Police wrong to favour NRM in COVID-19 prevention - Lumumba

The ruling National Resistance Movement party secretary general Justine Kasule Lumumba has criticized the police and other law enforcement agencies for favouring NRM members while implementing anti-coronavirus guidelines.  

Speaking at the party headquarters at Plot 10 Kyadondo Road in Kampala today, Lumumba said belonging to the ruling party doesn’t put anyone above the law. She said that NRM  members should instead be at the forefront of implementing the preventive guidelines because they were issued by their own government.

 

Lumumba added that President Yoweri Museveni swore to protect the people of Uganda and their property, therefore, the NRM members who are trying to undercut his efforts should be dealt with strongly.

 

Lumumba's comments follow a video showing the minister of Health Dr Jane Ruth Aceng who is aspiring to be the Woman MP for Lira district freely schmoozing with electorates last weekend without wearing a face mask or observing social distancing.

 

The state minister for Microfinance Haruna Kasolo and the state minister for Kampala Benny Namugwanya also held mass campaign rallies in their constituencies in which they gathered hundreds of people together, flouting nearly all social distancing guidelines.

 

But while the police and other enforcement agencies looked away from Aceng, Kasolo and Namugwanya's transgressions, they, on the same weekend violently arrested opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) spokesperson Ssemujju Nganda's meeting yet the attendees were wearing face masks and observing social distancing. They also blocked a People Power meeting in Jinja, saying political meetings had been banned by government. 

"Nobody is above the law, security agencies, enforcement officers whether somebody is in a yellow shirt with my yellow logo of the ruling party, if somebody goes against the law, let that person face the law. We’re not above the law. So the issue of having security officers favouring others and leaving others shall not work. It is in our constitution and for the same law, we’re all equal," said Lumumba.

Meanwhile, the old rivalry between Lumumba and NRM's Electoral Commission chairperson Dr Tanga Odoi was laid bare again before the media. The NRM secretariat had called a press conference at 11 am - the same time that Tanga had called his own to communicate the resolutions of the NRM party on how to conduct the 2021 party primaries.

Seeing that there were the same journalists to cover both functions, Tanga extended his to the afternoon and decided to attend the one organized by Lumumba. The NRM Electoral Commission offices are a stone-throw away from the party headquarters.

But after reading the resolutions of the Central Executive Committee (CEC), Lumumba called on Tanga to present the electoral roadmap. Tanga, however, chose to address the press from his chair - far away from the recorders and microphones that had been placed on the table in front of Lumumba.

Amid complaints from journalists, Lumumba vacated her chair for Tanga. He declined to occupy it citing the fear of contracting coronavirus. Tanga said he had been ambushed to attend a press conference he didn’t know about, yet the roadmap was not ready for release. He said the sole mandate of organizing elections in the party belonged to the party's Electoral Commission which he heads.

The CEC of the NRM yesterday adopted the electoral roadmap leading into 2021 after six meetings of failing to agree. The contention was on how to organize participatory elections without flouting coronavirus guidelines such as social distancing and not gathering people.

The party finally agreed to stick to lining behind candidates for all the positions except on the election of members of CEC and the presidential candidates. These will be elected by the circulation of resolution and adopting them through a virtual meeting of the National Executive Committee that is going to be held from August 6-8.