By Arthur M. M. Katabalwa.
There is a deafening
silence around these days and I am not sure whether it is only me who has
noticed it or not. The last year has been dominated by Hon. Amama Mbabazi in
the media despite the fact that he was not saying much. For weeks on end the
speculation that he would announce his bid to become The President of Uganda
was almost at fever pitch. Then when he did, the twist in the announcement was
almost revolutionary.
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| Hon. Amama Mbabazi. |
For ages, NRM stalwarts
who had fallen out of favor with the regime left in a huff, throwing all the
toys out of the pram. We have the Amanya Mushegas, Mugisha Muntu and of course
the most famous of them, Kiza Besigye. The list is almost endless. Agustine
Ruzindana (where is he by the way?) the bombastic Miriam Matembe. All lined up
to harangue and blast the NRM. They changed allegiances and moved to other
political bases. Once we even had Eriya Kategaya abandon ship only to go back
in the fold. But Mbabazi did it differently. He decided to stay and everyone
thought that was a master stroke even though we all knew there was no chance in
hell that he would win. The system is skewed in favor of the incumbent.
Everyone knows that. So it was not a surprise that he found it also incumbent
on himself to decide to stand on an independent ticket albeit espousing the
qualities of the NRM.
But that is where we
have, since then got the most deafening silence. The public, myself inclusive
have been mesmerized by the struggles that have been going on within the NRM.
The outbursts from people like Kahinda Otafire have, in my view, been very
childish. The Tamale Mirundis and the rest of them could not have shouted any
louder. It all gave the impression that there was something that they were
fearing of Mbabazi. Even the President waded in with a very ill advised press
conference on his return from South Africa.
Now people are asking:
"Where is Mbabazi?" The media is now excited by the struggles in The
Democratic Party. The party is disintegrating with factions coming up. Has
anyone told DP that they will remain a side note of the political debate if
they go on like this? Then there is UPC which is not doing well either.
All of these things have taken the shine of what was the Mbabazi juggernaut
.
We are also being fed
by the usual staple of news from Nansana (I think Bukedde TV has a bureau in that
town) and other places. But where is Mbabazi? As it transpires, the public was
very interested in seeing the battles between him and his ally of 40 years the
President. It is almost like an animalistic instinct. We like watching fights.
But as Mbabazi was sticking to the law and the goal posts kept shifting all the
time, the public started getting tired.
Beyond the sparing,
nothing substantial is coming out of his camp. And this is symptomatic of all
the opposition. Not a single word on policy is coming from either one of them.
Mugisha Muntu has tried but as soon as he has said anything, it is forgotten.
Besigye was smoked out recently by tear gas (again?) with his supporters. And what he has said has not made any substantial
headlines.
Meanwhile Museveni is
out opening roads and giving new bishops cars trying to prize back the headlines. He is trying to be
Presidential again. Surely he has taken a battering with the Mbabazi saga as
his media machine staggered blindly and blithely from one crisis to another. They were ill prepared. Mbabazi stole the narrative from them. Well, that was then because it
seems like someone is finally getting the hang of things and getting the party
back on message although there is still nothing substantial on policy coming
from the NRM.
Meanwhile, those who
were looking for a Messianic showing up of JPAM, a sort of Goliath show down
are worried this may all be a dump squib; a still birth. Some might say that it
was all probably planned. Indeed I have a number of friends who are convinced
that this has been an almighty show that was orchestrated in State House to
dupe the public that there is some kind of credible opposition to The
President.
Hon. Mbabazi I think is
an honest man. Much has been aligned to
him. All the scandals of this present government are being blamed on him in a
particular way. One wonders if he has an explanation for all this. If he has,
then the time is nigh. Over the last few days and weeks he has been ensconced in
his gated compound in Kololo. That may not be the best tactic right now. We Ugandans can
be fickle sometimes. He had built a momentum over the past weeks. Now all one
sees of him in the papers are suspect opinion polls which do not make a pretty
reading. When is the real battle starting JPAM? This kind of silence could be
your Achilles heel.
mwenky99@gmail.com
