{UAH} Allan/Pojim/WBK: Amama dumps MP Anywar

http://www.observer.ug/news-headlines/42497-amama-dumps-mp-anywar

Amama dumps MP Anywar

Written by Sadab Kitatta Kaaya

Created: 08 February 2016

FDC MP nominated Mbabazi but she has been abandoned by Go Forward
Mbabazi team fronts Livingstone Okello-Okello to run against Anywar
Kitgum Woman MP Beatrice Anywar abandoned Besigye for Mbabazi. Now Mbabazi has abandoned her for Livingstone Okello-Okello, writes SADAB KITATTA KAAYA. 
As independent presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi campaigned in Kitgum on Friday, his presence was almost dwarfed by the absence of one of his key backers.

NO PERMANENT FRIENDS? FDC's Beatrice Anywar beams as Amama Mbabazi addresses journalists after his nomination at Namboole last November

Mbabazi started his second leg of campaigning in Acholi sub-region with a big rally at Kitgum's Boma grounds, but district Woman MP Beatrice Anywar was conspicuously missing.

Anywar, an FDC MP now running independently for Kitgum municipality MP, nominated Mbabazi in November, and is a key face of the Mbabazi campaign in Acholi.

Her absence caused some murmurs, and was indicative of the political calculations local politicians have to make regarding who they associate with on the national level.

Although she skipped the rally, there were many people in the crowd dressed in blue T-shirts with Anywar's portrait and an imprint to show she was the TDA candidate for the seat. UPC President Olara Otunnu, however, introduced former Chua MP Livingstone Okello-Okello as the TDA-Go Forward candidate for Kitgum municipality.

"There's a criterion we applied for every constituency and in this case we found Okello-Okello to be an eminent person, highly respectable and an astute legislator, and we made a decision that he is the TDA-GO Forward candidate for Kitgum municipality," Otunnu told The Observer on the sidelines of the Kitgum rally on Friday.

He added: "Hon Anywar was offered an opportunity to return as Woman MP and we had agreed to give her all the necessary support for that seat but she disappointed us on nomination day when she got nominated for the municipality. That was her decision; we respect it but regret that it came against what we had agreed upon."

Some people in the crowd were not pleased with Otunnu's endorsement of Okello-Okello, owing to Anywar's popularity.

"I think they are unfair. Yes Okello-Okello is intelligent and more articulate but Anywar is widely popular and is in a better position to win," a woman who did not want to be named told The Observer.

Last year, Anywar chose to back Mbabazi for president over her own party candidate Kizza Besigye. FDC paid her back in kind, refusing to sponsor her for the Kitgum municipality seat in preference for Denis Onekalit. By coincidence, it was Onekalit, a former Makerere University guild president, who seconded Besigye's presidential nomination.

If Mbabazi's Go Forward pressure has also abandoned Anywar, it could leave her out in the political cold. In fact, when Besigye campaigned in Kitgum on December 2, last year, Anywar was nearly roughed up by FDC youths who attempted to block her from the podium.

Amama Mbabazi in Kitgum on Friday

She appears to have caused a split in the FDC camp in the district. She is running a parallel office about four metres from her party's office in Kitgum town.

Blue-and-white posters of independent candidates and a few FDC flag bearers allied to her cover the walls of her office, demonstrating the extent of the divide within the party ranks in the district.

"Anywar belongs to a camp of the confused because FDC abandoned her and now these ones have also endorsed Okello-Okello yet she claims she is the TDA candidate. It is all confusing," a woman at the rally told The Observer.

But to local political pundits, it was better for the shadow minister for Environment to keep away to avoid embarrassment. Otunnu disagreed, telling The Observer:

"If she came, we would be happy to welcome her because she has no problem with us and we don't have any problem with her."

In his speech at the rally, Mbabazi said he remained grateful to Anywar for nominating him as a presidential candidate, the same way he is grateful to Okello-Okello for his role on the TDA candidates' selection committee.

Speaking on Tembo FM on Friday, Mbabazi accused his former boss, President Museveni, of being politically intolerant.

"It is absurd that in Uganda today, holding a divergent opinion is treated as treason. It is unbelievable that because I disagreed with Museveni, I am now being looked at as the number one enemy," Mbabazi said.

He dismissed, as false, Museveni's claim that the opposition plans to rig the February 18 election.

"The president said that we are planning to rig the elections...I think he just got an inkling that we are preparing everything possible to make rigging in this election impossible," Mbabazi said during the Kitgum rally.

"This election will determine whether Uganda will remain politically stable or..." Mbabazi said, promising a comprehensive statement at a later date.

Mbabazi also threatened to name some families grabbing land across the country.

"The land grabbing question is in the hands of a few families but we want to create a Uganda that works for all," he said.
sadabkk@observer.ug

Amama dumps MP Anywar

http://www.observer.ug/news-headlines/42497-amama-dumps-mp-anywar

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