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New Vision (Kampala)
December 31, 2003
Posted to the web December 31, 2003
Henry Mukasa
Kampala
Former Interior Minister Eriya Kategaya said yesterday he would not become subversive but would continue to criticise proposals to lift the constitutional two-term limit for the president.
Kategaya was speaking at a farewell party organised for him by his former Rwampara constituents in Mbarara.
He said no one should claim to love President Yoweri Museveni more than him. "But I still maintain what I said: No to the third term...we made a promise to the people, we cannot now go back and tell them we have changed."
It was Kategaya's first reaction since President Museveni criticised him in the newspapers over various issues he raised in a radio interview on Monitor FM.
Museveni said Kategaya had insulted him by saying the President, as one person, could not hold a vision for the whole country.
Kategaya's farewell party at Nyeihanga in Rwampara was attended by East African Cooperation Secretary General Amanya Mushega, Mbarara Municipality MP Winnie Byanyima, former ethics minister Miria Matembe, Maj. Gen. Mugisha Muntu and Augustine Ruzindana, the chairman of the Parliamentary Advocacy Forum (PAFO).
Kategaya dismissed reports that the party was organised with a hidden agenda, adding that it was a tradition that started with former area MP Francis Butagira.
"I do not want to cause any political darkness but to bring sunshine. The criticism I am making is not out of madness because I was National Political Commissar for six years.
"Even when Besigye decided to contest under Reform Agenda, I had advised him to wait for the President to complete his constitutional term before he could stand," he said.
Reacting to appeals to reconcile with Museveni, Kategaya said he had talked to the president before.
He said he was not aggrieved for losing the ministerial job, saying he was now his own master. But he said he was unhappy with the way he was sacked on radio earlier this year.
"Democracy is in people's hearts not in documents. If we protect our laws and democracy, they will solve our problems," Mugisha Muntu said.
Ruzindana said it was absurd that the Movement camp, which proposed the term limit clause in the Constitution, wants it removed now.
