By Chris Buyela
After the elections in South Africa, one of the learned Ugandan youths; Kyeswa HaKim wrote an article saying ANC’s loss of dominance should be a lesson to Uganda’s NRM party where he cited that the only reason why the ANC lost was tampering with historical party mobilizer and former president Jacob Zuma. Remember in the whole of Africa it was the ANC, CHAMA CHAMAPEDUZI and NRM which are still long-serving political parties.
This gave me a version of what is really happening In Uganda currently, the ruling party is in a real duplicate shape of the ANC. All strong party mobilizers are suffering in the hands of a few people who control the money and power, and yet in reality, can’t mobilize anything.
I will give a few examples starting with the 001 house; the State House. The current state house comptroller behaves like a goddess that without her no one will reach the destination, she is not approachable, doesn’t respect the boss’s directives and acts contrary to the principles she is supposed to follow.
Currently, the president has a number of pending pledges which he personally ordered that they be fulfilled. The party mobilizers and mobilization activities which are supposed to be funded by her have faced a very big setback because unless you accept her conditions you will be frustrated and her conditions are personal to her own gains not mandated or procedural. She has invested heavily in buying plots and junks of land in Mubende, Kiruhura, Mbarara, Sembabule and other parts of central Buganda, especially Kampala and Wakiso, yet the real foot soldiers and part mobilizers can’t access even the designated small funds.
Another hip is how the PPS is put at captive that she can’t even make a decision, this time round unless you make noise even after the president invites you for any official, security, or national matter you are still blocked. The inside source indicates that the young beautiful lawyer can’t beat the interest of these mafias surrounding the president and for her safety, she has to succumb to their interests.
NRM was on the verge of destruction with selfish and greedy architects designing a plan of early transition and they used platforms and personnel whom everyone couldn’t arise and speak his or her mind, many people thought that indeed it is time for the president to leave power and even himself accepted and was almost handing over forcefully thinking that he was never appreciated.
The only person who stood her ground and openly advocated for the people’s desire was Hajjat Hadijah Uzieye Namyalo, the Political head at ONC (Office of the NRM National Chairman) who rallied behind all the Bazukulu of Jajja Museveni to feel free and express their interest in the living hero who has a lot of pending work. Indeed, it worked out that Ugandans expressed their desire to continue with him, this saved Ugandans from divisionism and brought back their hope.
The party mafias who were direct beneficiaries who were even quiet to defend their bread turned their guns back and started fighting the person who stood her ground because their interest is power and money. Since the boat was brought back from the storm the mafias wanted to take back the captain role and immediately finish Namyalo who risked her life to put things right.
The ONC, which Hajjat Namyalo heads ensured that within a period of just two years, NRM was back to the top as a historical party and the most loved one, this annoyed the opportunists who thought that Namyalo could replace them in their comfort zones.
The Workaholic Namyalo revived a campaign of youth and Women empowerment, a concept which was started by Gen Salim Saleh and implemented by her back in 2015 before it was frustrated and duplicated by the Kisanja Hillary Team in 2015 whose funding came from the State House Mafias still. In her revival of the campaign which has now become the talk of the town, Namyalo emphasized, this time round under the President’s Wealth Creation Initiative, where she started giving out start-up kits to people rather than preaching to them ideology which is full of words.
Since she started this activity different mafias in most strategic offices like the office of the president, state house, NRM secretariat and mobilization desk so her as their replacement and decided to fight, blackmail and ensure that she fails, but who loses is it Namyalo and her ONC or the Nrm party?.
By the waves and shocks in the current political world, the party really needs people like Namyalo and actually over 100 Namyalos to ensure its dominance. But the current situation is ensuring that she fails so that the party is held at ransom.
ONC is the less funded office under the State House but it is the best result and hardworking mobilization office, which has hurt the kingmakers to the extent that, currently, the Kyambogo office is not funded according to the inside source, but it is still visible in its mobilization activities.
The NRM secretariat can’t do any operation unless it’s fully funded and not less funded but with hefty budgets. The worst part of it all is that the NRM party does not have any source of funding, apart from President Museveni who is the only source of everything. This puts the party at the stake of collapsing.
The secretariat is funded with a hefty budget of Sh8BN per Quarter of the financial year, making a total of Shs34bn without by-election funds and extra activities. The Kyadondo office also receives IPOD money which is dependent on the number of legislators in the August House, but does it show any value for money?
Comparing the situation at hand, where does this leave the NRM party with this level of intrigue, blackmail, in-fights, Embezzlement, and lack of accountability? Where is the fate of the NRM party and our question is does the party chairperson know what is behind the curtains?
Let’s learn from the History, ANC has surprisingly lost in South Africa we now have Chama Chamapenduzi and NRM of Uganda as historical parties but if the strategy remains the same NRM is next in line.
