Having closely worked with him on the SDP project in the years gone-by, ex-VP Prof Gilbert Bukenya has exposed former Makindye East MP Mike Mabikke’s political secrets. Speaking on CBS radio’s very popular interview segment called “Nze nga bwendaba,” Bukenya told interviewer Alex Nsubuga that Bobi Wine will live to regret his decision to politically associate with any political formation to which Mike Mabikke is a party. “Bobi Wine has no future or hope to make any progress as long as he works with such people. He doesn’t have to rush. He can wait and build his own thing if he can rather than allying with such people,” said the veteran politician who closely worked with Mabikke in the run up to 2016 general elections. At some point, Mabikke even surrendered his SDP party to Bukenya who used it as a vehicle to become a Principal in TDA where he was in the running for the slot of the joint opposition Presidential Candidate along with Dr. Kizza Besigye and ex-PM Amama Mbabazi. Bukenya now says: “Those (Mabikke & co) are political failures. And Kyagulanyi should get a team of new faces because these guys have been failing many times. They are just wasting people’s time and people should shun them. They should first put their house in order. They are double-faced ever saying one thing and doing totally the opposite. They don’t practice what they preach.” In the same interview Bukenya dismisses Mabikke as a job seeker claiming he tried to use his closeness to him as ex-VP to negotiate a job for himself with government. “It was a very painful experience and that’s why I can’t be in those political things of opposing the government anymore because those guys did many nasty things to me. They appeared to surrender SDP to me yet at the same time they were dealing with Sejusa behind my back. They are very dishonest actors and not the kind this country needs,” says Bukenya who also condemns DP Bloc promoters for priotizing attacking Besigye who is their fellow opposition leader.
Bobi Wine and Dr. Besigye in an earlier photo
To him, such attacks corroborate his claim that the DP Bloc is dead on arrival because it’s promoters aren’t genuine actors. “Why should they fight Kizza Besigye, a man who enjoys being a Presidential Candidate? They should build their own thing and sell it to the people,” says Bukenya who also predicts the DP Bloc will dramatically collapse sooner than many people think.
ON BEING MOLE
On claims that he was a mole planted by President Museveni to spy on the opposition and more so the TDA process, Bukenya says that can’t be true. He says instead he was spied on by people he fraternized with in SDP and that the resultant frustration pushed him back to Museveni’s NRM. “Let them not decieve you that I was the problem. Why did they not carry on with their TDA after I had left? Why did they not succeed after Bukenya the mole had left TDA? Is there anyone who doesn’t know how that thing failed because of the cliquism and the scheming those people were practicing? I sat with them many times in those TDA meetings and I can tell you they are just duping people and can’t add anything to Kyagulanyi,” says Bukenya who is said to have parted with Shs300m to be permitted participation in TDA meetings as the representative of SDP party.
MABIKKE SPEAKS OUT
Mabikke says Bukenya is an exppired politician who doesn’t deserve any coverage anymore. “He isn’t an authority on the contemporary politics we are playing in the DP Bloc and People Power. That’s why I wouldn’t want to respond to his utterances,” says Mabikke who initially marketed Bukenya as a potential Museveni successor in 2016 before abandoning him for JPAM. Bukenya says in between, the same Mabikke was politically hobnobbing with Gen David Sejusa. Speaking on CBS Parliament Yaffee program this Saturday morning, Mabikke said Bukenya degraded himself too much when he rejoined NRM and went on to fight for the Busiro North MP Seat which he miserably lost to NRM strongman (now Minister) Dennis Ssozi Galabuzi. “That man lost it long time ago and therefore doesn’t have any political relevance anymore,” Mabikke dismissively said of Prof Bukenya. The ex-VP in return says Mabikke too has been around the political scene for too long and should exit along with those he calls too old to practice politics in the Kyagulanyi era. Having been active as early 1996 Presidential elections, some critics say that Mabikke, Sam Lubega Mukaku and others in the DP Bloc have actually practiced politics longer than the Kizza Besigyes (Mohammed Nsereko, Semujju Nganda etc) who they say should give way to new faces because they have opposed Museveni long enough. Whereas Besigye began active opposition politics in 2001, the Mabikkes had started much earlier on which is why they were able (as they always say) to welcome and induct the retired Colonel in the politics of the opposition. (For comments, email us on mulengera2040@gmail.com).
