Besigye writes to Bobi, Muntu over regime change
Photo combo of (L-R) Kizza Besigye, Robert Kyagulanyi and Mugish Muntu. PHOTOS/ FILE
People’s Front for Transition (PFT) leader, Col (Rtd) Dr Kizza Besigye, has said he has written to two former presidential candidates, Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, the National Unity Platform (NUP) leader, and Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu of Alliance for National Transition (ANT), inviting them for a discussion on regime change.
Dr Besigye, who was addressing a group of regional leaders at Jeema offices in Mengo, Kampala, said he now awaits a response from the two principals to map out a joint action plan to address the country’s challenges and come up with a way forward.
“We have already highlighted the crisis the country is in and this year, we need to have an action plan. It will involve even those who are not part of PFT…so I have written to NUP and ANT to see how we can address these challenges,” Dr Besigye said yesterday.
Gen Muntu confirmed to the Daily Monitor in a telephone interview that they had received the letter and would have the matter dissected by the party before a formal response is made.
“We have a process within the party on how to respond to such calls from other parties, we need to sit. I know the party will take a position with time after sitting as leaders,” Gen Muntu said in a telephone interview.
Efforts to get a response from the leaders of NUP last evening were futile as the known communication officials did not respond to our repeated calls by press time.
However, sources privy to the goings-on in Kamwokya intimated to this newspaper that the NUP leaders had received the letter.
“There is no position yet, they are first sitting to see how to respond to the letter. Everything about that letter looks tricky and they don’t want to comment without deeply analysing it. They are sceptical on the intensions,” the source said.
After the 2011 presidential elections, Dr Besigye ruled out the possibility of ousting President Museveni from power through an election although he made a U-turn in the 2016 General Election, which he insists he won.
Dr Besigye did not take part in the 2021 General Election, saying he was working on Plan B which was not necessarily an election front.
In October 2021, during the launch of the 24-crisis points, Besigye and his leadership said they were going to rally the country into civil disobedience and according to them, President Museveni, who has been in power for 36 years, would run out of the country or open negotiations with the people.
Some of the crisis points according to Dr Besigye include education apartheid, impunity, state capture, tax burden poverty, youth unemployment, lack of democracy, mismanagement of oil and gas resources, environment and other natural resources, human trafficking and an open-ended refugee policy, among other crisis points.
The team would later launch another plan of priorities to undertake once they got into power which included demilitarising politics and improving civil/military/security relations in the first 12 months, the promulgation of a new Constitution within 36 months, restructuring government institutions and Public Service within 24 months, promoting inclusivity within 12 months and facilitating devolution of power in the first 36 months.
In his end-of-year message, Dr Besigye promised to take action against what he referred to as crises in the opening 10 days of January. But his message yesterday came about 16 days past the anticipated time of action.
Dr Besigye yesterday said his group has identified more worrying issues in the country.
“We have a bigger plan of all these things we have been talking about. The issue of fuel prices is just a small branch of all those crises and we hope that the general public can begin to exercise for what we are about to roll out. It is not going to be easy for the soft-bodied,” Dr Besigye said while addressing the regional leaders.
Reaction
Mr Suumi Kiwanuka, the deputy executive director of Uganda Media Centre, yesterday responded to Dr Besigye’s move indicating that it was an illegal process that would call for investigations and possible action from the government.
“We have a Constitution in the country which says for any change in governance, there has to be an election and we are a democratic country. Anything outside that means it is illegal and that means the government will investigate and prosecute all those that are behind that kind of plot,” Mr Kiwanuka said.
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