Africa-Press – Uganda. After being in power for 35 years, President Museveni – at least officially – doesn’t show any sign that he is about to stop.
Mr Museveni, who has tweaked his name to add Tibuhaburwa during campaigns, laid out what he claimed was a vision he has for not only East Africa but Africa at large.
“NRM came to deal with historical problems of Uganda and Africa. We are not job seekers. They think I am here because I am looking for a job. They are lying [to] themselves,” Mr Museveni said while campaigning in the eastern district of Kumi last November.
Even within the Opposition, there was unanimity that there was no chance that Mr Museveni was going to be ousted out of power through the ballot box.
“None of the 10 contestants will be announced president,” retired Col Dr Kizza Besigye, who tried to wrest power from Mr Museveni via the ballot box a record four times, candidly said on NTV last year.
“The reality is, Mr Museveni is just a nominated candidate like John Katumba and Nancy Kalembe but he simply cannot humble himself to become a candidate. He is the Electoral Commission and everything,” Dr Besigye added.
Indeed, Dr Besigye’s decision not to stand in this particular election was informed by the fact they had concluded that Mr Museveni couldn’t be uprooted from power through an election organised by the current electoral body that he selects.
The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), the party to which Dr Besigye subscribes, has on its social media platforms ridiculed the entire process, saying: “This year’s ‘selection’ misinterpreted for an election is a continuous demonstration to dictator Museveni that he is only living on borrowed time and will surely be evacuated.”
Although Mr Museveni is still flexing muscle, the feeling within his party and in the Opposition is having secured the victory on January 14, it could turn out to be his last term. Officially, Mr Museveni is 76 years old, meaning if he completes the next term, he will be 81.
Several Opposition and NRM officials interviewed for this article agree that transition within the ruling party and in the Opposition generally is on the cards.
Beyond these elections, the tone has been set for a showdown between Mr Museveni’s son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, 46, and National Union Platform (NUP) principal Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, 38.
There have been glimpses of this future battles and it has come off Gen Muhoozi’s Twitter handle in which the President’s advisor on what is termed as “special operations” positions himself as a protagonist. In last November when Mr Kyagulanyi was violently arrested by police after being nominated as presidential candidate, Gen Muhoozi took it upon himself and used social media to assure the Kyadondo East MP that more was to come.
“I told you, my young brother, that you can never intimidate us. We are much stronger than you can ever imagine being. If you want to fight, we will simply defeat you. We want peace! But if you attempt to fight us, then bring it on!” Gen Muhoozi tweeted.
But Mr Kyagulanyi isn’t one to go down without putting up a fight – he shot back, also using Twitter.
“Only cowards and weak men boast of violence! You should be ashamed. Ours is a non-violent call for action. You know that in a free and fair election, your father, the old tyrant, would be no more. This country belongs to Ugandans, not you and your father. You will soon understand that.”
While officially, Mr Museveni has denied and largely doesn’t comment on the subject that he wants his son to succeed him, the idea that Gen Muhoozi will be Uganda’s president after his father has been gathering pace in recent years.
In 2013, Gen David Sejusa, who was then the coordinator of Intelligence Services – a vacancy that hasn’t been filled since then – was the first government official to comment about what he called the “Muhoozi Project” before fleeing to exile.Gen Sejusa, who has since returned to Uganda and stopped talking about politics, claimed that there was a plot to kill government officials and army officers who were opposed to Gen Muhoozi’s apparent presidential ambitions.
When he was commanding the elite Special Forces Command (SFC), Gen Muhoozi used to refrain from commenting about politics but he was emboldened in 2017 when he was appointed to the civilian post of being Mr Museveni’s presidential advisor. He was recently reappointed commander of SFC.
Last year, Gen Muhoozi also used his Twitter handle, which has close to 300,000 followers, to send a warning to Uganda’s enemies he didn’t mention.
“I can assure whoever even thinks of messing with Uganda will get a very bad day. Long live UPDF! Long live Ugandan Special Forces!” he tweeted in October.
Though he is a serving army officer, Gen Muhoozi has since endorsed parliamentary candidates who belong to his father’s ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) and those believed to be forerunners of the “Muhoozi Project.”
“We are organising,” explained a lawyer who is close to Gen Muhoozi, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Once the President [Museveni] says he is quitting, we want his son to take over. And we are mobilising for that.”
In Mr Kyagulanyi’s camp, they officially say their ultimate aim is to end Museveni’s presidency. But realistically, sources familiar with planning within NUP say, this newly formed party wants to put up decent numbers in the 2021 elections, which they will use five years later.
Eyes on 2026Others in the raceMr Kyagulanyi and Gen Muhoozi aside, Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu’s presidential campaigns have characteristically been low key and also futuristic in nature.
From the very start, many of Gen Muntu’s surrogates admitted that this election might have come early for him and his Alliance for National Transformation (ANT).
“We have been opening offices across the country. Our focus is building structures for the party, not winning next year’s election,” ANT spokesperson Wilberforce Seryazi said earlier last year.
Also in the mix is Gen Henry Tumukunde, Mr Museveni’s former spy chief and minister of Security.
Though he didn’t command a large following, Gen Tumukunde’s campaign meetings were largely frustrated by security forces. Just like other Opposition candidates, Gen Tumukunde stood no chance of winning this year, but it’s believed he wants to be in the thick of things once the transition inevitably happens.
