Bukoto Central Member of Parliament, Eng Richard Sebamala has taken over as acting president general of the Democratic Party (DP).
Eng. Sebamala’s announcement
comes just a few days after the DP
president general Norbert Mao
signed a cooperation agreement
with President Yoweri Museveni without any consent from the top Party organs and subsequently appointed as Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs in the ruling government.
Sebamala says he will act as DP head until sanity gets back to Uganda’s oldest political party.
The legislator made the revelation on NBS Television on Friday.
“I Have decided to act as a Presi-
dent of DP Until when DP gets
back into sanity. For as far as we
know, we don’t have a President at
the Moment and it would be
conflict of interest for Hon. Mao to
be a Minister and at the same
time act in the Opposition,” Eng.
Sebamala said.
He said Hon. Mao crossed to the ruling party yet for them are in the opposition for the reasons they have always given
which are very clear.
“All the formal ways we can use to
take Mao out of the Party are not
there, he went with the Secretary
General who is supposed to call
National Executive Committee
Meetings and the National Coun-
cil, he went with the Chairman who
is supposed to call the delegates conference. So if these people have gone, are we in the Kraal that we are going to wait for him until he comes back and tells us what to do? I‟m therefore the interim President until further notice,” he added.
Eng. Sebamala has been serving as
the Democratic Party Secretary for
Foreign Affairs and the Chairperson
of Masaka District Party Branch.
Eng. Sebamala Richard was elected MP for Bukoto Central Constituency to the 11th Parliament in 2021 having defeated the former vice President Hon. Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi.
According to sources, Mao, the Newly appointed minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs is said to have gone with a number of other Party top officers whom he lobbied for 5 positions in the ruling government including a position of a State Minister.
On Thursday, a section of Members
of Parliament of DP distanced themselves from the signed working cooperation
agreement between the ruling NRM party and the opposition party which has
since caused mixed reactions amongst
the Public in the country.
The MPs headed by Eng. Sebamala told journalists at Parliament that the move by Mao to work with the NRM government will not be tolerated by members of the Opposition party and they will have to replace him no matter what.
“Some of us were not believing it, and we continued to expect that our president will come out and refute it but we have confirmed that our president has been working with NRM all along, this is very heartbreaking. Some of us are practically sick because we cannot imagine what Mao did. None of us was informed about this, but we just read them on Tibuhaburwa’s Twitter account, we tried to call him but he was not answering. However, it’s a shame that people like Mao could lose their moral values on petty things,” Sebamala said.
He, however, noted that despite Mao’s departure to their opponent, DP will stay strong and they are going to find a new president who will run the party activities from where Mao stopped.
“We have gone through stronger waves, even this will pass. If we manage to overcome the wave of NUP, we shall also overcome this one. Surviving NUP’s wave was an eye opener that DP will stay and we must know that DP is not Mao and Mao is not DP. Mao must also know that we are not cows and that he has left us in the kraal and is coming to lead us again no…… We wish him well but we shall not walk with him to hell.”
On Wednesday, NRM party signed a cooperation agreement with DP at State House, Entebbe.
President Yoweri Museveni, also the National Chairman of NRM, signed on behalf of the party, while DP President General, Hon. Norbert Mao signed on behalf of DP while both secretary Generals of NRM, Hon. Richard Todwong and DP’s Dr Gerald Siranda witnessed the signing.
Speaking after the signing, Mao appreciated the milestone on behalf of his party, saying that this is a continuous journey which started before some of them were born.
He told President Museveni that he now has the historical opportunity to gather party members scattered all over Uganda. “You must look for them wherever they are in all the political parties and in all the corners of Uganda,” Mao said.
A day after the signing of the agreement, President Museveni appointed Mao the new minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs.
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