MP Lumu Tells Off Combative Bobi: Go Back To Law School Or Get A Good Lawyer
Mityana South MP Richard Lumu (DP) has told off the National Unity Platform (NUP) President Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu aka Bobi Wine, telling him “to go back to law school or get a good lawyer to help him understand the law.”
This comes after Bobi Wine made unsubstantiated claims about Lumu’s bill aimed at amending the Administration of Parliament Act to make numerous changes.
Bobi Wine, a fresh law graduate, has been criticized for his handling of legal matters, raising questions about his understanding of the law.
Lumu’s bill seeks to enhance democracy among opposition ranks in Parliament, but Bobi Wine has since accused him of “being used by President Museveni” to target his remote-controlled current Leader of the Opposition in Parliament (LoP) Joel Ssenyonyi and a plot to make changes in the mode of electing the president from adult-suffrage to parliament elections.
“Museveni fears our generation, I’m telling you, he cannot defeat us that’s why he is using the so-called opposition MPs like that one [Lumu] who presented a bill before parliament that gives power to parliament to choose who to be the Leader of Opposition in Parliament and the president,” Bobi said, “Our duty is to tell the public and expose people like that legislator who thinks that he can use opposition to get personal benefits from Museveni”
Bobi further asked the people of Mityana (South) to make sure that come 2026, people like Lumu and other leaders he perceives to be critical of him out of office.
However, Lumu that the bill is not about personalities, but about promoting democracy, and clarified that the article providing for the election of the president is entrenched and requires a referendum to amend.
“I have also seen some other leaders saying; now Lumu is being used by the president [Museveni] to bring the bill which will allow Parliament to elect the President,” he said, “Whoever also said like that, I think he needs to go back to law school, or if not, I can be of help that the article, which, provides for the election of the president is entrenched and if you want to amend it, you need a referendum.”
The long-time lawyer Lumu asserted, “So, when I hear a leader who says now they want to use him [me] so that elections can be done here [Parliament], he should go back and read that article properly. If s/he cannot understand it properly, we can help or he can get a grounded advocate to help him know properly.”
Lumu expressed surprise that people who claim to promote democracy fear elections. “Why should you fear elections?” he asked.
Lumu also advised Bobi Wine to learn how not to rush to speak before filtering messages and their impact.
“If you are a leader, do not rush to speak. Do not rush to speak because you might speak badly about something and when it is introduced, you realize it is good and want to say it, but you have already presented it as a bad thing.”
Lumu also pointed out that this is not the first time such an amendment has been brought to Parliament, and he thanked the FDC party for their approach in convincing Busiro East MP Medard Sseggona, who had mooted the same in the past.
He emphasized that he would not be threatened by Bobi Wine’s calls on his people to vote him out in 2026, saying that he would still live a good life even outside Parliament as it were before joining Parliament.
Instead, he said he is willing to help Bobi understand the law, “If you cannot understand it properly, we can help or he can get a grounded advocate to help him know properly.”
He rejected an accusation that he is targeting the current LoP whom he said, he does not know him that much to develop grudges with him.
“I do not want to reduce the bill to one person, Ssenyonyi because I have heard people say, I am fighting Ssenyonyi. I want to tell you, members of the press that I have known Hon Ssenyonyi, it is only 3 years (we have been in parliament)-I have no grudges against him,” Lumu said.
Previously, LOP Joel Ssenyonyi also joined his boss Wine to accuse Lumu of working under the influence of Speaker Anita Among aimed at taming his leadership from asking tough questions to the Government and the financial impropriety he claims to be happening in Parliament.
He explained that even if his amendment passed, “it might work in the 12th Parliament so I do not know why people are dying to kill the bill before it is even debated…this motion is good because it is not talking about the LoP only, it talks about the election of the chief whip also. I don’t know why someone should be so scared of elections when even in a primary school, children elect. I don’t know why people are so scared about elections when they are products of elections.”
He wondered whether the opposition chiefs are only duping Ugandans in talking about their ascendancy to power mission yet they are busy protecting their positions in the opposition.
“Another thing, we are in the opposition and we are preparing to go to power in 2026. People should not be scared, we shall be in power in 2026 and this bill will work on people who will be in the opposition unless you think we shall permanently be in opposition. So, I want to change the minds of some people who think we shall permanently be in the opposition.”
Lumu’s bill seeks to promote democracy and ensure that the Leader of the Opposition is elected through a democratic process. He urged Bobi Wine and other leaders to focus on the bill’s content rather than making unsubstantiated claims.