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Some of Uganda’s top traditional church leaders have reported that they may not be ready to support President Museveni’s bid for reelection next year.
They have broadcast a series of complaints against the ruling NRM and the party chairman, Yoweri Museveni. On September 11, Godfrey Kiwanda Ssuubi, the Minister of Tourism, set out a political mission with one goal: to bring together religious leaders to support President Museveni’s bid for re-election in 2021.
Kiwanda tried to inject immediate energy into President Museveni’s re-election campaign in the central region, three weeks after he was elected vice president of the ruling NRM for the central region.
To influence religious leaders, Kiwanda brought with him a collection of NRM publications that included presidential speeches, the party constitution, the manifesto implementation scorecard, and a plaque declaring Museveni as the sole candidate of the ruling party in next year’s general elections.
YOUR PRAYERS
“We have come to introduce you to our candidate for the 2021 general elections, and we ask that you include him and the NRM in your prayers for us to pass the elections successfully,” the minister said separately to the different clergy he met.
It began with a visit to the Supreme Mufti’s office on Kibuli Hill on the outskirts of Kampala and soon the young minister realized that the task ahead was greater than he had anticipated. In Kibuli, it sparked criticism for violence in NRM’s internal elections that led to the deaths of six people in different parts of the country, in addition to Museveni’s broken promises.
“I didn’t know that this is how NRM runs its affairs; if we can see so much violence in an internal election, what is going to happen in the general election?” Sheikh Silman Kasule Ndirangwa, the Supreme Mufti, told Kiwanda last week.
The Kibuli group, speaking primarily through its spokesman, Sheikh Nuhu Muzaata Batte, wondered why President Museveni remembers Muslims during election time and sometimes during funerals of prominent Muslims.
From Kibuli, Kiwanda headed to Namungoona in the Lubaga division, to meet with the head of the Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Yona Lwanga, who without mincing words told his NRM guests that he had lost hope in leadership. and the country’s elections.
“The last time I voted was in 1980, and when [former vice president] Paulo Muwanga rigged the elections in favor of [former president] Apollo Milton Obote. I promised not to participate in any elections until the country returns to normal … we are not there yet, “Lwanga said.
UNKEPT PROMISES
Namungoona’s team had compiled a list of broken promises that President Museveni had made to the church over the years. At the top of the list is the Shs 300 million that the president pledged to support the construction of the Orthodox cathedral on Lubya Hill in the Lubaga division.
This promise was made in May 2019 during the celebrations to commemorate the 100 years of the evangelical mission of the Orthodox Church in Uganda. The president then made an instant cash payment of Shs 30 million, promising to send the balance as soon as possible.
Museveni also pledged another 80 million shillings to capitalize the savings credit of members of the church and cooperative society (Sacco) and another 20 million shillings for the sacco of the priests. In Old Kampala, the Mufti, Sheikh Shaban Ramathan Mubajje also had his grievances, but mainly as chairman of the Interfaith Council of Uganda (IRCU).
“We approached the president to get involved in the poverty eradication campaign and presented him with a budget of 5.5 billion shillings, which he accepted. But when it got to the point of implementation, the bureaucracy was installed, now it’s three years and the la Bureaucracy in the Finance Ministry is making it impossible for religious institutions to access the funds, “Mubajje said.
In April 2018, Museveni took IRCU religious leaders on a farm tour in the Ibanda and Kiruhura districts, before inviting them to lunch at his farmhouse in Rwakitura, where he implored them to accept disease relief programs. poverty.
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A month later, he received them at State House, Entebbe, where he promised to provide them with 5 billion shillings and cars so they could promote wealth creation among believers.
“It seems that the government thinks that the religious leaders are voluntary workers who do not need help. Their people in the Ministry of Finance have repressed our efforts,” Mubajje said.
All Kiwanda could do was promise the clergy that he would bring their concerns to Museveni.
“Being vice president of NRM for the central region brought me closer to the president because under the hierarchy of the party, I am number four under him, Hajji Moses Kigongo [1st national vice-chairman] and Rt Hon Rebecca Kadaga [2nd national vice-chairperson]”Said the factory.
He also asked the religious to reduce their criticism of the shortcomings of the NRM.
