By Mulengera Reporters
On Wednesday, close to 1,000 village level leaders from Kampala district converged at a huge compound inside State House Nakasero (outside Okello House) where President Museveni’s re-election chief strategist Moses Byaruhanga addressed them. The usually stiff Moses Byaruhanga relaxed and spent some good time mingling and dancing with mobilizers (calling them out by name) as the DJ played the ‘Ensonga y’oweri’ song.
These are leaders State House designated sometime back to serve as volunteers specifically overseeing the performance of the PDM intervention in hundreds of villages or cells making up Kampala district under the 5 Divisions and the 100 parishes.
Independent of parish-based PDM coordinators and the NRM structures of 30 leaders per village, these PDM volunteers are the ones State House has been using to leverage and explain the benefits of PDM to ensure that Gen Museveni reaps the consequent political dividend come 15th January, which is the voting day.
Each one of them has since been facilitated and tasked with delivering a minimum of 20 votes for the President from the village or cell where they are each deployed. To quality-assure this mobilization drive, a data base has been created for all their contacts, ID NINs and other details-and Gen Museveni randomly rings any of them to understand how the Kampala mobilization is going. Imagine receiving unexpected phone call from the President; that can be very motivating.
Upon recruiting the 20 voters, each is required to submit a report to a political command centre of some sort, where a team of IT-savvy volunteers has been put in place. These record the details (name, phone number, NINs etc) of the recruited 20 voters who the big man will keep reaching out to randomly, via phone call, in the remaining days to voting day.
Museveni personally intends to motivate PDM volunteers who will deliver the highest number of votes for him in Kampala under this arrangement. 20 voters per village is merely the minimum; one is free to recruit up to 100 or more. Those who recruit more will be rewarded and specifically recognized by the President at a public function at Kololo after election day.
The shared details of the 20 voters per village or cell get verified to ensure authenticity and during the Wednesday consultation session at the Nakasero State House compound, the PDM volunteers were called upon to avoid being coercive or deceptive towards the 20 voters they recruit because everything they submit is already being electronically verified, even without them knowing.
In place are dedicated phone lines on which the details of recruited 20 voters are being continuously submitted to the political command Centre. Submission of such records via sms or WhatsApp means, is ongoing 24/7. Led by their overall boss Umar Lule Mawiya, who is the incumbent RCC Kampala, all the Divisions-based Deputy RCCs and their assistants were at the Wednesday meeting. The RCC’s office has been engaged to secure, support and facilitate the work of Museveni’s village/cell-based PDM volunteers.
At the Wednesday meeting, a clearly recharged Moses Byaruhanga suggested they directly deal with State House using the designated hotline numbers that were issued to them sometime back and only go through the RCCs in case the hotline channel fails or in case they have emergency Museveni re-election mobilization-related information to pass on.
Kampala Central Mayor Salim Uhuru, who is also the newly elected NRM Chairman for Kampala special region and therefore a CEC member, was also present at the Wednesday meeting. He thanked NRM cadres for entrusting him with the CEC vote and assured Byaruhanga that Gen Museveni is this time round going to win the popular vote in Kampala.
Uhuru, who has always won his races beating the opposition in Kampala Central, agreed with earlier speakers who had thanked Museveni for the PDM intervention, which was unanimously declared the most impactful such wealth creation intervention by the NRM government in its 40 years in power. Uhuru said as NRMs in Kampala, the least they can do to reciprocate all these several economically emancipating interventions over the years, is by ensuring that Gen Museveni wins the popular vote in Kampala come 15th January.
“We are very grateful and re-energized by the fact that this time round, Mzee has insisted that his Kampala mobilization be spearheaded by cadres in Kampala as imposed to imposing on us external players as had been the case at the previous elections. We have no reason now not to deliver a win for him like it was done in 1996,” Uhuru told a cheering crowd.
Referring to a group of young men and bloggers (operating under NRM Digital Wave which is being coordinated by Kawempe South candidate Madina Nsereko to blunt the NUP visibility on Tik Tok and other social media platforms), Uhuru said that there are indicators that Museveni’s re-election victory over Kampala’s popular vote is possible.
NRM Digital Wave comprises of Tik Tokers who Madina continues to lure to defect from NUP to the NRM side. At the Wednesday meeting, their leader briefly spoke and assured Byaruhanga more and more defectors are coming from NUP inside the Kampala ghettos.
Madina Nsereko, whose popularity continues to give Kavule sleepless nights as she stands high chance to capitalize on the NUP confusion and beat Fred Nyanzi for the Kawempe South MP Seat, thanked Museveni for accepting to raise Kampala’s share of the PDM funds from mere Shs100m annually per parish to Shs300m.
Uhuru said that Museveni accepted this because he realized Kampala’s urban poor-related vulnerability problems were peculiar in that Kampala parishes or wards have much higher numbers of people than a typical Ugandan parish elsewhere. He thanked the President for giving him enough time, on the sidelines of a recent CEC meeting, to explain this to him Kampala’s uniqueness hence the decision to increase Kampala’s allocation to Shs300m per parish per year.
Moses Byaruhanga, renowned for having unlimited access to the President, revealed that the big man from Rwakitura will have no problem enlarging Kampala’s PDM allocation per parish to much more than Shs300m.
“The money is there and it’s very simple. All we must do is to be honest as leaders and make sure the PDM money reaches the intended beneficiaries and delivers the expected transformation of the household. The President will have no problem increasing the allocation and I’m ready to sit down with him and explain why this is necessary. Let’s act honestly and avoid embarrassing or discouraging the President by misappropriating the money as leaders. Let’s lead by example because in the Movement, we are deliberate about transparency and being accountable as leaders,” he said during a meeting that was conducted in Luganda, as organizers repeatedly discouraged too much English.
Moses Byaruhanga, who then as a much younger man was part of the game in 1996 when Gen Museveni beat the opposition’s PK Semogerere and won the popular vote in Kampala, agreed with Salim Uhuru that it’s indeed possible for the NRM big man to beat Bobi Wine and once again win the Kampala popular vote come 15th January. He was also thickly involved in the 2008 turning of tables on the opposition when NRM flag bearer Peter Ssematimba won the popular vote to become the Rubaga Division Mayor.
That unexpected win by Ssematimba greatly excited President Museveni who reacted by investing a lot of money in wealth creation interventions in Kampala. Ssematimba went on to do well in the Lord Mayoral elections of 2011 when he narrowly lost to Erias Lukwago. Byaruhanga was part of the clandestine mobilization that made all that possible, and he is determined to once again try replicating the same.
“It’s achievable but we have to work hard in the remaining days. As we do that, I implore each one of you to act honestly and avoid telling lies to each other. Lets be exemplary as leaders and also let’s avoid conflicting with other groups organizing differently for the President. There are those mobilizing under the NRM Secretariat’s structures of 30 people per village. Those are our allies. Let’s not antagonize them and if we have people among us here who are equally involved in the 30 people per village, the ghetto structure and other initiatives, it’s all okay. There is no problem, no contradiction because we are all meant to score in the same goal and same net,” clarified Moses Byaruhanga who was flanked by other officials involved in the clandestine operation of the Greater Kampala Metropolitan districts including SPA Mariam Namayanja.
Byaruhanga also revealed to the excited mobilizers that the President will be very happy, will get motivated even more to deliver more transformative interventions for the people of Kampala the moment that victory is delivered and whoever will have verifiably participated in making it possible will be rewarded and appreciated by Gen Museveni himself in ways words can’t even describe.
He implored the PDM village/cell-based volunteers to work very hard, deliver the votes and leave the rest to the President, who is good at rewarding and appreciating loyal cadres who deliver to him the desired electoral results. Byaruhanga sounded confident of Salim Uhuru’s re-election as Mayor Kampala Central Division and about the victory for several other ruling NRM candidates in the three metropolitan districts of Kampala, Mukono and Wakiso. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
