As
efforts by the government to shoot down Amama Mbabazi’s presidential
bid intensify, a hero of the 198-86 guerilla war has spoken: Let him
run! Maj Gen Matayo Kyaligonza, also the NRM
vice-chairman for Western Uganda, says instead of beating Mbabazi’s
supporters, the police should leave the former premier to be beaten by
President Museveni in the 2016 elections.
Kyaligonza, a member of the ruling NRM’s
Central Executive Committee (CEC), the second highest party organ,
spoke to The Observer by telephone last Saturday. According to him,
there is nothing wrong with Mbabazi’s quest for the leadership of the
NRM and the country.
“Anybody is free to contest against
anybody because it’s a constitutional right, but people seem to be
overexcited that [Mbabazi] is standing against [Museveni],” Kyaligonza
said.
“In fact, he delayed to make his declaration; but he is free and I don’t know why people are dramatizing Mbabazi’s declaration. Uganda’s ambassador to Burundi suggested that blocking Mbabazi would not flatter Uganda’s democratic credentials.
“I was only trying to see how we [NRM]
can also counter him [Mbabazi] using the political means of campaigning.
We should leave him to move freely; and the other day, I met him at the
[Entebbe] airport going to the UK,” he said. “…let him [Mbabazi] come;
we shall defeat him democratically.”
Kyaligonza said he wanted peaceful
coexistence with all “liberation struggle fighters” and that he looked
at them, especially those who went to the bush, as heroes.
“I can’t be on bad terms with [Kizza]
Besigye because he is opposing the government because he is a comrade;
and I am not happy with the way police beat up his [Mbabazi’s]
supporters the other day,” he said. Since he declared his presidential bid,
Mbabazi’s supporters across the country have been arrested and charged
with offences tagged to their involvement in alleged early campaigns.
Kyaligonza said that Mbabazi’s
presidential declaration would not turn the world upside down, adding
that he was losing no sleep over it. Kyaligonza was among the loudest
voices to oppose Mbabazi’s initial presidential ambitions, as it became
increasingly clear last year. He told an October 16, 2014 CEC meeting
that if he were president, Mbabazi and his wife “would be in Luzira
prison”. Although his stance has since softened, he rejects Mbabazi’s
claim to be the NRM sole candidate so far.
“The NRM has not held its delegates’
conference to elect its flag bearer, and it is very impossible for one
to emerge unopposed at the national level because Uganda has got 35
million people, how can all those people opt for one person?” he asked.
He said that despite a Kyankwanzi
resolution by the NRM MPs, it would be inaccurate to say that Museveni
is unopposed because it’s not a popular decision made by Ugandans.
“…there is a resolution from Kyankwanzi
saying that President Museveni is a sole candidate, but it’s the view of
the NRM caucus MPs [and] you can’t say that Ugandans have fronted
Museveni so he is unopposed much as MPs represent people,” he argued.
In response to Mbabazi’s assertions
during a BBC interview last week that Museveni always takes “credit” for
the good deeds and apportions blame for failures, Kyaligonza suggested
that the sacked prime minister was bitter now that he was out of favour .
“People can come as long as they don’t
come as spoilers because you [Mbabazi] have been a secretary general [of
NRM but], you were not seeing the problems you are pointing out now and
I will take that to be opportunistic,” Kyaligonza said.
He rejected the notion that Mbabazi was a
very important leader in the party: “Mbabazi is not the engine of the
party; he is like any other member and supporter of NRM because we were
all young men when we started Fronasa to fight Amin.”ficiary in this
saga? Could it be Gen. Mugisha Muntu, or Jimmy Akena Obote?
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