{UAH} Secret Meeting between Museveni and FDC Stalwart Christopher Kibanzanga?

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Details on what Transpired in the Secret Meeting between President Museveni and FDC Stalwart Christopher Kibanzanga and how his Defection to NRM was Aborted at the Last Moment

By Fred Daka Kamwada

In the most recent days, Christopher Kibanzanga's name has been in the news as the next big fish to defect from FDC to NRM.

The FDC strong man, who is also the chief prince of the Rwenzururu chiefdom met President Museveni last week, sparking rumours that he had defected to NRM

And indeed we got reports last Thursday that the man who represented Busongora in the seventh parliament was in advanced stages of defecting to NRM following a secret meeting with the president.

But we shelved the news as a misguided rumour due to some glitches we suspected couldn't permit Kibanzanga to easily defect from FDC.  He has since denied harbouring intentions of crossing over to NRM.

But we have now confirmed that Kibanzanga indeed met Museveni in a meeting that lasted close to 45 minutes where he lamented a lot of his personal problems to the president.

The Details

Our sources who were privy to what transpired in that meting revealed that the former MP for Busongora pleaded with President Museveni to save him from becoming bankrupt.

Sources at State House intimated to us that the chief prince of Rwenzururu pleaded with the president to offer him a helping hand  to stave off the debt burden that is about to swallow him up.

Kibanzanga has been battling court cases which led to his arrest last week.

His troubles started when he lost an electoral race to Lt Col Muhindo in 2011. He then made the mistake of trying to challenge Muhindo's victory by lodging a case in court.

The court case back fired and the chief prince was on Thursday arrested from his home in Kasese and driven to Fort Portal for defaulting payment of court awards.

According to the plaintiff, Kibanzanga initially challenged Muhindo's victory in court, but before the case could take off, he withdrew the matter on the advice of elders in Rwenzururu.

Not convinced, Muhindo sued Kibanzanga for the inconvenience. He claimed that by the time Kibanzanga withdrew the case, he (Muhindo) had already incurred costs in legal fees. The High court initially awarded costs of Shs 40m to Muhindo for the time and resources spent on preparing his defence.

But Kibanzanga appealed and the figure was revised to Shs 26.6m. Despite the reduction, Kibanzanga, a chief prince in the Rwenzururu kingdom and FDC guru, has never paid.

After his arrest last week, Kibanzanga and his lawyers, led by Richard Bwiruka, reached a consent agreement with the court bailiffs.

Kibanzanga agreed to pay Muhindo Shs 5m every month, until the entire amount is cleared. He also paid the Shs 2m cash for the court bailiff's costs and was released.

Financial Salvation

It's this case which drove Kibanzanga into a meeting with President Museveni for financial salvation.

 When he went to State House, he pleaded with the president to either convince Lt Col Dura Mawa Muhindo to withdraw the case and costs slapped on him, arguing that he was no longer in position to get such kind of money ( amounting to shs 26 million) , since he failed to get elected.

The attentively listening president softlily responded by asking Kibanzanga why he was not defecting to NRM to avoid getting socked in problems.

But Kibanzanga made a mistake by referring to the difficulty of betraying his political roots which are deeply embedded in FDC.

Sevo then told Kibanzanga to organize a rally with the people of the Rwenzururu kingdom and a closed door meeting with the king Wesley Mumbere which he(Kibanzanga) ably organizedat Nyakasanga on Sunday.

Aborted Defection

Kibanzanga was supposed to declare his defection on Sunday but he chickened out at the last moment because he had not touched the cash which was supposed to bail him out of his troubles.

Instead of solving Kibanzanga's financial problems which could have expedited his much awaited defection, the president instead donated four vehicles including two tractors, and double cabin to the Rwenzururu Veterans' Development Association, Give a Goat Foundation, the Rwenzururu queen mother Christine Mukirania and the catholic diocese of Kasese respectively.

Kibanzanga was so disappointed that he withdrew his intentions to defect to NRM.

But he had planned to defect with a group of FDC supporters numbering 700. The defectees s were led by FDC youth leader, Lydia Mbabazi. 

Sensing that his problems were not about to be solved, Kibanzanga has resorted to fundraising to bail himself out.

FDC supporters around Kasese have indeed started a district wide fundraising campaign for the Shs 26m to pay off Muhindo.

It's not clear whether President Museveni will have change of heart and lend a helping hand to Kibanzanga. But that is how close his defection was before it was aborted at the very last moment.

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"War is nothing but a  continuation of political intercourse, with a mixture of other means. Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest."