Amama Mbabazi: Is His Campaign Becoming A Still Birth?

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.

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

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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