By Mulengera Reporters
On Thursday evening, President Museveni, looking every inch exhausted, joined fellow leaders of political parties with representation at Parliament-at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds. These included DP’s Norbert Mao, UPC’s Jimmy Akena, FDC’s Patrick Oboi Amuriat, PPP’s Saddam Gayira and JEEMA’s Asuman Basalirwa. They were here for the IPOD Summit which was convening for the first time since 2021.
At the same Kololo Ceremonial Grounds event, Museveni who has been IPOD Summit Chairman since 2021, cheerfully handed over to Mao. The IPOD leadership is rotational and Mao will be leading with his Secretary General Gerald Siranda of DP who will be serving as Chairman of IPOD Council which comprises of all Secretaries General for the IPOD member parties.
Robert Kyagulanyi’s NUP, which keeps shunning IPOD events for fear of being photographed with Gen Museveni, was conspicuously absent because they have never enrolled for IPOD membership even at the risk of missing out on the Shs45bn which other parties will be sharing to fund their campaigns.
In the interest of time, Richard Todwong who was the evening’s MC, permitted each party leader three minutes to address the gathering that mostly comprised of malnourished, elderly and seemingly exhausted leaders from opposition parties (each Summit member came with a delegation of roughly 50 members each of whom was entitled to earning a juicy allowance).
The party leaders mainly reiterated their respective party’s commitment to the IPOD ideals because it’s about dialogue and peace during and after elections.
First on the microphone was Mao who referred to the NRM-DP cooperation agreement and went ahead to explain that IPOD is about parties coming together to find common ground, which he said is why DP remains committed to the IPOD platform.
Mao added that the fact that such a large number of opposition party Presidents can come to Kololo and peacefully sit with Gen Museveni is proof that opposition has some patriotic leaders too who genuinely love the country just like NRM leaders do.
At that point in time, Mao thanked Museveni for accepting his correction and guidance that POA isn’t his (Museveni’s) enemy as the man from Rwakitura declared on arrival as fellow party Presidents lined up to receive him on arrival at Kololo. “Your Excellency as you arrived and saw my brother Patrick Oboi Amuriat, you asked aren’t these the enemies? And I corrected you by saying ‘no sir, they aren’t.”
Mao also stated that the leaders present might represent 20% of the opposition fraternity in Uganda but they are a force for good because for they are patriotic and well-meaning as opposed to the 80% who didn’t come but are synonymous with much of the bad news we have in Kampala. He praised Museveni for possessing a “granary” of experience and wisdom because of the 40 years he has been President of Uganda without break.
Besides thanking Museveni for his magnanimity to order the 2021 release of political prisoners who he said were merely followers who had been misled, Mao said no one should belittle the gains that are being made at such IPOD meetings because as a result of his appeal to Museveni during the 2021 Summit, 70 such political prisoners had been released.
Next was Akena who took to the stage after Todwong forced Mao off on grounds there was no time. Akena praised Museveni for prioritizing dialogue and also declared support for the ongoing UNATU-instigated teachers’ strike. Akena said it was bad manners for Museveni’s government to insist on paying science teachers more than arts ones.
Calling his “my son Akena,” Museveni subsequently responded to this by saying that it’s now clear why UPC lost power twice as opposed to keeping it. He said it was clear that poor prioritization caused problems for the UPC government and thereby incentivizing soldiers to overthrow it. He limited his attacks on UPC saying this was a good day which he didn’t want to spoil by going into arguments on policy matters.
Amuriat spoke next and referred to the Police and army brutality he said he personally suffered as he campaigned in 2021 and asked Museveni to be conciliatory towards his opponents and ensure that similar violence or even worse isn’t unleashed on Presidential candidates this time round.
He also called for clemency from Museveni so that all political prisoners (he didn’t mention any of them by name, not even Kizza Besigye) are released. He said there is a lot Museveni can do to make Uganda a better country once his attitude towards his political opponents changes. He challenged him to rise to the occasion since he has a higher obligation to ensure that the 2026 elections is peaceful more than other Summit members.
Bragging about his party being an IPOD founding member in 2009, just like Amuriat did, Asuman Basalirwa recalled raising concerns against rising impunity in the country at earlier IPOD Summits and condemned illegal arrests and detention of political opponents without trial. He told Museveni about some Muslim Sheikhs who have been locked up in Luzira without ever being tried, for the last 15 years.
PPP’s Saddam Gayira said he had been in the active opposition politics for the last 30 years and has never been arrested nor summoned to make a statement at a Police station.
To him, this is proof that the illegal arrests and detentions without trial which Basalirwa had complained about, in an earlier speech, can be avoided if Gen Museveni’s political opponents avoid using inflammatory and provocative language of seeking to incite their supporters to act violently.
“Even during the 2021 campaigns, during which we got one Member of Parliament, none of the PPP members ever got arrested. Not even one,” said Gayira after whose speech Todwong invited Museveni to say something and hand over the IPOD Summit leadership to Mao.
As he always does, Museveni, who seemed to be physically exhausted and in a hurry to go catch up with something else, ran through his history in the political struggles over the last 65 years, contradicted Akena and moved to join fellow leaders for the photo session. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
