NRM MUST CLOSE RANKS; FIRMLY BLOWOUT SO-CALLED INDEPENDENTS
The just concluded NRM primaries to elect flag-bearers from village to parliamentary candidates who are not set to face opposition groups, and the so-called ‘independents’ should now be behind us, especially to the committed party loyalists, regardless of the fallouts. NRM leaders at various levels, must now invite winners and losers to work jointly for harmony, unity and a collective NRM election victory in 2026. Speaker of Parliament, and Second National Vice Chairperson (Female), Member, Central Executive Committee (CEC), Annet Anita Among, the new ‘girl’ on the NRM political bloc, has this week, created, a WhatsApp group, “NRM MP Flag bearers 202631,” pledging, joint and coordinated election campaign, to ensure a most effective outcome, which should be embraced. By Thursday, 318 flag-bearers had joined in. This could be replicated, down the ballot, with appropriate modifications. It is my submission, that in 2025, at the onset of the return to multiparty dispensation, NRM entrapped itself, and the country, by cozying-up to ‘independents’, many of whom, were simply disgruntled political indisciplinados, fair-weatherizes and opportunists. This phenomenon, has now become a thorny curse, in our collective walk, towards a functional multiparty democracy. While persuasion is still inevitable, it ought to be conducted on a case-by-case basis, as an exception to the rule, rather than the general principle, if NRM is to progress forward. The two decades, now, of NRM’s political stitch-ups with ‘independents’, has brought in so little dividends, except to entrench conveyor-belt self-serving convenience, and extremely inefficient patronage. People who are enjoying senior leadership position in NRM, and government like ministers ought to be made to retreat from running as ‘independents, or else be forced out of NRM so as to enforce internal party rules. And in fact, many of these touting being so-called ‘independents’ need the NRM political cover, than NRM needs them. Without President Yoweri Museveni’s personal political cuddling, they are destined to collapse like wet clay. In the more established electoral democracies like Britain, United States, India, Japan, Singapore and South Korea, we have recently witnessed the de-selection and dismissals of errant party leaders including from legislatures. Close-by Uganda, like Tanzania (CCM) and African National Congress (ANC), that the NRM calls ‘fraternal’ and travels regularly for ‘bench-marking’ with, even the slightest disagreement with the agreed party policy position, let alone constitution, attracts heavy sanctions that includes outright dismissal. In the dingy corner of Uganda, even the National Unity Platform (NUP), loosely cobbled has been able to show its former vice president in charge of Buganda, its only base, and Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LoP) Mathias Mpuuga, the exist without much political qualms. Yet in the NRM, many fear to call out these hangers-on, for what they really are, and instead are each, getting emboldened upon losing election, to run as an ‘independent’, and usually receiving covert financial support, from some top NRM leaders. The nomination returns for Isingiro district local government elections, released mid-week, by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) chaired by Justice Simon Byakama Mugyenyi, where, the district chairperson and all thirty-two councilors were elected unopposed, is indicative of NRM’s support countrywide. If MPs Anthony Akol (Kilak county East) Amuru district and Dr Twaha Kagabo (Bukoto South) Lwengo district, formerly FDC and NUP respectively could boldly discard those tickets to join NRM, there is no reasonable excuse, for the NRM not to boot out its political renegades. Uganda’s multiparty democracy, on trial and tribulation, since 2005, cannot be refined, made more functional, responsive and consolidated, when the political front men and women, are allowed freewheel style each time they lose an election.
By Ofwono Opondo
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