Can Ayume’s son upset minister Anite in Koboko?

“It was just a matter of time before I jumped into politics,” Charles Ayume says when asked what prompted him to plunge into the NRM primaries for the Koboko Municipality parliamentary race.

Dr Ayume rehearses a line that most political aspirants have used to justify their decision to run in any election at any level.
“In 2011, I was asked by my people and gain in 2016, I was asked, but I decided I needed to mature. I then concentrated on my career as a medical doctor,” he says.

But the question was long coming: Is Charles running because his father Francis Ayume was a favourite son of Koboko and West Nile and his mother Elizabeth Ayume a Resident District Commissioner (RDC) for the same area, several years ago?
“Of course, I have tapped into the legacy of my father but when you are going into something, you have to have conviction,” Dr Ayume says.

Dr Ayume was only 24 and had just completed his medical training when his father Ayume Sr, who was the Attorney General, tragically met his death in Nakasongola District on the Kampala-Gulu highway in 2004.
Mr Ayume had replaced by Bart Katureebe as Attorney General and had also served as Speaker of Parliament from 1997 to 2001.

Ayume, who served as Solicitor General, Speaker of Parliament, and Attorney General, represented Koboko County in Parliament from 1996 until his death.
It’s now 16 years since Ayume passed on, with Koboko becoming a fully-fledged district one year following his death.

Now his son wants to have a direct say in the politics of the district that shares boundaries with both DR Congo and South Sudan.

In order to appear on the ballot paper in next year’s parliamentary election on the NRM card, Ayume Jr needs to cause what would be one of the biggest upsets in Uganda’s elections if he defeats incumbent MP Evelyn Anite who doubles as the State minister for Investment and Privatisation.

As for Ms Anite, she needs no introduction.
In 2016, effortlessly, the former journalist cruised to victory to represent the newly created Koboko Municipality.

But that is not her claim to open public glare.
While Opposition supporters view her as President Museveni’s blue-eyed lady, the President sees her as part of the NRM’s seamless mobilisation machine in the West Nile sub-region.

To understand Ms Anite well, one has to go back to February 6, 2014, when President Museveni appointed Mr Allan Kajik, who was working as a publicist at the National Medical Stores, as Deputy RDC for Kampala Central. Kajik is the husband of Ms Anite.

Four days after the appointment, Ms Anite, who was then a youth MP representing the northern region, moved a motion in the NRM Caucus at Kyankwanzi, validating Museveni as the ruling party’s sole presidential candidate for the 2016 poll.

This move effectually cemented Mr Museveni’s 35-year hold on power.
During Museveni’s 2011-2016 term, there had cropped up an escalating push within sections of the NRM for then Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi and or Parliament Speaker Rebecca Kadaga to challenge the incumbent for the position of the ruling party’s flag bearer in the 2016 polls.

But Ms Anites’ motion virtually ended all such hopes before they could gather momentum.
Museveni, two years later, in an appointment that was largely regarded as a reward of what Ms Anite had done in Kyankwanzi, appointed her minister.

As minister, Ms Anite raffled feathers of top government officials, including that of Attorney General William Byaruhanga, his deputy Mwesigwa Rukutana, and Gabriel Ajedra, the State minister of Finance for General Duties.
The bone of contention here was the management and control of the financially troubled Uganda Telecom (UTL).

At a press conference in 2019, Anite sensationally without mentioning particular names, claimed how “the mafias, the cabal, the cartel that is used to intimidating; robbing this country are yet again plotting a move to kill me.”

Later, Museveni sided with Ms Anite over the UTL rumblings when he ordered Mr Kahinda Otafiire, then minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, not to renew the contract of Mr Bemanya Twebaze, the administrator of UTL.

Reason was Mr Bemanya had been fighting Ms Anite, who was only 14 months old by the time Museveni’s ragtag NRA guerrilla outfit shot its way to power in January 1986.
Though Ms Anite prides in painting Koboko yellow, Mr Ayume insists she has lost her footing in the constituency since she is burdened by the duties of being a minister.

“You need to come and see what’s happening,” he says when asked about his chances of shocking Anite.
“This is not something you can know when you are in Kampala,” he assures.
Dr Ayume, until recently, has been an assistant director at the State House’s Health Monitoring Unit and he contends that this position has given him the chance to supervise Koboko’s sector, which he says over years has improved in leaps and bounds.

“When you look at the indicators [of health], which is just not infrastructure because that’s what you people are always looking at, Koboko is doing well,” Mr Ayume, 41, explains.
“Maternal mortality rates have gone down, immunisation has shot up, access to essential medicine has improved” he says.

“If I compare the Koboko of 2008 and now, the scorecard [in the health sector] is much better but there is a lot of work to be done.”
But in recent media interviews, Ms Anite roundly dismissed Mr Ayume’s bid, accusing him of being reinforced by the Opposition in Koboko.

She promised to “crush” them in the NRM party primaries that comes up on September 4.
“The truth is that NRM has been infiltrated, but I’m very strong, and the NRM in Koboko is very strong. We are not worried about the infiltration of the NRM camp by the Opposition.”

Already, there have been clashes between youthful supporters of the two opposed camps.
When supporters of Ms Anite recently marched through Koboko Town in violation of anti-covid-19 guidelines, the police never interfered, forcing Dr Ayume’s supporters in their hundreds to respond by staging their procession, demanding what they termed as “fairness.”

Police tear gas
To, Dr Ayume, Ms Anite’s kind of politics is the last thing that Koboko needs.
“Our education sector isn’t doing well,” he explains, referring to Koboko District. “Out of the 2,000 children who sat PLE [Primary Living Examinations], only 129 scored First Grade. These are things we should focus on,” he says.

Being a former State House employee invites a question: was Dr Ayume given the green light by the powers that be to tackle one of NRM’s zealous cadres?
But Dr Ayume counters: “I resigned from my job from State House, and if they hadn’t given me the go ahead, I wouldn’t have contested.”

Finally, the verdict on whether Ayume’s son can upset minister Anite in Koboko will be known as NRM party members go to polls in Koboko Municipality on September 4.