{UAH} END OF AN ERA AS M7 FIRES EC’S RWAKOJO, REPLACING HIM WITH RUKUNGIRI’S RICHARD KAMUGISHA

By Gilbert Mwesigye

President Museveni continues purging top officials at key institutions and the latest victim of his knifing decisions is none other than Sam Rwakojo who has been Secretary (and therefore accounting officer) for the Electoral Commission for an eternity. Sources very close to the HE have disclosed to Mulengera News that the Rwakojo knifing letter has been dispatched from Entebbe State House this Tuesday morning and it's very possible it hasn't even reached EC headquarters and the Public Service Commission that is supposed to work out the fine details to ensure that Richard Kamugisha, the new EC boss Gen Museveni has appointed, quickly takes charge.

Reliable presidency sources say that in the same instrument, Gen Museveni has directed that a total of seven top bosses from the technical wing exit the EC offices with immediate effect and long-serving EC publicist Jotham Taremwa is among them. "It's not going to be easy because the CiC is extremely angry at what has been happening and has since directed comprehensive investigations into some of the major procurement and financial decisions of the Rwakojo-era," says an influential source very close to the President. "The IGG, Col Nakalema and others have already received huge files regarding the sensitive financial and procurement decisions which the HE is very furious about because of self-enrichment."

That Gen Museveni is so furious he even wants the 2021 polling budget the EC had initially secured through parliamentary appropriation reviewed because he believes the figures therein were inflated for the planned expenditures for the self-enrichment of the big men at EC. The other powerful officials that have been fired along with Rwakojo include IT Director Namugera Pontius (also head technical support services), Director Finance & Administrator Joseph Lwanga, Data Department's Edgar Kasigwa, Jordan Lubega (Administrator networks), Musuza Charles (from data section) and Godfrey Wanyoto who has been heading procurement. Reliable sources indicate that the anti-Rwakojo axe had initially been destined to fall three weeks ago but one early Monday morning, Gen Museveni directed his office staff to delay dispatching the knifing letter in order to reflect on the some of the pleadings he had received from some pleadings from some powerful delegation from Kazo. The delegation, comprising of respectable elders, had got premonition that their son Rwakojo had his goose cooked and they begged the powerful man from Rwakitura to first hear his side of the story more before swinging his axe. Being the magnanimous leader he is, Gen Museveni agreed to pause his decision but sources say that in the process of verifying his earlier info, Gen Museveni became only more furious on discovering that the rot at the EC was worse tan he had actually thought. "The EC bosses got to know about what was coming and they resorted to lobbying powerful people but the HE was decided. No amount of pleading was going to prevent him from continuing to say enough is enough," says a source stressing that the impropriety investigations could result into people languishing in Luzira.

Mulengera News hasn't been able to readily establish much about Richard Kamugisha, the new EC Secretary as designated by Gen Museveni, beyond confirming that he hails from Rukungiri and currently heads field operations at the EC whose outgoing Secretary Sam Rwakojo is faulted for over favoring some managers while sidelining others. And one of the things we know with certainty as one of the many major causes of the resentment State House has lately been having towards Rwakojo relates to the overall EC management reluctance to warm up to the HE's proposal that the JV of UPPC and German company called Veridos to be the ones to handle the printing of ballot papers and other electoral materials for 2021. Gen Museveni's patriotic argument is that prioritizing a JV in which a local company (that is state-owned) is involved would be good for job creation while saving on foreign exchange that goes into importation. And being Mulengera News, we also have the entire file on which the HE relied to decree the exit of Rwakojo and other EC bosses. It's something we intend to serialize in our subsequent coverage of the EC transition that many think has been long overdue.

As for Kamugisha, Gen Museveni reluctantly agreed posting him to replace Rwakojo because circumstantially he was considered to be among the most experienced officials with adequate institutional memory of the EC.  "The HE fully knows that he [Kamugisha] has been a powerful ally of Rwakojo which is why he won't last long in that position. The HE would ordinarily have brought in an outsider because he wants a new start for the EC but this being on the eve of a major election, it was considered prudent to retain someone with full institutional memory and a deepened understanding of the operations of the Commission," explains a source.  (For comments on this story, call, text or whatsapp us on 0705579994, 0779411734, 0200900416 or email us

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