Meanwhile by filing time of this story, the Inspector General of Police, Gen. Kale Kayihura had written to Mbabazi  informing him that his nationwide consultation would not be cleared by police.

amayemba@eagle.co.ug

Kampala-Former Ugandan Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi has said it is time for a peaceful transition in Uganda, where President Yoweri Museveni and the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) have been in power for 29 years.

On June 16 Mbabazi announced that he will challenge Museveni for the ruling party’s chairmanship and the 2016 presidential nomination.

Mbabazi, who is in Washington, told VOA that while the NRM has done good things for Uganda, he believes it’s time for a new leadership to do even better things. “The NRM has performed very well in the last 30 years. We’ve had the leadership which has led this very well during this time, but the Bible says there always time for everything. In my view and in light of the successes that we have had, it is reasonable to expect the continuation of that success even as it deserves change. So, my offer will be to lead that process of change,” he said in an interview on Daybreak Africa, hosted by VOA’s James Butty.

Mbabazi, the erstwhile National Resistance Movement (NRM) Secretary General, said he wants to be the engine of change, prompting a quick response from party chairman Mr Museveni, who said the former Premier was part of the government and that he had the capacity to effect any changes during that time.

For his ambitions, Mr Mbabazi has come under severe criticism from some NRM quarters, the most recent being the party Secretary General Justin Kasule Lumumba’s dismissal of her predecessor’s presidential bid under the banner of the NRM. Citing the NRM Constitution, Ms Lumumba said no NRM organ had endorsed Mbabazi for the 2016 elections.

“The NRM Constitution mandates the NRM Electoral Commission to organize and conduct elections within the organs of NRM. The NRM Electoral Commission can only nominate aspirants who have been recommended to the National Conference by the National Executive Council. Amama Mbabazi has not been recommended by either the Central Executive Committee or the National Executive Council as a presidential aspirant,” Ms Lumumba was quoted as saying.

She added: “Amama Mbabazi’s self-introduction to the National Electoral Commission purporting to be an aspirant for office of President on NRM ticket is irregular and illegal as his aspirations have not been endorsed by the NRM in accordance with the Presidential Elections Act and NRM Constitution.”

However, it seems Mbabazi is not deterred and during the VOA interview said the change he envisages will make Uganda a better country by reviving its democracy and institutions, transforming the economy, attracting local and foreign investment, and promoting equitable development. He said he’s willing to associate with everyone, including the opposition, if it will bring about unity.

“My point all along has been that Uganda now is at a stage where we need the effort of everyone. Nobody should be left behind for us to achieve the objective of takeoff, things we can do together in order to achieve that high objective,” he said.

Mbabazi said he has been holding discussions with people in the opposition because he doesn’t consider himself an enemy to anyone, and so, too, the opposition should not see him as an enemy.

“We are Ugandans who espouse maybe different ideas about how to run country. It only means that we have different approaches. And this should not really stop us from cooperating with each other,” Mbabazi said.

Uganda’s opposition parties have been advocating electoral reforms, including a call for an independent Electoral Commission whose members are not appointed by the President, and an end to government control of the media. Mbabazi said he has for long been an advocate for electoral reforms, even when he was Prime Minister.

“Obviously, we need reforms in our electoral laws. These are necessitated by the experience we’ve had from previous elections. We’ve had challenges in the courts of law. We had observers from all over the world. We have observers locally, and they made some observations, and we needed to take all these into account in order to do everything that was necessary to be done to have a better election this time around than we did the last time,” he said.

He said any democrat should be willing to support the idea that, where the law is lacking, it should be made better.

Mbabazi said he thinks he and Museveni are in agreement on the need for a peaceful transition of power in Uganda. But, he would not say if Museveni would be willing to step aside in the name of a peaceful transition.

“Well, peaceful transition may be via stepping aside, meaning resigning, or it may mean through a democratic process,” he said.

Meanwhile by filing time of this story, the Inspector General of Police, Gen. Kale Kayihura had written to Mbabazi  informing him that his nationwide consultation would not be cleared by police.

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Leaked U.S. State Department cables published by Wikileaks show that the U.S. Vatican Embassy saw the Pope Francis as a contender for the papacy in the 2005 conclave, reporting him to be a “wise pastor” who could appeal to allies of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

Six cables mention Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires who became Pope Francis on March 13. One of the unclassified cables, dated April 18, 2005, includes a detailed profile that examined the Argentine Cardinal as a possible successor to Pope John Paul II.

“Bergoglio exemplifies the virtues of the wise pastor that many electors value,” said the cable authored by the U.S. Embassy to the Vatican. “Observers have praised his humility: he has been reluctant to accept honors or hold high office and commutes to work on a bus.”

The cable was signed by the U.S. embassy’s then-Charge d’Affaires D. Brent Hardt and was sent the day the 2005 conclave began. It discussed the future Pope Francis as one of 16 possible candidates.

“Bergoglio is said to prefer life in the local Church as opposed to a bureaucratic existence in Rome’s ecclesiastical structures, but at the same time he has been willing to serve on the Vatican’s various supervisory committees,” the cable continued.

The embassy analysis said this preference indicated the cardinal could bridge what it characterized as a “divide” between the curia and the cardinal archbishops of local Catholic churches. In the embassy’s view, this made Cardinal Bergoglio “a good compromise candidate” for voting cardinals.

The embassy said the cardinal’s membership in the Jesuit order “could count against him,” citing some senior prelates who are “suspicious of a liberal streak in the order.”

The embassy analysis said Cardinal Bergoglio, along with Cardinals Ruini and Scola, would be “suitable to the Ratzinger camp.”

Like most observers, the embassy incorrectly believed there was not enough conclave support for Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who would be elected Pope Benedict XVI on April 19, 2005.

In late 2010 the whistleblower website Wikileaks published about 250,000 leaked State Department cables as part of its “Cablegate” project. Hundreds of the cables touched on Catholic issues, including 700 cables originating from the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See.

Catholic News Agency published multiple in-depth reports on the documents from late 2010 through September 2011.

Cardinal Bergoglio is mentioned by name in a total of eight State Department cables in the Cablegate archive, which does not contain all State Department communications from 2010 and earlier.

Several of the cables concern the Catholic Church’s sometimes tense relationship with the Argentine government, especially with current President Cristina Kirchner and her predecessor and late husband President Nestor Kirchner.

An Oct. 11, 2007 cable from the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires said that some observers consider Cardinal Bergoglio to be “a leader of the opposition” to the administration of President Nestor Kirchner.

The cable suggested that the conviction of the Catholic priest Christian Von Wernich for his role as an accomplice in murder, torture and illegal imprisonment during Argentina’s “Dirty War” would be used to undermine the moral authority of the Catholic Church and the cardinal.

One confidential cable sent in January 2010 mentioned Cardinal Bergoglio in the context of U.S. Ambassador to Argentina Vilma Martinez’s meeting with Gabriela Michetti. Michetti is a former vice-mayor of Buenos Aires who presently sits in the lower chamber of Argentina’s legislature as a national deputy from Argentina’s center-right Republican Proposal (PRO) party.

The cable said Michetti maintained “regular dialogue” with Cardinal Bergoglio and other Catholic groups

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The latest release of the leaked United States secret briefs by wikileaks indicate the Invisible Children Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), most famous for its Kony 2012 online video, helped the Ugandan government arrest a former child soldier and backed an operation that killed more civilians than militants, cables published by Wikileaks reveal.

A memo written by a public affairs officer at the US embassy in Uganda documents Invisible Children’s collaboration with Ugandan intelligence services. It notes that the US-based NGO tipped the Ugandan government on the whereabouts of Patrick Komakech, a former child soldier for the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), who was wanted by security officials for extorting money from the government officials, NGO’s and local tribal leaders. Ugandan security organizations jumped on the tip and immediately arrested Komakech.

As a result of the tip, the Ugandan military claimed it obtained the names of other suspects from Komakech. The military then conducted a sweep and arrested a number of people, many of whom declared their innocence, the Ugandan media reported. Human rights groups say torture of arrested suspects by Ugandan security forces is routine.

Invisible Children also actively supported Operation Lightning Thunder (OLT), a joint attack by Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the then-autonomous South Sudan against the LRA. The operation, which was also received US intelligence and logistical backing, killed more civilians than LRA militants.

In a confidential memo dating back to 2009, US ambassador to Uganda Steven Browning noted that the US-based NGO planned pro-OLT events under the theme “Kony Must Be Stopped. Rescue Our Children”.

Browning says local Invisible Children activists led the events. These events included visiting Washington to meet with lawmakers and conducting awareness campaigns in the US, the UK, Australia, Canada and Mexico.

But Norbert Mao, a Ugandan opposition politician who, Browning claimed, “honchoed” the 2009 events, disputes the veracity of the ambassador’s assessment.

“I did not support OLT,” Mao told The Black Star News “It was an operation to rain bombs in the areas where Kony was believed to be participating and would lead to indiscriminate killing of those the operation was intended to rescue. But even so, I believe there is no purely military solution to the LRA issue. Even after the release of Kony 2012 I stated clearly that the doors to peaceful solutions must never be closed”.

Kony 2012 has been viewed over 100 million times and Invisible Children is now planning to release a sequel to the video. It has been criticized for oversimplifying  the issue, in which religious fundamentalism and century-long intertribal conflicts intertwine. It has also been accused of providing financial aid for the Ugandan government and Sudan People’s Liberation Army, both of which have regularly been charged with human rights violations. Invisible Children denied this claim, however. It has also been blamed for being heavy on advocacy and weak on aid, with most of the money spent for staff salaries, travel and transport and film production.

The release of the video followed a decision by US President Barack Obama to deploy 100 US soldiers to the region to help “remove” Joseph Kony from the picture.

The conflict between the Ugandan government, led by Yoweri Musevini, and the Lord Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony, has lasted for over two decades.

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rwanambwa@eagle.co.ug

Kampala- The National Resistance Movement Secretary General Justine Kasule Lumumba has issued a statement distancing the party from Mr Amama Mbabazi’s planned public meetings.

Mbabazi had written to police and Electoral Commission indicating that he intends to meet his supporters countrywide ahead of the national electoral calendar. Mr Mbabazi intends to contest against President Museveni in their party NRM for the post of party chairman who automatically becomes the flag bearer of the party in the national elections.

“Amama Mbabazi is not an aspirant sponsored by the NRM Political Organisation within the meaning of the NRM Constitution and the Law.  Amama Mbabazi’s notice to the National Electoral Commission that he intends to contest for President as an NRM flag bearer is not only speculative but also illegal.” Ms Lumumba wrote in her letter to the Inspector General of Police.

Adding “Amama Mbabazi’s aspirations as an aspiring candidate for President for the 2016 General Elections have not been endorsed by NRM and are, therefore, illegal. Amama Mbabazi has no Locus Stand to hold public meetings as a prospective presidential flag bearer of the NRM Political Organisation and/or presidential aspirant under the PEA.”

Lumumba said Mbabazi had not been endorsed by NRM and is therefore not an aspirant sponsored by the party within the meaning of its Constitution and Law.

According to Article 48(1) of the NRM Constitution “all members of NRM who meet National Legal requirements shall be eligible to become candidates for NRM at various levels.”

Article 48(2)a further states that “the presidential candidate for NRM shall be selected by the National Conference from a candidate or candidates recommended to the National Conference by the National Executive Council pursuant to Article12(3)(6) of this Constitution.”

Section 9 of the PEA provides that under the Multi Party Political System, nomination of candidates may be made by: A registered Political Organisation or Political Party sponsoring a candidate or by a candidate standing for elections as an independent candidate without being sponsored by a Political Organisation or political party.

The NRM Constitution mandates the NRM Electoral Commission to organize and conduct elections within the organs of NRM.

“The NRM Electoral Commission can only nominate aspirants who have been recommended to the National Conference by the National Executive Council. Amama Mbabazi has not been recommended by either the Central Executive Committee or the National Executive Council as a presidential aspirant.”

According to Section 10(7) of the Presidential Elections Act states that “where under the Multi-Party Political System a person is sponsored by a political organization or Political Party, the nomination paper shall indicate that he/she is so sponsored stating the name and address of the political organization or political party.”

According to the June 20, 2015 letter, Lumumba says under no circumstances, therefore can a candidate or aspirant who purports to seek to be flag bearer of a political organization or political party introduce himself as such to the National Electoral Commission.

“Amama Mbabazi’s self introduction to the National Electoral Commission purporting to be an aspirant for office of President on NRM ticket is irregular and illegal as his aspirations have not been endorsed by the NRM in accordance with the Presidential Elections Act and NRM Constitution.”

Eagle Online failed to get a comment from Mr Benjamin Alipanga the Spokesperson of Mbabazi taskforce as his phone was switched by press time.

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