The rebel National Resistance Movement (NRM) MPs have responded to a letter addressed to them by President Yoweri Museveni, scoffing at the language and choice of words used by the Fountain of Honour.
In his letter Museveni had described the rebel MPs as parasites who haven’t contributed any economic growth to Uganda, words that attracted ire from the MPs.
Now, the team comprising of Barnabas Tinkasiimire, Theodore Ssekikubo, Patrick Nsamba, John Baptist Nambeshe, Sylvia Rwabwogo, Felix Okot Ogong, Monica Amoding, Sam Lyomoki, Gaffa Mbwatekamwa, James Kaberuksa, James Acidri have fired back at Museveni, promising to follow up their response in writing.
In their letter, the MPs made demands to NRM Party Chairman Museveni to constitute a national delegates conference in which the issue of Age Limit Bill would be discussed before being tabled on the floor of Parliament.
The MPs also made calls for the President to make public his succession plans among other demands.
Tinkasiimire led the attacks for ‘only responding to one issue’, despite the fact that their October 2017 letter raised four issues.
He explained: “He (Museveni) only responded to one thing and was abusive which characteristics of how old people are. We asked you when you would retire. Did you need to throw all those words? It was a question that requires a simple answer.”
Tinkasiimire warned that if Museveni doesn’t think about his succession plan, then he will leave Ugandans with only the option of forcing him out of power like former Zimbabwe President Robert.
“We may not want to take him the Zimbabwe way but if he doesn’t, the masses are ready. People are more than ready to take him on. He is the one who is a parasite,” Tinkasiimire said.
Nsamba joined the attacking session, wondering why Museveni reduced his response to only him, Ssekikubo, and Tinkasiimire saying that if that was his trick to sow seeds of divisionism within the group, then he had failed.
He also criticized the President’s attacks on the group holding meetings with Ugandans instead of consulting within NRM structures, saying that the matter of lifting the presidential age limit touches the national constitution, not a mere NRM Party constitution.
The Kassanda North also rebuked his party Chairman for describing them as parasites, having not taken part in the 1986 bush war, wondering if the 90% of Ugandans alive and didn’t take part of the war are also parasites.
“We are tired of you using NRM as a task force for you to gain power and after you forget about us, then you choose to work with a few MPs you can bribe. We are going to resist and defeat this strategy of you trying to divide us,” Nsamba said.
Kaberuka also responded to the letter saying Museveni has turned Uganda into an ‘enterprise’ and called on him to listen to the people, not the few people around him, saying they are misleading him.
He wondered how the President could accuse rebel MPs of stopping him from performing his duties and provide services to Ugandans, given the fact that when NRA took over power in 1986, Kaberuka was just in Primary One.
“You said we have stopped you from doing your work, I was only in P.1, what would I have done in Primary One to obstruct you from working on the road to Kanungu?” Kaberuka asked.
Nambeshe, on the other hand, described accusations by Museveni that they have been responsible for the poverty and mass employment in the country, as a ‘lie of the day’, saying Museveni is the one to blame.
The Manjiya County MP mocked Museveni saying the coup in Zimbabwe was more peaceful than elections in Uganda, “where losing lives has been the order of the day.”
