Mbabazi Attacks Kahinda Otafiire

By Joan Pounds

As the clock ticks down to 2016, Hon Amama Mbabazi; now a presidential hopeful, has embarked on a tough course of publicly clearing his name of a myriad of alleged transgressions that highlighted his time at helm of the office of the Prime Minister, the ruling NRM Secretariat, and several other top offices he held since this government took power in 1986.

Mbabazi has met himself in the eye of the storm, on allegations of corruption, and mismanagement of office both at government and party level.

Most notable were three national corruption scandals that included the Temangalo land saga, Chogm, and PRDP funds in which billions of shillings were lost.

Mbabazi has since come out on a number of media fora to assert his innocence in these scandals, premising on the fact that he was thoroughly investigated and cleared of all wrongdoing by the various government investigative bodies.

On his personal website, Mbabazi has gone ahead to post full reports of parliamentary probes that exonerated him.

Yesterday, while appearing before a popular radio talk show the Capital Gang in Kampala, the former prime minister took time off to confront one of his former colleague and current Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Gen Kahinda Otafiire for portraying him as the destroyer of the ruling NRM party.

Mr Otafiire some time back, accused Mbabazi of running the NRM as his family shop.

“Mbabazi has turned NRM into Mbabazi and Family Company Limited,” said Otafiire.

“His daughter is in charge of the register, the party elections, etc; the wife is in charge of food (at the party conferences), Mbabazi himself is in charge of the treasury. He must go. We are not his family business.”

Otafiire also accused Mbabazi’s daughter Nina of guarding the gate at Namboole to deny his father’s foes entry, when he was elected Secretary General in 2010.

On the talk show however, the former NRM SG dismissed all these allegations as false.

“My family had never run the NRM as a family business like my comrade Otafiire claims. He is my comrade, I recruited him very long time ago into NRM.

He says that my family including my wife runs NRM as a family business. Jackie has never supplied food to anybody except in our house when you come as a guest and Otafiire has been a beneficiary of that,” Mbabazi taunted.

He also assayed to allay fears of one of Gangsters (panelists) Hon Betti Kamya that his wife Jacqueline would continue to outshine him even when he becomes president because she is more vocal.

Mrs Kamya said she was worried of a State House where the president is less visible and audible than the First Lady and the first daughters.

Prior to the announcement of his presidential bid, Jacqueline and her sister Hope Mwesigye were vocal and openly critical of the NRM government for sidelining Mbabazi, which created an impression that Jacque was likely to contest for president in her husband’s stead.

In response, Mbabazi revealed yesterday that his family was passionate about politics and he would do nothing to stop them.

“I am proud of my family. It’s great that I have children that are responsible; that feel they owe duty to the public,” he said.

“My wife and children enjoy freedom to do what they want to. If you came to my house and listened to the rigorous debates that we go through every day, you’d know that this is a home of democracy.”

“I therefore don’t discourage them from participating in public affairs. I have never directed them on what to do or what not to do. They are simply free, although we consult many times.”

He however dismissed claims that his family would overshadow his campaigns and the entire quest for presidency, noting that he indeed has a campaign team which is currently underground.

“In the campaign that is beginning, it is not true to say that my family is playing the leading role. In the past, we have gone through a process of consultation; quiet consultation which was not public.

Our consultation network is not known. My family is only visible because I am of course visible.”

Mbabazi also exonerated his daughter of claims that she hid the ruling NRM party voter’s register, which pushed the party into compiling a new one, adding that Nina was in fact working directly under the Chairman Yoweri Museveni and not the secretariat.

Nina was a volunteer in the compilation. Incidentally she was working directly under the office of the chairman and not under the secretariat. All the money they used in this exercise came from the office of the chairman and the debts accrued are known by that office not me.”