By Badru D. Mulumba
Oct 12, 2003
KAMPALA - Main opposition groups have warned that President Yoweri Museveni would be taking a big risk if he tried to cling to power.
They said yesterday that they would push him out, but did not explain how they would do so.
They said that Mr Museveni's remarks are the clearest indication that he does not intend to leave power in 2006.
While meeting East Africa Law Society members in Entebbe on Friday, Museveni said that he could stay in power if he is pushed.
"The more you talk about my staying in power, the more I may change my mind about leaving," he reportedly said.
He said people were only talking about their turn in power, without articulating any vision, adding that he had not seen anybody with a vision to lead Uganda. Prof. Fredrick Ssempebwa, the president of the East African Law Society, chaired the meeting. Ssempebwa is also the chairman of the Constitutional Review Commission.
"It gives the impression that the president will hand over power according to his wishes," Mr Okumu Reagan, Aswa county MP and vice chairperson of the opposition pressure group, Reform Agenda said.
"He should know that Uganda is not his. If he does not want to leave, we will push him," he added. Exiled former presidential candidate Dr Kizza Besigye heads reform Agenda.
Okumu said that Reform Agenda has not started pressing the president to relinquish power because they expect him to leave in 2006.
"But if he does not go, we will push him," he said.
Asked how they expected to push Museveni out of power, Okumu said that they would apply the same means the president will use to cling on.
"The army belongs to the people. The mood in the country is for change. I don't see how he will stick to power. If he dares use arms, we will not take it lying down. We will fight back the way he will fight," Okumu warned.
"When Major Kakoza Mutale was beating our people, we were running. When Mutale was intimidating our people, we were running. When our people were killed, we were running. This time, we will not take it lying down," he added.
"It is he who is tinkering with the constitution. We are not pushing him. We are only reacting to his intentions," the Democratic Party president, Dr Paul Kawanga Ssemwogerere said.
"Those who are locked out of power have resorted to very unpleasant means to ensure change. We have seen it here in Uganda. We have seen it elsewhere," he added.
Bunyole MP, Emmanuel Dombo said: "It is the constitution he promulgated that is pushing him.
He is a member of a parliamentary group that is opposed to amending the constitution to give Museveni another term.
"Museveni endorsed whatever is in that constitution. If he chooses to stay on then he would not be fulfilling the objective for which he went to the bush. Let us pray to God that he helps him fulfill the objectives for which he went to the bush," Dombo said.
He added that Museveni's statement showed that he is still interested in power. "That is why although the constitution says that he should go, he feels he should stay," Dombo argued.
Dr James Rwanyarare, chairman of the presidential policy commission of the Uganda People's Congress, said: "Museveni has been determined to be life president from the time he mounted a guerilla war. Museveni entered by force. He will be pushed out of power only by force."
But he said it would not be UPC to force Museveni out. A campaign to amend the constitution to lift presidential term limits has apparently split the Movement.
Mr Elias Lukwago, a member of the East Africa Law Society, said over the phone from Entebbe that the president's remarks appear to be a veiled warning to Ssempebwa.
"He intentionally made the remarks in the presence of Ssempebwa - the person responsible for the constitutional review exercise. It confirms our fears that Ssempebwa is wasting his time. It confirms what Dr Crispus Kiyonga said that the CRC is just a consultant for cabinet."
Kiyonga, the National Political Commissar, recently said that cabinet would have the final say on the recommendations of the commission before they are presented to Parliament.
� 2003 The Monitor Publications
