Did missing NRM register seal Mbabazi’s fate?

Kampala.
Former Prime Minister John Patrick Amama Mbabazi’s fate could have been sealed by a report authored by Wakiso District Woman MP Rosemary Nansubuga Seninde and six others that emphasised the NRM party secretary general must hold no other office, Daily Monitor has learnt.

The report also put Mr Mbabazi on the spot for holding onto the party’s register and keeping it out of the eye of regular party organs, including the electoral commission, despite several desperate attempts to persuade him to surrender the same.

Speaking to Daily Monitor yesterday, Ms Seninde confirmed her seven-member committee presented a report to the party caucus this month in a decisive meeting attended and chaired by President Museveni.

It is in this meeting that the President, also party chairman, reportedly gave a parabolic hint of Mr Mbabazi’s exit, minutes after walking out on his long-time political ally who was in the middle of his response to the report.

“The recommendation was that the secretary general must be free of other roles, but unfortunately the President appointed him prime minister. We emphasised that the secretary general and treasurer must not be made very busy so as to give the party attention because the party structures had been rendered dormant,” she said.

Debate on Mr Mbabazi’s juggling his premier job with that of secretary general has been time-honoured. On Saturday, NRM deputy spokesman Ofwono Opondo and senior party member Chris Baryomunsi while appearing on a local radio talk show revealed that immediately he was appointed prime minister, the issue arose and Mr Mbabazi promised to resign as secretary general in three weeks’ time after preferring to serve as the country’s premier.

He is said to have since shifted goal posts after the three weeks, arguing that his resignation required NRM delegates’ conference sanction.

The Seninde report was a reverberation of these calls. Ms Seninde said of the likelihood of this report and debate thereafter in the caucus being the basis of Mr Mbabazi’s dismissal, “I may not know because it was the decision of the President.”

In another twist, the caucus meeting also put Mr Mbabazi on the spot over the party’s register. Dr Baryomunsi said the register contains at least nine million party members.

In the course of compiling the report, Mr Mbabazi was severally asked to share the register with the seven-member team, but kept dilly-dallying. It is not clear how many members this register holds, Ms Seninde adds.

Pressed to explain why he was holding to the party register, Mr Mbabazi reportedly told the charged meeting: “I asked my people to give you the register. I will follow it up with them.”

His response, Ms Seninde revealed “irritated many of us because we could see a lot of dishonesty and he was openly telling lies. We all wondered why he made the party suffer by hiding the register”.

It is at this point that Mr Museveni furiously walked out, leaving Mr Mbabazi in the middle of his reaction to the report, only to return with a Bible and made a prophesy that came to pass in record time.

When the President returned a few minutes later, he sauntered to his seat, cut Mr Mbabazi short and opened his Bible, reading Daniel 5:25-28, which talks of writings that appeared on the wall as King Belshazzar was whining away.

The words puzzled King Belshazzar for days but were later interpreted by Daniel to mean that God had numbered the days of his reign and brought it to an end. After reading this verse, the meeting is said to have shortly ended, only for the President to sack Mr Mbabazi a few days later. This, sources confirm, was the last nail on Mr Mbabazi’s political grave.

Dr Baryomunsi, who co-authored the report, said: “Yes it is true we recommended that the secretary general must hold only that position, but the President knows better why he sacked him.”

The committee
It comprised of Ms Rosemary Seninde, Maj Gen Jim Muhwezi, Ms Connie Galiwango, Ms Teopista Ssentongo, Mr Felix Okot Ogong, Stephen Tashobya and Dr Chris Baryomunsi.

The committee was tasked by the party to study challenges from the 2011 primaries and make recommendations for the NRM. It also examined claims that Mr Mbabazi was manipulating party structures to serve his personal political end.