Behind the White Walls: The witch-hunt and political suicide that cooked Omona's goose

A quiet fight to be President Museveni's official diary holder between Kenneth Omona and Irene Birungi ended with both being sent out of the White Walls of the State House

SPECIAL REPORT | When you lay your bed, you definitely must lie in it. This famous adage may not be so far away from the circumstances surrounding the ouster of the Principal Private Secretary (PPS) and former NRM treasurer Kenneth Omona.

Omona made four years in office at the beginning of this year, having been appointed in January of 2020 much to the excitement of all and sundry.

Bookmakers insist that there was never an appointment before that was welcomed from everyone alike like that of Omona.

Could be that Omona, a self distinguished leader, a 'Mr Clean' of sorts, one whose so many decades of service have returned with no dent, was just tracing the footpath of Molly Kamukama, who should be arguably the most loathed PPS to have ever graced the white walls in Entebbe?

If that is so, it was merely Ms Kamukama’s exit came with so much relief that Omona’s entry was the cherry on top!

Omona’s first assignment was a meeting between John Patrick Amama Mbabazi and President Museveni at the Kisozi ranch in Gomba District and so smooth was his reign of office that could have been the root of envy and despicable intrigue that has characterised his four years in office.

Problems started before Omona joined

However, sources intimate that Omona’s problems could have been diagnosed differently, especially after Museveni showed his wrath by sweeping the office of all occupants, including Irene Mugisha Birungi, a hanger-on around Museveni and the PPS office for years.

With such gesture, sources intimate that President Museveni was struggling with the integrity of the office, as both Omona and Ms Birungi filed intelligence briefs against each other, mostly citing corruption.

It is said that Ms Birungi had envisaged becoming the PPS and continue in Ms Kamukama’s ruins but such a dream was snatched out of her brain cells when in under a week, Omona was seen gallivanting on the State House lawns, clutching the authority diary and scribbling the President’s next programmes.

Omona himself had been heavily briefed about Ms Birungi’s force and power and he was only touching her with a long stick, while Ms Birungi made it a point to blatantly show that the President still was as affectionate to her as he was to his own gun.

And in many different assignments, Museveni skipped Omona and could be heard by visitors calling loudly: “Ateenyi” - a pet name for Ms Birungi.

The President is known for what one would term as "leading on", as he kept giving Ateenyi the rope to hang herself, but she thought it was meant for Omona.

And there, State House started running two parallel offices of the PPS

Omona replies

In the midst of the chaos, Omona tried to galvanise his position and exclude Ms Birungi from the office by recruiting a handler - a brilliant young lawyer that this website has learnt is called Timothy.

Timothy, according to sources, exhibited highest level of brilliance and management and within no time, he had placed his boss in a tiny box, shielding him from both hangers-on and nagging approaches.

As a result, Ms Birungi was sent wallowing in Entebbe trenches where we are told she languished as she performed her duties, before she found a tiny cubicle to settle in.

While Omona’s move was one meant to allow him operate without any chaos, it was deemed as a high-handed one and for a moment placed Ms Birungi in a pitiable position which must have again thrown her back in the thick of things, for Museveni started asking for her.

It is rumoured that Ms Birungi’s comeback was on the shoulders of the CEO forum, which she dangled in Museveni’s face until he sniffed the coffee from it.

Before anyone could call it, the President was being shipped left, right and centre to discuss trivialities and serious issues alike with many a CEO, known and unknown.

Indeed, this could have been yet the ingredient that could have cooked Ms Birungi’s goose later, as it is said that Museveni grew weary of her programme and sought relief from it - and her all together.

Enter Evelyne Anite

The Minister of State for Investment, Evelyne Anite, must be the biggest loser of Omona’s exit as she equally was the biggest beneficiary of his reign.

Anite ran a train of programmes with the President that averaged one a week. She enjoyed favour with Omona, mostly because the President at once time was in sweet love with investors.

During the time, Anite shopped every callibre of investor and piled on each programme, much to the disappointment of certain forces close to the President - who called out Omona over nepotism.

For those still alive on Twitter or X can go back and tell of the social media war in which a certain group from western Uganda attacked Omona for denying westerners a chance to meet the President.

Omona, in his defence, said everyone has the same right to meet the President irrespective of the region. They did not buy into his view of things.

The biggest problem with palace politics as that in State House is that a certain group believes that they own the king, and so they will make their voices and frustrations about whoever stands in the way.

It was Omona in the way, apparently.

In only two years of his service, it is said that members close to the First Family and their friends started calling for the chopping board but President Museveni hid it from them and insisted on Omona for the rest of the next two years.

However, while doing so, Museveni channeled the rest to a third office, that of Gen Proscovia Nalweyiso, where urgent papers passed and he replied to them.

In due course, Museveni had created three offices to do Omona’s job; Birungi, Omona, Nalweyiso and a fourth developed shortly after, one of Hellen Sseku and then a fifth for Hajjati Hadija Namyalo.

Anyone who would look at the situation then would have called the odds.

So why then fire Omona

There are about two situations that would make people think your job is simple and doable by them; when you make it easy and when you make it hard.

Unfortunately for Omona, he made his job have both at the same time, being able to dress smartly in a suit and pull off so many things with ease, while at the same time being quite cagey and less effective on many other things.

The most recent and probably the last time Omona would appear to the public as a PPS was in Dokolo when he flanked a question by President Museveni.

Museveni was for the second time in under two months grumbling about Omona and hanging him out to dry.

By the this time, however, at least four people close to him are said to have expressed interest in his job. They have all been named in this article.

President Museveni was not going to have it. He struck the two off the list and sent them out of State House with a further note to have them settled elsewhere before Easter Sunday.

Indeed, the old man with a hat needed to resurrect his office on Paska!