Publication date: Wednesday, 28th April, 2004
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CP FOUNDER: Mayanja Nkangi |
By Joyce Namutebi
EVER since new political forces emerged on the political scene and went into consultations with Government on the roadmap to pluralism, ‘bad blood’ started brewing between them and the ‘mainstream political parties’ that have come to be known as the G7.
The G7 went ahead to order the Government to hold dialogue with them, something that did not go well with the new parties some of whom have been registered as required by the Political Parties and Organisations Act.
The G7 consist of the Democratic Party, the Conservative Party, Free Movement, Justice Forum, Uganda People’s Congress, the National Democrats Forum and Reform Agenda.
The G7 argue that there is no need for them to register under what they call a bad law. They say the new parties are just artificial pro-government groups, which were manufactured to disorganise the opposition.
However, the new parties are angry at being undermined when they are law abiding and strongly believe they have the peoples’ mandate. They say the G7 are attacking them because they fear new talents in the multiparty camp. They also refer to them (G7) as a cartel of dictators.
The new parties advise the G7 to register because this is a market economy. They scoff at them for demanding a neutral authority with executive powers be established to take over management of the transition.
Action Party
Nelson Ocheger, 38, from Kumi is President of the Action Party founded in July 2000. He says the demands put forward by G7 cannot be legally and politically sustained.
“You can’t demand results of this process to be binding because no law has established the consultations. You can’t demand for a neutral chairman because we have a legitimate government and a functioning state.
“What mandate do they (G7) have to ask this government to be dissolved. This is a legitimate government voted in by the people. You must have respect for a legitimate authority, our opposition to it not withstanding,” he says.
Ocheger says remarks by the G7 on new parties contradict the principle of freedom of association.
“If you advocate for multipartism, it is not proper for you to restrict formation of political parties different from the one you are member of. In multipartism it is important to tolerate and respect views of those opposed to yours,” he advises.
Ocheger says his party has a membership, which is bigger than that of the Free Movement, the NDF, Yusuf Nsambu’s CP and Justice Forum put together.
“We recognise that Uganda is a young democracy and we are still building a nation. We need a strong state and the most important pillar in building a strong state is a strong presidency,” Ocheger says.
Ocheger says they stopped the process of registration of their party pending the Supreme Court disposal of a government petition in relation to the Constitutional Court nullification of Section 18 and 19 of the Political Organisations Act.
“They (mainstream) have fatigue. We feel we must bring in new blood in Uganda’s politics,” says the Secretary General of National Peoples Organisation (NAPO), Lwanga Bbaale. He said old parties think they have a monopoly of ideas, which is wrong.
National Peoples Organisation (Abdu Jagwe)
NAPO was founded early 2002 by Abdu Jagwe, now its interim chairman and Lwanga Bbaale, the secretary general. Jagwe is in the printing world while Lwanga is an expert in VIP Communication and Diplomatic Security. Lwanga says he grew up at the home of the Speaker of Parliament, Edward Ssekandi.
“We don’t have a record behind us but they do. They are attacking us because of this. We are a threat to them,” Lwanga says.
He questions how the old parties can claim that the new parties are ‘manufactured’ when they have the mandate of the people from whom they collected signatures. “We represent the views of the people but the G7 were not elected by the people,” he says adding, “Museveni has a lot of things to do other than manufacturing parties.”
Lwanga’s advice to the old parties is for them to register because there is no short cut. He says during the consultations, which the G7 boycotted, a code of conduct for parties has been proposed, which they should be party to if they do not want to carry out lawlessness.
NAPO’s motto is ‘Peaceful co-existence for development.’ They believe in a Republican Federal System of Governance, a free market economy, uplifting people’s living standards and believe that government has a duty to provide social services.
Movement for Democratic Change
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), whose President General is Johnson Mutibwa, 33, is irked by accusations that they are sycophants of the Movement.
Mutibwa says old parties want to solve everything by going to courts even when it is not necessary. “They should sit and negotiate,” says Mutibwa. He says the major aim of parties is to take over power but questions how this can be achieved when they are divided. “Let us as new parties sit together with the old parties and talk about how we are going to take over leadership,” he says. On top of being new, MDC which was formed in March 2003 has very young people in the leadership. Most of them are in their thirties. Some are still pursuing their studies at Makerere University. One of the major reasons that compelled them into forming MDC was that after completing their studies, they found themselves with no jobs. “We saw that the environment was very hostile,” says Robert Kityo, the secretary general.
The Party gets most of its funding from their colleagues doing odd jobs outside the country. “We are in the kitchen cooking and they are sending the firewood,” Kityo says.
They are prepared to facilitate nkuba kyeyos once they takeover power.
Kityo, a teacher by profession, says MDC was formed to change the inequalities in public service. They say that MDC is prepared to fight corruption once they come into office. They also want to see that all the injustice that force people to go to the bush are addressed.
MDC wants a national army in place in addition to improving health services. They say they want to implement a culture of active tolerance and peace as their vision states. They say MDC has 10,000 members with yellow and white as its colours where whites stand for ‘very clean’ and yellow for good policies for Uganda.
Democratic Party
Francis Bwengye, 62, a Democratic Party (DP) member is another force that is in consultations with Government. Bwengye says he was elected to the top job by the party’s National Council in November 2000 after Dr. Paul Semogerere was suspended.
He says that John Ssebaana Kizito, Kampala Mayor, and Damiano Lubega went to court challenging his election saying they were illegally removed. Since then they (Bwengye’s DP) have held several national executive committee meetings, which Semogerere does not attend. However, the two sides (Bwengye and Paul Semogerere) are trying to sort out their differences with the DP Parliamentary Caucus, as the mediators.
“We want reconciliation to take place so that party delegates make fresh election of leadership,” Bwengye says.
On party talks he says, “The transition needs all of us stakeholders. For anybody to say they can’t talk to Government is political naivety. The G7 fear to join the talks because they do not exist on the ground. He calls the Free Movement ‘an academic discussion group at Makerere University.’
“They (G7) are a cartel of dictators,” he says of the parties’ demand that government talks to them only. He advises some of the old parties to “clean themselves first and then seek justice.
Born in Mubanda, Bushenyi, Bwengye and others including Dr. Andrew Lutakome Kayiira and Boniface Byanyima formed the Uganda Free Movement (UFM). Bwengye a lawyer by profession.
He became chairman of UFM after Kayiira’s death. The group was responsible for bringing into Uganda the biggest assortment of small arms that sparked off the guerrilla warfare of 1981 to 1985.
National Peasants Party
Erias Segujja Wamala, 41, and a teacher by profession, heads the National Peasants Party (NPP) whose operational office is situated at Katwe, a Kampala suburb.
Segujja, who participated in the struggle that ousted Idi Amin, says the idea of forming a peasants party was hatched in May 1999. He says he was touched when he saw many people, mostly peasants suffering and there was nobody advocating for them. NPP boasts of a membership of over three million people. It has already acquired its certificate of registration from the Registrar General. “We have come to fight for the common man,” Segujja says.
Its mission is “to transform Uganda into a better place to live, where unity, freedom and democracy are paramount and to revamp Uganda’s glory as the pearl of Africa,” says Segujja.
NPP has drawn a 15-point programme. Black, yellow and green are its colours.
Segujja, a product of Kaliro Teacher Training College, taught in schools in Uganda and Kenya before joining the political arena and engaging in business in Kampala. He says during the Constituent Assembly, he was advisor to Dr. Paul Semogerere while in 1997/1998 he was invited by Chapaa Karuhanga who was also seeking advice from him. He studied politics in Tanzania but when war broke out in Uganda he joined UNLF and in 1979 he entered Uganda with the Tanzanian liberators. He quit UNLF in the early 80’s after completion of the mission. In 1996, Segujja supported Semogerere in the presidential elections. In 2000 he joined Ocheger’s multiparty referendum committee to mobilise people to support the multiparty cause but they lost to the Movement. He joined Dr. Col Kizza Besigye’s camp in 2000 but later withdrew after witnessing intimidation and beatings.
National Convention for Democracy
Degaulle Kawuma is the chairman of the National Convention for Democracy (NCD), which has an office at Jjunju Road in Wandegeya. The party’s vice chairman and publicity secretary, Hajji Jjingo Kaaya says that after the 2000 Referendum, 18 organisations came together to form NCD. Kaaya, a retired civil servant says the party supports federalism.
Some of its objectives include safeguarding the Constitution and other organs of government, and formation and guaranteeing of people’s rights that are universally accepted and not injurious to African cultures.
They also want to promote democratic governance and gender equity and establishing constructive relations with international organisations, among others.
Its colours are blue, red and green. It also has a symbol of the dove symbolising sanity in politics.
The party’s message to Government is “ Compensate people in the war zone.”
People’s Independent Party
Haji Yahya Kamulegeya is founder president of the People’s Independent Party (PIP). He was formerly working with the defunct Greenland Bank. He says that while there, politics was always at the back of his mind.
He says Government’s decision to open political space stirred him into action. He says he sold the idea of forming the party to his friends and they did not let him down.
He says the party advocates for a federal republic of Uganda and believes that whatever good things were done by past leaders should be lifted and given new meaning.
Kamulegeya says PIP is a party of all Ugandans regardless of tribe and religion and has come to restore the dignity of Ugandans.
“We in PIP believe that the biggest asset of the nation are its people and once we attain power we shall ensure that we care greatly for them,” Kamulegeya says.
He castigates kyeyo (odd jobs done by Ugandans abroad) as a return to slavery. He promises to provide incentives to attract these job seekers back to their motherland. He believes that the international community should be called in to bring an end to the war in northern Uganda.
Born in 1957, Kamulegeya comes from a family of 200 members. He says the reference to the G7 as the mainstream parties is an insult to Ugandans.
Republican Women and Youth Party
Stella Nambuya, 36, is the only woman now heading a political party in Uganda. She heads the Republican Women and Youth Party whose vision she had in May 2003. To date hers is one of the few parties that have been registered. “One people, one nation,” is the party’s motto.
Nambuya, a woman activist calls hers a party of progressive thinkers, both men and women. She says that whoever is a progressive thinker is a youth. The mother of two is a Nairobi University graduate. She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics. She has diplomas in Project Planning and Management, Business Studies and MacroEconomics. Her party believes in liberty, equality, unity, peace, social justice, democracy, a free and open society and freedom of expression. Its colours are green for natural resources, white for peace, truth and justice, blue for love of Uganda and its people, pink for tolerance, brown for nature, wealth and power, red for the sun and black for pan Africanism and same blood for humanity.
“I’m going to change Uganda for the better of the people,” she says. She promises that once in power they will provide free universal secondary education to girls.
To the boycotts she says, “We are in a market economy, its the market to decide. In modern democracy those who boycott may be having their own agendas,” she says.
She is of the view that the people will decide on whether to lift the two-term limit for the president.
The Conservative Party
The Conservative Party (CP) is not a new party. Mayanja Nkangi, who is currently the chairman of Uganda Land Commission, is the founder and leader of the Conservative Party, a party he founded April 1980.
The reason he formed it was to conserve peoples’ liberties because in 1966 the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) government abrogated the 1962 Constitution.
“I wanted liberal democracy,” he says.
However, all has not been rosy. In 1996, Ken Lukyamuzi, the party secretary general, struck an agreement with DP and UPC inter party coalition for the presidential elections, without consulting Nkangi.
“I asked him why he wanted to join and he told me they were going to give us federo. To me, it was almost an impossibility,” Nkangi says.
“Since then they went to Nsambu Nsubuga, about 10 people and elected a government of their own saying they had removed a person elected by the delegates conference. They told me that I’m a Movementist because I have been in government for so long and a spy too,” he says.
Nsambu’s CP is now with the G7. Nkangi went to the Prime Minister, Prof. Apolo Nsibambi and briefed him about the state of affairs. He informed him that if the Nsambu group did not want to talk to Government about the transition, he would. He is determined to have the party registered.
“If you want to operate politically, register,” Nkangi advises the boycotts.
The CP colours are purple and white and the motto is, ‘Land of my birth, I pledge to thee.’ He says he got the motto from a poet.
“We the mulpartists have no constitutional rights to demand. When government comes, we should cease the opportunity to influence direction of things,” he says.
Ends
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