By Oweyegha-Afunaduula
There was a young, vibrant, outspoken MP from Butaleja, Cerinah Nebanda. Her life came to an abrupt end. Like for high rise Brigadier Noble Mayombo, articulate, open and honest former MP for Makindye East, Hussein Kyanjo, and Speaker Jacob Oulanyah, there was a claim that she had been poisoned in 2012.
Earlier on in 2007 Winnie Byanyima (Besigye) and Proscovia Salaam Musumba claimed that there was a plot to poison political leaders, but they themselves are still alive – un-poisoned.
In the case of Cerinah Nebanda, two people were jointly charged in 2013 with conspiring to obtain body sample of the fallen MP and take them to South Africa to prove or disprove poisoning. One was a Senior Mulago Hospital Pathologist, Silvester Onzivua and the then MP for Kinkizi, Dr Chris Baryomunsi. Lucky for the two, Chief Magistrate Olive Kazarwe ruled that they had no case to answer.
Being a practicing pathologist, little is heard of Onzivua, but having decided to be a practicing politician rather than a practicing physician, Baryomunsi remained and still remains in the limelight. From 2015 to 2016 he was President Tibuhaburwa Museveni’s State Minister for Health and General Duties. Since 2021, he has been Minister for ICT and National Guidance, and also doubles as Government Spokesman.
Although many Ugandans see Dr Chris Baryomunsi as an arrogant man, who like, former Vice-President Prof Gilbert Bukenya, imitates the postures of President Tibuhaburwa Museveni (but no hat yet), he is a very good defender of NRM government positions and actions on anything, and of his party, the NRMO, of which he is the Vice-Chairman for Western Uganda.
He has explained and defended many things, which perturb Ugandans about the politico-military governance of Uganda – and he has done so with a lot of confidence, although he has been in Cabinet for less than 8 years.
There is, however, one thing he has not explained well, and in fact tried to belittle.
During the 2021 elections, in the wake of which he was raised to the Ministerial position he holds today, and since which he is the Government Spokesman, so many young men and women belonging to the National Unity Party (NUP) were killed by the Government’s instruments of coercion or arrested them. The Party leaders say 680 members cannot be accounted for. The Uganda Police says they know of only 70 people who are in the prisons. The institution also admitted so many were killed, but cannot explain NUP’s figure of 680.
Of course if you are head of house, if you to tell the number of people in the household, who are in currently and who are out and why. You have to explain where those who are out are. In this case, if NUP leaders cannot explain where those members, who have been absent since the elections, are then they have to ask government, the custodian of peace and security of life of all Ugandans. And this is where Dr Chris Baryomunsi becomes relevant. He cannot just dismiss the issue, with simple reasoning.
Question: Where are the 680 Ugandans NUP says are its members that have been missing since the elections of 2021?
For God And My Country.
The Writer is a Ugandan Scientist and Environmentalist.
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