NRM Secretary General Kasule Lumumba is sad and blue after President Museveni refused to give her money for mobilisation ahead of Thursday’s inauguration ceremony at Kololo grounds.
It all started with Lumumba asking President Museveni for over Shs 5bn to ferry thousands of supporters from different parts of the country to attend the swearing-in ceremony.
Interestingly, Museveni had received a briefing that Lumumba’s office “stinks of corruption” and that billions of shillings had been mismanaged during the 2016 campaigns.
The President was equally informed that Lumumba at one time reportedly kept a staggering Shs 3bn in her private residence’s ceiling over unknown reasons.
“The money earmarked for the swearing-in ceremony was channelled through the office of the President,” a highly placed source in NRM told ChimpReports on Saturday morning.
“About Shs 1.4m was sent to each District across the country where NRM leaders mobilised people and their transport,” the source added, preferring anonymity so as to speak freely.
Lumumba was not readily available for comment.
It is understood that Museveni is slowly adopting the approach of using district structures for mobilisation, a huge departure from handing billions of shillings to the NRM secretariat in Kampala.
In total, NRM used less than Shs 500m for mobilisation for the president’s inauguration.
In November 2015, President Museveni warned that greed, lies and selfishness were at the heart of NRM’s current troubles.
“When the NRM liberated the country, it gave power to the people. The people exercised that power through electing their leaders at all levels. Some of the leaders elected, on account of the lethargy of the Secretariat of NRM, came with careerist attitudes ─ looking at political leadership as a job while we the freedom fighters have always looked at leadership as a mission, not a career or a job,” said Museveni.
He said with this careerist attitude and also with not properly thought-through attitudes many mistakes were made.