When NRM first extended its stay in power

Legal Notice Number 1 of 1986, which was issued when the National Resistance Army/ Movement (NRA/M) first shot its way to power was meant to have provided a four-year interim period which was meant to have ended in an election in 1990.

The vote on October 11, 1989, was the culmination of a debate that commenced in September the same year, a few months after the NRC had been expanded to include 220 county representatives, district women representatives, 10 army representatives, and 20 presidential nominees.

The February 1989 legislation also provided for five youth representatives, and three workers’ representatives.

Departure
The development was a departure from the initial promise that NRA leaders made when they first shot their way to power.

On January 29, 1986, when he took his first oath as President, Mr Yoweri Museveni had made it clear that he would lead a transitional arrangement which would culminate in elections and a handover of power back to a civilian authority within three years.

Narratives from the early days of the NRM suggest that Mr Museveni had been keen on leaving power at the earliest.

Mr John Kazoora, a former NRA combatant who later fell out with the system, had indicated that Mr Museveni had vehemently opposed the prolonging of the interim period while meeting his fellow combatants during a meeting that they held at Lubiri barracks in the early days of the NRM.

“We were having a meeting at Lubiri and Museveni asked how long we should stay in power, many suggestions were made, with some saying four years. It is Museveni who stood up and was vehemently opposed to the suggestion, saying ‘four years to do what? We should stay for only two years’ until Amanya Mushega laboured to tell him, ‘Mr President what can you have done in two years to set a proper foundation to realise the Movement ideals?,” he said.

It is not clear when Mr Museveni had a change of heart, but other NRM leaders initially seemed to believe that he would quit when the interim period came to an end.

Writing in the paper, ‘An Insider’s View of How the NRM Lost the Broad Base’, for which he was very nearly court martialled, Col Kizza Besigye, who later parted ways with Museveni and since become one of the NRM’s most virulent critics, indicated that the interim period was meant to end with elections.

“The NRM had set itself to serve for a period of four years as an interim government, then return power to the people. However, it was not very clear how this would happen at the end of the four years,” Dr Besigye wrote.

Debate
Among the reasons given to justify the extension of the interim period was to allow for the NRM and the NRC by extension, to have sufficient time to complete the writing of a new Constitution.

Among those who had joined the NRC following its expansion early in 1989 were legions of proponents of multi-partyism. These had been former ideologues of what was then the leading political parties Democratic Party (DP) and the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC).

Among the notable UPCs in the NRC included Yona Kanyomozi, Adonia Teberondwa, William Wanendeya, Omara Atubo, Adoko Nekyon, and Dick Nyai.

Some of the DP stalwarts in the NRC included Ponsiano Mulema, Robert Kitariko, Sebaana Kizito and Joseph Mulenga. Most of the proponents of multiparty politics were very suspicious of the NRM’s intentions in seeking an extension to the interim rule.

It was not possible to obtain copies of the parliamentary records of proceedings during the debate, but Mr Wasswa Ziritwawula, a DP member who was the NRC Member for Kampala at the time, said many of them were opposed to the extension.

“Many people opposed, especially those from the Opposition from DP and UPC,” he pointed out in an interview more than a decade ago.

NRM rejects referendum
Sections of the House suggested that the matter be subjected to a referendum for Ugandans to decide, but writing in the book, Kizza Besigye and Uganda’s Unfinished Revolution, Mr Daniel Kalinaki pointed out that one of Mr Museveni’s supporters, Gertrude Njuba, had rejected the idea arguing that there was no need to consult the rest of the Ugandans “since they had not appointed the NRM or its organs in the first place”.

The matter was subjected to a vote, which those who were opposed to the extension lost. With the vote, the expiry date of the NRM’s interim administration was extended to January 26, 1995.

Ziritwawula resigns
In what has since gone down as the first resignation from office of a senior public figure, Mr Ziritwawula resigned as NRC Member for Kampala.

Speaking to sections of the media in a May 2018 interview, Mr Ziritwawula made it known that it was not simply about loss of the vote.

“When the Bill was introduced in Parliament for the extension and I found I was not comfortable with it so I participated in the discussion and I opposed the extension. But when the extension was made I decided to leave Parliament. I was elected to serve for certain period and that period is over and it’s not my mandate to renew my term of office,” he said in the interview.

Mr Ziritwawula was replaced as NRC Member for Kampala by Capt Edward Francis Babu.

Public shock
In an era where caucusing has become a major tool for mobilisation, it would appear that caucusing had on that particular occasion failed, but Ziritwawula dismisses talk of a failure of caucusing, arguing that the decision had not been arrived at through a process of consultations.

“I had not discussed with anybody on the question of resigning so I resigned on my own and I was not surprised that some people did not follow me,” he said.

Mr Ziritwawula has never expressed frustration with the apparent lack of support from DP or other proponents of multiparty politics, but why they forsook him has remained a major talking point over the last 34 years.

It should, however, be remembered that the president general of DP at the time, Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere, was out of the country when the vote was held, but having been the Minister for Internal Affairs in the NRM’s broad based government, he must have been aware of the NRM’s intentions. 

It is highly unlikely that the Bill would have been brought to the floor of the NRC without being presented before the Cabinet.

It is not clear whether he did conveniently leave the country to avoid being placed under the microscope, but it should be noted that he neither showed support nor opposed Ziritwawula’s move.

At the time DP members were holding the Justice, Finance, Agriculture, Commerce and Internal Affairs’ dockets in the broad based government. Could he have been caught up between a rock and a hard place given that DP at the time held key positions in the broad based government? That we may never know. Ssemogerere passed on in November last year.