Former Mbabazi campaign team targets People power strongholds to rally support for Museveni

A group of National Resistance Movement supporters who were formerly aligned to former Prime Minister, Amama Mbabazi has started what they termed as an onslaught on Bobi Wine’s People Power pressure group.

Identifying themselves as Team Thorough YKM(Yoweri Kaguta Museveni), the group has announced a series of activities ahead of the 2021 general elections to diffuse the Bobi Wine and other opposition politicians’ “lies” in a bid to garner support for President Museveni, but also NRM candidates at all levels.

“We are targeting the youths who have been misled by Bobi Wine because they have no hope. They don’t know what is going on and have been duped to follow his (Bobi Wine) wave which has no agenda,” John Mugisha, the Team Thorough national coordinator said.

“We want to give them hope that even if there are no jobs, something can be done from government through livelihood programs.”

Since declaring his presidential ambitions over two years ago, Kyadondo East Member of Parliament, Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine has been a stone in the ruling NRM government’s shoe.

The legislator cum musician’s emergency has had a big effect on the politics of the country after wooing youths, who form the biggest percentage of the population to his side.

However, according to the Team Thorough national coordinator, they have “medicine” to tame Bobi Wine’s “lies” before the 2021 general elections.

“We know the black spots where his (Bobi Wine) support is concentrated. They are in Kampala and a few urban centres across the country. We are targeting them and it is where we will put our efforts using our structures,”Mugisha told journalists in Kampala.

People Power  is non-existent

According to Mugisha, just like in 2015 when the public was duped of the Go Forward network by former Prime Minister, Amama Mbabazi, the People Power pressure group is a non-existent bubble that he said would any time burst.

“People Power is a pressure group but because of misinformation, many people are following it. You remember what happened to Go Forward? You can look for them and find nothing. This young man Bobi Wine is just confusing that kind of population. They don’t have any political agenda,” Mugisha said.

Team Thorough is according to its leadership also targeting the disgruntled NRM party members in a bid to lure them back to the ruling party but also the undecided youths.

Violence

In the past, there has been a growing culture of throwing bottles at singers at various music concerts and according to Team Thorough leadership, Bobi Wine’s People Power pressure group is responsible for the same.

The group said they are ready to counter what they termed as violence by opposition supporters.

“NRM is mighty power and Team Thorough is a mighty pressure group for NRM. We are a team of well -trained cadres and will counter whoever comes our way. People who are throwing stones and carrying out any form of violence should know that we are well prepared to counter them,” said Arnold Musajjakaawa, the group spokesperson.

The group said they have structures right from the smallest unit of administration to the national level and these structures would be used in their project.

People Power responds

When contacted for a comment, People Power spokesperson, Joel Ssenyonyi laughed off the move, branding it is a scheme targeting Museveni’s money.

“There are many fraudsters who have made People Power a money-making venture. They just have to pretend they have a plan to finish off People Power, then Museveni gives them taxpayers’ money,” Ssenyonyi said.

“Some are desperate artistes, others are unemployed youths plus many other categories. I guess they want to make money and achieve the middle-income status which was promised in 2020.”

About Team Thorough

In the run-up to the 2016 general election, a well-coordinated group of youth who swore allegiance to Mbabazi, the former powerful prime minister were lured to Museveni ‘s side and revealed: “all the secrets” of how they had capacity to overthrow Museveni.

Before joining Museveni, the group that had created a parallel network from village to national level were the campaigners for Mbabazi but had to be lured the ruling NRM party.

These were then mandated to lure colleagues from Mbabazi’s camp to rally support for President Museveni in the 2016 general elections.

They saw a number of defections from Mbabazi's group to the NRM party.

They insist that their structure is still vibrant and that it will be used to rally support for the ruling NRM party.