..........Rose Namayanja (Youth Central): Your Excellency, we are tired of senior cadres who keep belittling us that we joined the Movement at Clock Tower.
Museveni bursts into laughter.................... Museveni to remain �active� after 2006 By Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda WEEKLY OBSEVER President Museveni will be an �active participant� in the 2006 general elections. At least that is what a group of MPs who met him last week understood him to have said. Nusura Tiperu President Museveni Grace Tubwita It was during a private meeting, yes, but still, that is the closest the President has come to admitting that he could be the beneficiary of the proposal to remove presidential term limits presently enshrined in the Constitution. Through Article 105(2), the Constitution limits President Museveni to two terms ending in 2006. When asked by young MPs during a private meeting at State House Nakasero last week to state clearly whether he wants to play the �facilitator� or the �participant� role in the transition, the President reportedly replied that he would be �an interested party�. Other sources at the meeting gave The Weekly Observer different interpretations of what the President actually said, but all suggesting that Museveni could be a candidate in the 2006 elections. Kisoro Woman MP Annette Mukabeera who organised the young MPs for the meeting said in an interview that the President said that, as a leader of Uganda, he is very interested in the destiny of the country. She said the President was responding to several MPs who asked him whether he is interested in kisanja (third term). Museveni asked the MPs not to narrow down the term limit debate to him as an individual, but argue about the principle. He told the MPs to encourage debate on presidential term limits, according to Mukabeera. The President hosted about 20 MPs below 35, hoping to establish why many oppose his leadership. Museveni has strategically started holding private face-to-face talks with individuals or groups of politicians opposed to him. Mr. Moses Byaruhanga, a special presidential assistant on political affairs, said in an interview that that has always been the strategy of the Movement to win over more people. The President will also continue meeting with his supporters in the run up to 2006. On Friday last week alone, Museveni addressed four separate gatherings � at Namboole, Kamwokya, International Conference Centre and Mengo-Kisenyi. A group of �12 strategic Movement thinkers� recently advised the President to hold private meetings with �defectors� in order to win them back. The group has also advised the President to pardon former intelligence chief, Brig. Henry Tumukunde, considering the role the disgraced spymaster played during the 2001 presidential elections. Tumukunde is presently facing multiple charges before the Military Court. The �strategic thinkers� have reportedly advised the President to reach out to several Movement cadres who had defected to the opposition. The President apparently agreed. Museveni now sends vehicles to pick up each of the �defectors� for a private meeting in quiet places such as his Kisozi ranch. The parley between the President and the young MPs was conceived during an earlier meeting in Kisoro when Museveni asked Woman MP Mukabeera, a PAFO sympathiser, why she and other young MPs resent him. Mukabeera, 31, could not answer for her colleagues. Museveni suggested that she mobilises all young MPs for a meeting. Mukabeera said in an interview after the meeting that her opposition to the third term remained unshaken. PAFO Advocacy Secretary Salaamu Musumba (Bugabula South) said that the meeting with young MPs confirms that the �whole constitutional amendment process� is about Museveni. �He is going to make personal calls to everybody,� Musumba said, adding that PAFO is not scared. �We are ready for him as he is ready for us.� To enable young MPs speak out freely, Museveni admitted no minister into the meeting. In fact, Museveni came along with only one aide, a woman to take minutes. The meeting ended at 2:30 a.m., but that is when National Political Commissar Dr. Crispus Kiyonga and Minister of Defence Amama Mbabazi were entering State House. At the gate to State House, presidential guards relaxed their methods of work, which have in the past angered some MPs. �We entered unchecked; it was like entering a church,� said one bemused MP. Inside, the young MPs feasted on all brands of wine, something uncharacteristic of the Museveni State House. Because of alcohol, one excited MP prematurely �ordered� Museveni to start the meeting. The President pleaded with him to sit down, until all his guests had completed the four-course meal. Asked by Aruu MP Odonga Otto whether he would like to be the �father of the nation� by retiring in 2006, the President reportedly asked, what �do countries like Kenya with fathers of the nation have that Uganda doesn�t - high GDP or what?� Another MP asked the President about the apparent failure to end the insurgency in northern Uganda. Museveni went Biblical, quoting Elizabeth the barren woman who once prayed to God for a baby, which she eventually got. Although he is sorry about the unending rebellion and the suffering visited upon the population, he is happy it is about to produce a baby - a new country in southern Sudan, which is even likely to join the East African Community. This was in apparent reference to Uganda�s support for the rebel Sudanese People�s Liberation Army (SPLA) in their fight for dignity and ultimately the independence of South Sudan (�New Sudan� in SPLA-speak). On that, the President told his guests not to quote him at all, because he would deny it. He said that God would be happier with him for having liberated the black people of southern Sudan from the oppressive Arab North than (God) would be with Gulu Archbishop, John Baptist Odama. Odama is the head of the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative, and has been critical of the government�s military approach in the North. Alfred Kajeke, 30, (Youth, Eastern) asked Museveni to explain why State House is involved in almost each and everything, from boda boda, Bidco to AGOA. In response, the President declared the ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry dead, but promised to resurrect it to take over tasks like AGOA. MPs Jacqueline Kyatuheire, 31, (Kanungu); Bernard Mulengani, 38, (Bukooli Central); Nusura Tiperu, 29, (Yumbe); Henry Banyenzaki, 37, (Rubanda West); Justine Kasule Lumumba, 31, (Bugiri) and Grace Tubwita (Nakasongola) are reported to have complained of suffocation within the Movement by senior cadres. They pointed fingers at the �Kiyonga-Hope Mwesigye faction�. Mwesigye is minister for parliamentary affairs. The issue of federalism also came up and the President is reported to have said that he is surprised that while he is looking for bigger things such as the East African political federation, others are demanding for �a small thing within a small thing.� MPs on begging spree Grace Tubwita (Nakasongola): Mr. President, my wedding is on August 28-29, I am inviting you and requesting for financial assistance. Museveni: You have just gone through an election. I told my people to give you some money. Okay, they will organise something for you and check on my schedule to see if I can attend your wedding. Umar Lule Mawiya (Kalungu East): Mr. President when you have trips and some of us are asked to accompany you, why are we booked on other planes [commercial flights] and we do not travel with you in the Gulf Stream IV. This was the case when I accompanied you to Egypt. Museveni: If you want to fly with me, they will check you thoroughly and I do not talk to people when I am flying, because this is the time when I am doing a lot of thinking. Rose Namayanja (Youth Central): Your Excellency, we are tired of senior cadres who keep belittling us that we joined the Movement at Clock Tower. Museveni bursts into laughter. Bernard Mulengani (Bukooli Central): Mr. President we are broke, please come to our rescue. Museveni: The problem is that you have made yourselves small presidents in the constituency. What I am going to do to help you is to bring a law in Parliament, which makes it illegal to give money during and after elections. \\\\\\\"Always be a first rate version of yourself instead of a second rate version of someone else.\\\\\\\\\\\\\" Njoki Paul University of Pretoria -------------------------------------------- This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
