{UAH} The fight for Bakiga :Museveni sets Kigezi team to fight Mbabazi
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Museveni campaigning in Kigezi in 2006To maintain a firm grip on the Kigezi sub-region, home to his two main challengers in next year's general election, President Museveni has named a team of politicians to protect his interests there.
The team, headed by the minister of state for East African Community Affairs, Shem Bageine, has been operating clandestinely for at least two months. But on September 27, former Kinkiizi East MP Dr Hamlet Kabushenga let the cat out of the bag.
He told a meeting of traders at Rovens hotel in Kihiihi town council in Kanungu district, that the president had appointed "eminent independent-minded people who no longer have a stake in local politics to help him identify challenges the voters are facing so that they can be removed before the election next year."
The meeting was convened by Harriet Nakamya, the resident district commissioner (RDC), to find avenues of addressing grievances raised by traders allied to the Kihiihi Traders' Voice Association (KTVA).
Kigezi is home to Dr Kizza Besigye (Rukungiri), the FDC candidate, and Amama Mbabazi (Kanungu), who was until recently the NRM secretary general. According to Kabushenga, Bageine is working with
Manzi Tumubweine, the former minister for privatization, former Rukungiri LC-V chairman Gabriel Kangwagye and minister of state for Regional Cooperation Philemon Mateke.
Kabushenga said the team will traverse the whole of Kigezi sub-region to hear people's grievances and also get reports on several pledges made by the president in the past. The Kigezi sub-region covers Kabale, Rukungiri, Kanungu and Kisoro districts.
INFLUENTIAL
During the meeting, Kabushenga urged traders not to forsake Museveni and NRM. He reminded them of NRM's achievements since it captured power in 1986. He said Bageine's team is out to listen to voters' grievances and find solutions.
Kabushenga expressed fear that due to some unfulfilled promises, some NRM supporters could end up supporting Mbabazi's Go Forward Pro-Change pressure group.
"All of them [Museveni's team in Kigezi] have either been in parliament or served as LC-V chairpersons in the region, and are believed to have a lot of influence [locally]," said an MP from Kigezi who declined to be named on Thursday.
"It is that influence that the president wants to tap into."
Nevertheless, some NRM leaders in Kigezi have threatened to support Mbabazi because they disapprove of the way the NRM grassroots elections were conducted last month.
Some claim the process wasn't transparent while others are angry that they were disqualified over alleged links to Mbabazi. Kabushenga urged patience and promised that the new Museveni team in Kigezi would visit Kanungu within two weeks to sort out the burning issues in the district.
On Thursday, former agriculture minister Hope Mwesigye said the Go Forward team is not shaken by Museveni's mobilizers.
"We know that team has been operating but our people are firm and want a peaceful change. Museveni should forget about Kigezi," Mwesigye said.
Mwesigye declined to answer questions related to the Go Forward structures "because they are an internal organization."
Meanwhile, Mbabazi's bid has recently got a boost with the entry of Edith Ssempala, Uganda's former ambassador to the United States. At the Go Forward secretariat, Ssempala heads the international and diplomatic relations desk that coordinates fundraising activities in the diaspora.
"Many more people are coming on board, the political terrain has changed and the country is ready for a change of government," Mwesigye said.
sadabkk@observer.ug
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