{UAH} Kayihura moves to stop Mbabazi-the dictator is deploying his cadre.mbu he is not

panicking

Last Updated: 24 June 2015

Clash date: Kale Kayihura talking to Amama Mbabazi earlier

• Police chief says consultations will not go ahead without police consent

To police chief Kale Kayihura, the Electoral Commission's clearance of former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi's upcoming countrywide consultative meetings was a wrong decision.

At a meeting he convened at the police headquarters in Naguru on Monday, June 22, Maj Gen Kayihura told Freddie Ruhindi (attorney general), Joseph Biribonwa (vice chairman, Electoral Commission) and NRM Electoral Commission head Dr Tanga Odoi that his men may break up the soon-to-begin meetings.

Without a formal request for permission from Mbabazi, Kayihura said, the police will invoke the Public Order Management Act (POMA) to stop the former NRM secretary general's upcountry tour that kicks off on July 9 at Mt Elgon hotel in Mbale.

The controversial POMA empowers the Inspector General of Police to regulate the conduct of public meetings, assemblies, processions and demonstrations. Chairing the meeting, Kayihura is understood to have asked Ruhindi and Biribonwa why they had cleared Mbabazi for the countrywide political mobilization that could "disorganize" the status quo.

Last week, Ruhindi told journalists at parliament that as a presidential aspirant, Mbabazi is within the law to carry out consultations with his supporters. Ruhindi's remarks came a day after the Electoral Commission had given similar interpretation of the law.

Responding to Mbabazi's June 16 letter, in which the former Prime Minister invoked the Presidential Elections Act 2005 to support his planned consultation meetings, EC Chairman Dr Badru Kiggundu gave Mbabazi the green light but also cautioned him against rallies and distributing campaign materials.

Kiggundu's letter was copied to Ruhindi and Kayihura. According to a source familiar with what transpired in the meeting at Naguru, Kayihura reminded both Ruhindi and the EC vice chairman that they work for the state and should, therefore, protect its interests.

He also urged the EC to find a way of rescinding its clearance of the Kinkiizi West MP's meetings, which he said was a mistake. Kayihura reportedly said that once Mbabazi embarks on his consultations, there is a big likelihood that he will turn the electorate against the president.

STOP HIM

In a bid to stop the consultation process, Kayihura suggested that the EC writes again to Mbabazi, advising him to follow the guidelines of his party, NRM.

But Biribonwa reportedly told Kayihura that, legally, the electoral body can't stop Mbabazi because his activities are protected by the law.

On his part, Ruhindi reportedly told Kayihura that he was not an attorney general for the ruling party, but for the government, and that it was up to the government to take his legal advice.

"I said what I said because that is what the law says," Ruhindi told the meeting, according to our source.

When asked to comment on the meeting and what he said therein yesterday, Ruhindi said: "Which meeting are you talking about?"

Told about the venue and other details, Ruhindi replied: "I know you are tapping me, but I want to tell you that go to the person who told you about that meeting to give you all the information you want to get."

On his part, NRM's Electoral Commission chairman Dr Tanga Odoi confirmed attending the meeting. He said the meeting was called to clarify some issues about the NRM electoral roadmap.

"We have had several meetings about several things and that particular meeting was called to clarify certain issues about our internal elections," Odoi said.

Prodded further, Odoi added: "The IGP and EC wanted to hear from us (NRM) whether we have set out our program for the selection of a flag bearer and the answer was no."

Odoi further revealed that the ruling party was concerned that Mbabazi had claimed he is unopposed as NRM presidential flag bearer. "The NRM EC has not [issued] guidelines for the selection of a flag bearer; he can't be the flag bearer because we haven't organized any election," Odoi said.

During a BBC interview last Friday, Mbabazi said he was unopposed so far, since no one else had shown interest in leading the ruling party into the 2016 presidential elections. By making that claim, Odoi said, the former NRM secretary general acted illegally.

"In fact, a meeting is going on right now to draw guidelines for the selection of the flag bearers," he said.

EC's Biribonwa could not be reached for a comment yesterday. He was reportedly out of office attending another meeting most of the day. His boss, EC chairman Badru Kiggundu, told The Observer that Biribonwa had more valuable information about the meeting.

"I think you will have to wait until he comes back because he is the one with more substantive information," Kiggundu said.

LUMUMBA WRITES

Meanwhile, the ruling party yesterday unveiled a June 20 letter that Justin Kasule Lumumba, the secretary general, wrote to the Electoral Commission underlining that Mbabazi is not a "presidential aspirant sponsored by the NRM political organisation within the meaning of the NRM constitution and the law."

Lumumba added that Mbabazi's notice to the national Electoral Commission that he intends to contest for president as an NRM flag bearer is not only speculative but also illegal.

"Hon Amama Mbabazi's aspirations as an aspiring candidate for president for the 2016 general elections have not been endorsed by NRM and, therefore, illegal...

Mbabazi has no locus standi to hold public meetings as a prospective presidential flag bearer of the NRM political organisation and/or presidential aspirant under the PEA," Lumumba wrote.

The NRM letter, alongside Kayihura's consultations with the attorney general and EC, are believed to be part of the unfolding scheme to block Mbabazi's consultation process.

Reacting to the meeting convened by Kayihura, Mbabazi's team questioned the IGP's interest in NRM's internal matters. Ronald Tumwine Ssekitooleko, the Busiro East NRM chairman and a member of Mbabazi's national coordination office, urged Kayihura to stop acting like an agent of President Museveni.

"Kayihura chaired that meeting not as an IGP but as an agent of Museveni who is scared of [Mbabazi's] candidature," Tumwine said.

"If they are moving to stop Mbabazi, we are also waiting to see them stopping Museveni and his people; the likes of [Evelyn] Anite who even used her ministry's letterhead on partisan NRM matters," Tumwine said.

Kayihura could not be reached for a comment. His personal assistant told us the police chief was locked up in a meeting at the ministry of Internal Affairs.

But police spokesman Fred Enanga said the "meeting was called in response to a request by the attorney general to ascertain whether Mbabazi, in his request to conduct public meetings, had satisfied the provisions of the Presidential Elections Act."

He said Mbabazi, who wasn't in the meeting, needed to clarify whether he is a candidate of a political party or not.

Kayihura is not new to the Mbabazi–Museveni power struggle that culminated in the former prime minister declaring he will run for president on Monday last week.

In April last year, The Observer published a news story about leaked spy tapes in which Kayihura was extracting confessions about Mbabazi's alleged anti-Museveni political activities from some youths.

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