By CHANGE OF GUARDS
When the youthful musician turned politician and Kyadondo East Legislator, Robert Kyagulanyi a.k.a. Bobi Wine declared intentions to run for the presidency, Museveni got concerned, not because that he would be defeated but because Bobi Wine was a Muganda and a youth who was bent on mobilising the majority of unemployed urban youth. All along, Museveni knew that he had sent the strategic and influencial Buganda into a political slumber and couldn't imagine any Muganda would ewemerge to resurrect Buganda nationalism. He strongly believes that Bobi Wine'a presidential bid and NUP is all about that. With his People Power political platform, the red colour uniform, the fist symbol and the red beret the writing was clear on the wall that Bobi Wine was bent on relying much more on mass uprising than the polls. Remember the only potential threat to Museveni's 35 years hold on power is a mass uprising in the form of an Arab Spring.
Since then, Museveni has been making nasty maneouvers aimed at neutralising Bobi Wine's political agenda. The latest such move took place yesterday, October 14, 2020, when Museveni sent his army to raid, ransack and take away property from Bobi Wine's party headquarters and other branch offices in the capital city. The raid mainly targeted the red uniforms that have been linked with the alleged militancy by his party. The development comes just a day to the judgement by the High Court in the petition that will determine whether Bobi Wine and his NUP will participate in the 2021 general elections or not. In December 2019, a 16 years old political party called NURDP convinced Museveni's Electoral Commission (EC) to have its name changed to NUP. Indeed the EC went ahead to effect the change of name through the General Note No. 838 of 2019. On July 14, 2020 its Chairman Moses Nkonge Kibalama handed over its leadership to Bobi Wine. On July 21, Museveni sacked a number of his top Electoral Commission officers including the influencial Secretary Sam Rwakoojo allegedly for failing to block the said change of name of NUP. On July 22, Bobi Wine unveiled NUP at a colourful ceremony where he said that the Museveni regime had failed him to register People Power as a political party;
".......our military wing is the People Power movement and our guns are the words."
On August 12, Bobi Wine picked nomination forms from the Electoral Commission for his presidential race for 2021.
A few days later, the now shocked Museveni regime assembled two individuals who claimed to be founding members of NURDP and they petitioned the High Court challenging the alleged illegal change of the party's name and handover of its leadership to Bobi Wine. In their petition, they prayed for a declaration that;
1. EC degazettes the change of the party's name.
2. The resolution that declared Bobi Wine as flag bearer is illegal.
3. They prayed for a permanent injunction restraining the government and the EC in particular from recognising NUP as a registered political party and not to nominate any candidate for elections on the NUP ticket.
NUP dismissed the petition as inconsequential and described the petitioners as not being members of NURDP/NUP. Court summoned Both Moses Kibalama and his former Secretary General under defunct NURDP, Paulo Simbwa Kagombe who had sworn affidavits on the matter. Shockingly they could not be traced as they had been kidnapped and held by Museveni's State machinery. Instead, a video clip of Moses Kibalama lamenting over failure by Bobi Wine to honour the terns of the deal went viral. At the next court sitting, Kibalama and Kagombe were produced under tight security. During cross examination by Bobi Wine's Lawyers, the two confirmed that there was nothing like a delegates conference that elected Bobi Wine and others as new office bearers and that the said attendance list and minutes of the said conference were simply falsified. They said;
".........the meeting did not take place. We had been given timelines of changing the party name by the EC that is why we falsified returns and handed it over to the public body (the EC)."
When the youthful musician turned politician and Kyadondo East Legislator, Robert Kyagulanyi a.k.a. Bobi Wine declared intentions to run for the presidency, Museveni got concerned, not because that he would be defeated but because Bobi Wine was a Muganda and a youth who was bent on mobilising the majority of unemployed urban youth. All along, Museveni knew that he had sent the strategic and influencial Buganda into a political slumber and couldn't imagine any Muganda would ewemerge to resurrect Buganda nationalism. He strongly believes that Bobi Wine'a presidential bid and NUP is all about that. With his People Power political platform, the red colour uniform, the fist symbol and the red beret the writing was clear on the wall that Bobi Wine was bent on relying much more on mass uprising than the polls. Remember the only potential threat to Museveni's 35 years hold on power is a mass uprising in the form of an Arab Spring.
Since then, Museveni has been making nasty maneouvers aimed at neutralising Bobi Wine's political agenda. The latest such move took place yesterday, October 14, 2020, when Museveni sent his army to raid, ransack and take away property from Bobi Wine's party headquarters and other branch offices in the capital city. The raid mainly targeted the red uniforms that have been linked with the alleged militancy by his party. The development comes just a day to the judgement by the High Court in the petition that will determine whether Bobi Wine and his NUP will participate in the 2021 general elections or not. In December 2019, a 16 years old political party called NURDP convinced Museveni's Electoral Commission (EC) to have its name changed to NUP. Indeed the EC went ahead to effect the change of name through the General Note No. 838 of 2019. On July 14, 2020 its Chairman Moses Nkonge Kibalama handed over its leadership to Bobi Wine. On July 21, Museveni sacked a number of his top Electoral Commission officers including the influencial Secretary Sam Rwakoojo allegedly for failing to block the said change of name of NUP. On July 22, Bobi Wine unveiled NUP at a colourful ceremony where he said that the Museveni regime had failed him to register People Power as a political party;
".......our military wing is the People Power movement and our guns are the words."
On August 12, Bobi Wine picked nomination forms from the Electoral Commission for his presidential race for 2021.
A few days later, the now shocked Museveni regime assembled two individuals who claimed to be founding members of NURDP and they petitioned the High Court challenging the alleged illegal change of the party's name and handover of its leadership to Bobi Wine. In their petition, they prayed for a declaration that;
1. EC degazettes the change of the party's name.
2. The resolution that declared Bobi Wine as flag bearer is illegal.
3. They prayed for a permanent injunction restraining the government and the EC in particular from recognising NUP as a registered political party and not to nominate any candidate for elections on the NUP ticket.
NUP dismissed the petition as inconsequential and described the petitioners as not being members of NURDP/NUP. Court summoned Both Moses Kibalama and his former Secretary General under defunct NURDP, Paulo Simbwa Kagombe who had sworn affidavits on the matter. Shockingly they could not be traced as they had been kidnapped and held by Museveni's State machinery. Instead, a video clip of Moses Kibalama lamenting over failure by Bobi Wine to honour the terns of the deal went viral. At the next court sitting, Kibalama and Kagombe were produced under tight security. During cross examination by Bobi Wine's Lawyers, the two confirmed that there was nothing like a delegates conference that elected Bobi Wine and others as new office bearers and that the said attendance list and minutes of the said conference were simply falsified. They said;
".........the meeting did not take place. We had been given timelines of changing the party name by the EC that is why we falsified returns and handed it over to the public body (the EC)."
They went further to alleged that the said delegates conference was simply a meeting of 9 people who sat somewhere at a hotel in Kakiri and decided to simply rubber-stamp Bobi Wine and his team as the new office bearers. As if to acknowledge the fraudulent process, NUP Lawyers simply asked court to draw the attention of the DPP to the criminal offence of utterance of forged documents to EC. It was also learnt that before being taken into captivity, Moses Kibalama and Paul Kagombe had met the army chief on behalf of Museveni as has always been the norm.
Court required both parties to submit written submissions by October 6 and that judgement would be delivered on October 16, 2020. It is therefore most likely that Museveni will twist the court to make a finding of illegality in the entire process registering NUP and hence nullify any activity that was carried out by it. With the limited nomination period, such a decision will obviously mean the end of Bobi Wine's presidential bid and the political activities of other NUP members. The raid on the NUP office could have been a rehearsal aimed at assessing the public reaction in the event that court nullifies Bobi Wine and NUP. It may not be a coincident that Museveni has already left the city for his countryside home in Kisozi. However, since the much feared public shied away from the raid on NUP offices, in the event court nullifies NUP there won't be much trouble. Museveni must be weighing the potential damage of letting Bobi Wine run in the elections and making lose compared to stopping him (Bobi) now. In the former instance Bobi would be in a league with the other opposition entities while in the latter he would suffer in isolation thus minimising the impact.
On the other hand, Bobi Wine and company made grave mistakes when they failed to take due diligence before entering into alliance with Kibalama and his NURDP. Court's hands may be too tied to simply ignore the confession of a fraudulent change of the party name and leadership by Kibalama and Kagombe. The involvement of such a high office like that of the army chief in the saga demonstrates the level of seriousness that Museveni is affording the political endeavours of Bobi Wine/NUP and are not in vain. On the contrary, in the event that court does not nullify, an appeal in the midst of a fixed election road-map will equally serve the same purpose.
Watch the space; October 16, 2020 may turn out to be a historical date in Uganda.
INFORMATION IS POWER AND THE PROBLEM OF UGANDA IS MUSEVENISM
Court required both parties to submit written submissions by October 6 and that judgement would be delivered on October 16, 2020. It is therefore most likely that Museveni will twist the court to make a finding of illegality in the entire process registering NUP and hence nullify any activity that was carried out by it. With the limited nomination period, such a decision will obviously mean the end of Bobi Wine's presidential bid and the political activities of other NUP members. The raid on the NUP office could have been a rehearsal aimed at assessing the public reaction in the event that court nullifies Bobi Wine and NUP. It may not be a coincident that Museveni has already left the city for his countryside home in Kisozi. However, since the much feared public shied away from the raid on NUP offices, in the event court nullifies NUP there won't be much trouble. Museveni must be weighing the potential damage of letting Bobi Wine run in the elections and making lose compared to stopping him (Bobi) now. In the former instance Bobi would be in a league with the other opposition entities while in the latter he would suffer in isolation thus minimising the impact.
On the other hand, Bobi Wine and company made grave mistakes when they failed to take due diligence before entering into alliance with Kibalama and his NURDP. Court's hands may be too tied to simply ignore the confession of a fraudulent change of the party name and leadership by Kibalama and Kagombe. The involvement of such a high office like that of the army chief in the saga demonstrates the level of seriousness that Museveni is affording the political endeavours of Bobi Wine/NUP and are not in vain. On the contrary, in the event that court does not nullify, an appeal in the midst of a fixed election road-map will equally serve the same purpose.
Watch the space; October 16, 2020 may turn out to be a historical date in Uganda.
INFORMATION IS POWER AND THE PROBLEM OF UGANDA IS MUSEVENISM
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