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Things are now very bad for outgoing minister of gender Betty Among who on 15th January was fired by close to 40,000 Lira city voters who disregarded her and voted Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng to be their woman MP for the next five years up to 2031.
Amongi must be regretting why she blindly disregarded the Beatrice Wabudeya experience in Sironko and abandoned her Oyam south MP seat and strayed into the city. It ended in tears and Amongi put all the blame on everyone else except herself.
These days every political project she touches falls apart. Otuke MP Paul Omara, renowned for putting money in political work, had counted on her to lobby the president to make him a minister but nothing came out of it. Omara is now full of tears after Museveni ignored him because he doesn’t like quarrelsome politicians.
Betty Amongi also continues to be blamed for the political problems which befell her husband, Jimmy Akena. He was despised and rejected by many diehard UPCs who believed hew can’t be a serious rival to Museveni when his wife is a minister in the same man’s government. The two have since had endless arguments regarding who was right and who was wrong.
In her case, Betty Amongi lobbied everywhere and was very sure of bouncing back in cabinet as the gender minister in order to continue supervising NSSF’s billions but Museveni snubbed her. She ought to have known that by persecuting Richard Byarugaba out of NSSF, she stepped on many toes and alienated herself.
Amongi was so sure of being on the cabinet list to the point that service providers had already been contracted to come and feed people on her thanksgiving party. Power brokers, believed to be in position to convince the president to reappoint her, took up to 1bn as facilitation to do the needful. The cash was eaten but the lady never featured on the list.
Amongi’s ally Minyang Fred Walter had already been deployed to supervise the preparations for the thanksgiving celebrations at her senior quarters’ residence. The same handler had also been assigned to ensure there are 1,000 yellow t-shirts to be used during the celebrations. An additional 2,000 yellow t-shirts were ordered because Betty Amongi was so sure of being on the list.
More 500 boda riders had already been taken through rehearsals on how they were to ride and show swag during Betty Amongi’s thanksgiving procession from her Kamdin hotel to her Lira city residence. A group of priests had been lined up to lead the prayers that day. All this had been slated to be done on Wednesday, a day after the cabinet list release.
Weeks earlier, Amongi had attempted to show that she is still powerful by hosting a powerful delegation of NSSF top officials including the Fund’s board chairman. Amongi was sure this would be followed by a politically charged thanksgiving pomp-filled ceremony.
On Tuesday, a group of guests had converged at Amongi’s Lira city residence where they ate nice food and took drinks as they waited for the cabinet list whose release Betty Amongi had confirmed in advance.
It ended in tears as one by one, all the guests left the house as what looked like their host’s political funeral seemed to be clearly upon them. The music was immediately off after it became clear her name wasn’t on the list. Betty Amongi herself shed tears and sunk into unconsciousness from which she took 4 hours to recover. Nurses and counsellors stayed at her house throughout the night in case she collapsed again.
The guys on social media began celebrating while mocking both Akena and Amongi. The former got so stressed up and spent the rest of the night blaming Betty Amongi for having refused to join him in denouncing Museveni who he said is a liar who should never be trusted because he doesn’t wish anything well for independent politicians from Lango. Akena said that Amongi would end up stronger if she had joined him to support Bobi Wine, while exposing Museveni’s lies. Museveni ignored both of them and made Oyam woman MP Santa Alum, a good friend of their rival Aceng, a minister. They hated her and tried to undermine her politics in the 11th parliament.
Political analysts say the omission of Amongi’s name from the cabinet list marks a significant shift in the political dynamics within Lango and could reshape alliances but most of all, paves way for effective service delivery rather than self-enrichment among members of the Obote family empire that was being built by Akena and Amongi at the expense of the ordinary people in Lango.
Daily monitor analysis showed that the Tuesday firing was most likely the end of political road for Betty Amongi who clearly is no longer wanted in NRM yet even old comrades in UPC can’t trust her anymore.
