Where have all President Museveni’s men gone?

Abandoned? There was a time when the NRM government’s ideologues queued up to defend the state and the party. Today many have dropped out of the queue, leaving President Museveni and a few, young, recruits to try and defend them. Where have they all gone and what can we read from their silence, asks Charles Mwanguhya Mpagi

Those close to Mr Museveni believe that Ms Kadaga’s ascendance to the Speakership and the acclaim she won for her handling of Parliament has built her confidence to believe she can contest for the presidency, a project they believe has grown so much in her mind to increase her stubbornness.
Therefore, according to this school of thought, two critical fights have emerged, one between Mr Mbabazi and Ms Kadaga because the former sees the latter as a spoiler who is intruding into his faint hopes of being in some succession queue and the other between the two and their party chairman.

To this end, Mr Mbabazi is believed to have been more than pleased to see the Speaker flex with the President and saw no reason to step in before sufficient punches are thrown either way.
A senior official in the NRM says individual baggage of some political leaders in Cabinet could have facilitated a silent pact between those individuals and the MPs that have pushed the government to the wall demanding even where the answers were only for political purposes.

“Some of the people who should have been speaking have skeletons in their cupboards and are afraid to come out because they fear they will be personally targeted, a situation they don’t want,” the highly-placed official said.

He said personal scandals that have been given apparent reprieve and shielded from focus by crises like the Nebanda death saga make them want them to play out longer.
“If you are a minister of local government, you know that should you speak now, someone might turn on you by rising the LC bicycle scandal and you don’t want that so you sign a quiet pact with those agitating a recall of Parliament to discuss Nebanda to say I won’t talk but you also shouldn’t raise anything about my issues,” this official said.

This official believes many other ministers fear to pull the curtain off their own troubles by weighing in on controversies like the recall of Parliament.
Others, he says, are those who have given up and are simply watching where the tide takes the boat but are afraid of a hard crash and think silence will offer them that opportunity.