Candidates’ best, worst moments

Kizza Besigye
Best Moment
His question to Amama Mbabazi on whether he was aware of the extent of vote-rigging while in government and whether “he thinks he can work around it” come February 18th was a master stroke.

For a man whom the Supreme Court has twice adjudged to have had his votes stolen, this was his pivotal moment.
Mbabazi huffed and puffed, claimed to have “heard stories”about rigging but denied that he was “personally” involved before promising to work with Besigye to avert any rigging during next month’s election.

Worst Moment
Asked what he would do about Uganda’s spiraling foreign debt, Besigye harked to his pet subject of accountability and fighting corruption. But he failed to break down his plan to fight corruption. He resorted to an amorphous thing he called the “will”. “If you wake up in the morning and say you are going to do A, B, C, D and you don’t do it then you have no will,”Besigye argued.

Amama Mbabazi
Best Moment
His response on his novel idea of a sub-county model as an antidote to poverty at household level was on point. This model, he explained, is mooted to restore Cooperative Unions to manage people’s agricultural products at every sub-county.

Worst moment

He fluffed responses on his threats to delete teachers that demanded for a pay rise off the payroll, his knowledge of Production Sharing Agreements(PSAs) between the government and Oil Companies, what he knew about the extent of vote-rigging while in government and failed to come clear on his position on the touchy matter of homosexuality. As premier, Mr Mbabazi was certainly at the centre of Oil negotiations.

Abed Bwanika
Best moment
Bwanika was the statistician of the night with figures on the economy and agriculture.
With Mbabazi ducking the dicey question of homosexuality, Bwanika choose to take the bull by its horns. He vowed that “Uganda will not be a nation of gays” and promised to “rehabilitate” them. This can also be judged as his weakest point-depending on whom you talk to.

Worst Moment
Bwanika had to explain his rallying for his tribemates, the ethnic Baganda, to vote him. For a nation once bedeviled by conflict on tribal lines, calling for a vote on tribal lines was not well thought. Bwanika, caught off-guard, defended himself that “there is nothing wrong with telling people from where you are born to vote for you.”

Benon Biraro
Best Moment
Running on the platform of the Farmers Party Uganda (FPU), his ideas of transforming agriculture were impressive. Areas specialising in specific crops will have tailor-made industries to tap into the crops grown there.

His response to removing the Army from Parliament and the dragging in of the Army to manage NAADS were clear.

“I come from Isingiro, they call farmers to the district headquarters; distribute to one, two cups of beans the other one two trees of mango, this one chicken and you look at that combination and you ask when will it bring Isingiro to an industrialised state,”Biraro.

Worst moment:
With no head-scratching questions, Biraro had a fairly impressive performance. But the question of changing leadership from a soldier to soldier spinned him. He claimed to have lived in all the 112 districts of Uganda-which is an impossible feat

“If there is anybody here who intimately knows the feelings of Ugandans, the yearning for change, the frustration of anybody that has not been served well by this regime, this is Gen Biraro,” he argued.

Venansius Baryamureeba
Good moment
His question to his three colleagues [Biraro, Besigye and Mbabazi] who helped bring President Museveni to power caught them off-guard but they impressively tackled it.As an educationist, Baryamureeba promised to rejig the curriculum in the education sector while also promising more investment in education.

Worst moment
Being fringe candidate, he fairly had an easy ride. But his response on the question of the debt was lacking in detail. He promised to reduce on the cost of public expenditure but fell short of explaining how we will do it.

Maureen Kyalya:
Good moment:
Difficult to find her best moments. She found refuge in the fact that she is the only woman in the race, often promising “love”

Bad moment
Asking Kizza Besigye on marrying from the First Family was as ridiculous as she could get. Following it up with satirical laughter smirked of street mischief.

Joseph Mabirizi
Good moment
He showing up was with his best moment. He was the light and soft side of the session. Without him, it would have been a monotonous affair.
Bad moment
He effectively had no response to questions on debt and Oil.“I sincerely believe Kyalya & Mabirizi would have gained more from remaining obscure than showing up for,”tweeted journalist Charles Onyago-Obbo.

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