{UAH} NRM power struggle: Tanga Odoi, Lumumba don't see eye-to-eye
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NRM power struggle: Tanga Odoi, Lumumba don't see eye-to-eye
Written by Sadab Kitatta Kaaya
NRM secretary general Kasule Lumumba and her deputy Richard Todwong Tanga Odoi: "The law is very clear, the SG cannot appoint election officials."
Rogers Mulindwa: "That is insubordination; there is nobody in the secretariat no matter the position they hold who is above the SG."
At the NRM secretariat, management of the party's purse, district registrars and the electoral process ahead of the September primaries are widening the conflict between Secretary General Justine Kasule Lumumba and Tanga Odoi, the party's electoral commission chairman.
Their fight spilled into public view and the media last week when Odoi accused Lumumba of illegally issuing appointment letters to some 200 registrars. The appointments, Odoi said, were illegal and he advised the registrars to return the letters to Lumumba. Odoi has since appointed another set of district and sub-county registrars, who he said will oversee the party's internal elections.
"I appointed new ones who will be in charge of the elections," Odoi told The Observer on August 26.
Odoi draws his mandate from Article 39 of the NRM constitution and is accountable to the Central Executive Committee (CEC), the second-highest party organ, and not the secretary general. Clause 11 of the same article gives him powers to choose people to work with. According to Odoi, the Lumumba-appointed registrars will only register NRM members.
"Their duty is to register people; let them register and leave the elections to us," Odoi said.
"The law is very clear, the SG cannot appoint election officials; the results can be challenged if the elections are overseen by a person not delegated by the commission," he added.
Rogers Mulindwa, the media and communications officer at the NRM secretariat, said on Tuesday that Odoi's actions amount to insubordination.
"Other than finding the registrars on the streets and telling them that the letters from the SG were invalid, he should have contacted her and got the issue sorted," Mulindwa said.
"That is insubordination; there is nobody in the secretariat no matter the position they hold who is above the SG," Mulindwa added.
He said party leaders should not confuse Lumumba's supervisory role for interference.
"The SG doesn't in any way interfere with any departmental work but plays her constitutional supervisory role as the head of the secretariat. This implies that all departments and commissions within the party must execute their roles within her knowledge," he said.
Asked about accountability issues, Mulindwa said the party's national treasurer (Rose Namayanja) is ready to account.
"There is nothing we are doing behind curtains; those complaining should write directly to [Namayanja] or [Lumumba] for the accountability," Mulindwa said.
SOURCE OF FRICTION
Attempting to explain the friction, a knowledgeable source pointed out that both Odoi and Lumumba are egotistic individuals.
"For example, Odoi will not conclude a speech without talking about his PhD while Lumumba will remind everyone that she is number five in the national hierarchy," the source, a senior NRM official, said.
Odoi last week told journalists that his continued reference to his PhD is to avoid anyone confusing him for a medical professional. The Observer has also learnt that these differences prompted the relocation of Odoi's electoral commission from the plot 10 Kyadondo road party headquarters to plot 13 on the same street.
We have been told that in one of the CEC meetings held in early July, Odoi was forced to apologise to the party leadership for allegedly being arrogant and abusive. During the same meeting, he was also blamed for altering electoral guidelines to include fines of up to Shs 10m without the CEC's approval.
Asked about this recently, Odoi described our narrative as "mere conspiracy theories."
NRM deputy spokesman Ofwono Opondo said in an August 28 interview that the reason why the previous two primary elections were not transparent is because the former organizers led by Dr Ruhakana Rugunda "allowed functionaries of the secretariat to meddle in the process."
Since Lumumba and her team are MPs, Opondo alleged, she wants to shield her colleagues from defeat in the primaries.
"Did you hear her at Kati Kati [on August 13 during a meeting of NRM leaders] criticizing the [NRM] EC for being hard on MPs? I think it's prudent that the EC becomes a little independent," Opondo said.
ACCOUNTABILITY
The meeting at Kati Kati was called to brief NRM district leaders about the intra-party elections. Some at the NRM EC feel that since the meeting was about the electoral process, it should have been convened and managed by the party's electoral body. Apart from Odoi's deputy, John Arimpa Kigyagi, no other NRM EC official attended.
sadabkk@observer.ug
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Twakowa
So Mr. Mulindwa is the SG above the constitution of NRM as well?
If your NRM rules give Mr. Odoi the responsibility of appointing and thus accounting to the CEC for his actions and work, why are you not mentioning those relevant facts to your SG instead?
And then they start eating each other's children . Between the scuffle he runs away with the all loot.
2.Was Mr Odoi made aware of the Registrars' appointments officially? Be careful; it doesn't sound so.
Therefore my we should not mislead people by calling Suppression Insubordination .
Don't joke with number 1 though