HOW AMAMA MBABAZI PLOTTED MUSEVENI DOWNFALL WITHOUT CONTIGENCY PLAN

MBABAZI WENT AHEAD TO PUT IN PLACE THREE PARALLEL STRUCTURES. THERE WAS NRM IN NRM TO WEAKEN THE PARTY FROM WITHIN; TDA GO FORWARD – TO RECRUIT OPPOSITION LEADERS; AND ANOTHER HEADED BY LENINA MBABAZI TO HANDLEVOLUNTEERS.

SO WHEN JANET MUSEVENI RANG SSEKITOLEKO ON THAT LATE NOVEMBER AFTERNOON, THE CAMEL’S BACK WAS BROKEN

One sunny afternoon in late November 2015, the leaders of the presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi’s Go Forward Secretariat were asking for light drinks at a nightspot in Bukoto, Kampala when a private phone rang.

First Lady Janet Museveni was on the line.

She urgently wanted to speak to Ronald Tumwiine Ssekitoleko, the overall campaign coordinator and chief strategist of Mbabazi’s carefully planned campaign to take power from his former friend and close ally President Museveni.

Janet was at Nakasero State Lodge. She asked to meet Ssekitoleko for talks.

It’s this phone call that marked the beginning of the collapse of the Go Forward campaign structures that had ruffled feathers in the ruling establishment.

Having started off in November with plenty of heat, December would see Go Forward ratings plummet as Mbabazi struggled to contain the pressure from within.

Ssekitoleko, the former Secretary for Finance and Planning for Wakiso District, was one of the few clandestine mobilisers and confidants of Mbabazi.

Mbabazi and his wife Jacqueline funded part of Tumwiine’s campaigns for Busiro East Constituency in the 2011 elections as part of a wider strategy of recruiting and grooming the then premier’s loyalists.

This partly made Ssekitoleko, the son of the NRA guerrilla recruiter George William Kafeero Rutahwire, indebted to Mbabazi.

The seat was taken by former Buganda firebrand Minister Medard Sseggona.

Plot unfolds

Ssekitoleko and other NRM election losers were in 2012 quietly invited by Mbabazi to his plush residence in Kololo, Kampala.

These included five coordinators from every sub-region in the country.

“Mbabazi was now calling people he had identified and already recruited as mobilisers during his reign as Secretary General. He told us that after a scrutiny of other top NRM leaders, Museveni had seen in him rare abilities to run the nation,” said Ssekitoleko at his office in Kampala on Thursday.

The former NRM Secretary General is said to be physically fit due to intense daily morning exercises.

He does not drink alcohol. He also sleeps late; spending the better part of his time working or reading or networking.

Nailing Bukenya

“Mbabazi said he wanted young and able people with whom to run the post-Museveni government. Our first job was to weaken former Vice President Gilbert Bukenya in Buganda. So we launched a campaign that kept him on the defensive,” revealed Ssekitoleko during an investigation byChimpReports on how Mbabazi plotted Museveni’s downfall.

“Bukenya was so popular because of his upland rice schemes. Mbabazi told us that Bukenya did not participate in the NRA struggle and could therefore not be president. He was Mbabazi’s major stumbling block,” recounted Ssekitoleko who served Mbabazi for almost a decade in the former premier’s clandestine operations.

He said Mbabazi had all the registers of coordinators whom he rang and planted in key areas such as banks, security, NRM Secretariat, communications, intelligence, State House and top military positions.

Mbabazi, then the powerful Prime Minister with the president’s ear, told Ssekitoleko’s group that he had all along been groomed for presidency.

“Now I want you to help me realise his objective,’” Ssekitoleko quoted Mbabazi as saying then.

Ssekitoleko says the carefully handpicked mobilisers were sent to China for strategic political courses to equip them with skills of taking and consolidating power.

Mbabazi, according to Ssekitoleko, would later set up a tactical office at Equatorial Mall in Kampala under the guise of real estate dealing to run the operations of his clandestine operations.

“This helped to keep our network intact. We were calling ourselves Mbabazi’s people. If there was a vacancy for a strategic position, we would recommend to Mbabazi someone to take it and it would happen in a short period,” recalls Ssekitoleko.

So what happened?  

If Mbabazi knew he was being groomed for president, why would he do things in an informal manner? It appears Mbabazi doubted Museveni’s commitment on relinquishing power.

Highly placed intelligence sources say after quietly observing Mbabazi for many years, Museveni changed his mind on supporting the Kanungu-born politician from taking power.

Sources say most NRA historicals were opposed to Mbabazi’s presidency on grounds that he had sidelined Museveni’s colleagues and was promoting cliques in the party.

Other NRA historicals at a meeting at State House Entebbe said Mbabazi could not be trusted with power because of his corruption-tainted background.

It is also understood that many friends of the president warned him that Mbabazi could put him in jail to boost the latter’s popularity.

A deep-throat source also said some retired senior military officers were uncomfortable with Mbabazi’s presidency project on grounds of practicing divisive politics.

While Museveni exhibited intentions to quit, historicals said he should stay around to seek an equally popular successor.

Hell breaks loose

Ssekitoleko says when word reached Mbabazi’s family that Museveni would not step down and support the Prime Minister for president, an office was quickly opened along Mawanda Road in Kamwokya, Kampala.

At the office were Ssekitoleko as chief of operations; Idiiri Kiiza to facilitate interception of strategic presidential communications; Davis Kimuli to oversee media operations.

Former Agriculture Minister Hope Mwesigye would as well coordinate mobilisation from the same office.

“Computers were bought and furniture put in place for us to work and remove Museveni from power. Americans, Chinese and other people from European countries would conduct specialised training at Kamwokya on weakening the government from within and inciting an insurrection,” said Ssekitoleko.

“We were told to ensure that in every NRM structure from the local to national level, 35 out of 50 people support Mbabazi. We had 30 people at distract level. 25 at the constituency level and 20 at Sub-County. 6 mobilisers would be at parish and 40 at village level. The system was already infiltrated,” he added.

Mbabazi went ahead to put in place three parallel structures. There was NRM in NRM to weaken the party from within; TDA Go Forward – to recruit opposition leaders; and another headed by Lenina Mbabazi to handle volunteers.

Initially, it was planned that Mbabazi would contest as NRM flag-bearer in the party elections.

Having infiltrated the system, Mbabazi now worked towards having majority of his followers take key positions in the party to become delegates to the national conference where Museveni would be flatly floored in the elections.

This would have been a ‘democratic coup’ against Museveni in case the ruling party elected Mbabazi to stand for president.

According to sources, Museveni’s intelligence learned about the plot.

That’s how meetings of key NRM strategists were held at a hotel in Kololo to foil Mbabazi’s strategy. Undoing Mbabazi’s damage was too late. Something had to be done. Urgently.

The idea of sole candidature was brought up during these meetings. Evelyn Anite, a young lawmaker from northern Uganda would lead the front against Mbabazi’s scheme.

At the Kyankwanzi retreat, Anite surprised all and sundry when she moved a motion to endorse Museveni as party’s sole candidature in the 2016 elections.

Sources say Mbabazi was caught flat-footed. Pictures from the conference showed a surprised Mbabazi menacingly staring at Anite who was on her knees reading the motion.

The resolution was unanimously adopted.

Under pressure, Mbabazi the next day appended his signature to the motion which implied that he would not stand against Museveni in the internal flag-bearer election.

Second game plan 

With the strategy of defeating Museveni from within hitting the rocks, Mbabazi’s men returned to the drawing board. Either Museveni had proved to be a master of political chess games or Mbabazi’s intellect was overestimated.

It was then decided that a bigger office should be opened to put in place call centres, IT systems, data management structures and security for national planning.

Museveni was ahead of the game with his planners circulating deceptive reports of Mbabazi’s impending arrest to force the latter act under pressure to expose his weaknesses.

A visibly shaken Mbabazi eventually declared his plans to unseat Museveni in a hastily-arranged YouTube video. His team stepped up planning and mobilisation.

The clandestine structures were in full gear recruiting people from grassroots to the national level. MPs defected to Go Forward as Mbabazi quietly wooed the international community.

By the end of November 2015, Go Forward had become a big force to reckon with.

It had piled pressure on police to make mistakes thus enjoying free publicity for his pre-campaign consultative meetings.

Plan B

Mbabazi, according to Ssekitoleko, mobilised youth to cause election violence in case he lost the election.

“We identified at least 40 people to protect our votes at each polling station. We planned that in some areas the youth could run away with ballot boxes before end of election exercise.”

The youth were told that even if they are shot, they should prepare to die for their country.

Things fall apart

Despite putting in place adequate and functioning structures, Mbabazi’s Go Forward camp imploded at the end of November.

Staff were no longer receiving salaries. The Secretariat’s workers lacked even drinking water.

Mbabazi told the team leaders that he would be “president at all costs,” according to Ssekitoleko.

“So we realised that much as we had our concerns with NRM especially corruption and segregation, Mbabazi was not a better option. He was now drumming up for war. His hopes of winning an election faded. It was now about violence,” recalls Ssekitoleko.

“He told us that he either wins or others lose. He was clearly working with the international community to install him as president. He tried to woo Besigye to rally behind him in vain. When many realised that he was up to violence, we started getting defections. He was not taking us anywhere,” he added.

Mbabazi has previously denied reports of planning to take power by force. He maintains that Go Forward will take the presidency by ballot before facilitating a transition.

So when Janet Museveni rang Ssekitoleko on that late November afternoon, the camel’s back was broken.

The disgruntled and frustrated secretariat followed Ssekitoleko to Nakasero where they agreed to work with Museveni on key conditions.

Ssekitoleko would later apologise for the damage done to NRM before asking for an office to “undo what we have done.”

Asked whether he talked to Mbabazi before defecting, Ssekitoleko responded in the affirmative, adding, the presidential candidate thought he was joking.

“Mbabazi simply signed for me a cheque of Shs 2m,” recalled the former Go Forward chief planner.

Team Thorough – YKM

Pressed to explain how NRM has so far benefitted from his actions, Ssekitoleko said he now leads the Team Thorough – YKM which has dismantled all Mbabazi’s known structures.

“We have been in all regions where the president has visited and where he hasn’t to conduct defections especially from Go Forward and opposition parties. We have recruited and integrated NRM defectors into the party,” says Ssekitoleko.

He further says his team has received and deployed all former Go Forward leaders and coordinators before taking over Mbabazi’s offices in most sub-regions and districts.

Ssekitoleko further says Team Thorough – YKM has worked hard to ensure the NRM manifesto reaches grassroots; highlighted achievements of NRM government and spread  the message of hope.

“We have also used broadcast and print media to dismantle hate messages orchestrated against the president, government and the First Family by the people who created them during the Go Forward struggle,.”

The team is also recruiting at least 40 vigilantes per village including Go Forward supporters to protect NRM votes.