All is not well in presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu's camp, which has lately been rocked with a number of members abandoning ship just days to the General election. Last week saw media awash with reports of several members of the National Unity Platform party crossing to the ruling National Resistance Movement Organisation.
Notable among the defectors was a group of about 60 members of the party from Northern Uganda who, led by the party registrar from the region Robinson Lackara, defected to the NRM saying their party, NUP has been preaching a message of hate and pushing violence.
Keep Reading
Ugandans are yet to come to terms with unprecedented levels of violence that broke out in November in what seems like a coordinated move to send the country into chaos, according to security reports. On November 19, more than 50 people were killed in riots that broke out after police arrested Mr. Kyagulanyi in Luuka District, Eastern Uganda.
Police accused Kyagulanyi of acting in disregard of standard operating procedures put in place by the Health ministry and the Electoral Commission to curb the spread of Covid-19 during the election period. Kyagulanyi and several of his party officials have also been on record asking Ugandans, especially the youth to rise up against the current government.
During the event in Gulu in which the NRM won over 11 sub-county coordinators, the defectors from Northern Uganda claimed the NUP party was devoid of ideology and does not have any sensible prospects.
The defection of Lackara and group came just days after the party registrar for Nwoya District, Ochira Bosco Lawino and 120 members crossed to the NRM. Lawino’s defection followed that of Twalib Osama, the National Unity Platform (NUP) Kumi County parliamentary candidate who pulled out of the race in favor of an NRM candidate. NUP, says some of the defectors were swayed by financial gains.
A visibly frustrated Kyagulanyi, who is on record saying the People Power movement is built on the foundation of the need to see a change in governance, is now in the media crying foul, claiming that the current government has resorted to buying out its members. The defections beg the question of whether the party currently run by political novices will survive the election dynamics of the day.
Earlier this year, the party was thrown into uncertainty when questions over its legitimacy and ownership arose. Previous owners of the party led by its former president Godfrey Kibalama dragged the current leadership to court to answer queries over how the party was acquired and how it's current leadership was formed.
Uganda was caught unawares when Mr. Kyagulanyi and a group of others including the current candidate for Nakawa West Member of Parliament seat Joel Ssenyonyi, announced that they had acquired a political party which would become the vehicle in which the People Power movement would seek leadership positions in the country.
Several Opposition leaders jumped onto the wagon, donning the People Power movement red berets and abandoned their old parties to join the new vehicle. Pundits said then that the new movement under the erstwhile Kyagulanyi was a sure way for any person seeking political office to sail through.
However, the clout with which Kyagulanyi ascended to Parliament in 2017 and thereafter saw several by-elections swing in favor of candidates whom he backed, seems to be shredding off, leaving candidates to fight on their own. Kyagulanyi seems to be more pre-occupied with trying to design a message for himself than to seek votes for any of the candidates that joined him believing he was their ticket.
Meanwhile, the Goliath of the day, NRM's presidential candidate and incumbent Yoweri Museveni is leaving nothing to chance. The president has held the party flag in elections since 1996, running against several contenders including the oldest party Democratic Party's Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere and its current president Nobert Mao, Forum for Democratic Change's Kizza Besigye, who seems to have given the NRM the hardest run for their money, among other candidates.
This time, Mr. Museveni seems irked by the nature of politics ushered in by the NUP and has vowed to 'finish off' the "Kyagulanyi group".
“I know Kyagulanyi and the fools supporting him who don’t know Uganda very well. These include foreigners and others who are here but I know all them. I know that this one is a fool and the other one,” Museveni told NRM leaders and flag bearers from Kikuube, Hoima, Hoima City, Kiryandongo, Masindi and Buliisa at Duhaga Primary School in Hoima City, insisting that Kyagulanyi is riding on backing from foreigners whom he said want to destabilize the country but warned he can’t allow this to happen.
The NRM presidential candidate insists that last month’s deadly protests that broke out after the arrest of Kyagulanyi were fermented by mostly his foreign backers but noted they failed in their mission.
“They found our children (youths) here and asked them to cause chaos in Uganda just like they did in Libya, Sudan and Zimbabwe not knowing we are a different cup of tea. Those people lit a fire on roads not knowing they were spoiling our tarmac,” Museveni said.
The President told the ruling party leaders that Kyagulanyi’s group and their “homosexual supporters” preached hate and riots to youths in several towns in Uganda and this culminated into last month’s protests after the NUP presidential candidate’s arrest by police.
He however insisted that the group tasted a dose of their own medicine when they participated in protests.
“They tried to disrupt Kampala and the army came in. They thought it was going to be like other countries but the army gave them the medicine they wanted. The other time I called Kampala to find out how the city was and I was told even if you abandon a yellow t-shirt, no one touches it because it is hot. No one will destabilize Kampala.”
According to Museveni, the youths are good people but were only misled by Kyagulanyi’s group, adding that he will slowly by slowly work behind the curtains to return them home.
“Those people who had gone to NUP are good. Some of them went to NUP because you(NRM leaders) ignored them. You don’t know how to work with young people. The many mistakes by the old people forced them to leave but I want you to talk to them well to return.”
“I will capture Kyagulanyi’s group, you just wait. I work underground but I will finish them. As you are up shouting hooray, I am working underground,” he noted.
Additional reporting from www.nilepost.co.ug
