Rebel MPs want Lumumba , Tanga Odoi sacked from NRM secretariat

A section of National Resistance Movement (NRM) Party Legislators is demanding for an overhaul of the leadership at the NRM secretariat as a way of restoring sanity within the party.

Their statements follow a fresh fight between the Party Secretary General Justine Kasule Lumumba and the Party's Electoral Commission Chairman Dr Tanga Odoi. Squabbles between the two leaders took a new twist after the dismissal of more than 400 staff members from the party secretariat.

The dismissed staff had not been paid salaries for nine months. However, Lumumba said that their salaries, covering a period of seven months had been cleared and their services terminated effective April 2018.

Following the development, Odoi said Lumumba mishandled the matter because of her lack of administrative skills.

But Lumumba blamed the secretariat on the top Party bosses whom she said have failed to intervene as Odoi turns her into a punching bag. She wondered why her party chairman has not prevailed over Dr Odoi yet they are all playing a role of supporting staff to the Party Chairman.

"For the last three years, Tanga Odoi utters so many words against me... He doesn't come to meetings but he hasn't intervened. We are supporting staff to him as national chairman, but he hasn't intervened. So when he drags him in at that level, along with that line, I listen," said Lumumba.

But Kasambya County MP Gaffa Mbwatekamwa said that the infighting at the Secretariat is a true reflection of the internal bickering which has persisted within the party for years. Mbwatekamwa added that the development confirms the uncertainty on the future of the NRM party.

Manjiya County MP John Baptist Nambeshe observed that the fight at the party secretariat was long overdue because the current secretariat occupants inherited a system that was dead on arrival.

"At the very inception, they took over the office after the unfortunate removal of Amama Mbabazi. For them reaching where they are and washing their dirty linen in public, they forget that they should have put the blame on who appoints them, but they have turned on each other's throats," said Nambeshe.

He warned that the firing of over 400 staff is going to impact negatively and be counterproductive to the party as the move is likely to arm the opposition to discredit NRM.