Farmers Party of Uganda (FPU) candidate Major General Benon Biraro Buta has in the past three days been involved in shuttle diplomacy between State House and the city suburb of Kasangati, trying to convince president Yoweri Museveni and his challenger Dr Kizza Besigye to drop their belligerent attitude following the now contentious presidential elections.
Like General Museveni and Colonel Besigye, Gen Biraro is a bush war veteran and analysts say he is currently the best placed person to secure a peace deal between the two former comrades who differed on ideology and fell out over 20 years ago. This scenario set the stage for their competition for state power, and the two have now faced off in elections four times since 2001, but without success for Dr Besigye.
And, announcing the results of the Feb 18 2016 elections, the Independent Electoral Commission boss Eng Badru Kiggundu declared Mr Museveni of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) winner with 5,971,872 votes representing 60.61 of the ballots cast, while Dr Besigye of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) was announced in second place with 3,508,687 votes representing 35.61 per cent of the ballots cast.
However, Dr Besigye rejected the results and accused the IEC of bias and since then there has been an aura of restlessness in the city and in other parts of the country, a development that has since drawn Gen Biraro in the fray as mediator, visiting State House and Dr Besigye’s Kasanganti home.
And, appearing on Kfm’s Hotseat yesterday, Gen Biraro said he had talked to both Museveni and Besigye, and that both men acknowledged there was need to talk about peaceful resolution of the electoral differences and to engage in dialogue.
He however, said both men had also expressed reservations, with Museveni saying he was still building cohesion in his party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM), while Dr Besigye reportedly had issues of trust with Mr Museveni.
But speaking in his capacity as a mediator, Gen Biraro urged Mr Museveni and Dr Besigye to ‘put country first’ their differences notwithstanding.
‘Patriotism means putting the country first; in patriotism you cede ground here and gain ground there,” Gen Biraro, a former Ugandan diplomat accredited to the Africa Union Peace and Security Council, said.
Highly regarded following his presentation during the two presidential debates, General Biraro is one of the 8 presidential candidates who contested for the presidency in the Feb 18 elections. He came a distant fifth with 25,600 votes but this was not before several Ugandans took notice of his prowess as a politician and orator with vast understanding of global issues.
