When Kyadondo East Member of Parliament and leader of the People Power pressure group announced his new political party the National Unity Platform, it was certainly destined to cause a stir in the politics of the country.
Whereas most political literates like Mukono Municipality MP Betty Nambooze had for long projected that the pop star cum politician would form a party at some time in his political career, now was not the time at the back of their mind.
Where as the announcement came as a big surprise to many, the secrecy with which the People Power supremo went about the acquisition of the party is all that has left Ugandans both those around him and on the government side alike startled.
While speaking on the reports that he fraudulently acquired National Unity, Reconciliation Development Party-NURP (now NUP), Mr Kyagulanyi said this was being done with the backing of the ruling side due to the panic caused by his covet announcement of the party.
DETAILS OF THE PARTY ACQUISITION PROCESS
Having taken a keen interest in what actually transpired and how the new political boy from Magere managed to move through the lengthy process of identifying a party, learning who it’s directors were, reaching out to them, negotiating a sales deal, cashing out, changing its name and finally having it handed over to him undetected by the country’s intelligence organs and the media.
Below we ride our reader through our shocking discoveries.
Even though Mr Wine had ideologically believed in a loose structured movement right from the start of his national activism, he gradually started having a shift in mindset as time went on.
The idea of forming a political party was born out of Bobi Wine’s interaction with the Democratic party in the re unions organised to bring Mao’s mainstream Democratic party and the four splinter groups of Truth and Justice Forum (TJ) led by Samuel Lubega Mukaaku, Abed Bwanika’s People’s Development Party and Mike Mabiike’s Social Democratic party.
The four had come together under their umbrella they named “the DP Block”
Led by Bwanika and Mukaaku, the Block organised a series of reunion events in the cities of Kampala, Masaka and Jinja, with many more planned before leadership struggle frustrated the arrangement.
At each of the union events, Kyagulanyi who had by now become popular around the country would be used by the organisers to boost numbers at the conferences.
Eventhough the organisers of the activities, who had by now wished to ride on Kyagulanyi’s ever spiraling political fame, their plot would later be failed due to growing suspicions from the DP supremo Mao.
At the Masaka event specifically, both of the two main men got a day to forget. Mao had caught wind of the plot by the reunion architects to sabotage his power and later install Kyagulanyi as the pillar of the new look DP they envisaged.
Kyagulanyi on the other hand had realised that the looks on the Mao royalists’ faces were not ones to smile over.
Mao had insisted that the man from Magere only get the microphone to speak at the tile end of the events since he wasn’t anywhere in the leadership circles of the party.
The reunion in Jinja was the last blow for the plotters of a Kyagulanyi presidential candidature under DP. By now, Mao was fully aware of the plot to ditch him for the new boy on the block and for this, he was ready to fight with all his might.
Although the Masaka incident had taught Bobi Wine that his welcome in DP seemed to expired, he was nevertheless convinced by the Mukaakus to attend the one in Jinja.
Here, Mao had realised that the more he hid his feelings about the matter, the more he would get swallowed until he remains with not a single grain of power left for himself.
Kyagulanyi arrived a bit late when the speeches were ongoing. Mao who was on the pulpit himself got angered himself when the audience got rowdy on Kyagulanyi’s arrival and booed him into silence. It was not until Kyagulanyi spoke to them that civility was restored.
From Jinja, Mao had learnt that the earlier he gets rid of Kyagulanyi in DP, the better. He was prepared at all costs to strategically kick him out of the party.
That’s how he reached out to Chameleone to sign up for the party to counter Bobi Wine.
A youthful music celebrity like Kyagulanyi, Mao believed that having Chameleone on his side would render Bobi Wine insignificant in the party. As such, the Tubonga nawe tune strategist was named the DP chief mobiliser.
The singer’s earlier ties with the ruling National Resistance Movement would however dent his status as compared to his Magere counterpart, miserably defeating Mao’s plan.
Kyagulanyi on the other hand had also realised he needed to waste no more time in DP. It was time to move on.
For his allies from the DP block, an anti Mao click within DP, they had realised that the events in Jinja would not leave their man happy. They knew that keeping him under the hostile Mao’s DP is not something they were to attain with ease any longer.
As such, led by Medard Ssegona, plans to form a political party under which Kyagulanyi would seek the Presidency was the only way to go if all their dreams of drinking from his political fame were to remain alive.
Meetings started taking place regularly at Mpuuga’s residence in Masaka and a name for the new proposed political party was arrived at – Uganda Modern Democrats.
The architects had strongly believed that selling the idea to the unsuspecting young politician was to be a walk in the park since he had clearly demonstrated his disappointment with the way he had been treated by the Mao’s DP.
They believed he would need to prove a point at all costs that he too could own a party.
At the back of the minds of the plotters however, they new this new party was the DP block but just dressed in a different attire. With it, they would be able to pinch Mao whom they accused of sidelining them.
” With Kyagulanyi in the new party formed by the block architects, they were certain to rip DP into pieces and enjoy as Mao cried. Kyagulanyi would be a ceremonial head but in the actual sense,real power would remain with them,” a source close to the Kamwokya outfit told this website.
Kyagulanyi however seemed to have sensed danger already. When presented with the suspicious plot, he immediately dustbined it in consultation with his brother Chairman Fred Nyanzi.
Nyanzi, who is believed to be Wine’s most trusted ally strongly warned his brother of a plot by the DP wise men to swallow him politically and that theirs was a well calculated move to use him to gain elective positions rather than help him attain the Presidency as they alleged.
Without having to annoy the group however, Bobi Wine explained to them that he didn’t believe in the ideology of political parties but that he would leave the door open for a future discussion on the matter when time came for it.
” He told them that the matter should wait to be discussed if at all the need arose in future. It’s because he clearly didn’t trust them,” a close associate of Bobi Wine told Watchdog.
Out of this discussion, the idea of forming a political party was born in the mind of Bobi Wine. He discussed with Nyanzi who believes in political parties having been a member of the NRM party.
Nyanzi is also rumoured to be a sworn hater for the DP and so is why he had opted to be a member of the NRM despite his family’s historical attachment with DP.
As expected, Nyanzi encouraged Bobi Wine in the affirmative, who in return tasked him to come up with a plan. Nyanzi would start with reserving the People Power Movement [PPM] name with the EC only to be told it had been reserved already.
That’s when the idea of acquiring an already registered political party came up after realizing that it wouldn’t be easy for them to get a new party registered under the watchful eye of the government.
Under strict instructions to keep the process very clandestine, Nyanzi, with the permission not his young brother shortlisted three political parties already in the books of the EC plus their owners.
When the names were presented to Bobi wine, he fell in love with one in particular – the National Unity Transformation and Development headed by a one Godfrey Nkonge Kibalama.
Reliable sources say that Mr. Wine fell for this party from the word go because “he liked its registered symbol which was an umbrella.
The other two parties whose owners have had some modest engagement with the two political brothers are Activity Party owned by a one Bampiga a resident of Makindye and National Convention of Democracy that is owned by a one Justus Kawuma.
“The Principal [Mr. Wine] hasn’t been as keen on any of these two like he is with the reconciliation party whose name and symbol he considers very appropriate to the brand of politics he has been pursuing since August 2017 [when he first became MP],” says a source from within NUP.
Nyanzi was then instantly asked to identify the registered owners of the party and a meeting was arranged keeping only Kyagulanyi and Nyanzi as the only people in the know.
The meeting with Kibalama and the transaction details…
To be continued tomorrow.
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