{UAH} Pojim/WBK: No samosas for the incumbent in spiced-up contests in Kampala, Dar - Comment
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No samosas for the incumbent in spiced-up contests in Kampala, Dar
The campaign party is on both in Tanzania and Uganda but there are no samosas on the menu.
Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni once dismissively said that defeating perennial rival Dr Kizza Besigye was no big deal, as he would just chew him up like a samosa with his afternoon tea. The Besigye samosa almost choked Museveni in 2006 but come 2011, he chewed it with ease.
For some time, there were expectations that Museveni would retire and anoint a successor to run on the ruling NRM ticket in 2016.
Until last year, the anointee was thought to be John Patrick Amama Mbabazi (JPAM) — the prime minister who was sacked recently after only three years in office. Mbabazi was also hounded from the top NRM office of secretary general, dashing his hopes of ever becoming its flag bearer.
Had NRM fronted the aloof JPAM for president, it was the ferocious Besigye who would have chewed him up like a samosa. That would have been the beginning of the end for NRM, a party that depends heavily on the individual who leads it.
So you don't have to ask why Museveni is still running for president; NRM dare not field any candidate other than Museveni as long as Besigye is still around. They won't allow the doctor to have his samosa and eat it too.
In Tanzania, a samosa party almost unfolded recently as the delegates of the ruling CCM met for the conclave that selects the party's flag bearer every 10 years.
Edward Lowassa, a political animal just as ferocious as Besigye, having ultimately proved unacceptable to the topmost party leaders, they almost settled for Foreign Minister Bernard Membe who, like Uganda's JPAM, had been whispered about for years.
But once the CCM-disqualified Lowassa decided to run on an opposition ticket, it became obvious the white-haired Maasai warrior would have swallowed Membe like a particularly tiny cocktail samosa and still remained hungry.
The party elders then decided to bring in a man of rare stature. John Pombe Magufuli (those JPM initials again!) is a man about whom there is not even a whisper of corruption and whose zeal for hard work is legendary. Lowassa is likely to find JPM rather less chewable than Membe.
So CCM and NRM are in the same boat. While NRM-has two thirds of the country's registered voters also registered as its members, it faced the risk of any candidate other than Museveni being mauled by Besigye.
Even the opposition politicians fear Besigye. For Besigye is the only Ugandan besides Museveni who scientific polls have shown needs no introduction as a potential president.
Similarly, in Tanzania, Lowassa is the most recognisable potential president, especially as the incumbent is not running. With such a crisis on CCM's hands, history was forced to repeat itself.
Benjamin William Mkapa, Tanzania's third president, who was brought into the CCM nomination race as a disinterested participant, returned to push a successor for his successor.
He pushed for Magufuli to succeed Jakaya Kikwete the way Mwalimu Nyerere pushed Mkapa to succeed his successor, Ali Hassan Mwinyi. CCM's threat in 1995 was Augustine Mrema. This time it is Edward Lowassa. Easily digestible samosas are in short supply in Kampala and Dar.
Joachim Buwembo is a Knight International Fellow for development journalism. E-mail:buwembo@gmail.com
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