By Mulengera Reporters
Buvuma County MP Robert Migadde Ndugwa, who also chairs the caucus of NRM MPs from Buganda, on Saturday featured on CBS radio’s Parliament Yaffee program. While there, Migadde (who featured along with FDC’s Yusuf Nsibambi, NUP’s Paul Mwiru, NRM’s Robert Kasule and PWDs MP Mpande Bumali) narrated to millions of Kabaka’s subjects who were listening, the events of a very troubling May 2021 evening at Kololo where Gen Museveni summoned him.
As of that time (May 2021), Migadde was still one of the top executive committee leaders of the whole mainstream Buganda caucus in Parliament, before NUP dominated and their Muwanga Kivumbi became the new Chairman. Rebecca Kadaga badly wanted to remain Speaker and get a 3rd tem for herself.
Museveni went through CEC and decreed that she bows out in favor of her deputy Jacob Oulanyah in line with the NRM practice of having the incumbent Speaker do two terms and getting replaced by their Deputy.
Kadaga, who was then very popular among MPs and the general public, chose defiance and stood for Speakership even after CEC had declared Oulanyah the official NRM candidate.
Gen Museveni realized that there was need to personally get involved to help Oulanyah prevail, after it became clear he wasn’t a popular choice as 3rd term-seeking Kadaga was. Museveni personally rang and met senior and influential MPs who had rejected Oulanyah and were playing a key role in Kadaga’s 3rd term campaign.
That’s how Migadde featured on the list of the regional caucuses power brokers Museveni felt he had to reach out to personally. He rang Migadde and asked him to come for a private meeting with a few other Kadaga supporters from Buganda and Busoga.
On Saturday, Migadde told CBS listeners that the meeting took place somewhere in Kololo where Gen Museveni was in a very belligerent mood. That besides where H.E was sitting was a huge file whose contents indicated that Rebecca Kadaga had been investigated for some unlawful activities and a decision had been sanctioned to have her arrested and prosecuted. Migadde said it was clear Museveni had given his no objection and the Kamuli Woman MP Was just hours away from being picked up.
Migadde said when they looked at it, they became nervous and sought Museveni’s assurances that this indeed was serious and that their leader was on the verge of being arrested. Migadde said they went on their knees and pleaded with Museveni, who remained ambivalent in his answer to them.
The big man from Rwakitura instead asked them why they were fighting the Movement by totally rejecting its candidate Oulanyah. “We told him it was survival because Oulanyah intended to purge whoever didn’t support his bid and we were working hard to ensure Kadaga wins in order to secure ourselves.”
That Museveni quickly rang Oulanyah, putting him on loud speaker and declared: “I have your enemies here with me and they are saying you are a very vindictive person.” Museveni proceeded to implore Oulanyah to abandon that character or else he was going to declare a Kadaga-like war on him. He implored him to become more forgiving and Migadde said indeed Oulanyah heeded that call. “As soon as he won the seat, he sent for me to go and make peace but I told his emissaries it was okay. He was now the Speaker and I didn’t have anything against him.”
Migadde said all these things to demonstrate the extent to which Gen Museveni can be very magnanimous to a repentant foe. The topic for discussion was the decision by FDC Deputy President Yusuf Nsibambi to lead a group of opposition MPs and leaders from several political parties to go to State House and plead with Museveni to forgive hundreds of protest vote-enforcing NUP foot soldiers who are languishing in prison after being arrested over the 15th January elections day-related acts.
Migadde said Nsibambi deserves kudos, and not condemnation, for his courageous act of going to plead for forgiveness from the President. He said what Nsibambi did is a heroic act and it’s the only way people’s children are going to ever get out of detention. He said Museveni is very forgiving once remorse is demonstrated. He added that after being defeated by Oulanyah at Kololo, supporters like him implored the President to ensure Kadaga remains part of government, a request that too was granted.
Bumali, speaking on the same show, castigated NUP’s Paul Mwiru for contradicting Nsibambi and proposed that the President makes the defeated Mawokota South MP a Minister in his post-May 2026 cabinet. Bumali said Nsibambi is senior and very intelligent and therefore capable of adding a lot of value to the quality of governance and service delivery in Uganda.
Bumali caused laughter when he praised Nsibambi for being personally very close to Museveni more than many NRM MPs and Ministers. He said Nsibambi has previously helped him make an appointment and successfully meet the President, which shows he is Kaguta’s right hand man. Bumali said that, whereas many Ministers can struggle to have one on one meetings with Museveni, Nsibambi gets audience as often as he wishes-and even has capacity to fix appointments for others.
Nsibambi confirmed all this when he said that the Wednesday State House meeting to which he claimed to have taken three of NUP’s newly elected MPs (whose names he refused to disclose), was the second time he was meeting Museveni in just weeks. It was preceded by another meeting he had with Sevo in the first week of January before voting day. Nsibambi said he was unrepentant and vowed to keep meeting Museveni whether the NUP leadership and foot soldiers like it or not.
He said he was even going to form a platform for peace and reconciliation under which he will be getting facilitated to organize conferences at city hotels to enable opposition leaders, MPs and opinion leaders to brainstorm and share ideas on how the rest of the country can be rallied to closely work with Museveni to de-escalate political tensions. He made it clear Gen Museveni properly won the January 15th elections and there was no ground for Bobi Wine to claim vote rigging.
He also said he was disagreeing with his FDC party President Nandala Mafabi’s claim that his win was rigged. Nsibambi wondered where Nandala, who he sarcastically said kept getting zeros at many polling stations, can credibly claim to have been a victim of rigging. He seemed determined to move on leading his peace and reconciliation forum, even if that meant being expelled from FDC by the leadership at Najjanankumbi. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
