Our departure is in good faith- Gen Muntu

Former Opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) president, Mj. Gen (rtd) Mugisha Muntu on Thursday addressed a televised press conference on his exit from the party.

Below are excerpts of what he said;

We have parted ways peacefully. We have agreed to set up a joint team and keep an open door policy between us and FDC...

We found out that FDC had several divisions. There were suggestions that we stay in and have our agenda pushed from inside...

We hope to launch the new formation before December 25, 2018 and we are calling upon all like thinking Ugandans to join us.

We have developed an online portal www.newformation.ug specifically for the purpose of connecting with you.

We believe that new single party acting on its own can rescue our country from the dangerous path we currently tread

Uganda as it currently stands can easily plunge into anarchy... People have lost trust in the state. Our health and education sectors are in chaos. There's rising insecurity, inequality and injustice.

The political space in the country is shrinking by the day and so is the patience of most Ugandans

For us to de-escalate mounting tensions, we must be willing to reach out beyond our parties, communities and faith. We must be willing to recognise that one Uganda One People cannot be achieved without truth and justice; that peace, unity and transformation cannot happen without People's power being our power.

But when all is said and done, the boda boda rider has as much claim to this country as the richest businessman; those born in our ghettos are as much our children as those born in our most expensive suburbs.

We all need to work for our country in which when our soldier fight, they fight for us all and not the chosen few

When our police keep law and order, they should do so as passionately for the Opposition as they do for those in power. We must recognise that for each of us; the black, yellow and red stripes of our national flag represent a place we call hope. We are brothers and sisters and not enemies.

Our new formation may use strategies that are different from other parties but our goal will be the same; a Uganda that works for us all. In this regard, I wish to highlight our commitment to cooperation with democracy seeking forces as a bedrock of our new formation. God Bless Uganda!

Former FDC Deputy President for Eastern region, Alice Alaso (convener of the conference) takes over: This document is vailable and will be circulated. Our new formation believes in democracy and good governance

We believe that every Ugandan has an equal and legitimate voice and that those who lead the country must be rightly operating from the people through regular free and fair elections

The other core value for the new formation is gender equity. We have found that for far too long, women in our country and globally have been treated as second class citizens

To transform Uganda, woman's voice's and the voices of other marginalised Ugandans need to be heard and included in the main stream