{UAH} Pojim/WBK: Aha, so it turns out NRM does fear Mbabazi after all - Comment
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Aha, so it turns out NRM does fear Mbabazi after all
On June 15, when former prime minister John Patrick Amama Mbabazi of Uganda finally declared his intention to contest for the position of president of his party — the ruling National Resistance Movement — and subsequently of the country, several government and party officials sought to minimise the importance of his announcement and queried his ambitions.
Some made a show of dismissing him and his razor-sharp articulation of where he feels the Museveni government in which he once served has fallen short and, if elected, what he proposes to do to fix what he reckons has broken.
Party operative after another poured cold water on his dissection of the government's failures and weaknesses by, among other stratagems, emphasising that given he had only recently left the government, he was just as guilty of doing nothing to correct the mistakes or offer solutions as was everyone else in the party and the government.
They quickly rallied around their party chairman and former Mbabazi patron, President Yoweri Museveni, to shield him against accusations that he is solely responsible and, as a consequence, should step aside and make way for new leadership.
Well, the truth is now plain for all to see. The brave faces were masking something: The NRM and its elements are actually not as unafraid of Mbabazi as they have been claiming to be. Initially, signs that he had rattled the party, its leadership and supporters, were somewhat subtle.
When he learnt of Mbabazi's announcement, Museveni castigated him for indiscipline, apparently because he was not acting according to established practice and tradition within the NRM.
Soon enough, however, the police, criticised by some for alleged political partisanship that this time seemed to be on open display, were reported dragging Mbabazi's supporters off the street and some out of their vehicles, into police cells or magistrates' courts.
Their crime, apparently, was to have engaged in "unauthorised political activity," in this case holding "illegal" assemblies and "prematurely" pinning up an aspirant's campaign posters onto trees, electricity poles, and whatever other space they could find.
It was reportedly feared that their conduct might disrupt public order.
Not known to be outwardly demonstrative of whatever emotions he may be feeling, Mbabazi looked as if he weren't moved. He proceeded with preparations to conduct a series of consultations in well-chosen areas of the country, including firing off letters to the electoral commission for their information.
The subtlety has now been thrown to the winds. Some party faithful, for now still limited to youth who usually do these sorts of things in return for some kind of compensation, have been agitating for Mbabazi's expulsion from the NRM. This would effectively lock him out of the internal primaries that, if he were to defeat Museveni, would propel him to presidential flag bearer.
More significantly, now the NRM has officially written to the electoral commission to disown Mbabazi, and to the police to notify them of the "illegality" of the consultations he wishes to carry out.
Not known for hesitating when it comes to political "crimes" by people they have reason to want to compel to obey the law, the police have requested Mbabazi not to go ahead with the consultations until he has harmonised his ambitions with how the NRM would like him to behave if he were to run under the party's banner.
Like his former boss, Museveni, Mbabazi is no shrinking violet. He, apparently, has every intention of defying the police. It is worth reflecting on what the police intend to do should he do as he has said he will do: Defy them. Will they teargas and beat him up as has been the case with Museveni's non-NRM rivals? Were it to happen, there will be nothing new about a politician being roughed up by the police.
In Mbabazi, however, they may have a victim like no other they have dealt with in recent times.
During the time he was being humiliated by mainly young and, some say, uncouth and ill-educated party activists prior to being sacked as prime minister and NRM secretary-general, he earned himself the sympathy and respect of many by the way he responded, with disarming coolness.
Now you don't beat a man who neither shouts in protest nor fights back. If you do, you come off as a bully. There could be no better way to market Mbabazi, a man long rumoured to be unpopular within the upper echelons of the NRM but possibly not as much among the party's grassroots, access to which every effort is now being made to block him.
Such is the momentum that perceived bad behaviour by the NRM and its leadership and supporters may give him that even people in and outside it who otherwise might not have considered him worthy of their support could change their minds, if only to punish his tormentors for their bully-boy tactics.
And with the opposition's "grand alliance" probably destined to struggle to identify and agree on a joint candidate in time, Mbabazi could cash in on that too. As political wars go, this one will be well worth watching.
Frederick Golooba-Mutebi is a Kampala- and Kigali-based researcher and writer on politics and public affairs. E-mail: fgmutebi@yahoo.com
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