By Mulengera Reporters
There are growing concerns among NUP foot soldiers that Habib Buwembo, who many of them thanked Bobi Wine for elevating with a NEC position of Head Mobilization, is being deliberately sidelined and undermined by Kavule powerful bureaucrats who feel threatened by his charisma and potential to become a powerful brand and power broker inside National Unity Platform.
Mulengera News has heard from reliable insiders who have all corroborated foot soldiers’ fears and observations that the former pro-Besigye defiance activist, who prides in calling prison his second home, is being undermined and subjected to crude intrigue-all aimed at portraying to Bobi that it was a mistake to make him mobilization chief.
As they protested failure to get party tickets for city councillor positions, many foot soldiers at the press conferences and in their social media videos, wildly claimed that Buwembo had been given byoya bya nswa-namely a position and mere title without being allowed to exercise real power.
“To a significant extent, the foot soldiers are right in their observations because Habib Buwembo doesn’t wield even a fraction of the clout his predecessor Fred Nyanzi had. No one goes to him to lobby for any favourable decision on anything because they know he doesn’t wield any power when it comes to influencing decisions at Kavule. Many foot soldiers, especially in Rubaga South where he hails from and has been a fighter for the struggle for a long time, expected him to influence the allocation of party tickets to them. He repeatedly indicated it to them he was not in position to influence any consequential decisions at Kavule,” says a knowledgeable insider.
“Even at the MPs level, there are many leaders who used to be comfortable in case the principal is unable to come for their functions and delegated Nyanzi in his capacity as head of mobilization. But those same leaders have been protesting and saying no whenever the principal indicates he is sending Buwembo to represent him. Because they know he is powerless and out of place in those top meetings, no MP or elected leader ever bothers inviting Buwembo or even trying to lobby him for anything.”
Yet for many foot soldiers, the moment of truth came on Wednesday during Bobi Wine’s post-nominations rally which was held at Natete, which is Buwembo’s backyard and defiance protests staging ground for more than 10 years. Yet home boy Buwembo was totally alienated. Even when he is the chief for mobilization, organizers didn’t even allow him to be the MC or co-MC. Not even much earlier in the day as low profiled leaders made speeches to a large crowd that was waiting for Kyagulanyi to come from nominations.
Instead, it were people from other Divisions of Kampala some of whom are even less eloquent and less educated than Habib Buwembo who were chosen to be MCs at both the pre-Kyagulanyi arrival and post arrival events. The foot soldiers took note of this alienation and many of them felt dispirited.
This injustice became apparent from the very onset when Buwembo was prevailed upon not to bother standing for any elective position so that he can have enough time to dedicate to the national mobilisation duty, which among other things will require him to prepare other candidates and be wherever candidate Kyagulanyi will be.
Broad-minded, loyal and committed as always, Habib Buwembo welcomed this proposal yet some of his supporters protested the same as unfair because they believed this was the best time for the long-suffering and long-sacrificing Buwembo to ride on the Kyagulanyi momentum to land the job of Rubaga South MP Seat for himself.
His being blocked from that MP seat remains a deep-seated grievance at the hearts of many fellow foot soldiers to whom Kyagulanyi ought to render some coherent explanation before it gets too late.
“Why ask Buwembo not to seek any elective position from which to earn a salary yet all the others are to be given flags to go for national office to access salary yet at the same time retain their NEC positions? We even have people sitting on the Electoral Commission who even go ahead to get the party ticket for themselves like John Sebuwufu. Why apply double standards and talk about conflict of interest only when it comes to Habib Buwembo?” furiously ranted a foot soldier in a recent social media video.
One of the reasons Buwembo decamped and quit FDC was lack of activism protests and also alleged stigma and discrimination by party leaders like Nandala Mafabi who one time threatened to lock up Buwembo over his frequent participation in piglets’ protests, which he said were scandalizing and giving FDC a bad name.
Similar paranoia is gradually beginning to become synonymous with the same Habib Buwembo inside NUP to which he was lured by both Bobi Wine and Fred Nyanzi who first inducted him under his Kunga Uganda programme.
