{UAH} Mbabazi, Museveni campaign gets dirty

Mbabazi, Museveni campaign gets dirty

Written by Joseph Kimbowa

 Last Updated: 29 June 2015

 

President Museveni and Amama Mbabazi

Even before the 2016 election campaigns officially get underway, the power struggle between Yoweri Museveni and Amama Mbabazi seems to be getting dirtier by the day, with social media driving the dirt. Rival camps seem bent on tainting their opponents, in the hope that this will result into fewer votes with the latter's names ticked.

On June 24, one Justus Mugisha posted: #BirdsOfTheSameFeathers: Alipanga, Mbabazi's right- hand man, was dismissed from Gulu University because of embezzling funds."

He accompanied the post with a letter signed by University Secretary V Okoth-Ogola. Whether this letter was authentic or not was not the big question, but the timing. Alipanga was last week unveiled as the official spokesperson for the Mbabazi team, after the latter's declaration to stand for president.

Surprisingly, the Gulu letter, where Alipanga is accused of breaching sections of the university's terms and conditions of service, is dated October 25, 2010. One wonders why the interest in this letter comes five years later.

Whether by coincidence or in response, the Mbabazi team attacked Denis Namara, NRM national youth chairman, who on June 23 asked security agencies to investigate the source of Mbabazi's money.

Part of a post shared by Becky Juna.T read: "…the poor youth have hit back at Namara and asked [him] to account for the money he has received as senior presidential advisor on youth affairs and to show where he has got money to put up such an expensive structure."

The post is accompanied by a picture of a three-storey house under construction with a man supposed to be Namara in the foreground.

Other posts involve the minister for the presidency, Frank Tumwebaze, allegedly being asked to explain himself after appearing in a picture with Mbabazi. When and where it was taken is not yet clear; but according to the one who posted it, the mere fact that they were together warrants an explanation! Never mind that until recently they served the same government.

LONG STORY

Many agree that the ensuing posts are being used in bad faith. But how did we reach here? At the end of May, President Museveni wrote a newspaper opinion in which he condemned social media users for using the platform (WhatsApp) to circulate sectarian messages.

"Those foolish people in the WhatsApp audio are using technology to speak nonsense. Government and God will help them reap what they sowed. No one is allowed to trample on other people's rights," Museveni said, before ordering the arrest of the authors and participants in this clip.

Before the dust could settle, former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi finally declared his intention to stand for NRM chairman and Ugandan president. The tech-savvy Kinkiizi West MP did this using a YouTube clip. This revelation stirred mixed reactions, forcing the president to record an immediate response on the same day. In this same response, Museveni talked of a forged letter that he supposedly wrote to the late Muammar Gaddafi of Libya on January, 25, 2010. 

In that letter, Museveni allegedly denigrated some of his comrades and showed a sectarian attitude towards the Bakiga. But Museveni denied ever writing this letter and related it to the earlier sectarian WhatsApp audio, which he said he had been informed it was related to Mbabazi's supporters.

What came out of the subsequent meeting between the president and his former premier may not be fully known, but what is clear is that sypathisers of both camps are not resting.

END-TO-END

One such busy individual is Tom Voltaire Okwalinga, the enigmatic social media critic the government has been hunting for posting sensitive state information. On June 24, Okwalinga, best known as TVO, posted: "What is the mother's "something" that Museveni is talking about in this video clip??"

The clip was actually picked from President Museveni's speech to the media last year before signing the controversial Anti-Homosexuality Bill into law. In a statement that was probably targeted at the West, Museveni said: "…until you tell him that you go and eat your mother's something something." Why this was resurrected by Okwalinga is the bigger question than the president's moral standing.

In the meantime, NRM loyalists are concentrating on portraying Mbabazi as a former part of the "tired" system, referring to him as a cunning man whose word cannot be trusted.

For instance, one audio clip was last week shared by Sarah Kagingo where Mbabazi, at Kyankwanzi, said he would not stand against President Museveni and that Ugandans would be mistaken to "let go" of a good president. The resultant comments to this post castigated Mbabazi for either being a stooge or power-hungry.

But those calling for change insist that in any poorly-performing team, it is the manager – not players – that faces the sack. And one Francis Mwijukye on June 24 posted this in response to those citing Mbabazi in corruption scandals: "Rt Hon Amama Mbabazi sold his land at Temangalo to NSSF, he took the money and NSSF took the land, some politicians say this is corruption;

1.Who sold UBC land at Nakasero to Aya brothers and where is the money?

2. Who sold CMI headquarters along Kitante road to Sudhir and where is the money?

3. Who sold Butabika hospital land to Mukwano and where is the money? 4.Who sold Shimoni Demostration School to non-existent Arab investors and where is the money?

5. Who sold UBC land located at Bugolobi and where is the money? 6. Who sold Uganda Airlines and where is the money?

7. Who sold Uganda Dairy Corporation at $1?. Just asking?"

Some of Mwijukye's ilk even ridiculed the new special media assistant in the office of the NRM national chairman.  Pictures of Don Wanyama sipping on a bottle of alcohol were shared early this week insinuating that the gentleman was drinking to his recent appointment. But Don's friends know that this picture was taken a few years ago, long before Wanyama was hired by the NRM chairman.

Incumbents usually use police to harass, arrest, and issue unending citations to opponents and their supporters. But it seems a good part of the 2016 battle will be fought on modern technology platforms rather than on the streets. Yet if you are Mbabazi's supporter and you brag that your man "has 3D against NRM's 1D" technology, those in the opposite camp will say that your man's "seasoned pride" will be sorted by "Kayihura's tear gas". 

kimbowa@observer.ug

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