I will not retire like Kizza Winnie , MP Nambooze to Mukono voters. Whisper Eye Reports
Democratic Party (DP) vice president in Buganda Region also Mukono municipality legislator Betty Nambooze Bakireke has vowed not to retire cowardly like Kasese woman MP Winnie Kiiza.
MP Nambooze has released a document assessing her fellow legislator’s resignation at a time Uganda needed her most according to hon Nambooze.
Hon Nambooze states;
Dear Electors
Some things are easily said than done.
Since yesterday when my Sister Winnie Kizza announced that she will not seek a re- election as the woman MP for Kasese district some people, majority of who are regime propagandist operating fake accounts in the social media, have opportunistically picked on this to demonise and harass some of us!
On why we are also not following that ” wonderful action?”
I wish to congratulate my sister Hon. Winnie Kizza for offering herself to represent Kasese in Parliament.
It’s not easy to get qualified Ugandans to offer themselves for leadership more so on an opposition ticket.
And I thank Winnie for taking leave of the Office without a fight although,I would have wished her to do otherwise.
It’s about three Weeks, since Hon. Jack Wamai of Mbale Municipality also gave notice to his voters to look for a new representative as he will not seek reelection.
In her statement my sister Winnie diplomatically stood down but during the interview on NTV she somehow hinted on the discomfort she has endured since the Nandala versus Mugisha Muntu politics that turned FDC upside down in which she sided with the winner; Mugisha Muntu and finally appointment as the Leader of Opposition to be the first Ugandan women to hold that Office.
Its the ugly contest for party positions that also influenced the bigger battle that locked the party during the Eng Patrick Aboi Amuriat- Gen Mugisha Muntu Presidential race.
When Mugisha Muntu lost save for Hon. Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, the rest including Winnie Kizza failed to make up with the new Party President and his camp.
Unfortunately for my sister Winnie the majority of the Kasese- FDC leadership were for Dr.Kiiza Besigye- Amuriat- Camp and I have heard that she had few chances at the party Primary elections.
For a starter those of us who have been to Parliament for two term and myself in particular, have served half of the time the retiring Winnie held the elective political Office…for she has served as an elected leader for twenty two years.
On our side most of us have served as elected leaders for exactly ten years now. So to those who are driving this simplistic propaganda against us and placing a ill conceived demand that,we follow the example of Winnie will agree that to be like her gives us more 10 years in elective politics.
Yet I don’t want to advance such a defence, for it’s not the years I have served so far that matter,what matters is our liberation plan going forward.
The responsibility before us calls upon us to exercise our greatest capacity to liberate our country from the tryrants holding it in captivity.
Yes individuals who break through Museveni’s vote rigging machinery to become MPs, district chairmanship and councillorship earn some pecks as individuals but the greater good is supposed to be scored for the revolution we are building in the country.
True we are replaceable but we need to do this strategically putting into consideration that not many people outside there are willing to take over this assignment.
How else can we explain the fact that in many Constituencies we don’t have candidates in our tickets?
Before the newly constituted Constituencies, the Ugandan Parliament was composed of 238 constituency representatives, 135 district woman representatives, 10 Uganda People’s Defence Force representatives, five representatives of the youth, five representatives of persons with disabilities and five representatives of workers.
We have always struggled to raise enough candidates as opposition to the extent that some NRM have in the previous elections gone through unopposed.
This means we are still looking for people with qualifications and will to stand for Offices and not the other way round.
Our colleagues coming from outside Buganda are not facing as much harassment from their people…
The Langi are not pressurizing Cecilia Ogwal to retire despite the fact that she has been in Parliament for 25 years.
The Acholi are not pressurizing Betty Ochan ( LOP) to retire so are many others.
In Arua recently a section of the forces of change campaigned hard to bring back to Parliament Hon Kassiano Ezati Wadri who had served for more than two terms and aged more than 70 years.
The choice for MP Wadri was strategic, well thought out and it brought our side victory.
This proves my point that we are not leaders in normal times, we are at War and the best approach is to put our best at every opportunity.
We wish to alert everyone with qualifications that we lack candidates and we would happily received any person who wishes to stand in his/her home district.
Imagine an area like the Greater Mukono that comprises Buvuma, Buikwe, Mukono, and Kayunga with fifteen Parliamentary seats has only me in Parliament, the other 14 are represented by Nrm.
From where am sitting, I have the opportunity to know that for the strong opposition personalities in Uganda, at a personal level it’s more profitable and convenient today for a Member of Parliament on the opposition side to stand down and retire from politics than staying in.
We all remember FDC’s Kajeke who was the Mbale Municipality MP who sometime in 2009 suddenly got up,wrote a letter to Speaker and abruptly stood down from Parliament.
His explanation was that he couldn’t continue staying in such a corrupt Parliament.
This was what Kajeke told us, however we later came to know that MP Kajeke had reached an agreement with the regime to pay him all the money he would have earned in Parliament in exchange to causing a by-election in Mbale!
He was paid more than one billion shilling through a financial institution belonging to the late Hon. Issa Kikungwe and the Regime Agent for this mission was former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Gen Kale Kaihura.
That is how far some colleagues choose to betray the struggle.
I also know one female MP from Buganda who comes as a visitor to Parliament because she is an employee of the Uganda Government at our Canadian high commission.
That MP will one of these days declare that she is not standing again for election in the position she has held for 15 years because ” she wants to open up for another person and as a Democrat she doesn’t want to overstay in a political office”.
Talk about absurdity at it’s highest!!
Sometimes I extend my imagination, that if I and my colleagues who have been in Parliament for ten years now were to answer calls by mostly the NRM cyber agents and a few colleagues whose interest is to replace us or see those they support replacing us OR people driven by hate built from petty jealousness. If indeed we were to step out today…I mean suppose one day, you wake up and the headline in the papers is that Nambooze, Hon. Ssemujju, Lord Mayor Lukwago, MP Moses Kasibante, MP Medard Ssegona, hon Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi, hon Mathis Mpuuga having served ten years in Parliament, have stood down from elective politics….what will be the reaction of our people?
Would our people get out drums and dance while congratulating us for making a good decision?
Would this strengthen the struggle for liberation or weaken it?
It is easy to parrot around ideas but it’s despairing to just throw them around. It’s unfortunate that we have some unresolved issues that have forced our colleague to retire.
A person like Winnie Kizza who is in her most prime years is a treasure and I wish we had resolved the conflicts in FDC.
If we start sending people like Winnie out of the struggle, who is supposed to be there? Which trade in this World retires workers of Winnie Kizza’s experience, brain, energy, age and contacts?
The fact of the matter is that,the dictatorship in Uganda has drawn us into confusion and part of this confusion is to turn against ourselves to attack and harass people fighting for us.
And that is the paradox of being a change leader of today.
MP Nambooze is aslo the spokesperson for the opposition in Uganda’s Parliament.
The public has mixed reactions about Hon Winnie Kiiza’a statement for quitting Kasese woman MP race.
