Strategists within the NRM party have this Monday evening met in Kampala and mooted new ideas on how to further constrain Bobi Wine Kyagulanyi Sentamu’s political activities and the main emphasis is on the 2021 elections.
The latest maneuver to overcome Bobi Wine is to introduce mandatory substance use test on all Ugandans seeking to run for electoral political office from LC1 to President. At the meeting in Kampala this Monday evening were some MPs and Ministers who resolved to plan another Raphael Magyezi-like private members bill to overcome Kyagulanyi and others in the ballot box.
“Yes we have met this evening and there is no doubt we shall use every avenue to make sure Bayayes don’t lead this country. And directing EC to add that substance abuse test on the list of qualifications, besides the S6 minimum, is perfectly in order and there is nothing strange about it because it was used even in Ukrain in the just concluded elections. It will apply to candidates at all levels because the way some leaders are acting clearly shows they are under the influence of something,” says a Minister who is famous for originating very controversial things towards election time.
“We want that to be a requirement by the EC. Whoever goes for nominations must produce that certificate. You bring your own results which are validated upon fresh testing by the teams hired by the EC. You get nominated basing on your own certificate and once the contrary is established upon verification by the EC, your candidature is revoked.”
The Monday evening meeting agreed that this will kill many birds with one stone for the Musevenists-including overcoming trouble causers both within NRM and out of it. “There are colleagues even in NRM whose strange courage can only be explained by addictive use of those banned substances. The guts which they debate and even confront police clearly shows we need that mandatory substance abuse test to level the ground as we compete with such colleagues,” another Minister MP said in an interview with Mulengera news.
“We are going to lead by example because for us in NRM all of us are going to show willingness to undergo that test and we are saying if it can apply in less important things like athletics, how about politics where people are seeking leadership?” That whoever is found to have smoked any of those drugs three years to nominations date will be declared ineligible to stand. “There will also be kawunyeemu to weed out such people as members arrive for debates in the national assembly,” says an elderly minister who was part of the Monday planning meeting in Kampala.
The MPs and ministers at the meeting agreed to peripherally share their proposals during tomorrow Tuesday NRM caucus meeting in Kampala which will be chaired by the President himself. “Whereas on the agenda chiefly is the discussion on the sugar bill, we shall brief the chairman about our plans and secure his backing to have this [mandatory substance abuse test] legislated into law so that the EC can accordingly adjust the list of nomination requirements ahead of 2021,” said a knowledgeable source.
The other plan is to create a small task force team whose work will be to subsequently meet the President and concretize the strategy on how to ultimately market the new anti-substance use proposals.
The substance abuse-related stigma is something NRM has deployed before to demonize its opponents. At the start of the 9th Parliament, a number of vocal MPs were subjected to tabloid reports linking them to substance abuse. The conclusion was that the courage with which they would shut up Ministers and challenged government positions on the floor could only have been as a result of substance abuse. The late Cerina Nebanda was one of the many victims of this stigma.
Whereas none of the MPs and Ministers close to the plot were willing to speak on record, many expressed readiness to subject themselves to that mandatory test saying it’s the best way to “sanitize our politics and rid it of riff raffs.” In the past Ukrainian elections, some of the would-be strong political contenders were overcome after they tested positive for substance usage.
