Mbabazi blocked from radio talk show, says someone will answer one day
Independent presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi (in cap) addresses some of his supporters in Kaabong district on Tuesday. Photo by Rachel Mbabala
KOTIDO: After a dreadful day in Kaabong district on Tuesday where he was scheduled to address several rallies but was frustrated, independent presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi yet again came face to face with the monster he partly helped create after he was blocked from a radio talk show on the Voice of Karamoja radio in Kotido district.
The show had been scheduled to take place from 8: 30pm to 10pm but just a few to minutes to the start of the programme, the station was closed by police.
Even the few phone calls did not yield any result, but the station manager, according to Mr Mbabazi himself and other accounts said the District Security Committee had sat and resolved not to allow the show.
The former Prime Minister, moments later, while addressing journalists at Skyline Hotel about the events of the day and night, said it was “extremely disappointing that at this time and age in the development of our democracy things like this can happen.”
“I had been scheduled to have a talk show from 8:30pm to 10pm. Our people here had paid and we had a contract fully signed. But when we arrived I was told that the District Security committee had sat and agreed and decided they would not allow me to use the radio,” a visibly tired Mbabazi explained Tuesday night.
According to Mr Mbabazi, the security officers said they had been instructed by the national Electoral Commission not to allow him to speak on any radio.
“EC had no business in this and secondly I am free to speak on any radio station because this is normal in the course of our campaigns. I got in touch with one of our people in Kampala, and of course the response was quick. EC said no one had consulted them on this and that it was not their business to regulate radios. Then I called the RDC Peter Longiro, and I asked him I understand you sat as a district security and resolved to block me from radio today, and he said No that is wrong,” Mr Mbabazi added.
Moments later, however, after making several phone calls, Mr Mbabazi narrated that his handlers called the station manager and informed him of the responses from both the electoral body and the RDC.
“The manager then came and found us at the radio. I thought now he would let us in but he instead called me in the middle of the street, and said the radio had now closed,” Mr Mbabazi further explained.
“I find this all strange, in addition to what happened in Kaabong town and Karenga Sub-county [in Kotido district]; where I found there was intensive intimidation of the people not to attend my rallies. In Kaabong they had bought or intimidated bodaboda riders like it was the case in Masindi where Police confiscated the public address system.”
“Clearly there is not middle levelled playing field, but I can tell you that for these things happening, someone somewhere will answer one day.”
He said, in order for voters to make meaningful decisions they have to be talked to and they have to listen, “but why would anybody then block me from speaking to people, why?”
In Kaabong town on Tuesday, Mbabazi was denied access to the Boma grounds adjacent to the former sub-county headquarters, arms reach from the main town—where FDC flag bearer Dr Kizza Besigye addressed a rally earlier on.
Mbabazi’s rally was then moved to the bushy Kidepo airstrip, 5km away from town.
Local authorities in Kaabong could also been seen openly distributing NRM t-shirts bearing President Museveni’s poster throughout town and also convincing people to swap Mbabazi’s Go-Forward t-shirts for the yellow NRM t-shirts.
But this notwithstanding, Mbabazi, said while several of the people at his rally in Kabong had been forced to wear Yellow t-shirts, they were flashing the Go-Forward sign which is a symbol that you cannot break people’s “spirit of the desire for change.”
Later today, Mbabazi is expected to address rallies in Kotido and later proceed to Abim district. But as the sun rose from the beautiful hills in the background of Kotido, police officers were seen taking positions indifferent areas.
