By Aggrey Baba
For a political movement that has recently succeeded in pulling an impressive collection of political, government, military, business and media heavyweights into its fold, Friday’s massive Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU) demonstration against Turkey presented a rather unusual picture, where the ordinary MK foot soldiers came out in their thousands, but many of the big shots who have lately been rushing to associate themselves with Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba were conspicuously missing.
The march, which attracted a crowd estimated at close to 10,000 people, started at Lugogo Cricket Oval at around 10:43am, and proceeded to the Turkish Embassy in Kololo, where PLU leaders delivered a protest letter over Turkey’s refusal to hand over Ugandan blogger Fred Kajubi Lumbuye.
The protesters, largely dressed in PLU colours, marched peacefully under tight security and were eventually allowed to deliver their letter to the embassy.
Yet for an organisation that has recently become a magnet for ministers, MPs, senior government officials and some of Uganda’s most prominent businessmen, the absence of the usual political heavyweights was impossible to miss.
One would have expected the likes of Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oboth-Oboth, Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa, Agriculture Minister Frank Tumwebaze, Local Government Minister Balaam Barugahara, Defence Minister Kiryowa Kiwanuka, Government Chief Whip Jane Ruth Aceng, Trade Minister Sanjay Tanna, State Minister for Sports Peter Ogwang, State Minister for Health Charles Ayume, State Minister for Energy Phiona Nyamutooro, State Minister for Public Service Lydia Wanyoto, State Minister for Northern Uganda Beatrice Akori, among others, to be somewhere around the procession.
They are not strangers to PLU. Many have been formally incorporated into the movement’s structures, with some serving on its Central Committee while others have been assigned the increasingly prominent Patriotic Officer numbers. The PLU leadership currently lists Mwine Mpaka, David Kabanda and Michael Mawanda among its parliamentary figures, with Mawanda serving as Director of Mobilization and Kabanda as a Central Committee member.
The list of MPs publicly associated with the Muhoozi project has also been expanding rapidly. In the past few days alone, PLU announced the endorsement of Gen Muhoozi in Western Uganda, by Ankole legislators Amos Kankunda, Amanya Cohen Kyampene, Mwine Mpaka Rwamirama, Boaz Atwijukire and Zadock Mutekanga, yet none of them was present by the time the march commenced at Lugogo Cricket Oval.
Others whose names have featured prominently in the wider PLU mobilization include, Jane Ruth Aceng, Peter Ogwang, Juliet Kinyamatama, Charles Ayume, Denis Obua and several other MPs and government figures who have been given Patriotic Officer numbers or assigned roles in the movement, with the record showing that the network now cuts across Cabinet, Parliament and other influential sectors.
On the business and influence side, the movement has also attracted figures such as Mike Mukula, Sudhir Ruparelia and Godfrey Kirumira, while veteran journalist Andrew Mwenda was appointed Director of Communications. Edwin Karugire, another prominent name around the Muhoozi project, serves as Director of Legal Affairs. None of these big names turned up for the event.
This is why Friday’s spectacle was difficult to reconcile with the PLU gatherings that have recently been packed with high-profile faces.
Only days before the Turkish Embassy march, the PLU Secretariat in Naguru hosted a major event to launch its website, online membership registration and the nationwide endorsement drive for Muhoozi’s 2031 bid. Deputy Speaker Tayebwa was the chief guest, while the launch brought together ministers, MPs, PLU leaders and other prominent supporters.
The contrast was therefore stark, that at Naguru, the political establishment around PLU appeared to be falling over itself to be counted among the people backing Muhoozi; at Lugogo and along the route to the Turkish Embassy, it was predominantly the ordinary cadres who showed up.
And unlike the recent PLU gatherings where senior politicians could be seen publicly receiving endorsement books, making statements and posing for photographs, Friday’s march was left largely to the grassroots.
This clearly contrasts with earlier MK/PLU-related public functions where many big name Ministers, MPs and businessmen struggled to be seen and captured by media cameras in order to demonstrate their loyalty to Uganda’s very powerful crown prince.
During the Friday march, the PLU Secretary General Fadhil Twalla, who is used to always being flanked by publicity-seeking Ministers, MPs and other powerful Ugandan actors, was this time round all by himself as he addressed the thousands of ordinary MK foot soldiers who turned up for the event.
Knowledgeable sources say that even the few big shots who turned up were deliberately incognito and were careful not to be photographed or captured anywhere in the media coverage. Sources have offered multiple explanations as to why many of the big people (who might require a Turkey visa someday) chose caution as opposed to being conspicuous participants as ordinary Ugandans rallied out to show displeasure at Ankara.
Some chose that path for fear that conspicuous participation would injure their business and money-making relations with business partners who are either Turkish firms or have strong links to Ankara. Several other Ugandan senior citizens are sickly and live with lifetime medical conditions which require them to make frequent travels to Turkish cities like Ankara, Istanbul and others. Such life-saving travels could be constrained the moment one gets blacklisted and added onto the list of those who have to be denied Turkish visas.
Other sources asserted that having the big-name citizens stay away from the protest was good for the optics of the government of Uganda whose head Gen YK Museveni would easily have been discomforted if the Friday demonstration ended up being perceived and portrayed by the international media as a confrontational moment between the GoU and that one of Turkey.
It was preferred that the same remains an affair of the ordinary MK supporters since the involvement of top officials would make the march end up being seen as something enabled by the GoU. The staying away of top officials makes it easier for the MK adherents to express themselves without creating new complications in the otherwise fairly good bilateral diplomatic relations between Kampala and Ankara (the Fred Lumbuye fiasco notwithstanding). (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
