How Embattled Minister Kitutu almost lost her Manafwa MP seat for supplying Households with a matchbox in 2021.

Who is kitutu 

Mary Goretti Kitutu, also Mary Goretti Kitutu Kimono is a Ugandan academic, politician, and environmentalist. She was appointed Minister for Karamoja Affairs on 8 June 2021, replacing John Byabagambi. 

She was the Minister of Energy and Mineral Development, in the Ugandan Cabinet, from 14 December 2019 to 8 June 2021.

Before that, from 10 June 2016, until 14 December 2019, she served as the State Minister for the Environment in the Cabinet of Uganda. 

Dr. Mary Kitutu concurrently serves as the elected Manafwa District Women's Representative, in the 10th Parliament (2016 - 2021).

How Giving out a matchbox almost made her lose her seat.

Kitutu started well with her campaign roadmap after winning in NRM primaries in a very tight race. 

Her immediate competitor, Rose Mutonyi gave her a sleepless night both on the ground and on the media. 

Things got bad for kitutu towards the climax of the campaigns when the embattled minister distributed matchboxes to her voters. 

This saw her competitor use it as a tool to blackmail and de-campaign her, implicating how could a full minister underrate a vote for a matchbox. 

The matchbox tool penetrated from the ground to social media and eventually to live stream media.

This saw all media houses in Uganda run a story of how minister kitutu was giving out matchboxes in exchange for votes.

Kitutu was forced to make various statements defending herself both in live stream and social media.

"I have my China community friends who thought of making for me branded matchboxes as a donation, I also couldn't refuse to take a donation. I did not give one matchbox per house hold, my opponents are just misleading my voters" - Kitutu defended herself.

Currently, kitutu is on a hot seat for diverting Karamoja relief items amounting to 37 billion shillings.