Bukenya vows to give Museveni a run for his money come 2016

Busiro North legislator Gilbert Balibaseka Bukenya, who served as vice president from 2003 to 2011, has declared that he will run against President Museveni in 2016. In an exclusive interview, Richard Wanambwa caught up with him at his Kakiri Country home and here are the excerpts.

We have heard talk that you are gearing up to contest for the leadership of NRM and subsequently contest for president of Uganda. Are you finally throwing the hat in the ring?

Well, leadership is not a monopoly of one person. Leadership must be for more than one person competing for the chair. I now feel I must not be out of the game; I will compete within the party and we see who wins the nomination for party presidential candidate, then we will support that person. So I am going to be in the “football game” in 2016.

What has changed that now you want to challenge President Yoweri Museveni? Don’t you think he will defeat you or you’ll be cheated?
It will be the first time the NRM calls a delegates’ conference to elect a presidential candidate. We have always been endorsing one person for the presidential candidacy. We have had elections for secretary general before but not a presidential candidate. If they cheat me, then I will quit and contest for President independently.

Don’t you fear that you will be expelled from the party like the four MPs who were recently expelled for opposing party positions and the President?

If you stick to the truth, you’ll never fear anything. But if you want to stick to the position of manipulation, then you fear something. I have supported NRM from its inception, I was instrumental in having it registered with the Electoral Commission and I am one of the signatories on the founding documents.
Yes, I hear this talk that they want to expel me from the party but this is being spread by a very young man, Mr Ronald Kibuule, who was not even there during the formation of NRM party. I think he must still be learning politics so I don’t think anyone will dare take his position. And if he was sent by somebody, you can hear a lot of noise within the NRM party; that what has Bukenya done, what is making him be punished? How about the others who are also around and they are not being punished? So I am waiting to see.

What are you bringing on the table as a game changer?

The country must change, the country must create priorities and we stick to those priorities and for me I think that right now, the priorities must be zero corruption practically, not zero corruption by voices, it must be practical. Everybody who has a question mark must go through a process of clearance. The scandal I see in the Prime Minister’s office is alarming, what I saw in the pension’s office is terrible and what I see in health clinics is very bad. There is no medicine; there is nothing! We must fight the hemorrhage of money from the government so that money is used in areas where we need to use it.

For example if you put Shs250 million in a bag and you throw it to the youth and in the next health centre there are no medicines, what is the use of throwing this money instead of giving it to that health unit so that it can operate and have healthy people who work better?
Secondly, we must focus maximally on agriculture because agriculture is the step for income generation in this country.
I am very worried about the way money is being used in the agriculture sector; Naads today, no Naads tomorrow, Naads doesn’t do this the next day, Naads does this! You can see a lot of confusion in the agricultural sector yet that is the backbone of development in this country.

The public believes that there are people within the government who steal money but are untouchable. Since you have worked in very high offices, how true is this statement?

Well, I can’t say yes and I can’t say no. But certainly there is no equal dispensing of justice in the fight against corruption. Unless everybody is treated the same, we shall end up failing to fight corruption and that is why we are currently failing. If Bukenya was in the OPM [Office of the Prime Minister] as a political leader, he would now be under the hangman’s noose because with Chogm, I was a political leader and when some things went wrong you saw what happened.
In this case, we are seeing it differently and when you look at the old people who have worked so hard to develop this country unable to get their pension because some people are eating and stealing it and no action is taken, then I wonder what is going on. There must be political action as well as action by the civil service.

Do you think the NRM system and President Museveni in particular will allow you to challenge him and you still remain in NRM?

He should, because for me I have always admired President Museveni for being democratic; for fighting to free this country from dictatorship. All the people around where I live here in Kakiri and Masulita supported him because he was fighting dictatorship, he was fighting nepotism and he was fighting undemocratic processes. Therefore, I expect that during the process of choosing leadership within NRM, there will be fair elections and if it is not there, then we shall say ‘well, people no longer believe in democracy here, they believe in nepotism and it is time for us to quit’.

Have you started mobilising people within the NRM, especially the delegates?

I haven’t and I don’t need to because I expect the delegates – since most of them are political delegates – to see the truth and vote for the truth. And if they think the country must continue sinking well they do what they want to do but if they want the country to change, then they will have to make decisions. I don’t want to go around the country campaigning with money like some people are beginning to do.

Who are your army generals given that the army plays a big role in our politics?

Why should I have generals? I thought the army is a national army which is there to do its service for this country. I practice civil politics, they protect us and we make the decisions politically. I don’t like to hear this talk that a leader or president must have his generals, or his own army. That means we are going to have a lot of armies in this country and the country will never be secure.
The only thing we need to do is leave the generals alone, leave the army alone to play its national role and let politicians play their own role effectively.

After the death of your son, you said you would quit politics, what has happened?

I was saddened by the death of my son and the stories that went around. Now I want to make a contribution in honouring him by remaining in politics; by playing a very big active role to contribute to national development and change. So may have said it but now I am telling you I am effectively in politics. Whatever pressures that are taking place around me; I have seen what is in prison and now the only prison left is maybe someone putting the bullet in my head and I am ready for it for the sake of this country.

Talking about your late son (RIP), have you ever received a postmortem report detailing what killed him?

I have never received a postmortem report of my son. I have heard a lot of whispers about that postmortem but I have never been given a copy of the postmortem.

When you were jailed everybody expected you to come out and walkout of NRM but instead you walked in. What informed you mind?

I could not walk out of NRM party because when I went to jail, it was IGG vs me as an abuser of my office and when I went to the court, the judge, and I thank him, found there was no case to answer. Many people say it is the President who released me, which is not true.
My lawyers (Kabega and others) argued strongly, they interviewed every witness the IGG brought and they said Bukenya never participated in this and that and I have a copy of the ruling that indicated that Bukenya never abused office and played with Motorcare to sell vehicles to this country. I was very pleased with the ruling, it was not mercy, it was a judgemental ruling.
Obviously there are many people whom the system protected who should have gone through the same because the queries were in security, hotels, local government and those were the implementers but for me I was a political leader.

To some people, you are not clean because you have been cited in corruption scandals and other personal failings. What do you have to that?

Vendettas of some sorts are very difficult to fight. How many people dance with women? There are many politicians who dance with women and hug them. How many politicians have extra-marital relations with many women in this government? That vendetta does not worry me because the people of this country know what makes a leader of truth and what makes a leader who is a liar; who is not dependable.

You have been accused of meeting the Kabaka of Buganda at night and trying to promote Ganda nationalism. How do you respond to this?

Meeting my king either during the day or at night is not a crime. That is my first court of appeal. I am a Muganda and I support totally the kingdom of Buganda. But I am also a Ugandan and I support fully the different cultural institutions in the country.
However, all of us (cultural institutions) are aiming at the development of our country. This must be done without nepotism, tribal tendencies and with equitable distribution of resources. People must be selected on the best for the job basis.

At one point you complained about a mafia clique in cabinet, do you believe that mafia still exists?

When I complained, I was alone and I was battered. Today, there are many people who are saying what I said was true. I will never rest until I know why national leaders told the president that I went to Kanungu and Kabale mobilising only Catholics especially during the night to unseat the president from his chair.
That was a lie and somehow, maybe the President took it as the truth. I view this as an unfortunate thing for the President to be surrounded by self-seeking liars. Is that not being a mafia?
Two similar lies were communicated to the President that I was meeting the Cardinal at 2am in Rubaga and that I was meeting Baganda army generals. Two blatant lies and I think by the same mafia group.

Do you regret having been dropped as Vice President?

I don’t regret at all because officers must come and officers must go. I did my part and many Ugandans know. I suffered my fate for political responsibility and Ugandans know. There are a number of upheavals I am going through. For example I have never been given my constitutional benefit as a retired vice president and Ugandans know. I have had relentless investigations on my small hotel in Entebbe, my properties are being investigated and it is also well known. I hope even my political colleagues are ready for the same adventure.

What do you say about the fate of your colleagues who were recently expelled from the NRM party?

Disciplining members in a political party objectively is not bad. However, using vendetta as a basis for disciplining one group and leaving the other is a recipe for breakdown of the party. Disciplining members of your party with a purpose of throwing them out of Parliament is excessive.
Trying to do something outside the norms of the Constitution of Uganda is a big indicator of dictatorship. For all of us know that a party expelling an MP does not unseat the MP and it is in the Constitution. In 2005, when we tried to change the Constitution, that proposal was totally thrown out of Parliament. We are all still here who participated in that Constitutional amendment including the current leaders in cabinet.
Why do we want to tempt our judicial system through the Constitution Court to try and interpret the obvious?

Do you regret championing the calls to amend the Constitution to remove term limits to give President Museveni a third term?

I do regret but I was fooled by the system. The fooling was that we give him [Mr Museveni] the last chance in 2006. I expected he meant it but it became a norm.
I salute Mr Gerald Karuhanga for initiating a petition to amend the Constitution in order to restore term limits. I feel so jealous when I see former presidents in Kenya and in Tanzania sitting in happiness than in sorrow with current presidents of those countries.
Leaders must come and leaders must go. But when gone, live in respect and be looked after by your country.

Mahogany’s troubles

In 2005, Prof. Gilbert Bukenya surprised political watchers when he suddenly alleged that the government was being controlled by a mafia clique. He said the mafia was plotting his downfall - pointing fingers at then Cabinet colleagues Amama Mbabazi, Hope Mwesige, and Sam Kutesa.

As the shock waves following his accusation reverberated around political circles, Prof. Bukenya, turned around and denied the claims. At a staged photo opportunity, the then VP appeared with the very Cabinet colleagues at a press conference to denounce his own allegations.

Then he referred to himself as an unassailable tropical hard wood-Mahogany. This would not be the last time he manipulated the press for his own ends – several times winning another lease of political life each time the President appeared ready to drop him with carefully choreographed media demonstrations of his supposed popularity.

Prof. Bukenya then focused his political energies on promoting upland rice (NERICA), spending weeks on end touring the country and building vast networks in the process. Regime insiders now say this, alongside the reported fact that he was holding night meetings with senior army officers, got him into trouble.

Political watchers will have observed that the former vice president was, at the time, feeling very insecure as his growing visibility - popularity and closeness to the powerful Catholic Church in Uganda – was being deemed to pose a political threat to senior establishment figures.

It was about this time that his political star began to wane. That star had shone bright largely because of his reported smooth-talking and mobilisation skills.

For many ordinary Ugandans, Prof. Bukenya’s political name is remembered in the same breath as his, at times tasteless associations with a string of women and an unabashed love for the nightlife.