When Annet Anita Among threw her hat into the ring for the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) National Vice Chairperson Female race, the team in her nemesis Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga's camp must have rubbed their hands in glee, expecting to sidestep her by midday and march to a resounding victory.
Kadaga had built an image as an indefatigable NRM stalwart, one viewed by many as the only woman capable of becoming President without sparking public complaints. She was also seen as the political titan of Busoga--if Kadaga caught a cold, the entire sub-region was expected to sneeze.
In the early stages of the campaign, circumstances seemed to pity Anita Among, who nevertheless turned her lemons into lemonade, setting out early and vigorously.
She courted delegates from all walks of life, leveraging her office at Parliament and keeping her home open to receive every kind of delegate, even in the dying hours of the night.
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Kadaga, on the other hand, appeared overconfident. She treated Among as unworthy of serious attention, focusing instead on natural strongholds, convinced that her name alone could carry her through.
But the calculations began falling apart. Delegates increasingly drifted in a different direction. In one rally, Kadaga lashed out at Busoga delegates, accusing them of "carrying themselves to go meet Among."
The irony was glaring: when she made the accusation, only one of the said delegates was present--proof the ship was already sailing.
Meanwhile, Among camped in Busoga twice, treating delegates to feasts of rice and hosting them warmly in her Buyende home. There, she engaged them in long conversations, made merry, and sent them home with tokens "from Caesar."
Kadaga now shifted into overdrive, lashing out both at Among and at delegates. But by then, she was fighting Among's shadow. The "Busoga daughter-in-law" had already dashed past her expectations. Kadaga could only manage to pierce Among's tail, but she was still bound to miss.
Kadaga Targets Among's Character
With most of her political chess pieces spent, Kadaga was left with few moves. She turned her attacks on Among's character, hurling every kind of missile--from her international sanctions to her physical appearance.
This tactic gave her some momentum, with campaign videos of her fiery attacks going viral. Yet, Among surprised observers by choosing humility. She refused to engage, making no comment for a long time and instead doubling down on Busoga.
At a Buyende delegates' meeting, she stated that she respected Kadaga as an elder and would not respond to her in kind.
That single line poured ice on Kadaga's heated rhetoric and drained steam from her campaign. The race had now reached checkmate territory.
As election day drew closer, the CEC meeting in Entebbe convened to vet candidates. Kadaga, joined by Gen. Kahinda Otafiire, pushed hard for Among's disqualification. They argued that her international sanctions tarnished the party's image and disqualified her from the post.
For a moment, they nearly succeeded. But CEC legal advisers clarified that there was no binding legal barrier to bar Among from the race, since the sanctions were tied to national duty.
Tanga Odoi and others pushed back, insisting there was no justification for her removal.
Kadaga's bid to have Among blocked collapsed, and the matter was instead defused with a proposal: a new position would be created for whoever accepted it first, as a presidential nominee to CEC.
A Presidential Appointment No One Wanted
President Museveni promised to end the standoff by swearing in one of the women as a CEC nominee. But neither Kadaga nor Among embraced the idea.
Kadaga tried to pressure Among into taking the appointment, arguing that she already sat on CEC in a similar capacity. Among cheekily declined, demanding that the delegates decide the matter through a vote.
CEC granted the pair 24 hours to consult each other and return with a decision. It was, in hindsight, a futile resolution. To imagine Kadaga and Among sitting together for talks was almost impossible--it would have been easier to discover a cure for HIV/Aids than to get the two women in one room.
Unsurprisingly, they never met, not even by accident.
With compromise failing, Kadaga threw the kitchen sink in her NEC speech. Speaking with unusual ferocity, she accused President Museveni of failing to protect her, unlike the shelter he had extended to Hajj Kigongo.
She tore into CEC for clearing Among despite her CV falling seven years short of the required ten years of party service. Kadaga derided her as a new member being pampered with privileges meant for veterans.
Kadaga further lamented that she was being humiliated for unclear reasons and threatened that if nothing changed, she would "walk away with her kinsmen of Busoga."
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But in attacking the heart of the "yellow house," Kadaga crossed a red line. President Museveni, visibly uneasy, snapped back, telling her not to overstate her importance in Busoga.
Kadaga's fiery jabs won her some sympathy among the social media public, but internally they backfired, drawing scorn from Museveni and dread from party insiders.
When Anita Among's turn came to speak, she barely needed to campaign. She simply chanted, "Among oyeee..." and the delegates erupted. The reception was so overwhelming that even the blind in the hall could see the race was already decided.
How was Kadaga supposed to recover from there? It was an uphill task, and by then she had already played directly into Among's hands. The outcome of the race now depended less on Kadaga's once-commanding reputation and more on whether the party's historical figures would attempt to avert the looming crisis.
Oh, when the saints go marching wrong.
The next part of this article will review what transpired from NEC to the moment the race was decided.
To be continued in Part 2: From NEC drama to the decisive vote.
