{UAH} HOW MWENDA DEFLATED BWANIKA DURING NBS’ FRONTLINE

By Mulengera Reporters 

Thinking this was the CBS radio show where he is hosted every Saturday by Med Nsereko who allows (even encourages) him to tell all manner of lies, Kimanya-Kabonera MP Abed Bwanika entered the NBS studios (Thursday night) ready to act crudely as always. And in his opening remarks, Bwanika set up himself for ridicule when he claimed (without any corroboration) that there was no Covid19 vaccine scarcity in the world.

A stone-faced Bwanika made everybody on the show appalled when he claimed, without restraint, that the problem was the Ministry of Health leadership. Otherwise, as far as he is concerned, once money is appropriated and made available (like Parliament did) there should be no difficulties in finding the vaccine.

With excellent debaters like Betty Amongin and Andrew Mwenda in the house, this blatant lie (similar to those he tells on CBS every Saturday without the moderator being able to fact-check him) couldn't stand nor go unchallenged. Amongin asserted that the matter the penurious Bwanika was attempting to lie about was so obvious it would be sacrilege to allow him get away with such deceit.

"They are people who can be very assertive and they will assert their lack of information to seem like it's the same as having information yet they actually don't have any," said Amongin who had specifically been invited to discuss the performance of the relief fund (Shs54bn) which her Gender Ministry spearheaded. Amongin impliedly made it clear that even when Bwanika clearly came off as one of the most ignorant persons, it was not in her vocabulary to overtly use such words to describe someone who thrice stood for Presidency and currently serves as MP. That having studied diplomacy and international relations, her training, mentorship and orientation doesn't permit her to describe a colleague in such crude language.

Seemingly in total disbelief, Norbert Mao joked that indeed that (portraying Bwanika as ignorant and deceptive) exactly is what she had done. On realizing he was being cornered from all corners, Bwanika (used to propagating false narratives on especially CBS where he takes advantage of the moderator who keeps confessing I don't know these things) then proceeded to amend his original statement by asserting that the MoH had complicated the vaccine situation by hijacking the mandate of NMS.

He was then asked by Andrew Mwenda (his eventual executioner on the NBS program) to precisely tell the audience where exactly NMS could have bought the vaccines even in the absence of health Ministry interference he deceptively referred to. "The vaccines are there but the manufacturers don't want to deal with small orders and that is why they insisted that African countries come together and purchase jointly," Bwanika said unconvincingly. He was tasked to explain how the NMS he kept divisively defending was going to overcome such constraints.

Betty Amongin tabled evidence (obtained during one of the Cabinet meetings) that even purchasing from 3^rd party dealers, brokers or middlemen wasn't a solution. She explained that, on being approached by such commission-seeking middlemen, the GoU/MoH directly contacted vaccine manufacturers like the US-based Johnson & Johnson. This information verification was executed by the Ugandan Ambassador in Washington Mull Katende. Amongin revealed that in the end, Johnson & Johnson denied being represented by any middle men.

Amongin was responding to Abed Bwanika's false claim that the vaccines are there and in plenty except that the GoU hasn't been enthusiastic enough. "If you don't have information my colleague, don't go into what you don't know," Amongin asserted in a bid to shut up Bwanika who insisted the problem was NMS not being allowed to execute its mandate. She asserted that Cabinet resolved never to deal with middle men to avoid being cheated or ending up with fake vaccines. The manufacturer assured the GoU anything bought through the backdoor, as opposed to dealing with them directly, would lack authenticity and the manufacturer wouldn't be responsible.

With Amongin providing all this information, the heat was once again turned on Bwanika who Mwenda, backed by the moderator Joseph Sabiiti, demanded must publicly inform government where the vaccines he kept claiming to be available can be purchased from. The veterinary doctor from Lwengo began stammering before accusing Mwenda of not being used to sitting next to very informed and intelligent people like him. Mwenda asserted that the vaccine scarcity had impeded not only Uganda, whose MoH Abed branded incompetent, but all the other developing world countries.

"Even developing countries like Rwanda I know for being very efficient haven't managed to vaccinate even 5% of their population and I don't understand what this man Obed [sic] Bwanika is talking about," Mwenda said adding that he was saddened to learn during the Frontline debate that the 6 year old boy living in his house is actually more informed and enlightened than Abed Bwanika who initially had been construed as intelligent and very enlightened by the Ugandan populace and elite many of whom never adequately scrutinize things before arriving at conclusions about people. Mwenda implied that until it happened and he encountered him first had on the NBS program, he always considered Bwanika to be a serious intellectual which he turned out not to be.

Not done, Abed returned the fire by dismissing Mwenda as "Google-based" intellectual. He went as far implying that Mwenda isn't as intelligent as many people thought he was because "I have just seen him here fidgeting to read things on Google which he later on" parrots out for the audience. This angered Mwenda who insisted Obed Bwanika (as he repeatedly call him) was a very ignorant politician than he originally thought of him. Mwenda branded Bwanika an analog politician who still travels to Makerere main library's Africana section to borrow books and read stuff from those old volumes simply because he is allergic to Google-sourced information. "How can you despise Google as a source of information when it's what all the best Universities I know in the world use to disseminate information and their findings?"

The debate relating to this Google authenticity thing only escalated after Mao complained of opposition leaders, like him, being denied access to Covid-related information by the government. Sabiiti told him this was unfair because the DP SG Gerald Siranda sits on the Covid national taskforce where all the information is shared, processed, validated and agreed upon. Mwenda shut up Mao asserting there is no need to obtain such information from GoU because it's easily out everywhere via the Google search engine.

Abed Bwanika immediately jumped on Andrew Mwenda once again crudely asking: "So you believe everything on Google is true like gospel truth? This is what I have been saying about your cram work." This angered the hitherto restrained Mwenda who literally rolled his sleeves, went bare knuckles and told off Abed Bwanika like never before.

The man from Kanyandahi said he was surprised with extreme levels of ignorance Bwanika exhibited. He accused Bwanika of misleading millions of young people by deceptively telling them there are better sources of officially authenticated information than Google. Mwenda insisted on revisit the issue of vaccines' availability demanding that Abed Bwanika names any developing country whose access to Covid19 vaccines hasn't been constrained. Speaking on top of his voice, Mwenda demanded to know Abed Bwanika's source of information regarding adequate availability of vaccines to low income countries. "I'm telling you the vaccines are there except that Mr. Mwenda here isn't used to debating with people who know," Bwanika asserted.

With Bwanika continuously skirting around the issue, as opposed to giving a straight answer each time he was asked to enumerate examples of developing countries which have accessed adequate vaccines and shielded many people against the virus, Mwenda demanded that the former Presidential candidate states the number of countries on the planet before proceeding to highlight for him which ones of them are developed and still developing. Clearly caught off guard, Bwanika said that wasn't very important prompting Mwenda to protest why NBS ever invited him to debate with a politician of such extreme levels of ignorance. He impliedly asserted that, contrary to what he expected, Bwanika (whom he described as a raw caliber politician) was clearly not fit for hosting on a prime program like Frontline.

Mwenda registered his sympathies for the people who such a person represents and they must live with the disgrace of referring to him as their MP. Bwanika uttered another lie relating to the MoH's capabilities to conduct accurate surveillance interventions in the community and when Mwenda challenged him to illustrate his point, the man with the grey beard (who came dressed in a faded jacket) crudely asserted "that requires a full lecture." Vigorously shaking his head, Mwenda demanded for answers as to why Uganda would end up with great outcomes (such as registering limited fatality numbers) if indeed the leadership at Wandegeya was defective as Bwanika kept claiming.

The veteran journalist from Kanyandahi also lectured Bwanika about the underfunding problem constraining health services delivery in Uganda whose government allocates only Shs5000 per citizen to be expended on health services provision every year. He asked Bwanika how much he can do with so little and the clearly deflated Kimanya-Kabonera MP was "angazi."

Mwenda insisted that the loopholes manifested in the country's Covid19 response had nothing to do with the alleged corruption or the leadership at Wandegeya being inept "because even United States which allocates or spends over $7,000 per citizen annually on health services provision registered many fatalities and ran out of oxygen and other supplies leading to deaths." He demanded that being an MP with such a privileged platform, Mr. Bwanika must lobby fellow legislators to ensure that this country begins to adequately spend on health of its citizens.

Bwanika insisted the MoH leadership was inept but miserably failed to articulate what they should have done better given inadequate funding and other constraints under which they operate. Insisting there is no way this country would have ended up with such impressive outcomes in its Covid19 management if the leadership at Wandegeya was that inept, Mwenda demanded that Bwanika articulates his alternative interventions or keeps quiet forever.

Referencing on a text message from State Health Minister Margaret Muhanga, Sabiiti insisted that Bwanika tells Ugandans where their government can buy vaccines from. "If the government gives you money tomorrow can you deliver the vaccines required?" Sabiiti asked while paraphrasing Muhanga's questions. A fire-breathing Bwanika responded by abusing Sabiiti wondering why he was such a parrot that "only reads out messages simply because the sender is a Minister." This venomous personal attack on the level-headed moderator only made Bwanika seem more incapable of debate and paranoid than many had initially perceived him to be.

Towards the end of the program, Bwanika argued there was a problem of vaccine skepticism especially among the Pentecostal movement to which he belongs (and is one of the leaders). He blamed the MoH for not doing anything to diminish that skepticism but Mwenda and Amongin demanded to know what he had done to combat that skepticism since he is one of the Pentecostal leaders who is even fully vaccinated. Bwanika had no answer and only stammered out of the studios and didn't keep behind to join other guests for the brief interaction they had at the NBS premises before driving to their respective homes.

As he fled to his home, which isn't very far from the NBS headquarters (it was pat mid night), Bwanika cried out as guests matched out of the studio: "But you people have treated me so unfairly. You have been too harsh to me. A whole veterinary doctor to be treated like a P7 boy?" Mwenda assured him he was unapologetic and once given chance he will humiliate him again even more so that more and more Ugandans get to know the fake/kiwaani intellectual he is. Sabiiti suggested prompting Simon Kaggwa Njala to host another debate on his Morning Breeze between Mwenda and Bwanika so that the man from Kanyandahi can have the opportunity to hit the NUP legislator below the belt.

Before the show ended, Norbert Mao, a long time sufferer of the Abed Bwanika mediocrity, comforted Mwenda to get used to the mediocrity he saw during the NBS program. He told Mwenda: "I and Joseph [moderator] who have always been here have seen even worse things than this." Without going bare knuckles on Bwanika like Mwenda kept doing, Mao wondered how anyone serious could dispute Google's credentials as a source of authentic information. He doubted even Bwanika genuinely believed in the cynicism he exhibited about Google "but I know politicians [and] that is how they behave because there will be that time of reminding voters that don't you remember how tough I was on government when we appeared on NBS to discuss Covid19 expenditures?" As Mao eloquently made his submission, Bwanika (who kept struggling with his imperfect/struggling English) uneasily turned in his seat.

Many, who keenly witnessed the humiliation he endured, went to bed wondering if the ill-fated Abed Bwanika will ever again have guts to go to any media debate or talk show where Mwenda or even Amongin will be among those he faces. In fact, going by the post-show social media commentary, there was unanimity that even Betty Amongin alone would have floored the very deceptive and crude-minded Abed Bwanika even if Mwenda wasn't in the house.

Many were of the view that the lies Bwanika came prepared to propagate would ideally have made a good speech for a campaign rally in one of the remote villages in his Kimanya-Kabonera constituency and not a dignified platform like Frontline which Mwenda asserted he should never be invited to.

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"When a man is stung by a bee, he doesn't set off to destroy all beehives"

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