Baganda tell Museveni to break ‘Ankole clique’

NRM leaders and campaigners from Buganda region want their party Chairman, President Museveni, to break what they call a clique of “untouchable” Banyankore around him, if their party’s fortunes are to improve.

Within two weeks, Museveni has twice met the NRM Buganda campaigners and leaders at State House Entebbe, over the party’s dismal performance in the previous by-elections. Out of seven parliamentary by-elections so far, the ruling party has lost six. The Observer has been told that when it became clear that NRM’s Alintuma Nsambu would lose last month’s Bukoto South by-election, Museveni moved to arrest the rot. He tasked the party’s vice chairman for Buganda, Hajji Abdul Nadduli, to compile a report on why NRM’s support was waning.

Nadduli camped in Bukoto South during campaigns, but was unable to prevent Alintuma Nsambu’s loss. On receipt of Nadduli’s report, Museveni fixed a meeting with the party’s Buganda mobilisers on August 2. This was followed by another one last Thursday, also attended by district NRM Chairpersons and a few MPs. According to a source who attended last week’s meeting, Nadduli spelt out aspects of the bigger problem afflicting the party.

“Abaganda tugamba nti bbwa ddene ligambwaako nyinilyo, nze ka nkwegambire” a source quoted Nadduli as saying in Luganda (A big dog can only be corrected by its owner; so let me tell you myself what the problem is). Nadduli then proceeded to talk of a ‘Banyankore’ clique that he said had become too untouchable that many of them were using their closeness to Museveni to direct things their own way.

An analysis of accounts from various sources at the meeting suggests that although Nadduli spoke of ‘Banyankore’, he may have used the term loosely to mean politicians from western Uganda. For instance, while Museveni hails from Ankole, the party’s secretary general, Amama Mbabazi, is a Mukiga from Kigezi. But many people who impute favouritism on Museveni’s part tend to conflate these ethnic identities. These ‘Banyankore’, Nadduli reportedly said, were the ones responsible for the increasing land evictions across the country which has in turn worked against the party.

Nadduli spoke of a powerful ‘Munyankole’ who had turned the party headquarters into his home affair.

“This man believes that he is the favoured one to take over after you. The secretariat is now full of his relatives and friends,” one source quoted Nadduli as having said.

Other sources also quote Nadduli as having blamed Museveni for failing to tame the Banyankore clique, usually, turning a blind eye whenever a case against them comes up.

“Many of these people around you are corrupt, but you have failed to deal with them and instead dealt with others that are not part of the clique,” sources quoted Nadduli as having said.

Nadduli did not name names. Among the prominent NRM leaders that Museveni has previously defended includes Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi, who was fingered in scandals involving sale of land at Temangalo to the NSSF and mishandling of funds for the 2007 Commonwealth summit (Chogm).

On Chogm, Museveni appeared satisfied by Mbabazi’s reported plea that any accusations of impropriety were political persecution masterminded by the opposition. But former Vice President Gilbert Bukenya, who comes from Nadduli’s Buganda, was charged and remanded to Luzira over Chogm funds, before the charges were mysteriously dropped. Related charges against Ministers Sam Kuteesa, John Nasasira and Mwesigwa Rukutana were dropped after the trio challenged the mandate of the Inspector General of Government prosecuting them before the anti-corruption court.

The mobilisers also called for the overhaul of the party’s top leadership hierarchy that they said was not working for the good of the party. None of the speakers was direct at telling Museveni that he had stifled the functionality of the party’s leadership structures by turning into a one person who addresses almost every issue in the party. But the delegates talked of the need to empower the various party structures to do their work.

The delegates had asked Museveni to drop Mbabazi from the office of Secretary General and find a simple and approachable Secretary General. Nadduli’s report specifically highlighted Mbabazi’s busy schedule as one of the reasons why the party has lost a string of by-elections.

His schedule, according to Nadduli, has not allowed him chance to join other party leaders in canvassing support for the party’s candidates in the by-elections. With the secretariat being full of people that listen to no one else other than Mbabazi, Nadduli’s report suggested, the party has continued to suffer losses.

Because a secretary general is elected at a delegates’ conference, Museveni suggested that he would appoint an acting secretary general until the next conference. Some party leaders, however, say this would flout the party constitution.

“Where does he derive the mandate to appoint a Secretary General? A secretary general is an elective position, and the party constitution does not give anyone powers to appoint one,” reasons Peter Ssenkungu, the Masaka district NRM chairman.

Ssenkungu is one of the NRM leaders that declined to attend the meeting at State House because they didn’t see any good coming one it.

“From what Nadduli and Ssebina [Ssekitooleko] told me on phone when they were inviting me for that meeting, I realized that the party still has too many problems, and I didn’t see anything constructive for the party coming out of that meeting,” Ssenkungu told The Observer.

According to Ssenkungu, the meeting was organized to fight a war that favoured some individuals against others.

“That’s why they narrowed the problem to the secretary general. Removing him will not help when all the other organs of the party are not functioning, and when power is still centred around one person,” reasoned Ssenkungu.

Ssenkungu shares that view with Bukoto Mid West MP Isaac Ssejjoba, another NRM leader who had been invited to the meeting but never showed up.

“We need to sit down and examine the problem affecting the party. The problem is not about the secretary general as a person or his office but members have lost the party spirit,” Ssejjoba said. “If it was about the secretary general, we would still be winning in the by-elections because the party has always moved out with full force, but our candidates still lose; this is because people will continue to forward their clique interests at the expense of the party interests. It is not a problem of the secretary general but of the entire membership of the party.”

Ssejjoba claimed he was not aware of the State House meeting.

“Well, you are the second person telling me that I was part of the list; maybe the person who was supposed to invite for one reason or another chose not to inform me,” he said.

Since the meeting was called basing on the outcome of the recent Bukoto South by-election, NRM Mps specifically from Lwengo district were to attend but none turned up. Apart from Isaac Ssejjoba, Lwengo Woman MP Gertrude Nakabira Lubega was attending to other duties in Kabale, while Abdu Kitatta [Bukoto West] could not be reached.