The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Forum for Democratic Change-FDC National Council has rejected a minority report from investigations into money allegedly brought into the party during the recent general election time.
In 2020, one of the founders of the FDC and four time presidential candidate Dr Kizza Besigye revealed to some top members in the party that some money from suspicious sources had been brought into the party. The same matter was raised during a National Executive Committee-NEC meeting in October last year.
It was then resolved that the party president constitute a committee to be approved by NEC to investigate the allegations. The committee included party elders Dr. Frank Nabwiso as the chairman and members, Martha Atiku, Robinson Kasozi, Mukalazi Kibuuka, Apolo George Emusu, Stanley Katembeya and Charles Kakuru.
On Friday, the 16th Special National Council convened at the party headquarters in Najjanankumbi to receive the report from the committee. The report was tabled in the absence of the media, the FDC Deputy chairman in charge of Eastern region Proscovia Salaam Musumba having asked the media to excuse the meeting after the National Chairman Wasswa Biriggwa had given his speech and members set to react to it.
There was an attempt to table a minority report from one of the committee members Stanley Katembeya but this was challenged.
Several members argued that Katembeya lost his membership on the committee the moment he resigned. They said he could therefore not issue a minority report having resigned from the same committee.
As the debate progressed, the party president asked one of the members, a lawyer, Yusuf Nsibambi to give a legal opinion which he declined to, preferring to not comment on the matter. “The meeting could not accept a minority report from a person who isn’t a member of the committee. The mistake our elder from Mbarara did was to resign. I think the idea to write a minority report came after he had resigned,” said MP Hassan Kaps Fungaroo while addressing the press.
At 6pm after the meeting had ended, Salaam Musumba addressed the press about what transpired in the meeting in their absence.
Speaking without much detail, Musumba said that the investigations revealed that there was no evidence that “suspicious” money had found it’s way into the party. She said the money the party received during elections was from a loan approved by NEC. Asked how much the money was, Musumba didn’t reveal, insisting that she couldn’t tell it off head.
Musumba also told the Media that it had been resolved that the report be distributed at all districts. However even when she said that, there was no single copy we could see available for her to refer while addressing the press and no copy was given to the media.
Some delegates revealed that only a few copies were brought and distributed among a few top officials. No delegate was seen with a copy of the report by close of meeting.
Asked of whether the report was representative of the views of all warrying groups and not a concoction of Amuriat and Nandala as alleged by some FDC members, Musumba said she had no evidence to that.
FDC kicked off with internal elections last week having extended for three years, the term of office of the current leaders due to Covid-19.
Members in the Besigye camp including the party spokesperson Ibrahim Semujju Nganda, the party vice President in charge of Buganda Erias Lukwago and others had demanded that elections set for 21 July be postponed untill a report into the money is produced and discussed by the National Council. But Amuriat and Nandala insisted that elections proceed since they are a constitutional requirement.
So, the Amuriat -Nandala faction said the elections had been conducted while the Semujju group dismissed the said elections as a sham. They argued that the district chairpersons had not been involved while the Nandala group said the party Electoral Commission deals not with district chairpersons but elections chairpersons and other officials of of its commission.
Some members hence suggested that the said elections be nullified if indeed they were conducted and fresh ones be organised after two years when the internal conflicts have been resolved.
This proposal was rejected by a section of members who insisted that the electoral process had already kicked off and urged those who abstained from it to either count their loses or join in at the next level.
Salaam Musumba however said the meeting wasn’t interested in the subject of elections but rather the report from the investigations. She however noted that the elections do not meet the standards that the party’s standards.
As she made her response, some FDC members in her company started to speak in murmurs expressing disconnect with her answer. She asked them to take up her position if they had information to offer.
Denis Lee Oguzu, MP Maracha County took up the challenge and offered to inform the press of the meeting’s resolution on the subject. He said the meeting had validated the elections and resolved that in areas where elections were not conducted, the leaders there should contact the office of the Electoral commission for a special program.
But some members such as the former Leader of Opposition Betty Aol said that the elections were a sham, and that the party should reorganize itself and conduct fresh elections.
Before the meeting, chaos ensued between the FDC security team deployed by the Amuriat -Nandala faction and supporters of Ssemujju group. The latter demanded access to the premises while the former insisted that only cleared members would be granted access.
Doreen Nyanjura, the deputy Kampala Lord Mayor was seen pacing around complaining that their people had been denied entry while others had been arrested. She said Kennedy Okello, one of the Private Secretaries of the Lord Mayor had been detained in Eng Patrick Amuriat’s office.
She said she had indulged the party chairman to suspend the meeting untill their members are granted access and the retained freed but her plea fell on deaf ears. But as Nyanjura addressed the media, a fellow delegate countered her statements calling her a liar.
The delegate was Fatuma Zaina Abalinayo, the FDC Secretary for Environment. She accused Nyanjura of playing to the gallery while absconding from party activities including the National Executive Committee meetings. Abalinayo was joined by the FDC Secretary for Defence Amin Sadiki Agere who accused Kennedy Okello of unleashing goons to beat him the morning leaving his shirt ragged.
It was Musumba who intervened and demanded on a microphone that Okello is set free before the meeting proceeds. She asked the National Chairman to order that Okello is freed and her demand was granted.
More than an hour into the meeting, after Biriggwa had given his speech and the media asked to leave the meeting, Erias Lukwago arrived at the gate. The FDC security team instructed him to come in alone without his car, something he rejected. He wanted to either come in with his car or atleast be escorted in by his team. Lukwago decided to l
After the meeting had adopted the agenda, the National Chairman made his speech. He narrated the events of 20th July 2023 when he was blocked from holding a press conference at the Party headquarters. He says the subject of the presser was to call for a ceasefire among the factions in the party.
Biriggwa told members of how the allegations about money had caused fights in the party which the meeting ought to rectify. He said alot of tribal and regional talk had emerged in the party yet leadership in the party isn’t determined by any of the two factors.
Among the members from the camp that accused Nandala of getting money from Museveni, Doreen Nyanjura, Francis Mwijukye, Atkins Katusabe and Polly Okin Ojara, FDC Deputy Secretary General Harold Kaija were present at the headquarters.
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