Assuming presidency of a political party by declaration is wrong

An article in the Daily Monitor of January 8 titled ‘ Can

President Museveni stop Parliament from being recalled? by Daniel Walyemera Masumba referred to the author as the President General of the Conservative Party.

This is an insult to the delegates conference which the High Court mandated to carry out its business on August 19 2012 at Lweza Conference Centre on Entebbe road.
I am among those who have the ambition to become the President of Uganda. Much as that is so, I cannot claim to be President of the Ugandan Nation at any one time. There are procedures one has to go through before becoming president.

In law, the claim for one to be what one is not constitutes a misdemeanor. In Uganda, internal democracy among political parties is determined under the guidance of the political parties and other organisations Act. In section 10 of the said Act, as reflected in Articles 71 and 72 of the Constitution, a political party conducts its general elections through the mechanism of a delegates conference which must be known to the general public in advance.

I do not know of any delegate’s conference where Mr Walyemera has ever been elected as president general of the Conservative Party.

The delegates conference held in August 2012 at Lweza was legally constituted and if Mr Walyemera is aggrieved by its outcome, he can seek redress in a court of law. Assuming office by declaration is an open abuse to the rule of law.

Mr Walyemera acted as the Secretary General of CP at one time before NEC suspended him from office for certain reasons in April 2011. In August last year, Mr Walyemera filed a court order to stop the planned CP delegates conference and his application was allowed to go ahead as scheduled. Mr Walyemera was permitted to fully participate and even contest for election in that conference.

So, reference to Mr Walyemera as President General of CP is not only an insult to the leadership of CP but equally amounts to contempt of the High Court that outlawed his application on August 17 2012. Why doesn’t he challenge the results of the recent CP delegates conference elections in court? He cannot do that because his act would be in contempt of court’s decision on the said delegates conference.

CP has no problem with Mr walyemera. He is free to return to the CP kraal provided he repents for the political sins he has committed.

John ken Lukyamuzi
President General
Conservative Party