The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
The grudges are deep and, according to some observers, led Museveni to this year to snub the Empango celebrations that mark the restoration of the kingdom.
The Empango marked this year on June 11 was doubly significant because it marked the silver jubilee of Bunyoro king, Solomon Gafabusa Iguru’s coronation. Banyoro royal enthusiasts were not impressed that just two-weeks earlier in May, Museveni had spent days in Hoima town at an NRM zonal leaders’ conference. Museveni and NRM leaders from eight districts that constitute Bunyoro Sub-region were at Kontiki Hotel not far from the king’s Karuzika palace in the municipality.
Banyoro are also unhappy that they no longer have powerful area politicians in Museveni’s government. They recall the time when Bunyoro boasted former prime minister and long-serving elderly politician, Muganwa Kajura and former powerful permanent secretary in the Energy Ministry, Kabagambe Kaliisa.
On the campaign trail, Nyakato fed into this anger. She vowed that if elected she would to speak up against problems of compensations over land the government has taken from the Banyoro to develop oil production infrastructure, the grievances of displace people, and the plight of Banyoro who remain poor in spite of having the oil wealth.
Nyakato is a smart politician who has previously negotiated the NRM-dominated Hoima election to become the Hoima Municipality Council general secretary despite her known loyalty to FDC. She was once Secretary for Environment in the FDC Youth League and is currently the FDC’s Secretary for Health Services and member of the FDC national executive.
Meanwhile, the MP-elect, Businge, is a woman with an imposing presence, soft-spoken eloquence, and determined spirit. She ran for the position in the 2016 and lost to Bagyira. But when President Museveni gave her a consolation job as RDC in 2018 and she rejected it.
Back then she was new in politics, having revealed her ambition a year before in 2015. So she possibly preferred to continue running her Good Samaritan Community School in Hoima Town while waiting for an opportunity to try again in 2021. It came earlier than she expected.
She was this time the perfect NRM candidate in Hoima as she has high credentials in three critical areas; the powerful Bunyoro kingdom, the ruling NRM party, and the business community.
A charismatic former teacher, Businge is an educationist at heart. Her school is known for giving bright children from disadvantaged backgrounds opportunity to study free. When she was minister in of education in the Bunyoro kingdom government, she was central to initiating the Bunyoro Kitara Royal University. She was in this job for 10 years and chaired the kingdom’s Education Fund. But all this did not matter in the end as the contest proved to be between the red of People Power and yellow of NRM.
Many observers say it was a tense election with many potential flash points but general apathy. There were allegations of stuffing pre-ticked ballots into ballot boxes. One of the NGOs that had a visible Election Observer Mission (EOM) in the election, the Citizens’ Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU), said in a statement that throughout the polling day, it had noted numerous allegations and counter allegations of voter bribery as well as claims and counter claims of pre-ticked ballots by both FDC and NRM political parties. CCEDU said, however, it was unable to verify the allegations.
Not that CCEDU’s views or those of any other observers would have mattered. The main outcome was that when the final results were announced at 9am on Sept.26, President Museveni’s candidate, Harriet Businge had won. And Bobi Wine’s talisman had failed.
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If Andrew Mwenda’s take that “the NRM narrowly won the by-election for woman MP in Hoima district” basing on Harriet Businge’s 33,000 votes (54%) and FDC’s Asinansi Nyakato’s 29,000 votes (46%), then your conclusion that the main outcome of the by-election was that Museveni’s candidate, Harriet Businge had won, while Bobi Wine’s had failed is only apparently correct. Andrew Mwenda further indicates that “the outcome of the hoima election was a major setback for NRM, which has historically won Hoima with huge margins”. He further illustrates that “in 2006, the FDC candidate for Woman MP in Hoima got only 15% of the votes that the NRM candidate got; in 2011 only 10% and in 2016 25%. In this by election, the FDC candidate got 86% of the votes the NRM candidate got”. Woudn’t I be therefore justified to refute your earlier conclusion and say what the facts point to: the main outcome of this by-election was that Harriet Businge’s prime-sponsor lost while the Asinansi Nyakato’s principal “talisman” won?
“According to many election observers and politicians that The Independent spoke to, the opposition loss in Hoima was largely down to some well-known campaign issues; including that a charismatic campaign amounts to nothing if it cannot get voters into the voting booth. And it does not matter what blocks the voter’s path.”
ALL that has been said in your “analysis” boils down to that one paragraph and to the last sentence therein.
“And it does not matter what blocks the voter’s path.” And you can put that in CAPITALS.
Because the NRM/M7 did everything including throwing in the proverbial sink, to make sure that this , of all elections was “WON”.
Whatever else you say in this article is just a whitewash and justifying the unjustifiable and what everyone else , apart from yourself , can see.