Mirundi, played an audio recording blowing the lid on a plot to finish her off. Nakyobe has created enemies for herself due to her hard work and integrity, as many of us who have worked with her know,” Kirunda adds.
The presidential assistant says Nakyobe has frustrated many ways in government Mafia has been eating off government resources.
“She is efficient and professional at her job, which is why she is never found culpable for impropriety. With her as an accounting officer at State House, the institution’s financial systems are sound. That alone could have earned her the envy of many despite earning her the full trust and confidence of the President,” he adds.
See full opinion below
=========================================================================
The December 19 accident involving Ms. Lucy Nakyobe, the State House Comptroller, has left many unanswered questions at both her workplace and in the public domain.
On that day, Nakyobe was traveling in her convoy along the Kayunga-Jinja road headed to Pallisa district to attend a function presided over by the principal, President Yoweri Museveni. Her lead car was rammed by a tipper lorry. The impact was great and Nakyobe wouldn’t have survived if it wasn’t the experience of her driver since it was her side targeted. One of her guards did not make it.
Other reports say that another car coming from the back almost hit the vehicle in which Nakyobe was riding from the back but was intercepted. About the lead car, who on earth fails to detect one, with its blaring siren which is meant to alert road users of urgent passengers in transit? One either has to be up to something ominous or unqualified to be on the road. Did the lead car siren alert bad elements to the approach of their target, having had prior knowledge of the trip?
Why would an accident form a basis for many questions being asked when we know that accidents are quite common, and happen to anyone? This may have been an assassination attempt.
The Nakyobe accident qualifies as a special case due to the nature of her job and previous revelations that have been unearthed pointing to threats to her life. One time, presidential advisor, Mr. Tamale Mirundi, played an audio recording blowing the lid on a plot to finish her off.
Nakyobe has created enemies for herself due to her hard work and integrity, as many of us who have worked with her know. She is efficient and professional at her job, which is why she is never found culpable for impropriety. With her as an accounting officer at State House, the institution’s financial systems are sound. That alone could have earned her the envy of many despite earning her the full trust and confidence of the President.
Nakyobe is the longest-serving comptroller since President Museveni came to power, is corrupt free, does not engage in cutting deals, stays away from cliques and syndicates; people want to know her but she doesn’t want to know anything apart from her job and boss.
Under her charge, a payment system for pledges, whether liquid or material, has been streamlined. There are no more brokers. Things go directly to the beneficiary, even if it is just a bicycle pledge being delivered on.
That is how urban youth groups and women groups have benefitted without any scandals arising in the execution of the initiatives.
Nakyobe is loathed for blocking the eating opportunities for mafia and their syndicates in the political and private corridors of power.
Under the much talked about Skilling Uganda Project, her hand has been very visible much to the disdain many quarters despite the success of the project which has uplifted tens of thousands of young people to achieve their start-up in life.
One prominent minister came out to decampaign the project, no doubt perturbed because there was no entry point for the political class. Nakyobe identifies the groups, trains them and extends support without interference or influence from anybody. The payment system she uses ascertains that money goes directly to the account of, or is handed over to the bonafide beneficiaries. Hence, there are more ghost projects. President Museveni is eternally at war with unemployment and poverty and has been bothered because he would readily welcome proposals, extend support as required but results would be hard in coming. Nakyobe devised the best approach which is under implementation.
Recently, after President Museveni covered the country on a pointed Wealth Creation tour, Nakyobe went to all 24 zones where the Big Man went and secured land for where “skilling centers” will be established. She managed to acquire the land free of charge on government swaths. Other quarters had asked for money to purchase the land, and couldn’t have been happy with what the comptroller had achieved. Money thus saved will capitalize on productive ventures and small scale industries which will create jobs for Ugandans, independent of local politics and foreign influences.
It is, therefore, clear, that dishonest and unserious statehouse staff and their corrupt cronies have been poked in the eye and they are expected to retaliate. They are powerful and capable of doing anything not limited to anything-from sabotage, character assassination to physically harming someone.
This means that her boss, President Yoweri Museveni, who is many times more exposed to responsibility across departments, sectors, borders and geopolitical lines, is the main target. Little wonder why bad-hearted influences and enemies of progress are in overdrive.
Investigators should leave nothing to chance!
========================================================================
The author is a Presidential Assistant in Charge of Media Management
