Over the past twelve months, Uganda has been in electioneering mood, with politicians of different shades running all over the place trying to find a footing.
In the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) some have been lucky, pulling it off in the primaries, while many were unlucky, with some like State Minister for Lands Aida Nantaba and her health counterpart Sarah Achieng Opendi coming out openly to challenge their loss and also threaten to turn their backs on the party.
But not all has been lost for them, at least for now; the party has established a mechanism to ameliorate the grievances that arose last week, following a somewhat chaotic primaries.
It is worth noting that internal squabbles affect party cohesion, making the aggrieved senior members and their supporters become apathetic to party activities, including voting in the general election.
So, what happened at the just-concluded NRM Delegates Conference, where several would-be aspirants stood down for their more senior colleagues like Mike Mukula et al, is a move in the right direction, expected to strengthen and unify the party ahead of the 2016 elections.
And, if the country’s politics is to mature, such frontal actions that reflect reconciliation should also rub off on other political parties and organisations.
The benefits are immense.
