By Mulengera Reporters
Pressure is mounting on DP President Norbert Mao as party members count down to their delegates conference slated for later this month. MP Richard Sebamala, who wants the position of DP President General, says curious requirements to run for Presidency have been put in place personally by the SG in order to shield Norbert Mao, who has controversially led DP since 2010, against competition.
Sebamala believes that having served for 15 years, Norbert Mao has become so unpopular he can only secure another term through locking out his opponents. He is opposed to the requirements such as those barring serving MPs from becoming Party President and the one rendering him ineligible on grounds that he hasn’t been active party member for 5 years prior to the National Delegates Conference (NDC).
Sebamala, who resigned from being Iganga district Engineer on the eve of 2021 elections during which he raised the DP flag by defeating then GoU Vice President Edward Sekandi, says that eligibility requirements like this one are targeted at him because he poses the biggest threat to Mao. On Friday, he featured on CBS where he asserted that he had been an active funder of DP activities long before becoming MP and qualifies to be cleared to present himself to delegates at the NDC slated for later this month in Mbarara City.
Speaking during the same CBS segment, Lulume Bayiga, who Mao has been defeating at past elections and is in the race even now, also admitted that Sebamala hasn’t been treated fairly. The two have vowed to closely collaborate to ensure that Mao is deflated with his man Siranda.
But Kennedy Mutenyo, a big official on party elections, says there is nothing Sebamala is going to do about the situation because the rules are the rules. Sebamala has since been advised to consider vying for any other position in the party for which he is qualified as opposed to seeking to die on Mao as if he has anything personal against him.
Little known Elia Alitia, the DP Vice President for Northern Uganda, is equally aggrieved and wants the NDC to be postponed to first harmonize the concerns party members and leaders have regarding the circumstances under which nomination fees for those vying for Party President was increased from Shs5m to Shs10m without first having NEC-level ratification for the same. In a 23rd April letter, Alitia registered his loss of faith and confidence in Secretary General Dr. Gerald Siranda.
Yet that isn’t all Mao has to contend with. Party delegates from South Western Uganda have equally been holding meetings and have since registered their aggrievement in writing. They are saying the process isn’t transparent and have written to SG Siranda demanding postponement of the NDC so that the contending ideas and concerns of the different stakeholders are harmonized first.
This group is increasingly becoming outspoken and are gradually coalescing around Edith Byanyima, the elder sister to Eng Winnie Byanyima of UNAIDS. Edith too risks being belittled by Mao’s supporters who are already saying she has no moral authority to raise her middle finger at Siranda because she has never been active in DP.
But the truth is that the Byanyima family has a lot of history in DP as their mother Gertrude Byanyima was national women leader in DP for many years as her husband Mzee Boniface Byanyima served as the party’s National Chairman for decades. He actually remains the longest serving in that role. He also suffered the indignity of remaining the only DP MP in Parliament in the 1960s when the rest of his colleagues crossed the floor and joined Obote’s UPC in government. This was at a time Ben Kiwanuka was party president and the very treacherous Basil Batalingaya the LoP in Parliament.
In a Friday phone interaction with Mulengera News, Edith Byanyima confirmed being thickly involved in efforts to clean up the rot in DP including being part of the long list of leaders who on Saturday 26th April met and agreed to write a letter to Siranda demanding postponement of the NDC in order to first deescalate tensions inside the party. This similar demand was unsuccessfully made by Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago, Betty Nambooze and others in 2010.
When the Sebaana leadership disregarded them, they pulled out and boycotted the Mbale Delegates Conference where Mao competed with then discredited Nasser Sebaggala Seya whom he easily defeated and that is how he became President General for DP, a party a lot of people say hasn’t been well led under his tenure for the last 15 years.
And yet the coming on board of someone with name-recognition like Edith Byanyima is ordinarily bad news for Mao because it raises the pedigree of the faction that is objecting to the manner in which the NDC is being organized. But broadly speaking, being a loaded Minister inside Museveni’s government and with influential actors like national Vice President Mukasa Mbidde treading careful as opposed to going bare knuckles on him so far, Mao still has the cards and adequate upper hand to ultimately prevail against his adversaries.
