Besigye favoured to lead new party

Four-time presidential candidate, Dr Kizza Besigye is being fronted as the leader of a new political party formation by majority supporters of a Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party faction.

Mr Harold Kaija, the secretary general of the splinter group, told Monitor on Monday that: “majority of the places we have gone to, people are asking for a political party.”

He declined to comment on the preference of Dr Besigye as leader of the new political outfit, saying this was not the subject of consultations.

However, in previous interviews, Mr Kaija had said that from Dr Besigye’s home district of Rukungiri and the neighbouring Kabale District in South-western Uganda as well as in Bushenyi in western region and Busoga to the east, stakeholders named the medical doctor-turned-politician as a favourite.

Dr Besigye was unavailable on April 29 to respond to the said proposal as he was reported to be in a day-long meeting at his home in Kasangati in Wakiso District.

Preliminary details of the faction’s concluding nationwide consultations have come to light as Dr Besigye and other senior FDC leaders, who broke ranks over the direction of the party under President Patrick Oboi Amuriat, head to Bunyoro tomorrow.

They will start the consultations in Hoima City, proceed to Masindi District and converge in Lira (Lango sub-region), then to Gulu City with a final leg in Kitgum District on Sunday.

The team broke ranks after publicly levelling accusations that Mr Amuriat and FDC Secretary General Nandala Mafabi in the run-up to the 2021 elections received “dirty money” from State House to hand the party over to President Museveni.

The duo and State House separately dismissed the allegations. After months of infighting marked by public bickering, name-calling, and a disputed report of party elders into the “dirty money” saga, some of the party co-founders and ideologues walked away in protest.

These included then FDC National Chairman, Ambassador Wasswa Birigwa, the then FDC Deputy President for Buganda and Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago, his Eastern Region counterpart Salaam Musumba, Dr Besigye himself and then FDC Spokesman Ibrahim Ssemujju, among others.

Their departure capped the most tumultuous period in, and battle for the soul of, FDC which before the last elections, was Uganda’s largest Opposition party. The National Unity Platform (NUP) of Robert Kyaguanyi, alias Bobi Wine, upended that in 2021 after winning Buganda and Busoga in a surprise feat.

Following their departure from Najjanankumbi, where FDC is headquartered on the Kampala-Entebbe Highway, the faction convened a National Delegates’ Conference which elected Ambassador Birigwa as interim national chairperson, Lukwago as interim party president, Mr Kaija as interim secretary general and Kira Municipality Member of Parliament Ssemujju as interim spokesperson.

Dr Besigye was not elected to any position, although the pickings happened when he already announced a political comeback after a hiatus in active politics and activism.  

Nationwide consultations by the FDC faction started in March after a February 21 National Council meeting proposed five possible pathways to break the political party’s political deadlock.

One suggestion is the formation of a new party, the other is reconcile with Najjanankumbi while a third is for members to join other existing political parties.

Insiders said they have also toyed with the idea of continuing with wresting control of FDC from the grip of Mr Amuriat and Mr Mafabi or start an all-encompassing social movement.

Proponents are presenting these options during interfaces with allied party members, pending a final decision by a National Delegates Conference that interim secretary general Kaija said is scheduled in Kampala for May 15.

“We want to have a successful National Delegates conference and our members are already contributing money to make it a success,” he said.

Sources within the faction said only Kasese District, which for long was bastion for FDC, seconded the reconciliation proposal while Kigezi, Ankole, Busoga regions as well as Mityana and Kampala delegates supported the founding of a new political party.

If the faction’s National Delegates’ Conference planned for mid-next month agrees, a new party established will bring the number of registered political in Uganda to 27.

Many of these appear to exist only in name or on paper as they neither participate in general elections nor organise public-facing activities.

In an interview with this newspaper last evening, Ambassador Birigwa downplayed concerns that the formation of a new political when the Electoral Commission has already issued an election roadmap could be late for the 2026 ballot.

“No, we’re not driven by the Electoral Commission; we are driven by our own aspiration and what we want and we’re not driven by the 2026 elections. So we have no pressure, we only have pressure to do the right things,” he said by telephone.

In response to our question whether Dr Besigye was a majority choice to lead any new party the splinter group forms, Ambassador Birigwa said: “It is up to Dr Besigye. It is his decision alone.”

“But that doesn’t mean that people cannot propose his name or any other person’s name,” he said, adding, “But I don’t think it is correct, or right, for me to say that is what he is going to do, because I don’t know and since he’s around, that question is best for him to answer when the time comes.”

Dr Besigye did not yesterday receive or return our repeated calls and never responded to our messages, seeking his views on the proposals.

According to Amb Birigwa, their consultations are going well and there is “huge enthusiasm and anxiety on what is going to come next”.

The FDC faction’s Deputy President for Eastern Region, Ms Salaam Musumba, told this newspaper on April 2 that their legal lead was handling the process of registering the envisaged party.

“We will let you know when we are ready. It is in the hands of our legal person and that is why we are consulting,” she said.

It remained unclear if the group had booked or registered the new party in a manner Bobi Wine pulled off ownership of NUP ahead of the 2021 vote.

Mr Julius Mucunguzi, the new spokesman of the Electoral Commission, said he needed to consult the officer responsible for registering parties.

Monitor understands that hardliners at Katonga believe forming a new political party is the only way forward to bring together party members disaffected by the alleged mismanagement of FDC by Mr Amuriat and Mr Mafabi.

The splinter group organised grassroots elections last year during which members picked leaders from village to district levels, culminating in the National Executive Committee voting Lord Mayor Lukwago as the interim party president.

If the dissenters register a new political party, this will be the third such outfit to be founded by either former founders, leaders or promoters of FDC.

The current Inspector General of Government, Ms Beti Kamya, who was a special envoy of then FDC leader Besigye, broke ranks in 2010 to found the Uganda Federal Alliance.

Two years later, Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu, a former army commander, was elected FDC President, serving until 2017 when Mr Amuriat defeated him for the top seat.

Opponents had labelled him as a mole, allegations he denied, and the unending bickering prompted him and other party stalwarts to decamp in 2018 to eventually form the Alliance for National Transformation party.

The 26 registered political parties in Uganda
• National Resistance Movement (NRM)

• Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC)

• Forum for Democratic Change (FDC)

• Democratic Party (DP)

• Alliance for National Transformation (ANT)

• Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM)

• Uganda Federal Alliance (UFA)

• Conservative Party (CP)

• Uganda Economic Party (UEP)

• Society for Peace and Development (SPD)

• Social Democratic Party (SDP)

• Revolutionary People’s Party

• Republican Women and Youth Party (RWYP)

• People’s United Movement (PUM)

• People’s Progressive Party (PPP)

• People’s Development Party (PDP)

• National Unity Platform (NUP)

• National Peasants’ Party

• National Convention for Democracy (NCD)

• Liberal Democratic Transparency (LDT)

• Justice Forum (JEEMA)

• Green Partisan Party (GPP)

• Forum for Integrity in Leadership (FIL)

• Ecological Party of Uganda (EPU)

• Congress Service Volunteers Organisation

• Activist Party