Butambala county Member of Parliament Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi has revealed that it was a painful decision to abandon his longtime political party Democratic Party (DP) for National Unity Platform (NUP).
Kivumbi told this website that in his life he never thought that time would come and he leaves DP, a party he loved at heart.
Kivumbi together with other 10 MPs from Uganda’s oldest political party on Thursday crossed to NUP- a new party headed by presidential hopeful Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine.
Other MPs who joined the Kamwokya based outfit included; Mukono municipality MP Betty Nambooze, Busiro East MP Medard Lubega Sseggona, Bukoto East MP Florence Namayanja, Bukomansimbi Woman MP Veronica Nanyondo, Kyotera Woman MP Robinah Ssentongo, Kalungu West MP Joseph Ssewungu Gonzaga, Masaka Municipality MP Mathias Mpuuga, Makindye Ssabagabo MP Ssempala Emmanuel Kigozi, Makindye West MP Allan Ssewanyana and Rubaga North’s Moses Kasibante.
He said that although most people may see them as great enemies to DP, they took the decision to leave in tears because they never wanted to, but the internal wrangles within the party forced them.
“In my life,I can not compare leaving DP with any decision I have ever made, this was too painful, to leave the only party I knew . However, I had to do it given the fact, DP president Norbert Mao had no any single respect for us, he has been abusing us any time he wants, but I think where he is, as an intelligent man due to this defection maybe he will change,” he said.
He added that the factions Mao created in DP had no respect for lifetime members of the party but rather they had also learnt to abuse their seniors.
“The seniority character that DP had and respect vanished the moment members in the party leadership begun to disrespect each other, this also caused fury among some members which led to chronicle hatred to members who differed from the ideas of those in leadership,” he added.
However, the spokesperson of DP Fred Mwesigwa insisted that DP has always experienced mass defection but it has managed to prevail through such storms. “In 2005 after the introduction of the multiparty system, five DP MPs defected to FDC, but the party stayed strong. DP is still a strong party right from villages,”
While appearing on NBS TV frontline on Thursday, the DP president Mao also claimed that every party experiences in fightings but it takes solidarity and love for the party for members to stay and solve their issues inside other than displaying them for their enemies to know.
“DP was founded for a reason and not a season. We might have lost the crops, but the seeds are still with us. We can rebuild the party. Every organisation must have the inbuilt capacity to face those kinds of challenges and renew its self. They are people who have lost both hands in accidents, life does not end there, you may even find your true purpose actually, Children lose parents. So DP will have to look inside its self and find the reason why it’s has been resilient for 65 years it’s time for soul searching, strategic re-orientation, to look at our strength other than our weaknesses,” he said.
FDC spokesperson Ibrahim Semujju Nganda also asked fellow political party leaders to always find ways of solving inner differences which may lead to defections.
“I have seen the Hon. Nambooze in DP for almost my political career. I don’t think they are leaving just because they want to leave. When people decide to abandon a political platform, it is painful for those people and maybe to those they are leaving.”
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