I refer to the article by Ms Ingrid Turinawe of FDC that in the Daily Monitor of Tuesday, October 27 under the headline: "Time for Rukungiri to say enough is enough."

Ms Turinawe referred to me as a liar in reference to my article in the same paper a weak earlier where I had written that Rukungiri gave President Museveni a fourth term.

In my article I had pointed out that at a rally at Ruhinda sub-county, the area MP Jim Muhwezi asked the population whether they gave Mr Museveni a fourth term and in response the crowd struggled to put up their arms. That is a fact. Besides, people were responding to a question raised by their MP. Ms Turinawe wondered why the quest for a fourth term was not put in writing.

In a memoranda from the sub-county chairpersons from Bwambara, Kebisoni, Nyarushanje, Nyakishenyi, Ruhinda where the President addressed public rallies, plus the LCI chairpersons of the villages where rallies were held, they were all demanding a fourth term. I have some of the memoranda in case Turinawe wants to verify.

The demands for a fourth term in places the President has visited are spontaneous as that is not part of the President's message. The President is mobilising the population to produce for the market. Turinawe in her article wrote that the rallies the President addressed were dominated by school children. She also added that in Bwambara, the people were forced to attend the rally by soldiers who beat them. There are both still and video pictures of all the rallies the President addressed. If Turinawe doesn't mind I will send her a DVD of the President's rallies and stopovers in Rukungiri.

All the rallies were attended by mammoth crowds. Besides, there were many stopovers where the President was stopped at various points by residents who wanted him to speak to them. Is Turinawe going to claim that those who stopped the President were doing so under duress? Were they beaten to stop the President along the way? The claims by Turinawe that people in Bwambara were beaten is a figment of her own imagination. If anything of that nature had happened, the private media that covered the President wouldn't have missed it.

Turinawe, whoever fed you with that information lied to you. On the claim that the rallies were dominated by school children who are not voters, the truth is that the President always has a message for school children. He preaches to them to avoid premarital sex as a safeguard against HIV/Aids. I have never heard Besigye cautioning school children to avoid Aids.

Ms Turinawe asked me to explain why the President didn't address a rally at Buyanja playground. The answer is simple. We didn't have a rally planned for that place and there were no tents provided by us at Buyanja. The President only addressed the people of Buyanja along the road as a stopover on the way to Kebisoni where a rally had been organised.

Turinawe can confirm this with the LC3 chairperson Buyanja or the area MP. In my earlier article I mentioned that Besigye who had been in Rukungiri around the same time failed to pull crowds. This is a fact. Turinawe challenged me to show where people have refused to listen to Besigye. One doesn't have to go very far, Madam Turinawe. When Besigye tried to address rallies in Kampala around the time Beti Kamya resigned from her post as an envoy, people didn't show up in Rubaga, Ntinda etc.

I hope Turinawe remembers. I can also mention Besigye's recent trip to Gulu where he didn't pull the crowds of the past. Turinawe knows well how unpopular her party is. In their recent elections of party structures many flopped. In some places there were no people present to fill all the posts. In Kampala no elections have taken place. Why? Turinawe, tell us.

Mr Byaruhanga is a special presidential assistant