By Mulengera Reporters
On Wednesday, old comrades once again came together and converged for a media event during which a new political alliance was proclaimed. This brings together political giants operating under Kizza Besigye-led PFF and Gen Mugisha Muntu-led ANT.
These are both registered political parties whose formation the two NRA bush war fighters incorporated after the FDC, which they had co-founded in 2005, was hijacked in a fashion they saw as beneficial to the manipulative political interests of Gen YK Museveni.
At the Wednesday event an MoU, stipulating duties and obligations under the new PFF/ANT political cooperation, was signed by the PFF group led by Erias Lukwago and the ANT squad led by Gen Muntu. It was a political reunion of some sort of old political allies who effectively worked together under FDC from 2005 to 2017 when fractures emerged resulting into the Muntu exit that culminated into the formation of ANT.
Besigye, naturally very respectful of Gen Muntu, had his own reservations regarding the mistreatment and disinformation the former army commander endured at the hands of a clique inside FDC that concentrated on driving a wedge between them and specifically destroying Gen Muntu’s image and reputation, while hiding behind his name.
Respectful as always, Besigye stood for politics of activism and defiance, which Gen Muntu wasn’t that much enthusiastic about. He believed in less activism so that more resources could be dedicated to the building and strengthening of party structures. And it was this slight difference in approach that self-seekers capitalized on to drive a wedge between the two politically very sophisticated former NRA leaders. Besigye was uncomfortable with the Nandala Mafabi/POA misrepresentation but being a gentleman and always an adult in the room, he never came out to publicly contradict them.
This silence and unwillingness to call out the duo for their curious political approach towards moderates inside FDC (while using his name) is what discomforted the likes of Winnie Kiiza, Alice Alaso, Wandera Ogaro, Angeline Osege, Kassiano Wadri and others who reacted by decamping in 2018 and walking away with Gen Muntu to found ANT.
So, those who know a lot more about this say that the fallout and departure of POA and Nandala Mafabi from the Besigye political orbit motivated the likes of Alaso, Wadri, Kiiza and others to realize that it was possible and not too late to once again work with the political colossus from Rwakabengo. As Muntu indicated in his Wednesday speech, the process to mend fences and closely work together once again had been on for months preceding the Wednesday MoU-signing event.
There is a high likelihood that the Besigye/PFF-Muntu/ANT Alliance or political cooperation can ignite a momentum that can result into their joint candidates upstaging NRM and win a significant number of MP and local government seats in especially regions or districts outside NUP-dominated Buganda. The Besigye-Muntu coalition doesn’t even have to bother fronting a presidential candidate as overcoming Bobi Wine or even Museveni won’t be an easy task in the immediate term.
They simply have to conveniently embrace Bobi Wine as their candidate for President so that, in return, their MP candidates in areas outside Buganda (where NUP can’t front formidable candidates) can tap into his momentum to re-energize their base. The Besigye/Muntu adherents have more formidable structures and pedigree to front more formidable MP candidates in those traditional opposition areas outside Buganda, something which NUP can’t accomplish in the immediate term.
Yet there is a significant percentage of NUP-minded young people they can galvanize and work with to overcome NRM MP candidates in those very areas. Those very young people, many as they are, need leadership and inspiration which the Besigye/Muntu political veterans can readily offer them as they propagate their own MP candidatures and that of Kyagulanyi for President. This is why Gen Museveni and his state machinery will be working hard to create and sustain antagonism between Mr. Wine on one hand and the Besigye/Muntu coalition on the other. Allowing that excellent relationship to blossom will be very costly for Museveni to endure.
Speaking at the Wednesday media event, Alice Alaso read out names of 8 ANT leaders who will be teaming up with another 8 from PFF to constitute the Common Grand Council (CGC), which will be the apex decision-making organ for the coalition which both Lukwago and Alaso clearly declared will be focusing on identifying, fronting and facilitating joint candidates to face NRM ones especially in traditional opposition regions outside Buganda (emphasis ours). Alaso made it clear that as ANT, they feel at home getting back to working with like-minded colleagues based at Katonga under PFF.
Gratefully, these are guys who have previously beaten NRM and delivered entire regions for the opposition. For years, Kassiano did this in West Nile, Alaso in Teso and Winnie Kiiza in Kasese. They only needed to reunite with Besigye who, despite not being interested in running again, remains a people’s darling (actually more acceptable than Mr. Wine) in some of those traditional opposition regions.
The teaming up of the Besigye momentum and Alice Alaso will, for instance, diminish POA’s political influence even in his native Teso sub region. The Besigye-Winnie Kiiza reunion can move several mountains in Kasese and claim back significant political capital in Kasese where Mzee Saul Matte (a renowned Besigyeist) has been holding forte. Hon Harold Muhindo, an effective mobilizer, is also equally on board.
It’s because of all these potential accomplishments that Alice Alaso felt emboldened to declare at the Wednesday media at Hotel Africana event that the days of credible, serious, responsible, deliberate, consistent and integrity-driven opposition leadership taking on Gen Museveni are back. She said by coming together once again, out of necessity and in response to pressure from the public which wants to see a united opposition, they had exhibited readiness to prove the wrongness of Museveni’s earlier claim that by 2026, his ruling NRM won’t be facing any credible opposition. The founding FDC Secretary General stressed that Gen Museveni was wrong and this is exactly going to be demonstrated to the whole country under the new PFF/ANT alliance which will be strengthening and increasing opposition victory chances by fronting joint candidates for all positions.
She agreed with Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago’s assertion (also the PFF Principal) that the coming together of PFF and ANT was just the beginning. She explained they have a lot in common and there is no reason why they don’t coalesce and once again work together. She explained they have what it takes to offer credible opposition which the people of Uganda will trust and be proud of.
She said their coming together was based on the undeniable realization that in Uganda, since independence, no single individual, group of political formation (however formidable) had ever been potent enough to overcome a well-entrenched incumbent like Gen Museveni has become. Saying she was convinced other political groupings will be coming on board to have this shared conviction, Alaso said that “today’s historic moment is just the beginning and the first step in a 1,000-mile journey.”
Before leading out the names of the 16 apex leaders who will be steering the CGC, Alaso predicted that their coming together was going to motivate and re-energize the opposition base and the resultant political momentum will evolve into something Gen Museveni has never faced or endured in his 40 years of being President. That the joint campaign they are going to mount going into 2026 will make Gen Museveni to feel them like never before.
Erias Lukwago thanked Dr. Besigye, in absentia, making it clear that his guidance and insistence to come together had been key during the months of intense consultations that preceded the Wednesday unveiling event.
The 16 eminent leaders to constitute the CGC, whose work it will be to operationalize the PFF/ANT MoU, are as follows: Angeline Osege Sr Counsel Dan Wandera Ogaro, Ntungamo Municipality ex-MP Gerald Karuhanga, ex-MP Kassiano Wadri, ex-LoP Winnie Kiiza, Alice Alaso & Gen Mugisha Muntu. All these are from ANT.
And from the Katonga-based PFF, the 8 CGC members include Salaam Musumba, Erias Lukwago, Mzee Wyclif Bakandonda, Wafula Ogutu, Gulu City Woman MP Betty Aol Ocan, Kasese MP Harold Muhindo and Hon Okot B’leo, a sitting MP from Lango sub region. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
