Movement Schemes to Oust District Opposition Officials
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The Monitor (Kampala)
April 21, 2005
Posted to the web April 20, 2005
Charles Mwanguhya Mpagi & Sam Amanyire
Bushenyi
Top Movement officials plan to get "uncooperative" councillors off district councils ahead of the consideration of constitutional amendments that require the approval of the district councils.
The Monitor has learnt that the ruling Movement figures that if its succeeds in purging district councils of opposition elements, the districts would easily endorse the constitutional amendments on the proposed regional tier.
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High on the hit list are district council Speakers and their deputies who belong to the opposition.
The Minister of Lands and Environment, Maj. Gen. Kahinda Otafiire, is reportedly heading the purge and is said to have launched the scheme in Bushenyi district on Saturday.
The Movement spokesperson, Mr Ofwono Opondo, told The Monitor that it was okay for a political party to undermine those who do not agree with its thinking.
He said such maneuvers were healthy provided they were carried out legally and democratically.
Otafiire reportedly met top Movementists in Bushenyi on Saturday night until the following morning. The long meeting resolved first to oust the Bushenyi district Speaker, Mr Odo Tayebwa.
Tayebwa is a member of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC).
Opondo said he was not aware of the Saturday meeting but maintained that the principle was okay. "They are right to fight the speaker politically and democratically...we are going to organise to fight and undermine those who do not agree with us politically just like they are also organising to fight us," he said.
Mr Chapaa Karuhanga, the coordinator of the G6, a loose alliance of the six major opposition parties, said the parties were aware of the scheme.
The grand scheme reportedly involves getting opposition speakers removed from office through censure while some are arrested on alleged rebel links.
Opposition officials say Rukungiri Speaker George Owakukiroru was deliberately removed by linking him to the rebel People's Redemption Army (PRA). He was arrested last December.
Otafiire could not be reached for comment. He was reported to be out of the country. Bushenyi Woman MP, Mary Karooro Okurut, confirmed she attended the night-long Saturday meeting but declined to divulge any details. She referred The Monitor to councillor Peter Rwakifari, who did not return our calls.
Sources at the meeting, which was attended by 34 councillors and four MPs from the district, said it was unanimously resolved that Tayebwa should be censured unless he agreed to join the Movement.
Otafiire reportedly told the concillors that it was not possible for Tayebwa to preside over Council meetings as Speaker and favour Movement positions since he is a professed FDC mobiliser.
Tayebwa, told The monitor that he stormed the same meeting at 10p.m to find out why Otafiire was convincing councillors to censure him. He said Otafiire chased him. "He chased me from the meeting and said they were discussing Movement issues that don't concern me as an FDC supporter," Tayebwa said.
After chasing Tayebwa, Otafiire reportedly asked his army bodyguards to cordon off the area and keep out such infiltrators. The soldiers kept guard until 4am in the morning when the meeting ended.
According to another councilor, Mr Pastor Mugisha, Otafiire ordered all the councillors to sign a list indicating they had agreed to censure the Speaker and 32 out of 34 in attendance signed.
The Movement is reportedly concerned that hostile speakers could stand in the way of some constitutional amendments the government wishes to pass through the district councils.
One councillor, Mr Siraje Banyanga, who attended the meeting quoted Otafiire as saying: "A Moslem cannot lead celebrations of a Catholic mass and if you fail to censure Odo I will use other means to remove him from office."
Recently efforts were made to censure the Speaker of Kasese district council, Mr Augustine Musema, who is also reportedly linked to FDC. Musema said he believed he was being targeted because of his political affiliation.
FDC's Karuhanga, who also hails from Bushenyi, said the opposition was not surprised at the move to purge district councils of opposition officials. "I called Kahinda Otafiire on phone and he confirmed to me that this is not only for Bushenyi but for the whole country," he said.
Karuhanga said the opposition knows that the few supporters they have at different levels of political decision making got their way there on the Movement ticket and therefore are prone to harassment.
He said: "The Movement is revealing its true colours; we cannot expect to be enfranchised by the current Parliament or district councils because these are movement structures. The few opposition figures that have come-up just fluked their way."
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Participants at the Bushenyi meeting reportedly received Shs30, 000 each as transport refund.
Those who attended the meeting included Minister Richard Nduhura (Igara East), MP Elioda Tumwesigye (Sheema North), Resident District Commissioner Patrick Kawamara and the District Internal Security Officer Alex Abenaitwe. A presidential advisor, Mr Ezra Kikuuri, also attended the meeting.
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