By Mulengera Reporters
DP VP Mukasa Mbidde has undressed little known party PDP leader Dr. Abed Bwanika saying he is a clear mole ever working to keep Museveni in power. Mbidde wonders why Bwanika hides behind the UYD/DP reunion activities to attack the renowned heroes of the anti-Museveni struggle. He gives examples of Betty Nambooze, Erias Lukwago and Dr. Kizza Besigye as some of the leaders Bwanika attacks each time he gets the microphone yet he never attacks Museveni. Mbidde says he was assaulted at the DP reunion rally in Masaka yesterday Friday simply because he made a speech in which he criticized President Museveni. “That’s what put me in trouble with the organizers yet they entertained speakers like Bwanika who attack our allies like Hon Betty Nambooze, Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago and Dr. Kizza Besigye,” Mbidde told reporters at a hastily convened press conference after being assaulted at the DP rally. “We are not going to allow this to continue. We have a disciplinary mechanism in DP and I will be petitioning to have those members reprimanded for using the DP/UYD reunion activities to promote hostilities against leaders of partner political formations,” Mbidde explained. He says Bwanika ferried in thugs and students from Kampala in Wandegeya who even assaulted former DP President PK Semogerere simply because he was criticizing Museveni at the Masaka rally. Mbidde says Bwanika is a renowned Museveni man which is why in 2006 he even gave affidavit evidence in court showing that President Museveni had never rigged any elections. “That was strange because we all know that Dr. Besigye won that election,” Mbidde says. He says Bwanika is always standing for presidency not to win but to deliberately enable Museveni achieve certain things on the ballot paper. He questions why Bwanika’s name appeared on the list of spies who were getting weekly police fuel facilitation. “You must answer to Ugandans who you are working for and why you are running that briefcase political party? That fuel was meant for government spies to do their work so for your Mr. Bwanika you were getting it as who? Where do you conduct your spying and against who? You say you have a party but who else is your member apart from yourself? In DP we compete for positions because we are many but in PDP who else is there apart from yourself? We don’t have sole candidates like in NRM which you work for,” Mbidde said at a press conference in Masaka. He was flanked by other DP area leaders including Dennis Majwala who is the LC3 Chairman of the Municipal Division where the rally was held. Majwala says Bwanika’s group members had hired people to kill him “but one of them came to me saying eeh you are Majwala I was brought here to kill you but they haven’t even paid me my money as yet.” Majwala, just like Mbidde, says the reunion project has been hijacked by moles who want to use Bobi Wine to merely win MP & LG positions “and such people don’t care how long Museveni stays.” Mbidde wonders why Bwanika who has his own political party should be so much interested in uniting DP in which he isn’t a member. As we reported previously, there are calls among some DP NEC members for President General Norbert Mao to assert his authority by overhauling the reunion coordination team and purge the likes of Sam Lubega, Mike Mabikke and others on grounds of indiscipline. Indeed the anger started with Arua Municipality elections where the reunion leaders jumped on Kassiano Wadri (Mao says) not based on any principle but opportunism having calculated that he is the crowd favorite who was slated to win. Mao was unhappy with that betrayal and denounced some of the reunion leader’s efforts to force DP candidate Kennedy Madeira out of the race in order to appease Wadri. Mao stuck to his party candidate and the reunion leaders de-campaigned him in favor of Wadri who would anyway still have won with or without their involvement. The plan was to crack the whip immediately after Arua but the torture fracas overshadowed everything and it remained a question of when.
MBIDDE’S WAY FORWARD;
Now Mbidde, an influential DP NEC member, says as a way forward they are going to convene a DP NEC meeting very soon and agree on how to discipline their members who have allowed moles like Bwanika to hijack and use the reunin process as a platform to attack fellow opposition leaders like Besigye, Lukwago & Nambooze. He also says they are going to investigate members who have previously been reported to have attended secret meetings with Museveni. Such 5th columnists will be named and exposed to the public for trading opposition secrets to the Museveni system. “The time is now; they must tell us who they are working for,” Mbidde says. He adds that People Power is a good initiative which they aren’t going to allow self-seekers like Bwanika to hijack. Majwala says it was an act of provocation by the Masaka reunion organizers to make Mbidde (a whole DP VP & EALA MP) speak before even local councilors. “We know you desperately want those small positions but let’s be courteous and respect protocol. How do you put a whole Vice President of DP, a party in whose name you purport to organize all this, to the level of councilors? For heaven sake he is also the EALA member and in my case I’m the elected leader in this area. How do you sideline me from the organization of this event when you know very well I’m the DP spokesman for Masaka? You even hire thugs to harm me? You guys have gone too far but enough is enough. We aren’t keeping quiet anymore,” Majwala told reporters.
BWANIKA SPEAKS OUT;
On his part Bwanika says its a weakness to brand some colleagues in the struggle moles. He says Mbidde provoked what happened to him by provocatively arriving at 4pm for a function that began at 12pm just like Masaka LC5 Chairman Jude Mbabali did. The two leaders, Bwanika says, acted discourtesly and disrespected organizers. He says Mbidde had come with a squad of 400 bouncers and kanyamas to beat up the organizers and that’s what put him in problems. He says the VIP section tent was accessible by Mbidde alone in his capacity as DP VP but instead he wanted to force his way into the VIP tent along with hundreds of his bouncers and supporters which organizers couldn’t allow. As for elder Mzee PK Semogerere who Mbidde says was heckled and molested, Bwanika says it was because the crowd had no appetite to listen to such old people with tired messages “because they were in a hurry to listen to Bobi Wine.” He says in future old unpopular figures like PK Semogerere will be made to speak in the morning hours “when the crowd is still fresh so that the afternoon speeches and time is dominated by popular figures like Bobi Wine whom the crowd likes to listen to.” Bwanika says as organizers they learnt a lot of lessons from the Masaka chaos and the next reunion will be better organized. He said he would remain unrepentant in his support for Mathias Mpuuga’s right to retain his seat as Masaka Municipality MP while condemning Mbidde for abandoning Kalungu MP Seat. Bwanika also said it’s wrong for Mbidde to use derogatory language of calling people cockroaches and to think he can monopolize political violence. “Its not true that some leaders can manage to have squads like those of Sebaggala’s days and others can’t. I also have squads in Kisekka Sub County in Lwengo district where I have my base and I can call on those people to accompany me just like Mbidde was accompanied but its just not necessary,” Bwanika said. He warned Mbidde against thinking he can still have squads of youth and use them to beat other leaders saying “that can’t happen again: its primitive and we won’t allow it in both people power and reunion activities.” For comments, call, text or WhatsApp us on 0703164755.
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