COVER STORY: Museveni and Mbabazi

The NRM delegates conference was convened officially to make amendments to the way the party votes. The party adopted voting by lining up of candidates as opposed to secret ballot. Museveni and other senior members of the party are convinced that lining up of candidates will do away with the do or die nature that NRM primary elections have become over the years. The internal party elections have been marred with violence in 2010 and 2015.

Unofficially, the conference was seen as a welcome party for its prodigal son Mbabazi and others like Gilbert Bukenya who have fizzled out of the ruling party. At the event, Museveni largely talked about economic issues such as over taxation and steered clear of Mbabazi.

The NRM conference happened at the same time when another political juggernaut in the region, the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), the ruling party in Tanzania was holding a similar event among its rank and file.

Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli, also chairman of CCM, was meeting district and regional party leaders listening to their concerns. The retreat at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre was aimed at forming strategies for the 2020 presidential election.

Although Mbabazi was not seen at the NRM meetings, his returning to the NRM would not surprise because his fallout with President Yoweri Museveni in 2014 was not an acrimonious one.

It is also not unusual for Museveni to reach out to those he has fallen out with. The President has a history of returning comrades to the fold. Lt. Gen. (Rtd) Henry Tumukunde was rehabilitated and returned government as seen by the clandestine role he played for NRM in the 2016 presidential campaign.

After his victory in the 2006 election was announced, Museveni invited Mathew Rukikaire, Eriya Tukahirwa Kategaya, Amanya Mushega, and Richard Kaijuka for a meeting at his country home in Rwakitura to persuade them to re-join government. The group had fallen out with him over lifting of presidential term limits and other critical issues.

After quitting NRM, Kategeya played a role in the formation of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) which is currently the largest opposition party in Uganda. But in 2006 he was reappointed a minister in Museveni’s government. Comments on the uproar over his about-face focused on a comment that Kategaya famously made soon after his sacking. He said:  “A man can only turn in bed but cannot go back on his word,” a loose translation of a famous Kinyankore proverb. Clearly, a man can turn on his political word. So is Mbabazi about to turn on his?

In 2018, Mbabazi said in spite of Museveni attending his daughter’s marriage ceremony, he was not about to return to Museveni’s government.  He said, however, despite challenging Museveni in the 2016 general elections, their relationship was cordial.

“We may disagree politically, but the association we have is not affected. This is what I call maturity in leadership,” he said in a speech at the ceremony.

Party leaders react

Talk of Mbabazi returning to the NRM has been well-received.

Mike Mukula, a staunch Museveni supporter and NRM vice chairman for the eastern region told The Independent that NRM is a mass party and people are free to come back.

“Mbabazi played a historical role in the NRM,” he said, “He may have had his own political direction and that is his decision but he; like he has said before, never left the Movement.”

Francis Babu, an NRM historical and former minister, told this newspaper the NRM doors are always open. “How he comes back is his business…he has only talked to the chairman but I am not impressed at all.”