There are times when nothing less than the unvarnished truth will do. This is one of those times- the truth needs to be said for possibly the Uganda opposition to recover in future.
From the bird’s-eye perspective, the opposition looks weaker than it did before, and NUP’s Abed Bwanika was right when he said over the weekend that Museveni has been having the best time of his life since the end of the 2021 elections. It seems it has been designed that way ever since Bobi became the face of the opposition in Uganda.
The idea that Bobi was handled and massaged to the top by powerful people in the regime to slice Dr.Kiiza Besigye’s popularity is widespread. For a long time, Besigye was like a stone in Museveni’s shoes, and nobody envisaged how the stone could be removed till when Bobi came on to the political scene. His first assignment was to go on attack, and he wasn’t really attacking Museveni- he was attacking the former FDC president using mainly propaganda, blackmail and fake news (PBF). He was basically the pawn that was used to weaken Besigye and FDCs.
Large quantities of PBFs have been produced by NUP bloggers against other veteran opposition leaders such as: the Lord Mayor, Erias Lukwago, and his Deputy, Asuman Basalirwa of JEEMA (after the passing of the anti-LGBT bill), Mpuunga Mathius, the Katikiro of Buganda, Kabaka of Buganda, Nabagereka, Mukaku Lubega, etc, to further Bobi’s latest smear campaigns and ideological goals. Bobi, like a vulture sitting in a tree, has been eyeballing every move made by other opposition leaders to stop them from taking the shine off him.
His behaviour seems rather predatory, harmful to the opposition, harmful to Buganda kingdom and spiteful towards other opposition leaders. For example, his attacks on Besigye put FDC and People Power/NUP in a pissing contest up to now, to the extent that a lot of people are, literally, fed up with the opposition. His attacks on Mpuuga and other Baganda leaders is now another pissing contest that we may have to bless ourselves with till 2026. I can see another bunch of more opposition leaders soon joining NRM because they see no future in the opposition.
According to FDC’s Harold Kaija, Joyce Ssebugwawo wasn’t really a mole in FDC as in, like, Museveni’s mole for a long time. Her head was, apparently, turned after losing the elections in Lubaga. Bobi planted a candidate against her, and the loss was too much for her to take in. Museveni being Museveni, he saw an opportunity and reached out to her after losing the elections. Kaija and Besigye reportedly tried to talk her out of joining Museveni then, but she was so angry about the loss. I imagine the same thing would have probably happened to Erias Lukwago, Ssemujju Nganda and others if they had lost to NUP candidates.
What’s confusing is that Ssebugwao was, reportedly, among the few FDC leaders that openly supported Bobi during the Kyadondo East by-election in 2017, instead of FDC’S Katinti. She also reportedly supported former NRM, Abubakar Kawalya, for KCCA speakership. I believe because of the toxic environment intentionally created in the opposition by Bobi; it has become easy for Museveni to recruit from opposition. As a result, the main political parties (FDC, UPC and DP) and other leaders have been weakened at the expense of an inexperienced politician – who is only chasing more fame and wind. No opposition leader since 1986 has travelled more times outside the country than Kyagulanyi.
PAST LINKS TO THE STATE
Bobi and his elder brother, Nyanzi, were extremely chummy with President Museveni and his brother, Salim Saleh, his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, and former IGP, Kale Kayihura, before they expressed interest in opposing NRM. It, therefore, came as no surprise to some people when the big people in NRM decided to support him for MP instead of their own candidate, Ssebalu. In fact, Gen. Tumukunde is on record, while being hosted on the Capital Gang, insinuating that Bobi’s campaigns as MP were mainly financed by NRM people. Bobi, himself, confessed on national TV for having received money from some NRMs to help him become MP of Kyadondo East. He also endorsed NRM candidates on various occasions during the 2021 campaigns at the expense of opposition candidates.
One can argue that associating with powerful people shouldn’t raise eyebrows, but I also remember when Andrew Mwenda used to heavily criticise Museveni and his family(1990s-2006), and I thought there’s nothing to it till when he fully joined where money comes from. Oh God, I liked the guy such that I literally became a matching ”mole” fan at the time, and I’m sure a lot of oppositionists fell into his crawls by entrusting him with their secrets and plans, didn’t they?
What’s odd is that all this still resonates in my consciousness somewhere, that how come nobody saw this at the time? How come we all concentrated mainly on Mwenda’s attacks rather than the people he associated with, or he used to associate with? Is it possible he was already on the payroll then, but most of us didn’t want to think about it?
In 2020, former State House spokesperson, Tamale Mirundi, is on record telling people that the deal for Bobi to work for Museveni was brokered by his elder brother Nyanzi. He stated that the state first approached Bebe Cool, but they later changed their mind to Bobi.
Frank Gashumba is also on record openly telling people that Bobi went into a deal with Museveni after the 2021 elections – never to stage protests against Museveni. Gashumba put the deal at a cost of US $5m till 2026. Obviously, we have no way of knowing how true this is, but the fact is that there have been no serious protests in the country since we ended the elections.
Then, there is the serious issue of Museveni writing to the Uganda Revenue authority to release Bobi’s bullet proof car without paying extra taxes. Speaking of the Bullet proof car, nobody knows exactly how Bobi came into possession of the car and how it was bought, apart from what Bobi told us – that it was a ‘gift’ from friends in diaspora.
STATE PROTECTION OF KYAGULANYI
On 14 July 2020, Kyagulanyi assumed leadership of the NUP party, according to EC records. Officially, the name of the party was changed to NUP on 22 July 2020. Current Justice minister, Norbert Mao stated, before he joined the government, that there were state operatives that were behind that certificate of 2019 signed by the Secretary of the EC. Mao also said that NUP registered two constitutions, but we have recently come to learn that the party is still operating using the 2002 Kibalama constitution. Mao contends that NUP was illegally registered as due process and diligence weren’t followed.
Around 2020, some people went to court to settle this, but Judge Musa Sekana ruled in favour of the Kyagulanyi based on technicalities, not the evidence presented. The troubling admission by former NUP leaders that there was no quorum when Kyagulanyi was sworn in as the new party president at Kakkiri in 2020, should have taken precedence over technicalities, I think.
Lawyer Male Mabilizi tried severally to challenge illegalities associated with Bobi Wine, but every time he got close, the state prosecutor (Director of Public Prosecutions, and State Attorney) took over the cases, and the end was all but predictable, i,e. not guilty. All of Mabilizi’s cases against Kyagulanyi ended up being taken over by the DPP with the exception of the one accusing him of having acquired a driving permit unlawfully.
Basically, court cases against Kyagulanyi not only demonstrate that there is a rule of law versus the rule of man in Uganda, but there is manipulation of the law by the powerful to save whoever they want. It seems the law and man are mortal enemies in the struggle for survival of a politician, history, and the fate of the nation.
MUHOOZI PRESIDENCY
The Kyagulanyi era has also served as a way of easing Uganda into a Muhoozi Kainerugaba presidency as different forces in opposition keep fighting each other. The former DP block leaders, headed by Abed Bwanika, have literally accused Kyagulanyi of putting NUP in the hands of NRM ‘’agents’’ in the party. Bwanika’s statements raise eyebrows and invite a nuanced examination of Uganda’s political landscape.
While the notion of a direct confrontation between Bobi and former LOP, Mpuuga, remains highly improbable, dissecting Mpuuga’s claims on CBS recently necessitates exploring the multifaceted personalities that are running NUP and other opposition parties right now. At the heart of any assessment lies whether their actions are helping Muhoozi become president easily or not.
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