Rubaramira defects to NRM

• Says NRM is the only par ty with a clear agenda in the HIV/AIDS fight

By John Semakula and Brian Mayanja

Renowned HIV/AIDS activist Maj. Rubaramira Ruranga has crossed from the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) to the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM).

Rubaramira told Saturday Vision on Friday that NRM is the only political party that has got a clear agenda in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Rubaramira said before crossing over, he thought about the increasing HIV/AIDS rates in the country and how he would contribute to the fight. He said upon realising that President Yoweri Museveni was crucial in the fight, he met him and decided to join NRM to work with him.

“If you want to see change, you work with someone who can cause it. If I am to make any significant contribution in the HIV/AIDS fight, I have to be in NRM,” he said.

“President Museveni helped me to start a network of people living with HIV/AIDS and he is the only leader of a country in
the world, who has spoken openly about the pandemic and spearheaded the campaign against it,” he said.

Rubaramira added that the chaos that swept FDC, where he served as electoral commission chairperson, after the 2012 party presidential polls, also contributed much to his decision to quit.

“The outcome of the 2012 party elections and the report of the committee that was set up afterwards revealed a lot. Some people failed to make crucial decisions even when they had powers to do so,” he noted.

“People should know that every human being has a right to make a choice which will give him happiness in life. I have chosen to go that way because I have a cause that will make me happy,” Rubaramira added.

Rubaramira backed Nandala Mafabi against Maj. Gen. Mugisha Muntu. During the campaign, he made a chain of verbal attacks against Muntu and his camp. At one point, he said Muntu was an NRM mole in FDC.

But FDC sources yesterday said they always suspected he was an NRM mole in the party. They said Rubaramira had long ceased being active and only turned up in 2012 to campaign for Mafabi.

Attempts to talk to Muntu and Wafula Oguttu, the party spokesperson about Rubaramira’s dramatic decision were futile because their mobile phones were switched off.

But Maj. John Kazoora, a former bush-war comrade of Rubaramira, said he did not believe we were telling him the truth because he was with Rubaramira this week, but he did not tell him anything.