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Democratic Party (DP) president general and justice minister Norbert Mao says Museveni's bush war group risked everything.

President Yoweri Museveni went to the bush in 1981 to wage a five-year war that brought the National Resistance Army (now Movement) to power in 1986.

“Those who went to the bush, I don’t know what they were thinking, but they risked everything together with my brother here (turns to face Bright Rwamirama standing on his left). I don’t think you will ever tell all your stories,” he said.

He made the remarks on Thursday, October 26, 2023, during the burial ceremony of Mbarara North MP Robert Mwesigwa Rukaari’s father, Maitland Lawrence Rukaari.

Rukaari, a renowned farmer and businessman in the Ankole region, succumbed to diabetes at age 89 at Mbarara Hospital on Monday, October 23.

Rwamirama, who represented President Yoweri Museveni at the burial ceremony in Nkokonjeru ward in Mbarara city, is the animal industry state minister and Isingiro North MP.

Mao said they don’t need to go to the bush again but they can still stand on the principles which make people risk everything by doing what is right rather than what is convenient.

“Those who are telling us that Idi Amin’s government was better, Obote’s government was better, they never lived there and they don’t know it,” he said.

Tips for criticising the Government

He also gave his colleagues in the Opposition tips for criticising the ruling party.

“And even when those who want to criticise the NRM do so, they should criticise the policies and not attack individuals or people (living in the area) where the leader comes from. That is the kind of politics that we can’t accept. People fight. Americans fought but they are now one United States of America,” Mao said.

Mao also told mourners that they could overcome their past and build a better future by drawing comparisons by avoiding opening a war between the past and the present.

“That is the assignment President Museveni gave me and I have pledged to serve peacefully to unify Uganda, to undermine those who are preaching violence, and to ensure that we negotiate the future together because Uganda is only one,” he said.

Strategic politician

Mao showed last year that he is indeed a strategic and tactical politician by making a political move that surprised many when he signed a working cooperation agreement with NRM on July 20, 2023, to gain greater leverage.

This formal agreement was the first of its kind in Uganda and saw Mao, a former fierce critic of Museveni, appointed minister the following day.

It entails several areas for cooperation between the two parties in areas such as justice and law, peace and security as well and economy.

The agreement also saw NRM use its numerical superiority as a constituency to have DP Secretary General Gerald Siranda elected as one of the country’s nine representatives to the Arusha-based East African Legislative Assembly.