[Ugnet] Bukenya's days numbered

[musamize]

Possible Candidates for VP Slot

New Vision (Kampala)
ANALYSIS
April 23, 2006
Posted to the web April 24, 2006

By Vision Reporter
Kampala

IT is now definite, following the conclusion of the election petition, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is to be sworn in for another term of office as President of Uganda on May 12.

The Constitution provides that the President shall with the approval of Parliament by a simple majority appoint the Vice-President (VP) who deputises for the President. Who then is the most likely candidate to occupy this second highest office in the country?

 

Prof. Gilbert Bukenya

He is the current VP after replacing Dr. Specioza Wandira Kazibwe. Bukenya is a Muganda, Catholic, MP for Busiro South and Vice-chairperson NRM (Central Region).

Apologists in the Government reckon there is great possibility that Bukenya will be retained as VP. The reason being he has been instrumental in mobilising for the Movement and ensuring the President got a third term through Parliament and the masses.

Bukenya's initiative of upland rice, which has enabled people in villages to improve their household incomes, is another reason.

However, there is speculation that the President might keep him as the VP in the initial years and reassign him other duties later.

Bukenya's shortcoming is that last year he made public utterances that the Cabinet had a mafia that was bent on destroying him politically. This ruffled some ministers but Bukenya later retracted his words.

 

Maria Lubega Mutagamba

She is the minister of State in charge of Water and Women MP-elect for Rakai District.

Like Bukenya, she is a Muganda and a Catholic. Before she joined NRM, she was the Secretary General of the Democratic Party.

She is an intelligent woman with a degree in economics.

Insiders say the reason why Mutagamba is a likely candidate is because Museveni is very happy with the continued massive support women have given to him and NRM in general thus a likelihood of the President rewarding them with the VP slot through Mutagamba.

If Mutagamba becomes VP, she will be the second woman to occupy the office after Kazibwe.

 

Gabriel Opio

He is the MP-elect for Samia-Bugwe South. He currently chairs the Makerere University Council. He at one time served in Museveni's govemment as State minister for Finance in charge of privatisation. Museveni strategists say making Opio the VP, will help NRM to improve on its declining support in eastern Uganda, especially the Teso region.

 

Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi

He is the Speaker of the outgoing Seventh parliament. He is a Muganda, Catholic and a lawyer. He is credited with steering well the house during the controversial third term debate last year.

There are some NRM insiders who want the President to let Ssekandi continue his service as the House Speaker but others argue that his brilliance is needed in the VP slot.

Other possible candidates include Maj. Gen Kahinda Otafiire, Hillary Onek, Janat Mukwaya and Syda Bumba.

 

%%%%%%%%

 

Why VP Bukenya's Days As No.2 May Be Numbered

The Monitor (Kampala)
COLUMN
April 26, 2006
Posted to the web April 25, 2006

By Andrew M. Mwenda

It is December 2005 and the National Resistance Movement (NRM) political party is holding its delegates conference in Namboole Stadium.

The Party Chairman, President Yoweri Museveni, popularly known as Mzee is in attendance. He has just employed what he knows best - subterfuge - to get Parliament to remove term limits on the presidency so that he can run for the job again, and again and againâ-oe Problem is that if you want to become a presidential monarch, you must ensure that you are the only person who is "popular" in both your political party particularly and in the country generally.

 

At Namboole, the NRM is electing its leaders. Among those vying for the different top positions is Vice President, Prof. Gilbert Bukenya - a respected academic renown for his penchant for political goofs.

Although Bukenya is Vice President of the country, it is Alhaji Moses Kigongo who is favoured to be deputy national chairman of NRM. But although he is politically inexperienced, Bukenya is ambitious. So he has decided he will run for the slot of party deputy chairman for central region. Problem is that Captain Francis Babu wants the same job.

 

About six months before, Bukenya had given an interview to Daily Monitor in which he claimed the cabinet was under the control of a mafia. This had angered Mzee, but he had not been sacked. Mzee's top dogs wanted Bukenya punished and humiliated. When he ran to become NRM chairman for Wakiso District against incumbent Ian Kyeyune, Mzee's top dogs backed Bukenya's opponent.

 

After an acrimonious fight, Bukenya won and therefore got himself a slot in the NRM delegate's conference. If Mzee is to be president for ever, the last thing he needs is a popular vice president who is a catholic and a Muganda.

 

Bukenya has been working quietly among NRM delegates. The chairman of the NRM electoral commission, Ruhakana Rugunda has been introducing different candidates to the delegates. The delegates cheer their favored candidate.

 

"I now introduce candidate Gilbert Bukenya for â-oe" Rugunda announces, and there is thunderous applause from the audience! Mzee is shell-shocked and for a few seconds loses his balance: he looks up in the skies, then turns and looks at Mama Janet seated next to him and settles himself again. Is Mzee scared that a Catholic Muganda Vice President could be that popular too? One thing is clear: Mzee's handlers underestimated Prof. Bukenya.

 

With this popularity, it is unlikely that Bukenya will retain his vice presidential slot.

 

@@@@@@@@@@@ Bukenya Fights Back @@@@@@@@@@@@@@

 

How Bukenya Made Museveni Win in Buganda

New Vision (Kampala)
OPINION
April 14, 2006
By Nabusayi Wamboka
Kampala

THE biggest excitement in the recent general elections was probably in the central region. The Vice President, Prof. Gilbert Bukenya, who is the NRM chairman for the region, spent sleepless nights to deliver President Museveni's victory. He did kakuyege (door-to-door campaign) at the grassroots. At one point he gave out exercise books to NRM mobilisers to enter the number of party supporters at each level in the whole region and to draw strategies on how to woo members of the opposition to the NRM.

 

After identifying the bumpy spots, Prof. Bukenya would spend days campaigning in the villages. At one time he spent a night on Lake Victoria combing the islands on a boat and convincing the undecided to vote President Museveni, the man he said would listen and act on their problems. Some islanders had never seen a government official before, including RDCs and CAOs, and when Prof. Bukenya risked the angry winds and rocky waters to seek their votes where no opposition leaders had ventured, it was an automatic nod. The key word was olugogo (water valley on the roof). When it rains and the water valley is facing the right place, there will be water in the pot.

 

According to Bukenya, Museveni was the only credible leader who had been used by Baganda to bring development to the region. "We can confidently insert our straw in the son of Kaguta and sip development back into Buganda," he would shout.

 

Faced with a daunting task of winning the backing of the Mengo establishment amidst calls for federo, Bukenya, who kept telling voters to leave the Kabaka out of politics, went an extra mile to hold a meeting with Katikiro Daniel Muliika to urge him to see how they could negotiate further for Buganda's demands without making the issue political. The messages from Mengo were depressing but Baganda had a different view. Convinced by Prof. Bukenya's reasoning, and with trust in President Museveni for what he had done for the region, most Baganda voted overwhelmingly for Museveni.

 

Central to Museveni's victory was a small yellow office on Kiira Road in Kamwokya where Prof. Bukenya would spend sleepless nights meeting mobilisers, healing internal conflicts among NRM members and redeploying willing party agents to do groundwork in various districts.

 

Bukenya worked like ants. At one point he toured an oil refinery in Mukono belonging to Muddu Oil to emphasise the role of local investments in development, held a mobilisers' meeting in Kayunga to solicit votes for Museveni, attended a wedding of Hon. Sekandi's daughter in Rubaga and held a public rally at Kasangati in one day. Bukenya's summon during the campaigns was that every vote counted and he had to ask the people directly to ensure Museveni victory.

Idle talk of Prof. Bukenya's imagined fight with NRM supporter and LC5 chairman for Wakiso district, Eng. Ian Kyeyune, was meant to break Prof. Bukenya's spirit. But it only hardened the man who is 'hard like mahogany'. A man of very few words, he scientifically looked for his votes, leaving other people to make unfounded statements on FM stations as he consolidated his support. On D-day, his victory was unquestionable even to his bitterest rivals.

 

Once he had secured the support of the grassroots in the region, he embarked on a kakuyege that saw him traverse Buganda which he said had benefited more from Museveni's reign than under any other leadership. His efforts paid off.

 

Prof. Bukenya had sang many songs and danced to many tunes. Finally when the voters in central region acknowledged his song and took to the floor to dance to his rhythm, he knew victory in Buganda was for Museveni.

 

The writer is the Vice President's Press Secretary

 

ps: The only problem is the the Ssebagabe knows that he had to resort to rigging in order to "win" in Buganda. So, mostly likely Bukenya is a goner, yesterday's news!

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