Mbabazi wife admits dossier on Museveni

Kampala- President Museveni has castigated former prime minister Amama Mbabazi’s wife, Jacqueline, accusing her of mobilising National Resistance Movement (NRM) party members against him.

Mr Museveni made the accusation against Ms Mbabazi during a meeting of the NRM Central Executive Committee (CEC) at State House, Nakasero on Thursday, our sources revealed.

A member of CEC who attended the meeting said Mr Museveni presented a document titled “Costly President” which he said had been authored and distributed on the instructions of Mr Mbabazi’s wife to incite the party members against him.

In reply, the defiant Ms Mbabazi confirmed she was the author of the document but said there was nothing controversial about it.

She said the document had been drawn out of the budget allocations for State House and President’s Office. The document criticises President Museveni’s use of State resources and State House’s huge budget and its controversial supplementary budgets.

Jacqueline also admitted mobilising political support for her husband, saying there were issues she was unhappy with, including the lifting of presidential term limits from the Constitution.

A CEC source in the meeting told the Sunday Monitor that Mr Museveni in response, said he had not known that his being in the liberation struggle was a problem and that if he had known, he would have left even during the Bush War days.
Mr Museveni captured power after the 1981-86 guerrilla war that overthrew the Gen Tito Okello junta.

Ms Jacqueline Mbabazi heads the Women League of the NRM party. Her husband, Mr Mbabazi, the Secretary General of the NRM, was sacked as prime minister on September 18. This was after widespread reports that he intended to contest against Mr Museveni for the presidency in 2016.

Earlier in February, the NRM Caucus at a retreat in Kyankwanzi passed a resolution endorsing Mr Museveni as their party’s “sole candidate” in the 2016 presidential elections.

Jacqueline subsequently slammed the resolution saying the caucus had no powers to choose a party’s flag bearer. Her utterances have since sparked bad blood between her on one side and the President and some NRM leaders on the other.
Inside sources said the steamy 11-hour CEC meeting discussed only one item on the agenda – party cohesion. Mr Museveni chaired the meeting and Mr Mbabazi took the minutes.

Mr Museveni, who had opened the meeting with a scathing attack on Ms Mbabazi, did not spare Mr Mbabazi either.

He castigated Mr Mbabazi for mobilising the youth against NRM elders by giving them a message that they should prepare to take over now. Sources in the meeting said Mr Mbabazi did not respond; he continued taking notes.

During the Independence Day celebrations in Kanungu District on October 9, Mr Mbabazi was quoted in the press as urging the youth to be prepared to take over leadership of the country because they have the potential to do so.

“Nobody should tell you that you are the leaders of tomorrow. You are the leaders of today. The change of this country is in the hands of the youth. Our role now is to support you to develop yourselves; we must acknowledge the role of our young people as riders of our transformation,” Mr Mbabazi said in Kanungu.

The former prime minister made the same remarks on October 10 at a Uganda National Students Association marathon, which he had been hastily called to flag off, after all invited government officials, including police chief, Gen Kale Kayihura, failed to show up.

Police have had many run-ins with pro-Mbabazi youth around the country mobilising for his 2016 presidential bid which he has not publicly acknowledged.

Following the President’s remarks during the Thursday meeting at State House, speaker after speaker castigated Mr Mbabazi’s wife in succession, including Brig Matayo Kyaligonza, the NRM vice chairperson for western region and Uganda’s ambassador to Burundi, who told the meeting he would have already arrested Mr Mbabazi and his wife if he had been President.

The sources also said former Kampala Central MP, who also served as junior Education minister, Capt Francis Babu, took a swipe at the Mbabazis for “dividing” the party.

The meeting, which started in a charged mood, concluded in calm with Mr Museveni referring to Mbabazi as “my brother” and Jacqueline as “my sister-in-law.” At this point there were no further deliberations and the meeting was adjourned to Saturday after President Museveni said he would be meeting only Mr Mbabazi and his wife Jacqueline on Friday.

We could not confirm whether the meeting took place. But by the time we went to press yesterday, CEC was locked in another meeting.

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