Museveni’s next cabinet

Mao knows Bobi Wine is being seen as the biggest boost to the opposition owing to his mobilisation prowess as a music superstar.

That was on show recently when he flew into neighbouring Kenya and drew mammoth crowds to the rallies of his host; Babu Owino. He was feted by many young MPs and senators and many youth thronged his main rally at Jakaranda in Mbakasi East Constituency. Bobi Wine is also a Muganda, Uganda’s biggest tribe. The 36-year old it appears is the person to watch in 2021. And other politicians; including Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago who sought to ride on DP into State House must be wary of him.

Muntu’s new formation is also expected to appeal to some Ugandans who want change but neither support Museveni nor his major opponents like Besigye.

Insiders say Museveni’s upcoming reshuffle is expected to address all these challenges and put him in a better position to stay in power.

But even politicians of lesser political ambition, such as UPC stalwart Joseph Bossa, are making demands on Museveni.

“If Museveni means well for the country; let him say we are forming a government of national unity and under certain conditions,” Bossa told The Independent, “If he needs ideas from the opposition, these can be taken on board without poaching opposition politicians.”

Bossa warns opposition politicians against joining Museveni because, he says, Museveni appoints members of the opposition into cabinet in order to cause confusion amongst his opponents.

He points at his own party UPC, from where Museveni poached Betty Amongin, the wife of one of the party leaders Jimmy Akena, to make this point.

“What this sort of thing does is it increases suspicion, bickering and weakens the opposition,” Bossa noted, “People start looking over their shoulders saying if so and so could do this, who can we trust?”

“When people talk about moles in political parties, sometimes it is not empty statements,” Bossa adds, “Coming from Lango, married to the son of Obote, you will find it difficult to stand openly as NRM, so you stand as UPC but when you are not.”

Bossa explained that neither the country nor the opposition benefits from these appointments.

“The ultimate beneficiaries of these appointments are Museveni and for a short time, the individual appointees,” he says.

Museveni also poached former FDC stalwart, Christopher Kibazanga, who joined the NRM in 2015.

In typical style, DP’s Mao likens a ministerial appointment in Museveni’s government to fool’s gold—pieces of iron pyrites, which look a little like gold but is worthless.

In an article the Daily Monitor newspaper, Mao noted that Museveni ensnares vibrant leaders opposed to him, takes them to the mountain top, shows them the splendor they would inherit if only they worship him and then hurls them to their political grave.

“The script is very familiar but his victims real potential seem not to learn,” Mao writes.

Amongst these victims, Mao listed former Lands Minister Omara Otubo, who used to belong to DP before he joined the NRM and was later dropped.

Mao also warned that both Beti Kamya and Betty Amongin to tread carefully lest they walk the same road that Omara Atubo walked. Mao was writing at a time when Amongin was in trouble with the Justice Catherine Bamugemereire—led land probe.

Stephen Hippo Twebaze, a political researcher who has also worked closely with the ruling party leadership, says that Museveni appoints such opposition leaders into cabinet as either a form of recruitment or co-option.

He explained that under co-option, Museveni appoints such politicians in order to get them to follow a certain line, a certain minimum programme. This, he says, has another “unintended consequence” which is that “it weakens the opposition.”

“That is how the Kawanga Ssemwogerere’s (former DP President) ended up in government until they left,” Twebaze told The Independent, “so, this has not started today.”