By Our Reporters
Eunice Namatende must be a firm believer in the saying that “failure isn’t defeat.” How else could we explain her resolve to return to the trenches of Bugiri Municipality and run against new MP Asuman Basalirwa who badly trounced her in the polling exercise a few months ago? In an interview with this news website, Namatende says: “For me it’s about my party and the conviction that I have a right to contest for any position as a Ugandan. Just know that I have been in this Bugiri politics longer than even Hon Asuman Basalirwa and I have what it takes to stand in 2021 and even defeat him and become the area MP.” Reminded that the Bugiri woman MP slot which she narrowly lost in 2016 remains open to her against the incumbent Agnes Taaka who is NRM, Namatende said: “Who tells you the Municipality MP Seat isn’t available? Yes there is Basalirwa but for me it’s just as available as the woman MP seat. I will be standing in 2021 for one of those two and I can’t rule myself out. It’s only the Presidency where I have no interest but these two positions, I will be available to run for one of them and chances are high I will go for the Municipality seat. Nobody should find that offensive because I and Basalirwa don’t share anything in common. Are we of the same ideology? Certainly no. Not at all. He believes in totally different things and I don’t believe in that cheap politics of bringing people from Kampala to come and abuse people. They called me all sorts of names and used brutality against my people. One man called Muwanga Kivumbi, who I had never met but always admired, said at the rally that I’m so cheap I don’t even know English and they shouldn’t elect me. They even said I was slut and prostitute sleeping around with men. It really hurt me but I didn’t fight back. I felt it was a cheap way to do politics. I was quiet not because I didn’t know how to say bad things about Basalirwa. I could have referred to him as a Taliban but I didn’t.” She added that after being defeated, she acted with grace by publicly congratulating Asuman Basalirwa but her good will gesture wasn’t reciprocated. “I posted this publicly on facebook and he received it but there was no response whatsoever and I’m not that cheap to go looking for people.” We asked her what would be wrong with her humbling herself and seek an appointment to meet Basalirwa since he is now the MP and discuss how to jointly campaign against the NRM in 2021 (for both Municipality and Woman MP) and this is what she said: “Doing that it would appear as if I’m begging for something from him which isn’t the case and besides that’s his character being aloof always. He is a good man but he has his bad side like all of us and his bad side is he never reaches out to people after elections and that’s what was being said in campaigns-being in Kampala more and not being on the ground in Bugiri.”
ZZAKE VISIT;
Namatende said two other incidents made her conclude that Asuman Basalirwa (with whom she hasn’t talked since elections) wasn’t someone she would be doing political business with anytime soon. “I went to Kiruddu hospital to check on Hon Francis Zzake [who greatly campaigned for Basalirwa] because I don’t take things personal on people. Basalirwa was there and he never greeted me. He ignored and showed me bad attitude until I reached out to say ‘How are you Honorable?’ He answered but very reluctantly and I realized he hadn’t moved on since that election.” She says the second incident which saw Basalirwa lose an opportunity to reach out to a political foe was when he organized his victory party in Bugiri. “They didn’t invite me yet they know I’m a big stakeholder in Bugiri opposition politics.” Would she attend, we asked her. “Very much so because me and him are from totally two different backgrounds and orientation. He is a lawyer and they tend to be very complicated. I’m a teacher naturally very sociable. I definitely would have attended since that would have been a perfect opportunity to unite our people and call on them to ensure we work together in 2021 to finish the NRM in Bugiri,” says Namatende. “I was really astonished with the way he acted in Kiruddu because beyond the Bugiri elections, I’m connected to Zzake as my OB because I did my under graduate at Ndejje University where he was [guild president].” She says having been shunned and alienated by Basalirwa’s indifference, she now feels totally unconstrained to stand for Bugiri Municipality MP Seat. Namatende says Basalirwa should emulate JEEMA elder Hussein Kyanjo’s reconciliatory approach. “Having realized the savagery insults they directed at me as a woman, Hon. Kyanjo called and said sorry. I have never met him but he felt it was too much and he said let’s forget the past and move on but Basalirwa can’t do such a thing. He believes he is home and dry,” says the FDC militant who started contesting against NRM heavyweights in 2006 when she was aged 19. She insists that she is convinced she “will finally become an MP.” She says she is currently busy with FDC party assignments and her master’s degree at Ndejje University after which she will be commencing mobilization activities in Bugiri with eyes on 2021 Municipality race. She says there are already noticeable cracks in the political alliance that enabled Basalirwa to overcome NRM’s Francis Oketcho in the ballot box. “The Siraje Lyavala camp of the NRM supported him in the last days and contributed to his victory but they are now grumbling saying we didn’t know this man would turn against us. They have been trying to recruit me in their fights but I have refused. I’m on my own and my party. I don’t want to be used by those NRM people to fight their wars with Basalirwa,” says Namatende in reference to political disagreements between Basalirwa and the Lyavala camp regarding who is best suited to become pioneer woman MP in newly created Bugweri district which neighbors Bugiri. Whereas Basalirwa actively backs his JEEMA candidate Sarah Babirye, the Lyavala group are actively campaigning for Mercy Walukamba who recently quit NRM to stand on the People Power platform. Namatende says she doesn’t need to ally with the Lyavala NRM group in order to build political capital against Basalirwa for the purposes of 2021. She claims that Basalirwa knows better than any other person that she is politically a very strong character because “I’m not intimidated by those hypocrites of his and that’s why I never cried anywhere in public even when those guys attacked me as a woman saying nasty things about me and used brutality against my supporters.” She says the fact that she could control her emotions and only cried inside her bed room on being defeated is indicative of the strong personality she is. For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755.
