Col (Rtd) Kizza Besigye (right) talks to Mr Wasswa Birigwa, the former FDC national chairman, during their national delegates conference on August 19, 2024. PHOTO/ISAAC KASAMANI
The Najjanankumbi faction of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party yesterday held a crisis meeting, a day after their Katonga counterparts resolved to bury the party and have its assets transferred.
The meeting was held at the official party headquarters in Najjanankumbi chaired by the party president, Eng Patrick Oboi Amuriat, and attended by other top leaders, including the secretary general, Mr Nathan Nandala Mafabi, and national party chairman Jack Sabiiti.
Sources close to Najjanankumbi said party leaders unanimously dismissed plans to bury the FDC party as an attempt to beat the wind and resolved to hold nationwide district conferences where they will denounce members of the Katonga faction as “enemies of democratic change”.
“The meeting has resolved that we should not respond to the Katonga faction legally because they are not members of the party. But since they chose to play dirty politics, we are also going to play dirty politics,” the source told Daily Monitor last evening.
Another source explained: “We also resolved to show them (Katanga faction) that we are the democratically elected leaders of FDC because we have the party seal and the party constitution. We have resolved to have nationwide district conferences where we are going to tell members that the Katonga faction is just an impostor who should not deceive anyone.”
Eng Amuriati declined an interview, but senior party leaders said the meeting outcomes will be unveiled in today’s news conference.
“Whatever happened yesterday [during the Monday Katonga faction delegates’ conference] does not worry us. It won’t scare us, they are just sulking and at the same time envious. They are desperate to bury FDC for selfish interests but that won’t happen,” a senior FDC official told this newspaper last evening.
Before this closed-door meeting, the FDC Secretary-General issued a circular, allaying the party members’ fears over the planned FDC burial, branding the Katonga faction ‘masqueraders.'
“The party meeting can only be called by authorised office bearers, of the party, of which one Mr Wasswa Biriggwa and Mr Erias [Lukwago], who have been posturing and/or masquerading as party chairman and party president respectively, are not, and as such they are not authorised to call a delegates conference. This alleged Party “Delegates’ meeting” is nothing but a meeting of attention seeking, like-minded, disgruntled rabble-rousers who should be ignored,” read part of the statement.
The circular added: “FDC is a duly registered party with the Electoral Commission of Uganda, as by law required, and returns of office bearers are duly filed with the Electoral Commission, of which none of the so-called “officers” of the party is an office bearer as they claim to be [and thus] we urge the public not to be misled by these acts of theatrics, for which Mr Lukwago, the ringleader, has come to be known for everywhere he goes.”
Katonga speaks out
When contacted, Mr Lukwago, the interim party president of the Katonga faction, said his team doesn’t have time to exchange with people he christened as “impostors” and “self-seekers” whose preoccupation is to benefit from the struggle for liberation.
“We are equally not bothered, our focus now is on the liberation struggle. We don’t have time for self-seekers and belching leaders. They want to invite our attention but we are now fighting towards seeing our country being liberated so that Ugandans regain their sovereign rule,” he said.
On Monday, Mr Lukwago presented a detailed report to more than 800 delegates of the Katonga faction who turned up for the delegates’ conference in Kampala. The delegates would later unanimously agree to dissolve the FDC party in line with Article 36 of FDC Constitution, and have its assets transferred to a new political vehicle.
The Katonga faction also extended the tenure of the interim leadership for another six months.
Section 36(1) of FDC Constitution provides that “the National Delegates Conference or the Special Conference may dissolve the party by two thirds (2/3) majority of all delegates of National Delegates Conference and transfer the assets and liabilities of the party.”
There are more than 1,500 FDC delegates comprising members of the FDC National Executive Committee, Members of Parliament elected on the party ticket, two representatives from every parliamentary constituency (chairperson and general secretary), and five from each district: chairperson, general secretary, secretary for mobilisation, chairperson of youth and the chairperson of the women league.
To dissolve the party, the Katonga faction needed about 1,040 members, an indication that the 804 delegates who attended the impugned Monday conference fell below the required threshold.
Other sources who attended yesterday’s closed-door meeting talked of attempts to divert the party from the preparations for 2026 polls and explained that Mr Amuriat, Mr Mafabi and Mr Sabiiti asked party members to ignore what they called “provocation” and vowed to do whatever it takes to safeguard FDC.
Trend
The Monday conference attracted some of the original FDC founding members, including the four-time presidential candidate, Dr Kizza Besigye, the former Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Wafula Ogutu and former Bugabula County MP Salaam Musumba. The party National Chairman, Ambassador Waswa Birigwa, also attended the Katonga conference.
