State Minister for Water, Jennifer Namuyangu is facing defamation charges after she wrote to security accusing Kibuku MP Saleh Kamba of creating a militia group in eastern Uganda.

Sunday Monitor has obtained a letter dated September 23 to State Minister for Internal Affairs Matia Kasaija in which Ms Namuyangu is accusing Mr Kamba of creating a militia group in Pallisa District.

"There are deserters and purportedly serving army officers who are associated with the area MP Kamba Saleh," Ms Namuyangu wrote, "...the deserters that are paraded by Mr Kamba are responsible for this mishap and this is a big number with so many guns whose source is not yet established."

Kamba's response

In response, Sunday Monitor has learnt that Mr Kamba, through his lawyers; Kamba & Company Advocates, has moved to sue the minister and reportedly taken the matter to the President, who has allegedly demanded that the minister brings the evidence to prove her allegations.

In a November 12 letter, Mr Kamba says Ms Namuyangu invented lies to tarnish his name politically, and accused her of vying for his seat through deceitful means. Mr Kamba is now demanding for an apology from the minister or $5 million (Shs9 billion) in damages.

"You want to give yourself a preposterous gain by branding and linking our client to gangsters and terrorism by such snide attacks. We have stern instructions to put it to you that your intention was to portray our client as a terrorist and thus place him in public odium and ridicule," the lawyers wrote.

To drop the case, Mr Kamba's lawyers have demanded that the minister undertakes to own up to the content of her letter as an invented piece of fiction and a figment of her fertile imagination calculated to paint their client in bad light politically, locally and internationally.

Last week, the minister reportedly refused to take the summons when lawyers visited her office. Her negative reaction has, however, prompted Mr Kamba to buy space in local newspapers so that the minister could get his letter, in which she has been given an ultimatum of 48 days within which to respond or face the law.

"We took the letter to her office but she chose to walk away without saying a word; my lawyers followed her to her car but she refused to talk to them," Mr Kamba told Sunday Monitor on Friday.

However, in her letter, Ms Namuyangu said: "....the people and the local authorities have attempted to query this trend of insurgency and arbitrary torture and harassment. The MP has alleged that these are people on special operations from the President's Office."

In her September 23 letter, Ms Namuyangu requested Mr Kasaija to deploy a specialised unit of the Police and other security organs to investigate and bring all those involved including Mr Kamba before "a strong arm of the law".

Kasaija's directive

To get the truth, Mr Kasaija, through his personal assistant, Mr Charles Muwanga, wrote to CID on October 6, saying: "The Hon. Minister of State for Internal Affairs has directed me to pass over the letter for you to cause investigations into the allegations of harassment of people by deserters from security forces in Pallisa."

While Mr Kamba is being investigated on orders from the minister whom he has accused of malice, his lawyers have demanded that Ms Namuyangu publishes an apology through a reputable newspaper and make radio announcements to that effect.

The minister was not available for a comment as her phone was switched off.