Why We Must Save Jeema From Insolent Managers

By Ssentongo Abdulnoor Kyamundu

Of recent, the public has been treated to internal wrangles that date back to last year when I showed interest in the party’s top seat.

First, I was condemned by some founders for wanting to lead their party without their will and consent, and for that, I was ‘indisciplined and bad hearted’ for that matter. For them, the person to lead JEEMA and critical decisions in the party must be made by them and the role of the official structures of the party should be to rubber stamp their decisions. This is something we object to because it is contrary to democratic principles and common sense.

I found their problem to be “foundism” also known as “founder syndrome” which has affected progress in many organisations.

Founders tend to forget the principles set by themselves in management of affairs of organisations and get obsessed with; “twatandika ekintu kyaffe,” (luganda for – we started our thing) craze; like Gen Museveni’s; “we hunted our animal…” assertion which is affecting us as a country.

My contention is that; the makers of the law governing political parties envisaged a situation where a group of people can start a political party and would want to govern it as a private company. So, they put in place a regulation requiring citizens that want to start a political party to collect 50 signatures from two thirds of the districts of Uganda. Unfortunately, some of the founders of JEEMA have not yet come to this truth. Therefore, it’s the members’ responsibility to tame them by putting Article 12 (i) of the party constitution in practice, which states that:

“Members shall have a right to vote and to be voted to any position, provided they are of voting age.”

Additional to that, the conduct of our leaders also calls for an immediate action before the wider membership of the party is affected. Because of their conduct, the public thinks JEEMA is one of the parties in cooperation with the regime. Members of the party who want to vie for various positions in the elections are faced with a challenge of tagging them to actions of the regime because their leaders have become regime apologists.

The last nail in the coffin, came a few weeks back when they disregarded the party constitution and the constitution of Uganda by extending their term of office to 2028. In the first place, they are in office illegally because the JEEMA National Delegates Conference of 2020 extended their leadership for two and a half years that ended in April 2023 but since then, no NDC has ever convened to give them another mandate. Their purported extension if not challenged puts their term in office to 8 years contrary to section 10(3) of the Political Parties and Organizations Act (PPOA) and 16(e) of the JEEMA constitution.

Obviously, we are soon challenging this in the courts of law.

Lastly, I think the JEEMA founders should accept that, the party has to be run by its set rules and that all members have equal rights. They might opt to register a private company limited by share capital where their will could not be challenged.

Today, whoever challenges their authority, is either rewarded with suspension letters or told off to exit for there is free entry and exit from their mighty JEEMA kingdom.

I want to remind founders of political parties that political parties and organisations are public entities that feed on the tax payers purse, members subscriptions, donations etc. So a few individuals and their founders can’t claim exclusive rights in making un democratic decisions on behalf of their members. I thank you.

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