What are Muntu’s chances in muddied political waters?

I t’s election time, but Opposition groups are struggling to mobilise their supporters under the Covid-19 induced guidelines which ostensibly forbid mass gatherings. 

 But one person who is thriving under these circumstances is Maj Gen  Mugisha Muntu.

 Even when he was still in the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Uganda’s largest Opposition political party, Gen Muntu always detested holding mass political rallies when compared, to say, Dr Kizza Besigye, the party founding president.   

He preferred small gatherings like townhall meetings and conferences much to the chagrin of some of his backers who, perhaps, wanted a populist approach.  
  Now under his party, the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT), Gen Muntu has followed his beliefs. 

 As politicians are facing off with security agencies in a bid to organise pre- Covid-19 boisterous political rallies, Muntu’s party without provoking much media attention has been organising town hall meetings in which they aren’t only structuring their new organisation but also have intimate conversations with a sample of voters.

 “Some have questioned our methods, demanding for crowds to prove might,” Gen Muntu wrote on his verified Facebook page account this week.

 “Our belief is that the strength of a chain lies in the quality of each individual link.  Focusing on small townhall style meetings has allowed us to engage in conversations with voters, not just one-way rally.”  
   
The party’s plan A was to organise one single delegates conference in Kampala but once the Electoral Commission (EC) dilly-dallied on disclosing the electoral roadmap so they decided to organise small meetings in various sub-regions.

 So far, they have held townhalls meetings in Lango, Teso, Busoga and West Nile.    

“We have been using these meetings to introduce our presidential flag bearer [Muntu],” ANT spokesperson Wilberforce Sseryazi, says."

We have also been using these meetings to train our candidates.”     
Nevertheless, even his staunchest allies agree Gen Muntu isn’t looking at 2021 but rather 2026. 

When Dr Besigye easily beat him to be FDC’s flagbearer for the 2016 presidential elections, Muntu, who was undeterred, labelled himself as a long-distance runner as opposed to being a sprinter.  

The key traits of a long-distance runner are resilience, focus, strength, preparation, vision and openness.  Five years later, Muntu is destined to have a shot at the presidency, for the first time.

To achieve this, Muntu, one of the founders of FDC, had to abandon his party after losing in a fiercely contested election for the party’s presidency to Patrick Oboi Amuriat, the former Kumi County MP. 
 
In 2019, together with a number of disgruntled FDC members, he formed yet again another party (ANT) on which card his going to run for the presidency in   2021. 

Though he is running for the presidency for the first time, Muntu who commanded the army between 1989 to 1997, has always harboured presidential ambitions and hasn’t hidden them.  

When the FDC was formed in 2004, just before the 2006 general election, it’s said the party’s officials were at the crossroads.  

Dr Besigye, who many wanted to tackle President Museveni for the top seat, for the second time, was still in exile in South Africa and Muntu made everybody know how he wanted to challenge him in what would be the party’s first presidential primary.
 
 Apparently, he believed that having competition within the party would bolster its democratic credentials. 
  
For the case of the party’s harmony, Muntu was urged by his fellow founder members of the party to let Besigye take on Museveni, without a primary, a suggestion he agreed to but assured them that four years later he would take on Besigye in a party primary. 

  There is also a narrative that when Besigye was arrested upon his return and there was an ambiguity whether he could be nominated yet he had criminal charges such as rape and treason hanging over his head, Muntu presented himself as an alternative- something that didn’t go down very well with Besigye’s lieutenants within FDC.

True to his word, Muntu contested in the 2010 FDC primaries only to lose to Besigye but he always looked at this as a marathon. 

 One of the key ingredients that make him stand out is his pliability and this was exhibited when he joined Museveni and his ragtag outfit in the Luweero jungles.

  It’s said during the infancy of the war, Muntu was injured during a clash with government forces and he was unobtrusively sneaked into the former Kisekka Military Hospital located near the current Kisekka Market, in Kampala for treatment. 

He was cured by the rebel collaborators who were working in the hospital and he later found his way back to the wildernesses after retrieval.

But Muntu’s show of focus and commitment was exhibited in his decision to join the NRM in 1982 to overthrow Apollo Milton Obote’s regime.  This decision annoyed his parents Enock Ruzima Muntuyera and Aida Matama Muntuyera, who were confidants of Obote and being State lackeys gave Gen Muntu an affluent childhood. 

 Muntu’s father later passed on, but Muntu, who was tangled in the bush, never returned to Ntungamo, western Uganda, to bury his father. 

The former guerrilla, who had a stint at the East African Legislative Assembly, now has to market his ideas of clean politics and building long term projects to the voters, but many aren’t upbeat about his chances in light of People Power Movement [now NUP party] led by singer turned politician Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, alias Bobi Wine which has gained traction among the youth. 

“You never know until you try,” Prof Sabiti Makara, a senior lecturer in the department of Political and Public Administration at Makerere University, explains when asked about Muntu’s chances.

 “He has always been in the shadows of Dr Besigye, but now he has to sell his agenda to Ugandans and we shall see how that will go.”

Though he is a retired two-star Gen Muntu, 62, is neither daring nor confrontational, something that hasn’t endeared him to many radical elements within the Opposition, who have christened him as an NRM mole. 

Mr Mwambutsya Ndebesa, a political - historian and a senior lecturer at Makerere University, explains how Muntu’s strengths might endear him to a certain section of the electorate. 

“There are a number of people who are interested in political hygiene, they aren’t interested in the politics of mud-slinging. He will appeal to them,”  Mr Ndebesa explained when asked about Muntu’s lack of appeal.

According to Ndebesa, Muntu’s ANT could also ally with NUP instead of competing with it.  

 “Muntu has all the tools needed for one to be president. He can put up an efficient machinary.” 

Gen Muntu has always promised to introduce a new type of approach which would redesign politics and campaigns once the Opposition takes overpower.  

“You have to build on the strengths of those you lead, not beating them down. Gen Museveni correctly diagnoses the leadership problems we face in Africa, but then acts in complete contradiction to the solutions he proposes,” Muntu recently said in an apparent dig at his former boss, President Museveni.
Policy Wonk
Gen Muntu has always fashioned himself as a policy gem- a person who studies or develops strategies and policies, particularly one who has a profound interest in and propensity for technical detail.

   In 2015, when he was still the president of the FDC, Muntu launched the party’s policy agenda dubbed Uganda’s Leap Forward in a ceremony organised amid the fanfare, as Muntu explained that the party had Four Point Action Plan to trigger Uganda’s leap forward to a future of opportunity and shared prosperity.  

He talked about “a plan to invest in our people and expand opportunity for every Ugandan; a plan to re-engineer new sources of growth and create well-paying and decent jobs for our people; a plan to strengthen our national security, create new leadership and strengthen our public service; and a plan to build people-centered regional integration and global partnerships.”

Since his party is yet getting traction, some political analysts opine that Muntu, being a long-distance runner, might be looking beyond 2021.

 “He will be surely looking at the long term,” Mr Ndebesa says, “Age is on his side, he might use this election as a way of testing the waters.”
Mr Sseryazi confirms this strategy.

 “We have both the long term and short term strategy,” Sseryazi says. “In the short term, we are looking at next years’ elections but in case we don’t win them, then our long-term strategy is entrenching the party in the country beyond the next election. It just happened these elections are coming up just when we have just formed the party.  But we have coordinators in every district in Uganda.”

Not that all things have gone Muntu’s way.
 While some of his early backers in FDC such as Winifred Kiiza (Kasese woman MP), Kassiano Wadri (Arua municipality), Paul Mwiru (Jinja East), Elijah Okupa (Kisilo County), Angelline Asio Osegge (Soroti woman MP) came through and joined him; his other cronies such as Abdu Katuntu (Bugweri county) and Morris Ogenga- Latigo (Agago North)  and Abed Nasser Mudiobole (Iganga municipality aspirant ) coiled on joining him.   

 DERRICK KIYONGA

I t’s election time, but Opposition groups are struggling to mobilise their supporters under the Covid-19 induced guidelines which ostensibly forbid mass gatherings. 

 But one person who is thriving under these circumstances is Maj Gen  Mugisha Muntu.

 Even when he was still in the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Uganda’s largest Opposition political party, Gen Muntu always detested holding mass political rallies when compared, to say, Dr Kizza Besigye, the party founding president.   

He preferred small gatherings like townhall meetings and conferences much to the chagrin of some of his backers who, perhaps, wanted a populist approach.  
  Now under his party, the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT), Gen Muntu has followed his beliefs. 

 As politicians are facing off with security agencies in a bid to organise pre- Covid-19 boisterous political rallies, Muntu’s party without provoking much media attention has been organising town hall meetings in which they aren’t only structuring their new organisation but also have intimate conversations with a sample of voters.

 “Some have questioned our methods, demanding for crowds to prove might,” Gen Muntu wrote on his verified Facebook page account this week.

 “Our belief is that the strength of a chain lies in the quality of each individual link.  Focusing on small townhall style meetings has allowed us to engage in conversations with voters, not just one-way rally.”  
   
The party’s plan A was to organise one single delegates conference in Kampala but once the Electoral Commission (EC) dilly-dallied on disclosing the electoral roadmap so they decided to organise small meetings in various sub-regions.

 So far, they have held townhalls meetings in Lango, Teso, Busoga and West Nile.    

“We have been using these meetings to introduce our presidential flag bearer [Muntu],” ANT spokesperson Wilberforce Sseryazi, says."

We have also been using these meetings to train our candidates.”     
Nevertheless, even his staunchest allies agree Gen Muntu isn’t looking at 2021 but rather 2026. 

When Dr Besigye easily beat him to be FDC’s flagbearer for the 2016 presidential elections, Muntu, who was undeterred, labelled himself as a long-distance runner as opposed to being a sprinter.  

The key traits of a long-distance runner are resilience, focus, strength, preparation, vision and openness.  Five years later, Muntu is destined to have a shot at the presidency, for the first time.

To achieve this, Muntu, one of the founders of FDC, had to abandon his party after losing in a fiercely contested election for the party’s presidency to Patrick Oboi Amuriat, the former Kumi County MP. 
 
In 2019, together with a number of disgruntled FDC members, he formed yet again another party (ANT) on which card his going to run for the presidency in   2021. 

Though he is running for the presidency for the first time, Muntu who commanded the army between 1989 to 1997, has always harboured presidential ambitions and hasn’t hidden them.  

When the FDC was formed in 2004, just before the 2006 general election, it’s said the party’s officials were at the crossroads.  

Dr Besigye, who many wanted to tackle President Museveni for the top seat, for the second time, was still in exile in South Africa and Muntu made everybody know how he wanted to challenge him in what would be the party’s first presidential primary.
 
 Apparently, he believed that having competition within the party would bolster its democratic credentials. 
  
For the case of the party’s harmony, Muntu was urged by his fellow founder members of the party to let Besigye take on Museveni, without a primary, a suggestion he agreed to but assured them that four years later he would take on Besigye in a party primary. 

  There is also a narrative that when Besigye was arrested upon his return and there was an ambiguity whether he could be nominated yet he had criminal charges such as rape and treason hanging over his head, Muntu presented himself as an alternative- something that didn’t go down very well with Besigye’s lieutenants within FDC.

True to his word, Muntu contested in the 2010 FDC primaries only to lose to Besigye but he always looked at this as a marathon. 

 One of the key ingredients that make him stand out is his pliability and this was exhibited when he joined Museveni and his ragtag outfit in the Luweero jungles.

  It’s said during the infancy of the war, Muntu was injured during a clash with government forces and he was unobtrusively sneaked into the former Kisekka Military Hospital located near the current Kisekka Market, in Kampala for treatment. 

He was cured by the rebel collaborators who were working in the hospital and he later found his way back to the wildernesses after retrieval.

But Muntu’s show of focus and commitment was exhibited in his decision to join the NRM in 1982 to overthrow Apollo Milton Obote’s regime.  This decision annoyed his parents Enock Ruzima Muntuyera and Aida Matama Muntuyera, who were confidants of Obote and being State lackeys gave Gen Muntu an affluent childhood. 

 Muntu’s father later passed on, but Muntu, who was tangled in the bush, never returned to Ntungamo, western Uganda, to bury his father. 

The former guerrilla, who had a stint at the East African Legislative Assembly, now has to market his ideas of clean politics and building long term projects to the voters, but many aren’t upbeat about his chances in light of People Power Movement [now NUP party] led by singer turned politician Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, alias Bobi Wine which has gained traction among the youth. 

“You never know until you try,” Prof Sabiti Makara, a senior lecturer in the department of Political and Public Administration at Makerere University, explains when asked about Muntu’s chances.

 “He has always been in the shadows of Dr Besigye, but now he has to sell his agenda to Ugandans and we shall see how that will go.”

Though he is a retired two-star Gen Muntu, 62, is neither daring nor confrontational, something that hasn’t endeared him to many radical elements within the Opposition, who have christened him as an NRM mole. 

Mr Mwambutsya Ndebesa, a political - historian and a senior lecturer at Makerere University, explains how Muntu’s strengths might endear him to a certain section of the electorate. 

“There are a number of people who are interested in political hygiene, they aren’t interested in the politics of mud-slinging. He will appeal to them,”  Mr Ndebesa explained when asked about Muntu’s lack of appeal.

According to Ndebesa, Muntu’s ANT could also ally with NUP instead of competing with it.  

 “Muntu has all the tools needed for one to be president. He can put up an efficient machinary.” 

Gen Muntu has always promised to introduce a new type of approach which would redesign politics and campaigns once the Opposition takes overpower.  

“You have to build on the strengths of those you lead, not beating them down. Gen Museveni correctly diagnoses the leadership problems we face in Africa, but then acts in complete contradiction to the solutions he proposes,” Muntu recently said in an apparent dig at his former boss, President Museveni.
Policy Wonk
Gen Muntu has always fashioned himself as a policy gem- a person who studies or develops strategies and policies, particularly one who has a profound interest in and propensity for technical detail.

   In 2015, when he was still the president of the FDC, Muntu launched the party’s policy agenda dubbed Uganda’s Leap Forward in a ceremony organised amid the fanfare, as Muntu explained that the party had Four Point Action Plan to trigger Uganda’s leap forward to a future of opportunity and shared prosperity.  

He talked about “a plan to invest in our people and expand opportunity for every Ugandan; a plan to re-engineer new sources of growth and create well-paying and decent jobs for our people; a plan to strengthen our national security, create new leadership and strengthen our public service; and a plan to build people-centered regional integration and global partnerships.”

Since his party is yet getting traction, some political analysts opine that Muntu, being a long-distance runner, might be looking beyond 2021.

 “He will be surely looking at the long term,” Mr Ndebesa says, “Age is on his side, he might use this election as a way of testing the waters.”
Mr Sseryazi confirms this strategy.

 “We have both the long term and short term strategy,” Sseryazi says. “In the short term, we are looking at next years’ elections but in case we don’t win them, then our long-term strategy is entrenching the party in the country beyond the next election. It just happened these elections are coming up just when we have just formed the party.  But we have coordinators in every district in Uganda.”

Not that all things have gone Muntu’s way.
 While some of his early backers in FDC such as Winifred Kiiza (Kasese woman MP), Kassiano Wadri (Arua municipality), Paul Mwiru (Jinja East), Elijah Okupa (Kisilo County), Angelline Asio Osegge (Soroti woman MP) came through and joined him; his other cronies such as Abdu Katuntu (Bugweri county) and Morris Ogenga- Latigo (Agago North)  and Abed Nasser Mudiobole (Iganga municipality aspirant ) coiled on joining him.