Bigombe: From peace talks with Kony to World Bank job

Serving as the Gulu Municipality delegate in the National Resistance Council (NRC)- the then Parliament, she was nominated State minister for the Pacification of northern Uganda- a docket whose critical to-do list was to peacefully nip in the bud a nascent war.

Born 60 years ago, she initiated the first peace talks with Kony in 1993. But as the prospects of a peace deal were in the cards, the government spoilt the party by declaring an ultimatum to the rebels to either put pen to paper or face fire, and the rebels chose the latter.

Plan B
With negotiations broken down and the situation back to square one, Ms Bigombe, now in the wilderness having lost her Gulu Municipality and ministerial seats in the 1996 election and Cabinet reshuffle, she relocated to the US where she took up several stints at the World Bank.

Mr Norbert Mao, the Democratic Party president, who routed Ms Bigombe from Gulu Municipality but worked with her during efforts to bring the government and the LRA rebels to sign a peace deal, says her dealings with the ruling regime sullied her abilities.

“My experience with her is of a person who devoted her life to bringing peace but for the time she was subservient to Museveni, her intelligence and capabilities were not always fully manifested,” Mr Mao says.
“During the first peace-process, she met Joseph Kony and she was continuing to ensure a peaceful end but Museveni declared an ultimatum and there was no chance of peace from then,” he adds.

In an interview with Africa Success, an online site, Ms Bigombe recounted how it dawned on her that the rebels were not keen on signing a peace deal and she charged the government with addressing the grievances that were driving the rebels to the bush.

“I very soon realised that the rebels were not going to surrender. I had to convince the government of Uganda that they would have to deal with the problems that were leading these rebels to fight,” Ms Bigombe said.
But even with the comforts of the US, the war back home kept touching her raw nerve as the world’s attention was now gripped by the terror of the LRA.

When the rebels launched an attack on a camp in Lira District in February 2004, leaving more than 300 butchered souls, rattled by the horror of the attack that has since been infamously known as the Barlonyo Massacre, Ms Bigombe abandoned the luxuries of the US to lure the rebels back to the negotiating table.

Her second shot at peace talks broke down due to a disagreement over indictments by the International Criminal Court hanging over top LRA commanders.
Ms Bigombe left for her second stint in the US where she took up an offer at Institute of Peace and later the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars.

Setbacks
Mr Zachary Olum, the former Nwoya MP who sat with her in the 80’s Cabinet and often travelled with her during the second phase of the peace talks, says the former MP was often frustrated by the attitude of the government towards the talks.
Her efforts won her the Geuzen Medal for 2010, an honour in the Netherlands that pays tribute to personalities that excel in the movements against dictatorship, discrimination and racism.
She returned in 2009 to head the National Information and Technology Authority before making it back to Parliament as Amuru Woman MP.

But her second stint at the House has not been that memorable.
In the her three-year stint there, Ms Bigombe has been a shadow of her former self, rarely contributing to debate with a July 2013 Daily Monitor survey discovering that she had spoken less than 15 times in a two-year stretch in the House.
Her Parliament stint ended with a July appointment as a senior director for Fragility, Conflict and Violence at the World Bank. Last week, she officially resigned her ministerial and MP posts to take up the post in US.

vacant ministerial post question
Ms Bigombe’s appointment piles more pressure on Mr Museveni as her resignation leaves behind three Cabinet vacancies.
These include the State Minister for Water post she previously held, 1st Deputy Prime Ministerial post after Eriya Kategaya passed away in March last year and the Health ministerial position formerly occupied by Dr Ruhakana Rugunda before he was appointed Prime Minister last month.

The vacancies come amid a suspected power struggle in the ruling party, pitting ex-premier Amama Mbabazi against President Museveni with the compatriots-turned-rivals said to be jostling for the top office come 2016.

Following the February reshuffles of Resident District Commissioners, talk of a Cabinet shake-up has been making rounds in the corridors for long. With the 2016 polls less than two years away, Mr Museveni will be keen to put up a team capable of negotiating the imminent polls with a purge of those not deemed loyal enough also on the cards.
Mr Mwambutsya Ndebesa, a don at Makerere University, says Mr Museveni will keep the vacant posts as a bait to keep those interested in them in check.

“It might be a political carrot dangled to ensure that the potential aspirants remain loyal and behave accordingly. The criteria for appointment will not be about efficiency and effectiveness. I can see an appointment from the north because they voted for him last time [2011 elections] and they were not rewarded especially at Cabinet level,” Mr Ndebesa says

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