Kiyonga: A loyal Movement cadre
PEOPLE TO WATCH<br><br>When President Yoweri Museveni formed the Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM) in 1980, he was sure that his party would send a sizeable number of candidates to the Parliament and also win the 1980 elections.
PEOPLE TO WATCH
By Charles Etukuri
When President Yoweri Museveni formed the Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM) in 1980, he was sure that his party would send a sizeable number of candidates to the Parliament and also win the 1980 elections.
To his disappointment, only one candidate passed through and that was Dr Crispus Walter Kiyonga, who contested for the Kasese North Constituency, winning it with a landslide victory. By that time he was just fresh from the university but made his mark on the local politics.
However, Kiyonga never got to take up his seat in Parliament, but joined the National Resistance Movement, which was an armed group created after the defeat of UPM.
Since the Movement came to power in 1986, Kiyonga has risen through the ranks and held several ministerial posts ranging from finance and health.
In 2001, Kiyonga was appointed minister without portfolio and the National Political Commissar (NPC).
As the NPC, he has been at the head of mobilisation and penetrating the countryside where the Movement usually gets most of its votes. Mobilising is a job Kiyonga has done quite well. So, when the Movement holds its delegates Conference from November 15 to 20, Kiyonga is the man to be watched. He has ruled himself out of the Movement top seat for party presidency and favours President Museveni for it.
According to him, “If President Museveni offers himself, it would be difficult for anybody to defeat him. I go as deep as Kitgum, Kasese and Arua and people talk about Museveni. He is so popular. If someone emerged, he would be given some listening, but would fare badly.â€
But just in case the President declines to offer himself for the presidency, Kiyonga says there would be no crisis within the movement.
“There are people within who are working to their best and if an opportunity comes up, they will offer themselves.â€
He, however, does not indicate whether he is among those who are working hard enough and prefers to say he will cross the bridge when he reaches there.
With the top seat out of reach now, Kiyonga could be in the race for another senior post within the Move-ment.
Already press reports indicate that he will be joining the race for the party’s secretary general alongside ‘super minister’ Amama Mbabazi, the Vice-President Gilbert Bukenya, Ngoma Ngime and Dorothy Hyuha.
The race for the secretary general is most likely to be the tightest of all races as this is the third most powerful position after the presidency and vice-chairman.
The secretary general is the link between the party and the people.
After being the NPC and doing mobilisation work, Kiyonga could be suitable for this post. At least he has been tested.
However, he has a hard task due to the fact that he does not have a large tribal following to fall back to.
His Bakonzo people are too few and sources close to him argue that Kiyonga doesn’t have the backing of the whole community.
He allegedly fell out with a section of his community for having stood in the way of the traditionalists who supported the restoration of their kingdom.
Kiyonga is also unpopular with some Move-ment and Cabinet colleagues who say he is a “very difficult†person to work with.
But his unpopularity stems from the fact that his work is characterised by principles, consistency, predictability and honesty. Those that fail to work within these lines have usually found Kiyonga a hard person.
Others prefer to look at him as a conservative who embraced the Movement ideology, grew up into it and never gave room for flexibility. A description he disputes.
As the demands for multiparty politics increased, Kiyonga was among Movementists who held the view that the Movement was still popular, arguing that there was no room for multipartyism in Uganda today.
As the debate raged on Kiyonga’s camp, which was against the introduction of parties publicly conflicted with respected former local government minister Jaberi Bidandi Ssali. Bidandi Ssali’s crime was that he had made openly a case for political parties to be freed and that the Movement should become a political party ready to compete with others.
Kiyonga, however, is quick to point out that the press had taken it out of dimension. “I was in a press conference when someone posed a question to me to divulge the contents of the report of the committee I was chairing, but I refused because I could not leak it out before the final details had been worked out. Bidandi, who was a member of the committee, had leaked his minority report to the press. There was no conflict,†says Kiyonga.
He still holds the view that the Movement system is still the most ideal system for the country. One fact that remains evident with Kiyonga is that he is a loyal cadre within the Movement, at least going by his political career.
Having been elected as the only UPM MP in 1980, he declined to take up his seat and preferred to join the NRM where he was part of its external wing based in Nairobi.
He came back in 1985 and was made an activist and commissioner in the liberated areas. By this time the NRA had divided the country into two and Kiyonga was based in Fort Portal.
When the NRM came to power in 1980, Kiyonga became the first Minister for Co-operatives and Marketing. Faced with crises, the ministry was able to sell two and a half million bags of coffee and raised over $400m.
In the same year, he was made the Minister of Finance and the Uganda Revenue Authority is among his key innovations. Although critics were quick to point out the fact that as a medical doctor, Kiyonga was not fit for the job of minister of finance, he proved them all wrong.
Working under difficult circumstances, Kiyonga was able to set pace for privatisation and the policies at the ministry were national-oriented with emphasis on industrialisation. It was during his era that there was devaluation of the Uganda shilling.
In 1992, Kiyonga went out of Cabinet, but remained a firm Movement supporter and a member of the National Resistance Council (NRC). He became a consultant with the World Bank and the African Development Bank in the area of Environment in Africa and Sustainable Development.
In 1994 he campaigned for the Constituent Assembly elections to represent the people of Kasese and was a very instrumental figure in the constitutional making process.
In November 1994, he was appointed minister of internal affairs.
The 1996 elections saw him join the health ministry where he served till 2001. While at the ministry, he changed the face of the health sector and the ministry was able to manage disasters like containing the ebola virus and cholera.
He also restructured the ministry of health, graded health centres and, for the first time, people had access to doctors down to the local health centres.
While still at the Ministry of Health, Kiyonga became the Chairman of the Global Fund and he left the ministry scandal free.
In show of trust, President Museveni appointed him in October 2003 to chair talk with the opposition with a view of getting a national consensus on key political issues.
Kiyonga has made a mark in the movement and he remains one of the pillars behind the success of the modern day movement.
FACTFILE
- 1952 - Born in Kasese
- 1959-1966 - Attended Bwera Primary School
- 1966-1970 - Nyakasura
- 1970-1972 - King’s College, Budo 1970-1972
- 1973-1978 - Makerere University. Holds a bachelors degree in medicine and surgery. Holds a masters in Health Science from John Hopkins School of Public Health Hygiene
- 1986 - Minister for Cooperatives and Marketing.
1986-92 - Minister for Finance
1994 - CA delegate, and Consultant with the World Bank and the African Development Bank
1994-96 - Minister of Internal Affairs
1996-2001 - Minister of Health, chairman Global Fund
2001- National Political Commissar and Minister without portfolio
By Charles Etukuri
When President Yoweri Museveni formed the Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM) in 1980, he was sure that his party would send a sizeable number of candidates to the Parliament and also win the 1980 elections.
To his disappointment, only one candidate passed through and that was Dr Crispus Walter Kiyonga, who contested for the Kasese North Constituency, winning it with a landslide victory. By that time he was just fresh from the university but made his mark on the local politics.
However, Kiyonga never got to take up his seat in Parliament, but joined the National Resistance Movement, which was an armed group created after the defeat of UPM.
Since the Movement came to power in 1986, Kiyonga has risen through the ranks and held several ministerial posts ranging from finance and health.
In 2001, Kiyonga was appointed minister without portfolio and the National Political Commissar (NPC).
As the NPC, he has been at the head of mobilisation and penetrating the countryside where the Movement usually gets most of its votes. Mobilising is a job Kiyonga has done quite well. So, when the Movement holds its delegates Conference from November 15 to 20, Kiyonga is the man to be watched. He has ruled himself out of the Movement top seat for party presidency and favours President Museveni for it.
According to him, “If President Museveni offers himself, it would be difficult for anybody to defeat him. I go as deep as Kitgum, Kasese and Arua and people talk about Museveni. He is so popular. If someone emerged, he would be given some listening, but would fare badly.â€
But just in case the President declines to offer himself for the presidency, Kiyonga says there would be no crisis within the movement.
“There are people within who are working to their best and if an opportunity comes up, they will offer themselves.â€
He, however, does not indicate whether he is among those who are working hard enough and prefers to say he will cross the bridge when he reaches there.
With the top seat out of reach now, Kiyonga could be in the race for another senior post within the Move-ment.
Already press reports indicate that he will be joining the race for the party’s secretary general alongside ‘super minister’ Amama Mbabazi, the Vice-President Gilbert Bukenya, Ngoma Ngime and Dorothy Hyuha.
The race for the secretary general is most likely to be the tightest of all races as this is the third most powerful position after the presidency and vice-chairman.
The secretary general is the link between the party and the people.
After being the NPC and doing mobilisation work, Kiyonga could be suitable for this post. At least he has been tested.
However, he has a hard task due to the fact that he does not have a large tribal following to fall back to.
His Bakonzo people are too few and sources close to him argue that Kiyonga doesn’t have the backing of the whole community.
He allegedly fell out with a section of his community for having stood in the way of the traditionalists who supported the restoration of their kingdom.
Kiyonga is also unpopular with some Move-ment and Cabinet colleagues who say he is a “very difficult†person to work with.
But his unpopularity stems from the fact that his work is characterised by principles, consistency, predictability and honesty. Those that fail to work within these lines have usually found Kiyonga a hard person.
Others prefer to look at him as a conservative who embraced the Movement ideology, grew up into it and never gave room for flexibility. A description he disputes.
As the demands for multiparty politics increased, Kiyonga was among Movementists who held the view that the Movement was still popular, arguing that there was no room for multipartyism in Uganda today.
As the debate raged on Kiyonga’s camp, which was against the introduction of parties publicly conflicted with respected former local government minister Jaberi Bidandi Ssali. Bidandi Ssali’s crime was that he had made openly a case for political parties to be freed and that the Movement should become a political party ready to compete with others.
Kiyonga, however, is quick to point out that the press had taken it out of dimension. “I was in a press conference when someone posed a question to me to divulge the contents of the report of the committee I was chairing, but I refused because I could not leak it out before the final details had been worked out. Bidandi, who was a member of the committee, had leaked his minority report to the press. There was no conflict,†says Kiyonga.
He still holds the view that the Movement system is still the most ideal system for the country. One fact that remains evident with Kiyonga is that he is a loyal cadre within the Movement, at least going by his political career.
Having been elected as the only UPM MP in 1980, he declined to take up his seat and preferred to join the NRM where he was part of its external wing based in Nairobi.
He came back in 1985 and was made an activist and commissioner in the liberated areas. By this time the NRA had divided the country into two and Kiyonga was based in Fort Portal.
When the NRM came to power in 1980, Kiyonga became the first Minister for Co-operatives and Marketing. Faced with crises, the ministry was able to sell two and a half million bags of coffee and raised over $400m.
In the same year, he was made the Minister of Finance and the Uganda Revenue Authority is among his key innovations. Although critics were quick to point out the fact that as a medical doctor, Kiyonga was not fit for the job of minister of finance, he proved them all wrong.
Working under difficult circumstances, Kiyonga was able to set pace for privatisation and the policies at the ministry were national-oriented with emphasis on industrialisation. It was during his era that there was devaluation of the Uganda shilling.
In 1992, Kiyonga went out of Cabinet, but remained a firm Movement supporter and a member of the National Resistance Council (NRC). He became a consultant with the World Bank and the African Development Bank in the area of Environment in Africa and Sustainable Development.
In 1994 he campaigned for the Constituent Assembly elections to represent the people of Kasese and was a very instrumental figure in the constitutional making process.
In November 1994, he was appointed minister of internal affairs.
The 1996 elections saw him join the health ministry where he served till 2001. While at the ministry, he changed the face of the health sector and the ministry was able to manage disasters like containing the ebola virus and cholera.
He also restructured the ministry of health, graded health centres and, for the first time, people had access to doctors down to the local health centres.
While still at the Ministry of Health, Kiyonga became the Chairman of the Global Fund and he left the ministry scandal free.
In show of trust, President Museveni appointed him in October 2003 to chair talk with the opposition with a view of getting a national consensus on key political issues.
Kiyonga has made a mark in the movement and he remains one of the pillars behind the success of the modern day movement.
FACTFILE
- 1952 - Born in Kasese
- 1959-1966 - Attended Bwera Primary School
- 1966-1970 - Nyakasura
- 1970-1972 - King’s College, Budo 1970-1972
- 1973-1978 - Makerere University. Holds a bachelors degree in medicine and surgery. Holds a masters in Health Science from John Hopkins School of Public Health Hygiene
- 1986 - Minister for Cooperatives and Marketing.
1986-92 - Minister for Finance
1994 - CA delegate, and Consultant with the World Bank and the African Development Bank
1994-96 - Minister of Internal Affairs
1996-2001 - Minister of Health, chairman Global Fund
2001- National Political Commissar and Minister without portfolio