By Del w Omony
Sir Winston Churchill pronounced Uganda ‘’ The Pearl of Africa’’ due to its biodiversity, ranging from the number of tourist attractions, the loving and welcoming people , the different cultures, the weather and climate among others. The same cannot be said of the country’s politics.
The question here is; Do we really have opposition in Uganda? And can Ugandans entrust the future of this country to the opposition?
Recently, we embarked on finding out the truth behind the bickering between the founding members of National Unity Platform kibalama team and the current leadership led by Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine. We are out to highlight on a number of illegalities which include; the illegal smuggling and swapping of the original party constitution to suit individual target and personal gains.
It should be remembered that Mr. Kyagulanyi and the People Power team having been frustrated by the so called big opposition political parties he hoodwinked the less powerful but strategic original leadership of NUP headed by Nkonge Moses Kibalama, into signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
Due to limited time to beat the nomination deadline and the urge to elect Kyagulanyi as the party leader before the 2021 general elections, both teams on the 11th /July/2020 being in a rush drafted an MOU between both parties to fufill their goals.
Indeed David Lewis Rubongoya being one of the leading negotiator of the joint venture drafted the MOU for the relationship of both parties and signed upon the agreement.
On the 14th /July/2020 a simple handover meeting was organized at Kakiri gardens and hotel in Wakiso which saw Mr kyagulanyi and Mr Rubongoya as NUP’s duly elected president and secretary general respectively. We have since reliably learnt that Mr kyagulanyi and colleagues did not at all adhere to the terms of the MOU and nothing what so ever has ever been put into account thus throwing Mr Nkonge in moods of calling off the understanding which has also since been discovered to have expired on the 11th /07/2021 according to clause 5 of the same MOU.
The bickering of the senior NUP leadership also stems from the establishment that after Kyagulanyi and Rubongoya taking charge of the party leadership, the team selfishly violated the laws of political parties and swapping the original party constitution of 2004 when the it was first registered.
According to Nkonge, the constitution of which he has a copy in his custody has never been amended yet the one he sees in public domain is different and even the behavior of the leadership clearly shows they are not following any guidelines.
A case of these unconstitutional characters has since been brought to the attention of the regulator of political parties and organization- the Electoral Commission of Uganda for determination and possible actions if proved if Nkonge’s allegations are proved right.
In the turn of events, after realizing all the mess, the promoters took up a step of calling for sanity after a long strive to have matter at hand resolved failed.
They wrote to Mr Kyagulanyi a letter dated 09/11/2020 and signed by William Odinga Balikuddembe on behalf of other promoter/ founders of which a call was deliberately ignored and all efforts to get matters raised attended to fell on deaf ears.
One realizing the MOU was set for review after one year as clearly stated in clause 5 of the same, Nkonge and Ssimbwa Paul and others through thier lawyers of Mugabi Shyaka and company Advocates wrote a reminder to Mr Rubongoya to cause a meeting on or before the 11/07/2021 to review and or evaluate the performance of the 11/07/2020 memorandum of understanding between both parties which was also ignored.
In a very surprising turn of events, social media was awash with a statement from two of the less known Co-founders of NUP party mentioned in the MOU distancing themselves from the call to review the understanding which was due for review on the 11/07/2021 and these included Mr Kigozi Winstone and Mr Odinga William Balikuddembe. It’s not clear why this time round Mr Balikuddembe distanced himself from the complaints yet last year he is the one who signed a letter demanding to review the way the opposition party was being run by the new leadership.
How these two co-founders distance themselves from such unresolved facts is a story to tell.
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