By Mulengera Reporters
Speaking as a senior elder in fallen Major John Bashaija Kazoora’s family, ex-Museveni Minister Miria Matembe excited mourners at the deceased’s home in Kigo Tuesday night when she called out President Museveni for not treating her fallen uncle fairly. She asserted that Kazoora, who joined Museveni’s NRA bush war at just 22, gave Uganda his all but was betrayed with the way Museveni treated him in later years.
Just like Kazoora wrote in his memoirs, Betrayed by Man Leader, Matembe said Museveni’s hatred for their uncle started in 1996 when Kazoora joined the 6th Parliament and quickly distinguished himself as the uncowable voice against corruption, bad governance, obscurantism in the Movement and life presidency.
That using clandestine means, which he was very good at, Major Kazoora quickly mobilized fellow MPs to found what became the Young Parliamentary Association which united all first term MPs. YPA, which Kazoora tactfully didn’t become leader for, became so vibrant in absence of political parties (which Museveni had banned) and this gave the President sleepless nights. Matembe recalled how Kazoora used YPA to lead voices that successfully demanded that Museveni couldn’t continue being President and head the legislature the way he had done under NRC.
Kazoora, who one time privately met then Speaker James Waphakabhulo and encouraged him to resist intimidation and manipulation by Museveni, went on to use the 6th Parliament through YPA to lead others to oppose Museveni’s plan to give the Bujagali electricity generation deal to a private investor. Matembe said even when it turned out this was a fake investor; this is something for which Gen Museveni never forgave Kazoora.
She said the Museveni resentment against her uncle even escalated when growing resistance against life presidency and lifting of term limits in 2005 escalated and grew inside the Ankole MPs caucus. Matembe told mourners when Ministers like herself drew a line in the sand and stood up to Museveni while calling him out for seeking to rule for life, a lot of the blame went to Kazoora who was an underground clandestine operator but more lethal and deadly than overt ones. That Museveni several times spoke to her urging her to resist being manipulated by Kazoora.
She added that by standing up against corruption and bad governance the way he did, her uncle Major Kazoora wasn’t motivated by hate for Museveni as a person. Instead, he was putting in practice principled politics which Museveni himself taught them in the bush. However, she observed that his well-demonstrated courage and love for Uganda cost Kazoora a lot personally.
She noted that he was intelligent and loyal enough to the founding ideals of the Movement and NRA bush war except that Museveni resented him for always standing up for what was right. She said that the strange paranoia Museveni developed towards him is the reason Kazoora was sidelined and prevented from deploying his full potential in the service of his country. She recalled how Museveni fought hard to prevent Kazoora from winning any parliamentary races after their clear fallout in 2005.
He stood to retain his Kashari County MP Seat in 2006 and lost to less prolific State House-backed Urban Tibamanya who Museveni rewarded with a ministerial seat at lands. Still on FDC ticket, in 2011 Kazoora relocated to Mbarara Municipality where he was rigged out and lost to Museveni-backed Medard Bitekyerezo and in 2016 he lost the same Mbarara Municipality seat to then little known Micheal Tusime.
In 2021, he returned to Kashari and stood in Kashari South County (the greater Kashari had been split) where he was floored by Nathan Twesigye Itungo, an NRM-leaning independent who polled 10,252 votes. Kazoora stood as an independent after realizing Muntu’s ANT, to which he had defected, hadn’t been embraced by voters. He only managed 4,750 votes and was actually number 3. The second was NRM’s Abel Mwebembezi who got 8,593. Matembe explained that by deploying the state machinery to fight and humiliate Kazoora in all these elections, the President denied her uncle an opportunity to avail his full potential to the service of his country.
She said there is no way corruption would be rising and rampant everywhere in government the way we know it today if Kazoora had remained in Parliament. She believes he would use that platform to mobilize fellow MPs to say no and successfully stand up to the corrupt.
Matembe described Kazoora as an effective fighter who made a big contribution to the NRA bush war and concluded that he only stagnated at the rank of Major simply because of the dislike and contempt Gen Museveni had towards him because of his insistence to always tell the truth.
She said this is the only reason why equally capable comrades like Kahinda Otafiire are today Generals yet Kazoora was stagnated at the rank of Major his entire life inspite of his well-illustrated career, capabilities and contribution.
Matembe, who spoke in the presence of Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa who Kazoora mentored in FDC and was at the vigil to represent Museveni, had to fight off the vigil MCs who were trying to gag her from talking negatively about Gen Museveni whose unsuitability to remain President Kazoora put in writing in his memoirs more than 10 years ago.
Perhaps because of the financial contributions the veteran leader from Rwakitura had extended over the years towards Kazoora’s medical bills, the other family members (especially the deceased’s sons) walked back on this and didn’t seem comfortable having anyone make reference to the belligerent relationship Museveni had with the fallen Major.
But the bitter truth is that no one can successfully walk back on that dark part of Uganda’s history because Major Kazoora clearly made his case-and moreover in writing. The story of his antagonism with Gen YK Museveni is well-documented and out there in black and white. Yet some of his sons are so cautious and seem to wish their now fallen father didn’t write his memoirs at all. Their mother Naome Kabasharira the Rushenyi county MP is equally cautious and only said things which complement Museveni for the financial contributions he made towards Major Kazoora’s medication. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
