By Moses Bigirwa
In “JEEMA boss Spills Bobi’s People Power Secrets [published Monday evening on Mulengera],” my brother Abdul Noor Kyamundu makes many very intriguing assertions which have prompted me to respond for purposes of setting the record straight. He raises a number of issues which clearly show his political immaturity, inexperience and lack of depth. He faults me for closely working with Gen David Sejusa and bases on that to say even my bosses in DP don’t understand me. As an opposition actor interested in successful struggle against the dictatorship of the NRM, it’s my duty to target institutions that keep President Museveni strong and work towards weakening them via those very institutions. That’s why I had to work with Gen Sejusa to achieve that objective. He was antagonistic to the Museveni system which is what we are working against. I saw in Sejusa an opportunity to get allies for the struggle in the military and moreover at the rank of a 4 star General. You have to be a political novice of Kyamundu’s understanding not to see value in that. Kyamundu doesn’t know how to speak to a 4 star General who isn’t hybrid like these Generals of today who don’t have any history in the struggle. Sejusa isn’t any General because he a historical of the NRA and having him in the struggle, is no mean achievement. Because he is a nobody in the struggle, Kyamundu can’t know Gen Sejusa’s contribution in this struggle. Let him ask Col Kizza Besigye. He knows Sejusa’s past and current role in the struggle since 2013. Secondly if Museveni takes from our camp people like Beti Kamya, what’s wrong with Moses Bigirwa recruiting and coordinating a General to work with DP and the broader opposition? Kyamundu is politically immature and doesn’t know these things. He says People Power was started by them as JEEMA in Bugiri. That is very untrue. People Power began in Kyaddondo and it was reflected in way people voted and rejected candidates that were fronted by President Museveni, Col Besigye and even my party DP. That was People Power at work. That’s where it started and Bugiri, where Kyamundu says is where they started it as JEEMA, came much later. We had no Kyamundu in Kyaddondo East. This young man shouldn’t waste our time with his political ignorance. By the way even in Bugiri, where we worked hard for our good comrade Asuman Basalirwa, Kyamundu was very insignificant. We were there not for JEEMA parse but to promote the principle of People Power which requires us to rally behind the strongest candidate in every race. I was the MC at all the rallies in Bugiri and Kyamundu never had any relevancy. He never spoke anywhere because we saw no relevancy in him. He has no political relevancy in these things beyond having just a National ID which enables him to cast his vote like any other ordinary voter. By the way I don’t even know where he votes from because it’s not clear where he comes from. He is now there wasting his time on a veteran like myself who has a lot of history in the struggle yet he can only vote. His problem is that he wants JEEMA to have a candidate in Bugweri even when everybody knows the strong candidate for People Power is Mercy Walukamba. In JEEMA whenever they have a candidate, Kyamundu goes to the Sheikhs and Tabliqs to fundraise for the candidate and then get something for himself also. Without a candidate those Sheikhs can’t release money for JEEMA activities. Yet to us this a very big struggle to remove Museveni and not just building a party like the Kyamundus as doing. We want to use People Power to win seats and grow our numbers in Parliament and that’s how we got Mercy Walukamba. This is a big struggle. We need everyone. Kyamundu is a leader in a partner political party but he doesn’t understand this struggle. He is only trying to use the JEEMA candidate’s campaign to be assigned to go and hire a public address system, print posters and that’s how he gets chance to touch money. In fact in Bugiri we faced hardships because of such people. They would get money but sit on it and those of us who were in the center of things paid the price. We remained firm up to the end because Asuman Basalirwa is our man for a very long time and his involvement in the struggle transcends the petty politics of building parties like JEEMA. He is for the bigger struggle. Even when the likes of Kyamundu are talking too much in Bugweri and want to antagonize us, we can’t abandon Basalirwa because in my case he is part of the new generation politically commanding Busoga. It’s no longer the Salaam Musumba and Wafula Oguttus anymore. They didn’t wish Paul Mwiru well but he won because he had some of us the young influential generation in Busoga. In Bugiri we did the same and I’m surprised Kyamundu wants to behave like these old leaders in the evening of their political life. They keep emphasizing party building which Ugandans have rejected in favor of the broader struggle to get this country back from Museveni’s dictatorship.
GOING TOO FAR;
Kyamundu has gone too far including saying somewhere that Hon Kyagulanyi is backing Mercy Walukamba for Bugweri because she released Shs30m and that myself was given Shs10m. Many of the things he has been saying in their meetings reach us and they show someone who is politically ignorant. He must be working for Museveni and not us. The same Kyamundu goes bragging that their party JEEMA is the one providing legal services in People Power which is untrue and it’s an act of ignorance. He surely doesn’t know what’s happening in People Power for which he claims to be the architect. The legal team of People Power has over 100 lawyers. In Arua we assembled over 60 lawyers and some had nowhere to sit in that court. They all wanted to submit but it was agreed that let Counsel Caleb Alaka submit and he did. It’s a variety of lawyers and not just one lawyer the way Kyamundu goes around bragging. In fact personally I can’t even count Asuman Basalirwa because for him he is part of everything. He is ours and this is his thing. He is part of the struggle. We have lawyers at international level like Counsel Robert Amsterdam under whom is a team of more than 30 lawyers. Are these the JEEMA lawyers Kyamundu goes bragging about?
I forgive him sometimes because he is addicted to workshop politics where they go for a workshop and spend the whole day eating samosas. We are way above such theoretical politics of workshop full of theories which don’t work in a situation like ours. My politics is difference.
That is how I took Sejusa to DP headquarters singlehandedly and he addressed what turned out to be the biggest press conference ever at DP headquarters. We had CNN, BBC and others coming to cover it. So this Bigirwa that Mr. Kyamundu is underestimating recruited a whole General. I took Gen Sejusa to Katomi where he spoke to the DP delegates’ conference and made a speech many recorded and keep listening to and become energized for the struggle. I did my party and if my party DP failed to consolidate the General in its ranks, that can’t be my problem. By the way Gen Sejusa is very serious in his opposition to Museveni and working with him doesn’t make me a mole at all. He is very committed to the struggle and even Col Besigye knows it. That’s why he is under house arrest and can’t get out because he is genuine. Kyamundu should learn many things from us the veterans. I have been in struggle long enough with people of different backgrounds be it legal background, military and civil service. And all this simply means there is a lot a political young boy like Kyamundu can learn from me if he is humble enough to learn. We are priceless yet he goes around insinuating how we were paid money to support Mercy Walukamba. Kyamundu should know that Busoga now has a new generation of leaders who are now giving political direction to the sub region.
