Poor old DP is in a state of anarchy

Feb 13, 2005

TEREGO MP Kassiano Wadri’s defection to the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) is yet another serious blow to the Democratic Party (DP).

TEREGO MP Kassiano Wadri’s defection to the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) is yet another serious blow to the Democratic Party (DP).
With Kassiano’s defection, who has been the chairperson of the DP caucus in Parliament, it means the party now virtually has no MP from the entire West Nile region, an area where the party has traditionally enjoyed a very solid base.
It is an understatement to say that DP is in a crisis. it is in a state of anarchy. The rival factions ought to recognise this reality and seek to sort out their misunderstanding before time runs out. The party will certainly disintegrate if quick action is not taken to stop the factional infighting.
Developments within the party over the past few months are embarrassing. Take, for instance, the recent widely publicised incident at the Pope Paul the VI community centre where hooligans calling themselves the ‘youth brigade’ beat up some officials of the Uganda Young Democrats (UYD).
What is even more shocking was the fact that presidential aspirant Hajji Nasser Sebaggala later praised the goons for their criminal action! What message is being sent to the population that is already skeptical about revival of multiparty politics? The circus over the registration of the party is yet another embarrassment.
It is incredible that while other parties are busy re-organising, rival DP factions are fighting over the registration of the party. The biggest challenge facing Paul Ssemogerere and the rest of the party leaders is how to avert the DP disintegration.
The only way forward, in my view, is for the rival factions to agree on a caretaker interim leadership with a specific mandate to register the party, revive its branches and organise the party Delegates Conference for election of the new party leaders.
The caretaker administration should be headed by respected individuals such as the former chairperson of the Constitutional Review Commission Prof Frederick Ssempebwa to restore credibility to the party.
All the current party officials should step down and should be excluded from the caretaker leadership.
It is only a neutral caretaker leadership that can unify the party and facilitate the convening of the Delegates Conference. It should be recalled that the DP caucus under Kassiano Wadri had tried to reconcile Ssemogerere and Bwengye’s factions in order to unify the party.
The reconciliation aborted mainly because during the process some members of the caucus, notably, Wadri, Patrick Musisi, Michael Mabikke and Ssebuliba Mutumba became ambitious and tried to hijack the party leadership.
To make matters worse, other members of the caucus — Rainer Kafire and Zachary Olum belonged to the Bwengye faction and sought to use the caucus to advance their factional interests. Subsequently the caucus joined the fray and ganged up with the Bwengye and Nasser Sebaggala’s factions to wrestle leadership from Ssemogerere. There is now no neutral group to mediate between the rival factions. The UYD is also as split as the mother party.
Mabikke’s faction is aligned with Sebaggala while another faction led by Kenneth Kakande, Dr Lulume Mayiga and Derek Mutema is aligned to the Ssemogerere group. I have it on good authority that the UYD top organs — the national executive committee and national council have not held a single meeting for close to eight years.
There are serious allegations that the UYD split was precipitated by a financial scandal involving some of the organisation’s officials who allegedly misappropriated funds and acquired a printing press!
I hope these allegations are not true. But the fact is that the disintegration of UYD has contributed to the confusion in the mother party.

What has complicated the situation is the fact that none of the warring factions can provide the party with a leadership capable of meeting the challenges of the times.
The Bwengye-Sebaggala faction suffers from serious credibility problems. Sebaggala’s conviction and imprisonment in the United States of America for defrauding a bank renders him vulnerable politically.
The controversy surrounding his academic qualifications has further dented his image. As for Bwengye, the affidavit he swore affirming that the 2001 presidential elections were ‘free and fair’ was a political blunder that alienated him from the rest of the opposition.
There is no major opposition party ready to work with Bwengye or his group. On the other hand, Dr Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere has been on the stage for far too long and ought to be retiring to pave way for a young and charismatic leadership to take charge of the party.
That is the way forward.
Ends

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