{UAH} Attention! MONITOR TACKLES MBABAZI AS IMAGE ICON

The making of ex-premier Amama Mbabazi's image

This is the story of how Amama Mbabazi, the controversial heavyweight
of the NRM and a figure resented within his own party, came out
redeemed by his conduct and by the intrigues masterminded against him
by State House and won over sceptics in the Ugandan public.
Over the years since 1986, Ugandans have got used to the braggarts
that the NRM's and the army's generals can be.

Brig Kasirye Ggwanga speaks like a cowboy. Presidential press
secretary Tamale Mirundi openly and on radio, scorns the Buganda
government and establishment.

Maj Gen Kahinda Otafiire speaks publicly about "maavi ya kuku"
(chicken dung) and threatens to "cause trouble" after President
Museveni reshuffles him from one Cabinet position to another, Gen
David Sejusa, formerly known as Tinyefuza, is also another such
cantankerous officer.

Appearing before the Justice Ogoola panel probing the embezzlement of
GAVI and Global Fund money, Brig Jim Muhwezi asks where the Judge was
when they, the NRA, were fighting.

President Museveni, at Kololo Independence Grounds during the 1993
Independence Day celebrations, alludes to his predecessors as having
been unworthy leaders whom he equates with "swine" and many times
since 1986 warns that whoever attempts a military coup will be put
"six feet under".

"We shall finish you!", "We shall crush you!", "we shall destroy
you!". That is the public language from the President and his senior
political and military leaders that Ugandans are now used to.

This is what the NRM/NRA leadership has been about, educated men but
who in public speak like school boy bullies and ruffians.

During his second administration, President Milton Obote also used
that kind of language when referring to the NRA rebels, as "bandits"
and "We shall follow them to the bush and finish them there".

Oddly, presidents Idi Amin and Yusufu Lule never used to speak that
way in public. Even when guerrillas loyal to the ousted president
Obote or to the young FRONASA guerrilla Yoweri Museveni were arrested,
Amin never used threatening language on them or on Obote and Museveni.

The State Research Bureau intelligence reports on the anti-Amin
guerrillas were all written in formal, courteous language. Prof Lule,
in his brief tenure as president, also spoke courteously in public.

Given this background to the NRM, many assumed that the sacking of the
Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi would trigger a similar reaction.
Mbabazi, after all, is reputed to be one of the most arrogant men in
the NRM government, an image held by his party and government
colleagues.

This might partly explain the jubilation that greeted his dismissal
and the reason that welcome rally in late September was organised in
Entebbe to greet the President on his return from the United States.

Since February when the NRM Parliamentary Caucus met at the National
Leadership Institute at Kyankwanzi, and largely turned into a snap
vote against Mbabazi and in favour of Museveni, the party and the
public have been waiting to see what Mbabazi's reaction would be.

One pro-Museveni vote

Mbabazi added his name to the 200 or so votes to have Museveni as the
NRM's sole candidate in the 2016 general election, much to the relief
of the cheering MPs. The next day's Sunday Monitor and Sunday Vision
headlines were not about the 200 pro-Museveni votes but the one
pro-Museveni vote by Mbabazi.

On March 3 and 4 at State House Entebbe, there were two further
meetings at which Mbabazi this time was directly attacked and insulted
by young NRM legislators, to the extent that the President had to
intervene and warn the MPs not to use that kind of language on
Mbabazi.

For much of the year, news came in and out about Mbabazi's
behind-the-scenes moves and the fact or the rumour that he was
carrying on preparations for a 2016 presidential bid, while at the
same time publicly denying any such intentions.

On September 18 came the announcement that many had been waiting for
and for which most had felt it was only just a matter of time. Mbabazi
was dropped as Prime Minister in what appeared to be a Cabinet
reshuffle but which much of the public noted only affected one man.
This time, this was really it. President Museveni had dragged his feet
over Mbabazi's reported subversion within the NRM and his creation of
an alternative power structure loyal to him.

A rumour in March after the second State House meeting that Mbabazi
had been replaced as NRM secretary-general by Richard Todwong was
refuted two days later in a written statement by the President.

But now Mbabazi had been fired and there was no going back on that.
The Kampala news circuit and rumour mill was set ablaze by this news.
The question on everyone's mind and lips was what this
"super-minister" would do next.

Would he shout from the rooftops about being witch-hunted? Would he
erupt and threaten to "cause trouble" as had done Otafiire? Would he
immediately resign from the NRM and join the Opposition?
Would he come clean and announce the presidential bid most people seem
convinced he has in plan?
Mbabazi had remained composed all through the period from Kyankwanzi
in February until September. Would he remain so even after this
dismissal?
He did not immediately react. When he did, it was in a carefully
written statement thanking President Museveni for the privilege given
him to serve his country and congratulating his nominated successor,
Dr Ruhakana Rugunda and wishing him well.
When it came to the nomination in Parliament of Dr Rugunda, not only
did Mbabazi remain gracious but went ahead to heap praises on the new
Prime Minister, as well as fondly recall their early years in the
anti-Amin guerrilla campaign when faced with danger and push having
come to shove, Mbabazi and Rugunda's other colleagues in FRONASA had
to shave off Rugunda's scruffy beard to help disguise his identity.
The dropping of a high-profile political leader from his or her office
or the loss in an election, be it in the government or the Opposition,
has in recent years been met with bitterness and grumbling.
Opposition party FDC has still not fully healed from the fallout from
the race for the presidency between Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu and Nandala
Mafabi.
Similar festering resentment remains at the heart of tensions in the
UPC after Olara Otunnu defeated Jimmy Akena for the party's
presidency. The wounds in the DP have only recently started healing
after the damaging power struggle in 2010 for the party's presidency.
Even Mbabazi's own wife Jacqueline after Kyankwanzi showed traces of
that roughneck NRM way of expressing themselves in public.

And here was Amama Mbabazi, the man in the NRM most associated with
intrigue, backstabbing and dirty tricks, acting in public as the
gracious one, the loyal party cadre, the one who hands over power
without so much as a murmur.
Later, the army moved into the Mbabazi home at Kololo to replace his
military guards with police escorts. The cocking of guns at the home
by some of the soldiers and the gung-ho way it was staged for the
media suggested that it was more than just a literal changing of the
guard; it was a show of force and an act of humiliation.
Still, Mbabazi did not react or complain.

Perfectly at home

Mbabazi is one of the very few not only with that civil service,
technocratic desk-bound work ethic, but one of the few of his
generation who is as perfectly at home in the new environment of
fast-changing digital technology and social platforms like Twitter as
a 20-year-old.
But now, even President Museveni has been surprised by all this
reaction from Mbabazi. Museveni and Mbabazi are made of the same
political and intelligence material and come from that same
background.
They will smile on the outside but undercut you behind your back. In
his 1997 book, Sowing the Mustard Seed, a tone of bitterness toward
those who betrayed him can be detected in Museveni.
During the memorial service for Maj Gen James Kazini at All Saints
Cathedral in Nakasero, President Museveni spoke with the same view
toward those he felt or feels betray him, saying something to the
effect that some within his government, unlike Kazini, are two-faced.
Ironically Museveni, whose political career has been little else but
betrayal of allies or breaching of treaties and peace accords signed,
is exceptionally sensitive to betrayal.
That is why, according to sources familiar with the Museveni and
Mbabazi camps, Museveni was and remains puzzled and to a degree,
impressed by Mbabazi's conduct since his dismissal.

According to a source, the President and Mbabazi met or were scheduled
to have met on Thursday Oct 3 for a man-to-man talk. If they met, none
of what they discussed has been made public.
Since then, though, there has been a noticeable toning down of attacks
of Mbabazi from State House aides and presidential advisers.
The journalist Andrew Mwenda is fond of saying Museveni became Kizza
Besigye's chief campaign manager in late 2005 by the way he constantly
humiliated the former army colonel, had him tried in two separate
courts at the same time and by that, earned Besigye nationwide
sympathy.
In 2014, the President has by and large made the Mbabazi presidency,
or has created the circumstances that have made plausible the Mbabazi
presidency.
The heckling of Mbabazi at Kyankwanzi and at State House, the turning
of the other cheek even when his supporters and political operatives
were being arrested by the police and his home more or less raided by
the army and his unexpected graciousness after he was sacked, have
brought out the best in Mbabazi.
They have erased overnight memories such as the NSSF Temangalo scandal
in which his name was back and front, and Mbabazi has come out looking
every inch a diplomat and presidential material.
If all this is just a gimmick by Mbabazi to look good and dignified
and by that win over the Ugandan public, then he is an even more
formidable political operative than had been believed.
It suggests that he has studied Museveni, studied how Museveni's
cantankerous response to those who challenge him for the presidency
end up making heroes of them, Besigye being the prime example, and so
Mbabazi has understood that the best way to make political capital out
of a challenge to Museveni is to act with grace and class and make
Museveni look uncouth and petty.
If this is the gracious Mbabazi Ugandans did not know, they have been
given a new reason to put faith in their political leaders. If this,
on the other hand, is a cunning Mbabazi perfectly playing all the
cards right in a public relations game, then the pro-Museveni camp of
the NRM has much to be worried about ahead of the 2016 general
election.

Still crucial player in the NRM

On Monday October 6, a ceremony for the handover of office from
Mbabazi to Rugunda took place at the Office of the Prime Minister in
Kampala.
There was no trace of bitterness in Mbabazi's voice or body language.
As he had done in Parliament, he cordially welcomed Rugunda to the new
office and showed him his new desk.
During his address to Rugunda, ministers of state in the Office of the
Prime Minister, the civil service staff of the ministry and
journalists, Mbabazi praised Rugunda, told him that he was always
available to brief him and offer advice on some processes that were
still underway at the time he was dismissed which might require some
background information.
Mbabazi said he had been working on a "colossal" handover report
which, he warned Rugunda, would take a lot of reading to get through.
Rugunda praised Mbabazi for having been the person who pushed for the
creation of a system by which all government departments and
ministries were linked by computer and the Internet in order to ease
the working of the government.
This remark by Rugunda was a reminder of why even while resented by
many of his colleagues, Mbabazi remains a crucial player in the NRM.

editorial@ug.nationmedia.com


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"TRY TO GROW UP!" "WHEN THE PRESIDENT SAYS 'ORDERS FROM ABOVE' HE
MEANS ME" "EVERY BULLET THAT MISSES A SOLDIER CATCHES A CIVILIAN"
"WHATEVER DONE, WHATEVER NOT, DONE LIKE MBARBERZEE" "OKWANGALI IS A
NINCOMPOOP!" "TRIBALISM IS NOT DONE, IT'S STATED!"

MEMBER OF THE VISIONARIES CLUB, THIRD AXIS

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