Mbabazi denies VP post deal
Former prime minister and Kinkizi West MP Amama Mbabazi addresses NRM poor youth delegation at his home in Kololo, Kampala, yesterday. PHOTO BY ABUBAKER LUBOWA
Kampala- Former prime minister Amama Mbabazi has dispelled media reports suggesting that he is in reconciliatory talks with President Museveni who has promised him a spot as vice president.
Local media reports indicate that the President recently met Mr Mbabazi and offered him the position in exchange for dropping his supposed 2016 presidential bid.
“I have neither met nor discussed that or any subject with the President in the last seven months,” Mr Mbabazi told Daily Monitor yesterday.
When asked whether he would enter such talks, given an invitation, Mr Mbabazi responded: “Not true. Thank you.”
The former NRM secretary general had earlier, in a response to a BBC journalist Allan Kasuja’s inquiry posted on his social media twitter handle, “That report (that I met Museveni) is not true.”
Mr Mbabazi was sacked late last year in a sole Cabinet shake-up followed by an amendment to the ruling party’s constitution that gave the party chairman appointive power over key positions in the secretariat.
This, political commentators interpreted as a hefty price for his supposed presidential ambition, a claim the Kinkizi West MP has persistently denied, saying he will not contest against Mr Museveni.
The President, however, told BBC during a visit to London that he sacked his erstwhile political confidant because he was “playing divisive politics”.
A close family member, who spoke to this newspaper on condition of anonymity, also denied any such reconciliatory meetings, saying: “That story was planted. The other camp will plant more such stories in the media. Some are intended to dissuade our loyal supporters and demoralise them but we are staying the course of the struggle.”
