Hyuha assumes NRM secretary general role

 

KAMPALA - Deputy National Resistance Movement (NRM) secretary general Dorothy Hyuha has returned from her ambassadorial posting in Arusha to take over the office of NRM secretary general.

 

“This is to ensure there is no vacuum in the office after former prime minister Amama Mbabazi took leave of the office,” the Government spokesperson, Ofwono Opondo, said over the weekend.

 

Hyuha, Uganda’s resident ambassador in Tanzania received the reins of office from Mbabazi on Monday, Opondo said.

 

Sources in the foreign affairs ministry said Hyuha has been recalled from Arusha and is already taking stock of the tasks ahead as acting secretary general.

 

Top among these is organising the next delegates conference slated for December 15. It is at this delegates’ conference that a new substantive secretary general will be elected.

 

“Mbabazi handed over the office of secretary general to her last week. She has since shifted base from Tanzania and is situated at Plot 10 Kyaddondo Road in Kampala,” Opondo said.

 

Asked whether there has been a vacuum in the office with both secretary general and deputy being away, he answered: “But there are also other officers at the NRM Secretariat, who have been holding fort so there is no way Mbabazi’s taking leave would have created a vacuum.

 

“There is no vacuum in the top leadership of the NRM Secretariat as we speak because Hyuha is now here.”

 

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Amama Mbabazi recently took leave of absence from office of secretary general, delegating his roles to Hyuha.

 

 On whether it was okay for a civil servant such as an Ambassador to simultaneously hold a party position, Ofwono said the party had debated the matter and found no conflict.

 

“All along Hyuha has been deputy secretary general even when serving as an Ambassador. Just like Brigadier Matayo Kyaligonza,” he said.

 

Kyaligonza is Uganda’s Ambassador to Burundi, while also serving as the NRM vice-chairman for Western Uganda. He is, therefore, a member of the Party’s top organ; the Central Executive Committee (CEC).

 

Attempts to reach Hyuha were futile as her phone has been switched off since Friday.

 

“We went through this debate whether there is a contradiction between civil service and political service [which is not a political constituency] and whether one needed to resign the other, and we saw no need of her to resign,” he said.

 

Relieved prime minister and erstwhile secretary general Mbabazi recently took leave of absence from office of secretary general, delegating his roles to Hyuha.

 

In a letter to the party chairman, President Yoweri Museveni, dated October 20, 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, until December 31. During my leave, the deputy secretary general, Hon. Dorothy Hyuha, will perform duties of secretary general.”

 

The development followed 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.


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