NRM delegates conference opens
Nov 16, 2005
President Yoweri Museveni yesterday opened the first NRM national delegates conference, saying the movement would not allow dictators to take political power in Uganda.
By Fortunate Ahimbisibwe
and Cyprian Musoke
President Yoweri Museveni yesterday opened the first NRM national delegates conference, saying the movement would not allow dictators to take political power in Uganda.
In a speech punctuated with Runyankore proverbs, a buoyant Museveni told the delegates that the Movement had nurtured an organic bond with its people that cannot be severed.
“In their supreme ignorance, some people have attempted to assault the bond between the movement and its people but they have failed. They try this one, he fails, they bring another, nothing. They do not know that the movement has an organic bond with its people. It is therefore not surprising that we have always beaten our opponents and we will not allow them to divert our people,†he said.
Museveni, who delivered the keynote address to 8,000 delegates at Mandela National Stadium, Namboole, said unlike the past governments, the movement was not tolerant to soldiers who kill and had executed those who did it.
First lady Janet Museveni, former president Godfrey Binaisa, the widow of late vice-president Samson Kisekka, Mary Kisekka, Parliament Speaker Edward Ssekandi and his deputy Rebecca Kadaga and former Prime Minister Kintu Musoke and some members of opposition parties attended the event.
Former Movement leaders Eriya Kategaya and Bidandi Ssali, who had been invited, were absent.
Movement Vice- Chairman Al Hajji Moses Kigongo urged contenders for NRM posts not to divide the people, and offered to reconcile any with differences.
Museveni castigated regimes that carried out extra-judicial killings, saying they were extensions of colonialists, but did not understand the colonialist ways.
“That’s why we never listen to foreigners to tell us what to do, and that’s why we have succeeded so far. If you have a home where neighbours tell you what to do in your home, what sort of home is that?†he asked.
He said Uganda had single-handedly ousted dictator Idi Amin Dada who was supported by the British and Americans, and that his backers only realised his brutality after he had been ousted.
“When former President (Milton) Obote died recently, some UPC people were saying that UPC killed people but also the Movement killed, so both of us are, democratically, killers. But I want to respond by saying I am not in the league of killers. For us, we punish all the killers,†he said.
He said the Government was committed to fighting corruption. “You are not going to stop corruption by decreeing that let there be no corruption. No, I am not Jehovah. You must help me to identify the thieves,†he said.
He called for the expedition of Karuma and Bujagali power projects to increase energy supply.
and Cyprian Musoke
President Yoweri Museveni yesterday opened the first NRM national delegates conference, saying the movement would not allow dictators to take political power in Uganda.
In a speech punctuated with Runyankore proverbs, a buoyant Museveni told the delegates that the Movement had nurtured an organic bond with its people that cannot be severed.
“In their supreme ignorance, some people have attempted to assault the bond between the movement and its people but they have failed. They try this one, he fails, they bring another, nothing. They do not know that the movement has an organic bond with its people. It is therefore not surprising that we have always beaten our opponents and we will not allow them to divert our people,†he said.
Museveni, who delivered the keynote address to 8,000 delegates at Mandela National Stadium, Namboole, said unlike the past governments, the movement was not tolerant to soldiers who kill and had executed those who did it.
First lady Janet Museveni, former president Godfrey Binaisa, the widow of late vice-president Samson Kisekka, Mary Kisekka, Parliament Speaker Edward Ssekandi and his deputy Rebecca Kadaga and former Prime Minister Kintu Musoke and some members of opposition parties attended the event.
Former Movement leaders Eriya Kategaya and Bidandi Ssali, who had been invited, were absent.
Movement Vice- Chairman Al Hajji Moses Kigongo urged contenders for NRM posts not to divide the people, and offered to reconcile any with differences.
Museveni castigated regimes that carried out extra-judicial killings, saying they were extensions of colonialists, but did not understand the colonialist ways.
“That’s why we never listen to foreigners to tell us what to do, and that’s why we have succeeded so far. If you have a home where neighbours tell you what to do in your home, what sort of home is that?†he asked.
He said Uganda had single-handedly ousted dictator Idi Amin Dada who was supported by the British and Americans, and that his backers only realised his brutality after he had been ousted.
“When former President (Milton) Obote died recently, some UPC people were saying that UPC killed people but also the Movement killed, so both of us are, democratically, killers. But I want to respond by saying I am not in the league of killers. For us, we punish all the killers,†he said.
He said the Government was committed to fighting corruption. “You are not going to stop corruption by decreeing that let there be no corruption. No, I am not Jehovah. You must help me to identify the thieves,†he said.
He called for the expedition of Karuma and Bujagali power projects to increase energy supply.