{UAH} Why Museveni hates Lukwago
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4:04 AM |
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First was Al-hajj Nasser Ntege Sebaggala whose first attempt to unseat President Yoweri Museveni was in 2001.
Having overcome all odds to become the first opposition leader to rule Kampala under Museveni, Sebaggala, undeterred by a one-year jail term in the US, picked nomination papers to run for president.
He was only stopped by lack of the required minimum academic qualification. He then turned a kingmaker and I think politicians like Col Kizza Besigye, Latif Ssebaggala, Nabilah Naggayi, Michael Mabikke, John Ssebaana Kizito and a host of others profited from his rising star.
I hope you still remember the "Hajji alagidde tuwe Besigye obululu" slogan of 2001.
Sebaggala again picked nomination papers in 2006 but withdrew from the race and instead ran for the Kampala mayoral seat. And in 2011, he established a political party and allied with Museveni. John Ssebaana Kizito, himself a creation of the Sebaggala factor, served as Kampala mayor for one and half term and like Sebaggala, made a go at the presidency.
Yes, Ssebaana was created by Sebaggala because it is after the sentencing of Sebaggala in the US that he [Ssebaana] ran for the mayorship. Ssebaana ran for another term of his own thereafter. Going by the practice, I think Museveni feared that Erias Lukwago would seek to unseat him, like his two predecessors did.
And while it was possible to contain both Ssebaana and Sebaggala, Lukwago provided even a more dangerous threat if not to the life president himself, to his future at least. Sebaggala, as we have seen already, lacked the minimum academic qualification and almost worshipped wealth.
Ssebaana, too, worshipped wealth. What resulted, I think, was the most corrupt leadership in the history of Kampala city. He also suffered from exhaustion, having become a mayor at an old age. His threat was an immediate one that was easy to extinguish and besides, he didn't build his own momentum before becoming a mayor.
Lukwago almost presented an instant threat, the reason Museveni tried to stop him during the 2011 elections. To his credit, Lukwago outsmarted Museveni and presented a real danger in the middle of the capital if the state didn't abandon the plan to rob him of his victory.
After overcoming the state machinery and getting sworn in as a mayor, Museveni tried to compromise Lukwago but in vain. He sent two emissaries, including a prominent hajji with Middle East connections, to persuade Lukwago to a meeting, but the lord mayor refused. Lukwago put conditions for this meeting which Museveni accepted but refused to show up.
Museveni then instructed Jennifer Musisi to starve Lukwago of his would-be legitimate resources. That is how the lord mayor, who by law is the head of KCCA, ended up with a salary smaller than the one of executive director, directors and their deputies. Lukwago was put at the same salary like Jennifer Musisi's spokesperson, Peter Kaujju, slightly above Musisi's driver.
Both Sebaggala and Ssebaana had used the resources at KCC to buy loyalty and to build a political empire. Museveni sought that by denying Lukwago resources, his growth as a potential presidential candidate would be extinguished.
Again to his credit, Lukwago is not a primitive accumulator of wealth, something that again bothered Museveni. Part of the reason our job, as MPs, is difficult is because it is almost now compulsory that you must issue handouts. And I can tell you commercialization of politics contributes a big percentage to the growth of corruption in the country.
Even without dishing out handouts to the voters, Lukwago's popularity grew steadily. And all of you know how Museveni likes to patronise popular people to the extent that he offered his chopper to fly Gaetano Kaggwa from Kampala to Soroti to meet him after his exploits, some explicit, on the Big Brother reality show.
If Lukwago was not willing to sell to, or at least share his fame with, Museveni, the war to stop him would begin. And it was not going to be a conventional one but the most primitive one and with potential to produce other causalities. I hope you still remember that a chairperson and a vice of a parliamentary committee locked themselves in a room and forged a report calling for Lukwago's removal.
The chairperson Florence Kintu (Kalungu Woman MP) and Raphael Magyezi (Igara West) now almost face disciplinary action because a report calling Parliament to interest itself in their motive has been adopted.
People; friends and foes have all attempted to blame or volunteer suggestions on how Lukwago should have avoided a collision with Museveni.
Avoiding this collision means abandoning the real reason Lukwago stood for mayor and that is stopping the looting going on. It is better for Lukwago to fall victim than joining the axis of evil like some of you have suggested.
For us, that is the principle that made us abandon our careers to join politics. If Lukwago wanted to be a vice-president, I think Museveni would have offered it on condition that he sells his soul. That is why removal of Museveni is our ultimate goal, no matter the risks.semugs@yahoo.com
The author is Kyadondo East MP.
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"When a man is stung by a bee, he doesn't set off to destroy all beehives"
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