Furious former National Resistance Movement (NRM) Masulita Sub county chairperson and also the coordinator of the children and grandchildren of the NRA liberation war fighters in Buganda Muwada Kanamwangi has disclosed that there are warning signs showing that his political party is on the edge of collapse.
Muwada exclusively told this website that one of the signs of a collapsing political party is when the party leadership is put on sale and those with huge amounts of money buy their way into top leadership positions and use the party position for personal gains.
“ We tried to reach out to the national chairperson of our party to explain to him the danger that the new people are bringing to our party. We don’t know whether he received our petition but nothing has been done to correct the mistakes we reported to him and people with money, but without the party at heart are now taking top party leadership positions. Shockingly, it looks like our chairperson is supporting them,” Muwada said.
He narrated how people used more than Shs100m just to be elected as NRM district chairpersons. He wondered where they are going to get that money from as refund because the position, they spent money on does not attract a monthly salary apart from allowances for mobilization for the party.
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He said that they have been mobilizing for NRM and building cadre ship thinking that it will help them to get to top party leadership positions so that they can run it well based on the ideologies and objectives of their party which they have been instilling in their supporters from the grassroot.
He however adds that little did he know that time will come when people with money will takeover the leadership of the party.
“ I was shocked to see Rebecca Kadaga, a senior NRM party cadre who has passed all the ranks to become a member of the Central Executive Committee (CEC), the top organ of our party being humiliated publicly because of a personal who has been in the party not more than five years, but because she has bags of money,” Muwada said
He added that he thought that Museveni, being the chairperson of the party, and having saved his national vice chairperson Al-Hajji Moses Kigongo from being contested against, would do the same for Kadaga but he allowed her to be exposed by a powerful speaker of parliament Annet Anita Among who he claims to have control of even the party’s Electoral Commission.
He praised Kadaga for standing her ground and speaking for thousands and thousands of party cadres who have been working tirelessly for the party without thinking about money knowing that their work will be paid with promotions but are now left in the gutters at the cost of newcomers with money who have bought all the top party positions while Museveni is only protecting his position and that of Al-Hajji Kigongo.
He narrated that many people are sympathizing with Kadaga because when was humiliated and forced to stand a side and support Jacob Oulanyah who had also just joined the party from Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) for the position of the speaker of parliament, she was defeated and she decided to continue working with the party using her ministerial job and being a member of CEC.
“ Everyone knows that it is Among who is fighting Kadaga to score her revenge because she decided to contest against Oulanyah who was her running mate for the positions of speaker and deputy speaker but if anything happens to Kadaga resulting from her defeat from CEC, all our eyes will turn on Museveni not Among, for that am assuring him,” Muwada said.
He further wondered how heartless Among is not to sympathise with Kadaga’s health condition but instead decided to use all her powers and money to fight her well knowing that by the fact that she is a speaker, that automatically makes her a member of CEC.
He further claimed that the reason why Dr Tanga Odoi the NRM Electoral Commission chairperson and other top party leaders decided that electing of CEC members should be done through lining up is because they were targeting Kadaga knowing that there will be people scared of being seen not voting Among when she is the one with a lot of power and money.
However, it should be noted that during the NRM National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, President Museveni revealed that he had offered to appoint one of the two women to be a nominee to CEC by himself if they accepted to withdraw from the race as his national vice chairperson representing women but both of them declined to take the offer.
Museveni assured the meeting that he has does not have the powers to force someone to withdraw from the race as Kadaga wanted him to do insisting that it will be the party’s delegates conference to seal their fates which was done on Wednesday at Kololo airstrip
Muwada insists that Museveni did that because he knew very well that Among was going to use her powers as a speaker and a lot of money to influence her victory against Kadaga.
Kadaga was a minister in Museveni’s government from 1990’s before being elected deputy speaker for ten years. She was speaker of parliament for ten years and now she is the first deputy prime minister and also the minister in charge of East African federation countries.
Before joining NRM, Among was a strong diehard to opposition strongman Dr Kizza Besigye but has since boasted that since joining the NRM, she has influenced more than ten legislators to join the NRM party and still has that political energy compared to Kadaga.
After the votes were cast and counted on Wednesday evening, results showed that Anita Among garnered 11680 votes which was 92.8% of the votes cast while Kadaga garnered a paltry 902 votes which was 7.2%.
After being declared winner, Among thanked the delegates for their overwhelming support.
“I am truly grateful for your love and support, not just today but throughout the campaign trail. With deep humility, I accept this landslide victory. I want to express my gratitude to our mother, Rt Hon Rebecca Kadaga, for running an excellent campaign and her significant contributions to the party and our country. We will rely on her for advice and guidance in the days ahead. Let us return to work, mobilise for our Party leader and flag bearers, and ensure a resounding victory for the mighty NRM,” she said.
On the other hand, Kadaga decried the bribery and intimidation that was exhibited that led to her loss.
“I deeply thank everyone who, despite massive voter bribery and intimidation, stood by me. The gross abuse of office witnessed throughout this election is truly unacceptable. We cherish our party, but if this oppression persists, we shall be left with no choice but to walk away,” Kadaga said.
