How Bobi Wine navigated People Power, DP block interests to set up Parliament leadership

When the National Unity Platform (NUP) announced the Opposition leadership in Parliament recently, it was clear that it had tried to strike a delicate balance between the nucleus that started the party under the People Power Movement and the so-called Democratic Party (DP) bloc that joined later.

For months, multiple sources interviewed say, the NUP honchos have been entangled in behind-the-curtain negotiations on how the leading Opposition party would fill the docket of the Leader of Opposition and the accountability committees such as Public Accounts Committee, Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase), Local Government Accounts Committee and Government Assurance.

The Opposition, by law, is supposed to lead accountability committees and the leading Opposition party in Parliament has chosen who leads the committees.
When the list was issued two weeks ago, it was apparent that while novice Members of Parliament (MP) such as Joel Ssenyonyi (chairperson Cosase) and Manjeri Kyebakutika (Deputy Opposition Chief Whip) had scooped big positions, their knowledgeable counterparts such as Muhammad Muwanga-Kivumbi (Butambala County) and Abed Bwanika (Kimaanya-Kabonera) who were part of the DP bloc that didn’t get any positions.
Mr Muwanga, who arrived in Parliament in 2012 through a by-election in which he defeated NRM’s Faisal Kikulukunyu, has not been appointed to any accountability committee. 

Previously he had served as shadow cabinet minister of Internal Affairs and has been sitting on committees such as that of Internal Affairs, Defence and Budget.
With his party NUP taking over as leaders of the Opposition from the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), it had been anticipated that things would change and Mr Muwanga, considering his experience, would lead one of the accountability committees.

According to sources, when NUP’s National Executive Committee (NEC) asked him to lead Cosase, Mr Muwanga turned it down, saying he preferred to do other things that don’t put too much pressure on him.
“He seemed to be disinterested in top positions,” a source familiar with these negotiations said. “It’s not that he wasn’t liked.”

Once Mr Muwanga ruled himself out, Mr Ssenyonyi, the debutant Nakawa West MP, became the automatic choice because he had been lobbying for a big position in Parliament.
Cosase is supposed to scrutinise audited accounts of statutory authorities, corporations and public enterprises and in the context of their autonomy and efficiency, ascertain whether their operations are being managed in accordance with the required competence and where applicable, in accordance with sound business principles and prudent commercial practices.

The 20-member committee is also charged with examining the income and expenditure of any public corporation and state enterprise, or other body or organisation established by an Act of Parliament together with the balance sheet and statement of profit and loss accounts which the Auditor General may have been requested to prepare under the Constitution or under the provisions of statutory orders regulating the financing of a particular corporation, enterprise or body and the report of the Auditor General on them.

Third, the committee is supposed to examine the statement of accounts showing the income and expenditure of a statutory body or organisations.
Such tasks are deemed complex and many asked why Mr Ssenyonyi who was just starting out in Parliament was picked for the task.

Sources say once it became apparent that Mathias Mpuuga, the Nyendo-Mukungwe MP, who was part of the DP bloc, was to be the Leader of Opposition, the People Power historicals started pushing for their own to get positions.
People Power DNA includes Mr Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, Mr Benjamin Katana, Mr Roy Semboga, Mr Ssenyonyi, among others.

“Understand this: Ssenyonyi belongs to the Bobi inner circle and among those who started People Power. It’s only Ssenyonyi who got elected…look at people like Benjamin Katana who gave up on elective positions to support the presidential candidate [Kyagulanyi] or those who stood and never got elected. So Ssenyonyi belongs to the inner core of the struggle and you needed to speak to that group or those who see themselves as such. For every cause there are such people and they need to be rewarded,” a source familiar with the negotiations said.

According to sources within NUP, the appointment of FDC’s Lucy Akello, the experienced Amuru Woman MP, as vice chairperson of Cosase, is meant to “patch up Mr Ssenyonyi’s weaknesses”.
Though he is expected to be in the Opposition’s shadow cabinet, Mr Muwanga’s main role in Parliament, according to sources, is going to be leading the influential Buganda caucus. 

This caucus with more than 100 MPs has previously been dominated by NRM, but after NUP bagged 55 MP slots in the region, it’s expected that it will dictate proceedings and Mr Muwanga has been reserved as the incoming chairperson.
“I want to rejuvenate the Buganda caucus and I will be doing other things that will make you proud. We are talented differently and we agreed to deploy our talents,” Mr Muwanga says. 

Sources say in the coming days Muwanga will be bestowed upon the role of supervising his colleagues who are working on accountability since for years Opposition MPs have been accused of turning the committees into money-making ventures through blackmailing officials who appear before them. 

“You will know very soon,” Mr Muwanga said when asked about this role. “Just know we wanted to sanitise those committees and my role will soon be clear.”
While Mr Muwanga rubbishes the notion that there’s bad blood between him and the Kamwokya-based party, the same can’t be said of Mr Bwanika.

According to sources within NUP, Mr Bwanika had been tasked to deputise Mukono Municipality MP Betty Nambooze on the Government Assurance Committee, but the pastor–turned–politician turned down the position on grounds that he deserved something bigger - like heading a committee. 
“It’s not about positions,” David Lewis Rubongoya, NUP’s secretary general, said in a phone interview. “When the party sits it determines who to deploy where. Different leaders will be playing different roles but we have consensus among ourselves.”

Though it’s being downplayed, Mr Bwanika’s fallout with NUP leadership isn’t a recent episode. Mr Bwanika was part of the DP bloc, having dissolved his People’s Development Party (PDP) on whose ticket he had run as a presidential candidate in previous races. Mr Bwanika was among the early backers of Mr Kyagulanyi’s presidential candidature.
In doing so he used his appearances on radio talk shows to admonish Dr Kizza Besigye who he saw as a stumbling block to Mr Kyagulanyi’s claim of being the leading Opposition figure.  

Be that as it may, sources say, this honeymoon didn’t last long. Mr Bwanika felt short-changed when he wasn’t given any position within People Power/ NUP structure.
Other DP bloc members who fell out with NUP include Michael Mabikke and Samuel Walter Lubega Mukaaku. Unlike the aforementioned duo, Mr Bwanika, in an effort to bring down tensions, was given NUP’s ticket for Kimaanya-Kabonera constituency, which he won comfortably following the so-called ‘umbrella wave’ which swept across Buganda. 

“He has stopped being vocal about Mr Kyagulanyi or NUP,” one of the NUP officials said on condition of anonymity since he isn’t allowed to speak to the press. “It’s not surprising that he turned down being vice chairperson of one of those committees.” 
When contacted, Mr Bwanika said he couldn’t comment on whether he turned down the appointment. 

“I don’t know about that,” Mr Bwanika said. “But those who have been appointed will serve for about two and half years then we shall see what happens. Those who have been appointed have been vetted and I think they can perform.”
Another appointment that has caused debate is that of Mityana Municipality MP Francis Zaake Butebi who will be sitting on the commission of Parliament, as a commissioner.  

The role of the Parliamentary Commission includes appointing, promoting and exercising disciplinary control over persons holding public office in Parliament, reviewing the terms and conditions of service, standing orders, training and qualifications of persons holding office in Parliament; providing security staff to maintain proper security for the Members of Parliament and facilities within the precincts of Parliament, among other things.  

Though this is his second term in Parliament, his critics insist the youthful Zaake doesn’t have what it takes in terms of all-roundedness to be a parliamentary commissioner.   
But such concerns didn’t matter to the NUP NEC since sources say what they considered most when appointing Mr Zaake was his youthfulness.
 
“Zaake is a youth leader of NUP and NUP is largely about youth,” a source familiar with these appointments explained the rationale of appointing Mr Zaake. “The real youth see themselves in Zaake and us to give Zaake that kind of position is to ensure that the youth see themselves out there because the top leadership of John Baptist Nambeshe [Opposition Chief Whip], Mpuuga, they are now in their late 40s, but NUP/ People Power is youth vibrancy. How do you speak with that group? How do they feel represented? That’s how Zaake comes in.”

Fallout  
Other DP bloc members who fell out with NUP include Michael Mabikke and Samuel Walter Lubega Mukaaku. Unlike the aforementioned duo, Mr Bwanika, in an effort to bring down tensions, was given NUP’s ticket for Kimaanya-Kabonera constituency, which he won comfortably following the so-called ‘umbrella wave’ which swept across Buganda.