Mbabazi-NRM talks on today

Former prime minister Amama Mbabazi is today set to meet the NRM caucus Central Executive Committee (CEC) sub-committee chaired by President Museveni. Mr Mbabazi yesterday confirmed to journalists at Parliament that: “Yes I am meeting CEC tomorrow (Friday).” Asked what the gist of the meeting is, he said, “I will inform you after I have met them.”

The meeting to take place at State House, Nakasero in Kampala, comes on the backdrop of a simmering cutting of ranks between the two political allies.

In the last CEC meeting, credible sources that attended quoted President Museveni as saying, “I am tired of this nonsense.”
The President also reportedly spent nearly an hour persuading members of the party’s top decision making organ to send Mr Mbabazi to the disciplinary committee and later have him expelled from the party.

After a heated debate, with the President insisting the talks will not yield much, painting a grim background of previous meetings he has held with the deposed SG, the members begrudgingly accepted to send Mr Mbabazi, his wife Jacqueline also NRM women’s league chairperson, his sister-in-law and former Agriculture minister Hope Mwesigye and former vice president Gilbert Bukenya an invite for a round table dialogue.
NRM secretary general Kasule Lumumba invited the trio to state house Nakasero for a 5pm meet yesterday but by the time we went to press, details from the meeting had not emerged.

Mr Mbabazi on the other hand through his lawyer Severino Twinobusingye, said he was reluctant to go for the talks aimed at “stifling his right to stand and serve the country at the highest office,” and daring Mr Museveni to abolish the constitutional order of the country.

He also set out stringent terms for the talks, insisting the party chairman, Mr Museveni, first steers an overhaul of the party’s new primary elections regulations, which among others, bar members who lose in the primary elections from contesting as independents.

Ms Lumumba told Daily Monitor when she reached out to Mr Mbabazi and Prof Bukenya, the duo were “receptive and glad to be heard by CEC”.

Mr Mbabazi, Ms Lumumba said, also, “disassociated himself from the reckless, immature and irresponsible comments of his lawyer Twinobusingye, who said he had set terms and was no longer interested in talks. He said Mr Twinobusingye was speaking things from the wild on his own.” When contacted for a comment, the lawyer declined to comment, referring this newspaper to his colleague Mr Fred Muwema, whose telephone was off by press time.

The members
Today’s meeting will be attended by Luweero NRM chairman Hajj Abdul Naduli, Soroti municipality MP Mike Mukula, Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda and President Museveni.

The Monitor 

UM– USEKE.RW