The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Seryazi accuses Besigye of “duping voters into believing that it is only him who can manage to dislodge Museveni and undermining the structures that Muntu’s administration had put in place.
“He convinced delegates that we don’t need to organise because defiance will deliver us the desired results but I knew we would get back to where we are now.”
Besigye’s defiance camp meanwhile cannot wait for Muntu’s tenure to end and have been hatching a plan to impeach him. A letter to impeach him was circulated by some party youth members who accuse Muntu of incompetence and failure to lead the party out of the opposition.
Not the entire defiance group supported the impeachment move because they think it is a waste of time since, they say, they will soon vote him out of office anyway.
“No one is going to impeach Muntu,” says a one Dr. Kakwenza and a member of the defiance camp, “He has already impeached himself by his incompetence and poor performance.”
But others like KCCA councilor for Makerere, Doreen Nyanjura, say it is understandable that some youths have become impatient because they cannot stand Muntu’s poor leadership.
“I think those youths simply became impatient,” she said, “November looks really far for someone who is not contented with the way things are going.”
Things seem to have gotten out of hand in the party with some of the members frustrated and others insisting on pushing either group out.
Good and bad FDC
But as the bickering goes on, the party is losing ground. What was witnessed recently during the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) elections could be just the start of what the current squabbling will cause FDC.
In all the competitions now, FDC seems to be fielding two candidates; one from the organisation camp of Muntu’s supporters and the other from the defiance camp of Besigye.
When Kyambogo was electing its guild President recently, the defiance camp accused their counterparts of refusing to support the official candidate of the party. In the end, the party’s candidate, Ashaba Michael, lost.
In the Kamuli Municipality by-election coming up, two FDC members have been nominated. One is former LC5 chairperson and the party’s Vice President for Eastern Region Salamu Musumba and the other is Prossy Naikoba.
Naikoba was the officially elected flag bearer in the run up to the 2016 elections but Musumba was afterwards declared flag bearer when she finally decided to stand in Kamuli municipality. Naikoba was not happy that the party leadership did not resolve the issue and decided to stand as an independent. The two will be running against NRM’s Hajat Rehema Watongola.
According to the exchanges on the whatsapp groups, one is the defiance camp candidate and the other is from the camp of Muntu’s supporters. The conflicts are not only exhibited in the competitions but also in the meetings of the various party organs.
Just recently, a fight erupted among members of the FDC Women’s league during one of their meetings where one bit her colleagues thumb prompting the victim to report a case of assault at Katwe Police station in Kampala.
In the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting some members led by the party’s secretary for mobilisation walked out of the meeting that was called to resolve the EALA impasse.
The members have classified themselves as the “good” and “bad” FDC. The good FDC, they say is that which is “in bed” with the NRM and the bad FDC is the one for the radicals, also known as the defiance camp.
While the defiance camp says that it is only defiance that can lead to the collapse of the Museveni regime, the other camp thinks it is moderate measures that will attract voters.
“The majority of Ugandans (including many NRMs) want the good FDC,” says Seryazi in response to a defiance camp member who said the other group is complying with the NRM regime and betraying the party. “That’s why we have still failed to get power by being bad, intolerant, blackmailing, defiant, and drama-acting. We can’t remove a dictatorship before removing the obstacle (KB) that is within our own party.”
