Will Museveni hand over power to Among?

Picture this scenario. In 2026, President Museveni, 81, is re-elected. Speaker of Parliament Anita Among, 52, is re-elected Bukedea Woman Member of Parliament (WMP). She also wins her first full term as Speaker. (Technically, the 2021-2026 term is for former Speaker Jacob Oulanyah.)

In 2031, Museveni, 86, is re-elected. Among, 57, is also re-elected to Parliament, not as Bukedea Woman MP but as a representative of a constituency specially created for her. She also wins second full term as Speaker.

In 2035, Museveni, 90, nudges Parliament to amend Article 109 of the Constitution. Article 109 (1) states: “If the President dies, resigns or is removed from office under this Constitution, the Vice President shall assume the office of President until fresh elections are held and the elected President assumes office in accordance with article 103(8) of this Constitution.” It is left intact.

However, Article 109 (2), which states that, “Elections for the President under this article shall be held within six months after the death, resignation or removal of the President” is amended to read: “Elections for the President under this article shall be held during the next scheduled elections after the death, resignation or removal of the President.”

And Article 109 (3), which states that, “No elections shall be held under this article if the residual term of the President is one year or less” is removed.

In 2036, Museveni, 91, in power for 50 years, is re-elected. Among, 62, is also re-elected MP. Museveni appoints her vice president.

Shortly after commencing his 51st year as President in 2036, Museveni suddenly disappears from the public view. Ugandans unleash a flurry of speculations, rumours and false news about his whereabouts.

Several weeks later, Museveni reappears on TV. He makes a very short statement: “Greetings, fellow countrymen and women. As you know I have not been available for sometime. Today I want to tell you that I have decided to step down as the President of Uganda. This morning, I tendered my resignation to the Chief Justice… I thank you all.”

It becomes clear that Among’s appointment as VP was a well-calculated move. Museveni’s “daughter” from Bukedea becomes the new President! Ugandans realise that this, indeed, was what Museveni had planned all along from 2020 when he snatched Among away from the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party, where she was a deputy national treasurer.

Why this scenario? Two key reasons. First, NRM has already mismanaged the Museveni succession. The ruling party people could have identified a successor as early as 2005. They didn’t. Instead they removed term limits from the Constitution to allow the President to run for elections over and over. Later, they removed age limits.

Secondly, Museveni never does anything without first doing serious political calculations. When he appoints or sacks people or refers to a woman he is not related to as “my daughter” there are major political calculations behind those things. It follows that, knowing the inability of the NRM crowd to plan his succession, he has done it himself.

That is why he has kept Ugandans guessing, speculating and spreading fake news about his succession. We have heard about a “queue” that some NRM people accused FDC’s Kiiza Besigye of trying to jump to take over from Museveni.

Now, we hear no talk of such a queue probably because there was never one. Instead, in comes Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Museveni’s son. He was rumoured to be the “project” to take over from his dad. But both father and son have vehemently denied that rumour.

Lately, though, the President has shown uncharacteristic warmth towards Teso sub-region. This is a warmth that has seen an unusually large number of people from Teso in very high offices. The VP, Speaker of Parliament, several ministers, Deputy Chief of Defence Forces, Deputy Commander of Land Forces, Deputy Governor of Bank of Uganda, and other top people are Iteso.

But it is in the choice of Speaker that it appears he has a grand plan.

Museveni sees women empowerment as his pet project. He has no better way to crown this than to intentionally hand over power to a woman.

Mr Akwap is associate consultant, postgraduate diploma in journalism and communication management, UMI