Museveni’s move on NRM EALA seats

Ring-fencing for incumbents kicks off storm among party cadres  

Kampala, Uganda | IAN KATUSIIME | Ambrose Nampwera is a disgruntled aspirant of the East Africa Legislative Assembly (EALA). He was hoping to contest on the ticket of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) when the party announced that it would retain its current members in the Arusha-based body, dampening the hopes of 130 Ugandans who had expressed their interest in the seats through the NRM.

According to some of those contesting for the seats, President Yoweri Museveni, the NRM chairman, told aspirants that it is better for the current EALA seat holders to serve out their second term for the purpose of unity in the party. However the decision has had a boomerang with some NRM aspirants running to court and others vowing to run as independents.

The 2022 race for EALA has not been the typical one in Uganda. The ruling NRM party shocked aspirants when it announced that there would be no party nominations.  Nampwera is one of those running to court. He also wrote an anguished letter to his party chairman Museveni, over the decision by the party’s highest decision making organ, the Central Executive Committee, (CEC) to ring-fence all seats for the incumbent EALA MPs.

In his letter, Nampwera lamented about the continued unilateral decision making of CEC without consulting youthful stakeholders of the party like himself. He said it was not the first time CEC was doing this even on EALA. “In the very last EALA election, for the replacement of the late Hon Mathias Kasamba, wherein I was an aspirant, the same thing happened,” he wrote. Kasamba died in April 2021.

However Nampwera finds himself in a dilemma because the CEC he is aggrieved against, acts on Museveni’s orders. In the past, Museveni as longtime party chairman has carefully navigated party politics with a mix of charm and strongman tactics to ensure CEC toes his line on highly coveted party positions issues including national vice chairpersons, flag-bearer for Speaker of Parliament and other contentious party issues.

In addition, CEC has led the way by endorsing Museveni as the NRM’s sole candidate in presidential elections as early as two years before the polls are held.

Nampwera’s open letter to the party chairman on the haphazard way CEC ran the EALA nominations could portend what lies ahead for the party as succession battles for the country’s top job gets ever more intense.

On the day EALA aspirants were set to be vetted by CEC at State House Entebbe, NRM intrigue took over.

“At the venue, we found our supposed vetters locked up in a closed door meeting and could not interact with them at a personal level, Nampwera wrote in part.

As he and 66 six others who had refused to stand down as ordered by the CEC waited for their issue to be discussed by the NRM caucus, they were struck by news doing the rounds.

“…Shortly after departing from State House, we stumbled on a letter which was being circulated on social media purportedly authored by the NRM secretary general announcing that the CEC had resolved to ring-fence all the six positions to the incumbents exclusively.”

EALA is an organ of the East African Community established under Article 9 of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community. The treaty was signed on Nov. 30 1999 and entered into force on July 7 2000 by the partner States of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania. Burundi and Rwanda joined in 2007.

The EALA elections are set for September this year indicating a delayed timeline from what is usually early in the year. There are two seats for opposition parties; National Unity Platform (NUP), Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC), and the Democratic Party (DP), and one slot for Independents.

12 Independents are contesting for the one slot reserved for the no party candidates but the intrigue that has engulfed the NRM seats is spreading to their contest.

“There are always new rules for voting,” says an Independent candidate. He says there will be a committee appointed by Speaker of Parliament Anita Among to vet the independents and because of resource constraints, the nominated candidates may be whittled down to four or five.

He said in the last elections held in 2017, there were 40 Independent candidates. Meanwhile the resentment held by NRM aspirants lingers as some of them were devoted party cadres who thought it was their turn to vie for EALA. NRM top brass like Richard Todwong, the secretary general and Emmanuel Dombo, the director of communications were not available for comment.

The current saga mirrored the one of five years ago as NRM, FDC and the other opposition parties faced intra-party battles over candidates to send to EALA. FDC was torn between Florence Ibi and one of its stalwarts Ingrid Turinawe. NRM was at a crossroads on how to deal with its veterans like Francis Babu who tussled it out with young Turks like Dennis Namara. Other renowned party names like Henry Banyenzankyi and Emmanuel Dombo also joined the fray.

Uganda’s fumbles at EALA

In the past, the battles escalated when Uganda had a chance to take over the leadership of the EALA. In the middle of the previous term (2012-2017), Uganda suffered the embarrassment of having then speaker of EALA, Margaret Zziwa, impeached in just her second year over misconduct and abuse of office. Zziwa was the first EALA speaker to be impeached.

But even then, her election as Speaker was not without controversy. She defeated Dora Byamukama in a highly partisan ugly battle that sucked in former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi. Byamukama agonising over defeat, hurled a bouquet of flowers at then Minister for EAC Eriya Kategaya in an ugly diplomatic incident that was caught in the full glare of cameras.

There was a battle over who was Uganda’s officially backed Speaker. President Museveni distanced himself from the saga saying Uganda did not have an official candidate although a faction led by former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi had fronted Byamukama.

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