Yasiin Mugerwa and Sheila Naturinda
3 August 2008
Dissenting NRM MPs are in trouble, with Party President Yoweri Museveni promising to fight them like he has done against rebel leader Joseph Kony.
"Those people in Parliament like [Henry] Banyenzaki (Rubanda West), [Theodore] Ssekikubo (Lwemiyaga), sometimes [Emmanuel] Dombo (Bunyole), and sometimes Sam Lyomoki (Workers), I will fight you like I fought Kony," President Museveni is reported to have said at a hastily called NRM Caucus meeting at Parliament on Friday.
Mr Museveni, who preached party discipline to his MPs, said that any aggrieved member should always use the cause as the right platform to address problems.
The President said a distressed MP could even call for an emergency caucus meeting. "If such a meeting is not enough, you can even ask for a week and we talk instead of using wrong procedures," Mr Museveni reportedly said, according to MPs who attended the meeting but asked not to be named because they do not speak for the caucus.
Several of the MPs he named have variously refused to toe the party line over the years and, indeed, some like Mr Ssekikubo and Mr Banyenzaki signed a petition calling for a special session of Parliament to debate the arrest of the Mengo 3.
The party leader said his MPs should have taken the matter to the caucus to debate a common position. "Ssekikubo and [Ibrahim] Kadunabbi (Butambala) should have called the caucus to debate this matter," Mr Museveni is quoted saying. "I don't agree with the cause of their petition because Mengo issues begun long ago yet they had done nothing about them."
He announced that the caucus would soon form study groups to hold monthly discussions on ideological issues.
The President walked out of the meeting after his speech, leaving MPs, especially those he had adversely named, to seethe with anger because they were denied the chance to respond.
"I am not in NRM by conscription," Mr Ssekikubo said angrily in an interview. "I am there to make a contribution and if the President thinks that I should be treated like Kony, then it's regrettable."
The MP said he had no regrets about participating in calling the special session because it was in good faith.
He then added: "That meeting the President had with Katikkiro [on Thursday at State House Entebbe over the Mengo arrests] was our own initiative and it restored his credibility and that of Katikkiro; then how can you say that I was wrong to push for the process?
The President was misled by self-seekers but I am looking for an opportunity to give him my side of the story. To say that he was going to fight me like Kony who has ICC indictments [over his head] was unfortunate."
Other MPs criticised Mr Museveni for attempting to silence what they described as well intentioned dissenting views within the party.
"He rushed out saying he had other commitments but he should know that unless a problem is solved, his threats cannot stop us from distinguishing between right and wrong," a member said.
"There is a problem within our party and the President should not blame MPs for the party shortfalls," another said. "There are some issues which are beyond the caucus, and as a member of Parliament you cannot go against the electorate for the sake of the party. This would be political suicide."
There have recently been media reports about growing disquiet in the NRM, with senior members openly criticising the President and Secretary General Amama Mbabazi for doing a shoddy job.
That has left the NRM Caucus in Parliament as the only vibrant party component.
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