I am still head of NRM women -Ms Mbabazi

Ms Jacqueline Mbabazi gestures during the interview at her residence in Kololo yesterday. PHOTO BY Stephen Otage

What you need to know:

In the party. Ms Mbabazi said she is still in the NRM party and has never deviated from the party’s principles and ideology.

Kampala

Ms Jacqueline Mbabazi has said she is still in full charge of the NRM Women’s League despite the fracas that saw her locked out of the league’s meeting at Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala on Tuesday.

Ms Mbabazi, who is the chairperson of the NRM Women League, was stopped by the presidential guards from entering the hall where a meeting was scheduled to take place. The guards said her name was not on the list, she was not invited and she was not wanted in the meeting, which forced her to sit outside the venue for hours before she was finally let in.

“I am still the chairperson of the women’s league and continue to represent the league on the National Executive Council (NEC). I am also fully immersed in the programmes of the league, providing leadership and working with members across the districts,” she told Sunday Monitor in an interview at her residence in Kololo yesterday.

Asked how much hold she still has on the league considering last week’s events and the political predicament of her husband, former prime minister Amama Mbabazi, she said she is NRM, has never deviated from the party’s principles and ideology. She said she works hard and the women know it and support her. She said the league is big and comprises millions of party supporters and the women’s national conference. Ms Mbabazi said she derives her support from these women, not the small executive of the League.

Speaking to Sunday Monitor yesterday morning about the incident, Ms Mbabazi said: “A few executive members working closely with State House” have tried to derail the agenda of the league, but the majority of NRM women in the districts support her leadership and are happy with her work.

Ms Mbabazi refuted media reports that she was allowed into the meeting after President Museveni had entered the hall and later invited her. She said it had become untenable for the organisers to keep her outside the venue and that she was called into the hall before the President arrived.

She also said she was not booed as reported in the media but rather the “women were agitated and shouted ‘shame, shame’ at the organisers, who had not provided a chair for their chairperson at the high table.”

The defiant Ms Mbabazi said she believes that despite the current political manoeuvers, the NRM Women League will continue doing the work of uplifting women and the girl child. She listed some of the achievements of the league as sending women and girls to China for training and working with other women leagues in China and India to benefit from the synergy.

She also said despite the fracas at the Tuesday meeting, the positive outcome was that they resolved to go out to the regions and grassroots to organise women for development and for the cause of the party.

Background
Ms Mbabazi said the confusion in the league started last year in June when many of her executive members were invited to the President’s home in Rwakitura to have them endorse the Kyankwanzi resolution, which declared President Museveni as the NRM “sole candidate” for the 2016 elections.

Subsequent to the Kyankwanzi resolution in February last year, Ms Mbabazi dismissed the declaration which she described as illegal and dictatorial. She has since been castigated by the NRM hierarchy for undermining the party chairman, President Museveni

Ms Mbabazi said the Tuesday meeting in Kampala, like the one in Mbarara last year, was convened by State House and she only learnt of it after several members from upcountry called her to confirm the invitations they had received.
She said in the interest of the league, she chose to ignore the legality of challenging the convening of the meeting because it presented them with an opportunity to discuss the women’s development issues.