Written by DERRICK KIYONGA & ALEX NSUBUGA
President Museveni may have ignored the
row between his son-in-law Odrek Rwabwogo and his war general Matayo
Kyaligonza, but his name continues to be dragged into it.
Maj Gen Kyaligonza, the NRM vice
chairman for Western Uganda, is fighting to protect his position,
coveted by Rwabwogo, the husband to Museveni’s daughter Patience.
In a telephone interview on CBS radio’s
feature programme “Nze nga bwendaba,” loosely translated as “the way I
see it,” Kyaligonza suggested he was so angry that he could not restrain
himself any more.
“If you meet him [Rwabwogo] tell him
that Kyaligonza is not happy with him. If I meet him somewhere and he
says that I know nothing I will give him a hot slap,” he said.
Kyaligonza has been vice chairman for
western Uganda since NRM was formally registered as a political party.
The position gives him a seat on the Central Executive Committee, the
ruling party’s second top most organ.
In an earlier interview with The
Observer published on August 17, 2015, a bold-talking Rwabwogo, 45, said
time has come for the younger generation to take up more leadership
roles in NRM. Kyaligonza disagrees.
“Are they [youths] the ones who brought
us here? If you want to succeed your father do you kill him in order to
get the inheritance?” he asked his interviewer.
Next year, President Museveni will make
30 years since his rebel movement – in which Kyaligonza fought –
captured power. And although he has won four successive elections, it is
almost a taboo for ruling party leaders to discuss Museveni’s
successor. But the present argument by Rwabwogo, that veteran
politicians like Kyaligonza need to give way to younger blood, has
brought Museveni’s long tenure into focus.
Last week, Luweero LC-V chairman Abdul
Nadduli, a former NRM vice-chairman, criticised Museveni over the
Kyaligonza saga, taking the party chairman’s silence for endorsement of
Rwabwogo’s intentions. Captain Francis Babu, another CEC member, has
subsequently suggested that Museveni had long wanted to rid CEC of
strong characters such as Kyaligonza.
During Friday’s CBS interview,
Kyaligonza suggested that if Rwabwogo wants the historicals to go, he
should have that conversation with Museveni.
“Who is that one? Odrek? I don’t know
him, I have never even seen him,” he said. “Is he the one who gave me
work? He should tell such things [about retiring] to his father in–law
[Museveni]. We are the ones that brought his father-in-law in power.
Don’t make me talk too much.”
In the earlier Observer interview,
Rwabwogo heaped some praise on Kyaligonza. He said he respects the
general so much since he was one of the best NRA fighters during the
Luweero bush war.
“As a matter of fact, he was the
commander who took down Makindye barracks, attacking Ndeeba from Masaka
road. I know that very well,” Rwabwogo said. “I give him the due respect
and the honour that you give an elder. However, I stand on the
shoulders of the elders in order to do something better because there is
always an evening of something and a dawn of another.”
On Friday, Kyaligonza was in no mood for niceties.
“Youths shouldn’t think that they will
start with wanting to be president. Let them start at the LC-I then we
see how they behave. But when you say that the old guard are “bazeeyi”
[old] and they don’t know what they are saying then we shall have
problems. I think he [Rwabwogo] should start at least with LC-II and
then LC-III then we shall see his potential,” he said.
He warned that even if Rwabwogo is
supported by the first family as the “rumour mill” suggests, he will
defeat him resoundingly.
“I hear he is being supported by the
first family, I will shame the first family by defeating him. He is
saying that he is coming from the first family? Is mine the second
family? Even mine is a first family. We shall shame him and abuse him,”
Kyaligonza said.
According to Kyaligonza, what annoys him
most is that all historicals are bitter with the way things are going
on in the country. He said those who are not showing any anger are
“opportunists.”
“When I get annoyed, I really get
annoyed and I say the truth. I never sugar-coat in order to make people
happy. We [historicals] don’t want familiarity because when we came
[into power] we didn’t disrespect people,” he said.
“Look at all those people who are
attending [Col Kizza] Besigye’s rallies. They want to support a cause
because they are tired.”
Asked by his host whether he had lost
faith in the NRM regime, Kyaligonza said: “Many other people will come
out and say the truth because things are not going on well. It’s just a
matter of time.”
It was not immediately clear how the NRM
is dealing with the growing discontent among historical members over
the Rwabwogo saga. Party spokesman Mary Karooro Okurut and her deputy
Ofwono Opondo had not returned our phone calls by press time.http://www.observer.ug/news-headlines/39452-kyaligonza-to-rwabwogo-first-tell-museveni-about-retirement
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