Uganda’s former Ethics and Integrity Minister, Miria Matembe has threatened to drag government spokesperson to court over claims he made on national television appearing to insinuate that her husband slept with their house-help.
Matembe made the threat on Thursday during popular NBS Television talk show “Frontline” demanding that the government mouthpiece, Ofwono Opondo withdraw the statement.
“I’m going to court, don’t joke. You must withdraw that statement right now! I’m going to court,” Matembe warned.
This was after Ofwono said, “You suffered similar things; people used to tell you that your husband slept with the house-girl. I hope it’s not true.”
Matembe had earlier claimed that Ofwono had allocated himself Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) cows. OWC is a government program aimed at alleviating poverty by promoting commercial agriculture.
“I saw on TV the other day that Ofwono allocated himself Operation Wealth Creation cows,” Matembe said before Ofwono unleashed the statement that infuriated the former minister.
She is married to Nekemia Matembe for close to four decades and they have four sons.
Opposition kingpin Kizza Besigye, Justice Minister, Kahinda Otafire and Democratic Party (DP) President Norbert Mao were the other panelists on the show.
A visibly disappointed Mao tried to calm the situation by calling for respect despite disagreements.
“However much you disagree with somebody, going personal is not good. I accepted to be part of #NBSFrontline because I wanted Ugandans to be informed. There should be hygiene on this show,” Mao said.
Its quite unhealthy to unleash personal matters on a television talkshow, I don’t know whether Dr. Kololo’s office is active the public expectations. We need to keep our integrity positive in public.