Museveni is quietly wooing Ingrid Turinawe to NRM, say sources

Renowned female political activist Ingrid Turinawe could be the latest person to join the ruling National resistance Movement, impeccable sources have told The Nile Post.

Sources have told us that Turinawe, who served as FDC secretary for mobilisation and leader of its women's league, is being wooed by the NRM, having fallen out with the Najjanankumbi based party.

We have been told that President Museveni is fully aware of the efforts and has given them his blessing.

Turinawe went cold and quiet after FDC expelled her last year for standing as an independent in Rukungiri Municipality in the 2021 elections. This was against the party constitution. She had lost in the primaries to Dr Warren Nuwagaba and efforts to talk her out of contesting fell on deaf ears.

FDC, which had held the slot for 10 years lost out to NRM after Dr Elisa Rutahigwa defeated Nuwagaba, an outcome some blamed on Turinawe.

It was a big political setback for FDC considering that its founding, Dr Kizza Besigye, hails from the area.

"She is disappointed and feels she was treated shabbily after all that she had done for FDC," a senior official in FDC told The Nile Post. The official requested for anonymity because he is friends with Turinawe.

In September last year, she said during a radio interview on CBS that her expulsion had been orchestrated by Nandala Mafabi, the FDC secretary general, after she vehemently opposed attempts by the Budadiri West legislator to have the TDA purchase his palatial Naguru home in 2015.

"If you disagree with Mafabi, you will never get money from the party, you will never get the party ticket to contest for any political office even at LC1 level. If you come with any program that he does not support, he will wage a war on you, he will even pay other party members to fight you till you leave the party. But I’m done with wars within the party that is why I left," she said.

NRM steps in

Sources have told us that NRM is now eager to tap into Turinawe disappointment and woo her into its fold.

Multiple sources have told us that Turinawe that senior figures in the NRM, including the Speaker Anita Among, are involved in the effort.

Among and Turinawe were close when the latter served as deputy FDC treasurer before she decamped to NRM.

We have been told that the two are in constant contact and over the weekend, Turinawe defended Among  after Mityana Municipality MP, Francis Zaake theatrically rejected the speaker's wedding contribution of Shs 10 million.

She called Zaake's behaviour "an embarrassment" and a sign of "backwardness."

Sources have told us that there is more than meets the eye in Turinawe's statement.

Turinawe, in a brief interview with Nile Post, said there was nothing with being lured to join NRM.

"What us wrong with luring. People will always lure. I don't know whether that is news. I have had people luring me since I was born including by men [to marry me]," she said.

Still, it remains unclear whether she will eventually give in to NRM's advances. Her postings on her social media platforms seem to suggest that she still believes in the opposition cause.

Yet to avid observers of Uganda's murky politics, if Turinawe joined the NRM, it will be shocking but not surprising.

There are numerous examples of opposition activists who had made a career out of criticising President Museveni but who are currently serving him. They include DP president general, Norbert Mao, who serves in Museveni's cabinet; Joyce Ssebugwawo, the former FDC vice president for Buganda; Beti Olive Kamya; Beatrice Anywar to name but a few.

Many opposition politicians who have chosen to work with Museveni could have gotten  plum jobs. What they have lost in the process, some analysts say, is their political credibility.