People Power leader Robert Kyagulanyi’s capacity to manage conflicts among his loyal followers will soon be put to test with two of his strong cadres aiming their stings at each other for the Nakawa parliamentary slot.
At the beginning of this year, People Power’s Chief mouthpiece Joel Ssenyonyi made public his resolve to eat from the big bread that members of the Uganda’s legislature partake of.
To prove his resolve, Ssenyonyi has been traversing the different areas of the Constituency with him already transferred his voting station to Kigoowa village in the Division.
This however follows an earlier declaration by the current Mayor, Ronald Balimwezo, another strong pillar of the young movement.
Balimwezo, an outspoken Museveni critic who is also a loyal to Kyagulanyi’s change movement – The People Power had disclosed his intentions to stand as the area MP way long before he even got into the second half of this political term.
He has vigorously mobilised and traversed the electoral area as a way of popularising his bid. He now feels betrayed as he believes his role in shaping the People Power Movement has been an outstanding one. He says he deserves a lot more than the intrigue and backstabbing he is getting at the moment.
Balimwezo told this website that it would be proper that Ssenyonyi concentrates on forming a formidable backup team for his supper boss as we head into 2021.
“How will he be campaigning in Nakawa as well as being the Spokesperson of our presidential Candidate? Why doesn’t he think about the fracture that his decision will most likely cause in PP,” Balimwezo asked rhetorically.
Most importantly, the Social Democratic Party man says he is not willing to back out of the race not even for Ssenyonyi, after all People Power is not a political party and power belongs to the people.
This is where the gist of the matter is.
According to People Power’s Ssenyonyi, competition is normal and having many people coming up for elective posts is an energizer to the forced of change.
This however is not a case in isolation. The nature of the Movement will be the recipe for disagreement as we draw nearer to 2021. Political ambitions are hard to lock out once one has made up their minds to stand in an election.
Save for President Yoweri Museveni and NRM, with unequaled power of leveraging where one will be enticed to give way in exchange for monetary or employment gains, opposition will always find it hard.
In Bugiri, Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) reached a time of wishing to withdraw their candidate but with no resources to compensate her, it was unattainable, yet FDC is a party that has been around for quite some time and with a surely stronger muscle.
During a by-election for the LCV Chairperson for Busia District, the ruling party was able to compromise all the candidates in contention for the race, including those from opposition until one candidate was unopposed.
Power of leveraging
Without funds, political structures would be the other viable avenue to sort out issues, unfortunately Bobi Wine has got no such. There are no say elders or a NEC or SEC that would sit down the waring sides to devise mechanisms of conflict resolution.
Since Bobi Wine has no full claim over his supporters, he will most certainly have to keep on the fence for fear of being misunderstood. Whereas this will most likely not provide a solution, it will save Kyagulanyi from being accused of taking sides.
This is however a short term solution as those who feel they have a claim over the organization more than others,will expect an automatic qualification.
Where as prominent media personality from Jinja and also People Power coordinator for Namutumba District, Mr Dabada Yusufu is confident that his leader Kyagulanyi Ssentamu will ably manage to resolve the impasse, he agrees that it will not be an easy task.
The change hungry activist prophesied a situation where there will be members from the NRM camp, who after losing the primaries will jump onto people power, and others being more vibrant than the existing People Power candidates, the public would be swayed, creating more confrontation of ambitions in the younger political organisation.
Mr Bigirwa Moses of People Power also seems to concur with his comrade from Jinja. For him,these are common occurrences that any vibrant political organisation like people power are destined for such scenarios, adding that the people power administration and planning units are highly well equipped to arrest the situation.
The presidential contention debutant also faces another huddle to prove his statemanship and good intentions for unseating President Museveni, in relation to the constituencies currently occupied by the opposition.
For instance Nakawa is currently occupied by FDC’s Micheal Kabaziguruka, who People Power’s mouth Ssenyonyi blames of being a lukewarm to the people of Nakawa. Even though that’s can be true to a certain degree, some analysts actually think it’s a rude judgement for the FDC man after being crippled by the government when he was allegedly tortured, causing him a significant damage.
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