Revelation by the 1st Deputy Prime Minister Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga that the Minister for Presidency Milly Babalanda’s office has time long been run by the deputy president’s press secretary Farooq Kirunda due to her lack of the minimum academic qualifications, has sent the country in shockwaves.
The disclosure came through on Thursday February, 12th, during Kadaga’s media engagement in Busoga sub region on a range of issues touching the region. It followed recent Minister Babalanda’s media address by some of the regional radio stations through which she lambasted the former Speaker of Parliament as a combative person who never wish for others to develop.
The controversial NRM party local leaders meeting addressed by the party chairperson president Yoweri Museveni in Iganga in January prior to the January 15, elections which Kadaga was not invited to attend, is another explainer for the battle intensity between the two Museveni’s cabinet Ministers.
According to Kadaga, Babalanda’s rise in political ranks did not happen by accident given that she lacks the minimum academic qualifications.
“She has no S6, S4 and any other related certificate. I forged recommendation for Babalanda to be considered as a Musoga girl for an RDC job together with Butebo. I wrote the letter for those two people, that’s how Babalanda came to be a deputy RDC because she had lacked qualifications.” Kadaga made a shocking revelation.
The 1st Deputy Premier wondered how she was not wishing for others when she had wished for Babalanda who was initially un known to the world but later gained prominence.
Relying upon her media technical team work, Kadaga requested for an air play of Babalanda’s speech recording when she had hosted the president in Bukunku-Busoga, heaping praises on Kadaga for having trusted her and engaged her in her political mobilization of Busoga that enabled the president to spot her and use her in his nationwide mobilization drives.
“I was later appointed Deputy RDC Busia where I served a very short time. Your Excellence, you remember it was only two years, and in 2025 the president put me in his office at Mbuya the Office of National Chairman where I deputized the former president’s PPS Molly Kamukama,” Babalanda said in a recording.
The Kamuli District Woman MP shockingly revealed that Babalanda’s ministerial office is being run by Farooq Kirunda who helps her to run it on a daily basis due to her academic incompetence.
“That person, her speeches are being written for her, she reads word for word. When you slightly change anything in them she can’t reply. Since she has raised her head up, let me tell you more about her” Kadaga emphasized.
She accused Babalanda of ever deploying blackmail as a tool to sustain her political scores, citing one case scenario of her predecessor Esther Mbayo who was shown an exit by the president based on her claims.
She urged the Minister for Office of the president to calm down since she would not be able to sustain the war she had opened against herself.
Kadaga further accused speaker Anita Among of financing wars in Busoga against her, before she could call upon her fellow Basoga to put Busoga forward if it is to navigate its prevailing challenges.
Kadaga’s throw of spanner into the pandora box might open the flood gates of legal battles against Babalanda in a challenge of her contested academic qualifications.
