It has been long rumoured, without definitive confirmation, that some high-level establishment Democratic Party leaders were quietly working with the ruling NRM but the only credible validation came a few days ago.
Speaking in an interview on March 1, Florence Nakiwala Kiyingi, the minister of state for Youth and Children Affairs, said she works with leaders of the opposition Democratic Party (DP) to “protect President Museveni’s interests.”
Nakiwala, wife to DP lawmaker Deogratius Kiyingi (Bukomansimbi South), made the unflattering revelation on Sunday soon after Buganda Kingdom radio, CBS, aired a leaked audio recording in which DP Vice President Fred Mukasa Mbidde allegedly confesses to receiving support from ministers; Nakiwala and Harunah Kyeyune Kasolo (state for Microfinance) to counter activities of more established DP politicians.
Mbidde, who is preparing to wrest the Masaka Municipality parliamentary seat from the incumbent Mathias Mpuuga (DP) in 2021, is heard in the audio vowing to mobilize against other DP MPs; Joseph Ssewungu (Kalungu West) and Florence Namayanja (Bukoto East). But in past interviews Mbidde has strenuously denied working with the ruling NRM.
His in-law, Veronica Nanyondo, who replaced his deceased wife Susan Namaganda, is already facing stiff challenge from Nakiwala – the NRM frontrunner aspirant for Bukomansimbi Woman MP.
“I don’t regret working with him [Mbidde] neither do I regret any of my activities; my focus is on the broader goal of protecting President Museveni’s interests in [the Masaka sub-region],” Nakiwala told The Observer.
As NRM MPs kicked up a storm in parliament protesting their deliberate exclusion from the distribution of more than 800,000 hand-hoes to farmers countrywide pledged by President Museveni in 2016, the two ministers gifted part of their share to Mbidde.
“What’s wrong with distributing hoes to poor farmers? Mzee [Museveni] wants to see people climb out of poverty but because the likes of Mpuuga are good at making noise, they think they can derail us. Politicking can’t get the people out of poverty,” Nakiwala said.
Nakiwala was the DP candidate for the Kampala Woman parliamentary seat in the 2016 elections. However, her inclusion into President Museveni’s fifth-term cabinet shocked the DP leadership to the core. They threatened to take punitive action against her.
Unmoved, she, in an interview with this newspaper then warned DP leaders against provoking her. (See: Nakiwala to DP: I will spill beans if provoked, The Observer, March 29, 2017).
Last year, she denounced her DP membership when she started mobilizing NRM supporters to support her 2021 parliamentary bid.
“The president [Museveni] has a battle to safeguard the peripherals that have always voted for him from being infiltrated by the opposition; it is for that reason that I have to recapture Bukomansimbi for NRM,” Nakiwala told The Observer in November last year. See: 2021: Minister Nakiwala raids Bukomansimbi.
Masaka sub-region remains one of DP’s strongholds with seven out of the party’s 16 MPs in the 10th Parliament. Mbidde’s coziness with Museveni’s ministers, tailored largely to antagonize DP’s more established politicians in the sub-region is part of the issues the retired bishop of Masaka John Baptist Kaggwa sought to address in a February 22 meeting he convened at his Kitovu residence in Masaka municipality.
Kaggwa invited both parties to the conflict but Mbidde skipped the meeting attended by MPs; Mpuuga, Namayanja, Ssewungu, Babirye Kabanda (Masaka Woman) and Robinah Nakasirye Ssentongo (Kyotera Woman).
The party’s legal advisor, Samuel Muyizzi as well as new convert, Dr. Abed Bwanika also attended. According to Kabanda, who is also the party’s national treasurer, the DP leadership sought Kaggwa’s intervention after realizing that internal fights could strengthen NRM’s hand in the sub-region in the next elections.
“I thought that the problem is limited to Masaka municipality [where Mpuuga and Mbidde are fighting for supremacy] but it appears to be bigger. There are other underlying factors that need to be urgently addressed,” Kabanda said.
Several DP leaders from the seven districts in the sub-region took turns to rail against Mbidde before Bishop Kaggwa.
Mbidde couldn’t be reached for an interview and Democratic Party secretary general Gerald Siranda declined to say much about Minister Nakiwala’s claim.
He said, however, that he listened to Mbidde’s leaked audio but declined to comment about Nakiwala because she is no longer a member of DP.
“I am incompetent to comment on that right now because I am not sure whether Mbidde is working with those ministers on DP issues or on personal issues because I know he has an NGO, the Mbidde Foundation,” Siranda said.
He added that Mbidde himself should clarify on his dealings with the NRM ministers.
HURDLE
Despite the NRM ministerial support, Mbidde is still struggling to make in-roads in Masaka municipality. In the recording, Mbidde says he is afraid of taking his campaign to the heart of Masaka town.
“It is better to first consolidate the peripherals of the town before moving into its centre. Rather than moving into the town centre and get beaten, it is better we concentrate in the rural areas and once the town dwellers hear that their counterparts in the outskirts of the town are getting support, they’ll change and support us,” Mbidde reasoned.
At the weekend, another recording emerged; this time, of one of Mbidde’s key strategists voicing his anger at some team members leaking tightly guarded secrets to the opposing side.
The strategist cites a meeting they had with Minister Kasolo whose details were leaked to their rivals. He mentions various DP leaders both at the district and the national level who attended the meeting.
“I’m still investigating who of those people that attended that particular meeting leaked what we discussed. It is going to affect us given that Minister Kasolo came and made statements that should have been kept close to our chests,” the strategist said.
The developments come hardly two weeks after about 10 MPs led a section of party members demanding a raft of reforms including proper accountability of the party’s finances.
“If they [top leaders] fail to honour the ultimatum, we shall do whatever is possible to save the party of our forefathers. The next stage will involve both legal and political actions to ensure that our demands are met,” Mpuuga said.
sadabkk@yahoo.com