Mbabazi steps aside as NRM secretary general

By Vision Reporter

National Resistance Secretary General, Amama Mbabazi, has taken leave of absence from office.


In a letter to the party Chairman President Yoweri Museveni, dated October 20, 2014, Mbabazi said, “As you are aware I have been performing duties of the Secretary General of NRM without a break for nine years.  I wish now to take leave of absence from duty from October 20, 2014 until December 31, 2014. During my leave, the Deputy Secretary General, Hon Dorothy Hyuha, will perform duties of Secretary General.”

The development follows the party’s resolve to decisively end the perceived disharmony and factionalism that has of late rocked the party and threatened to divide its rank and file.

The issue of party cohesion was high on the agenda of a two-day meeting by members of NRM Central Executive Committee (CEC) at Nakasero State House on Thursday and Saturday last week.

The NRM CEC includes Party chairperson, vice chairpersons, secretary general, deputy secretary general, treasurer and deputy treasurer as well as chairpersons of the different leagues.

The meeting chaired by NRM chairman, Museveni, was attended by first Party national vice-chairperson Moses Kigongo, the vice-chairpersons Francis Babu (Kampala) Hajji  Abdu Nadduli (Buganda), Sam Engola (northern) Brig. Matayo Kyaligonza (western), Mike Mukula (eastern), Janet Okirimoe (Karamoja), Secretary General, Mbabazi and his deputy Dorothy Hyuha.

Others included party treasurer Amelia Kyambadde and her deputy Singh Katongole as well as chairperson for the leagues; Kirunda Kivejinja, Hassan Basajjabalaba, Charles Bakabulindi, Jacqueline Mbabazi, and Dennis Namara, party treasurer Amelia Kyambadde and her deputy Singh Katongole among others.

President Museveni on Sunday issued a one-paragraph, carefully worded statement on the CEC deliberations.

"The CEC of the NRM has met at Nakasero State House, on October 16th and 18th, respectively, under the chairmanship of President Museveni, who is the NRM National Chairman. CEC decided that the reported disharmony within the Movement be resolved decisively in order to ensure cohesion within the Movement Organization," the statement signed by the Party chairperson and dated October 18, 2014 said.

The statement didn't specify what measures would be taken to decisively resolve the "reported disharmony" with the NRM.

However, sources that attended the meeting told the New Vision that CEC members unanimously asked Amama Mbabazi to take leave as the secretary general up to December as Secretary General as the Party prepares for the delegates conference.

The CEC members reportedly asked Dorothy Hyuha who is also Uganda's ambassador to Tanzania, to act as the secretary general when Mbabazi goes on leave. It was however not confirmed whether Mbabazi accepted to take leave.  

New Vision was not able to comment from both Mbabazi and Hyuha on the matter.

During the meeting, it was also reportedly agreed that the Party constitution be amended, among other things, to make the secretary general an appointee of the Party Chairperson.

The party secretary general is currently elected by the Delegates conference. This is the same practice for all Uganda's main parties except UPC where only the Party president is elected and mandated to appoints the rest of the members of the executive.

Mbabazi has been NRM Secretary General since the party was registered in 2005 with the revival of multiparty politics in the country. At the delegates' conference in 2010 Mbabazi was re-elected after defeating Justice Minister Major General Kahinda Otafiire and former vice president Prof. Gilbert Bukenya. The two losers cried foul charging that the election was rigged.

Mbabazi was last month dropped as Prime Minister and replaced with Ruhakana Rugunda.  When he was still premier, Mbabazi faced calls from some party members to relinquish the position secretary general. It was argued that he had no time to effective executive responsibilities of the two positions.

While handing over to Rugunda, Mbabazi said he would concentrate on doing party work; including building its grass roots structures.

CEC members who attended the meetings at State House were yesterday guarded in their comments about their behind the scene deliberations.

"What the President communicated in the statement is very clear and I have nothing to add," Babu said.

Without giving any details, Sam Engola said the CEC resolution was timely. He decried what he described as "divisions" that need to be stopped.

"It has been too much. The divisions have to stop so that we can all pull in one direction and build the party," Engola said.

Both Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda and Singh Katongole said the president's statement succinctly captured CEC's position on the issue and that there was nothing they could add.

The two meetings, according to reliable sources were protracted and heated, with members asking Mbabazi to pronounce himself on his perceived presidential ambitions.

In the first meeting, sources say, Museveni produced a letter Mbabazi is alleged to have written to the American embassy in Uganda asking for their support in the 2016 polls.

The meeting was also told that Mbabazi used his recent attendance of the 26th UNAA convention in San Diego, California to lobby the American diplomats at the State Department to support his presidential bid.

Sources told New Vision that Mbabazi challenged CEC members to produce evidence proving he had held any meeting with anyone on the issue of his alleged presidential ambitions.

Sources said Mbabazi's wife, Jacqueline, reportedly admitted holding meetings to canvass for support for her husband. She also expressed her stand against Museveni seeking re-election. She was reportedly supported by Hajji Basajjabala.

Since the NRM Parliamentary Caucus at a retreat in Kyankwanzi passed a resolution endorsing Museveni as their party's "sole candidate" in the 2016 presidential elections, authorities have been locked in numerous battles with youth groups purporting to be drumming up Mbabazi's presidential bid.