The host and live audience of last Saturday’s Mambo Baado, the popular town-hall style radio program on CBS Radio were quite embarrassed when rebuked by Betty Nambooze for discussing European football during a time of crisis in Buganda. Nambooze, who claimed to be coming straight from a hospital bed put the host, Ssozi Kaddu Mukasa, and his live audience to task to why they were pre-occupied with football scores at a time when Ssabasajja Kabaka Mutebi’s movements in his kingdom were being restricted by Mr. Museveni.
Nambooze, who looked both unwell and sad, told the listeners in Luganda, “Fellow Baganda, I am sick and I was in a hostpital bed, on IV drip, when I decided to switch on and listen to Mambo Baado. Obviously I expected the discussion to be about serious issues affecting Buganda such as the crisis that was created by those who barred Kabaka Mutebi from visiting his people in Buluuli, which is part of his kingdom. When I heard sports, I could not stay in bed.”
“How could you have chosen to make sports more important than the siege that Buganda and Kabaka are under?” Nambooze pointedly asked Kaddu Mukasa. The host claimed that it is the producers who chose the topic but many in the audience, who were now cheering Nambooze, seemed unconvinced. After Nambooze told the crowd that she was disappointed by the poor leadership shown on the Buluuli crisis but was returning to the hospital to have the drip reattached, the audience started to leave. It was not possible to establish by the time of this posting if the management of CBS could have intentionally chosen the topic of sport to appease Mr. Museveni.
In a related development, Katikkiro JB Walusimbi, spent the weekend conducting Rotary Club business. During the same time when Nambooze left a hospital bed to go and guide Buganda on the seriousness of Mr. Museveni’s decision to restrict Kabaka Mutebi’s freedom of movement in Buganda, Katikkiro Walusimbi was in Wobulenzi, Bulemeezi County, to open a new Rotary Club branch. At the ceremony, Katikkiro Walusimbi called upon the branch members to work very hard for the success of their organization and to promote volunteerism. He did discuss Mr. Museveni’s restrictions on Kabaka Mutebi’s on traveling to Nakasongola, less than 50 miles away from the ceremony venue.
Rotary Club International is a volunteer organization that is headquartered in the United States. Its popularity among both and the corrupt citizens of Uganda is largely due the opportunities it provides for local clubs to attract funds from wealth foreign clubs in Eu. Prominent members of Rotary in Uganda include former minister of health in Mr. Museveni’s government, Jim Muhwezi, who is infamous for misapprorating millions of dollars in public funds.
