Inside Story: Busoga to reap big as NUP considers Kaluya for Parliament Commissioner role

During the high profile closed door meeting held at Makerere Kavule on Tuesday, the mood was calm as the party top leaders interfaced with the twelfth parliamentary caucus. Atop the agenda, was the debate on how the party shall distribute top positions at parliament and constitute a national broad based structure at parliament.

Our source privy to the meeting reveals that the party’s leaders unanimously resolved that the slot for the Leader of the Opposition will be retained by the Nakawa West MP Joel Ssenyonyi on the basis of his performance and gained experience in tacking and combatting corruption, wasteful expenditure by government and fronting the NUP alternative agenda. No murmurs were registered when this resolution was made, which signal implied that both the newly elected and old members were okay with another Ssenyonyi ride.

For the position of the Commissioner of Parliament, three names were mentioned from Busoga and these were the Kigulu South MP Andrew Kiiza Kaluya, Jinja South East MP Paul Mwiru and the incumbent Chief Whip also NUP Deputy President John Baptist Nambeshe. These individuals are still in a contest with the Mityana Municipality MP Zaake Francis who believes that his term as Commissioner in the eleventh parliament was short lived yet he still had unfinished business. His chances are however slim and minimal and disadvantaged by the party’s stand for a non-Muganda candidate to occupy the office of the Commissioner. Additionally, the party believes that Zaake’s indiscipline and confrontational attitude without logic and reason also renders him unfit to serve in this sensitive position.

On the issue of Nambeshe, some leaders in the party fault him for failing to mobilize the Bugisu sub region to the extent that he does not have even a single councillor from his subregion, despite being equipped with resources and time to mobilize for NUP in the far East. Besides, his good relations with the fallen Speaker Anita Annet Among is another key factor that scares the Kavule establishment.

For Paul Mwiru, his seniority as a lawyer and a former lawmaker had placed him at an advantage but the fact that he has opted to carry the opposition flag for speaker of the twelfth parliament implies that he is unlikely to compete for the Commissioner slot. And indeed, he may settle for the Public Accounts Committee COSASE and deploy his legal seniority to scrutinize the statutory entities.

Andrew Kiiza Kaluya, who doubles the NUP Secretary for Mobilization in charge of the Easter region is at an extraordinary advantage of being the next commissioner. With 8 legislative victories in Busoga tagged to his name, on top of his seniority as a former lawmaker, insiders in Kavule believe their fellow NEC Member should be granted a chance and appreciated for carrying the Busoga flag. Our sources have intimated that Andrew Kiiza Kaluya is the next Commissioner of Parliament.