“Dubious sources of financing raise issues of infiltration from outside the Justice Forum, and this cannot be taken lightly. This particular candidate went ahead and printed posters and put up billboards at different points on the streets of Kampala, announcing his bid for the Jeema presidency. The billboards cost tens of millions of Shillings. This is a matter of serious concern to the party leadership. There is no precedent in Uganda where internal party politics have attracted such vigorous and costly campaigns. We have concerns about the source of the finances, and why he was investing so much in becoming the party president,” Mayanja said in a statement.
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Disagreements are threatening to tear apart the Justice Forum commonly known as Jeema over the party's electoral roadmap. The Chairman of the party and the former presidential candidate Muhammad Kibirige Mayanja indicated that the party was to elect new leaders during a delegates’ conference that was to sit in June this year.
However, this delegates’ conference was postponed without stating another date on which it would be held. According to one of the aspirants, Ssentongo Abdulnoor Kyamundu, this was done to try and frustrate his candidature. In his letter to Mayanja, Kyamundu expressed his disagreement with the way the affairs of the party are being run.
“The party Electoral Commission issued a roadmap …which was religiously followed by the party members. To our dismay, you convened a meeting of founders at your residence and resolved to support a certain candidate…Since then, you and other leaders that were in that meeting started to make machinations to frustrate other members that came up to vie for the Jeema Presidential seat. Further, you went ahead to issue other communications extending the NDC citing a lack of funds. Parties are funded by members. I am fully aware no efforts have ever been made to fundraise from party members for purposes of the NDC,” Kyamundu’s letter to Mayanja reads in part.
He added that he was aware that the money required to hold the delegates’ conference was available from the statutory political party funding that the party gets every year which they have been saving.“With us, we have minutes of previous meetings on the matter. Actually, to prove that the money excuse is a laughable delaying tactic, no budgetary estimates have ever been put out to show to members what is required to convene the NDC,” Kyamundu’s letter reads in part.
It also asks the party President Asuman Basalirwa, the Secretary General, Muhammad Kateregga, and the chairman, Mayanja to step aside from the management of the processes of electing new leaders because of biases they have exhibited. It also demands that party elders excuse themselves from the ongoing leadership contest and instead play a neutral role, otherwise, if they continue to act as opponents, “we may be tempted to engage them as such."
In his statement, Mayanja said they had to halt the election exercise because of the urgent need for the party constitutional review. “This Constitution has been in place for now more than 20 years and it has never been amended. There is a need to interrogate various articles of the constitution, to examine how it has been applied and its relevancy in the current circumstance. For example, one of the areas that has some gaps are the sections and articles that govern the electoral process... This directly touches on the roots of the current controversies, with some members wanting the National Delegates Conference to sit, regardless of whether the gaps have been addressed or not,” Mayanja’s statement reads in part. Mayanja also accuses Kyamundu of investing obscenely in his candidature which he said raises concern over the sources of the funds and the motive of wanting to be Jeema’s president.
“Dubious sources of financing raise issues of infiltration from outside the Justice Forum, and this cannot be taken lightly. This particular candidate went ahead and printed posters and put up billboards at different points on the streets of Kampala, announcing his bid for the Jeema presidency. The billboards cost tens of millions of Shillings. This is a matter of serious concern to the party leadership. There is no precedent in Uganda where internal party politics have attracted such vigorous and costly campaigns. We have concerns about the source of the finances, and why he was investing so much in becoming the party president,” Mayanja said in a statement.
Speaking to Uganda Radio Network, Kyamundu said whatever Mayanja is saying is scapegoating because he very well knows the sources of his money. ‘First of all, the billboards don’t cost tens of millions like his statement says. This is verifiable information. Second, do they mean to say, a Jeema president must be poor? They know the kind of work I do; I have an office which location they also know. So surely, they have taken a route that I didn’t think they would take,” Kyamundu said.
He added, that no matter the delaying tactics they will introduce, nothing is going to force him from the race. Kyamundu also expressed his dissatisfaction over the founders of Jeema who he says think that it's they to decide who the party leaders should be.
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Kyamundu also said he was not against the decision of the party president to drop him first as the spokesperson of the party and second as the secretary for external relations, however he noted that his problem with him is trying to use his office to support Muhammad Kateregga as the next party president.
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Contacted for a comment Basalirwa, who is also the MP for Bigiri municipality said that the only reason the party is extending the delegates’ conference is lack of funds. Basalirwa said organizing a national conference requires a lot of money, which they are still mobilizing.
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Luganda
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Asked whether dropping Kyamundu from different roles was not meant to frustrate his candidature, Basalirwa said the party constitution requires him not to give any explanations on his appointments.
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Basalirwa also defended party elders saying there is nothing they have done that is outside of the constitution.
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The latest disagreement in Jeema builds on ongoing altercations within opposition political parties. First, it was the Uganda People’s Congress, which currently is divided into three factions; one led by Lira East Division MP Jimmy Akena, the other led by Kampala city lawyer Peter Walubiri, and the third by Joseph Ochieno. Second, it was the Democratic Party, third it was the Forum for Democratic Change, fourth it was the National Unity Platform.
