KALUNGI NOT A DP SAYS KAKANDE

By Jeff Lule
THE Democratic Party (DP) party has said the Makindye division LC3 chairperson, Moses Kalungi, is not a member of the party. “No DP boss has crossed to NRM party as it was reported in one of the media houses. People like Kalungi are trying to attract people’s attention and cause confusion among the public. We don’t know him,” the party’s deputy publicist secretary, Kenneth Kakande, said. He was addressing journalists during the party’s weekly press briefing in Kampala yesterday. Kalungi declared his support to President Yoweri Museveni at a rally in Makindye over the weekend. He was elected Makindye division chairperson in 2006 as an independent, but insists he is a member of DP.
Kakande said Kalungi’s DP membership was suspended at the Mbale delegates’ conference immediately after they received information that he belonged to two parties. “Kalungi had a DP card and was at the same time a patron of the Social Democratic Party, which is not allowed,” he explained. He noted that like Sebaggala, Kalungi is a political tourist with his own interests as a businessman. Kakande stressed that Kalungi had also contested to become the party’s treasurer in Mbale, but his credentials were questioned. On this year’s 48th Independence Day celebrations, Kakande said Ugandans should focus on changing the country and giving it a new look. He reported that 10 million Ugandans live below the poverty line, while preventable diseases like malaria continue to kill people. Kakande said corruption is still a major challenge to most development programmes yet no action has been taken against the culprits. “Corruption is one reason why we still have poor living standards, inadequate health facilities among other issues. The Government should do something about it,” he said.
The party’s chief legal adviser, Fred Mukasa Mbidde, said the party had petitioned the Electoral Commission (EC) to block members who pick nomination forms without a letter from the party’s secretary general, Mathias Nsubuga. Mbidde cited Samuel Lubega, who recently picked nomination forms as DP’s presidential candidate.