By Mulengera Reporters
On Tuesday, NRM Candidate YK Museveni held his campaign rally for Kawempe Division and this was venued at Kawempe Mbogo grounds.
The rally started well with area NRM elders’ council chairman John Fisher Kasenge (who also works with Uganda Land Commission) introducing the big people present and overseeing the anthems and open prayer session.
Besides the Muslim clerics, the prayers from the Christians’ side were led by Pastor Aloysius Bugingo of House of Prayer Ministries International and Jackson Ssenyonga of Kavule-based Christian Life Church.
Having the two renowned spiritual nemeses (Ssenyonga & Bugingo) seat and later on stand next to each other, while praying for the President, was such a feat given their history of belligerent relationship. They have for long been sworn enemies, throwing verbal artillery at each other while accusing each other of planting spies in each other’s church to spy and amplify espionage.
Ssenyonga prayed for Museveni’s longevity in power because he had restored to the country peace, in whose absence his late father was murdered by Idi Amin. He claimed that his dad was killed by Amin personally and thanked Museveni for the stability and for putting in place a disciplined army.
Making it clear that he was his candidate, Ssenyonga prayed for Museveni to defeat his opponents in the ballot box come Thursday 15th January.
On his part, Bugingo (who seemed to have a lot of favour in the crowd as they ululated each time his name was mentioned) enumerated the social service delivery-related challenges the country used to face and live with before Museveni became President.
He said women used to die while giving birth in very big numbers, which has since reduced because of the good policies and interventions by Museveni’s government.
Then came the Kawempe South NRM flag bearer and area district party chairperson Madina Nsereko who enumerated the great things Gen Museveni has done for the people of Kawempe and also pointed out those pledges that remain pending, and urged the big man to prioritize those as well. She also introduced some of the area residents with financial problems which she implored the President to intervene into and resolve so that such victims can lead better quality of life.
Madina Nsereko also asked the President to increase funding for KCCA so that garbage collection operations get amplified. She also asked the President to fund the elevation of Komamboga health centre 4 to the status of General Hospital.
FIGHTING FOR THE MICROPHONE:
In all this, NRM EC member Major James William Kinobe was the one emceeing on behalf of NRM Secretary General Richard Todwong who must have been asked to remain seated in the tent ostensibly because of linguistic problems.
In the interest of time, Kinobe (as the MC for that session) kept insisting that people make short speeches to enable the NRM Presidential Candidate finish his rally within the permitted time as opposed to getting late. Official campaign time stops at 6pm and NRM would like to depict itself as very disciplined so as to increase justification for Police to brutally break up Robert Kyagulanyi’s rallies in case he gets constrained by poor road network, gets delayed and ends up campaigning past 6pm.
So, in that spirit, Kinobe, and the team that was supporting him to enforce adherence to strict time protocols, was ruthless in getting people off the microphone so that the President gets to start his speech early.
Madina Nsereko and other earlier speakers were compliant and kept it short, even when supporters in the audience kept protesting. After Madina, it was Salim Uhuru’s time to speak.
While speaking, Salim Uhuru, in his capacity as NRM Vice Chairman for Kampala Special region, insisted on making a prolonged speech in which he thanked Museveni for the good things NRM has done for Kampala and also pointed out areas of weakness that require urgent attention. He promised to give Museveni a personal gift by making sure he beats Kyagulanyi in Kampala as other NRM candidates do the same at lower levels, against their NUP challengers.
He read out names of NRMs who he claimed had reluctantly accepted to bow out of the respective races as independents and are now backing official party flag bearers. He said this is good because it increases chances for flag bearers to win against opposition rivals.
Uhuru pleaded with the President to accept to greet those disciplined aspirants/party cadres who were present at the rally and even accept to take a group photo with them as a way of appreciating them besides promising to meet them some day in future.
The Kinobe group members, who were out to enforce strict adherence to time protocols, objected demanding that Uhuru, who they kept shoving and whispering to, while reminding him of his duty to respect time, felt this was too much.
Feeling disrespected, Uhuru exploded right there on the microphone, as the Kinobes insisted that he stops there and invites the second national vice chairperson of the party, Anita Among.
While making it clear that he was prepared and had no problem giving way for his boss Anita Among, whose great mobilization skills he had earlier on acknowledged, Uhuru exploded saying this shoving was unfair because Kampala is his territory as a CEC member, where no one should be able to humiliate him like that.
In the presence of Museveni, First Lady and other guests, Uhuru (protesting on top of his voice) held onto the microphone and kept loudly quarrelling while calling out the Kinobe group and other organizers for having so much guts to disrespect a big man like him in his own political territory. In the end, he was overwhelmed by his pursuers’ relentlessness and determination, surrendered the microphone and grumblingly walked off the speaking platform.
After Anita Among, it was Moses Kigongo (the first national Vice Chairman of the NRM) who made brief remarks calling for discipline and asking each Museveni supporter or voter present to come with a friend on voting day to ensure that the NRM wins convincingly.
He then invited Museveni who gave his wife Janet the microphone to make a few remarks. Grateful to the people of Kawempe for turning up in such big numbers, Mrs. Museveni implored the young people to resist detractors and vote for Gen YK Museveni and other NRM candidates. She asked them to privately speak to their parents so that they get to understand how badly off the country was before God gifted Museveni to Uganda. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
