The Democratic Party (DP) has decried the resignation of their party chairman, Baswale Kezaala over what they have called betrayal. According to the DP spokesman Kenneth Kakande, Kezaala has betrayed DP.
“I feel he has betrayed the values of the Democratic Party. He has betrayed me as well and I’m scared. Kezaala believed in the struggle. He believed in compassion, justice and equal opportunities. But with such values, you can’t stand in the storm (NRM),” he said while appearing on NBS TV Tuesday morning.
Kakande adds that with Kezaala’s resignation, there is no doubt he has switched to NRM. “You can’t join a tiger’s cage unless you are a tiger in a sheep skin. (But) Baswale Kezaala is not the first one (to join NRM). Luzigge was compromised and crossed over but we replaced him.”
He commended him for openly resigning unlike others. “Among all those who have left, Kezaala has done the most honorable thing, to resign. I’m waiting for other resignations, including party vice president (Mbidde), after he appeared on the same podium with Museveni,” Kakande said.
However, veteran politician Israel Mayengo says Kezaala, a former Mayor of Jinja Town, did the right thing by accepting the appointment. “It’s not a betrayal, it is selfishness. It seems DP had no money to pay him,” he said while appearing on the same station. “Kezaala was absolutely right to resign. Museveni was also right to appoint him because he has all the power.”
Nevertheless, he adds that “DP is the only party that has the semblance to stay for long. Others are situational parties”.
Meanwhile, DP says it hasn’t received Kezaala’s resignation letter. “We haven’t received the hard copy of Kezaala’s resignation but we have seen it online. I talked to Kezaala after I heard about his appointment and told him to address a presser about not being consulted but…….”
Part of his resignation letter that is making rounds online reads in part; ‘I wish to communicate that as I have been proposed in the diplomatic service as a Deputy Ambassador, a position that requires one to serve outside the country, I will be unable to serve the party,” Kezaala told journalists on Monday afternoon. Accordingly allow me tender in my resignation as national chairman with immediate effect. It has raised a lot of anxiety from many party members and I have decided to tender in my resignation’.
Kezaala was appointed as Deputy Ambassador in a recent reshuffle of ambassadors that saw even the King of Busoga William Wilberforce Gabula as an ambassador Special Duties in the president’s office.
