{UAH} Pojim/WBK: Drama as Mbabazi wife, Museveni guards clash
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Drama as Mbabazi wife, Museveni guards clash
Written by OBSERVER TEAM
Drama ensued at Imperial Royale hotel yesterday, when Mrs Jacqueline Mbabazi was blocked from attending a meeting of the NRM Women's League.
The wife to former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi was eventually allowed in and sat next to President Museveni; but that was only after a long standoff with the presidential guards.
The incident brought to light how quickly Uganda's political tide changes. A few years ago, Jacqueline was seen as the powerful but quiet wife to Amama, who was President Museveni's presumed heir-apparent. But Museveni has since sacked Mbabazi from cabinet and had him removed as secretary of the ruling party.
With Amama saying very little, Jaqueline has become a most outspoken frontline soldier in the Mbabazi-Museveni power struggle. Yesterday she came up against the Special Forces Command (SFC). Jacqueline, the chairperson of the league, arrived at the hotel at about 10am. Just when she was about to open the door to the conference hall, soldiers took her aside.
One of them told her that her name was not on the guests' list. Sources said the meeting, attended by President Museveni as chief guest, was organised by Susan Muhwezi, wife to Maj Gen Jim Muhwezi and Aisha Kabanda, the resident city commissioner for Kampala.
We have been told that Jacqueline only got wind of the meeting a few days ago and wondered how people could organise a meeting in the name of the NRM Women's League without her knowledge.
It is understood that yesterday, she told soldiers she would not go anywhere but inside. As the drama unfolded outside the conference hall, it caught the eye of journalists who rushed to capture the exchange. As Jacqueline turned to journalists to explain her case, SFC soldiers intervened. They shepherded the journalists away and briefly detained them in one of the rooms at the hotel.
One SFC soldier ordered a TV journalist who had filmed part of the exchange to delete the footage.
"Who gave you clearance to talk to her?" the officer reportedly asked the journalists.
But Jacqueline was not done yet. He attacked the officers for trying to block journalists from doing their work.
She said: "Why are you harassing the journalists? They are doing their work."
One soldier replied: "Madam Jackie, we are not here to protect you, we are here to protect the president."
At that point Jacqueline threatened to alert more people about her predicament, forcing the SFC to leave her.
"If someone wants to remove me [as NRM Women League chairperson], they should first bring those who voted me [in] to vote me out," she said.
ALLOWED IN
Towards 1pm and shortly before President Museveni arrived, Jacqueline was allowed to enter the conference hall. She was led to sit at the back of the hall but when Museveni came in, he insisted that she joins him at the high table.
At this point, some journalists were called in to photograph the dignitaries, who included Jacqueline and Museveni side by side. Journalists from some media houses, including The Observer, were locked out of the meeting. During the meeting, we have learnt, Jacqueline was not given a chance to speak.
Susan Muhwezi, the vice chairperson of the Women's League (western Uganda) spoke on behalf of the league. Maj Chris Magezi, the SFC spokesperson, denied yesterday that SFC had stopped Jacqueline from attending the meeting, accusing her of trying to stir a storm in a tea cup.
"Nobody stopped her. As SFC, there are certain security procedures we are supposed to follow at functions where the president is expected. One of them is to scrutinize the list of people invited for the function. So, when someone tried to check whether her name was on the list, she sulked because she expected the officer to know her and [she] went to the media. Later when we cleared her, she entered the meeting," he said.
Hope Mwesigye, a sister to Jacqueline, told The Observer yesterday that what happened was deplorable.
"She is the leader of the women's league. That is a fact. Where is this country headed?" she wondered.
The Jacqueline-SFC debacle at Imperial Royale caps a memorable but unforgettable week for the "Mbabazi camp."
On Monday, the police arrested youths sympathetic to Mbabazi who were demonstrating outside the US embassy in Kampala over the country's harsh economic conditions.
Jacqueline and her sister Hope have been outspoken against what they view as the harsh treatment of Mbabazi since the NRM MPs passed a resolution declaring Museveni as the party's sole candidate for the 2016 elections, locking out any other perceived candidate (like Mbabazi).
During a stormy NRM Central Executive Committee meeting at State lodge Nakasero in October last year, Jacqueline wondered whether it was a crime for any person to harbour presidential ambitions within the NRM other than Museveni.
newseditor@observer.ug
Reported by SADAB KITATTA, EDRIS KIGGUNDU & ALEX NSUBUGA.
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Comments
As for Susan Muhwezi and her hubby Jim, greater leeches than these, Uganda has not encountered except in the person of M7& his family.
Then M7 leads her by the hand. That symbolism is not lost on M7, the liar rattlesnake. He brings you close so he can strike deeper and better.
Well, just really impressed Jackie. I wish we had a few more of you... I remember with nostalgia the women who led the censure of Muhwezi and Kuteesa. Their kind is a dying breed but Jackie, you've given me hope.
Although there are lessons to draw from this - that the Mbabazi's are still quite influential within the circles of NRM, there is also evidence that the NRM does not respect structures and systems in place even within their own party.
Big shame for a ruling system that has been in leadership for close to 3 decades.
People are persecuted, tortured, harassed and killed simply because they are challenging M7 for the presidency. Isn't it Mbabazi who has been on the forefront in designing the system which has caught up with them?
It's he the one who said that Besigye should shouldn't jump the line? Apparently, there is a line of those who should be presidents, and he feels that he is one of them. When he discovered that his number (just like others) was not going to be called, then he fell out with M7.
Now the Mbabazis are testing the medicine his mixed. That is what I call cutting the branch one is sitting on. Mbabazi has been cutting the branch that they are sitting on, knowing fully well the outcome of it, but because of greed, he didn't care.
I believe that it is his daughter who woke him up when she once said that when change comes it is them (the kids) who will pay for the wrongs that M7's govt has done to the country.
I can imagine that, given the secterian / ethnic nature of things, such small clashes between sectors of a personal army (the CFE) within our army (the UPDF) could such in the UPFF itself and create a bigger problem for us all.
IF YOU DON'T NEED MRS MBABAZI IN THE WOMEN'S LEAGUE, JUST REMOVE HER OFFICIALLY WITH VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE. YOU DON'T SHOW THE WHOLE WORLD THAT YOU ARE AS PRIMITIVE AS YOU CAME OUT OF THE BUSH.
as for the SFC, they did what they are paid to do, to be as alert as a dog in protecting its master.
She is not only a stranger to the NRM Women's League, but also a threat a danger to it and M7! Wow!
Some of us have been saying that Amin and Obote's days have never left us. We are still in those days where it was a crime to think about challenging the president. You were treated as a criminal and a threat and danger to the govt. T
hanks to JPAM (Jonhn Patrick Amama Mbabazi). He is the designer of all that. Mbabazi, remember that Public Order Bill you designed? It is now biting you in the a...
I think she is able to represent Uganda.
Mbu Special Forces! Gasiya!!
Where do you think that would lead the country??
Newvision captures a photo which depicts the President as the "gentleman" who saves Jackie from rude guards.
Jackie , who recently said that " Museveni will die of stress" is tactically caught up in an embarrassing photo situation Some will say that this is one of President`s overused manipulative tactics, where he allows his staff to abuse, insult and harrass , only for him to step forward and play saviour.
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