MASAKA CHAOS: Nameere Helped Masaka NRM Boss Secure Seedlings Contract During Meeting with Museveni — and Then All Hell Broke Loose

MASAKA CITY — It began with a request for coffee seedlings and what Justine Nameere describes as an act of political courtesy.

It ended with accusations of corruption, a disputed government contract, unpaid farmers, a public confrontation, an arrest over alleged misuse of public funds and a political feud that has drawn in State House, senior ministers and President Yoweri Museveni himself.

At the centre of the dispute is Justine Nameere Nsubuga, the Woman Member of Parliament for Masaka City and Minister of State for Local Government, who says she helped open the door for Masaka City NRM chairman Rogers Bulegeya to meet Museveni and make his own case for supplying coffee seedlings.

According to Nameere, what happened next turned a gesture of goodwill into a political liability.

“Last year, I petitioned His Excellency the President to support the people of Masaka City with coffee seedlings. He graciously approved the request,” Nameere said in a statement seeking to “set the record straight” on the controversy.

She says Bulegeya approached her before the meeting with Museveni and asked to accompany her.

“During that meeting, the NRM City Chairman, Rogers Bulegeya, pleaded with me to allow him to accompany me so he could also present a request to His Excellency. Out of courtesy and goodwill, I agreed,” Nameere said.

Then, she says, the nature of the request changed.

“That act of kindness has since cost me dearly,” she said.

According to Nameere, Bulegeya told Museveni that he had millions of coffee seedlings available and sought to be contracted to supply them.

“Mr. Bulegeya subsequently misrepresented to His Excellency that he possessed millions of coffee seedlings and lobbied to be contracted as the supplier. His Excellency, in a bid to assist him, consented,” Nameere said.

The arrangement, however, allegedly began to unravel almost immediately.

Nameere says Bulegeya did not have the seedlings he had claimed to possess and failed to deliver after the contract was approved.

“However, Mr. Bulegeya failed to deliver. After weeks of delay, it emerged that he did not have the seedlings,” she said.

It was at this point, according to Nameere, that the dispute moved from an administrative problem into something much more serious.

She alleges that Bulegeya proposed an arrangement in which seedlings would effectively be supplied on paper rather than physically delivered and that the proceeds would then be shared.

“He proposed what he termed ‘air supply’ and suggested we share proceeds,” Nameere said.

She says she rejected the proposal.

“I rejected this outright, as I do not engage in corruption,” she said.

Nameere says she gave Bulegeya an ultimatum: either begin supplying the seedlings or she would take the matter back to Museveni.

“I gave him 48 hours to commence supply or I would report the matter to His Excellency,” she said.

The farmers enter the story

With the deadline approaching, Bulegeya allegedly turned to local farmers.

“In a bid to fulfill the commitment, Mr. Bulegeya sourced seedlings from 14 local farmers,” Nameere said.

But that did not resolve the problem.

“He still failed to supply the full quantity,” she said.

Nameere says she subsequently informed Museveni about the failure to meet the supply obligations.

“I informed His Excellency, who then authorized me to complete the supply to our beneficiaries,” she said.

That decision, according to Nameere, created another complication: what would happen to the farmers who had supplied seedlings through Bulegeya?

She says she sought to ensure that the farmers would not lose money in a dispute in which they were not the principal contracting party.

“To protect the 14 farmers, I advised the State House Comptroller that payment to Mr. Bulegeya should only be made in the presence of all the farmers from whom he sourced seedlings, so that each is paid directly,” Nameere said.

That, she argues, is where the dispute took a distinctly political turn.

The accusation that exploded in Masaka

Nameere says Bulegeya responded by launching what she describes as a smear campaign against her.

“In retaliation, Mr. Bulegeya launched a smear campaign against me,” she said.

The most visible face of that dispute became Cissy Nanyange, a local coffee farmer who publicly accused Nameere of owing her money for seedlings.

Nameere rejects that accusation and says Nanyange’s claim has distorted the actual financial dispute.

“He has since coached one of the farmers, Ms. Nanyange Cissy, to falsely claim on social media and at public rallies that I owe her UGX 150 million,” Nameere said.

The accusation became particularly explosive during the “Expose the Corrupt” event in Masaka City, where the competing claims spilled into public view.

Nanyange accused Nameere of owing UGX 156 million for campaign seedlings, according to the account surrounding the confrontation, while Nameere maintains that the disputed amount was never a personal debt owed by her to Nanyange.

“The facts are clear: The UGX 150 million is the total amount owed to all 14 farmers by Mr. Bulegeya,” Nameere said.

She says the farmers themselves subsequently confirmed her version.

“This was confirmed… in a meeting with Hon. Balaam Barugahara, where all 13 other farmers attested that it was Mr. Bulegeya who collected their seedlings,” she said.

Nameere also invokes the State House machinery to support her account.

“The State House Comptroller has also affirmed that the contract was awarded to Mr. Bulegeya and that payment is pending his compliance with the directive to come with all the farmers,” she said.

The dispute therefore turns on a crucial distinction: whether the money allegedly owed for seedlings is a personal debt owed by Nameere to Nanyange, as publicly alleged, or an outstanding payment connected to seedlings supplied by 14 farmers to Bulegeya under a contract Nameere says was awarded to him.

Nameere insists it is the latter.

Then came the arrest

The seedlings controversy did not unfold in isolation.

At the same “Expose the Corrupt” gathering in Masaka City, Nameere directed police to detain Mr. Ntale, chairman of Misali SACCO, over allegations that UGX 42 million from the Emyooga programme had been embezzled.

The arrest itself became another flashpoint after a former State Minister for Finance in charge of Microfinance, reportedly called for Ntale’s release.

Nameere’s refusal to back down was welcomed by some supporters, who portrayed the incident as evidence of her determination to confront the misuse of government funds.

But the episode also gave her opponents another opening to question the political drama surrounding the minister.

The irony was difficult to miss: a minister publicly fighting allegations involving money meant for rural development programmes was simultaneously defending herself against accusations that she had failed to pay farmers supplying seedlings under a government-linked programme.

Nameere says the timing was not accidental.

“The escalation of these falsehoods came immediately after I objected to the release of a suspect implicated in the theft of PDM funds,” she said.

She alleges that a minister allied to Bulegeya was involved in efforts to have the suspect released.

“A certain Minister, who is a known ally of Mr. Bulegeya, was the one demanding that releasing so of course this obvious cartel facilitated Nanyange to present a distorted version of this matter at a public rally,” Nameere said.

Her statement does not identify the minister by name.

But the allegation captures the broader political terrain in which the Masaka coffee seedlings dispute has unfolded: government programmes, local political networks, allegations of corruption and competing claims about who has access to State House.

A fight over more than seedlings

The case has become a test of how government-funded agricultural programmes intersect with local political power.

Coffee is not simply another crop in Uganda. It is one of the country’s most important agricultural exports, and successive governments have placed coffee at the centre of efforts to increase household incomes and transform subsistence farmers into commercial producers.

That makes the distribution of coffee seedlings politically consequential, particularly when the programme is tied to presidential intervention.

In Masaka, Nameere says she initially went to Museveni with a straightforward request: help residents obtain seedlings.

Instead, she says, the meeting created an opportunity for Bulegeya to put forward his own proposal.

Her account places her in an unusual position. She acknowledges that she facilitated Bulegeya’s access to the President but says she did so as an act of courtesy, not as part of an arrangement to benefit from the resulting contract.

“Out of courtesy and goodwill, I agreed,” she said.

She now argues that the very decision she made in good faith has been turned against her.

“That act of kindness has since cost me dearly,” she said.

The allegation that Bulegeya claimed to possess millions of seedlings is also central to her defence. Nameere says that when it became apparent he could not meet the supply requirement, she did not attempt to conceal the failure.

Instead, she says, she reported it to Museveni and was authorized to complete the distribution.

That version of events, if supported by the relevant procurement and State House records, would be significant because it would distinguish between the person who secured the contract and the minister who ultimately completed the supply after the contractor failed to perform.

But the dispute remains clouded by the fact that the same farmers who allegedly supplied the seedlings say they are still waiting for payment.

The money at the heart of the feud

At least part of the controversy appears to stem from the difference between the figure publicly cited by Nanyange and the figure Nameere says represents the collective debt.

Nanyange has publicly accused Nameere of owing her money for seedlings, with the amount cited in the confrontation reaching UGX 156 million.

Nameere’s statement gives a different figure — UGX 150 million — but insists that it is not an amount owed to Nanyange personally.

“The UGX 150 million is the total amount owed to all 14 farmers by Mr. Bulegeya,” she said.

The distinction is critical.

If Nameere’s account is correct, the dispute is not about a minister personally purchasing seedlings from a farmer and failing to pay. It is about a contractor allegedly sourcing seedlings from several farmers, failing to complete a government supply obligation and leaving the farmers awaiting payment.

That is why Nameere says she insisted that the State House Comptroller should only release payment when all 14 farmers were present.

Her stated objective was to prevent the money from being paid to one person while the farmers who actually supplied the seedlings remained unpaid.

Nameere’s broader corruption crusade

The controversy comes as Nameere has increasingly presented herself as one of the government’s more aggressive voices against corruption in local government.

In recent months, she has appeared alongside Local Government Minister Balaam Barugahara in campaigns focused on exposing misuse of public resources and corruption in local governments.

At the Masaka event, her direction for police to detain the Misali SACCO chairman over the alleged UGX 42 million Emyooga funds scandal reinforced that image.

Supporters saw firmness.

Her detractors saw a contradiction.

The coffee seedlings controversy now threatens to turn that contradiction into a larger political narrative: whether a minister who campaigns against corruption can remain above suspicion when public money, politically connected contractors and agricultural beneficiaries collide.

Nameere’s answer is emphatic.

“Therefore, I categorically state: I do not deal! I do not steal!” she said.

She added that she deliberately avoids government supply contracts to prevent precisely the kind of conflict of interest now at the centre of the dispute.

“To avoid any conflict of interest, I do not supply government,” Nameere said.

And she has framed the controversy as part of a larger battle over whether corruption allegations are being used selectively — and whether those who challenge the misuse of public resources can themselves become targets.

“I will continue to fight corruption without fear or favor,” she said.

Her final appeal was as much political as it was personal.

“Ugandans deserve the truth, not orchestrated falsehoods!” Nameere said.

For now, the Masaka seedlings dispute remains a contest of competing accounts.

Nameere says she helped Bulegeya gain access to Museveni out of goodwill, only for him to allegedly misrepresent his ability to supply millions of seedlings, fail to deliver and later turn the unpaid farmers’ anger against her.

Nanyange’s public accusations tell a different story.

The State House Comptroller’s records, the underlying contract, evidence of actual seedling deliveries, payment records and testimony from the 14 farmers could ultimately determine which version survives scrutiny.

Until then, the dispute has become larger than coffee seedlings.

It is a story about access to the President, the power of local political networks, government agricultural programmes, unpaid farmers and the increasingly blurred line between fighting corruption and becoming entangled in the very networks that make such campaigns necessary.

And for Nameere, it appears, by her account, to have become a particularly painful lesson in the price of political goodwill: the person she says she helped get through the door to Museveni is now at the centre of the controversy that she says has put her own reputation on trial.

Meanwhile, President Museveni has beefed up security for Nameere and Balaam Barugahara as they continue shaking local governments with their anti-corruption campaign. (See Details Here and There).