Facts are bitter, but the NRM members should get to understand that had they given Obote chance, Uganda would be very far as regards development and the Human welfare indicators. The NRM managed to confuse those who could be confused and has simply messed up the country to the extent that the future is not clear. You cannot deceive anybody that one can be in power for over 25 years without scheming for opponents. The regime has all the time been involved in military adventures which have cost the country substantial amounts of resources both locally generated and donor resources. The country is based on corruption. As long as we have leaders who are there to accumulate, there is no way that you can expect the welfare of the masses catered for. We have a new breed of thieves, they have learnt that the best way they can disguise their loot is to hide under some other people assuming ownership of property and businesses. You all of a sudden find a fellow from no where get the title ‘omugagga omuto’, literally meaning a young millionaire. The level of patronage has cost the country so much and it is best to change the party leadership to save the country continued loss of resources to this unproductive channel.
Time is ripe for the NRM Party members to have sense in their heads. We need a Uganda that is progressing and the truth is that President Museveni influenced the extension or removal of term limits, we know he has got a lot of power around him, and the sense there is should be for the party to have the country at heart and say, Big man, thank you for sacrificing for the country, but you have to quit, you are a liability to the country and no longer an asset.
William Kituuka Kiwanuka
BEHIND MUSEVENI, KYAMBADDE QUARREL
Written by Emma Mutaizibwa
Thursday, 03 November 2011 00:13
Details emerging from last week’s NRM top organ meeting at State House indicate that Trade, Industry and Cooperatives minister Amelia Kyambadde launched an audacious attack on President Museveni and the First Lady, and the President returned the favour with a warning to his former principal private secretary.
Kyambadde had poured cold water on the NRM chairman’s threat to discipline errant ruling party young MPs, saying it would be superfluous without first “disciplining ourselves”.
According to sources privy to last Thursday’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) meeting at State House Entebbe, which came on the heels of growing dissent within the ruling party, Kyambadde accused Museveni and First Lady, Janet Kataha, of indiscipline.
The latest sparring between Kyambadde and President Museveni underlines the quandary over how to repair the fault-lines and purge dissent that is threatening the NRM party’s cohesion.
“Mr President, you have distinguished yourself for using bad language. How do you call Andy DeMetriou, an executive of Tullow Oil, an idiot? Honourable Kataha called us [MPs] useless. How, then, do we discipline these others?” said Kyambadde to the amusement and amazement of other CEC members at the meeting.
Parliament resolved last month, after a heated debate, to constitute an ad hoc committee to investigate the oil sector, particularly allegations that three ministers: Amama Mbabazi (Prime Minister), Hillary Onek (Internal Affairs) and Sam Kutesa (Foreign Affairs), had received bribes from oil companies in return for favourable contracts.
Parliament also resolved that the ministers should step aside to enable the ad hoc committee perform its work independently. However, Museveni dismissed the allegations as “absolute rubbish”. He said the documents on which the allegations are based were a forgery.
According to leaked US diplomatic cables released by whistleblower website, WikiLeaks, in August, Demetriou, who is Tullow’s head of external relations, reportedly told an official of the US Mission in Kampala on November 24, 2009: “Tullow believes ENI made personal payments to President Museveni and ministry of Energy officials in return for Tullow’s offshore exploration rights.”
Incensed, the President described Demetriou, the Tullow Oil official that reportedly made the claims, as an “idiot”.
“It’s despicable,“ Museveni said in response to the WikiLeaks allegations.
“[For] General Yoweri Museveni Kaguta, Ssabalwanyi (chief fighter), to get money from a mzungu or anybody for my personal use? It is contempt of the highest order for somebody to say that.”
During last week’s CEC meeting, Museveni was visibly exasperated by the accusations from Kyambadde, a close confidante.
“He asked Amelia [Kyambadde], with whom he has worked since 1979, whether he has ever taken a bribe. Amelia responded: “You have never taken a bribe.”’
“If someone alleges that I was given a bribe, which is false, if I don’t call him an idiot, what should I call him?” Museveni retorted.
The President also reportedly went on the offensive to defend his wife.
“I carefully watched the proceedings, including Janet’s submission on the floor of Parliament. She only said that the way MPs were debating without listening to their colleagues rendered the debate useless; she did not refer to the MPs as useless,” Museveni told the CEC members.
In what could be interpreted as a thinly veiled attack on Kyambadde, Museveni added: “By the way, Janet is hardworking and you can see what she has done in Karamoja, unlike some of you who are specialists in making noise.”
The First Lady is the minister in charge of Karamoja. Museveni, still seething with rage, said he had gathered information suggesting that Kyambadde was part of the problem in Parliament.
“She has been mentioned amongst other people who are mobilising the young MPs to rebel against the executive,” he charged.
However, Kyambadde denied the accusations and instead accused Emmy Katabazi, a burly security operative close to Prime Minister Mbabazi, of peddling the false claims.
“Katabazi sent a message to MPs claiming that the source of the documents [implicating Mbabazi, Kutesa and Onek of taking bribes from Tullow] was Kyambadde,” she said.
The debate had now degenerated into a personal exchange, and, having denied mobilising the young Turks, Kyambadde boldly told Museveni that it is high time he started treating them with some respect.
“Your Excellency, the young MPs are [as old as you were when you] went to the bush. You should learn to treat them with respect. They are behaving like that because there is something they want,” Kyambadde said.
But Museveni warned her: “Amelia, stop encouraging and facilitating these young rebel groups. It’s destructive and it’s derailing us from implementing our manifesto. Watch out.”
Museveni had earlier given CEC members a long lecture on indiscipline. He spoke of how indiscipline cropped up in the National Resistance Army (NRA) during the bush days, including cliques, sectarianism and cheap popularity, and how it was handled.
“This threatened the existence and struggle of the NRA and we had to devise very harsh methods of enforcing discipline, including the firing squads. It’s that level of discipline that made NRA capture power in five years,” Museveni reportedly told his audience. He added that the UPDF inherited those disciplinary measures.
“This is why the UPDF is a shining example in its conduct here and in foreign missions,” Museveni added.
The NRM first vice chairperson, Al Hajji Moses Kigongo, also said he has been watching indiscipline cropping up in Parliament and wondered “whether this is the NRM he knew”.
Before closing the CEC meeting, Museveni promised to convene another one to resolve the issue of party discipline.
“Even if we meet for three days, we shall have to find solutions to indiscipline, like we did in Luwero [in the bush days],” he vowed.
mutaizibwa@observer.ug
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