Museveni Has Lost Vision, Says Kategaya
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The Monitor (Kampala)
May 6, 2004
Posted to the web May 6, 2004
Felix Basiime, Otushabire Tibyangye & Emmanuel Mugarura
Mbarara
President Museveni has deviated from the original vision of the Movement by trying to
cling to power, a longtime political ally and childhood friend said yesterday.
Mr Eriya Kategaya, long considered to be Mr Museveni's right-hand man, was sacked as
First Deputy Prime Minister last year for opposing the so-called third term.
"When the pope tries to change the Bible, should the Christians keep quiet or when the
mufti does the same to the Koran, what do the believers do?" Kategaya said while
presenting a paper at a workshop organised here yesterday by the Parliamentary
Advocacy Forum, prompting participants to chorus, "He goes home."
Pafo is a caucus of MPs opposed to lifting the constitutional two five-year term limit
on the presidency.
Addressing mainly opinion, political and religious leaders from the Ankole region,
Kategaya said: "For me I take the Constitution as the Bible or Koran; so our pope for
Uganda wants to break the Bible."
Kategaya said the people who are calling for another term in office for Mr Museveni
are "blind" and "greedy".
"Why do people forget easily Uganda's history?" Kategaya asked. "Why do you want to
make Museveni a dictator?"
The politician said that if Museveni got a third term, he would have made history by
becoming the second life president in Uganda after Idi Amin.
Amin, who ruled from 1971 to 1979, declared himself life president at the peak of his
powers in the mid 1970s.
Kategaya vowed to fight attempts to manipulate the Constitution to lift the
presidential term limits.
"I and Museveni fought dictator [Milton] Obote in 1965 at Ntare [School] when he broke
the Constitution, so we are here now trying to break another Constitution; I will not
join this."
Kategaya and Museveni also went to the same primary school and the same university.
Speaking during the workshop yesterday, the former Director General of the External
Security Organisation, Mr David Pulkol, said: "I am the one who made the 'No Change'
slogan when the law allowed it but now time has come to say 'Go Home'; that is what
the Constitution is saying."
Quoting documents from Museveni, including his 2001 election manifesto and 2002 state
of the nation address, Pafo chairman and Ruhama MP Augustine Ruzindana said the caucus
was only holding the President to his word.
"In his state of the nation address, Museveni asked us to follow his manifesto, the
covenant he made with the people, that he was serving the last term, so we are
consistent and are following his manifesto," Ruzindana said as the crowd cheered.
Unlike a similar workshop in Jinja that was broken up by government officials with the
help of police in March, yesterday's workshop was peaceful.
Supervised by the Mbarara District Police Commander, Mr Wilson Kwanya, police provided
security and the discussions were cordial as pro and anti-third term advocates debated
freely.
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East Africa
Uganda
The workshop was attended by several Pafo MPs, East African Legislative Assembly
members and diplomats.
There was also a large crowd.
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