KAMPALA-A storm is brewing in Kawempe Division after a section of Kawempe leaders and the Muslim community expressed bitter disappointment with Mukono Municipality MP Betty Nambooze Bakireke over what they described as selective oversight, hidden motives and disparaging remarks against a leading Muslim-founded school in Kawempe that is not fully government funded.
The leaders, who include Kawempe North MP Elias Luyimbazi Nalukoola, local councillors and opinion leaders such as Magala Umar, Nsubuga Ismail, Ssemugooma Hamdan Kigozi and others, claim that Hon. Nambooze made an impromptu visit to the school during the holiday without following proper procedure.
According to the leaders, the visit was conducted without the Clerk to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and without formally notifying the school management or the area MP, contrary to standard oversight procedures of Parliament.
“We were shocked to see Hon. Nambooze at our shining star school in Kawempe during the holidays when learners are away. She came without the Clerk to PAC, without the area leadership, and started making bitter statements against a Muslim-founded school that has been built from scratch by the community without full government funding. This is selective oversight,” one of the leaders, Magala Umar, said.
The school in question, which has become one of the best performing schools in Kawempe Division in both Islamic and secular subjects, is privately founded by the Muslim community but receives some government support under the Universal Secondary Education (USE) partnership. Leaders say it has become a source of pride for Kawempe and should be supported, not attacked.
The Kawempe leaders allege that the visit had hidden motives aimed at destabilizing the school’s reputation.
“Why would you go to a school that is on holiday to do oversight? What oversight do you do when there are no students, no teachers? Our intelligence is that this is not about accountability, it is about destabilizing our shining star school. We have built this school with our sweat as Muslims and people of Kawempe,” Nsubuga Ismail said.
More seriously, the leaders claim that the land area around the school, which Hon. Nambooze had allegedly shown interest in for construction of a private hostel and establishment of a bar, is one of the reasons she mounted the impromptu visit.
“The same person who wants to build a hostel and a bar near our school land is the one coming to say the school is mismanaged. The people of Kawempe are not fools. We know the interest,” Ssemugooma Hamdan Kigozi alleged.
The remarks have left the Muslim community and many residents of Kawempe angry, with some questioning the moral authority of Nambooze to attack a community school while her own children pay over Shs 2.5 million in school fees at a private school in Kitovu, Masaka.
“She says our Muslim-founded school is not good, yet her own children pay over 2.5 million in Kitovu. She should appreciate that this school educates poor Muslim children and children of Kawempe who cannot afford 2.5 million. Instead of supporting it to get full government funding, she wants to tarnish it,” a parent said.
In the same spirit, a group of Muslim lawyers has condemned the attack on the Muslim-founded school, describing it as discriminatory and without clear reasons.
“Parliamentary oversight must be impartial and procedurally correct. You cannot single out a Muslim-founded, community-built school that is not fully government funded and attack it in a holiday without the Clerk to Committee and without inviting local leaders. It raises questions of bias and abuse of office,” one of the lawyers said.
The leaders have demanded an apology from Hon. Nambooze to the Muslim community and to the school management, and have asked the leadership of the Public Accounts Committee and Parliament to investigate the manner in which the visit was conducted.
They also called upon the Ministry of Education to come out and support Muslim-founded schools in Kawempe that are performing well despite limited funding, instead of allowing them to be politically witch-hunted.
Efforts to get a comment from Hon. Nambooze by press time were futile as her known phone numbers were not answered.
However, sources close to her say her visit was part of her routine work as an MP interested in accountability and that she meant no ill-will against any religious institution.
Area MP Elias Nalukoola said he stands with his people and will formally write to Parliament to seek clarity on the oversight procedure and to protect the image of schools that are uplifting Kawempe.
