From 23rd to 25th of January, different organs of NRM leadership will be meeting to streamline some of the things they want amended in the NRM constitution.
On 23rd, the NRM central executive committee (CEC) will be meeting at state house, whose discussion will inform the meeting agenda of the following day (24th January) when the national executive committee (NEC) convenes and the following day on 25thJanuary the largest organ of NRM leadership of about 14,995 delegates will be meeting to discuss to resolutions of both NEC and CEC.
According to the NRM secretary general, Justine Kasule Lumumba, some of the things that will be amended in the constitution is the mode of voting in primaries. Primaries are elections held within competing party members to choose flag bearers at different levels.
‘I won’t speak about everything we are going to discuss, but what I can say is that members want the mode of voting changed from ballot paper to lining up. We saw it work in the LC1 elections, we think it is one of the things that will work for us,’ NRM Secretary General Justine Kasule Lumumba told a press conference last week.
The other amendment NRM looks forward to, is the involvement of NRM structure in implementation of the NRM manifesto. “After electing the flag bearers, the party structures at different levels are never part of implementing the party manifesto, expect a few who are in top positions of government, we need to amend the constitution and see how everyone is involved in implementing the manifesto, after that, we will urge government to amend laws to allow this process,” Lumumba adds.
The most outstanding amendment however that Lumumba never mentioned, was the separation of powers between plot 11 and plot 13. Plot 11 is where the NRM secretariat led by Kasule Lumumba sits and plot 13 chairs the NRM electoral commission but the two heads have been clashing since they were appointed in these positions.
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The amendment that is on the table but NRM won’t discuss publicly is one that will see the NRM electoral commission report directly to the national vice chairperson Moses Kigongo and will be held accountable by the virtue of Kigongo’s position.
Currently the position of the NRM electoral commission is not clearly defined on whether it is an independent organ from the secretary general or under the secretary general hence sparking off clashes, year in, year out.
Below the regional leaders of NRM, is the NRM secretariat which comprises of 7 functional directories, the directory for finance and administration, the directory for research, the directory for economic affairs, the directory for international relations, the directory for mobilisation and recruitment and cadre development, the directory for legal services and the directory for information, publicity and public relations.
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‘The clashes between Tanga Odoi and Justine Kasule Lumumba have largely been about disagreement on positions and yet had their positions been streamlined, these would not be happening,’ a source inside NRM central executive committee tells Nile Post.
In September 2015, ahead of the primaries, Tanga Odoi and Kasule Lumumba clashed over appointment of election officials. The fight started when Odoi said that the 200 appointed registrars by Lumumba were illegal according to the law. Odoi went on and appointed another set of district and sub-county registrars, who he said then will oversee the party’s internal elections.
Tanga said that the duty of the secretariat was to register people and leave the elections to the electoral commission. “The law is very clear, the SG cannot appoint election officials; the results can be challenged if the elections are overseen by a person not delegated by the commission,” Odoi said in 2015.
Since taking over from the former Prime Minister, Amama Mbabazi as secretary general, Lumumba and Tanga’s relationship has been frosty, and they have been publicly clashing over their roles and operation mechanisms.
In 2018, Justine Kasule Lumumba called upon President Museveni to quickly solve her longstanding rift with Tanga Odoi. ‘I call on the national chairman, who is President Museveni, to come and solve this issue because equally as Lumumba, I am tired of this. If he cannot find a solution to this, it is also not good for us,” she said, responding to a question from the media on her never-ending political battle with Tanga Odoi.
But Tanga Odoi in an interview with New Vision dismissed what Lumumba had said. ‘I don’t have a rift with her but principle work methods, let her sober down and do her work for which she was recruited to do, and leave Tanga Odoi from Tororo alone,” Odoi said.
In the latest press conference held at the secretariat, as NRM announced the program for this week’s leadership organs meeting, Kasule Lumumba began the presser with other directors but with Tanga Odoi missing. A few minutes after, Tanga Odoi arrived in the middle of the presser dressed in a red Makarere University ceremonial gown and sat just next to Kasule Lumumba. Some journalists attending the press conference, said they had not seen Tanga Odoi and Kasule Lumumba publicly together.
One journalist asked whether this meant that a working relationship had been established between the two finally. ‘This year and years ahead, we pledge to work together and move the party forward like you’ve never seen,’ Tanga Odoi responded and later shook Lumumba’s hands.
A source inside NRM’s CEC said this happened because Tanga knew that one of the amendments is separation of powers between the two and stipulating clearly their roles and who they should both report to.
It remains to be seen whether the amendments will completely solve the long-lasting fight between the two, some party members have argued that they both have egos that blind them of their roles and limits.
Edited by David Tumusiime
