Amama blasts ‘rogue’ NRM government

Presidential aspirant AMAMA MBABAZI was an angry man on Wednesday, September 9, the third day of his eastern public consultative tour after police using rubber bullets and tear gas broke up his rally at Soroti Sports Grounds.

Speaking to NBS TV at Soroti hotel later, Mbabazi vented his anger at what he called a “rogue government.” Lawrence Misege listened to the recording and below is a slightly-abridged transcript.

How do you describe your day?

It was a bad day for Uganda. It was a bad day for democracy because I did not believe that my own government would behave like a rogue government. I can’t believe it; we came in according to the plan the organizers had agreed with the local police.

We headed straight to the venue where the public consultative meeting was to take place. In the morning, they had cancelled the original venue [Soroti Independence Square] and when I was informed about it on phone, I told our people to cooperate with the police.

They went to a new field, the sports ground, and you may have noticed that at the time I arrived the tent had not been fully erected. Obviously this was meant to disrupt that public rally.

I know from the information I have gathered now, that starting yesterday [Tuesday] and with greater intensity this morning, there was an effort to mobilize people here against the rally; actually they tried to mobilize people to demonstrate against my arrival and to use violence against my supporters; the people refused and I want to use this opportunity to salute the people of Teso and particularly the people of Soroti municipality for refusing those rogue ideas from some MPs and leaders of this area.

Can you be specific on those leaders you are talking about that tried to mobilize against your supporters?

Yes I am going to do so because I am going to write to them. I am to write to government; I’m going to write to Parliament to protest because I cannot believe that anyone within their proper senses would engage in a thing like that. We are in a democracy that’s what we fought for and many of these fellows who simply come up do not know where all this came from.

They behave like rogues, absolute rogues; anyway, it failed, the people of Teso refused, they refused and you saw the warmth with which I was received when I entered town.

As I was entering the playground, some police officer came to me; I later learnt he was called Mr. Acaye. He came to me and told me as I was moving that this public rally was unlawful. But as he was talking, the young people who were near looked agitated and I advised him that it was not safe for us to continue talking [at that spot] because he could have been injured.

So, we went to the podium and we sat together and he told me that he had been instructed by the Electoral Commission that this public rally was unlawful. I told him it was not unlawful.

I know the law very well, when I wrote to the national Electoral Commission about my public consultative meetings, I was not requesting their permission because I don’t need their permission. The law only requires me to notify them and I met that requirement; the law requires me to notify the police and I did.

In the case of police, the IGP [Kale Kayihura] wrote back to me saying it was alright he had cleared me. I didn’t seek his clearance either because I don’t need it but anyhow he wrote back. The electoral commission did not write to me; they have not told me anything that they seem to be talking about.

This Electoral Commission, I think it is behaving in a manner that totally undermines the purpose for which they were set up because they were set up to conduct democratic elections in Uganda but it appears that the things they do are intended to undermine that very principle of democracy and therefore I think we are headed in the wrong direction in terms of the management of our elections now.

Then Mr Acaye said – well, he actually rose and left. Shortly after that, they attacked; the police attacked; you saw what happened, they were using tear gas canisters, they shot people, there are so many people who are injured. I have seen some of them; one was shot.

I have got a report that one was shot with a live bullet in the foot. I certainly have seen others who have been injured; there are four who are still in hospital unconscious, this was not provoked; nothing had happened.

I was just entering; nobody had done anything. People were happily receiving me; that was all. So, I think the actions of the police were obviously not provoked; it’s unlawful and it deserves the condemnation that any rogue action by any state agency deserves.

You talk about leaders and MPs who mobilized against you; who are those leaders you are talking about?

Yes I told you that I will answer that; in fact I am going to write to those individuals registering my protest to them. I am possibly going to look at other actions; I have talked to my lawyers about it. I would like to see what legal action we can have against these individuals who behave like rogues. 

Does this change your perception about the NRM government that you served for close to three decades?

Well, you know I have told you many times that this government has veered off the course of our struggle that’s the reason why I have decided not to remain with them in government because I am really committed to the core principles of the struggle; democracy and unity, noble principles that our people gave up their own lives for.

And the fact that I am out, is evidence that they [NRM] had actually started veering off. This is further evidence of what I have been protesting about.

Can you authoritatively tell the nation what your stand is in regard to your membership in the ruling party?

I am a member of the ruling party. NRM has many people, I actually believe majority of them don’t subscribe to what is happening now; they don’t support it and I think the big debate in NRM is whether we should have change or not and that will be the debate within NRM itself; that is a big question in NRM that has caused division.

So, I belong to that group that does not subscribe to what is happening now, the direction the government is taking and we think we need to change it.

What is your relationship with your longtime friend [President Museveni] now that the two of you are going to appear on the same ballot paper?

I think my relationship has nothing to do with this. Really again as I have said many times before it’s not about me, it’s not about Mr Museveni.  I mean, what is a man in all this? One man!

Even the victories we have attained before, they have not been because of one man; all these victories have been as a result of collective actions always. You may have individual actions like in war and things like that but ultimately it is a collective effort that matters.

So, one man doesn’t matter so much and as far as I am concerned, we are not talking about principals, we are talking about a system; we are not talking about individuals; this has nothing to do with my relationship with him.

(Commenting on the EC’s position on illegal public rallies):

Those EC chaps who are saying that [my rallies are illegal], are illegal themselves. I think they don’t know what they are talking about. I am talking about the laws of Uganda and anyone in the Electoral Commission who says that kind of thing should stop it because they don’t know what they are talking about.

http://observer.ug/news-headlines/39869-amama-blasts-rogue-nrm-government